Recent reviews by Karl Carrios

Get the community made Half Life 2:Update for free on steam to better enjoy the game that started it all for Valve.

Without mods:

Generic adventurer and hoarder begins the Final Solution on Dragons, with dragon shouts and enchanted weaponry. Generic adventurer/hoarder denies abuse of save files, abuse of console commands, usage of buckets on merchants or being a bloodthirsty werewolf who cannibalized thousands.

With mods:

Time traveller from the future armed with assualt rifles, ridiculously overpowered but skimpy armors begins a genocide of the locals, burning and looting. Along with a magical mushroom companion, an undying shadow horse and what seems like infinite amounts of ammunition, stop Thomas The Tank Engines from laying waste to Skyrim before you do.

It's nice to see some semblance of humanity left in OVK, giving this DLC free for owners of the old DLC from PD:TH. I got this DLC free, but I feel the DLC's content is kinda mediocre.

-Heists

With PD2's rather barebones and frustrating stealth mechanics, I'm more than happy to get 2 loud-only heists: if your looking for stealth heists you wont find it here.

Counterfeit, one of my favourite heists from PD:TH, feels average. Fighting hordes of cops in pleasant suburbia holds a lot of appeal, but when only Captain Winters can make DW challenging, it feels dull once you know the heist basics and got an all-rounded team. A ramped up cop spawn will probably fix it to suit PD2's ramped up power for players. Music feels bland, even during assualt.Otherwise, its basically Counterfeit PD:TH:Graphics and Gameplay update.

It seems Undercover suffers from the same problem. No Winters, and the cops are basically target practice, even on DW. Fighting in narrow corridors and stairs in a decrepit apartment building could be epic, a desperate fight for survival as you get a corrupt taxman to transfer 25 million dollars to your bank account. Board up vents, windows, anything to stop the flow of cops. However, with PD2's weaponry, skills, perks and armor, only 'The Diamond' level of cop spawn could achieve this effect. Music is better than Counterfeit though. Snipers are Hotline Miami levels of lethal, but with so much cover its hardly an issue. Other than that, again, its Undercover:PD:TH:Graphics and Gameplay Update.

Basically, more cops and the heists will feel much more lively. XP and cash are kinda low for both, and even with infamy boosts and DW, i barely got a million XP. Still, by infamy lvl 5, these dont really matter, so im willing to overlook it. Since the heist goes through exactly the same motions as PD:TH, theres no remarkable new game mechanic or setpieces to spice the heists up.

-Weaponry
Yet another melee weapon. Moving on, we get a nade launcher, which I got fond memories of from PD:TH for launching merry ragdolls into the air. However, since we already got nade launchers, I feel not enough was done to modify it, or at least give it a decent reskin. It feels lazily done, IMO. 3 mods, 1 locked behind the BBQ DLC pack paywall, and the usual stat boosts, so not a lot to spice the weapon up.

-Masks
Whoopty-♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ do. We got hundreds already, more than the endless stream of useless melee weapons. We cant see our masks in game during a heist, and most patterns, colour and materials clash horribly, and few combinations can make a attractive mask. At least melee weapons can extract some amusement by whacking a cop to death.

-Conclusion
Basically, a average DLC that with several cop spawn tweeks, could be fun. However, at 7.50 for people who didnt get it for free, I advise to stay away from it unless a serious discount is available, like during the regular steam sales.

Satisfying and visceral gore and gibs, hard hitting melee mechanics, hordes of gray people whose only defense against groups of crazed, gun wielding, drug popping maniacs is to....slap them. Hard. Like ridiculously hard. Thers also special infected to provide more challenge, with different sound and speech signals, different body silhouettes, and heavy damage dealing potential.

Unless you got a horror mod [easily available in glorious steam workshop], this is honestly a linear zombie killing gallery of getting from safehouse to safehouse through different environments.

The story is short or non existent, though the chracters are willing to offer many humerous side quips. Yeah...not really into any narrative focus here.

Nicely varied, with some interesting set pieces, and if you dont like any aspects of this game, its time to introduce the mods, the only thing pumping in embalming fluid thats keep this game alive. Glory for Steam Workshop.

You get exactly what it says on the tin:



- A completely F2P multiplayer FPS with no microtransactions.

- Skill based combat, no run and gun. There IS knife and kick however, so you better learn to headshot fast.

- Quite a lot of maps.

- Runs well even for Potatoes.

- Bots to ♥♥♥♥ you over or give easy headshots on offline mode, your choice.



As well as other features:



- A community currently too small to start ideological conflicts over.

- Few populated servers :c

- Regular updates.


A multiplayer F2P game done right in every possible way.

Hoarded ridiculous amounts of junk across the wasteland.

*You can only carry 75*

Que 15 minutes of stuffing everything I had into base lockers.

Embarked on a journey to trade with some religious people.

Got killed by tribesmen.

Brung along power armor.

Embarked on a journey to trade stuff.

Punched inferior tribesmen in the face.

Realised I had the most OP armor in Utah.

Looted sniper rifles and shishkebabs from inferior tribesmen.

Looted, burnt and pillaged my way across Utah to my heart's content.

TL:DR Become a god if you bring the right gear.

I like it, but I ain't gonna let it's flaws escape my attention.

+Graphics are...meh at best, though there are mods to remedy this, Runs smoothly though due to this.

+Fast leveling and progression system that works well. You know, starting off like a dead fish and ending the game as Megalodon. Caps can be earned at a decent rate to buy great weapons, or you can search the wasteland for unique and kickass armor and weaponry. You have to choose carefully which skills and perks to invest in the early game for better progression, though by the end you can invest in everything.

+VATS still works well, freezing time, allowing you to scout out enemies and decide who dies in what order.

+-Slow-mo kills are a mixed bag. Sometimes the head flies awesomely into the air, sometimes it just focuses on a body lying limp on a floor for several seconds.

+Your decisions actually have an impact.You CAN run around and kill everybody, BUT you lose assess to quests that provide loot and XP. Likewise with choosing a faction to support. You want the NCR faction to take over New Vegas? Legion hit squads would like a word with you. And your barred from Legion quests and areas.

+Reputation is a nice feature. Build up rep with a faction, get quests and xp. Unfortunately, that usually comes at a cost to another faction's rep. See above.

+Mods. Change companions, add new locations, enemies, change gameplay mechanics. Download enough mods and you can never play Vanilla F:NV again.

+-Voice actors range from incredible to ear-rape to laughable.

+- Customization is decent, though I wish there were more clothing, colour and body options.

+- Combat works, but it aint great, since your gonna have to loot bodies for ammuntion and continously freeze time with your PIP-Boy to eat some health items. It breaks the flow of combat.

-Bugs and Crashes by the truckload. Mods can cut down but not fix the problem. Personally I found that I end my play sessions less to quitting than to saying "**** this" when the game hangs.Again. In the middle of an important and difficult quest.

-Asian faces are awful. Once again, mods to the rescue.

-Navigation system is a compass arrow when you got a quest. Thats it. Also, the compass does not provide which bloody level your supposed to go or how your supposed to bypass a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mountain range or a bloody great wall.

Say to yourself you will never spend money on some dumb cosmetics.

Experience peer pressure and the general vibe that you are a unwanted F2P noob.

Get killed. A lot.

Spend cash on some keys.

Spend even more cash.

Make blood sacrifices to Lord Gaben for good team compositions.

Sacrifice your wallet for good hats.

Sacrifice your humanity for shiny guns.

Sacrifice your life and wallet, bank account and related money-holding properties to Lord Gaben, our holy savior and RNG god, smiting those unbelievers with autobalance.

Develop a hatred for civilizations you have never heard of, along with their nationality.
Develop a hatred for long aircraft bombing animations.
Develop a hatred of Gandhi.
Develop a hatred of others trying to snatch your city state cash cows. I mean allies.

Then realise there are nukes, nuclear submarines and the Gabe Newell Mod in the game for spamming hordes of units against your foes.

10/10 nukes descending on Istanbul.

What the trailer claims about the story:

In this tropical hellhole with ridiculous amounts of things to explode, you are sent in to eliminate Tom Sheldon, your formal mentor who is suspected to have gone rogue. Former friends and allies cannot be trusted.

What actually happens:
After 2 tutorial missions, you find out Tom Sheldon was simply in deep undercover, and that your employer, "The Agency", is dumb as ♥♥♥♥. Anybody working with "The Agency" is 100 percent trustworthy.

But you didnt come to this years old game just for a story. You probably came here cause your too poor for GTA5 or your computer cant handle it. Rest assured, JC2 has your murderous, destruction loving and civvie ramming urges satisfied. In the end, you nuke Panau in a climatic boss fight, shooting the generic dictator while taking cover behind a nuclear missile streaking for Murica.