Recent reviews by zbee

How does this not have control remapping?
Why are we going back to late 90s levels of settings?

There seem to be performance, memory leak, and crashing issues among my whole group, that absolutely need addressed (the settings I'm running should be giving me way more fps with any other game, etc) - but not enough that we haven't enjoyed ourselves.

This is the best Borderlands we've played, even with all having to restart at least twice over playing for a full day we have had an amazing time and I can't give this a negative review even given those issues.

I absolutely love what they have done with the ordinance system (though thusfar the grenades still seem to be king over the MGs or Launchers by a longshot).

my favorite competitive shooter of recent years, by far

I very much enjoyed the first Bokura, and was excited for this one to get the same concept but more polished.
It was a fun game, but it let me down in several ways.

- The new puzzles (the finger/baby ones) were much more complex (which: okay, fine, makes sense for more puzzles to be added and for some of those puzzles to be more complex, as the series goes on) but they also didn't make any sense at all, even though I'm the one that solved them: they just made so little sense, and it was so convoluted and tedious to find the solution (it just throws so much information and interact-ables at you all at once).
- The "private moments" were similar in quantity to the first game, but they built on each other this time, so the story was building up and building up and building up .... and then it ended with a sort of nothing ending.
- The story, similar to the first game, ended in a bit of a let down conclusion. That's okay, but paired with the above, it was an even bigger disappointment.

I understand from the first game's reviews that I may need to play this one again from the other perspective but ... I'm willing to try that for the first one, but not this one I don't think.

I hope to see another Bokura though! But I just don't think this entry is as good as the last.

I just don't feel the game is actually a "full release" or ready. It needs more time.

It can't decide if it's a casual game that fills lobbies that players leave, or a competitive game that has leaver penalties; this results in at least one person leaving almost every single game. And the bots are so incredibly awful that it's almost a guaranteed loss, or an incredibly un-fun win.
It doesn't even end the game early if the entire enemy team is bots.

And the first real patch after release being a nerf to a quarter of the guns just goes perfectly to show that they have no idea what they're doing.

Was a fun game to play with a friend, 100%.
The writing could be a bit better, and the flow over the course of the game isn't what I expected, but I was absolutely left excited for the next game.
Would recommend completely; May even play it again and make different choices throughout the story.

This game is fun and challenging, and one of the most beautiful games (if not thee most beautiful) I've ever played - almost as beautiful as it's insanely reasonable price.
I am so excited to keep playing through it.

yet another game with known massive issues still affecting people months and months after launch.
took hours, digging through forums, and contacting support to even get the game to start up.

I waited eagerly for this for a long while, and it did not disappoint

I am enjoying this game with my friends, but this doesn't feel like a complete game, and there are at least a few things that need fixed before I am willing to recommend it to anyone.
I was advising against this game, but I feel after the changes last night that I can recommend it, which I am very glad to do: I adore this franchise.

However, there is a marked shift towards combat, vs tower defense. This isn't a change I very much like but ... idk, I have been enjoying it.
Edit: Having reached max level now, this really primarily applies to the first mission of runs (sometimes), and early on in your levels - not so much after that.

There are a few pain points though:
- The barricade limit is not balanced correctly, even after the fix. When playing solo it now feels good, but playing with 2 or 3 people still feels like you don't have very good control over the map.
Edit: barricade limit feels perfectly appropriate now, especially with expensive extra barricades you can buy, more barricade threads, and the option to buy a permanent increase to barricade limit every wave - sounds like a lot, but still keeps it challenging, especially if you lean into corrupting threads.
- There are only a few maps, and (especially with there still being an issue with the amount of barricades you have access to) they are as hard as some of the toughest maps from previous games.
Edit: I still think there is a lower percentage of maps I actually enjoy vs the other games in the franchise, but it has gotten much better as they add more maps.