Recent reviews by Tech

This game is unfortunately on life support at this point and is not worth spending time in anymore.

Over 100 people have been laid off at the company over the past six months, 70 of them laid off just yesterday, including a lead gameplay designer in charge of new god production, a senior UI artist in charge of god icons and item icons, the monetization lead who was in charge of battlepasses/events and skin production, and several other designers and programmers as well as the entire Esports team, meaning Smite 2 will not have a competitive scene at all. Six months ago they laid off essentially all of the marketing/advertising team and at this point the company is now down to 75 employees total. Hirez as a company has launched over ten games and all of them have either been taken offline or sunsetted except for this one. The only way this game survives is if a larger company buys them out, which with the way live service games have been going in the market, seems incredibly unlikely.

I've put over 1200 hours in Smite 1 and 2 combined and it's incredibly unfortunate and quite depressing knowing that this game is now in its final stages of life after they laid off the vast majority of the team and are now operating on essentially a skeleton crew. The game will likely be dead by end of year if not early next year at the latest and I do not recommend investing your time and money into a game that will not be here in 12 months. I'd love to be proven wrong but it's pretty obvious that they're hemorrhaging money if they're laying off people essential to the development of the game.

For 12 months of development time and a $30 price tag, you would expect this to be a solid expansion akin to the Dragonborn DLC for Skyrim or Far Harbor for Fallout 4. I'm here to say: it's not even close, but there are some takeaways from this.

Starfield was in development for upwards of 7 years, full-scale production for at least 5 of those years, and it released in a completed state but a very flawed one. I was hoping that Shattered Space would take the criticism that was given to the base game and do something similar to the expansions from their previous games, which they have to some level. The new planet of Varuun'kia is a solid launching point for this story: the atmosphere is moody and photogenic, the landscape is more alien-like than most other planets, and the main city of Dazra is a full-sized settlement with unique architecture which has just been wrecked from an unexplained accident which you must uncover. The initial quest gives you plenty of intrigue and excitement as to what's to come, but I'm here to say that the payoff never really comes and much of the mystery is never really explained.

One of my main criticisms of Starfield was that the traditional Bethesda experience of entering a new town and roaming around finding unique secrets and stories had been lost with the 1000 planet design decision, now forcing the overall design to pivot to creating a singular city and then virtually nothing else around it. Shattered Space addresses this by creating a full-sized city to get accustomed to and quite a lot of other hand-crafted areas of interest surrounding the city. Overall I uncovered over 50-60 areas that all seemed to be hand-crafted, with many of them being tied to side quests and delving more into the lore of the planet and the conflicts that have been occurring. Of all of the things that this DLC does poorly, the exploration element and overall world-building this time around was actually done quite well and I applaud Bethesda for delivering back on their traditional game experiences in this matter. Exploring the map was my favorite part of this expansion.

Unfortunately, that is where my praise ends for this expansion. There are many new mysteries introduced in this story that are never explained or taken full advantage of, the main story ends on a whimper, the new weapon additions are almost entirely reskinned versions of existing weapons besides two or so actual new weapons, there's only two or so new spacesuits, there are ZERO new companions with only NPCs that join you for a quest purpose and then leave, Andreja has very little customized dialogue for this expansion even though this is her own culture and her own home, there are no new gameplay elements that this introduces akin to being able to ride dragons in the Dragonborn DLC or creating raider settlements with the Nukaworld DLC, there are no new ship parts or spaceships introduced, and most of the NPCs vital to this story seem utterly disconnected from what is actually going on. Worst of all, there are no new skills introduced or late-game elements or quests introduced to keep you engaged with this world.

For a $30 asking price, this doesn't even come close to the amount of content offered in previous Bethesda expansions even though it had a far longer development time attached to it. For reference, Far Harbor for Fallout 4 released about six months after release, and Dawnguard for Skyrim released about eight months after release, both of those expansions delivering on far more content than what is offered here in Shattered Space.

I appreciate that Bethesda wants to support Starfield for years to come with free updates and larger expansions, but honestly, with the content they've already spent a year making and then releasing a pretty lackluster overpriced expansion, I think Bethesda just needs to move on and put everything into TES6.

Frostpunk 2 is not trying to be Frostpunk 1; this is not Frostpunk 1.5. This is Frostpunk 2; a proper sequel.

You'll see a lot of reviews on here complaining that this diverted too much from what made Frostpunk great and you'll see a lot of people saying that the changes made here go in the wrong direction. I disagree. This game is still VERY Frostpunk: the game throws you into the frostland and you must keep the generator running and supplies coming all while the people of your city bicker and complain about the direction you take the city. The political side of Frostpunk 2 is vastly expanded on; passing laws and pleasing factions are far more important this time around. It is a core fundamental aspect of this sequel to delve into the political landscape of your city and carefully pick and choose which laws are passed and which factions to support. The final chapter of the campaign was so intense I literally can't remember a time where a game like this got me to that level of engagement and immersion.

You'll learn A LOT about how to progress more successfully with each new city you make, whether it be trying the campaign on harder difficulties or picking different maps in the Utopia mode. I've now gone through three runs each with varying levels of success: the first one being marginally successful just enough to get by, the second one being vastly successful ensuring that my city stands long after I die, and the third crumbling from existence because of my inability to rule it properly. This game's insistence on forcing you to learn is extremely engaging and it really is the key reason why I can see myself putting dozens of more hours into this.

Exploring the frostland and building resource outposts, surviving the blizzards, and ensuring every faction has their voice heard all make for a gameplay system that constantly keeps you engaged and really never gives you a dull moment. Each new run on a new map presents new challenges and new opportunities.

While many will be disappointed that this isn't the same as Frostpunk 1, I think the evolution made in this entry still makes it extremely engaging and I have high hopes for the future of this franchise.

Recommend 100%.

Let me say this is a soft recommend; a game that I can recommend as a good and quality experience, but a very flawed one that made various design decisions that ultimately hinder the overall gaming experience to the point where I feel obligated to write out an actual review for this one.

Remnant 2 from a technical perspective is a triumph: the art direction, the sound design, the soundtrack, the boss design, and the overall aesthetic are top of the line. The enormous range of build diversity and expansive class systems all make Remnant 2 a quality experience that gives players a multitude of choices on how to play through the game. I found myself really diving in to the various weapon customization options and overall character build fluidity quite a bit and would've liked to have done another run as another archetype, but we'll get into that in the negatives. Overall, the technical direction of the game is some of the best in the industry and you will walk away from this game certainly feeling like they put the proper time and effort into making this world as immersive as possible and the gameplay options as diverse as possible.

Now, with that said, there are many core design decisions that were made that really took me out of the experience far earlier than it should have. Because of how the game is structured, it is impossible to experience all of the content the game has to offer when it comes to map areas, bosses, and unique NPCs on a single playthrough; the game intentionally randomizes your experience for each player so some people will encounter certain areas and certain bosses and other players will experience others. They tried to work around this by offering you the chance to create an "adventure save" which is a parallel save file to your current character that basically rerolls your area to see if you get the other bosses and other areas. While I appreciate that they created a workaround, it ultimately means that the game is forcing you to work around itself by creating alternate save files in order to achieve loot that was impossible to obtain on your standard run. It's one thing to start a new playthough with a new archetype, but it's another when the game is forcing you to reroll your save in order to kill bosses that they didn't give you the first time.

Another big gripe with the design is the overall map layout for each world; while I am a fan of the art direction and lore of each world, the overall layout is a bit... messy. There are two worlds that are very linear where you can't really miss anything, there's one world that's semi-linear where it's still easy to navigate while also being relatively large, and there's two worlds that are so open to the point where I actually got lost several times in understanding where to go and where I have already been. The first world I got was so confusing to navigate that I found myself getting bored very quickly and had to push myself to keep playing in order to get to the better parts of the game. And because of the fact that other people will come across different areas than you because of that feature I mentioned above, if you look up a playthrough or chat with a friend about your playthough, you will most certainly find that they have had a different experience and had gone through completely different levels than you, making it confusing when you have questions about where to go or where to find certain items or certain bosses. My first world boss that I killed apparently was a unique one because only 40% of players have killed it, showing you just how randomized each playthrough is. While some may see this as a positive, I see it as a confusing hurdle to overcome when you are hoping to find a new class or get a new weapon and you discover that the game literally never generated it because of chance and now you have to do a separate adventure run to get it.

Also, the final boss is nearly impossible to do solo. Even with a friend, it took us about 40 minutes to beat it. Very jarring when every single other boss in the game is 100% beatable in solo play without much issue and then the game hits you with a boss that is virtually impossible to do solo. Final bosses should be hard, but when the difficulty between other bosses radically jumps to near impossible levels on the final one, it creates another roadblock where you now have to work around the game's own mechanics to actually get past it.

The story is really bland and taps into the current popculture trend of utilizing the concept of the multiverse and how you can dimension-jump to different worlds that are all somehow related to your quest (but not really?), with each world feeling vastly different from each other but are all connected because of this one element (didn't really feel that thought-out). The characters were very boring and I found myself much more interested in the side stories that actually have a great amount of lore and depth; far more than the main campaign. Felt obligated to include that here because the main story just... ends. Very anticlimactic ending.

Had a really mixed bag with this game, but the technical achievements and overall build diversity is really strong and honestly sets a great example for the industry and what this genre of game can accomplish. Really hope they take this feedback going forward because there were many sections of this game that had me locked in and engaged, but also quite a lot where I was beyond bored and just thinking of other things.

Let me preface this by saying that I can see the vision and the direction that this game is trying to aim for, but at this point and time on the early access scale (along with some issues that are core to its foundation), I can't recommend this at this time.

I put six hours into this game, building a small base, completing three dungeons and various encampments, climbing one spire, and defeating one boss. The direction is certainly there: the insistence on exploration to discover new narrative beats and lore, centering progression around completing dungeons and finding better weapons and upgrade material, and giving the player total and complete freedom over where they go and what they do. Unfortunately, from a fundamental gameplay perspective, a lot of the core gameplay really feels placeholder and not nearly as dynamic or evolutionary as it should for a game of this scale.

The map is absolutely enormous to the point where it feels a bit overwhelming, which is certainly great for a game like this that is centered around exploration and discovery, but the barriers that it places up to hinder your progress from reaching these new areas feels mundane to overcome and burdensome to reach. I never felt like completing a dungeon was a massive accomplishment, more like a chore just to grind upgrade materials. The map is gigantic, but also feels empty at the same time; towns are devoid of life and are filled with maybe a couple chests and a small dungeon here and there and most of the enshrouded areas are just simply dirt roads that eventually lead to a dungeon that's filled with the same copy/pasted enemies that each have only 1-2 different attacks (which leads me to my biggest gripe with the game).

The combat in this I found to be very tedious and lazy for a game of this scale. You are designed to spend dozens of hours (potentially hundreds) in this world, and yet the combat feels very placeholder. Each enemy has 1-2 different attacks with very bad AI and most of the time you get hit isn't because you got bested but simply because the AI is inconsistent and the input delay for your character is glacially slow to respond. I desperately tried to overcome this by using all sorts of different weapons and methods of attack, and none of them seemed to solve those fundamental problems. The game expects you to grind and upgrade your skill tree in order to get better, and yet the skill tree doesn't change the fact that the actual combat design from a foundational level is not nearly as cohesive or responsive as it needs to be to keep people engaged for as long as the game is asking you to be.

The one boss I came across was completely accidental as I was exploring a dungeon that I wasn't even directed to by the main quest. When I made it down to his area, his pathing was very linear, and I was able to predict and map out his entire attack pattern after I kid you not maybe ten seconds. If you spam the magic wand at this boss for four hits at a time and then move slightly to the left or right, you'll kill this boss in about 45 seconds without ever getting hit, mind you this is a real boss that has an achievement tied to it, so it's not like this was some random enemy. The combat design is fundamentally flawed across the entire game, and it took me out of the experience so often that I found myself avoiding many combat scenarios not because I wasn't prepared for them, but because I had already become bored of it.

The main quest starts out relatively fast, allowing the player to complete the first few "main quests" back to back without ever being roadblocked, and then the story comes to a grinding halt and forces you to start grinding for materials to improve your base by building shelters for NPCs that you find in dungeons and building their workstations that may or may not even be useful to your playstyle. There's a similar mechanic in Terraria, but Terraria never forces you to do this unless you actually want those NPCs; here, the game makes part of the main quest doing these mundane tasks to upgrade your NPC's ability to craft things. A lot of games these days do this type of thing where they initially hook you with the main story by allowing you to do several quests back to back, and then after a few hours it comes to a grinding halt and forces you to spend hours running around exploring and grinding materials.

I can ultimately see the direction for this game and do have hope that SOME of these things will improve, but there are many things from a foundational perspective that I can't see ever changing which really leads to a subpar gameplay experience.

One of the best remakes ever made; beat it six times. Buy it.

Cult of the Lamb is a roguelike survival game that allows you to grow and maintain your own cult of cute creatures and either raise them up into productive members or society or sacrifice them for their meat.

While the roguelike elements and survival elements are both core to this game, neither of them go too far in depth and I'm sure most players are used to more challenging experiences in other games. There really is no late-game, so once you complete the story, there's not much else to do. There is a lot of cult customization in terms of base building and follower traits, but besides that, once the credits role, you're pretty much done.

The story is told in a way similar to Hollow Knight, where you progress through the world and meet other creatures that help fill in the lore and further the plot. The campaign can be completed in around 10-12 hours and is rooted in dark themes of cults and elder gods but also coated in cuteness from its NPC's and art style.

This is a really fun game and I would recommend it for anyone.

After I watched Crowbcat's video on Back4Blood, I immediately stopped playing and uninstalled it.

Valve is on record for saying that they only make games to solve unique problems that they see in video games. After watching that video from Crowbcat, it is abundantly clear that Valve was the reason why Left4Dead was successful, not Turtlerock.

Left4Dead came out in 2008, 13 years before Back4Blood, and it does pretty much everything better. Do not waste your time with this lazy reboot when L4D and L4D2 are better in every possible way.

he chose violence, not me. i did it by the books.

watch your friends die while you laugh simulator