Recent reviews by Jakapoa

Save yourself the time. 3 hours in and I finally hit the brick wall of bugs and horrible design.

On the day 20 duel, your points will just disappear when completing orders. I watched as I completed a 6 point order to see my points drop by 6 just to immediately jump back up by 6, meaning I got effectively 0 points and lost resources. I've sat here retrying this duel 5 times now, and there's just no getting past it.

Even with the bug, you'd still be able to scrape out a win if the devs hadn't implemented a extremely strange ore limit, where you run out of ore well before the time limit is reached. I can finish my supply with nearly a 20 point lead over the AI, only for the duel to keep going on and for the AI to keep earning points as if they don't have an ore limit.

Last patch was over a year ago. Don't bother with a game that doesn't function and isn't getting fixed.

"Why do these voices sound so odd and flat? They were bragging about full voice acting on the store page..."
>Check credits
>No VO credits

Oh, that's AI voices. Yikes. The game would have been better off without the badly done AI VO.

This is one of the most well-crafted turn-based/puzzle games to come out in recent memory. Clocked 60-ish hours during the beta over a couple replays, and I didn't even get around to finishing everything. The time estimate of 14 hours for the campaign & side levels sounds about right. This game is also a wonderful Steam Deck title, so if you want to play it there it plays just as good as on PC.See edit at bottom for better Deck writeup.

The standout feature here is that you're free to perform whatever actions you want to do in a turn, and then rewind at any point before ending your turn and as many times as you want. Did you move to a square thinking you could target someone, but it turns out that the angle isn't right? Rewind. Did you accidently move a character to be in the line-of-fire for someone else's attack later on that turn? Rewind. Do you want to min/max your actions each turn to optimize your damage and positioning? Rewind. There is no XCOM "5% chance to miss" in this game. Failure is simply the result of poor planning.

This ends up turning the game into more of a turn-based puzzle game than turn-based tactics. This is how a lot of the "Anxiety Dream" levels operate, where you play levels with only two of the same character and they are some of the best levels in the game. They often have nice little twists on the basic gameplay formula that make for a real brain-tickler of a puzzle. You're given the option to skip them; I would recommend against doing that.

Each character is also completely different in terms of abilities and play style. While Zan can hit targets from a distance and can help tank damage, Jen benefits from getting closer and moving around frequently. Each get their own perks that can (in some cases) radically alter how you play some levels. These are the puzzle pieces to the puzzle, except they can fit together in more ways than one.

Except then it wouldn't form the picture on the box.
Yeah that probably wasn't the best analogy.

The only major issue I have is that the difficulty is definitely on the easier side of turn-based games. Even with every difficulty option set to maximum, you will most likely have very few issues until the last few missions in the game. There's a handful of perks that are just head and shoulders above others, which can trivialize a lot of levels (not to mention you can beat the vast majority of levels even without perks). If you play through the game on Normal and then expect a challenge for Hard, you will be very disappointed. Anyone who's cut their teeth on other games like Into The Breach or XCOM will breeze through a lot of this game. The biggest challenges in this game will come from self-imposed goals, like replaying missions with different characters or intentionally running though with lesser perks.

Overall it's a solid 9/10. I do think it's lacking a bit in the difficulty/balance department, and there's a few things that could be changed for the better once you beat the game, but it's a solid experience through 'n through.

Edit: The release version of the game locks out touch screen input on the Steam Deck. This is completely different to how it was in the beta, and makes it a much worse experience on the deck. Previously, you could just tap the screen to select something, then bind any button to invert the touch to right click to confirm the action. It was smooth as butter and avoided the tedium of moving things either imprecisely with the trackpad or slowly with the thumbstick. I can't recommend this for the deck unless it's patched.

Edit 2: I have been able to re-enable touch screen support, which makes me confident in recommending this for the deck again.

• Your OS must be on the stable branch.
  
• Set the compatibility option to use Proton Experimental

This should re-enable touch screen support. Can't tell if this is a game issue or an OS issue, but hopefully this gets patched before the beta branch becomes the stable branch.
Will do more testing, will probably update review as that happens.

Edit 3: Proton Experimental is not required, but I highly recommend it. Without it, I've noticed misinputs, mouse clicks failing to register, some very glitchy behavior, and possibly even a crash. Get on Experimental.

Edit 4: It looks like a growing number of people have issues with controller support (ROG/Deck). I've tried it a bit with controller and I'm not the biggest fan (hence sticking with touch screen). I think if you are someone who will play this with the controller inputs you will enjoy this less on handheld than you would on PC. Please understand, playing this with a touch screen is unironically so seamless, you could play this on tablets with no hindrance to gameplay at all (assuming you add the button to mimic right-click). I am just blown away at how well this works with touch despite never being set up for it.

If the primary way you're going to play is with a controller, expect it to function not as good. The d-pad being real futzy is an issue. This is one of those rare games like Baltro where the touch screen shines. imo it works better than even ITB, simply due to the fact that left-click won't confirm an action, only right click. If your device has touch screen support, I recommend you at least give it a try, and bind one of the back grips to Touchscreen Right Click.

Edit 5: I've settled on a touch screen controller layout I'm happy with. "Happy" given that this was easy to play even in a cramped plane and sometimes with only one hand. The only thing that is "meh" is the map screen, which still takes some finesse to get through. It's up in the community layouts and should hopefully make the deck experience better.

I'm not going to lie to you. I haven't played a single game since Syntax Error. And with how horrible things have been going with PD3, I probably won't play for a long time. I'm not even bothering with the wiki anymore. The amount of stupidity that's happened previously (and today) goes to show just how incompetent both the developers and management at SBZ really are.

---

But..but.. SOLO MODE!!!!
Which requires me to still be online to connect to Nebula. What's the point of a solo gamemode if I still have to be online? That's just a private lobby under a different name. We wanted an OFFLINE mode. Not needing to connect to some server in god knows where is the whole point of a solo mode. And I know that's essentially impossible with the stupid way you set up your game from the get-go.

Case in point; nobody could play with Nebula being down for maintenance today. And nobody could until SBZ turned everything back on.

---

WE FIXED THE DLC PRICES!!!!!
And created a bigger mess with horrible mismanagement. The management initially made a greedy error with the DLC pricing, making it deceptively high. Even for the content you got (which was noticeably rushed), it felt pretty steep.

Now they're lowering them to something more reasonable, which means Silver & Gold users. I'm not exactly thrilled about junky cosmetics, but it's at least something. They even made a big announcement of it, clearly trying to show that they care.

Except they just completely contradicted themselves. You can currently buy either edition on a -50% discount, which gives you access to the "Year 1" content. So they made a big deal about how the "Year 1" people would be compensated for lowering prices, yet they then went and lowered the price of buying "Year 1" outright.

What even was the point of this then? Why should anyone bother buying the DLC packs upfront when you're going to make them cheaper before they even release? You didn't even do that during PD2. The cost of the DLC packs always remained the same until ALL of the pack's DLC was released.

Not even Ubisoft, UBISOFT of all companies, makes dumb mistakes like this. Their "complete" editions still exclude the current year's content, which means that the price of the current yearly content remains the same until the next year releases.

The extra content given was entirely a PR move so people just reading headlines would think SBZ actually cares, and it appears to be working.

---

BUT FIXES ARE COMING!
At the rate SBZ is going, Payday 3 will be "fixed" by 2027. Updates are slow, and rarely address issues properly. Look no further than the "solo" mode that comes 9 months after launch and is a glorified private lobby.

Meanwhile you have Arrowhead, who are not only working on an engine worse than Diesel, but have had a lot of project management issues. Even they somehow manage to get out a content update or patch at least once a month. Compare this to Payday 3 which is running on UE4, which has more documentation, usage, and support than even the damn Source engine at this point (I can't even count anymore how many "TODO"s are in the documentation).

---

BUT THE BALANCE IS BETTER! LET MIO COOK!!!!!
It doesn't matter if you make someone the new lead balance dev when they previously worked on (and currently still support) the previous bad ideas.

You can cook all you want, but if the kitchen's on fire you're just going to burn everything.

• Starts game
  
• Controls & menus immediately broken
  
• Check discussions
  
• Forum post on the issue dates back to launch almost a year ago.
  
• "Devs are aware, it'll be fixed soon"

Yeah no thanks.

When you forget all the small details, the game as a whole feels soulless.
Also fire your audio director.

---

With the discussions around the game being generally negative (and rightly so after that demo), I wanted to take a look at the gameplay to see if the negativity really is warranted. What follows below is everything that caught my attention during the first level of the game.

It starts with me realizing that 3DR really did pull down the demo after everyone rightly shat on it. They never put it back up, or updated it with the "fixes" that were "almost there but not ready for the demo's release". So thank god Steam support is very generous with refunds. That's definitely not the best start after all the demo drama.

The first thing that catches my attention is the graphics, or just how mismatched it feels to be exact. The Colonel stares down at me with oddly smooth and perfectly clear eyes, yet the rest of his textures are pixelated to fit the Ion Fury style. In fact, a lot of models are weirdly high-poly yet have texturing that would match a more low-poly model. This isn't as bad as it sounds, but it's just noticeable enough for you to pick up on it.
https://steamcommunity.com/id/jaco909/screenshot/2469736804913760578/

The Colonel phases out of the room as you conveniently glance away, as you never hear the door open or close. I then go to punch my way out of the room and break the dash ability on the punch by using it on the slope right in front of the door. Another fun fact, if the game loads directly here skipping the cutscene, the door model doesn't even load at all but the collision remains.
https://steamcommunity.com/id/jaco909/screenshot/2469736804913814669/

Some tutorial box with a missing keybind. Weird! This happens quite a lot, even with things I didn't rebind.
https://steamcommunity.com/id/jaco909/screenshot/2469736804913770393/

Around this point I start throwing objects around, and it feels like crap. I don't want to say some games did it better, but the standard for throwing stuff was set in 2004. When you throw things in this game, they just glide through the air as if moved by an invisible force. Objects don't rotate while in flight, which is something objects would actually do if someone ever threw them. It looks really bad and like it was quickly slapped in to the game. Also, objects that impact surfaces make almost no noise. Glass beakers and vials make the tiniest tinkle as they shatter, and even some larger objects just make a quiet "bump".

After making my way through and finding the baton, I watch rubble from a falling ceiling rise up out of the floor before the debris from the ceiling even has time to hit the floor. Weird! There's a keypad here with a code you can physically input, which would be neat if the pad highlight followed your mouse input properly. Pressing a number causes it to delay with the tracking and freak out.
https://steamcommunity.com/id/jaco909/screenshot/2469736804913759129/

Also vents display their broken graphic if hit by an explosion, but their collision isn't removed.
https://steamcommunity.com/id/jaco909/screenshot/2469736804913845049/

Then I get the pistol. You use the pistol to shoot down a ladder, which you completely just noclip onto. Like, you don't holster your weapons, there's no camera bobble or anything, there's not even climbing sounds. You just float upwards and get spit out next to it. It feels extremely lazy.
https://steamcommunity.com/id/jaco909/screenshot/2469736804914174504/

After a couple of melee swings to hit the electricity box in the same area, I noticed that Shelly wasn't making any sound at all. Like, not a peep out of her as she whips around slaming people with her arm (and baton). Not a grunt, yell, or even just a sharp exhale. This sounds trivial, but it's the little details like these that help to sell things like weight and impact. This even applies to things like climbing and sliding. The only noises Shelly makes are pain grunts. I am being dead serious, she has 20 lines for pain grunts, 1 line for eating, and a pant VO. I don't even know if this panting VO is used since I never heard it (like at low hp or sprinting).

And I should probably mention Shelly's voice. Shelly has a helmet filter over ALL of her dialog lines. I can't tell if they recorded her lines in a cardboard box, or if this was a... "stylistic" choice. She is the only character to have a filter like this, excluding radio calls. Everyone else sounds perfectly fine. Why? Was the audio director trying to emulate the sound of retro voices? Why not for the rest of the characters then? Why not change any of the other sounds? WHAT IS GOING ON???
Here's a direct comparison for your listening pleasure:
https://youtu.be/uujdvr3f93Q

While we're on the subject of audio, I'd like to mention the lackluster ambiance in this level. You hear:

• Fire, if there's fire
  
• A low hum of fans/AC
  
• A squeaky fan off in the distance

Where's the computer hums? Where's the hum and clicks of a server rack? The hum of the lights, hissing vents, or refrigeration units? Some of these things do have sounds, but are so quiet you have to be on top of the object to hear anything. This level feels lifeless and dead because it's so damn QUIET. Drones you fight have this same issue. They explode after being killed, but the charge-up sound is so quiet that you can't even hear it unless you pick one up.

I then get stuck trying to find a way to open a door. Turns out I need to interact with this PC to open the door. You wouldn't think to use the PC given that there's 6 identical PC models already used in the same room. The only difference is that this one has a faint green light on the front, which is very easy to miss in an already cluttered room. When the important objects get mixed in with the set dressing, better care needs to be taken to point out important areas or objects.
https://steamcommunity.com/id/jaco909/screenshot/2469736804914158840/

Shelly is fireproof.
https://steamcommunity.com/id/jaco909/screenshot/2469736804914172195/

Generic statement about the bad AI.
https://steamcommunity.com/id/jaco909/screenshot/2469736804914172959/

Nearing the end of the level, I find what could be some of the worst design choices I've seen in this level. After clearing a lab of two enemies, I see a big sign and arrow pointing up towards a waste disposal area. Ok, that's the way I guess I need to go. Following this path leads you to a dead end with a pickup box. To my left is a slightly open door with a visible weapon at the bottom. It's brightly lit and there are explosive barrels I can shoot. Ok, logic would dictate that there's some way to get down there. You wouldn't just highlight something so well to not make it obtainable, right?
To your right is a vent trailing off, which looks like the same ones you crawl down. There's a red light and a "No Entry" label slapped above it. Try as you might, this vent will never open. It's at this point it hits me why that sign is there. The devs saw beta testers get stuck here trying to reach the weapon below, despite the weapon not being obtainable. They then slapped the no entry text above the vent and called it a day, instead of just designing the area better. Why not remove the weapon? Why not remove the interactable barrels? Why not just make it darker so you don't think to look down there? Why not change the vent so you don't think you can enter it? Instead, they took the laziest approach possible and threw some "nothing to see here" text up.

And yes, that area is indeed inaccessible.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3230573813

---

This was the first level. If that's the first level, the first impression your game gives to the player, then I don't want to stick around to see the rest.

A direct port of the mobile game with zero thought to changing the UI for PC.

This game was built specifically for mobile touch-screen devices, with every aspect the same between the two. I even have this on my phone* (big asterisk there) and it's 1:1. The problem with this is that the UI was specifically designed for touch screen devices, with features being streamlined to specifically work better on those platforms.

For example:

• You can't select a ride's operating status from a menu anymore. You can only toggle it between Closed, Testing, and Open, in that exact order. That means every time you close and then open a ride it will be forced into testing mode. You also can't fully close a ride anymore by double-clicking the closed icon with the new UI.
  
• The new menu buttons are all stupidly tiny and directly on the edge of the screen. There are no options to resize, move, or change them in any way. This is a huge problem since the screen will scroll anytime your mouse reaches the edge of the screen. This means you will always end up moving the screen anytime you go to open any of the menus.
  
• Because it was designed for smaller screens, the text can often be scrunched, blurry, and hard to read.
  
• Why remove the recent announcements button? There's no way to view recent announcements anymore.
  
• The view options that are incredibly useful for building rides are tucked away IN THE PAUSE MENU. WHY?! That should be one of the buttons always available. Is it because you couldn't design a proper menu for mobile devices?
  
• No render options. How the heck does a game from 1999 have fullscreen and windowed options while this 2017 "remaster" can't do either? (It also lets me change the sound devices and options, which this game also can't do.)
  
• Despite using the Steam Cloud to backup your scenario records, your saves are NOT stored on the cloud.
  
• There are also a handful of "scenario/balance changes" that feel like it was meant to dumb down the experience for mobile platforms.
  
• Removed scenarios that couldn't fit into the new mobile style.

If you're playing this on the Steam Deck it's the best way to play. Otherwise you can buy RCT 1 & 2 for less than this and use OpenRCT2 for the best PC experience.

*So it turns out in 2019 Atari """accidentally""" deleted RCT Classic off the Google Play store. While they did reupload the game, they made it a new app and didn't refund anyone who bought the game. They have never updated the original version since, and now force people who originally bought the "oops" version to repurchase it to receive critical updates. Absolute clowns.

This is the third time I've had to rewrite this review. The first was in February about the PSN requirement. You can see by the remaining comment below that I promptly got mocked for that. Ironic given that those same people then suddenly cared when the requirement became an actual requirement. Whatever.

The second review was a compilation of +50 bugs, ranging from extremely serious to annoying. Those bugs certainly still exist.

My main issue is that while I do like this game, I have never been able to go through a single set of 3 missions without something going horribly wrong. This can range from the usual random server disconnects, to "my camera is suddenly 500m across the map", to bugs that can completely break and softlock missions. Every time I think about updating my review to positive, the game will find some new way to break and fall apart. And this is before we even discuss the balancing issues.

Just know that the game is fun. But that fun is going to be constantly interrupted.

So they're charging $4 for three cosmetic items, meanwhile the first Tailor Pack has 12 items and is just $5. I'm starting to think that whoever is in charge of setting the prices has brain damage. Or is just your typical executive.

You know, I don't care that they released this stuff to the public (even if they were forced to). If people want to waste $4 on three cosmetic items, then go ahead; it's their money. Hi, I'm an owner of the old CCE edition of Payday 2. We got the lootbag "The Skull" mask, which was never released to the public outside of giveaway codes. I'll be honest, it's one of the best masks Overkill ever made. Simple, clean, works wonderfully with a majority of the patterns, and it was kinda sad it was never made available to people. This absolute banger of a mask forever locked behind a pre-order dlc.
https://steamcommunity.com/id/jaco909/screenshot/2277197144395175637/

So for Starbreeze to let people buy the pre-order items is at least a step in the right direction. That being said, I absolutely hate how the mask looks, and if it was removed from the game nothing of value would be lost. It's also only a preset mask, so there's not even a blank version available to customize. Suit's alright; gloves are alright. I have never used them even though I basically got them for "free" (do I need to tick that box even though I bought the game?). It this was $1 it would be fine, but Jesus Christ why $4 for this?

Buy this if you like wasting money on things.

• Visible clipping on the Urban Runner
  
• Visible clipping on the Disgruntled Worker
  
• All masks are presets, no customization
  
• No alternate suit variants.

Typical of Starbreeze to shove out cosmetic crap and not show what it looks like. Mabey that's because they didn't bother to double check anything before shipping it.

Here's what all the suits look like.

First Person previews:
Urban Runner + Stryk Force
Digital Ops + Hard Knuckle
Disgruntled Worker + Make History
Mr. IT + Pulse Check

The arms on the Urban Runner weren't aligned properly and clip out of the sleeves.
https://steamcommunity.com/id/jaco909/screenshot/2279448309332539583/

And any large gloves will be visible through the sleeves on the Disgruntled Worker
https://steamcommunity.com/id/jaco909/screenshot/2279448309332538237/
https://steamcommunity.com/id/jaco909/screenshot/2279448309332547747/

Technical issues aside, if this is how they're going to do tailor packs than I'm probably going to start marking them negative. The lack of content in this pack is just abhorrent given the price, and given how cosmetic packs worked in Payday 2.

Just as a reminder, the last Tailor Pack we got in Payday 2 had the following:

• 4 suits
  
• 4 gloves
  
• 4 customizable masks

Or how about the High Octane Tailor Pack?

• 2 suits w/ 4 variants each
  
• 2 gloves
  
• 6 customizable masks

There's two main differences. The first is that at least in Payday 2, we could customize masks with the crazy amount of colors/materials/patterns that the game had. You could actually have something unique and personal to identify yourself with. Now that everything is going to be preset masks, we're all going to be the same characters running around with our dollar store masks. It's something that should be considered removed in terms of content comparison. This is all just because the "newer & better" system they created on a modern engine can't handle what Diesel somehow could. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ pathetic.

Another difference is that Payday 2 Charged $3, while Starbreeze now wants to charge $5. Could someone please explain to me where the extra $2 is coming from? Literally this same year Starbreeze was charging only $3 for Tailor Packs. And now that mask customization is gone, they're charging more for less content. Sure the content is (mostly) quality, but does this mean that the content sold to us in Payday 2 was worse? That less effort was put into it?

Bottom line, if they want to keep that $5 price point they better at bare minimum add outfit variations or standard masks.