Recent reviews by darumakku

A very well-thought-out update to the original Helldivers. It maintains the spirit of the gameplay of the previous game while adding a lot of very impressive UX and UI improvements and streamlining the game for new players. The music, voice acting, and writing all contribute to the overall feeling of the game in excellent style. The emphasis on teamwork (and the occasional, accidental teamkill) is still there, but it's ramped up in every way. Adding a third dimension to the game opens up lots of possibilities for sneaking, flanking, and running the hell away. It's an extremely satisfying gameplay loop that will also keep you on the edge of your seat.

There's a paid currency, but it's only for cosmetics, and it can be accrued through gameplay (found in missions and earned through warbonds). Everything else is purchased or earned via one of a few non-paid currencies. It's a very fair system that complements the re-tooled progression system from the first game.

Overall 5/5

Genuinely good "one of those" for the Vampire-Survivors-like genre. The Hololive theme is a bonus.

A year after release, the game is significantly better. Still feels great to do the shooty shooty, but abilities are much more fleshed out and interesting, Assail builds for the Psyker are insanely fun.

I wish the Ogryn had more equipment variety. Other than that, though, I'm having an excellent time.

Frustratingly close to great. Takes a lot of the aspects that I love about State of Decay 2 - lethality, weapon modding, survival aspects, contributing to a pool of resources for future runs - and drops them into a rogue-lite format. Unfortunately, lots of bugs, lack of QoL features, and lack of transparency and communication from the developer make me hesitant to recommend the game. It can be a good time, but take a look at the forums, and go into your purchase knowing that all of those bugs that people have reported (including game-breaking ones) are still present. Caveat emptor.

It plays decently on the Steam Deck despite not being optimized, but frame rate issues are constant in outdoor environments, it RAPIDLY drains the battery despite poor performance - faster than Elden Ring, by my time - and after playing for long enough (an hour or more) the game has, multiple times, started to hitch, requiring a full exit and restart of the game. It will also cause your Steam Deck to sound like a plane preparing for takeoff for the entirety of your play session.

UI and UX need work. That the item menus do not scroll back to top once you reach the bottom and continue holding down is maybe what annoys me most. Sorting and figuring out what recipes can be crafted based on current inventory needs an overhaul to make options more visible. There really needs to be a button to craft more than a single item at a time.

Bugs and balance problems can end a run through no fault of your own, which can be frustrating. It's very easy to get stuck in between or inside of geometry. Bad starting spawns can kill a run before you even know what happened. Tripwires will be placed in spots that make no sense, and they're very difficult to see. Enemies will appear just off screen, behind you, in places you've only just cleared, and some of them can attack you from out of view. Trying to exit out of the game mid-run will cause the game to show a prompt asking if you want to discard an item. What?

Other, miscellaneous thoughts:

Safehouses frequently spawn more than one upgrade radio. Not a game breaker but it is weird.

Picking a starting survivor seems entirely random, creating PCs with mismatched names, loadouts, models, and descriptions. Some of them are lucky enough to have a small amount of background info, like "so and so is a friend of this other survivor you picked one time" - why should I care? There's nothing to attach us to these characters and dialogue is always the same. The only differences between them are starting items, no traits or skills of any kind are present. Nothing meaningful.

The encumbrance system is fine, but it's very easy to acquire heavy objects like medpacks that quickly add up. It doesn't really make sense that some necessities like ammo and healing contribute to encumbrance while necessities classified as "miscellaneous" items, like batteries and piles of scrap, contribute none at all.

The game economy is out of whack, as buying items from a merchant while on a run is easily offset by selling them random trash, which is plentiful in almost every environment. It's very easy to acquire items to craft herbal remedies, but they're barely better than most found items, worth the same as their individual components, and weigh *more* than their individual components combined, making them almost pointless to craft - especially given the encumbrance issue mentioned above.

There is a stealth system but it's almost entirely pointless and seems to be only half implemented. Enemies can see and follow you through walls (but their pathing sucks, so they'll just run into a corner and stay there), they can see you in pitch-black environments, tall grass does not hide you if you've already been spotted, and having rare red dumpsters as a hiding place - seemingly the only kind available - is an odd decision. None of this stuff is explained, other than the grass. After a certain point, regular combat becomes so trivial that it's easier and faster to bait and dodge big enemies than it is to avoid them.

Some permanent upgrades are just kind of odd and not worth spending points on; engine damage, fire resistance, and stamina and damage for door kicking being some of them.

Regarding door kicking, that entire mechanic needs a rework. Maybe make speed/force dependent on the character and starting loadout. Add items that allow for lock picking so stealth is more viable. Make busting doors open an action that stuns enemies on the other side. As-is, it's not worth spending points on, unless you've got nothing else to buy. There are a few upgrades like this.

That's everything I could think of. The story is compelling enough to keep me going a little longer, but mostly it just makes me want to play State of Decay 2.

Purchased in early access in 2019 because I wanted to support the devs after they broke off from Overkill, but two years later, the game still needs polish, and it feels like they're just chasing the "we're edgy, how difficult can we make this" dragon.

Stage A1 of rundown 6.0 requires retrieving a very heavy item (makes the player walk slowly) and then bringing it to a very slow security scan which summons a couple dozen enemies. Got to the very end of the level with bots and then died because I couldn't put the item down and therefore had no way to defend myself, and the bots are mostly useless in firefights. Real kick in the nuts. Probably would have been doable if they had focused more on making bots that don't suck and less on selling $600 coolers and overpriced hoodies.

And before you ask: no, I'm not interested in joining your brand's Discord server just to find randos to play with. All my friends bounced off because the game was too hard. So ♥♥♥♥ me, I guess.

Good start but needs a lot of refinement.

-Run speed is way too slow - trying to get around the school or asylum when it can already take twenty minutes just to find a ghost is boring, and it gets even more frustrating if you're constantly going back and forth to the truck. This isn't Dear Esther.

-Building on that - the game feels like it was made for VR first based on how a lot of interactions are designed. That may be true, but it shouldn't feel that way for regular PC players - picking up and putting down items, turning cameras on and off, interacting with the van, opening and closing doors, placing candles, walking and running, and even little things like how much screen real estate is taken up by a parabolic microphone all need work. The game menu and lobby system are all ridiculously bad when not in VR. Give us a regular menu, please.

-Load times are weirdly long and players drop too frequently during loads.

-It's too hard to get basic items and too easy to get advanced ones. Monetary values for things like candles, salt, and basic flashlights, etc. are all way too expensive and punitive for new players who are more prone to accidental death. $15 for a gd candle is insane. Give everyone a flashlight to start - a high-lumen LED flashlight can be gotten on Amazon for the price of the candle, a low-lumen one can be gotten for like $5. Having flashlights on our shoulders and needing to bring one regardless is weird. Add headlamps as an alternative to head-mounted cameras. Make things like additional cameras more expensive to compensate.

-Needs a backpack or portable storage case (like a Pelican case) of some sort (it could be purchasable) so that you can bring more than two items and a flashlight with you. VR players get one extra, for some reason. Again, feels like it was designed for VR and PC control was an afterthought.

-Needs clearer instructions on how to avoid/deter ghosts - "weaknesses" in the journal aren't even weaknesses, half the time. Teach people how to hide instead of relying on the community.

-All flashlights are too dim. You can increase their throw distance to make it easier to see down long hallways and find other players without diminishing the atmosphere or making things less scary.

-The ambient noise in all environments is overpowering, and not in a scary way - I'd prefer silence to what sounds like constant HVAC whitenoise, especially in levels like a farmhouse that wouldn't even have it (and it's weird to go from no noise outside of a building to the sound of someone blowing in your ear inside of a building).

That's everything for now. Phasmophobia is an enjoyable game, but a janky one. It could be a great game if it were made just a little friendlier to mouse + kb players and had some QOL improvements.

Minecraft but with more zombies. It's fine if you're okay with a game that is a permanent Alpha version. I think I bought this like three or four years ago. We're currently... 7 years from original Steam release, and the game looks like something from 2013, for sure. Plays fine but needs a better tutorial for first-timers. I think there are newer games doing this concept better, now.

Free + cute demon ladies + good music = just play it

Well-optimized sort of FPS sort of Minecraft game with cool progression and big mugs of ale that make you into a hobbit.