Recent reviews by Hijinx

I bought this game 4 years ago thinking that it looked cool and I wanted to try it out early because I knew I would be playing 1.0. Seems like a cool game, but incomplete.

Since they made a ton of money in EA, development has slowed to a crawl.

Don't be like me. Wait to buy games until 1.0 because the devs here seem to have stopped caring about putting serious work in to the game once they made their money.

Wow, great game. The graphics and immersion are insane and makes it way more spooky to play through. The story slowly unfolds as the game goes and builds depth. I'm a big fan of Lovecraft and I'm very pleased with how well this game nailed the feel and the psychological horror aspects instead of relying on cheap jump-scares. I'll be honest, at first I was on the fence about the game and the setting. After trying it though it didn't take long for me to become totally immersed. I am a big fan of horror and don't scare easy, but this game was legitimately creepy and satisfying. The voice acting is also extremely good and I cannot think of any media that nailed the Scottish accent better.

Great story! It is definitely a love letter to TNG and takes place in that era. It wasn't just a great and engaging story though. The moral choices felt very much like Star Trek and the impact of individual choices felt serious. I'd like to go through the game again at some point and make different choices to see the other story paths. It really nails the feeling of playing through a Star Trek movie.

One thing that really bothered me though was the controls for some of the sequences. The mouse sensitivity for some of them is locked in INSANELY low when you have a very short timer to do the right thing sometimes. I had to pick up my mouse and move it several times across my mouse pad to finally move the pointer enough. It is better if you use a controller instead of mouse and keyboard, but I like M&K so primarily used that. There is really no excuse it's not been patched. If it bothers you enough, though, you can activate "story mode" and not deal with these.

That all being said, the game is truly memorable and at times I had a hard time pulling myself away, so despite that flaw I fully recommend this game and I'm glad I tried it out. I'm not sure there is another Star Trek game that truly nails it like this one does.

It's a unique and game I never knew I wanted and I'm so glad I tried it out. The atmosphere is fantastic and at its core the game is about exploration, discovery, and planning for disaster. You make a run in your car and prepare carefully to make sure your car is maintained during your run until you get back to base where you unload, modify and repair your car, and do upgrades and research. It's a bit like Subnautica when I'd prepare for a long exploration run away from my base except it's more dangerous and it's every run. I'd also compare it a bit to Subnautica where instead of deep water spooky there is paranormal spooky...also in darkness.

I also feel the need to leave the positive review because of these ridiculous negative reviews where people are being babies about the save system. You can't save, but you can pause, so probably what is actually happening is most people made a mistake and now want a "redo" button. Not every game is made so you can watch your baby and turn off the computer every time you leave your keyboard and they don't have to be...thank the gaming gods for that.

When you get to an area of the map you only save when you arrive and then again when you load in to the new area. You can't save scum. This actually adds a lot to the game because it adds a whole lot of tension where every risk you take has much higher stakes than it would otherwise. As you're going through levels you are discovering new things along the way. There is a mechanic where individual maps gets more dangerous as time goes on. A classic scenario is where you're about to leave a level but see a good looting opportunity. Do you take the risk and make a mad rush to the exit, or do you take the safe route? Or you think the run is going well, when suddenly you have a serious mechanical issue and didn't bring the tools to fix it and suddenly you're just trying to escape alive. Do you pack your car full of spoils or instead outfit more tools to help you safely reach the exit? Depending on the map and your actions, they can last from anywhere between 20 minutes to a couple hours. The lack of save means you have to commit to your call and the only thing that will have helped you is how well your stocked your trunk. Worst case scenario is that you can reload the save at the start of the level or abandon the run to go back to base with a penalty.

Normally I wouldn't have commented so much on that one feature but these review bombs are outrageous for penalizing the game for an intentional design. This is just how the game works. I've felt much higher emotional highs as I'm scrambling to fix up my car after an unfortunate breakdown or escape a level alive after I've been very greedy and have pushed my car to its absolute limit and then suddenly a violent storm shows up I hadn't accounted for and I'm saying out loud as I'm barreling towards the exit "OH CRAP OH CRAP OH CRAP...", heart pumping adrenaline. I've had gathering runs turn in to a total disaster where I barely made it out alive and I've had runs that totally altered based on some crazy stuff I discovered.

And you will discover. The game does a good job walking you through the loop, but a lot of the game is figuring out everything you can do and how all the different anomalies and conditions work. A lot of the tension packing up for a trip is the fear of the unknown because you can never be certain what you will encounter. The game is exactly as it should be for what it offers and I will die on this hill.

I love horde coop games and this is one of my all time favorites. The combat feels so good that I liked it before they "fixed" the game. At this point I recommend it generally because the game is much more fleshed out now. They do a great job at universe immersion, the graphics are fantastic, and I love the gore.

There is a cat

Loving the new stuff! I feel like there is A LOT of new content in here for just a $10 DLC. Whole new culture, two new spellbooks, I've noticed new items, lots of balance changes, it came with a patch that overhauled hero cap and necromancy...the update notes are massive and it will probably be quite some time that I'm still noticing new things.

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This is one of my new favorite 4X games. It's maybe my favorite faction creation system in any 4X game, there are just so many viable options and each DLC is adding more. There is a lot of incentive to control specific points on the map. It is really cool how you shape and evolve your faction over time with transformations and in-game choices. What also really sets this apart from the genre is diving in to a really solid tactical combat system when your armies fight. This game does a very good job of emphasizing micro strategy and not just macro.

All in all I am so glad I gave this game a chance. I play enough 4X games that it seemed unlikely that this one would really win me over compared to alternatives and now I'm obsessed.

edit: labor of love!

This is not just my GOTY. Remnant 1 is one of my all time favorite games and this was a more than worthy sequel. It's what I wanted....more content, more items, customization, character building, and really unique worlds to explore. It preserves what I loved about the first game, adds more, and introduces great new mechanics. I love the mechanic of each world roll being different and all the kinds of character builds you can do. The worlds are all unique and it's the kind of game you want to just stand and look around to take it all in. Interesting choices all around.

It's like Where's Waldo but Waldo is a cat and he has 99 friends.