Recent reviews by Major Fret

I honestly wasn't expecting JA3 to be this good. There's been numerous attempts to revive the franchise and all of them have fallen short so far. JA3 is the successor I've been looking for, and whilst it might not dethrone JA2 as the Greatest Turn-Based Tactics game of all time, it's about as good of a sequel we could've hoped for.

THE GOOD:
-Overwatch system is a lot easier to understand than interrupts, and doesn't allow high level enemies to turn doorways into complete deathtraps.
-Grenade throwing is also much more accurate than it was in JA2.
-Whilst the game does have an XCOM 2011-style cover system, objects between you and your target still affect shots.
-Weapons now have more distinct roles. In JA2, you basically went from Pistols > Shotguns/SMGs> Rifles> Assault Rifles/Sniper Rifles > Machine Guns. Weapons now have more purpose, with special attacks such as Run and Gun for SMGs. Even weapons within their own catagories have their own niches (such as the AK-74 being really good against armor or the Winchester 1894 being a shorter ranged sniper rifle), which really adds to the variety. I've used starter weapons deep into the game which is not something I could say about JA2.
-I thought I wouldn't be big on the perk system, but I think it adds a lot of depth without being as overwhelming as something like Battle Brothers. I feel even if you build a character 'wrong', you'll still be fine for the most part anyway.
-Much like JA2, there's lots of ways to build teams, approach the map, and perform missions, giving the game a lot of replay value. I'm already 60+ hours in and I can't get enough.
-Modding support. Adding the the above point, there's plenty of mods, which I've yet to touch.
-Diamond and Gun transports add a bit more to the overworld tactics, allowing you to get new weapons or a much needed cash boost.
-Roadmap for updates is promising and shows the devs really care about their product.

THINGS PEOPLE MIGHT NOT LIKE:
-The game isn't the most realisitc. Then again it's not like JA2 was either. The franchise was always supposed to lean more into action movies than any form of milsim.
-There's quite a few scripted events that will catch you off guard on a first playthough. One in particular is pretty rough, but I still managed to survive it, only losing 2 members and IMO you should be expected to lose a few people along the way.
-Some people have struggled with ammo, but I've never had that much of an issue. Sure, you have to sometimes scrounge for dropped ammo, but militias make this easy enough. Plus, Bobby Ray's is coming in v1.3.
-Invetory is a little different and now Strength dependent. It does dumb some things down, such as the fact a belt-fed MG is as much of a burden as an MP5 submachine gun, but it also makes STR much less of a dump stat.
-Chance to hit isn't shown without a mod. I might be in a minority, but I really like this. When my brain sees 80% to hit, I think “I'm gonna hit” rather than “I have a 1 in 5 chance to miss”. This allows me to focus more on tactics and positioning which is what actually wins fights. It also can be modded in pretty easily if you want.
-There's not much of a story, but that's never been Jagged Alliance's strong suit.
-I've had 2 crashes, but considering 60 + hours of gameplay, that's pretty good. Game has a generous autosave system anyway.

THE BAD:
-Mercs are nowhere near as funny as JA2. This was always going to be a tall order, but it's noticable. That being said, there's still some good dialog from the mercs, and I still prefer the personality driven characters over something like X-COM.
-A lot of the humor is also going to be very dated in 5 or so years. Cryptocoins, lootboxes, the Coronavirus etc.
-AI Could be better. It's pretty easy to bait them into killzones if you set your men up. I wish they'd bunker down a little more, especially consideirng there's a lot of options to dig them out.
-I feel that some of the lower tier mercs don't fill vital rolls. For example, Livewire and Steroid are the only early mercenaries with high Mechanical scores, and Steroid has poor attributes and doesn't play nice with others.
-We're also missing some vets from the previous games such as Spider, Trevor and my boy Stephen Rothman
-Panic and Berserk from the new XCOM games are here and I hate it. Losing control of a character is really frustrating, especially when morale can drop just because a few mercs got injured after you dropped 5+ enemies in a turn.

Have you ever played something that felt like someone's passion project? In a world of uninspired open-world games, boomer shooters, and totally original deckbuilding rouge likes, Fortune's Run stands out as a blend of dystopian cyberpunk, anime, brawler, first person shooter, and fast paced parkour gameplay

PROs:
-Unique atmosphere. As mentioned above, this feels like a passion project. Sure, it borrows from other influences, but it weaves those influences into something really unique.
-Level design is very detailed. Even the original demo level surprises me with just how many pathways and secrets there are. There's also some cool interactions such as heating up food, breaking into vents, or using a blowtorch to open up pathways.
-Absolutely bangin' soundtrack that'll hopefully be released in full on Steam.
-Combat is satisfying and has plenty of variety. You can go guns blazing with dual scatterguns, slice and dice with the katana, throw knives from the shadows, or just throw hands with every enemy in sight. It's also easy to mix up your attacks. In fact, it's expected.
-Voice acting is great. The main character especially has a rather cynical tone that I can't help but love.


Things people might not like:
-Game is H A R D. Even basic enemies can kill you if you're not careful. Combat is fast paced and you can be overwhelmed. I can see this turning some people off, but I actually enjoy it. Better luck next time.
-Added to this, the game can be unconventional. Stealth isn't just your typical 'hide in the dark'. Being fast is usually important no matter what you're doing. That being said, once it clicks, it clicks.
-Manual saves. You can save scum, but you do have to remember to save. Might catch some of the younger in the audience off guard.
-Despite being an 'immersive sim', Fortune's Run doesn't have a lot of the RPG elements say Deus Ex would have, nor do I think you're gonna be expected to make a less lethal run. IDK what makes an immersive sim an immersive sim anyway as I honestly ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hate that term.
-Early Access is early access. The game isn't planned to be fully released by 2026 and as someone who's owned Ground Branch's Alpha Build for nearly 5 years, I know that's a tough pill to swallow. That also comes with the usual bugs and stuff.

BAD:
-I felt the spaceship level was nowhere near as strong as the demo's level. It felt a fair bit repetitive and their seemed to be a lack of healing items. Maybe it'll grow on me after replaying.
-Content is lacking for the price, but that's the nature of Early Access. There's probably 6-7 hours of content including the demo build, but that's also considering a lot of that has plenty of replayability. I'm sure this will change as development chugs along.

It's good but overhyped. If this wasn't related to Warhammer 40k I doubt it'd be getting as glowing reviews as it is. If I had to give it a number, it'd be a 6/10. Still worth a play if you like 40K and/or Boomer Shooters.

THE GOOD:
-Power fantasy is really there. Even the weakest gun blows weak enemies to bits, and you'll often leave an area coated in blood.
-Plays smoothly for the most part. I had a few frame rate drops, but it was otherwise fine performance wise. That already makes Boltgun better than 99% of Triple A gaming.
-Visually nice to look at. Yeah, the pixel art thing is a bit played out, but the environments can be impressive at times, and there's plenty of onscreen carnage.

THE MEH:
-The game has certainly gone to the John Carmack school of video game story writing.
-This is your typical 'boomer shooter'. It ain't trying to re-invent the wheel, but it's spinning a damn good one.
-It's probably easier than your average boomer shooter. I played this on max dificultly, and I've certainly played harder games. If you're in the 'I play DOOM on Ultra Nightmare whilst blindfolded with my nuts in a vice just to feel something' crowd, you'll probably find this one a bit too easy.
-No real replayability, unless you wanna get all the secrets, which are all just powerups. My playtime is probably not a good representation of how long most people will take, as I got lost a few times...

THE BAD:
-Feedback in combat is really lacking. A lot of enemies do not make noises and there's been plenty of times that I've been blindsided. I lost count of the amount of times I went from 'Doing great' to 'WTF happened to my health?'
-Level design is odd at times. At times there's too much health, and at others I'm wondering where the health is? Arenas are also at times really badly designed, where health is somewhat hidden away.
-AI is bad, even for a boomer shooter. They get stuck on objects, blow themselves up, and can be cheesed if you use range to your advantage.

Severed Steel is a mix of FEAR and Mirror's Edge that offers a combat sandbox that is a lot of fun if you're willing to play around with weapons and mutators on offer.

PROS:

-Combat is fun in a 'simple to understand but hard to master' sort of way. Also many ways to feel like a total badass such as:
-Stealing guns from an enemy's holster.
-Flipping upside down before nailing a headshot.
-Using the gravity gun to catch an enemy grenade and fling it back at them.
-Controls are smooth and it is easily to pull off stunts such as wall-running, sliding, and flipping.
-A varied arsenal that is fun to play around with, with a variety of machine guns, shotguns, pistols and explosive weapons.
-Difficulty can be tuned from 'basically cheating' to 'hardcore' and anything in between.
-Dope soundtrack.
-The amount of free content Severed Steel has received is incredible. We've had additions such as a Roguelike mode, weapon skins, new scoring, and akimbo weapons added all within a year WHILST the team is working on another game.
-Updates still coming even though the devs are working on a new game. They are smaller QoL updates, but they're still appreciated and show how much the devs truly care.

MEH:

-Some people will say this game doesn't have a lot of content, but I feel that depends on how you look at it. If you compare this to something such as Skyrim then sure, it 'lacks content', but there is still a lot to offer if you're willing to play around with mutators, New Game+, workshop. I'd also argue that Severed Steel makes for a great 'game between games'. The sort of thing you play when you don't want to think too much about plot and just wanna take a few minutes to feel like a badass mowing down henchmen.
-It is visually simplistic, especially with the voxel environments, but that sort of works as the game is rather fast paced and knowing what you're looking at is important as you have to make split-second decisions.

BAD:

-Can only shuffle playlist during Firefi-SCRATCH THAT. You can now shuffle music whenever and put in your own music.

I'm really disappointed in v1.0, and I say this as someone who wants nothing more than for RoN to succeed. There is no way this game is ready to be a full release and Devs really should've kept it in Early Access. Sure, people would be mad that the game is taking a long time, but now people are mad because you released a game that's nowhere near ready.

Just a few issues off the top of my head:

-Whilst officer AI improvements are neat, they collect evidence ASAP. This leads to them moving into terrible positions all other sorts of fugazi. This feature sucked balls in SWAT 3 and I don't know why you'd want to replicate it.
-Suspect AI is still eager to stand and bang all the time. This is fine in certain levels such as the nightclub massacre, but the fact everyone is going to shoot no matter what breaks a lot of what makes this an interesting experience.
-There's still a lot of 'busy work' such as evidence and finding things for objectives. No one likes this. Stop doing it.
-Pistols still clip in hand with certain gloves equipped. This has been an issue for 2 years.
-Weapon recoil is all over the place IN THE SAME CATEGORY. The MCX has 1/3 of the recoil of some 5.56 guns such as the AWRC.
-Equipping loadouts with AI officers is bugged and the UI is still really clunky over all.
-There's this seeming need VOID has to make levels big and fill them with suspects. The Streamer level, for some reason, has an apartment with an illegal crypto-mining operation that is completely unrelated to the original call. They also made Twisted Nerve bigger for no good reason.
-Removal of selectable modes on maps. I can understand for the campaign, but for single missions this is a loss of content for no good reason.
-Heavy use of AI including terrible art in the Streamer level and subtitles.

All of this in about 1-2 hours of playing this latest update.

I do think this can be salvaged and I still love this game to a degree, but I'm not going to recommend people put up their hard-earned cash to do so. There are too many problems for a game that is supposed to be out of early access.

It's amazing to see the progress CI Games have made over the last decade or so. From making terrible CoD knock offs like Armed Forces Corp, to the middling original game of the Sniper: Ghost Warrior series, which has now become the mainstay franchise of the company. Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts (or SGWC as I'll refer to it from now on) is a spin-off game that combines the sniper mechanics of the Sniper Ghost Warrior franchise with the open-ish level design of the HITMAN reboot trilogy and Farcry-esque target tagging and skill trees.

PROS:

-Weapons are satisfying and fun to use. It's easy to nail headshots with the sniper rifles and you can wipe out entire outposts at long range. Even the non-sniper weapons feel fun to use when the time comes.
-Enough freedom to take your own approach. Even being aggressive and using the assault rifle is a valid choice, although risky.
-Although the levels play very similarly, there's enough variety to keep it fresh, and enough gadgets to play around with.
-Long enough without getting tiring. I clocked in at 11 hours, but there's still plenty of content left. Could be beaten quicker if all you care about is beating the game. (Granted, some might also find this game easier as I can be rather impulsive which can be costly in a stealth game)

ISSUES SOME MIGHT HAVE:

-It's also less 'realistic sniper sim' and more 'sniper assassin fantasy game'
-There are a lot of 'training wheels'. You are able to tag enemies, wind and drop is calculated by your scope, you eventually unlock thermal vision etc.
-Story is very basic.
-A lot of objectives still require the player to get close, which in a game about sniping people from long range seems somewhat silly. I found it really annoying that the bonus 'Bounty' objectives require you to search the body of the guy you assassinated.
-Much like the new HITMAN games, there is an expectation that you'll be playing each level over and over again. I feel I got my money's worth with one playthrough, but a lot of this game seems built around multiple playthrough.
EXAMPLE: Some challenges contradict each other, such as in the first level where one challenge is to kill the main target and his assistant within 10 seconds, and another challenge involves only killing the target whilst completing all other objectives.

CONS:

-Like a lot of games, AI is either 'near braindead' or 'I know you're there time to die'.
-It's hard to know what exactly you're unlocking. This is a problem as you probably won't get enough money to unlock everything in one playthrough unless you're a super focused completionist. Example: Some pistols cannot attach silencers, which are super handy in a stealth based game. The most expensive pistol (the Gaston) cannot attach a silencer, so it'd be 80,000 credits down the drain. This could be elevated by looking up a guide, but that's frankly ridiculous for information that should be communicated to the player.
-It'd be really hard to get all upgrades without grinding, and that's not something I'm a fan of. I'd rather unlock fixed items/abilities just by completing levels rather than trying to figure out what exactly I want, especially with the aforementioned issue of not knowing what exactly what I'm getting.
-I also wished weapons felt more unique. I used three sniper rifles (The SOO-KSV 2020, Madison, and Tactical XCR 700) and they all felt very similar. The only real difference was that the XCR 700 was bolt action.
EDIT: I did use the RON 82 (AKA Barrett M82 .50 Cal) which played a little different, but the fact it couldn't attach a silencer made it seem rather pointless and difficult to use. I get that later on you get different special ammo and each weapon uses different kinds of special ammo, but this wasn't something I found all that useful
-Loadtimes were long..
-Some minor bugs but nothing game breaking. Mainly pathfinding issues for the AI.

Overall I feel my complaints are minor for what is a relatively enjoyable title. It is familiar and it's not trying to reinvent the wheel, but SGWC does spin a pretty good wheel. If you're unsure, I'd recommend getting it at a discount, but the price is pretty reasonable for what is a solid game with plenty of content on offer.

DK2 has been constantly improving from it's early alpha stages. Again Killhouse Game have delivered on an engaging squad-based tactics game that'll have you adjusting until you get a mission just right.

PROS:
-Same base gameplay as DK1.
-Really stable with minimal glitches
-New setting keeps gameplay fresh yet familiar. With new classes such as the Support and Marksman and items such as Frag and smoke grenades add new options.
-New Teams such as CIA and local SWAT give more depth and multiple playstyles.
-More breaching options, such as windows and Wall Charges (Door Kickers? More like Wall Blasters)
-Whilst content might be less than DK1 has now, I'd argue DK2 has about the same content that DK1 did during late alpha/beta stages. That's quite a bit of content, and considering there is also an active modding community, level generator, and mission editor, there should be enough to make DK2 worth the price.

CONS:
-Not a big fan of the new weapon attachments/ammo selection. It really bogs down the selection menu. Sure, I understand why an operator might attach a 1-8x scope on a short-barrelled Mk.18, but at the end of the day, he's probably planning on using it for short-range engagements.

I can no longer in good faith recommend GB in its current state, especially at the increased price point. Whilst I respect this is an early access title, there is a lot of work to be done and not a lot of progress being made. I have owned GB for almost 4 years and it is still in an early Alpha state. As of writing this update it has been over 10 MONTHS since the last major content update.

Right now the game lacks many features, such as:
-Prone (which has been talked about for years)
-Anything that isn't a firearm or a frag grenade being partially functional at best (Body armor, camo, flashbangs, smoke grenades, breaching charges, bipods)
-AI teammates
-Enemy AI that isn't easy to solo (20 vs 1 player is very do-able, even though the player can die in 1-2 bullets)
-Enemy AI that is affected by darkness in any meaningful way.
-Any sort of campaign
-Minimal amount of game modes (2 for PvE)
-Nothing yet takes advantage of the CIA-esque setting (having to be low profile, having to use weapons for plausible deniability, working with local forces etc)

If the game continues at this pace, it'll most likely be grossly outdated by the time it is fully released. I'm more than happy to eat my words if GB's development starts picking up and I have enjoyed playing the game, but the fact of the matter is the game is nowhere near finished and is unlikely to be finished anytime soon, if at all.

So after Update 1.3, I have some further thoughts on this game. I'll be honest, if Steam allowed for a 'neutral' rating, I'd give it, but I feel that overall I'd recommend it in spite of some nagging issues.

Good:

-Intense gameplay. This is the closes to SWAT 4 I've played in a long time. Decision making has to be fast and every one is a gamble that could cost you or your buddies' life.
-Visuals are nice for the most part and (save for one thing which I'll mention later) it is easy to see what is going on.
-New weapons add some variety. Whilst I'd argue the automatic weapons (especially the MA41 assault rifle) are the meta, all the options are usable and add some variety that was desperately needed.
-Maybe I've finally taken enough 'git gud', but AI reactions don't seem as extreme as they were before. The terrorist enemies are the only ones who really give me grief as they move and shoot at the same time but I'd say it's forgivable considering they're supposed to be tough.

Meh:
-Can be punishingly difficult. If enemies spawn in a certain way, it is very possible to be swarmed by 3-4 bad guys, which is problematic considering you have to give each one a chance to surrender.
-Whilst user-made levels and customizable levels do add some content, the main game is still pretty brief (I clocked in at 4.5 hours and I believe that was on the long side compared to some users). How much this game holds your attention is going to be dependant on how much you're willing to replay the game to get better scores.
-Minor issue, but it is hard to see what walls are breachable, as it is really hard to see black cracks on a black-ish grey wall. The first time I found one was because a suspect shot at me through one (which was admittedly really exciting)

Bad:
-Again, some items aren't all that useful. Deployables like the flashbang, sensor grenade, and smoke grenade are essential to controlling rooms, whereas I honestly cannot tell you how helpful the foregrip is. I stand by that maybe inventory should be divided up someway (example, 3 grenades, 1 weapon attachment, 1 gadget (armor, lockpick, breaching charge)
-Story is still very messy, and comes across as a madlib of police show cliches.
-AI Partner could be better. He's got about a 50/50 chance of survivng a head on encounter with enemies, and won't even respond to being shot. He'll literally just stand still and let a guy spray his Uzi into his back instead of at least trying to turn around and shoot. Whilst you can order him to look in any direction, this is easier said than done when you're already dealing with a situation.

I do enjoy Police Stories much more, and it's good to see the Devs are still willing to improve it even after 2-ish years after release.

Pros:

-Energetic atmosphere due to creative visuals and great music
-Solid gameplay
-A fair amount of merit to multiple playthroughs. Perfectionist will love this game

Cons:

-Roughly an hour long campaign
-Visuals do get repetitive
-Feels like it could do with something extra for a gameplay. For example, having a single grenade to throw each level.
-I feel a level creator or a random level generator would give this game much broader appeal and a longer lifespan, which IMO are two things this game desperately needs.

The price is right at $10, and overall I'd give it a cautious recommend. It's not a bad game, just a game that has the potential to be so much more.

Longer Review : https://drywblog.wordpress.com/2018/01/07/high-hell-review/