Recent reviews by Predatoria

At first, I didn't like it. The UI is buggy, clunky, and leaves out critical information. Some of the mechanics such as how towns connect to your empire's trade network and other stuff like this are also woefully undocumented and very confusing to figure out. This left me frustrated with the game at first.

After giving it a few more tries and winning a few games, I'm actually starting to really like the fresh, new take on Civ. The mechanics added to the game in Civ 7 are a lot of fun.

In particular, I really like influence as a resource vastly more than I did diplomatic favor in Civ 6. New settlements being towns instead of cities and the different things you can do with towns has been very fun to play with as well, which allows you to sort of play both wide and tall at the same time. I love specialists, and the ability to pretty much infinitely stack up a city and play ultra-tall. At first, I hated the age transition mechanic, but it's growing on me now. The new take on resources is a lot of fun. Some mechanics need some touching up, such as some of the age legacy paths feeling repetitive, and religion feeling very lackluster, but overall I'm really enjoying the game now that I've given it a chance and gotten a better understanding of what's going on under the hood of the game when it's not conveyed well through the UI.

The game's mechanics are fundamentally sound and enjoyable.

One thing I want to discuss in this review that I consider of highest priority is the state of the game’s community. I saw many reviews claiming the game to be dead. I disagree. In my personal, albeit admittedly limited experience, I have been able to find active servers to play on. In the evenings one can expect to find about 20-40 players online at any given time, often populating 1-3 of the seven or so servers. Usually there is one crowded server with 20+ players in it and a smaller server that may have 2-10 players online, giving both the option of playing on a crowded or a less crowded server. I must also stress that the servers populating are ones running game modes in spirit of the creators, not the RP servers that have engulfed the game’s successor. There is only one RP server and it typically has 0-5 players online.

Regarding gameplay, I’m a fairly new player to the series. I scarcely played PCE and purchased PC just a couple days ago because many friends of mine suggested it was a better game. So far I have enjoyed the gameplay. There are two game modes that see frequent play, Team Deathmatch and Get to the Chopper, both of which I enjoy. Mechanically, the game feels fluid and the physics and movement are well-designed, both for third-person dinosaur and first-person human play. I’ve had no lag issues at all and hits register when they should do so. The game has a very high skill ceiling, which admittedly has been tough as someone so new to the franchise entirely but it also encourages and entertains me by my desire to improve my own skill. Even if I have rage-logged once or twice, I wouldn’t want this any other way.

The entire basis of the game is humans versus dinosaurs, always in a team setting. Of course I love playing as the dinosaurs, but I was also pleasantly surprised to find I didn’t dislike playing the human side. It’s typical for me in games like these to heavily favor playing the animal side, but in Primal Carnage this isn’t the case. The different humans you can choose from playing are comical, charismatic, and enjoyable to play with a wide array of weapons, each with its own set of strengths and weaknesses. None seem particularly unbalanced or overpowered, and in general the dinosaur versus human establishment doesn’t feel one-sided. Both sides are fun to play.

Some of the maps are somewhat occluded, misty, and dark, giving good places to hide and ambush, whereas others are open and sunny so there’s good map variety. They are also well sized, not being too big or too small. A good balance of sneaking around and finding action has been struck by adequate map size.

The graphics and sound of the game are adequate, but nothing particularly fancy. I can’t comment too much on regard to optimization or graphics settings. My computer handles the game fine on max settings with an Intel I7, 8GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce 980M card. The dinosaur models aren’t the greatest, but it isn’t a particular point of grievance for me. There are nice skins which I wish were unlockable in-game, but they’re only by purchase.

To conclude, the game’s community is not dead. It’s just small. Gameplay is enjoyable and both sides are fun to play with good maps. Graphics and models are adequate, though I wish I could earn skins in-game through play. Sometimes small communities can be more fun than big ones, and I haven’t had trouble finding a place to play against others which is the main point I want to stress here. I recommend playing.

I just purchased this game a few days ago. While I haven't accrued too many hours yet, I will post a review of my experience so far.

I've been very impressed so far with the building system in The Forest. It reminds me of the system for base construction in Fallout 4 except implemented much better. Placed structures usually mesh nicely with terrain and allow the user to place them almost anywhere, even on top of one another. You can mesh walls into towers into supports and other structures well to make a continuous base without ugly gaps or places where objects fail to make good contact with uneven terrain. I've had a lot of fun just building bases with friends.

The atmosphere of the game is also well done. You start stranded on an uncharted island, awakening after a plane crash. As you explore the island further, you find all kinds of creepy and tortured corpses of other would-be survivors of the plane wreck. The island is also inhabited by the cannibals, which are similar in appearance to the Forsworn in Skyrim. There is also ambiance such as wild animals and nice graphics which make the island feel alive. Night time is very dark and you're often equipped with a lighter or a torch for visibility. Construction of permanent lamps for your base that never burn out using skulls of slain cannibals lets you create a very homey feeling base against the darkness of the night. It gives nice atmosphere and feels like you're stranded in a forbidding forest. If you really hate the night, you can sleep through it, but I enjoy it.

The cannibals are a constant threat against survival and they seem to attack in larger and more powerful groups as you survive longer. Some of them can even destroy some of your walls and structures. I like this feature, as it feels like you're making a fort to hold against a siege rather than just purely for decoration. Some of the more advanced enemy creatures are also really creepy looking and add to the atmosphere of The Forest and its mysterious island. I have often wondered if these were the results of experimentation carried out on other survivors in some Frankensteinian lab or something below the surface.

There's also a lot of areas to explore. You find interesting and unique things located around the island the game is centered on, and there are caves to explore too. I haven't gotten very deep into these caves yet. The game also, while giving a good and large map to explore with many interesting places, provides means for avoiding getting lost. Player nametags are always visible from any distance. Your base will show up from any distance with a marker. Lastly, you can place flags and beacons to mark places of interest. These features make the game navigable.

Control of the game is good. It comes with a full set of keys to remap and adjusters for mouse sensitivity. As a left-handed gamer, this was important to me. There is also a wide array of graphics settings to change that get quite in-depth and customizable. The game's sound is also good. It has all the pieces in place to make a game enjoyable, and no major things are lacking in this regard. It's also relatively bug free, especially given it's still early access.

I would make one word of caution for this game, however. It is a whole lot more fun with friends, and I'd recommend trying it out as a group instead of solo. I feel that group play is immensely more fun than solo play. I haven't tried to meet new friends on the game merely through its avenues, but it may prove difficult to network and create new friends in-game on your own as the options available are either solo play or co-op, which allows people to join the game if you invite them off your steam friends list.

I recommend this game if you like survival games or enjoy games where you can build bases. Both these aspects of The Forest are done very well.

I purchased Depth a few days ago and have enjoyed the game immensely. In this review, I will go through several key aspects of the game that I found to be great.

The premise of the main game mode, Blood and Gold, seems fun. I have not played the other two game modes yet, but the majority of the game focus is placed on B&G. The objective of this game mode is for the divers to escort the robot, STEVE, through a set route on one of many maps. STEVE will stop several times in relatively safe rooms where the divers can fortify against attack. Transitioning from one safe room to another often requires the divers to traverse relatively open areas where sharks gain a short advantage. It is really fun and I have had a good time playing this, and I really enjoy the STEVE escort concept the game is based around. It keeps the game focus moving around the map and works well.

The game is quite well balanced. None of the abilities, talents, or items in the game feel unfair or too overpowered, and both the divers and the shark sides seem to be equally matched in terms of tactics and gameplay they can do to try and win. There is also a whole lot of skill to this game and I'm already hooked on trying to improve my game. Nothing really feels unfair, and there's a way to fight everything by improving and learning and becoming better at the game. Depth's community has some very strong players that have inspired me, showing what's possible when you really know how to play.

Depth has graphics that I find to be both good and not a huge strain on my computer. I have no issues running the game with my 980M NVIDIA card and the game looks really well put together graphically.

I have not had a whole lot of direct interaction yet amongst the community of the game, but it seems good so far. The devs seem to care about the game and announce they regularly add content such as skins and maps and seem polite to the playerbase.

I recommend buying this game, and if you do definitely buy it with some friends. It is a lot of fun to play with other friends you know.