One of my favorite aspects of the previous games was playing as a carrier, and the feeling of actually being a captain. I loved the ability in Warlords and 2 to command others to pilot your ship and do various actions: I mean, why is it most games have you fly a ship with literally hundreds of crew and still make you fly the dang ship? Um, Sulu? I am also very big on having minions in games. Necromancer in RPGs? Check. Drones and turrets in FPS games? Check. Carriers with fighter/bomber swarms? Check. If this sounds like you, DO NOT buy Starpoint Gemini 3, at least not yet. The devs "wanted to do something different", and this most certainly is... different. They may or may not implement carriers and deployable fighters later, in some as-yet-undetermined update, but look at this post and understand it has been a YEAR since they posted it: https://steamcommunity.com/app/977720/discussions/0/2986411348899027223/ For me, No Playable Carriers = No Purchase. The devs deleted my favorite part of the game series, and I don't feel any loyalty to a brand that doesn't do what I enjoy. Why should I? They design what they want, everybody else decides if they want to play it. Just be careful if you're someone like me who likes big honkin' ships that look to curbstomp the Deathstar. Still, on the plus side for some other player types, this game is much more focused on player-in-a-fighter gameplay. Starpoint Gemini 3: Minion Simulator! :)=) I am giving this game a 2 star rating to try and be neutral, as I understand not everyone is like me. 3 stars would be truly neutral, but I am docking 1 star from a 3 star rating because of literal years of people voicing concerns over various unlikeable "features" that the devs outright ignored (not just carriers, but also the story, character, module system and other things). My personal preference would give it a 1 star for making totally dumbass decision "just because we can", AND all the bugs they left in the other games.
It is free and I'm still not sure I want it... some new functionality would be appreciated!
I have the original, a VERY good game and the mission DLCs are nice. Be aware that most of the low review scores (including mine) are aimed at the fact the makers keep stringing us, the players (and their source of income) along with "meh" skins. Now, please do be aware that there IS some new functionality in the skins+weapons DLCs. For example, a burst fire pistol or silenced rifle, maybe a crossbow that uses literal junk to make for people with The Following. But honest to god, man... they should have made a followup to The Following where you can play singleplayer as the tentacled superzombie from multiplayer. Or how about a gun drone you can sit on a rooftop with and fly out to shoot zombies for fun? Heck, *that* would be what I would do in a zombie apocalypse! Kinda of like the Ghost Recon: Wildlands DLC, but actual fun... So in summation most of the low reviews are gripes because: (A) As mentioned, the mini-DLCs are shameless cash grabs really don't add anything groundbreaking, just things that SHOULD already have been in the main game from the start. (B) The sequel is taking forever (C) Techland is perceived as treating GOG like second-class citizens sometimes, rightly or wrongly (D) There is a lot of stuff players would like to see in the game (fun of zombie apocalypse movies is *there are no rules anymore, do what you want*) that really just got left by the wayside. And all we get is stupid skins where a pistol fires three times instead of once. Yaaaay... Lastly, in some ways Dying Light has always felt like a step down from the Dead Island games. They were beautiful and vibrant, and does anyone remember that Dead Island: Riptide had actual sniper rifles and repairable chainsaws? Yes, I know about the Jason Easter Egg and chainsaw in Dead Island 1, but you can't repair it or refuel it! Stupid decision... Okay, VERY LAST THING: I want my targeting reticle back for throwing weapons, and the range increased!!! Kyle's arms are wet noodles!
I was extremely leery of getting this game due to the absolutely horrid launch debacle. I did get it during the second week of June 2021 at version 1.22 and everything seems to work fine, though, so yay! Now I can't vouch for nVidia, since I have an Intel chipset and AMD 5700 XT GPU. The controls are literally smoothed to a fault, the view keeps moving a little after I quit moving the mouse even after I turned the look momentum off. That is my main gripe, though. The only other issue I have isn't performance, just gameplay: smart weapons are actually terrible, the largest punk gang (Tyger Claws) have innate jamming that you can't break and firing at them sends the smart bullets flying AWAY like they bounce off or flew through without damaging the locked-on target. And homing weapons do reduced damage, as well. Kinda sucky, but I mention it because it looked so weird that one of Google's main search sequences is variations of "cyberpunk 2077 smart gun bugged". Apparently it's NOT a bug, just an unnecessary nerf that removes an entire portion of the game's charm. Now I just want cheats (takes forever to build your character) and New Game Plus and things should be rockin'! FYI: Keanu Reeve's character is beneath him as an actor, IMHO. Johnny Silverhand is an unmitigated douche so far, but we will see if things improve. I'm 50 hours in, but just into Act 2 as I'm busy building my character and grabbing everything not nailed down to sell (shout out to Elder Scrolls for freeing me from all morality and turning me into an in-game kleptomaniac...) Lastly: CDPR went out of their way to include missions based on cyberpunk situations from all sorts of literature. Something for everyone, be it near-future warfare to Ghost in the Shell to body horror, metaphysical philosophy, and HEAVY vibes from Deus Ex and the original Shadowrun on SNES... with much more to do!
This game is awesome, I really want to play it all the time. Yet... bugs are EVERYWHERE for me. I completed the main campaign and am now playing the Titans DLC, and after playing about 5 minutes I have to save and reload. Allies stop shooting at enemies, fully upgraded Holo Decoy skill doesn't shoot at targets, I cease to deal damage to enemies (i.e. they're invincible) after just a couple of battles, commands don't work ("Go to location" sends me off at a 45 degree angle because my Legion Titan ship doesn't turn worth a crap before hitting lightspeed), etc. Is this game EVER going to become playable? It's been out for four freaking years! Kill the bugs and get 5 stars! Until then, I am not purchasing anything else from this company (the makers of Starpoint, not GOG, to be clear!) And judging by the way Starpoint Gemini 3 abandoned playable capital ships and 4X-lite designs, to much dismay, it looks like they need people to buy their stuff now more than ever. I really love what they tried to do, the X games were just too irritatingly complex to actually play, they were more along the lines of what I would do and expect to be paid for. SGW and SG2 at least tried to have action, and I love carrier gameplay with procedural/randomized encounters. Pity they couldn't carry the torch to the end of the line.
This is Heretic for 2021 with Hexen's atmospheric levels and Hexen II's visual style. Do note that the spells apparently aren't finished, and one of the devs specifically said they are for UTILITY, not direct combat. The "Ignite" spell is the only one I have seen in the demo, and is basically a Zippo lighter at a distance (no attack capability), but you can burn wood and spiderwebs, and undead dislike light so there *is* a tactical purpose to this. Thing to note is that fiery explosions set other things adjacent to them alight, not just heat (which is actually like real life, otherwise people would erupt in flames just be being near a fireplace). The only concern I have is that once an area is complete, enemies don't respawn. This limits replayability: maybe I want to kill zombies and dragonlings in the swamp forest again 'cuz I'm tired of the mages and skeletons in the castle, hmm? Enemies *do* respawn in the level you have the current main story mission in if you quit and return. I think this would be good for the entire game, and is an excellent compromise: you have all sorts of stuff to kill when you start out each time (which is the point of this game, honestly) but don't trip on cleared areas during your current playthrough. Kind of like going home to sleep and things wander back in. Levels are seamless, some slight loading like Half Life (but on modern computers you will be unlikely to see the loading icon for more than one second, literally). Secret areas make this game, and you absolutely must love checking everything multiple times (or have a walkthrough). This is a 90s-style FPS/RPG-lite combo style game, action heavy with errand-and-keyhunt gameplay, light story and heavily kill-everything-because-reasons. Setting is an exquisitely detailed (for the 90s styling) gothic fantasy setting with suitable arsenal and items: you will love or hate it accordingly, so: KNOW WHAT YOU ARE BUYING OR BEWARE!
Extremely disappointed, don't expect furry Devil May Cry or Kingdoms of Amalur. -Mutant powers are mostly useless and uninteresting (jump pad mushroom spawner, bouncing snot bubble, ground pound, the ABILITY TO SLIDE DOWN HILLS. Literally!) There are only two that are useful: mind control and homing missiles. Everything else is situational, underwhelming, and pointless. -Specialization doesn't matter. You take 20 minutes figuring out how to customize your character at the start, wonder what does what, only to have the game go "yeah, nevermind". The ONLY thing you get that can't be unlocked otherwise is the Psi-Freak's starting power, which merely shoots a spark ball with no special anything (guns have unlimited ammo and reload quicker with more damage). -Magic abilities (separate from mutant powers) are very few and locked behind a morality wall (cool powers are only for the needlessly cruel, what kind of moral for kids which this is obviously aimed at?) and also suffer from a couple you will use, most need not apply. Can't get them for about 20-30 hours anyway. Totally unimaginative. -"I JUST want to play the damn game!" Tutorials come in ONCE, no reminders and you will have to look up guides if you miss something. And there are a bazillion tutorials. -REALLY CLUNKY MENU. All ~50+ pages of it, including submenus. -Swimming requires magic specialization. Not kidding. -Vehicles are exclusively area-locked, so forget using that Mech from the reveal videos. Pointless lying hype. -Pathetic character interaction. No voice acting with characters, who literally mumble nothing and are narrated by the same guy over and over. -Little combat. You can walk for 20 minutes and have nothing to fight. Boring. -Story = budget Kung Fu Panda - anything remotely interesting. Pick Elex, Amalur, Borderlands 2/3, DMC3, Elder Scrolls, or Just Cause 3 instead. 2 stars for visuals/effort, but hampered by nonsensical design decisions that severely hinder enjoyment.
When this came out the biggest draws were "Far Cry but open world" and "fire propagation engine". I literally spent dozens of hours just shooting flares into the African savannah brush and laughing as the flames devoured all vegetation (and screaming enemies if you box them in). You have to see it, it has the best (not perfect, but best) fire system ever devised that I am aware of in an FPS. The fire will die after travelling 100 feet (30 meters) or so for balancing purposes, but just uses flares or molotovs and set fires in multiple locations. The flamethrower is gimmicky, feels like it has a range of about 5 feet and honestly your machete is almost as useful, so stick with the flare gun. You can even see leaves burning off of trees! Now the gameplay is fun to me. I usually walk through sandbox simulators and like doing as I please, and this game delivers that. It isn't quite like Just Cause 3, not as bombastic or fast paced, but it scratches an itch. Slice up enemies with a machete, burns villages (with only bad guys in them), deploy a personal mortar and make your own airstrikes, or simply pop heads from a kilometer or more away (similar to Far Cry 1). The only irritation is that the player character is a complete dunce, has malaria and is thus somehow talked into committing suicide for the villain "because your sick and screwed and why not?" Or you save yourself and implied to die immediately later from the malaria (despite taking medication the whole game). Either way, you are doomed. The devs wanted you to feel the hopelessness of war and not glorify it, but it really came off as preachy and my reaction was "well, how dumb do you have to be to get roped into that? RELOAD!" Ignore the story, focus on the combat and burn everything in sight, then later use the unlimited ammo cheat and you should have a blast in this game. And whatever you do: don't listen to the ass**** at the end and take the battery...
I started this game not expecting much, but I just finished it in 2 days! It only has the "first episode", so hopefully this will be completed as the story is NOT finished (for obvious reasons, I suppose). You play an insane female mass murderer, with abusive parents who trafficked her, etc. You are confined in a mental hospital. Each "day" you go to bed and your nightmares come after you, which you kill without mercy. At the end of each level, you "wake up" in your hospital room, and after a few levels things will occur in the "real" world. A key card is left within reach; a door didn't close fully; a guard left their keys inside a therapy room. As you go through the action-packed nightmare levels at night, you unlock new areas of the hospital during each day, with the apparent goal of escaping. The atmosphere in the hospital is creepy and well executed. Nightmares are like GZDoom, but with handmade level segments that are stitched together like Immortal Redneck. Weapons are Diablo-esque, with "base" types that roll modifiers depending on rarity level. Skills are mundane, extra health/ammo capacity/etc., only an extra jump, better kicking and a dodge ability are currently implemented as actually new capabilities you can acquire. Acquiring skills comes with a Mario-type minigame for added enjoyment, as being an insane psycho murderer apparently doesn't deprive one of handheld video games. Good behavior? Unlikely. But I am definitely intrigued and sincerely want to find out how this story ends! I think it would be creepy awesome if it ends like F.E.A.R. and the nightmares come into the real world! The only gripe I have is that the game simply ends and there is nothing to do but start from scratch: this takes off one star but will hopefully be fixed soon. I don't want to spend another 20 hours rebuilding my character just to finish the game and start again! Very well done game indeed!
This game looks nice, beautiful in fact. Unfortunately *interacting* with the world is almost impossible for me! In the first 5 minutes I found: 1. Janky controls, keyboard/mouse won't respond even on maximum sensitivity. The game simply doesn't seem to be "catching" input, which is a huge issue for any action game, and ESPECIALLY a Souls-like wannabe where finely-timing one's dodging IS ESSENTIALLY THE WHOLE GAME!!! 2. Interacting with the Tutorial Statues and first Prayer Area (checkpoint, I think?) as well as the Deer Companion and ALL other objects are all hit and miss. I can be standing far, near, or even nearly INSIDE an object in front/side/behind it and hit the interact key literally 6-12 times (with pauses) and get no response. 3. NO WAY to rebind keyboard controls, apparently. Which is very serious for me: I damaged multiple tendons in my thumb and small finger (left hand) in an accident back on Memorial Day, and am not able to use my fingers for very long or bend them at certain angles. However, I can't set a key layout that will allow me to ergonomically (and safely!) position my hand, so playing more than 30 minutes wouldn't be an option for me - for this reason alone if nothing else! :( I am deeply disappointed that I cannot enjoy this promising game because of a few EXTREMELY poor choices and lack of basic oversight on the developers' part. The devs write on their dev blog (https://decayoflogos.com/) that they know they had a rocky release and will be releasing more patchs ASAP. I hope so, but I am uncertain. They are generally accepting of constructive criticism (I think) but at one point write: "We understand that Decay of Logos can be a very polarizing game. Maybe it plays different from what you imagined, perhaps you simply don’t like the style of the combat" No, the issue is that I can't play your game AT ALL. Please restore my faith in you and your company, because potential is NOT the same as good results!
