So yeah, shit when down during this years crimefest, where overkill in their infinite fucking wisdom decided that adding micro-transactions was a good thing to do. This pissed people off for three main reasons.
1. They lied about including them, and their forum mods handles the criticisms poorly
2. Their current business model means that they are now raking it in
3. They added it during an annual community event
This is my take on those three:
1. Way back when Almir said that Payday 2 would never have micro transactions, and up until recently that seemed to be the case. Then they added them and the community went to shit. First there was feelings of betrayal, which seeing as Payday is "a community driven game", was to be expected, considering that the micro-transactions turned the game into "CounterPay DayStike 2", and the skins added in the safes changed stats, building on the already pay2win nature of the game with the countless DLC's. Then when the community of the "community driven game" responded badly, they didn't get listened to, they got silenced by moderators who wouldn't allow Overkill to get criticised for a blatant stab in the back.
2. Many of the successful games on steam run on a combination of 3 different models.
- Free, with Micro-transactions.
- Paid with DLC.
- Paid with Micro-transactions.
Take Team Fortress 2 for example, the game is free to play, with no DLC and then Micro-Transactions being tacked on. Originally you had to buy it. Then they added in the Mann-conomy and they made it F2P, but also gave a free item to the players who bought the game, and gave them an "trader" status as they had invested some money. People were not annoyed by this as they were compensated and free players had to make a transaction in the store to get the ability to trade.
AND ALSO ALL MAPS, WEAPONS, CLASSES, CONTENT ARE FREE.
Payday 2 is now a Paid game, with DLC, that restricts play, i.e not just new masks.etc, but actually locks maps, weapons, most of which are terrible, but then there are some which are really OP and very useful, and perk decks. and as of Crime fest, Micro transactions. Now adding them was a pretty stupid move, but then adding skins which increased the stats of weapons was just pure un-bridled dumb-fuckery.
3. It was just awfully timed. It was like telling someone they had inoperable cancer while they were out celebrating their birthday.
TL;DR Summed up into three reasons. Betrayal of the community, Fucking stupid business model, bad timing.
I mean there has to be some sense in what im saying. The player base has dropped by over two thirds since the introduction of Micro-Transactions. Also the reddit forum moderators have refused to work now, annnd the top sub-reddit on the PAYDAY 2 reddit is named "Fuck you Overkill"
Dan.
Monday, 9 November 2015
Friday, 23 October 2015
Magicka 2, Episode 2: Attack of the Spell Balance Beta.
Yes, I am alive, I'm just A) Lazy, and B) Pinned under mountains of A-level work, hence the lack of reviews, but onwards to 5 minutes of your life your never getting back...
For any of this gobshite to make sense you need , in fact need is abit strong, I recommended that you read this : http://lvlupreviews.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/magicka-2-i-learned-to-spell-again-very.html
So as those of you who are unfortunate enough to read my
reviews, y’all may know that I have a slight distaste for Magicka 2, slight
being a massive understatement, as left me with a massive sense of disappointment and a feeling of resentment towards pre-ordering, only recently cured by XCOM 2.For any of this gobshite to make sense you need , in fact need is abit strong, I recommended that you read this : http://lvlupreviews.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/magicka-2-i-learned-to-spell-again-very.html
But all my bitching and whining is now irrelevant, well not irrelevant, but less justified. As far as the base game which was delivered unto my arms like a ugly new-born goes, it still dislike it. But now the baby has had extensive cosmetic surgery and is now looking and feeling a lot better.
They fixed the issue where elements wouldn't combine to make one element (e.g Fire/Water to steam) and also apologised by adding a new combo element, Poison (Death and Water). This has made me a very very happy person indeed. As a result they scaled the enemies, but I don't care, as now I feel like that Overpowered red robed psychopath from the first game. Weapon enchantments actually do something and actually can hit your enemies and do quite significant damage, unlike the first game where you might as well have tried to batter them with a sachet of Ketchup for what it was worth.
After giving it some time the moving while casting has actually grown on me, and combinations from the first game that cheese'd enemies now cheese them slightly less. The Steam and lightning combo has been balanced, which means its useful against crowds, but useless against single targets.
The devs listened to the annoyed people, and instead of silencing their criticisms, they responded, and have as a result fixed their , not broken, but damaged game. They have returned it to what made the first game great and then made this game good. It will by no means ever be better than the first iteration of hotdog wielding robed lunatics kill each other with magic, but god damn it ALOT better, to the point where I will 100% it, because its fun now, and I am an achievement whore.
REVISED LEVEL: 8-9/10
Commendations for the Devs.
Game link : http://store.steampowered.com/app/238370/
Dan.
Sunday, 4 October 2015
Dishonored: Blink and you'll miss it.
Nearly another month has gone by, and i'm still here, I think monthly reviews will suit me better as it will give me time to play something, but yeah ill see.
Dishonored is from Bethesda, REVIEW DONE 10/10 FINISHED LETS GO HOME
Where to start?
Well the initial mission pisses me off. Its a lot of standing around and doing nothing, some stuff about this plague bollocks, then a short fight, before you are forced to watch your boss die and her kid abducted, before you get accused for it, hence the "Dishonored" title. It annoys me more because i feel like i have failed before i've even begun playing. The story however is immaculate and really well thought out, throwing a few twists in that even threw me, and it was good, because it allowed me to actually get invested in the storyline.
The way in which the world is effected by how you play is also a very nice addition, if you kill more people, then the plague spreads, if you don't kill alot of people and instead knock them out or just plain avoid them, the plague doesn't spread. All the missions up until you defeat the High overseer require the target to be assassinated or , now this is where i LOVE this game, neutralized in a non-lethal fashion, This means that you can complete the game without killing anyone. Its really clever, the way in which it effects the endings actually makes a difference, as the percentage of death leads to High, Low and Medium Chaos endings, meaning its ether a peaceful final level, a slightly less peaceful final level or a complete an utter bloodbath where you come out the other side looking like you have taken a holiday inside a woman on her period. The three endings are unique and actually made me do a second play through, something which not many games have ever made me do.
The mechanics of Stealth, Magic and Metal, are really well implemented, the Magic given to you by the Outsider allows you to teleport amongst other things. The "metal" is your basic combat gear of a sword, pistol, crossbow and various traps means you can combine them with "Magic" to be efficiently lethal. The stealth system is good, working off the principle of 'don't be seen', however the crouching when you sneak did cause me to sever more legs than the average Alton towers roller coaster.
The graphics are nice, on the highest setting they really do put some strain on your system, and they look amazing, Motion blur is in this game but its tastefully done, and its understandable as sometimes you are moving insanely fast, i.e 10ft in a second, and it doens't overwhelm you, so you can still feesably fight while moving insanely quick.
Audio is good, however some of the sounds,do sound like they were recorded down a corridor, and if you use a lower end sound transmitter, you will notice the difference, however its nothing that effects the game too badly, so its not really a "BOOO HATE IT" and more of a "Meh, could be better".
Controls are good, Left for attack with Sword, CTRL for crouch, Right for Magic/Shooting, WASD/Space to move. Typical movement format and well implemented combat controls make this game very easy to learn to play, but insanely hard to master.
If i have one major complaint about it, its that its so damn short. Without the two DLC's i easily completed this in 5hrs, getting most of the collectibles and upgrades. I supposed playing on "I WANT YOUR FUCKING SOUL FOR BREAKFAST" difficulty will make it longer, and trying to stealth it would also do that, but i still can help feeling that a midget would be longer.
Overall its very deserving of the overwhelmingly positive it has on steam, and its another good game,but its got little to no replay-ability after the second time, and the DLC's are quite expensive, hopefully they go on sale soon.
Link: http://store.steampowered.com/app/205100
Level: 8/10
Dan
Dishonored is from Bethesda, REVIEW DONE 10/10 FINISHED LETS GO HOME
Where to start?
Well the initial mission pisses me off. Its a lot of standing around and doing nothing, some stuff about this plague bollocks, then a short fight, before you are forced to watch your boss die and her kid abducted, before you get accused for it, hence the "Dishonored" title. It annoys me more because i feel like i have failed before i've even begun playing. The story however is immaculate and really well thought out, throwing a few twists in that even threw me, and it was good, because it allowed me to actually get invested in the storyline.
The way in which the world is effected by how you play is also a very nice addition, if you kill more people, then the plague spreads, if you don't kill alot of people and instead knock them out or just plain avoid them, the plague doesn't spread. All the missions up until you defeat the High overseer require the target to be assassinated or , now this is where i LOVE this game, neutralized in a non-lethal fashion, This means that you can complete the game without killing anyone. Its really clever, the way in which it effects the endings actually makes a difference, as the percentage of death leads to High, Low and Medium Chaos endings, meaning its ether a peaceful final level, a slightly less peaceful final level or a complete an utter bloodbath where you come out the other side looking like you have taken a holiday inside a woman on her period. The three endings are unique and actually made me do a second play through, something which not many games have ever made me do.
The mechanics of Stealth, Magic and Metal, are really well implemented, the Magic given to you by the Outsider allows you to teleport amongst other things. The "metal" is your basic combat gear of a sword, pistol, crossbow and various traps means you can combine them with "Magic" to be efficiently lethal. The stealth system is good, working off the principle of 'don't be seen', however the crouching when you sneak did cause me to sever more legs than the average Alton towers roller coaster.
The graphics are nice, on the highest setting they really do put some strain on your system, and they look amazing, Motion blur is in this game but its tastefully done, and its understandable as sometimes you are moving insanely fast, i.e 10ft in a second, and it doens't overwhelm you, so you can still feesably fight while moving insanely quick.
Audio is good, however some of the sounds,do sound like they were recorded down a corridor, and if you use a lower end sound transmitter, you will notice the difference, however its nothing that effects the game too badly, so its not really a "BOOO HATE IT" and more of a "Meh, could be better".
Controls are good, Left for attack with Sword, CTRL for crouch, Right for Magic/Shooting, WASD/Space to move. Typical movement format and well implemented combat controls make this game very easy to learn to play, but insanely hard to master.
If i have one major complaint about it, its that its so damn short. Without the two DLC's i easily completed this in 5hrs, getting most of the collectibles and upgrades. I supposed playing on "I WANT YOUR FUCKING SOUL FOR BREAKFAST" difficulty will make it longer, and trying to stealth it would also do that, but i still can help feeling that a midget would be longer.
Overall its very deserving of the overwhelmingly positive it has on steam, and its another good game,but its got little to no replay-ability after the second time, and the DLC's are quite expensive, hopefully they go on sale soon.
Link: http://store.steampowered.com/app/205100
Level: 8/10
Dan
Monday, 14 September 2015
Hotline Miami: Brutal Murder Simulator 2012
Well, im back, after nearly a month of not typing anything.*yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay*, im unfortunately not dead, so back to the prayer mats everyone.
Hotline Miami, i can't really say much about this game. Its well made deserving of the 'Overwhelmingly Positive' it has on the Steam user reviews, as well as the 10/10 from Euro-gamer.
It is in short, and i don't use this word lightly, a masterpiece of a game.I suppose i better list somethings i like.
Firstly, it is obscenely violent, more bloody than the average period, yet the art style is amazing, so much so that it isn't on a level as bad a 'Manhunt', but it was bad enough to make the Australian government cry like babies and ban it sequel from sale in Australia. Its action packed, and it fits my play style well, which is "fuck it, ill improvise". The first level is easy enough, but by the final couple of levels you will break your "R" key restarting so many times. Levels are well designed, so i dont feel like im cleaning out the same apartment 30000000000 times.
The 8 bit style suits the game well, as it adds to the atmosphere, by adding quite significantly to the 80's theme of the game. It screams 80's and even thought art style is 'outdated' it still has the feel and pace of a modern game.
The story is surprisingly deep for on face value appears to be a version of "Whack 'em, Smack 'em Russians", Not putting any spoilers here, but the levels themselves are different, the Pre-level level and the After-level level for each level (Damn son, that's a lot of levels) sets you in your apartment, which changes in some small way for each Pre-level and a shop for each after-level, which again changes as you descend slowly into madness.
The Soundtrack is fairly funky, it has some nice music, always fun to listen to as its more of a background noise rather than a feature, as you become too focused on doing the level, and not on the minor details.
I suppose the only bad thing about it is the replayability, each level can only really be played once. This is unfortunate, but again it depends on the person playing, There are tons of achievements and masks to get meaning certain levels get more love than an easy girl at a party, as a fair amount of achievements require level specific weapons.etc.
Overall i love it, its fun, fast paced, easy to control, sounds good, doesn't lag, its an all round great play and recommended that you play/buy it. Remember if you are poor, wait for sales.
Link: http://store.steampowered.com/app/219150/
Level: 10/10
Dan
Hotline Miami, i can't really say much about this game. Its well made deserving of the 'Overwhelmingly Positive' it has on the Steam user reviews, as well as the 10/10 from Euro-gamer.
It is in short, and i don't use this word lightly, a masterpiece of a game.I suppose i better list somethings i like.
Firstly, it is obscenely violent, more bloody than the average period, yet the art style is amazing, so much so that it isn't on a level as bad a 'Manhunt', but it was bad enough to make the Australian government cry like babies and ban it sequel from sale in Australia. Its action packed, and it fits my play style well, which is "fuck it, ill improvise". The first level is easy enough, but by the final couple of levels you will break your "R" key restarting so many times. Levels are well designed, so i dont feel like im cleaning out the same apartment 30000000000 times.
The 8 bit style suits the game well, as it adds to the atmosphere, by adding quite significantly to the 80's theme of the game. It screams 80's and even thought art style is 'outdated' it still has the feel and pace of a modern game.
The story is surprisingly deep for on face value appears to be a version of "Whack 'em, Smack 'em Russians", Not putting any spoilers here, but the levels themselves are different, the Pre-level level and the After-level level for each level (Damn son, that's a lot of levels) sets you in your apartment, which changes in some small way for each Pre-level and a shop for each after-level, which again changes as you descend slowly into madness.
The Soundtrack is fairly funky, it has some nice music, always fun to listen to as its more of a background noise rather than a feature, as you become too focused on doing the level, and not on the minor details.
I suppose the only bad thing about it is the replayability, each level can only really be played once. This is unfortunate, but again it depends on the person playing, There are tons of achievements and masks to get meaning certain levels get more love than an easy girl at a party, as a fair amount of achievements require level specific weapons.etc.
Overall i love it, its fun, fast paced, easy to control, sounds good, doesn't lag, its an all round great play and recommended that you play/buy it. Remember if you are poor, wait for sales.
Link: http://store.steampowered.com/app/219150/
Level: 10/10
Dan
Tuesday, 25 August 2015
Payday 2: I caved to peer pressure...
So finally after 2 years of this game being in circulation, and my friends telling me "Hey Dan, you should get this" I finally caved in to peer pressure and bought it, and that was totally not down to the fact that the GOTY version was on sale for £7.50 *inconspicuous whistling*
Where to begin...
Well it wasn't what I was expecting, that's for sure. I assumed because of the mainly multiplayer focus of the game that it would actively punish me for not playing with friends. I was wrong. The AI is helpful, its not useless, can actually kill people, and as far as helping you up when you get downed is concerned they put their life above yours.
The gameplay is great, its nice to have a game which gives the players so many ways to achieve an objective (mission dependant). You can do the missions quiet or loud, meaning you can go in kill few people, steal the stuff you came for and leave without triggering the alarms, or you can go in all guns blazing, let the alarms trip, and fight wave after wave of police. My only real complain about the missions is they can get some what repetitive with a slight variation on the themes, but again its typical of my rocky relationship with the shooter genre, because I just get bored of it and stop playing. (Borderlands 2 for instance). The 5 different difficulty settings (Normal, Hard, Very Hard, Overkill, Death Wish) make each mission more replayable too, as well as the special quality of Pro Job, meaning that if you fail you cant restart it, but you get more reward if you succeed. It has the effect of adding a fresh layer of icing to a mouldy crumbling cake. You will however get increasingly frustrated at the drill.
The graphics, even on the lowest setting, as I cant go ultra high due to my PC having the gaming power of the average household toaster, still looks really nice. Its better than The Order 1886 as it doesn't put how the game looks over replayability, mechanics and playability. The game does crash more often than the average plane, but its nothing that I cant deal with, because it doesn't take 3 million years to boot up again, and if im in a heist when it happens I only loose the XP and Money gained up until that point.
The Classes are good enough to keep a nice variety to the play styles, some being more effective than others. The Skill trees make it worth investing in more than one otherwise you will end up being forced to struggle in certain missions. Perks are a nice addition, however I was disappointed that I couldn't respect them, as I could with the Skills. That and they were very ill advertised, as I only found them at level 40 after being told about them and how to get to them by another player (thanks again Tim).
The characters are, well, characters in their own right. to begin with you have the charismatic leader, Dallas, the token black guy, Chains, the charismatic leaders brother who replaces a guy from the first game, Houston, and the tech guy, Wolf. However the DLC for the game (Some free, some paid, some from pre-ordering other games) Adds:
Clover, the Irish lady
Bonnie, the Scottish Lady
Sokol, the Russian hockey player
John Wick, the film promotion
Dragan, the croatian cop
Jacket, the Hotline Miami 2 deluxe edition reward, and character from the first game
and last and by no means least
Hoxton, the British guy from Sheffield, Yorkshire, from the first game, whose voice actor was busy when the second game was being made, so they said he was arrested, and then you rescue him.
The Mask collectable system and weapons collection system are well implemented. Masks do fuck all, Weapons kill people, Weapons can have silencers .etc added to them to make them better at killing or easier to hide, masks can be customised, to look unique. Obviously some weapons are better than others... and this is where my problem is.
The best weapons come from DLC. This makes the game somewhat pay to win. However some of the worst weapons come from DLC too, making it pay to whine. I will say that even without the best weapons you can still do pretty good, but it does make the balance of the game unfair to some extent.
Also there is too much DLC for the game, although props to overkill for making a portion of it free.
In all, its a fun game, good with friends, good without, runs well, decent graphics, nice community
However as one Steam review put it
"The real heist is on your wallet"
and one more thing, FUCK THE DRILL.
Link: http: http://store.steampowered.com/app/218620/
Level: 8 (+1 for the inclusion of a character from my hometown)
Dan
Where to begin...
Well it wasn't what I was expecting, that's for sure. I assumed because of the mainly multiplayer focus of the game that it would actively punish me for not playing with friends. I was wrong. The AI is helpful, its not useless, can actually kill people, and as far as helping you up when you get downed is concerned they put their life above yours.
The gameplay is great, its nice to have a game which gives the players so many ways to achieve an objective (mission dependant). You can do the missions quiet or loud, meaning you can go in kill few people, steal the stuff you came for and leave without triggering the alarms, or you can go in all guns blazing, let the alarms trip, and fight wave after wave of police. My only real complain about the missions is they can get some what repetitive with a slight variation on the themes, but again its typical of my rocky relationship with the shooter genre, because I just get bored of it and stop playing. (Borderlands 2 for instance). The 5 different difficulty settings (Normal, Hard, Very Hard, Overkill, Death Wish) make each mission more replayable too, as well as the special quality of Pro Job, meaning that if you fail you cant restart it, but you get more reward if you succeed. It has the effect of adding a fresh layer of icing to a mouldy crumbling cake. You will however get increasingly frustrated at the drill.
The graphics, even on the lowest setting, as I cant go ultra high due to my PC having the gaming power of the average household toaster, still looks really nice. Its better than The Order 1886 as it doesn't put how the game looks over replayability, mechanics and playability. The game does crash more often than the average plane, but its nothing that I cant deal with, because it doesn't take 3 million years to boot up again, and if im in a heist when it happens I only loose the XP and Money gained up until that point.
The Classes are good enough to keep a nice variety to the play styles, some being more effective than others. The Skill trees make it worth investing in more than one otherwise you will end up being forced to struggle in certain missions. Perks are a nice addition, however I was disappointed that I couldn't respect them, as I could with the Skills. That and they were very ill advertised, as I only found them at level 40 after being told about them and how to get to them by another player (thanks again Tim).
The characters are, well, characters in their own right. to begin with you have the charismatic leader, Dallas, the token black guy, Chains, the charismatic leaders brother who replaces a guy from the first game, Houston, and the tech guy, Wolf. However the DLC for the game (Some free, some paid, some from pre-ordering other games) Adds:
Clover, the Irish lady
Bonnie, the Scottish Lady
Sokol, the Russian hockey player
John Wick, the film promotion
Dragan, the croatian cop
Jacket, the Hotline Miami 2 deluxe edition reward, and character from the first game
and last and by no means least
Hoxton, the British guy from Sheffield, Yorkshire, from the first game, whose voice actor was busy when the second game was being made, so they said he was arrested, and then you rescue him.
The Mask collectable system and weapons collection system are well implemented. Masks do fuck all, Weapons kill people, Weapons can have silencers .etc added to them to make them better at killing or easier to hide, masks can be customised, to look unique. Obviously some weapons are better than others... and this is where my problem is.
The best weapons come from DLC. This makes the game somewhat pay to win. However some of the worst weapons come from DLC too, making it pay to whine. I will say that even without the best weapons you can still do pretty good, but it does make the balance of the game unfair to some extent.
Also there is too much DLC for the game, although props to overkill for making a portion of it free.
In all, its a fun game, good with friends, good without, runs well, decent graphics, nice community
However as one Steam review put it
"The real heist is on your wallet"
and one more thing, FUCK THE DRILL.
Link: http: http://store.steampowered.com/app/218620/
Level: 8 (+1 for the inclusion of a character from my hometown)
Dan
Thursday, 20 August 2015
Dino D-Day: *Insert pun here*
After some time neglecting this thing why not review a game that I was forcibly made to purchase to enjoy a couple nights of solid banter.
Dino D-day is a fps game, set in alternative world war II where Hitler and his little wizards manage to somehow resurrect dinosaurs and then use them in their war machine to kerb stomp the allies into submission.
Made by 800 North and Digital Ranch, an Indie games (you may have noticed a rather common theme with the games I review) its surprisingly not shit ,considering it emerged from the cess pool of the Dinosaur themed game shit pile that slops around on the bottom of the steam store ( I henceforth name them Dindie Games) . I think that its major success is that it managed to actually make a good game in Valve's Software source engine meaning that the way it handles is very much like stepping into Left 4 Dead or Half-Life 2.
As you can imagine Axis consists of mostly dinosaurs, (6 small, 2 massive ones, 3 humans) and the allies consist mostly of Humans (8 humans, 1 Dinosaur). Normally this would lead to a really massive imbalance and in some cases and on some maps this is the case, but overall the game isn't biased in favour of one team, and whoever manages to win only wins because of playing better than the other team, even the huge dinosaurs have a blind spot, where humans can melee them to death.
The graphics are somewhat dated, but as my reviews normal tell I don't give a rats ass how good it looks as long as it handles well. Yes graphics are important to a game with relatively no story (Thanks game dev tycoon), but id much rather prefer a FPS game where im able to shoot the enemy, because the hitboxes are reasonable and well planned and implemented rather than it looking nice for all of 5 seconds until I figure out how to put a comically large hole in their chest.
The controls are typical of the FPS genre, you now WASD, left click to shoot, keeps in nice and easy to play, cos you know, anyone who has played any game on the PC, is used to it. Goat kills are fun, which true to the name, you throw one of the many randomly placed goats at someone, as a dinosaur, or alternatively you can just play catch with your dino buddies.
This review is short, I know, but theres not much I can really say, the sound doesn't sound like it was recorded on a potato, its fun, worth the £6.99, but the I think that adding the Last Stand Mode as a DLC is abit stupid, but atleast its isn't the DLC quest that Payday 2 is (as I have been informed, yet to find out).
Its one of those games that isn't serious, its fun to piss around with mates or with strangers and its always got populated servers, its fun, fast paced, easy to play and more importantly, not crap, like the vast majority of the Dindie games available on steam.
Here is a store page link: http://store.steampowered.com/app/70000/
Level: 7.5/10 (cheeky wink for the inclusion of throwing goats at people for kills)
Dan.
Dino D-day is a fps game, set in alternative world war II where Hitler and his little wizards manage to somehow resurrect dinosaurs and then use them in their war machine to kerb stomp the allies into submission.
Made by 800 North and Digital Ranch, an Indie games (you may have noticed a rather common theme with the games I review) its surprisingly not shit ,considering it emerged from the cess pool of the Dinosaur themed game shit pile that slops around on the bottom of the steam store ( I henceforth name them Dindie Games) . I think that its major success is that it managed to actually make a good game in Valve's Software source engine meaning that the way it handles is very much like stepping into Left 4 Dead or Half-Life 2.
As you can imagine Axis consists of mostly dinosaurs, (6 small, 2 massive ones, 3 humans) and the allies consist mostly of Humans (8 humans, 1 Dinosaur). Normally this would lead to a really massive imbalance and in some cases and on some maps this is the case, but overall the game isn't biased in favour of one team, and whoever manages to win only wins because of playing better than the other team, even the huge dinosaurs have a blind spot, where humans can melee them to death.
The graphics are somewhat dated, but as my reviews normal tell I don't give a rats ass how good it looks as long as it handles well. Yes graphics are important to a game with relatively no story (Thanks game dev tycoon), but id much rather prefer a FPS game where im able to shoot the enemy, because the hitboxes are reasonable and well planned and implemented rather than it looking nice for all of 5 seconds until I figure out how to put a comically large hole in their chest.
The controls are typical of the FPS genre, you now WASD, left click to shoot, keeps in nice and easy to play, cos you know, anyone who has played any game on the PC, is used to it. Goat kills are fun, which true to the name, you throw one of the many randomly placed goats at someone, as a dinosaur, or alternatively you can just play catch with your dino buddies.
This review is short, I know, but theres not much I can really say, the sound doesn't sound like it was recorded on a potato, its fun, worth the £6.99, but the I think that adding the Last Stand Mode as a DLC is abit stupid, but atleast its isn't the DLC quest that Payday 2 is (as I have been informed, yet to find out).
Its one of those games that isn't serious, its fun to piss around with mates or with strangers and its always got populated servers, its fun, fast paced, easy to play and more importantly, not crap, like the vast majority of the Dindie games available on steam.
Here is a store page link: http://store.steampowered.com/app/70000/
Level: 7.5/10 (cheeky wink for the inclusion of throwing goats at people for kills)
Dan.
Sunday, 9 August 2015
Project Zomboid: a dead good game.
After a suitably long period of time neglecting this again, I feel I should come back and throw my worthless two-penenth in the vast ocean of reviews that litter the internet.
Its made by The Indie Stone, yada yada yada, heres a link to the page
http://store.steampowered.com/app/108600/
Project Zomboid is, as you may see me say a lot in this, unbelievably cool.
First of all, its early access done right, you can download a demo, which allows you to see how well the game controls and how brown your pants will become once you start playing it, if you buy.
Yes, this game doesn't have AAA graphics, but its honestly the best survival game I have ever played. including Don't Starve, Minecraft and other assorted indie bollocks. The mandatory survival crafting system is well implemented, the building system is good, farming/fishing/scavenging all works brilliantly.
The biggest strength of this game is its lack of hand-holding, as its brutal. But coincidentally its biggest downfall is its lack of telling you the basics of how to build, level up and use the medicine system. There is more trial and error in this game than I would care for. However I can overlook this as it means you actually are semi pushed towards online play.
Online play is great, it reminds me of games like Rust and DayZ, where you have shirtless or naked people charging around, beating people to death. However, teamwork is advisable, as the zombies eventually form a massive horde and will kill you, no two ways about it. They also wont stop chasing after you, much like horny teenage girls after a manufactured boy band.
The food system reminds me of Don't starve in the way that food goes off unless its in a fridge. Or its canned. However I do pick some problems with it, the fact that they went to the lengths to not allowed you to eat canned food without having a can opener on your person. But when you eat the canned food, you also eat the can. The do a lot of real world things such as cooking .etc but cannot manage to give you a can after you eat from it. No you may say im being picky, but when you drink Soda/Whiskey/Water, you are left with an empty bottle.
Also the vision system is good, you can board up doors and windows, and cover windows with sheets, essentially building a safe house, which, against a horde, basically is like hitting a lego house with a sledge-hammer, you put all of your work into making it and building it, only to have it destroyed quickly and destroyed brutally.
Combat is sometimes flawed, but nothing that I cant deal with occasionally, Hit detection can be annoying leading to several untimely deaths, but meh, live and let die (quite literally). Tools can double as Weapons, Like Hammers, Sledgehammers, Axe's and Crowbars can be used to beat people or zombies to death, and also used to build walls or crates or fortifications, break walls, cut down trees, and open closed doors .etc. Each tool has a durability, that goes down with uses, can be repaired .etc
The UI annoys me, as its either too cluttered, or too minimal. I didn't even know that the game had a fucking levelling system until I accidentally stumbled upon it in a mad button mashing to escape from a massive horde of the undead. The glee I felt was the equivalent of finding a £5 in your jeans.
The injury system is a breath of fresh air, as each body is split into 8 pieces ( Forearm x2, Upper arm x2, Upper/Lower leg x2, Head, Torso), Wounds need to be disinfected, bandaged .etc to allow them to heal, unless they are minor wounds, such as scratches or shallow cuts. The deeper cuts/ bone breaks require splints, stitches and more advanced medical procedures. Making playing with other people and specialising in a 'profession' rewarding. As always, bites are 100% lethal.
Speaking of Professions, during character creation you can choose a profession like a builder, which comes with free virtues, like increased carpentry and barricading skill, and harder skin.
Character traits such as Claustrophobia or being athletic, requiring a virtue to be counteracted with a vice, meaning you cannot make a overpowered character.
To conclude, well balanced game, fun, very difficult, great with friends, get it if you have the cash, but maybe if you don't enjoy stupidly difficult survival games, which you may have to play by yourself, but yeah fun, demanding, and hard to get to grips with.
Level: 7
Dan.
Its made by The Indie Stone, yada yada yada, heres a link to the page
http://store.steampowered.com/app/108600/
Project Zomboid is, as you may see me say a lot in this, unbelievably cool.
First of all, its early access done right, you can download a demo, which allows you to see how well the game controls and how brown your pants will become once you start playing it, if you buy.
Yes, this game doesn't have AAA graphics, but its honestly the best survival game I have ever played. including Don't Starve, Minecraft and other assorted indie bollocks. The mandatory survival crafting system is well implemented, the building system is good, farming/fishing/scavenging all works brilliantly.
The biggest strength of this game is its lack of hand-holding, as its brutal. But coincidentally its biggest downfall is its lack of telling you the basics of how to build, level up and use the medicine system. There is more trial and error in this game than I would care for. However I can overlook this as it means you actually are semi pushed towards online play.
Online play is great, it reminds me of games like Rust and DayZ, where you have shirtless or naked people charging around, beating people to death. However, teamwork is advisable, as the zombies eventually form a massive horde and will kill you, no two ways about it. They also wont stop chasing after you, much like horny teenage girls after a manufactured boy band.
The food system reminds me of Don't starve in the way that food goes off unless its in a fridge. Or its canned. However I do pick some problems with it, the fact that they went to the lengths to not allowed you to eat canned food without having a can opener on your person. But when you eat the canned food, you also eat the can. The do a lot of real world things such as cooking .etc but cannot manage to give you a can after you eat from it. No you may say im being picky, but when you drink Soda/Whiskey/Water, you are left with an empty bottle.
Also the vision system is good, you can board up doors and windows, and cover windows with sheets, essentially building a safe house, which, against a horde, basically is like hitting a lego house with a sledge-hammer, you put all of your work into making it and building it, only to have it destroyed quickly and destroyed brutally.
Combat is sometimes flawed, but nothing that I cant deal with occasionally, Hit detection can be annoying leading to several untimely deaths, but meh, live and let die (quite literally). Tools can double as Weapons, Like Hammers, Sledgehammers, Axe's and Crowbars can be used to beat people or zombies to death, and also used to build walls or crates or fortifications, break walls, cut down trees, and open closed doors .etc. Each tool has a durability, that goes down with uses, can be repaired .etc
The UI annoys me, as its either too cluttered, or too minimal. I didn't even know that the game had a fucking levelling system until I accidentally stumbled upon it in a mad button mashing to escape from a massive horde of the undead. The glee I felt was the equivalent of finding a £5 in your jeans.
The injury system is a breath of fresh air, as each body is split into 8 pieces ( Forearm x2, Upper arm x2, Upper/Lower leg x2, Head, Torso), Wounds need to be disinfected, bandaged .etc to allow them to heal, unless they are minor wounds, such as scratches or shallow cuts. The deeper cuts/ bone breaks require splints, stitches and more advanced medical procedures. Making playing with other people and specialising in a 'profession' rewarding. As always, bites are 100% lethal.
Speaking of Professions, during character creation you can choose a profession like a builder, which comes with free virtues, like increased carpentry and barricading skill, and harder skin.
Character traits such as Claustrophobia or being athletic, requiring a virtue to be counteracted with a vice, meaning you cannot make a overpowered character.
To conclude, well balanced game, fun, very difficult, great with friends, get it if you have the cash, but maybe if you don't enjoy stupidly difficult survival games, which you may have to play by yourself, but yeah fun, demanding, and hard to get to grips with.
Level: 7
Dan.
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