Recent reviews by AuiEclipse

The old devs made massive changes compared to the original game that deeply impact the game to this day, but were ultimately planning on finding a balance.
The new devs have made changes that do not make sense with the old philosophy, and have been unable to provide a better experience than the old devs.

The majority of problems with this game can be traced back to the original development and monetization of this game.
There were three major ideas behind the gameplay changes between this game and the original. The first was to have one main evil team, the second was to have the Town have to employ deception in order to win, and third was a neutral team that could function solo. The first of these, while controversial, was ultimately successful at giving the game its own identity and playstyle, however, the second and third proved to be an issue regarding balance and game flow. Powerful roles such as Prosecutor, Deputy, and later Marshal revealed themselves after activating, which necessitated counters such as Conjurer, Ritualist, and Doomsayer, who's existence made players have to obfuscate their role into alignments. This ultimately caused issues between players, as some hid their role better or worse, while others found the deception hard to parse. Neutral Apocalypse was conceived as a team that, on average, were better than any individual Coven, having permanent defense, but given spawn rates similar to Neutrals. However, the two new roles given to this team, Baker and Soul Collector, were designed to pair with the old roles that were folded into this team, and as such, were much less powerful without their designated synergy.

Monetization was designed around having free to play player experience the game in a limited fashion, but unlimited play, cosmetics, and scrolls given to paying players. The system put in place to limit free plays, keys, were seen as highly stringent and a poor time investment, while the lack of scrolls had the perception that paying players could spawn and receive the selected roles. This made it so that paying for the game was seen as paying for power in the form of scrolls, however, scrolls do not force the given role to spawn, while the rate at which scrolls give the role was largely fair. The introduction of the Tome of Fate was massively disruptive to the balance, as the Tome gave a much greater chance to give the selected role. This made it so that free players could virtually never receive the powerful roles, while paying players would never have to personally have to fight their choice of role.

However, systems and changes place by the developers were on track to bring balance back. A battle pass was implemented, while controversial, was meant to give free players access to scrolls and some cosmetics. While balance changes were slow, they usually hit the mark and changed the game enough to make the game not feel stale. The final state of the game before the change between developers was that most roles were good enough to play with and games were balanced enough to where the three main factions had a fair shot at winning, while the current monetization model would sustain the game while not being too unfair to free players.

Digital Bandidos take over of development have largely proven to be problematic, due to the failure to address the game's problems. The focus on reviving modes such as Ranked through balancing the game for them have proven to be disastrous, as most players prefer the chance to access any role, not needing to track how many of a certain role can spawn, and having the shortest time between games. This has lead to certain roles and factions becoming severely overpowered, while others have been left without obvious buffs. Jester, while a popular and iconic role, has been given a surface level nerf in the form of Chatterbox, but been given a massive buff of having defense for the first two nights and its natural killers (Vigilante and Deputy) being given unneeded nerfs. This leads to a gamestate where Jester is encourage to massively disrupt the discussion early, or else be accidentally confirmed as a real town player or be killed by the Coven or Neutrals. Neutral Apocalypse has had two of its roles buffed, one of which is massively overpowered, but be given a massive nerf of the removal of defense and being able to be found by Sheriff, unless you are solo, in which case you are un nerfed. This makes it so that getting caught on a Apocalypse team confirms the existence of your other teammates, and the overcentralization of power into one role makes your team much weaker if you do not get Plaguebearer. The removal of Hangman for Vigilante and Prosecutor, and while unimplemented into Marshal, may seem like a good idea, but in reality it makes it so that Town no longer has punishments for misplaying, which goes against the core idea behind the role system. The most natural and expedient path to victory is to make as few mistakes as possible, otherwise other factions can punish you for making those mistakes, so by having Town no longer punished for misplaying, beyond the death of the falsely accused, the Town now gains a confirmed member. This makes it so that Town can make several severe mistakes, while the evil teams can never misplay, in order to win.

The new developer's monetization policy immediately destroyed the attempts to find balance between free and paid players. The removal of the battle pass made it so free players could never get scrolls, as no system has been implimented to compensate. The consistent cosmetic updates with little to no balance changes have the severe perception that the developers are prioritizing monetization over balance. Keys have been entirely unchanged since the singular change from the start of the game. The current state of playing for free is that you will get a weak role for a weak faction, 5 time a day.

This part is largely the reason why I am reviewing this game, as i have not seen developers this out of touch with their players ever. The amount of control the moderators place over their communities is staggering, to the point where Steam Reviews are the only free discussion forum. Bans have no real reason or rhyme as to how they are handed out, or even if they are issued. Known toxic players are left without bans for weeks, while having a name meant to bait visits as a Veteran Arsonist or Plaguebearer gets you suspended without warning.

The developers' goal of making this game as much like the main modded version angers both players of the normal game and modded. Modded versions of games are already a minority of any given playerbase, especially new games, so the focus to port over roles and reworks makes it so that the versions of roles in the game are balance around a minority of player who are disproportionately skilled at social killing games, while the lack of full implementation means the minority who play modded will just stick to modded and not the half finished version.

The focus on the new player experience ignore the realities of what new players go through. What new players first see is a game that only gives them five chances to play, a cosmetics shop you have to play to use your free currency for, scroll and scroll slots they have to pay for, before even entering a match. Yes, this game is hard to learn, but those that want to learn need the impetus to do so, not more tools official or not. Returning players see the lack of real changes to monetization and will simply not play or spend.

In short, Digital Bandidos will likely never be able to fix the game to be as good as it was when they took over, so you are better of no longer bothering with this game.