Recent reviews by EnDecc

Current tag says it's an idler, but I've never fought harder for numbers in my life.

Completed (but not 100%) in just over 3 hours. Easy to pick up, and a fun way to pass a few minutes at a time if you're idly waiting for something else. Is it revolutionary? Maybe not. But you get what you pay for, a simple bullethell with a chunk of progression to go through and some buttons to click. Try not focusing on the upgrades as your progression, but your best time.

I'd say for 6 bucks, it's well worth stowing in the library. Sell some of those trading cards you have collecting dust, get an effective 20-40% off, and grab a neat casual bullethell game.

Let me start with the tl;dr. I played every beta window that was available, sinking about 100 hours in progress that didn't functionally matter, because I think this game is fun and I hope to keep playing it for a long time. It has a lot of problems, some are minor, but a lot are egregious. But I don't think they fully compromise my enjoyment of the gameplay. So as a baseline, I'm giving it a positive review, because I'd recommend it to myself. Now let's really get into it.

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I have a lot of fun with the moment to moment gameplay. I enjoy the quicker matches over other battleroyale choices, and I think the dynamic of point control thrown in (with Extract and the [currently out of rotation] Starfall buff towers) is an interesting wrinkle thrown into the mix. I think the gripe of calling it an "Extraction Shooter" is exaggerated. It's just a win condition.

I have good fun with the character mobility. It does feel like I'm controlling a big, kinda clunky, heavy tank on two (or four) legs. Moving around isn't a completely seamless thing, it's something you have to carefully consider. Knowing how good your position is, what your escape routes are, and how you can maneuver around cover better than your enemy.

I think the mechs are neat. Are they the most revolutionary designs? Maybe not, but having it varied between humanoid like titanfall and animalistic like zoids is an interesting visual mixup. They look like big robots, and they look heavy. It's why I picked up the game, and it's why I'm encouraged to stick with it.

Teamwork is key. During the beta I got lucky and randomly queued with a great teammate that I've played together with since; and it's gone to show just how much having a good teammate can improve the game feel. Queuing with someone you can rely on is going to improve your experience a ton, try it as soon as you can. That is IF you can, because...

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Teamwork is key- but progression is permanent. If you've been recommended the game by a friend and you want to play with them, you're going to have a lot of grinding ahead of you if you want to play at their tier. Hunter levels are permanent, and there's no way to descale a Hunter so you can play with a lower level friend. Your only options are to go to high tier hell with an underleveled hunter, have your friend use an alt account, or have them choose a character they've intentionally not played much of so they're in a lower bracket. But that last one's not much of an option, because...

One-tricks beware. If you develop a particular fondness for one Hunter to the point where you don't find others to be fun, you will be in for a rough ride. The game uses a system called "Account Level" which only goes up as you rank up Hunters. Individual characters get progressively harder to level up, so you'll need to keep a balanced diet if you want to get all your rewards at a good pace. While I like this system for my own reasons, I recognize how much of a pain point this is for the larger community. People like playing their favorites.

Outdated battlepass and challenge motifs. The battlepass requires platinum to purchase, but itself does not reward a dime, meaning a completed pass isn't recursive. Even modern CoDs are handing out enough of the premium currency so you can buy into the next one without extra investment. But that's not the only problem, battlepass progression is exclusively tied to weekly challenges, which means you can't just play well and play a lot to get it done. Some challenges also require playing specific Hunters, which is an outright lock if you might not have the right ones unlocked and available. And unlocking Hunters isn't something you'll do a lot of, because...

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Glacial unlock progression. Unlocking new Hunters is hinged upon one of many currencies, "Construct", which you can only earn by raising your account level. You earn enough over the tutorial and the early game to unlock 2 Hunters, plus Razorside who you start with. Raising your account level is hinged on ranking up these Hunters pretty equally, because trying to play only one will yield less "account EXP" the more time you invest. That can result in pretty stale gameplay because your roster of available Hunters doesn't change for dozens of hours.

It's going to be monetized. Hard. So far they've said there will be no microtransactions during the Early Access period. I don't know how long that will be, or if they'll keep their word, but this is a Wargaming game. There are a dozen consumable boosters, there is a battlepass, where will be battlepass tier skips, there will be cosmetics, and there will be timed-exclusive Hunters for "premium" owners. It's a fact, it's unavoidable, inevitable. It's not just any live service game, it's from the makers of monetization hits like World of Tanks. You will be encouraged to buy anything that could help your progression, or you will grind through the long haul of hundreds of hours just to save your pride and your wallet.

Currencies. A lot of them. Credits. Platinum. Construct. Starfall. Shards. Gear Upgrade Cores. Skill Points. You'll be having to deal with all of these and all their specific uses (or lack thereof) and grind for every single one. Credits are used in bulk for Hunter skill trees, and later the costs become so egregious that you'll need to play dozens of perfect games without any boosters active. Platinum is your bog standard Premium currency, it's used to buy the battlepass, convert Shards to Starfall (XP you can apply to any Hunter), and probably cosmetics in the future. Gear Upgrade Cores are only used in upgrading gear, and to get them you need to scrap gear. A lot of it. Skill points are given one every Hunter level up, and a lot of skill tree options actually require 3 Skill points at a time, meaning you might be holding onto a couple skill points for increasingly longer and longer amounts of time as you try and get the skills you actually want.

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Clearly then, you know what you're getting into. Steel Hunters is a free to play, third-person shooter battleroyale developed and published by Wargaming Group Limited, a company known for greedy monetization, arduous grinds, and... leaking classified documents? No? That's the other one? Whatever. If you've read all of that and you're still at least a little interested, or you've already worn yourself callous to the leeching schemes of the free to play market, maybe you'd enjoy Steel Hunters too, like I do. It's at least free to try, so if you have fun then maybe you can see a diamond in the rough.

Man I really wanted to like this and get into it, after knowing I liked the first game. Maybe I just didn't give it enough time, but the incessant "helpful" lines from Aloy for literally every step I made is just too much. I couldn't come to any conclusion on my own.

"What's back here?" when an off-path already grabbed my interest.
"I bet I can climb this wall" when I've already scanned and seen climbable ledges.
"I think I can climb up this cliff. I wonder if there's anything interesting at the top?" when I could literally see a signal tower from a distance.
"Another signal tower, I bet it has another lens I can grab for Raynah." when I have in fact, gotten 3 lenses prior.
"One of the signal devices. Should be a lens I can grab for Raynah." when I've reached the top of said tower.
"Got the lens. I can trade it with Raynah the next time I see her." when I grab the lens I literally just reached.
"Can't override that now. Need to get data from a Cauldron, if I can find one." when I've just walked past a machine I had no intent of trying to override.
"An enemy outpost, I could scan the area to see what I'm up against, and tag any rebels or machines in my Focus to keep track of them." when I have a brain capable of creating my own thoughts and plans.

This is constant. I have not paraphrased any of these lines intentionally, and if it has happened at all, it is minimal.

If you need constant handholding for any problem that has to be solved, you may enjoy putting up with Aloy's constant interjections and reminders. But I'm not IGN's top game journalist, I don't need to be told how to play the game at every turn. I like having a thought for myself every now and then.

After seeing the winning parts of dead cells, they looked at what parts were lacking or could be added and thought; what if this was possible? Alterattacks are a smart way of encouraging good weapon pairs and properly duel wielding, dashing is an instant teleport that also has no cooldown while going over gaps to make you feel even faster, and weapons are quick to use (barring some very heavy hitters).

Windblown isn't without its own qualities too of course, online co-op isn't seen too often in roguelikes and it feels quite good with how it's implemented here. I've only played up to 2 players, but from what I can tell 3 should not feel much too different. Sudden Death was a rather contentious mechanic, but as of writing this review, is being reworked Next Update in favor of something called Revenge, which is something to look forward to.

And on looking forward to things, Windblown has exceptional potential, considering Motion Twin has already proven themselves with their last early access title. A lot of feedback has been addressed already (again noting the quick rework of Sudden Death), fixes and tweaks are updated fairly regularly, and we're due for a major update quite soon after I post this.

Even if it's still quite Early in the Early Access, Windblown is 100% worth playing for a good amount of hours. I waited until I beat the game for the first time before writing this, and there are more difficulties above the first, so that should give you a fair estimate for early playtime.

Glowing recommendation, get it before a potential price increase in the future, enjoy what's there to enjoy, and get excited for future updates when you've had your fun for the time being.

Maybe it's unfair to consider Survivors of the Void as the bar they had to reach, but Seekers doesn't even come close. Characters largely feel unsatisfying to play, and a large amount of the items lack synergy or are poorly designed. I'm not even considering the bugged launch state for this.

The only positives I can offer are the Stages, and the Music. Save your money, and go buy Chris' music on bandcamp instead.

There's plenty of good stage, item, and character mods on the downpatched version of the game, and ones that feel more fitting than what this DLC adds.

The Long Drive meets the Extraction Shooter genre, a combination I wouldn't have ever imagined on my own, but one that I won't let go of now that I've seen what it is.

Barely making it out of a storming region by the skin of your teeth, to the calming rain at your garage to try and make repairs, it really does feel like it's you and your car out there trying to scavenge to survive.

It's up to you to figure out why you're both there to begin with, and that's an engaging story that I'm all too invested in myself.

There's Crashing, there's Shoddy UI, there's random mechanic reworks no one asked for, but underneath the bad stuff, there's some of the most satisfying gunplay and sound work I've ever gotten my hands on.

I'm not a Warzone player so while I can't comment on that, Multiplayer feels pretty enjoyable if you manage to weave under the crashes and can look over some interactive issues. When it comes to boots on the ground, "Eliminate the enemy team at all costs" gameplay, this is hands down the best CoD title I've played. No rose tinted glasses here.

Neat battlepass too, I suppose.

Lots of content to bite with a robust New Game+ system, an extensive skill tree, and over 15 score-based challenges to find and complete.

Very accessible with the unmatched House Rules system. Allowing you to reduce enemy HP and damage, disable contact damage, or even enable Flight so you can skip difficult platforming sections.

You can even increase enemy HP and damage with House Rules, so if you find it a bit too easy you can make it harder. I genuinely hope future games follow this level of customizability.

Well worth whatever you spend.

i was on the fence about buying this DLC for a game i discuss for hours daily - but suncles really tipped me towards buying it - great job suncles! three cheers for suncles! HIP HIP!

For an actual quick review, though;
High expectations are met with even higher quality. Hopoo delivers a fantastic gameplay experience and Chris delivers a fantastic atmosphere for it, as always.

If you liked the Risk of Rain 2 experience, you WILL like this Expansion. It's a guarantee.

It's my review and I get to choose the rating!

Specialists are very different to play with, they're a bit cringe to listen to sometimes, but honestly the whole "TEAMPLAY IS DEAD" argument because of them is just a total farce.

You were ignored when you needed healing by a Medic with an AEK in BF4 just as you're ignored by a Falck with a PP-29.
You screamed "I Need Ammo" to your support player only for them to ignore you for 30 seconds shooting at a tank in BF4 just as an Angel ignores you while shooting at a helicopter.
You screamed for a revive from your Sniper squadmate right next to you in BFV, only for them to be hardscoped and missing every shot. There's not even a specific BF2042 comparison here, it's just literally the exact same.
Teamplay was never alive in Battlefield except for the few scattered souls that dedicated themselves to being your help, and those same souls are scattered around here too. Specialists aren't the problem for that, and the negative impact they have overall is pretty minimal.

The mechanics of Specialists are pretty neat, I like the idea of more unique gadgets and niche functions than nothing special whatsoever.

Every Battlefield has had a rocky start and negative points. At the time of writing this, there's a lot of bugs, balance is pretty garbage (The PP-29 and Hovercraft meta, if you're reading this a year from now), and a lack of starting content.

I won't say you're wrong if you think "Complacency with ♥♥♥♥ battlefield releases is bad", because honestly there's no reason why it wouldn't be. But there's no denying that recent Battlefields, no matter how ♥♥♥♥ the release was, has seen improvements over time. BF1 and BFV come to mind. Since BF2042 is going to run the Battlepass method of content additions, I'm personally going to wait on what the first season looks like before judging content amount.

The things people I've seen complain about are things that have always been complained about. Maps are too large, dying as soon as you spawn on an objective, and my favorite of complaints that the new title is "pandering to CoD players". It's nothing new.

There's still some core Battlefield moments, you always get excited hitting that attack helicopter with a dumbfire rocket, there's still sticking C4 on vehicles (remote or otherwise) and crashing them into enemy tanks, sniping pilots out of their helicopters and stealing them for yourself.

By all accounts it's still a Battlefield game, the good and bad parts.

Really, that's up to you. There's problems around, and if you think they can get in the way of your enjoyment, you can wait.

I played the beta, and I enjoyed it despite its issues.
I pre-ordered, played the early week and enjoyed it despite its issues.
So that's pretty much it. If you can enjoy something despite issues, you'll probably have a good time.