Recent reviews by Kartoshka

Mechanically one of the best tac shooters I've played, if not the. A bit bare-bones compared to some other titles, but everything I'd want to see added, like armour, weapon bracing, injuries, is already planned. As immersive as ArmA, without the clunky controls.
The devs have also been pretty good from what I've seen. Of course we can't know for sure until it's all said and done, but thus far they've been transparent about progress and planned features, avidly engaged with their community, and willing to take their time to make sure their product is good. This is refreshing considering how common it's become to release abandonware or half-baked "full releases" that are put out during a steam sale and immediately proceeded by talks of paid DLC.

If you're going to make people wait a year for an update that is supposed to be the full release, and you aren't going to let anyone beta test said update under the claim that the end result will be better somehow, maybe make sure your update isn't a bug-filled mess that actually makes several aspects of the game worse, cause that might make people a little angry.

As many other reviews likely say, the game has been abandoned, and with no communication from the devs while they went off to make other games that ended up getting abandoned as well. Don't buy it expecting any further updates, despite it still playing like an early access game.

While it is fun, this game has every hallmark of a F2P without the F2P part.
Majority of game content is DLC-locked: ✔
Devs continue making DLC to milk the game after 10 years: ✔
Massive DLC bloat (84 gigs now, was 21 gigs 8 years ago): ✔
Key crates that use community made skins to ensure an unending stream of revenue for the devs, and an ever increasing game-size: ✔

Don't pay a dime for this cash cow unless you don't mind supporting such practices.

EDIT: Just wanted to update this since devs just released their "Final Update."

It seems it was intended as a final farewell, but comes off more as a final f*** you, at least until they're back to f*** you and your wallet for another 10 years with Payday 3.
Why is this "update" a f*** you?
I could say it's because this is their 77th paid DLC in a game you already have to pay for (and which some people payed $60 for back when it was new)
I could mention how this is the second time now they've claimed to be halting the DLC presses.
I could also say it's because this seems like a very transparent attempt at using the summer sale to beat every last nickel and dime out of this dead horse they can.
I might point out that, not only are they doing this just as the summer sale kicks off, but also literally 2 months away from Payday 3 being released.
I could give any one of those reasons, but the reason I would give is this: They did this (except the claim about no more DLCs, that was several tens of DLCs ago) after completely breaking the game a few weeks ago

So they break the game horribly, wait a few weeks, release their 77th paid DLC which contained no fixes for any of the stuff they broke, right as the summer sale kicks off, with only two months until the sequel is out. And they have the gall and shamelessness to label this DLC pack an "Update"

And honestly, even if you didn't read anything until this point, that last paragraph pretty much perfectly encapsulates how these devs have behaved pretty consistently since being bought out a few years back. Sad to see a company that used to love what it made turned into a corporate husk that exists to farm dollars.

Very cool game, good music that stays true to the Half-Life style, interesting story involving unseen events referenced in HL2, and slaughtering rebels is more fun than ever with much more variety and new AI mechanics.

Also, the Rebel Leader dude has a really annoying voice and I wish I could have been the 3650 that got to shoot him.

There are still mechanical reasons to play Warband instead of this game and until that changes I'm giving a thumbs down.

this is the best game if you disagree you're wrong

Got run over and brutally killed by a soccer-mom in a minivan on the way to a date. Girlfriend now dislikes me. Just like real life, 10/10.

The game is pretty good. Decent story. But were it really shines is combat and movement. It has revolutionary combat which utilizes corners and walls like never before. Let me elaborate. so say you're fighting a boss and he has his "special ragdolling super-move." the dude gets close to you and you're now trapped between ragdoll god and a wall. he's ragdolling you constantly, you can't get up. What do you do? hope to god you can un-ragdolls for the 0.03 seconds it takes to jump out of there. This only happens about 20% of the time If you have good reflexes (or mash spacebar uncontrollably). Never before have I seen the environment integrated into immersive combat so effectively. The second great aspect is the movement, or more specifically the fact it doubles as a surfing simulator. Sometimes you might get in a battle that killed you 6 times and took an hour and a half to complete. You've finally done it and you walk a meter away from the intended path and BOOM. you've found a sufable corner. The surfing animation is without a doubt one of the best I have seen in a game to date. the only downside is that usually after about 10 seconds, the physics engine decides you've been surfing on the spot for so long you're probably at like 200 kph by now so it rockets you outward into the firey abyss of doom (or some other abyss of doom.) Fortunatly because of the amazing checkpoint system, you now get to fight ragdoll-god once again and continue trying hopelessly to escape that corner while getting ragdolled for another good portion of your life.

So, is the game good you ask?
YES! You should certainly get this game.
11/10 would ragdoll for 17 minutes straight again.