Recent reviews by goosh

  The Culling is a pvp-centric, arena-based combat game containing light King Of The Hill elements. Initially, your objective is to simply survive as well as to optimally gather defensive/offensive loot until the secondary objective, which is to slay any human you can find, comes into play and then the blood-bath ensues

While published through Early Access Release, The Culling offers a robust array of features including over 40 perks to customize your playstyle, multiple weapon types containing three tiers in each, an array of traps, and custom airdrops earned through F.U.N.C. to help the players end-game experience. To go more in depth on these features, you're now going to read through a list of highlighted details within The Culling that I'd like to expand on that might help you make the choice to buy the game.

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  • Perks
Mentioned above, the Perks in this game are already pretty extensive. As of now you can choose a combination of three perks in your loadout to aid you in your conquest to become the killer of men. Perks range from silencing player movement/crafting to doing 40% more backstab damage when attacking with any blade. You can truly customize your gameplay experience and even switch it up every now and then if you get stale. I currently run the silent axe wielding maniac who regenerates stamina twice as fast.

  • Optimization
This was another feature that initially impressed me in how refined it was considering the Early Access release. At first I was running great, and then decided to max every graphic setting and am still playing beautifully. Also, compared to titles like Rust, The Culling doesn't put half as much of a tax on your hardware while running.

  • Dynamic Map interaction
This is something that consistently proves to be even better than I previously assumed to me. Not only are there map-to-map ranomizations of hazard tanks that can be strategically activated to explode-outward a noxious wall of gas in the near-by perimeter. Alondside this, you can craft Punji Sticks that cause incompacitating vomitting along with a visual debuff that causes distortions on-screen. Also, alluding to my first sentence, I've very recently found out that doing things like placing punji sticks jammed into health stations cause them to short-circuit and go out of use. Very good for the strategic minded individual.

  • Traps
I wanted this section to be its own highlighted topic following the previous one that slightly mentioned one trap mostly because traps in this game can be utailzed to quite literally change the entire tide of the game. You can punji stick/snare a large area so that any human who comes into your combat-domain is automatically at a disadvantage. You can place found targeted explosives, posion blowgun people while snared, etc. It's just all around a smart thing to utalize when playing The Culling.

  • F.U.N.C.
F.U.N.C is an in-game currency earned through most of the actions executable in The Culling. Killing players, being the first player in a structure, walking 100 meters, recycling found loot.. these are just some of the methods for gathering F.U.N.C. You can then expend this gathered F.U.N.C on everything from health at any red station to crafting traps and armor.


               
  • Third person
I really think a game like this benefits from a 3rd person option, and would love seeing something like this implemented in The Culling some time in the future.

  • Gun rebalancing
You can currently get guns by either being supremely lucky & opening a blue crate, or by expending only the largest amounts of funk to attain these devices of instant rage. They've currently made these weapons "balanced" by implementing a feature where if any player hits you while you hold a gun (you cant block with a gun) then it basically has an 80% (hell maybe even higher) chance to just fly out of your hand onto the ground as if you dropped it. So, at long range, guns are still incredibly overpowered, but at short range they aren't. Instead of this I propose simply removing all airdrops that have guns in them, and making them something that you can only attain via three crate monte or Viva Pinata. There's no reason for everybody to have the ability to get guns if the way you balance them makes them only balanced from a certain range.

If we did this, everyone would be forced to the middle who wanted a gun. This would make for more fast paced gameplay as well as more of a reason for people to go to the aforementioned events, as I often find myself the first person getting all the gear.

               
Honestly, so far I've really enjoyed my time playing The Culling. I think that as it stands the price is wonderful for the content, and very reflective of a level-headed dev team honestly which is super respectable. I would definitely recommend this game to any friends, and despite my preface containing discontent for biased comparisons I do think that this stands the test of playability with titles such as H1Z1: King of the Hill/Rust battle royale. Providing that the devs stay on their toes and provide us with some nice updates I think that this could become a favorite title for me very easily.

This is one of the most enjoyable Call of Duty titles I have played in quite a while. It has replay value, and for the first time in quite a while I actually find myself wanting to return to a Call of Duty title through-out the day. Beyond my personal opinion:

As with most call of duties, the things you have to do to differentiate one title from another are things like: New graphics, new movement system, new guns, new atmosphere. One of the things I believe that Activision did the best job in pulling off in Black Ops 3 is by far the movement. It's fluid without being AW level Over-Powered. It allows you to swiftly brisk through the map but also doesn't make it so easy that it becomes boring. The thrusting/strafing matched with wall running can really make for some creative methods of rushing to an objective also, if you've got remotely active deductive reasoning skills. And to branch off a bit I think that's another thing that I love about this title, due to all of the dynamic factors like movement/character abilities this game has so many dynamic factors it's almost always new gunfights and dynamic gameplay. I've always hated how linear most Call of Duty titles get once you pour about a hundred or two hours into them, but I don't see this happening with Blops. It's just.. dynamic.

The guns are pretty good. They definitely take getting used to, matched with being unfamiliar to the combat system being a new player almost definitely means for some bad early-game scores, but once you break through it's really quite easy to find your niche playstyle within the arsonel Blops 3 brings to the table. It's all just really thought through and balanced, nothings too crazy like the UMP from mw2 (Perhaps the Kuda could be likened to something like this, but meh, still not as OP imo) and nothing too insanely unbalanced like the F2000 from that same aforementioned title.

The maps are very dynamic, each equipped with multiple avenues that open up many movement capabilities through either wall running or multi-level drop-offs one could strafe down into to find himself briskly entering new terrain. Maps are probably the biggest advantage Blops has to offer so far, as they've yet to feel dull and repetitive as most CoD maps do realtively quickly.

There's really not much more to say, they've done a solid job bringing a title to the table in a genre where everyone automatically hates whatever they have to offer 70% of the time.

Big red flag here in before the game even started, I see that this is made by DigitalDNA games. The same company that has brought you the obvious-grabs-for-money games on Xbox Live such as Avatar Connection and Avatar Snowball fight, as well as the just generally horrible Xbox live games such as Avatar Paintball, Avatar Avenue, Avatar Superstar, and the list goes on.

If you look at their collection of titles, it becomes completely obvious that they are taking the “Well, if we make a game for every single idea the team gets we’ll have to make money, right?” Simple fact is, its quality over quantity, not the other way around.

I’ll try and leave my personal bias about the company out of my review for Savage Lands, because well this is a completely different platform, but I also wanted to note the above statements for the simple fact that DigitalDNA is not a company known for good titles, by any means.

Once in game I immediately noticed the fact that I couldn’t bind my sprint function to the right shift key, then, when I came back to my word document to note that I realized that Savage Lands has made my computer so laggy that I see the exact things I’m saying to you right now appear only about 6 seconds after I type them. I’d like to note that I have a $1300 custom build gaming computer, and don’t even experience this on ultra in games like Crysis.

The game itself? Very hollow, but that’s to be expected I guess. Overall they actually made me think that DigitalDNA can really pull off a wholesome title, the graphics were completely adequate. The sound was one of my favorite aspects of this game, the immersion was well done, and the realism, for the most part, was actually kind of on point. Things like being able to punch a ravenous wolf to death kind of disappointed me. Same with waking up in a new land with tools already there for you, but honestly? My gripes with Savage Lands are pretty much all very minute problems. Things like your arm vanishing sometimes, or the fact that punching any creature gives off this laughably terrible blood spatter effect as if my hands have knives on them. You know, things that can and most likely will be fixed as the game progresses.

Do I recommend this title? On sale, sure. I would never pay any more than $15 for it, and for a moment even regretted doing that. But keep in mind you are paying for a possibility for a great game, NOT a great game. As of this very moment you are paying for just another early access survival game with a bunch of issues and bad aspects by a company who has routinely put out terrible titles.
Savage Lands has quite a bit of potential, and you shouldn’t discredit this title just because DigitalDNA has made poor decisions before this. The trailer made this seem much better than it actually is, in reality, it’s a bit wonky and lacks any real character.




***EARLY ACCESS DISCLAIMER POSTED ON ALL MY EARLY ACCESS TITLE REVIEWS***

EARLY ACCESS IS NOT AN EXCUSE FOR DEVS TO RELEASE TERRIBLE GAMES. IF YOU THINK MY REVIEWS ARE TOO HARSH DUE ONLY TO THE FACT THAT THE TITLE IS IN EARLY ACCESS, YOU ARE PLACING UNREALISTIC STANDARDS UPON THE EARLY ACCESS FUNCTION. IF YOU ARE RELEASING A GAME ON EARLY ACCESS, IT SHOULD BE SOMETHING PEOPLE *WANT* TO INVEST INTO WATCHING GROW. NOT A PILE OF UNFINISHED IDEAS CRAMMED INTO A TITLE SOLELY TO GARNER MONEY FOR YOUR TEAM. DO NOT COMMENT TELLING ME THAT MY REVIEW NEEDS TO BE MORE LIGHT HEARTED SIMPLY BECAUSE THIS TITLE IS EARLY ACCESS, I WILL CALL YOU A ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ MORON.

Subnautica is a scy-fy-esque, underwater survival game that places you into a primarily underwater world filled to the brim with vibrant plantlife and fish.

What does this game need to be great? Content. They could very literally just implement bountiful amounts of content and that alone would hold this game at a very elevated stature to not only mine, but I feel quite a few others viewpoints.


The good news is that the Devs *seem* to be very active, but that is completely expected with brand new titles.
The bad news is that at any given moment they could cease update production and we'd be ♥♥♥♥ out of luck.

Subnautica is a great game, conceptually, but to obtain that solid, justified "great game" status in my book it needs to have MUCH more content, and a bit more overall polishing. Now that is crazy considering the fact that it is a brand new title, but hey, the devs did great work in my book.

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pros and cons
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WHAT IS GOOD: (pros)

- The graphics were designed very, very well. I was, and still am wholeheartedly impressed with how immersive the graphics alone are. The devs have blended the perfect mix of vibrance-to-shadowy-darkness ratio, allowing you to feel sunbeaten and safe on the surface yet utterly terrified of the unknown once you get deep enough.

- The sound is very good, I'd like to say that I utterly despise the soundtrack they have implemented (it's a mix of random nightcore-ish club music-esque tracks with some easy going starts to them. I think that if they just took the music out entirely and created in depth, immersive sound for most actions and/or places in the game that it would add even more layers of immersion while also making Subnautica have that deep complexity factor.) Overall, though? I love the sound. That, matched with the graphics make this one of the most immersive games I've played in a while.

- The immersion. Once you start playing this you're almost 90% of the time going to be very literally afraid of what could be below you. A friend and I joked about going too deep and realizing the entire ocean floor was a creature, and as unrealistic as that sounds, that's the kind of thing this game makes you think about. At least until you get a feel for the creatures in it, then... well... Just read my "cons" table

WHAT NEEDS TO BE FIXED/CHANGED: (cons)

- Fish AI. What can I really say? It is very basic, and you have to essentially have a staring contest with a creature for them to be any danger. This game is completely relying on that fear of the unknown, but once you get over that, this game becomes kind of boring actually. There's no real danger, beyond what psychological tricks this title plays on you with that ever prevelent "unknown" feel.

- Crafting. Crafting in this game is the biggest let down. Everything is given to you. There's no trial and error, no experience, no interaction. It's utterly linear, hand-holdy, and very very bland after you use it more than about 20 times. What they really need to do is take a lesson from Minecraft, for example, and let us find our own way in Subnautica. You're telling me that I just automatically understand how to create a fully functional submarine? That I just have some inate knowledge to create a Stasis Rifle? No. Fix this. It's unrealistic, creatively limited, and a bit frustrating considering all the other amazing elements of Subnautica.

- DANGER. Implement a creature that comes to the surface and ♥♥♥♥♥ your ♥♥♥♥ up if you don't fight back. Make a creature that can actually see you from a distance away and comes-a-huntin'. Make a creature that blends in with the rock and grabs you as you swim past. Right now, even on HC mode, playing is a bit lackluster due to the fact that you can literally get away from anything. There's no real danger about any aspect of this game. I literally fear forgetting to eat something more than I do the creatures in this game. That's not good.

- Map. It's essentially always the same. I know this is a very unfair critique so early on, but I feel I need to say it for future purposes. Subnautica would IMMENSELY benefit from having some type of minecraft-esque procedural generation map functionality. With JUST how limitless the underwater landscape can be in terms of map creation, I'm VERY sure that with time (and perhaps some of the resources that the devs have obtained from the early access) the devs could implement this, and should implement this. After just a few playthroughs the map itself becomes a bit hollow, but overall they've done a great job in making me come back for more map-wise.

- Survival. Your food bar goes down far too quickly, as stated in most other reviews I see. As I said above, I quite literally worry about forgetting to look at my food meter more than I ever have about dying from a mob.

- Realism. Everything is so perfect in this game, there's no survival aspect once you really boil this title down. It's all: "Go collect this" and "Go collect that" then "let this 3d printer thingy do your work for you, because why not?" Everything you create comes out perfect. Hell, even the knife you make out of VERY basic resources comes out with perfect branding on it as if you had just purchased it from a market. There needs to be that procedural grind, that feeling of "wow, did I really make it all the way here from when I spawned in?" Overall? I just think they should either completely remove the hand-holdy crafting system or revamp/overhaul it to the point where it doesn't do 80% of the work for you.

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I know I was a bit harsh here, but generally this is a good game. I wouldn't have critiqued it so harshly, or even wasted my time typing this if I didn't absolutely know that the Devs could easily turn this into one of the best games of the genre.

I'll be revising this as I play, and as the game is updated. I'll also provide in depth changelogs of my edits, so that you guys know what you are buying. On more of a straight to the point level? Yeah, I recommend this game. As of right now (3/8/2015) this game has the replayability factor yet fails to have enough content to go all the way. I keep wanting to go back to it, yet I know there's nothing to do. This will improve as the game updates, obviously, but it won't make the fact that in another 20 minutes I'll have every bit of new content they update in my inventory go away. This game needs to make me feel like I've created something, not pushed a button and had it created for me.



EDIT: 3/10/2015 (1:40 PM)
I have added a "pro's" list encompassing some of the things I love about Subnautica, as only having a "con's" list was a bit unfair.

EDIT: 3/10/2015 (2:08 PM)
I have added a "realism" button point in the cons section, as well as did an overall polish of the review in its entirety.