Recent reviews by Sith Deceiver

This charming co-op horror roguelite is right up there with the likes of Phasmophobia, GTFO, Barotrauma, and Deep Rock Galactic.

If you're at all interested in a fun and consistently scary game to play with your friends then I recommend picking it up and going in completely blind. Discovering and experimenting with the game's systems and enemies by bumbling through them in the dark is a fantastic part of the core experience and you really don't want to rob yourself and your friends of that.

It is important to note that this game requires playing with at least 2 people. 3-4 is perfect and solo is only viable if you know what you're doing. If you don't have a consistent group of friends to play with, you could always check the developer's Discord.[discord.com]

Below I'll be going into more detail without spoiling anything specific.


Even in the game's current very Early Access stage, Lethal Company has a lot to offer content-wise and showcases a very solid foundation that the (I believe) single developer has indicated they plan to continue building upon.

The game takes place in timed increments where each time you land on a moon you have until midnight in-game to scavenge what you can and be back on the ship before it leaves - though you'll find there's much that incentivizes leaving earlier.

This timer serves two purposes:

Firstly, it keeps each mission running at a decent pace because you are always under the threat of losing if you're not consistently pushing deeper into the facility. Secondly, it makes the game very easily digestible for a group to play during that ~1-2 hour window where everyone is available before hopping off and resuming later.

I've found the timer to be fairly balanced between giving you ample time to loot each facility while also being short enough to keep the threat of it running out in the back of your mind without unfairly rushing slower-paced players.


One thing I don't think the game communicates very well initially is the rogue-like elements it incorporates with the "Quota" system. You are given three in-game days to scavenge enough value to meet the Quota. If you succeed, you're paid out the value of that quota plus any extra money you made and given a new, harder-to-reach Quota. But if you fail, your save is sent back to the beginning with all items and ship upgrades lost.

This may sound bad, but because of the game's procedurally generated facilities, random weather effects, and the enemy AI's behavior, you're always met with a fresh challenge to tackle as you scavenge your way back to recovering that lost progress.

In fact, the most fun I've had with the game has been those moments of being forced into heading to the more dangerous yet profitable moons on the last day of the quota's deadline while under-equipped because a string of hilarious deaths put our team in a desperate last hurdle to scavenge hundreds of credits in one go. Usually this means we're forced to take greater risks which is where the game's horror elements really shine. Walking into a facility with just 2 low-tier flashlights and 2 walkie-talkies to split among 4 people offers a wholly unique and enjoyably terrifying experience.


Lethal Company employs procedural map generation to strengthen it's core scavenging loop.

However, each moon's exterior is somewhat constant in that the landscape does not change but the weather can. Each weather effect can drastically change the way players approach their entry and exit of a mission by adding new dangers, limiting visibility/mobility, or both.

The main procedural generation is within interiors. Each time you land on a planet the facility's layout is different by way of the rooms, items, hazards, and monsters changing. This is what keeps each venture fresh even if you've just failed a quota and you're back on the first couple of low-hazard moons.

But this procedural generation is also one of my biggest gripes with the game because of how quickly you'll become familiarized with the limited selection of tilesets and room variants. I'm sure this will be addressed in future content updates though so it's not something I'm too worried about.


The main motivator for getting farther in every run is the equipment, ship upgrades, and decorative items you'll be able to purchase each time you fulfill a Quota.

Equipment available in the in-game shop feeds directly into the main gameplay loop by offering either direct upgrades of starting items that makes successive loot runs easier - or by introducing new methods of tackling exploration and combat that can drastically alter the way your team engages with the game's systems, it's inhabitants, and each other.


The developer has asked for feedback to better improve and expand the game, so here's a collection of my thoughts so far:

Different Tilesets - Of my ~7 hours of play so far I've seen the same industrial tileset for every mission except once. I would love to see more variation in the style of interiors, even if that change is mostly cosmetic. Moon exteriors are recognizable for each planet and I can picture what Vow or Assurance looks like off the top of my head. Perhaps their facilities could be just as recognizable purely through their aesthetics with unique per-moon tilesets and a few cross-planet tilesets. Maybe a low chance of getting another planet's set just to throw players off once in a while.

More Rooms - Expanding the variants of rooms available within even the base industrial tileset would drastically improve that set's freshness. Tell environmental stories within residential areas like destroyed dormitories, showers, locker rooms. Let me walk into a large cafeteria with overturned tables shrouded in darkness. Maybe the player enters a large chamber with a central machine whose purpose isn't obvious. Have us stumble into a containment area where our suit warns us of higher radiation because some alien artifact's casing has been breached.

Variable Enemy Behavior - One of the best ways to extend the lifetime of even the currently available AI is to keep the player guessing each time they're encountered. The Forest, for example, has one base type of enemy that can react in a myriad of hostile or non-hostile ways so players never know how an encounter is going to play out. Lethal Company does this already with some of its enemies backing off or sticking to the shadows before attacking directly and I would simply love more of this unpredictability from the critters I've come to know and love fear.

More Enemies - I think the creatures already present in the game are a fantastic baseline. I'd love to see more advanced enemy types that do more than just attack the player outright. Maybe there's an angler-fish inspired enemy that has the silhouette of a player from a distance. Or perhaps there's a type you can only hear the screams of in the distance for the first half of a mission as it communicates with packmates stalking and waiting for a player to split away from their team. Maybe have a creature that isn't outright hostile to the player but still poses a significant danger if you get in its way. Or one that steals the voice of its victims a la Annihilation's bear.

Settings & Modifiers - The game's options menu is rather limited, likely due to the very intentional art style. Your standard tweaks and toggles for video/audio settings would always be appreciated. But having the ability to alter gameplay elements like timer length, facility complexity, or monster aggressiveness would also extend the game's replayability. Maybe tie these to collectibles or cross-save progression like Halo's skulls.

A short game remniscient of early 2000s shooters very obviously made with a lot of passion. There's a good amount of guns, fun secrets to find, cool achievements, and decent gameplay. This is like a high quality Half-Life 2 mod. Worth grabbing just to support indie devs like this.

A tactical shooter neatly fulfilling a spot between hardcore / sim and traditional casual multiplayer FPSes.

A great entry point for any looking to get into the Tactical Shooter genre, and a good recommendation for those already familiar.

A faithful remaster lovingly crafted to refine and better each and every aspect of the original. The new Xen levels are an entirely new game in and of themselves, and though not perfect, are a wonderful expansion upon what Valve largely missed the mark on back in the 90s.

Was originally going to pass this game over after being largely disappointed with Destiny 1. However, as a free-to-play, Destiny 2 is a worthwhile experience, especially with friends.

The story is nothing to write home about, as was the case (for me) with D1. Some characters are interesting but for the most part I end up skipping dialogue and am not really invested in the things they have to say.

If nothing else, the gunplay and gameplay loops are entertaining enough to keep you around for a dozen or so hours by themselves.

A short little experience that takes place in a single location. The game only asks for an hour and gives a nice little story in return. As many others have mentioned, it gives off some major Life Is Strange vibes, what with the visuals, music, atmosphere, characters, and patience in its pacing.

And to top it all of it's free and comes with the soundtrack! Definitely worth the 60 minutes.

Only buy this DLC if it is on sale. $35 is way too much for what little content this offers. The main reason I give this a negative review is because of the price.

• The Tanoa terrain - a jungle map Arma has never seen the likes of before.
  
• New high quality models and textures.
  
• New factions, weapons, and vehicles.
  
• New Music.

• AI can see through the vegetation.
  
• The campaign is short and simple, only a few missions with a couple of objectives. It is multiplayer-only and has no AI squadmates should you play Solo.
  
• The Tanoa factions are cool, but very simple, like mini-factions.
  
• Besides the terrain, not that much content is actually offered.

Apex is short and sweet, but the price will leave a bad taste in your mouth (and your wallet). The new content the DLC does offer is to the Bohemian standard, high-quality, but there isn't very much of it. The new terrain is the highlight of this expansion, and it is massive and highly-detailed, one of the greatest in Arma's history.

The story of Apex is lacking. If you compare the story of Arma 3 to a puzzle, the vanilla campaign was about three quarters of the board. Apex's campaign is one, maybe two pieces. There are only a few missions, and each plays very similarly to the last. There's not much variance, as each basically boils down to the same stealth-assault-extract formula. The last couple of missions vary the greatest, with one being an assault-the-island and the other assault-the-harbor. While I appreciate the fact the campaign exists at all, it is mostly just a showcase of some of the new weapons, a couple of the vehicles, and the new Syndikat and altered NATO and CSAT factions.

And, as I said before, the campaign is multiplayer-only. Solo is an option, but it is not truly singleplayer. There are no checkpoints or saving, so if, like me, you decide to disable respawns you have to start at the beginning of each mission if you die, including re-watching the opening cinematics. And, with the lack of AI teammates, the missions become that much more difficult. They're designed to be approached by a full team of 4 players. Otherwise, you are completely alone. If you end up enabling respawns, the missions can turn into grinds of just throwing your corpse at the enemy until you complete the objective.

Speaking of the enemy, the AI can see through the vegetation of Tanoa. There were multiple instances where I was several hundred meters away from hostiles, hiding behind multiple layers of trees and bushes, and was still shot at with pinpoint accuracy. Any human combatants are at an extreme disadvantage against AI, as you will likely be gunned down long before you even identify the threat, should you find yourself in the thick of Tanoa's jungles.

And my problem with the price is just how little content is provided. Compare this to items in the workshop. RHS, for example, offers a heaping amount of new vehicles, weapons, units, and factions, all high quality, and all free. Or CUP, which brings back all of the factions and weapons and terrains of the previous Arma games. Entirely for free. There is also a mod that adds the entirety of Australia, also completely free. Plus, there are the countless amounts of general weapons and vehicles and uniform mods out there, which include things like the AK that Apex introduces, or the LAVs similar to the DLC's Prowlers. All free. The only thing that sets Apex apart from these mods is that the DLC is set in the future, and the Tanoa terrain. Otherwise, you can find much of what Apex offers elsewhere.

$35 could buy you a new game or three, and Tanoa is not a whole new game. $10-$15 would be more reasonable.

This and Battlezone II were some of my favorite games as a kid, and I'm so very glad the series is once again getting some attention!

The core mechanics of this game remain unchanged from the original. Which is good, as they (mostly) still hold up 19 years later. Zipping around in your tank of choice still feels good, as if the vehicles have weight to them. Weapons still have a punch. Commanding multiple units is still easy enough to figure out from the start, though doesn't get much more in-depth than what you get at the surface.

As for the remake, almost all of the changes have been cosmetic. Upgraded textures, visual effects, some touches to lighting. A proper, full-on remake could have seen multiple Quality of Life changes, or changes to things like the shape of terrain, additional units/buildings, or changes to the way pilot movement and combat functions. I just wish Big Boat Interactive had done more.

As it stands, it seems as though this project was given to a small team to test waters, and the new Battlezone VR game appears to have been the focus of Rebellion's use of the IP. The game is still fun, and I'm eager to see what else they have in store for the series.

A fun little Space Sim/RPG/Sandbox, somewhat similar to Mount and Blade.

Easily one of the greatest co-op games out there. Fantastic gameplay, fantastic replayability, fantastic (infected) AI/Director, and fantastic story for those of you willing to look into it. And one of the few games that does a sequel absolutely right, by including all of the content from the original: survivors, weapons, campaign, DLC. The almost 8 year old base game is fantastic already, and with modded support, especially with things like Workshop and L4Dmaps having a constant thriving community, Left 4 Dead 2's lifespan won't be ending anytime soon.

10/10