Recent reviews by WindCubes

Played the game through twice and got all steam achievements, highly recommended for very specific kinds of players. Its strengths are in its bosses, weapon system, and settings. The story really grew on me and it treats the source material with respect. It lacks a kind of "3D metroidvania" quality that one might expect from a Fromsoft title, as in the zones aren't interconnected and there aren't a lot of secret locations or encounters. The strengths more than make up for this though, and I'm excited to play the DLC in the summer.

Finished this game today. I think that it has a very solid combat system, art style, and soundtrack. The game has a charm and personality that I really would like to see brought forward into a game more focused on action and combat. I truly wish there were more bosses throughout this game. I'm not the biggest fan of the puzzles that the game had me try to solve and I did opt to look up hints or guides when I got stuck in order to get some achievements. That's not a mark against the game, I just don't think I'm that good at these kinds of puzzles.
I would say that if this piques anyone's interest, to pick it up on sale and keep your eyes peeled throughout the game for obvious and less-than-obvious secrets.

Better late than never.
Would that I could turn back time and play this for the first time again.
This is an exceptionally dense exploration game with very good variety in places (& concepts) to unpack. This is at its heart, a puzzle game, and I needed to look up how to solve several of them because I got stuck. I don't want to mark that against the game, because the ones I was able to solve were satisfying. The narrative of the game surprised me and it wasn't always paced to my liking, but I still thoroughly enjoyed the journey and the ending. Just do yourself a favor and play this game as blind as you can manage, the discovery is most of the appeal.

This game commits hard to its very unique aesthetic and combat design. Complimented by a good soundtrack and memorable characters, this game has been one of my favorites in recent memory. It's pretty linear by classic metroidvania standards, with a heavy emphasis on narrative. But I believe the story was presented rather maturely and deserves the attention. The highlight of the game is the combat and bosses, without a doubt. Try Standard Mode if you want a challenge, go Story Mode for anything else.

Picked up this game on a friend's recommendation after enjoying Vermintide 2 for a bit. The initial experience was not very gripping. I found the tutorial to be pretty bare-bones and just the 2 of us doing missions on haz 1 and 2 to be sometimes confusing. We had more fun just goofing around in the space rig.

I only really clicked with the game when I started joining and hosting with strangers, funnily enough. The community really does carry this game on their backs. I was much more likely to get carried when joining a lobby with a funny name instead of one with serious requirements. The "vets" of this game (mostly) seem to enjoy helping out new players much more than doing things efficiently. This in turn allowed me to ease in to higher difficulties and challenge myself more without fear of backlash. Now I play Haz 5 and enjoy the challenge of carrying someone newer myself.

The core gameplay loop is rewarding. Missions don't usually take more than 30 minutes each, the guns all feel unique and satisfying, the dwarves are hilarious, and the art style and music are amazing. The game is brimming with personality and every detail feels like it was put there for a reason.

The weakpoints of the gameplay loop come from forced wait times more than anything. Escort missions especially could stand to be updated somehow. The seasonal modifiers to missions somehow seem to always be the weakest parts of missions. Rockpox meteors quickly stopped feeling like an exciting bonus and now feel more like a chore that I usually ignore if I'm playing solo. I also find the system for acquiring overclocks to be too restrictive and time-consuming. Overclocks can massively change the gameplay of a given weapon, and the complete randomness and time-sink associated with trying to target specific overclocks has definitely soured the taste of the game for a few friends of mine who otherwise would have kept playing. I had several evenings of play sessions where I was about half-way through the overclock unlocks with 10 blank cores. I spammed haz 3 missions solo just to search caves for machine events so I could just unlock random overclocks quicker. Me feeling like that was necessary to get the OCs I wanted doesn't feel like good design. There's been incremental improvements to the OC acquisition system, but I believe an overhaul is past-due. It's definitely the game's weakest point for me.

Now even with that weak point in mind, I still love the game and don't regret my time playing it. The gameplay loop combined with the aesthetic and the people put it a cut above other games in its genre for me by a fair margin.

This game is for you if you like distinct game "feel" and "personality", if you like co-op shooters, and if you don't mind the often daunting tasks of completion that are possible within the game. Thinking about the big picture, things like unlocking all the perks, overclocks, cosmetics, etc. will definitely overwhelm you. But, taking the game one mission at a time will go a long way towards your enjoyment of this game.

The game often feels more like a puzzle to solve instead of a difficult challenge to overcome. Solutions are not always obvious but figuring them out feels very rewarding. The combat is usually slowly paced and methodical, it feels more like a turn-based game than an action RPG at most times. The boss encounters are usually one-note and the exuberant feeling after defeating one is mostly due to not having to do the boss's run-back again. Overall, a very impressive game with a reputation the precedes it, and a new player experiencing the game for the first time over a decade later can still have a memorable experience playing it.