Recent reviews by Boyar

I got this on a sale with the main game, which made it a good deal. I haven't seen Aquilas go on sale in the in-game store and at least some of the weapon skins are quite nice in this pack, so: If this pack is on sale and you like cosmetics as much as me, I'd say get it, otherwise leave it on the side.

I was positive about this game at first, as it's quite welcoming to bad/new players and used to be relatively balanced even a year ago, but after becoming relatively good at Killer side and seeing the never ending tidal wave of nerfs to that side, while even surviving above the average escape rate when solo queuing on Survivor side (which I am not particularly good at, far from it, but with the help of some insane one-sided power creep, everything is possible), I can't recommend this game anymore...

To boot, this game has an insane hacking problem that the developers refuse to address, they don't even look into it without video evidence, that's the worst of it, if developers were actually on it and took ingame reports seriously, people would actually get banned and I would still be OK with all of it. It, however, has gotten so bad that most hackers are actually "hardhacking" (not just subtle speed hacks or the like, but things like sabotaging hooks while being carried, flashing you while walking backwards at full speed (100% or 4m/s) and even when you look up or down at the max of something close 80 degrees down and 70 up, instantly losing exhausted and triggering Lithe/Sprint Burst three or four times in a row) and far more often than a year ago, all this because they know they can just keep getting away with it for quite a long time before they finally get banned if some streamer or constantly recording cheater hunter reports them both ingame and on the website, it's getting ridiculous...
The powercreep towards the Survivor side has also become undeniable for anyone on higher MMR's, the people that deny it have the luck of being disabled enough to not get upranked and thus still have fun. When I say "disabled", I mean it, I don't care if someone is offended by it, I am bad at Survivor and even have above average escape rate now, what's anyone else's excuse if not being disabled... Moreover, it's not just my anecdotal experience, the stats show clearly that the escape rate has gone up by more than 20% of what it was in the past year or so, for anyone that didn't fail middle school maths and has some understanding of statistics, it's an insane difference to occur within one year... All the while the developers only seem to recognize even more "problems" (or in the language of people without a bias and mental illnesses: Killer strategies that work and thus require skilled counterplay) to nerf.
If you plan to play this long term on Survivor side with friends, it can be alot of fun, it's probably the most fun I've had in the game even though I main Killer...

This game deserves props for being one of the last nostalgic places of pre-2010 unsanitized non-boomer/non-zoomer internet. A place where the digitally inclined millennial caste has the freedom to be as artisticly creative and amazing or as absurdly edgy and autistic as you can possibly be without the fear of getting banned for it. Oh, and yes, a community that is more toxic than the original CoD MW2. If you're not a boomer or a zoomer and you aren't a marxist twit who likes to ruin the fun of those who do like absurd/black humor, just wandering around aimlessly in this "game" is to a millennial like me, like it is for a boomer to find their childhood teddybear stashed in a forlorn box in the back of your parents' attic... Just don't expect it to be a shooter, just play it like a mix of 4chan absurdity, a collection of easy to use creative tools similar to paint and some oldschool midi-editors and also a virtual chatbox like SecondLife/HabboHotel/ClubPenguin, the mission/shooter element is like a minigame in a creative sandbox, that's what it has going for it and that is why you should spend time in it.

The most fun MMO I've ever played, even though I initially preferred the classical style lockon activation skill based combat of traditional MMO's (especially in PvP), the action RPG elements have grown on me IMMENSELY, especially combined with the free-form almost (except for class choice) unlimited skill/gear builds you can create, no other MMO I've played has such freedom. The stories and voice acting are great, the world is incredibly large with all the expansions and DLC's over the years and all of it is well-crafted and beautiful to explore, the graphics haven't aged nearly as bad as many of its contemporaries, the character customization options are the greatest I've seen aside from some of the Asian MMO's that lack in everything else I appreciate in an online game...

All in all, I can't recommend this game enough to the casual RPG explorer type, as that is what I ended up becoming in this game, terrifying, I know, I've dove a little into PvP and veteran dungeons, but have only done one trial over all my time getting to 1600+ Champion. Just the story content alone keeps you busy for a while, even in just the basegame. If I'd have to give one major gripe, it's the craft bag being locked behind monthly payment, look, I have no hate for subscriptions, in fact I think they are the only way to keep any live service game up, but I feel like the craft bag should just be able to be purchased with crowns, I'd easily pay over 10k crowns for a permanent craft bag unlock and still subscribe (especially the yearly one) simply for the subscription being worth it just for the crowns you get (unless you only buy the largest crown pack during 40% Steam sale, then again, that's no craft bag, which is mandatory if you want to be able to craft your own gear as a mostly solo player like me.)

The Omnissiah truly blessed us with this game.

I'm a Bethesda shill, I love Starfield, it's fun, the shipbuilding alone is something I've wanted in a game for over a decade. I'll probably singlehandedly pay for multiple of Todd's vacations over my life...
Yet, I can not in good conscience give this game a pass to the wider audience. The lack of content compared to earlier Bethesda titles is simply staggering. The bugs were expected, it's a Bethesda game so I won't get into that. What I can't let go is a nearly empty galaxy and still Bethesda had to populate it with nameless NPC's, that look horrific and like they were mass produced by a politically progressive character AI. The random generation on planets also feels barely fulfilling the first few hours, but it gets progressively uncanny to downright immersion breaking fast after that. After the common complaints about Fallout 4 and Skyrim being downgrades of their predecessors, it has to be said: Starfield is in all its core RPG elements and content quantity/quality, a clear and absolute downgrade to its Bethesda RPG predecessors by a similar margin to how inferior Fallout 4 was to New Vegas. Fallout 4 had a problem with soul and direction in many ways, but with Starfield it should be asked if it has any direction or soul at all...

Edit: Even now some QoL updates have been rolling in (which have been generally pretty decent in my experience) and some much requested features are on the horizon, like vehicles planetside, I remain skeptical, there's still not much to do, there's still a lack of different weapons and weapon mods (in comparison to Fallout 4, which was critiqued for the former at least) and named NPC's with any interesting new quests, it's still an empty game and I fear it will remain so even if Shattered Space turns out to be a Far Harbor level masterpiece, even if it's twice as big and twice as good and Starfield will receive the same amount of love that CDPR gave Cyberpunk 2077 over the years since its release, Starfield will still be a downgrade over Fallout 4 and Skyrim in terms of scope and size.

If you ignore the screeching kids, hackers and tryhard PvP Slavskis/Sinos by switching sessions, this game is amazing.

That was definitely worth the wait, even without all the features which were promised, this game is absolutely stunning and a definite upgrade over my favorite game of all time, Warband. Absolutely amazing!

Ever wanted to feel like Fidel Castro in your (wo)mancave? Search no longer...