Recent reviews by Derp

Four big issues that were apparent within the first few hours of play:
1. You CANNOT import progress from other platforms. Zero recourse or even a couple of early-unlock guns or something as compensation.
2. Punkbuster, dinosaur-age anticheat, is required to play. It did not install correctly along with the game despite it assuring it very well did, so you have to re-download it off of their website, manually re-install it, open access to it in the firewall settings, and only then does it actually start working.
3. Sometimes when you try to join a server... you just can't. It doesn't load. But it doesn't crash either. You have to close out the game in task manager and restart it because ALT+F4 was disabled for the app.
4. Actively requires origin to be running when playing the game, please stop trying to get me to buy Anthem, Andrew Ryan... I bought the C&C collection from you years ago on dicsount and that's all you get...

Best few dollars of software I ever spent

Remember when video games used to be about fun? When hacks like Neil Druckmann who "wAnTeD tO tElL aN eMoTiOnAl StOrY" were laughed at? Where the concern of the developers was not raking in millions from horse armor or lootboxes, but making an enjoyable game? Before the repetitive battle royales, before the needlessly large and empty ""open worlds""?

Just so you know- of all the AAA games released this year, only one, Hi-Fi rush, was actually new IP? Everything else is either a "sequel" (despite being almost exactly the same game) or a "remaster" (that upscale to 1080p and downgrade of textures? 70$ please!). The games industry has been in the gutter for years, and it's at its worst point in a long time today. Once legendary studios like Nintendo, Square Enix and Activision have done nothing but make the same games they made years ago over and over again, somehow making it worse each time despite barely breaking from the same formula each time. But games like Dave the Diver give me hope that video gaming still has some life in it.

This game is a strong reminder of what the games industry should be doing, and is a possible GOTY contender. It is a great game to play, and nothing less. You go diving to collect fish and explore underseas ruins, and then run your sushi restauraunt afterwards. It's a very engaging, enjoyable experience where it feels like the developers had a genuine passion for making the game, and invested their body, mind, and soul into making this game as great as it is. For only 20 USD, this game is a steal. Absolutely incredible, this is a VIDEO GAME.

TLDR: Game on its own would be 6/10, but it's got a bad case of sequel-itis. As in "Ok, everyone agrees that we should make a sequel, but how are we going to make it meaningfully different?" and nobody answered it for the rest of development. Play a different XCOM.

In depth: XCOM 2 is an alright sequel to the 2013 reboot in Enemy Unknown. As a hardcore fan of the XCOM games I enjoyed it alongside the classics like OpenXCOM and Apocalypse. Where Enemy Unknown brought back the franchise from the grave with innovations in design that retained most of the classic's difficulty while making it palatable for a general audience, whereas XCOM 2 only improves upon Enemy Unknown with a couple of gameplay changes and slightly better graphics.

XCOM 2 improved from EU/EW in...
Graphical fidelity increased
QOL enhancements and there

XCOM 2 downgraded from EU/EW in...

---The plot fundamentally changes but the gameplay is the same formula
You're supposed to be fighting a guerilla resistance campaign against a superior enemy, yet you're dispatching rapid response teams and flying across the world in your mega airship, with professional researchers and engineers like it's EU. Even the ""covert operations"" which are the one things an actual resistance would realistically do aren't even played, you just assign soldiers to them and they do it. There is no infiltration or spying on the enemy, no hit and run attacks, no roadside bombs or opprotunistically looting/stealing enemy equipment as a main source of weapons. The only semblance of ideological warfare you carry out is making dumb recruiting posters. Every character acts like you're "on the run, hiding in the shadows" but you're not.

---The game starts hard and then gets extremely easy
The first few missions of the game are pretty tough, but as you research and unlock more stuff the game becomes a joke. Bluescreen rounds, frost grenades, the abilities from ranking up, etc etc, even after a few months in game you become unstoppable and can only be put down by bad RNG.

---Too much focus on overpowered 'hero' abilities
While EU/EW had impactful and relatively grounded special abilities, in XCOM 2 the entire game is built around abusing the OP marvel superhero ability crap, and the enemies focus on using a lot of abilities too. Instead of combat being "throw smoke grenade to help protect a push" or "position my units in effective cover and sightlines so they can get good firing angles" it is now "use OP ability on soldier 1, then combo it with OP ability on soldier 2..."

---They go overboard on timers in the base game, but then overcorrect and make them way too easy with all dlc
While adding incentives like the meld timers in EW was a step in the right direction, XCOM 2 buys the whole clock store and even the smallest of missions are tightly timed, but then with all the DLC stuff like covert operations and faction orders the turn timers that remain on a small fraction of the missions are now a joke

---Even dumber 'Base Development'
While EU/EW was a dramatic casualization of the classic's custom base design, XCOM 2 is even worse because you can just magically get more power/contact slots/etc without having to build new facilities by scanning, making it even more of a joke to handle

---Significantly worse art design and theming
In EU/EW, all of the aliens felt like they were a combined, hostile force, whereas in XCOM 2 they don't look as good and are nowhere near as cohesive with each other's designs. And ADVENT has none of the mysteriousness of the original invasion, even with the Avatar project going on, they still feel like generic bad guy empire.

---Ridiculous load times
While not as bad as on launch, the load times are still way too much even after the devs updated the game

---They added a really dumb plot to the game
UFO Defense, Apocalypse, EU/EW, all have a great, simple plot. The alien invaders are coming, we must save humanity and take them down. But in XCOM 2 there's some sort of pretentious story going on it seems, you have visions of some alien leader going "Oh commander.. you are ultimate life form... my alien empire getting destroyed by you is actually a part of my master plan!". Why? UFO: Aftermath had a meatier plot than most games in the genre, and it was excellent. So it's not like they couldn't have added a good plot

Could not play the game at all. It required an anticheat, which would refuse to install despite reinstalling game/verifying cache/restarting steam/computer, nothing worked and the game refused to let me play. After trying to get support, I asked for help on the official discord, where they told me to install Linux "windummy" after I mentioned my system was running Win10 LTSC.

TLDR: Many improvements over the previous Rule The Waves but not $40 worth of them. Game's biggest issue is that the UI and QOL overall hasn't changed at all, and it remains terrible to use. Dropdown menus galore, some tooltips are unclear and some important buttons or statistics don't even have tooltips, You can't even resize the ridiculously tiny text, etc etc. Maybe in 5 years at the glacial pace of current updates they will fix a few of these but I suggest against purchasing.

Full Review
Rule The Waves 3 is a naval warfare simulation on spreadsheets with depth of simulation unmatched by any other software in the world. I like the game, and while it does have some improvements over Rule The Waves 3, there are still various areas which sorely need devtime in, especially with the GUI as a whole.

STORY: You make your own story. Put yourselves in the shoe of an admiral and then weave your own tale of heroics, death, and destruction.

GAMEPLAY: What do you actually do in this game? Pick a starting date (1890, 1900, 1920, 1935), pick one of eight major powers of the time, and then you're the chief admiral of that country until 1970, unless you resign early or get fired.

You manage your research budget and priorities, manage doctrine surrounding training and ammunition, and of course, design and order new ships at your behest. One of the coolest parts of the game second to the actual naval combat, I really like it. And if you don't want to bother with the at times still annoying and hard to use visual editor, just click "Computer Generate" but then adjust the tonnage/engine/armor/guns/ammo to something you actually want. Do you put 13 inch guns on your battleship instead of 12, but have to reduce the engine speed down 2 knots? Would you remove one of two guns on your destroyer class to add another torpedo mount? Do you add some extra armor to the aircraft carrier's hanger, but have to reduce your CIWS capability to keep the ship afloat? Many important decisions that are all up to you to effectively plan and carry out carry out.

You pass turns (1 month = 1 turn) and events requiring a decision from you happen frequently. Maybe the Kaiser demands you build an additional 2 battleships because he read a newspaper article about the new French battleships and is scared to death. Do you accept his demand as a faithful servant of the government, increasing your prestige? Maybe compromise and say you can only build 1 battleship? Or do you publicly lash out at this demand, losing both budget and prestige in the process, but not being bound to it. Perhaps one day the President makes a foreign policy gaffe and you are interviewed to smooth things over. Do you make a bland apology statement and lose prestige? Do you refuse to undercut their authority, gaining prestige but increasing tensions? Or do you change the subject and go on a tirade against how much you hate *that* one country and should renovate their capital into a parking lot, gaining great prestige, an increased budget from a thankful head of state, but massively inflamed tensions that could break out into war? It's all up to you!

But what is prestige? Well, think of it as your coolness factor. In the future, will people remember you as a lily-livered coward who barely fought any wars and suggested social reforms instead of funding the navy? Or will you be the gigachad admiral who railed against Italian oppression every chance he got and won major naval battles (in numerous wars that *you* started?) You also gain prestige from major victories in any naval battles. It has very little impact on gameplay, if it drops too low you are fired, but come on. You're supposed to LARP as an admiral in this game. You're not going to get an aircraft carrier named after you, Grand Admiral of the United States John Cheeseburger, unless you bomb the Russian navy a few times! And how will you be portrayed in your countries school textbooks long after you retire, His Majesty's Fleet Admiral Sir Williamson-on-way, Duke of Bumstown, the XII? Embrace the larp. You'll love it, trust me.

Now, the actual naval combat itself is awesome. The hard work you've put into managing your research, your doctrine, your officer corps (a new addition in RTW3!), your fleet composition and their designs, are all put to the test. The game by default gives you a "rear admiral" level of command, you can order ships to steer a certain heading, change speed, fire on this target instead of that target within range, and retask one group from this role to another role. It's the best way of playing in my opinion. You can turn it down to Captain's mode, where you gain significantly more control over your ships, but at that point you're not really an admiral anymore are you? That, and you recieve a larger penalty to Victory Points (VP) which is jus the games way of scoring how well you did in a battle. You want to complete objectives and sink enemy ships, while avoid losing your own, to maximize your VP in comparison to the enemy and win a favorable peace treaty.

Overall, this game is extremely in depth (pun intended) and I love it, but it still does have some issues that I had hoped were going to be fixed from RTW2. Let me begin by saying this game is 100% bug free. Yet to encounter even one. However, it's still got some problems.

THE ISSUES: The first, and biggest issue I have is the poorly made GUI. I'm not taking issue with the fact the game is one giant spreadsheet- that's exactly what makes this game great and allows it to be so accurate of a simulation. The complexity is a necessity. The spreadsheet interface is integral to the experience. What I take issue with is the terrible ease of use- you can't even rescale the text! Let alone resize any other interface elements, change the color palette, detach parts of it into seperate windows from the game itself, or even a basic color blind mode! The game should look like a spreadsheet, but it's no excuse for downright awful, decades behind the times accessibility options. I have real trouble reading the text sometimes, and I'm a hardcore gamer, it's so damn small! This is by far the worst issue the game faces.

The ship visual designer has been improved a lot, and while I find it somewhat easier to use, for newcomers to the Rule The Waves series I see a lot of people complaining about how hard it is to use. I can absolutely see where they're coming from- considering that half the time I don't bother with it, hit auto-generate design, and then adjust the rest of the elements of the ship to my liking. I'm subconciously dodging the ship visual editor because it's a bit of a chore to use. It's been improved over RTW2, yes, but it still needs a little bit more work.

And part of my complaints about the UI is that the game needs a fair amount more tooltips. This is another thing I've seen complaints about myself- as a RTW veteran I know that auto-loaders for my cannons don't exist in 1920, and that's why the option is greyed out. To someone who doesn't know the intricacies of every single naval research development and approximately when they happened, they wouldn't understand this. That's just one example- there are a lot of tooltips, but a sizable amount of elements still don't have them, and some are less than helpful

THE END: Same as the TLDR- if you're into this sorta game, it's great, but is absolutely crippled by the devs refusal to increase the ease of use of the interface. "You want to be able to shift/control click to select multiple things at once? Must be a braindead zoomer!"

Everyone likes to make a "haha le PTSD!" joke but the game is unenjoyable, and I would highly recommend you stay away from it even if you're a fan of top-down tactical like stuff, or into the logistics.

If you wanna play shooty shooty soldier combat:
---> Man, being a foot soldier sure is great. The combat between individual soldiers is actually great, but when fortifications are built en masse and you have a line of almost impenetrable AI bunkers and weapons between you and the enemy, half the time you're not even dying to another player but some AI structure they spammed.
---> Tired of foot soldier gameplay? Good luck playing with a vehicle, it will take you hours to build one solo, a long time if you have friends. Doesn't matter because a clan member will come along and steal/blow up/disable it for your mere existence
---> Once you go back to walking around everywhere, realize that the players IN vehicles are also on the enemy team, but you don't have any anti tank ammo (a clan on the opposing side bought multiple alternate accounts to steal and dump vital war materials wherever they're attacking)

Well, what about "logistics"? I heard you can play trucker or miner simulator and help the war effort!
---> Want to "play" logistics? Sorry buddy, most of the basic material mines near the front are already depleted, and the advanced materials that only respawns a few times a day is hogged by clan players (who will shoot you if you are trying to collect some)
---> If you do in fact manage to manufacture some guns or something, enjoy a smooth ride in the supply truck to the frontlines, where the greatest threat isn't even partisans hiding in wait to attack you (although yes, that does happen), but the horrible traffic when a clan tank group is lounging around far behind the front and one of them shoots you because they "thought you were a spy" (real quote)
---> Anything you manufacture outside of basic guns, respawn tickets and medical supplies will be wasted too fast to be used by actual players, by either the aforementioned clan alt accounts or someone who will take six gas grenades and immediately walk into the enemy machine gun fire

Hmmm... maybe I should join a clan! They get to have all the coordinated attacks and build bases!
---> Welcome to hell
---> Every public clan requires you to join their Discord and depending on the flavor, it will either be a group of hardcore neo-nazis, 11 year old children, insane sjw's, and straight up child groomers (none of these four are mutually exclusive)
---> No, seriously. There have been multiple cases in the past of Foxhole clans with numerous pedophiles in the high-ranks, openly grooming children on their Discord servers and even worse, many of whom are still in the clan community today (search it up)
---> There was a period where the only thing you would see in chat for months was people saying variations of "I drink ♥♥♥" (I have no idea if it still happens, I last played the game over a year ago) and this wasn't even limited to clans. This was in the global, in game chat, and the developers did nothing.
---> Is your clan looking stable and relatively sane for now? Sorry buddy, but there is some Discord drama between members and... oops... there goes the clan.
---> The majority of big things happening in Foxhole are determined by the clans. Where pushes happen, where defenses are built and held, so on and so forth. The issue is that some clans will just abandon the war effort in favor of either building some mega-base 50 miles behind the front, or planning some naval invasion 50 miles ahead of it. Nine times out of ten, these are pointless and have no impact on the war. Except for drawing massive stockpiles of resources that people actually fighting on the frontlines could use, y'know.

One last thing.
---> The game has asymmetric factions. No, I'm not just talking about how they have different visuals. Both factions have their own version of almost every gun, equipment, and vehicle. This is never, ever, balanced. Faction A complains about Faction B having OP gear. The next update arrives, there is either a nerf to their stuff, or Faction A gets some new gear. Faction B now complains about Faction A being OP, and the cycle repeats itself ad infinitum.

The game really had potential. It still does. Developers just don't know what they're doing besides adding "moar content!", not really fixing any core issues of the game.

The first 6 hours was actually the game running in background because I started it up and immediately forgot about it. The next 10 hours was me playing and beating the game. Literally exactly ten. My final save file was 9:55:13 on the "Blocky Spiral Staircase", which you'll know what it means when you get to it. You can probably beat my time. I'll probably replay the game. The review follows.

Pros:
- The "Cyber Module" system which is basically just XP but its rarity encourages you to specialize into a certain area of stats/skills, requiring critical thinking, makes the character feel more like your character, and gives you a bit of satisfaction when your certain expertise does something that other builds lacking them can't. Since they can only be obtained by completing objectives or finding them in levels, it encourages you to fully explore (and witness) them, immersing you in the game more.
- All killer, no filler. Unlike other RPG games, there's absolutely zero grinding for anything whatsoever. (Looking at you, Skyrim). May be a con if you're into grinding.
- The story isn't exactly legendary, but still provides great context for what you're doing. You're cast in a battle between two extremes of a (non-political) ideology as the moderator, which makes you yourself rethink about how you determine between two extremes of any ideology outside of the game. The twist is surprising and foreshadowed just enough for you to start questioning the thing it twists, and unlike a very cold movie from the richest movie/tv company/trash heap from the U.S.A., the twist actually makes sense and contributes to the story. One of the two opposing extremes has a villain that very iconic, and also really good at being a villain in general.
- The short length of the game (took me 10 hours) compliments the stat/skill building system by encouraging replayability to check out what the other branches have to offer, allowed the developers to make good levels instead of stupidly long levels (Cough Cough, Skyrim), allows for almost anyone with the smallest amount of free time to complete the game and gain as much satisfaction as a longer game (♥♥♥♥ you, Skyrim.)
- Apparently it has plenty of mod support, specifically for fan-made levels, but I wouldn't know much about it. The most experience I've had modding is putting limewired Backstreet Boys MP3's in my GTA:SA user files track.
- The game has a die-hard cult community that is still apparently making mods (even 21 years after its release) which is pretty insane. I can't wait to try some fan-made levels myself.
- I didn't encounter any glitches in my playthrough suprisingly, for a 1999 game. However, I did see the occasional rare murmur about one on a few videos I watched before, during, and after I started the game, but you'll probably be fine.
- Literally a Acer laptop (Fun fact: Acer used to be E-Machines, crazy right?) can run this game. I know this because I used one to play this.
- The audio is spectacular particularly for the voice work and music, while the sound effects such as firing a gun or sucsessfully hacking something get stale after a while.
- I've mentioned this multiple times before, but the level design is pretty awesome. The over game is somehow seem way less linear than it actually is. I don't know how they do this. Also, looking everywhere is rewarding in both cyber modules and other items.

Cons:
- 1999 Graphics
- The combat, specifically the guns are a bit janky, and sometimes melee devolves from well timed movement parries to circle-strafing. The game limits your non-energy weapon ammo a bit too much to make the shooty-shooty part of the tree feel restrained in reaching its full capability. The rare two times in the game I went whole-hog using my reserves felt greater mainly due to the spectacle and damage output rather than the careful stockpiling I had done for so long.
- A couple of times during the game I had that Doom or Half-life moment where I didn't know what I had to do to advance or just wasted time looking for a story object I already passed, which can be remedied if you have a good guide on your phone next to you. (My advice: Use the gamefaqs one.) This is one place that the level design occasionally faltered in like with any 1990's action-adventure such as searching for keycards in DOOM or the next thing you need to do in Half-life
- The controls and interface, while not disgusting and horriffic like the original 1994 System Shock (which didn't even have MOUSELOOK!?!?!) are still too complicated to be put on any gamepad. A mouse and keyboard are the only way to play it.

Overall, worth the price if you can overlook the graphics, and a must-grab if you're already into Bioshock/Deus Ex/Prey kinds of games.

Cobra is not broken. If you ban it you suck

The game is poorly optimized for lower-spec computers, and it shows. Even if I could still run the game well, I'd regret buying it- from the looks of the other reviews, people only get about 15~ hours of enjoyment out of the game, and I can see why.

The game looks amazing- I'm sure you can have fun scrounging for every last hypnocoin, but alas, you can only get so much enjoyment out of it. I'd only reccomend it to you on sale- 7.5$ is the maximum amount I'd pay, as 15 hours is nowhere near enough enjoyment for a game this high of a price. Managed to refund, thankfully.

There are plenty of other great games you can flush 20$ for- Hitman: Blood Money, which you can get 60+ hours exploring the nooks and crannies and different ways to assassinate people (except for the tutorial, which sucks ass, but its pretty good other than that- also, they have a potato mode which is hilarious and the game still runs fine even without it, search up on youtube "Hitman blood money potato modification" and look for one of those text on a background videos), or maybe Rise of Nations, an amazing strategy game from 2003 with strategically deep "Conquer the World" campaigns and high customizability, moddability, and multiplayer-ility as it can have up to 8 players in a single match, along with a smart AI that may even provide a challenge for you on Tough (the difficulty above normal). Or maybe even, you could play a true classic- one that really beckons the olden age moreso than this game, Uplink: Hacker Elite. It's only 10$ and it's amazing as the day they released it in 2001. Perhaps comedy is moreso your style- you can try West of Loathing! It's a very funny RPG, although easy, it does have a fair bit of content for it's price- doing things like recontaining Roberto or visiting a haunted pickle factory make the game very light hearted and entertaining.

To finish off my review, I leave you with this quote:

"In order to get started, you'll need to get started."
- cs188, "ITS ALL RIGHT HERE AT YOUR FINGERTITS"