Recent reviews by Gray Matter Guerrilla

Still one of the better games to have ever been made. Roughly 10 years later and the game is still fun. Yes, it's glitchy and will need a few tweaks to get it to run on modern hardware, but it's worth it.

TL;DR: The story is good and has plenty of depth. Choices matter. Lots of characters. Base building. It doesn't preach to you about nonsensical things (i.e. politics) throughout the entire game. Yeah, it's good.

Far better than the flop known as "Starfield" in more than one way. What a shame modern Bethesda has lowered itself to.

Known Issues:
- Slow loads between zones if on SSD / NVMe. Mods, fixes or workarounds exist to help with this. Fast travel isn't affected as much and usually OK.
- Will need to cap your frames (99 or less) or physics will behave odd.
- Turn off 'weapon debris' in the Options page of the initial load screen or else the game will not run.

This would have been - should have been - an easy 'YES' but due to several major issues I cannot recommend this game.

BattleBit Developers decided to use FaceIt anti-cheat that operates at the kernel level. For a casual (non-pro-competitive) game, why such intrusive software for everyone?

To worsen an already dire situation, voice chat and text chat are recorded and stored. Again, for a casual game, why? It's creepy at the least but at the worst it's problematic in regards to privacy. The company states that recordings are deleted after a period of time, but so many companies/corporations have violated the public trust in the past that it's hard to have faith in them; I have none. And are voice recordings being used for anything else? There's no way to verify that.
The company FaceIt (Saudi owned company) raises concerns.

Do you think voice chat is critical for coordination/teamwork in first person shooters as I do? Doesn't matter. If you don't want your voice to be recorded and stored, you cannot use voice chat - it's part of an agreement you must accept in order to talk to others. This was not disclosed before I purchased.

The nail in the coffin: a toxic, witch-hunting community compounds everything as false reports of "discrimination" are rife. How many players have been banned for false accusations? Who knows? I've seen many players falsely accuse others of all sorts of things. I've witnessed more than once a group of players conspire to file false reports against a player they dislike just to get them banned. The current system appears to automatically ban someone after a certain number of reports are filed, regardless of veracity of those reports; this encourages abusive behavior.

The end result: many players don't use voice/text chat - they don't want to be recorded and they don't want some rage-mob twit to file false reports over a knee jerk reaction, misunderstanding or intentional distortion of what someone said. Everything is offensive these days, so why risk talking at all?

The remedy for bad behavior AND cheating is simple: active server admins. Anticheats and automated systems can only do so much; it should never be a standalone solution.

The game itself IS good, but for the reasons above I will not recommend this game.

Another review which deserves "Maybe".
'Yes' if on sale @ $25 or less. 'No' if full price.
My review will remain a NO solely due to it's current price of $59.99.


PROS
+ Lots of customization with game-play, world settings, controls (for the most part), aesthetics (clothing, skins, paints, etc.), etc.
+ Map is large! Lots to explore.
+ Gun-fighting with primary/secondary weapons is decent but with a glaring caveat [see CONS].
+ Graphics are very nice, especially when everything is turned to 'Ultimate'. (My specs and frames listed at bottom of review.)
+ Optimized pretty darn well.
+ Steam forum dev/admin - I actually had a Dev respond to a problem related to mouse sensitivity; credit is deserved!
+ Large degree of HUD customization and related elements.
Tip: if the enemy aerial drone and heli patrols become annoying - you can turn them off!


CONS
Crashes - Depending on your system, Vulkan may work better for you. For my system, Vulkan crashed non-stop until I switched to DX11. However, the game doesn't always use the preferred API, so you may be forced to find creative ways of forcing it. The discussion board provides a few methods. With a little bit of work, you *should* be able to solve this issue IF you experience it.

Bullet velocity & drop - an absolute joke. Bullets travel at the speed of a thrown rock and drop just as fast. In other games I can adjust to the games physics, but Breakpoint is so off-keel that I can't. Yes, this is an arcade-like shooter, but come on...

Transportation - Want to spawn a heli or 4x4? You'll have to (fast) travel to bivouac, deploy camp, select vehicle (if changing from the previously selected one), break camp, then and only then will a transport spawn. You must do this EVERY time you want a vehicle if you don't keep track of it between missions or hijack an enemy vehicle. Even keeping track of previously spawned vehicles doesn't mean you can keep it as they will de-spawn at times. There is no way to spawn vehicles whenever and wherever you please anymore.

Deaths can often be undeserved - Got shot down while in a heli? Maybe you can eject, but most likely the game will lock you inside the vehicle. Then, after crashing to earth, your teammates will either not revive you at all or they'll revive you inside the burning wreckage which means you get to enjoy another death. It's those kind of 'ugh' moments.

Player Movement & Parachuting – is very janky. Character runs awkwardly at times, as if he's about to fall over for no reason; occurs on level ground. Ledges/walkways offer a way to jump off and then parachute, except I've fallen to my death so many times b/c the jump/parachute function simply doesn't work at times. He'll just slip off the ledge...
I didn't want to suicide; I had so much to live for!
There isn't a hard function (keyboard bind) to engage this action, you MUST rely on the game to decide if it wants to give you the jump-then-parachute ability or not. I ignore potential parachute spots b/c of this reason, which is a shame b/c parachuting is a fun and beautiful way to travel (when it works).

Hold E - why does practically every action require me to HOLD a specific button instead of a simple key press???? STOP this nonsense Ubisoft! It's especially a nuisance when trying to perform things quickly, such as climbing ladders and entering/exiting vehicles.

Items/Weapons - Items beyond your primary and secondary weapons (rifle, shotgun, sniper, handgun) are locked into a wheel-based item selection. Why grenades, rocket launcher, syringes, etc. cannot be bound to specific keys is beyond me. Having to bring up the wheel selection then move the mouse in the corresponding slot slows everything down in combat, ESPECIALLY when the game loves to change the gear randomly...
If their intent was to make combat annoying and tedious outside of basic gun-fighting (rifle/handgun): well done, mission accomplished!

Menu System (Intel/Missions/etc.) - It's ridiculously obtuse and confusing. No reason for this to be so muddled other than some genius thinking, "Hey, we need to completely change this aspect for no other reason but to change it!"
"Change" isn't always a good thing, folks. Finding mission details and intelligence hints becomes annoying and tedious due to this. Yes, you can and will get used to it, but it wastes so much time.

Skills - Again, they made a lot of this overly complicated for no good reason. The player is locked into a specific skill set which isn't necessarily bad, but it limits the play style

End of Life - future updates/patches are highly unlikely.


System Specs:
13700K (slight OC)
4090
32GB DDR5 RAM @ 6000mhz
Installed on m.2 NVMe drive
4K resolution on Ultimate settings
Avg frames: 110-130. Will drop to 70's occasionally, but still smooth.

TL;DR: If hardcore BF fan, may be worth it. Everyone else, skip or wait for deep, deep sale.

Played during a free weekend. It's another Battlefield release that is simply a re-skin, imo. A few different mechanisms have been added (wing suit, grappling hook, hacking tools, etc.), but overall, it's the same old, same old. If you've played the last couple of releases, then you've played this one. Because of that I can't recommend BF2042 for full price. IF it's on sale for $15-ish? Maybe. Maybe...

After 9 hours of playtime, I think I've had enough. Like other BF's of the past, it's a spawn, die and repeat grind fest. Players are bullet sponges unless you land head shots, but good luck with that due to cheesing the movement mechanics and not-the-best hit registry. If you're lucky to join a competent team, it can be very fun, but it's rare to do so and there is no team-switch.

Teamwork and strategy doesn't exist, unless you count: mad rush to the nearest enemy point immediately followed by rushing back to the last point that fell to the enemy. On and on this goes. Spam rifle-fire; spam rockets; spam grenades; spam heli rockets; spam tank rounds; spam, spam, spam! BF players love spam! Play against a try hard heli player with no one on your team competent enough to take him down....well, that can result in some rage inducing moments. Aircraft is certainly OP and there's little counter-attack b/c it would require teamwork. And we know that doesn't exist.
Someone, like myself, from an ARMA background finds this game-play hard to accept or find enjoyment beyond 15 minutes.

Also, no voice communication - do mic comms even exist? My system tells me the game enables a mic but I hear no one speak. Odd.

Overall, it's the typical arcade-like run 'n gun style shooter that loses it's excitement factor after a few hours. This ADHD-inspired genre may be perfect for some but it gets rather old and rather quickly for me and anyone with a 'tactical' preference.

This is not a "thinking man's" game. Take that as you will.

Quickly, some positives: graphics are nice and gun-play is 'meh'. Sounds and music are very nice. Game runs fairly well but you'll experience internet jitters (i.e. rockets will pass through tanks/helis, etc.) and occasional stutters, but it's not any worse than similar titles as far as I can tell. Rare to find a near-empty server/lobby. The larger 64 vs 64 modes are fun especially with certain maps. Many destructible buildings/objects.
That's about it. You'll either love it or loathe it. You can guess which side I fall on.

One side note:
The EA App that's required to launch the game is junk; not b/c I'm a "Steam only" fanboy - far from it - but b/c it's so slow to load at times and glitchy. It's completely unoptimized and I have no clue why b/c there isn't much going on with the app. Just poor coding is my guess.

My specs:
9900K @ 5.2 GHz
Loaded on m.2 1gb NVMe
2070 Super OC
32 GB RAM @ 3200 MHz

TL;DR: If you enjoy top-down shooters with increasing levels of difficult hordes to mow down, then you'll likely enjoy this game! For less than $8: it's worth it! More so if you're a fan of this genre.

I was gifted this game by a friend - thank you! First off, I generally do not play top-down shooters b/c they're not my 'cup of tea'. Regardless, I'll try to keep my review as non-bias as I can.

The game-play itself is fun and challenging but simple. Survive each level by killing waves of brainless hordes w/ a variety of rifles, explosives, craftables and melee. Levels increase in difficulty and 'bosses' are thrown in for good measure; the pace is fast and fluid from the beginning. As you progress, things get more and more interesting and chaotic! Enemies vary in numbers, strength and attacks as you advance levels.

The graphics are nice; I really like the vibrant colors. Controls are simple and easy to master. I didn't experience any crashes, stutters, etc.; it runs very smooth.

Acquitted is honestly a serious top-down shooter - it's no "gimmick" or "cash grab" as detractors claim - despite it's satirical, whimsical take on a very serious subject.

Update December 2022: Came back to see if things improved. Simply put, there are some improvements - better performance being one - but the amount of bugs are still high. Graphical glitches, AI pathing issues, eccentric pedestrian and driver behavior, races are worse b/c opponents wreck into everything (BUT player controlled driving is much better!), and more. Details matter and some bugs can be forgiven, but the sheer number of problems that continue to plague the game cannot be overlooked. For the game to remain at a premium all this time, I cannot recommend it. If $30 or less? Perhaps.

Original review:
'Could've, should've' been good. But 'could've, should've' doesn't cut it.

More than 1 year after release, the game falls very short due to problems, bugs, etc.

Terrible AI; mountains of glitches (although, some are hilarious to be fair!); forced politics that add nothing to the story (the story contradicts itself as a result of pushed politics...how stupid is that?); lackluster combat; choices don't matter; and so much more. To make matters worse, the Developers - CD Projeckt Red - are notorious for censoring legitimate criticisms/concerns of their paying customers, even banning them from forums. That doesn't win friends and it's a basic "Business 101" lesson that's breached.

I just cannot recommend this.

Developed by Ubisoft Montreal - enough said.
Weird DRM / always-online for SP nonsense; among other issues.
It's the same Ubi branch who created the horrible Farcry 6 with it's backwards politics - forced upon the player for no reason - which adds nothing to the story. Expect the same for all titles touched by them.

Update: Jan. 2023
Decided to see if things have improved. Nope. If anything the game is worse. Every round consists of 3/4th of both teams camping and the remaining 1/4th putting in work. Garbage is the only word that's fitting and it's largely the community's fault, though, the game play itself tends to support this boring grindfest that's become a digital turd.

This is now a hard NO.



Original Review:
An accurate rating is 'Depends'; not a 'Yes' or 'No'. But since Steam lacks options, I must choose the 'No' only b/c my preferred play-style does not match the game and it's community. Others with similar preferences should take notice.

If you're the milsim / team-coordinated style player: Hell Let Loose will severely disappoint. There is little to no coordination/planning, communication or teamwork. B/c of that, I do not recommend the game. If you play ARMA, Squad, or similar titles that involve active team work, this game falls very, very short. HLL is very much an arcade-style shooter.

If you're a casual player (i.e. enjoy Call of Duty, Counter Strike, Battlefield series, etc.) then you may enjoy HLL. The pace is fast and there's not much downtime between fights. (In other words, you'll spawn, fight, die & repeat often. If you don't mind that, then it's a plus!)

But for me, the game is largely a meat grinder (even though I usually have good score & K/D). Winning rounds typically involve whichever team can get to the capture points most quickly/efficiently and hold the line while the rest move to the next. Sadly, most games involve the entire team leaving the capture point as soon as it's won, only to return a few minutes later b/c the enemy team has begun to recapture the very same zone. The back and forth is annoying to those with a more strategic preference.
(To be fair, some responsibility of this falls on the community itself: it just doesn't have the player base with the same mindset as those found in Squad, ARMA, etc.)

With the major cons out of the way, I'll end with some positives:
The game looks alright and the gun-fighting is pretty good. Hit registration seems decent (better than most games). There are plenty of servers, although expect to wait in queue on Fridays and weekends. The community is generally nice and I haven't experienced too many trolls.

TL;DR: If in doubt, purchase on sale. I continue to play this from time-to-time but only in short doses; anymore than 45 minutes and the repetitious grind gets very old and frustrating.

I purchased w/ 50% discount in September of 2021, so I did not witness all the (good/bad) changes that occurred since release. None of that factors into this review. This review is based purely from a NEW player's perspective w/ no expectations or assumptions.

I've thoroughly enjoyed the game so far. There is a LOT to do in-game: exploration, crafting, first-person shooter (or third person) on ground or in space w/ various craft, base building, settlement control, economy, and more that I'm forgetting.

In fact, there's quite a bit that it's overwhelming at first. Be patient and follow the story line as it helps teach the ropes.
Keep a tab with No Man's Sky wiki up for reference though - you'll need it. Some Youtube videos can help too especially the first few minutes of a fresh game.

The story is interesting, but seems fairly predictable if you've read enough sci-fi. Despite that, it's better than most games. No spoilers.

The game world is massive. Seriously, read a gaming article about it.

Graphics are mixed: the plants, terrain, characters, etc. look very good; but water, clouds and sometimes the skies look ridiculously bad at times - I honestly don't know what went wrong there? My only guess is that the 'random procedural generation' is a factor here.

Controls: Decent to good. Note: Some may not like the recent change to on-foot walking over rough terrain: the player tends to shift in direction due to steep/difficult terrain; a straight path isn't always possible. I don't mind it personally.

UI: Everything seems decent or good except the galaxy map - it's clunky and wonky, but you get used to it.
Talking to NPC's becomes a bit of a chore due to various reasons (i.e line by line text generation and forced to repeat the same conversation at times), but it's a minor complaint.

Optimization / performance: My system is pretty beefy so I can't comment for lower end systems. My guess is that it will run decently with low settings? Don't take my word for it.
I run high/very high settings and get a steady 130+ fps. Stutter occurs when exiting from planetary atmosphere into space. (My specs below)

Overall, yes I recommend this game. Whatever issues or faults No Man's Sky had in the past do not affect my opinion as I've already gotten my money's worth and will continue enjoying it.

9900K @ 5.2 Ghz
32 gb RAM @ 3200 Mhz
2070 Super
Installed on 1 tb NVMe

Ubisoft's awful DRM, mediocre story, repetitive game play, cookie-cutter shooter like the rest in the series, blatant political bias and more = hard pass.

...at least it looks pretty.