Recent reviews by Axis of Lint

I've always liked the Trese Brothers' games, if for no other reason than the amount of support and love they give them. Templar Batteforce had 94 updates from 2015 - 2024, Star Traders has had 363 updates from 2018 - 2024 (still in progress). This game is already on update 194 :)

I am sure this game will receive just as much attention and already it's a filler of a niche that has been empty since XCOM2 for me. I love turn based squad games and there are some out there (notably Wildermyth that I played recently) but this game has an exceptional amount of customization (as present in most of their games) and procedural story generation meaning that it will effectively never be the same game twice.

There's some limits on the storyline missions at the moment I believe but I'm only 15 hours in and I've already restarted twice because of things I wanted to try.

Here's hoping they continue to produce many similar games in the future :)

*edit* - Minor note, but I have to say, I do have one quibble with the game so far and that is the forced speed nature of the gameplay on every map. I understand that a lot of maps have time pressure and that makes absolute sense why the enemy would be on heightened alert for instance, but I really do feel that the game would benefit from having no passive alert increase on some maps until you actually trigger something that warrants an alert (find a dead body etc). It's perhaps a stylistic choice, but I didn't enjoy it in XCOM 2 and I find it unwarranted on some of the missions here.

*edit edit* - They do have a lot of customization options though for gameplay, including one that can alter security level increase, so while not exactly the thing I was looking for, it's about as close as I'd like without them altering their gameplay ideas just for me ;)

Hard to recommend this when the entire dev studio got laid off and there's been absolutely zero engagement or information from the publisher.

*Edit* - A minor addition several months later - the publishers have sold off the division after saying that they hadn't shuttered it months before.

Completely unacceptable behaviour.

It's a very solid MMO that doesn't get the recognition it deserves (in my opinion). Entirely free, if you want to play it that way. It's possible to grind out the in-game currency via what are called 'deeds' in game (kill quests, quest completions etc). Yes it would take you a very long time and honestly, dropping $30-40 is going to open up a significant amount of content that will make your game considerably more fun. It has a decent VIP model (subscription) that includes a balance of in-game currency every month that you can spend on things like XP boosts, cosmetics or mounts.

It's a game I've enjoyed over the years many times, just sadly never stuck with it due to friends dropping in and out of the game and never having a stable community to play with, but that's entirely my own doing, not the game's fault.

Has a decent, although simplistic crafting system, combat is fun and engaging. The story is everything you'd want from a lord of the rings game - all the favourite characters are there and a lot of the content is shaped around pre and post ringbearer quests involving some of the more well known characters.

Just a solid MMO that's still supported today.

*edit IV* - My final word on this is that it's an enjoyable game made by people who care about it, unfortunately published by Sony who don't care in the slightest. Square what you can with your morals and I hope you try it out and enjoy it.

*edit edit edit* - 260+ hours now, and still enjoying the game. The only major issue that I've had recently was a crashing bug (mostly on extract) that seems to have been resolved, but I'm not sure. Otherwise, really fun PvE horde killing combat with a large amount of variety in weapons/call-ins etc. It is a similar experience over and over again (although each mission is always different because of spawns/objective locations etc), but I still love it.

There's a lot of complaints on the discussion board but honestly, it's mostly an incredibly vocal minority it seems.

Looking forward to more :)

*edit edit* - 140+ hours in, loving every minute of it, even when I'm dying (honestly, I never thought dying in a video game would be so much fun). It's such a well made, cinematic game that is some of the most fun I've had with friends in a long time. I keep gushing about it, but it's because I can't help but love it so much.

The servers are (mostly?) fixed now, haven't had any issues in the past week or so and I cannot wait to see what else comes out for the game (hopefully). The weekend numbers have increased week on week and I can only hope more and more people get to enjoy the sheer visceral joy of playing this game.

*edit* - Been playing some more, still having an insane amount of fun. Thoroughly recommend if you like team based PvE where you kill a ton of enemies. The game definitely has some flaws and I'll be interested to see how they expand things, but I've immensely enjoyed what I've seen so far.

The biggest concerns you might have at the moment - the anticheat and the servers. If you're concerned about kernel level anticheats, go read about it and decide for yourself before you buy/play. The servers - They're still working on stability when it comes to matchmaking specifically and quickplay and there's no known ETA at the moment.

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Only a few hours in so far, been playing with a few friends. Seems like a solid entry and I've had a lot of fun. It's a funny and similar parody to Starship Troopers and features a lot of similar tropes. It's also a solid team based objective fps.

One of the parts I enjoyed the most from the original Helldivers was the strategem (or whatever it was called in Helldivers) system and I'm glad it's been kept and refined for the sequel. They strategems themselves are a lot fun and add a dimension to the game that elevates it from a simple team PvE shooter.

I've enjoyed the two enemy types so far and the differences between them and I'd love to see more types expanded in future.

The difficulty balancing seems decent and I've played with groups of 2, 3 and 4 people with no issues (all friends, not matchmade, which I understand has issues at the moment).

It's very much a game based around playing with other people, so if you're planning on playing by yourself, I don't think you're going to enjoy it as much.

tl;dr - Decent, entertaining mecha on mecha combat ala XCOM (or any other turn based tactical title).

Originally I was somewhat middle of the road about Phantom Brigade, but over time I've switched my viewpoint to being much more positive about the game. I realise I only have 50 some hours in it, but it's enough for me to get a decent feel for it.

The basic gameplay loop can be repetitive for some people, but I found it very entertaining, especially after the recent update with the new bosses.

The variation on armour/weapon types and modifications along with being able to craft the items when you unlock them was really fun and allowed for a pretty expansive degree of freedom when customising your mechs.

Overall, if you like tactical turn based combat, I would absolutely recommend it, but like always, watch some videos first and get a feel for it.

I've owned Grim Dawn for quite a long time and it's a game I come back to on occasion.

It is, in it's simplest form, a Diablo 2 style game. You kill hordes of creatures, loot gear, craft gear, find hidden areas, fufill quests etc.

What Grim Dawn does better than most is provide a solid, bug-free (in my experience) game that ticks all the boxes required of an ARPG.

There's a dedicated, slightly scary at times, fanbase for the game that will be more than happy to provide feedback to any kind of build you might want (in fact, you may be hard pressed to stop them in some cases ;) ). There's also plenty of resources if you're unsure about any of the myriad of game mechanics.

If you like the genre, this is easily a 10/10 game that you should take a look at and play with some friends (because everything is more fun with friends).

Over 100 hours later, one restart after Act II for a new character and I have completed the best game I've played in a few years.

It's not perfect - there are still quite a few bugs to be patched out as you play through and I dislike a few ways they've implemented the transition from tabletop to video game, but it was an enjoyable experience from start to finish (well, maybe not a couple of fights...).

Pros -
Great story. Close transition from the tabletop in many ways. Stable game (I had one crash and no other major bugs). Beautiful graphics - the backdrops look incredible in some places and the characters are generally excellent in their beauty or hideousness. Tons of niche loot (it's pretty fun finding all the unique and interesting items).

Cons -
THE CAMERA OH MY GOD. No delay in initiative order (it's a huge annoyance). Tons of niche loot (it can be annoying finding tons of niche items that you don't have a character for). The overly romantic nature of some of the companions (really, I feel like some of them are obsessive to the point of actual issues).

There's obviously more things in either column, but I had a great time and I'm looking forward to another playthrough (probably murder hobo my way through the game now).

So, at the moment it's still pre-releases. There are lots of crashes and bugs happening, bear that in mind. I'm going to ignore the technical issues (because it's not the release version of the game) and concentrate on the gameplay aspects -

All the classes seem to have their niche. All the classes seem to be reasonably well balanced with a selection of tools to enable different playstyles (although obviously there are meta picks).

The maps looks great, they're pretty well sized, feel expansive, very lore appropriate.

The enemies are varied and interesting. There are some tuning adjustments I feel need to happen to some of them but overall, pretty solid so far. Obviously haven't seen all there is to come.

I've enjoyed my playtime so far, it's been really fun. I've enjoyed trying out the different classes and working through the levels. Hitting 30 on Ogryn and having access to all the weapons has been fun.

Would recommend at the moment - subject to change depending on what happens at/before release.

It's a tricky one as it's in Early Access.

At the moment it's very... very... very (did I say very?) slow. Like I mean I've played a few restarts and I can play for hours and feel like I've accomplished nothing. Now this could well be because I don't know what I'm doing, as the game does a frankly really poor job of explaining what you should *actually be doing*.
I feel like I have a rough handle on things but still there's an unholy amount of click, wait, click, wait etc with little actual feedback unless it's an instant councillor decision. It feels very hard to get a sense of feedback from some of your decisions and some things seem arbitrarily difficult while others seem much easier than they should be.

Have a look at some gameplay footage, but unless you're a fan of the team (as I was) and/or a fan of the type of game it could theoretically become, I would probably hold off until the game has developed some more.

*edit* - I ended up playing about 70 hours of this in total, looked at it on and off over time but sadly the appeal faded very quickly. The game was just really quite dull to me. The majority of the gameplay revolving around moving your agents (pandemic board game style) to perform tasks is not interesting. The tech tree wasn't fun or particularly deep. The space combat was awful and required significant investment (in time or watching tons of videos) to figure out effectively.

I cannot recommend this game, especially not to anyone who enjoys XCOM style games (it is absolutely nothing like them).

So I'd recommend this if you're looking for a squad based multiplayer shooter. Up to 50-a-side maps at the moment (I don't think this will change), with some pretty good variety (in town, open county, trench warfare etc). There's a decent mix of different classes and active elements in the game that take a while to master.

The biggest issue most people have is that it's brutal and it doesn't really help you out at all. There are at least markers for friendly infantry and if you mouse over your tanks you can see your own team mates inside, but otherwise, there's very little in the way of map information unless people are actively contributing to the game.

Communication is a *big* deal. You can certainly play without a microphone if you don't want to, but you'll be missing out on a large part of the game. There's only so much you can do from the radial menus and not all classes can ping in the same ways (watch a video, it's hard to explain).

Ultimately, I would check out some content videos and have a look around before deciding. I've found it a really fun game with (for the most part) a really helpful, fun community who will actively support and help you in voice chat if you just ask or explain that you're not sure about something. There are obviously a few bad apples, but you always get those in any multiplayer game and this is no exception. Admins are pretty prevalent during prime time on most community servers though if it becomes an issue.