Recent reviews by Stegosaur

EARLY ACCESS FEEDBACK:

A solid foundation for the rest of the game, though the difficulty curve currently skews sharply upward before deflating close to baseline again. Early Metroid-style progress gating feels like an experiment that's going to see a lot of tweaks. Base building feels far more fleshed out than before, encouraging decorations and customizations more than the original game did. The multiplayer elements also look fun, but I haven't played with them just yet. Biomod system is going to be the big differentiator from the previous two games. Looks like they're pushing harder on the survival aspect by pushing agriculture further out progress-wise.

When compared to Subnautica's Early Access builds, this one is more performant, fleshed-out, and feels larger by comparison. The only critiques I have relate to Lumen (something I don't think the devs can fix) and the vehicles. Current vehicle (Tadpole) feels a little sluggish compared to the overall size of the game world, and I'm hoping that's either tweaked or beefier vehicles are added. The arm gliders also feel slower compared to the first two games' Seaglide, though the extra viewport space isn't too bad of a tradeoff. Finally, Lumen currently stumbles hard in the transitions between bright and dark areas - like in the game's intro space, where you'll repeatedly transition between the two and have to wait for ray bounces to calculate lighting appropriately in the dark cavern.

Bear in mind that this Early Access launch build has only about 30% of Subnautica's size and content, so gameplay length is largely limited by your base expansion strategies and personal skills; don't come here expecting the entire narrative or game world from the bat, but do expect several years or gradual updates, improvements, That being said, there's a lot to chew on here thus far, and about 20hrs of gameplay to be enjoyed - more if you want to set yourself up for success in future patches and updates.

Received as a "cheering up" gift from a friend, hence the "free" tag.

It's basically a Zelda-like platformer but with minimal combat and oozing charm throughout. Runs like a dream, controller input is excellent, and I only had the tiniest of fussiness with controls when on certain ceilings. Sound design is also excellent, with everything giving off its own effects to distinguish it in the world, while the music sets an appropriate tone for each area; the "grand finale" stands out in particular as a great example of how to set the mood and keep the player engaged throughout.

Definitely something you can 100% in a day or two of play, provided you don't stop to smell the roses and yap at things.

Five Geckos out of five. Highly recommended!

A beautiful one-shot of a game. I really can't say more than that without giving away its meaning or value.

It's more of the same, albeit with slightly rougher edges than its predecessor. If you enjoyed Subnautica, then Below Zero is the equivalent of an expansion pack with a lore-oriented focus; if you didn't like Subnautica, there's nothing here to win you over or change your mind.

Highlights of Below Zero include new base pieces (many of which were backported to Subnautica in subsequent patches), a lot more lore about everything, more above-ground elements and gameplay, and arguably my favorite addition: the SEATRUCK!

The only real downsides are some rougher edges in the world itself, and a smaller overall map to explore compared to its predecessor. From landing to completion, it runs about 60% of Subnautica's if you're planning ahead and minimizing backtracking. The lack of an in-game map also remains problematic, as it necessitates either placing Map/Survey rooms and bases throughout the map (difficult to do when Magnetite is incredibly rare and dangerous to obtain this time around), or by using maps in your web browser instead. Having an "auto-map" sonar module to map as you explore in a vehicle would be a great addition for navigation purposes.

All in all, I'd recommend Below Zero to anyone itching for more Subnautica, having finished the first one already. I wouldn't recommend it as the entry point to the series, though, as it's a direct sequel in narrative and mechanics to the highly-polished original.

Do you like Vampire Survivors, but wish it were more chill, with an aesthetic reminscient of (the) Gnorp Apologue? Then Nodebuster is right up your alley. With simple geometric shapes (a la Geometry Wars), chill music, and a pretty good CRT aesthetic going on, it's a great way to unwind over a few hours. My only caution is that the endgame can get pretty heavy on the flashing lights and colors, so players prone to epileptic triggers will want to tweak the options before settling in. The game also has a definite endpoint, though there's some degree of replayability after finishing it if you want to try more reduced builds.

No notes, excellent game, well worth the ~$3 I paid for it.

The game shows promise, but the current lobby system (maximum of four players, humans and monsters queue separately with no ability to say "random/whatever gets me a game quickly") results in insanely long wait times for human players and a complete inability for friends to play together if someone is/wants to be the monster. Combined with copious amounts of microtransaction-based cosmetics and it feels like more effort went into the visuals than the actual gameplay or lobby system.

Hard pass for the time being.

EARLY ACCESS REVIEW: It's a straight hit of dopamine to the brain. Simple, elegant, with more depth than I expected from a $3 game. Developer has been pushing out updates fairly regularly, which only improves its value proposition. Excellent for gamers with disabilities, too: menu buttons are clearly marked and touch-friendly, and the entire game can be controlled with the left stick and 'A' button on a gamepad. Sessions are hard-capped at ~30min, too, so there's a definite end-point in a given run that you can budget time around.

Highly recommended.

POST-LAUNCH: Core formula remains brilliantly simple, and there's enough content to chip away at for dozens of hours if you're a completionist. New endless and hurry modes let you alter the length of your desired run, while inverse provides a challenge for experienced players.

With a $2 DLC drop due this month, my recommendation stands: one of the finest games I've played, and one I repeatedly return to for just one more run. You'll be hard-pressed to find a better value on Steam from any genre.

I'm torn. For the $1 I paid for it during the promotion, it's tons of shameless fun (I thought), and a nice deviation from the standard Killing Floor/zombie wave mods out there. That said, I have to look at this in the context of if it's worth its asking price and...

No.

The game is high production value Unreal Engine modification, but it lacks the attention to detail that makes Killing Floor so fun. Animations are janky, player textures frequently disappear mid-match (leaving behind their primary-colored models), hitboxes are off (why is a shot to the crest of the neck of a raptor considered a headshot, but shooting them in the head isn't?), levels are uninspiring copy-paste affairs (how many times am I going to see the same wrecked drill in a level?) with incredibly linear objective design (Base 2 is always the same spot, as is base 3, etc). Capturing the bases in Survival mode itself does nothing but progress the game to the next wave of dinosaurs, as even the vehicles spawn at the start of the match - you could have a buddy run to Base 3 for the Mech while you turn on the generator to start Wave One!

That's not to say the game is /bad/. Are there performance issues? Yes. Is the attention to detail lacking? Absolutely. Is it incredibly linear to the point of boredom after a while? You betcha. But until you really start to notice those things (about thirty minutes in, for me), the game is still fun in a mindless sort of way, especially with friends. That said though, for $15, I expect a lot more for my money than copy-pasted levels and textures, braindead AI, movement animations from the original Tribes (in terms of "skating" over terrain), and a linear level experience.

For the $1 I paid for it, it feels like a discounted iPad app. Shame that when it's off sale, the developers are still asking for $15 for this thing. I'd like to see a lot more polish (and better netcode) before plunking down that much cash, especially when you're competing against similarly priced titles like Killing Floor, Starbound, etc, that are way better experiences overall.