Recent reviews by Sarandis

Overwatch as it should've been.

You've probably heard it 1000x already, but this beats diablo 4 all the way. As an early access where a lot of the bigger gripes get hammered down and OP stuff nerfed (And UP buffed), this comes way more packaged then most AAA studios full releases!

The loot feels rewarding, since I'm actually picking up EVERYTHING and selling/salvaging to slowly build up my Gold pile and Crafting currency pile. Rare is actually rare and I like that, unlike diablo's endgame where all you'll ever see is orange gear dropping like candy, to the point its the only thing you'll ever pick up. In POE 2 you'll see the same consistancy of loot drops throughtout the game (Although more enemies and rare enemies give more drops and are more common the closer to endgame you get). The game actually has me using the gambling and vendors to get good gear!

The Bosses are the best design of this game, feeling more like elden ring bosses, where you have to time dodges and stay engaged throughout. Although some of the bosses can be a little BS with their one shots, its already doing fantastic.

Game has gotten a lot better, Enjoying it even more now.

Edit: I have been using Sapphire recently, instant deaths have been happening way less, or almost not at all. However i get the opposite effect now: enemies are dying to instant death far too often, making me feel like a cheat. Using skills like "Steal Soul" or "Headshot" often triggers the AI to end the fight with instant death if succeeded, despite that the enemy may be 10 to 20 levels above me. with an option, I'd feel better if the game instead did Criticals if such a flag were to occur instead and if getting a "Critical Success" on a roll of an attack would instead do a 2x or even a 4x damage crit, and force the ai to write around the idea the enemy is not dead yet if they haven't hit 0 hp: and then, and ONLY then should the ai write the enemy defeated.

2. Also, going off the Critical idea, since charming/subduing an enemy would always lead to instant wins: an option to have it "Charge up" a "Non-Lethal" blue subdue bar the goes up to the max hp of the foe (Or the current HP for making them surrender after beating them up). when it reaches the point, it charms/subdues the enemy, giving the XP that would come with it. The "Damage" of the "Non-Lethal" would be based on the skill and choosing if it was done non-lethally or of the chosen action was a charm attempt, at the base of what a lethal attack would be, increasing the same as attacks as you level.

Older review: (Ignore this, It is only here for archive purposes)
--I do however have a major gripe: There was far too many instant deaths, especially on me. Most of the time my deaths were completely random, i even used a medkit and died randomly, and I would win fights with critical successes and and after the victory, my character would just randomly die and have their plot armor removed. even in battle instant deaths have been too common to the point health is just pointless. Why even have hp if 99% of the time you would die from a random death flag? i believe there should be a 0% instant death flag and only damage to hp or other stats that would lead closer to death, but never instant.--

Ark + Breath of the wild + Pokemon.

It has finally been released after 10 years of early access.

I consider this game like minecraft, with every year or so, a whole new version that revamps and adds alot of new content that keeps the game fresh.

there is plenty of mods that you can mix and match, with addition to complete overhaul mods that expand or change upon the core game completely (Like Undead Legacy), that also is updating alongside vanilla funpimps.

Whether you get it now or later, there will always be more ever evolving content awaiting for you to play

My favorite colony simulator of all time.

Endless mods and ways to customize your experience.

Space engineers streamlined with more in survival and exploration. No man's sky style Galaxy generation, and plenty of factions to befriend/fight. If you liked space engineers, or want a more living universe in a SE style game, this is right up your alley.

I can't recommend this game enough! One of the best survival games to come out in a long time, A game focused on adventure and building. The game's Progression is similar to Terraria where you kill bosses to unlock an item or tool that you need to be able to get the next tier of material (Metals). Also, much like Terraria, you can hop your character and their gear to other worlds, they keep their leveled skills and items.

The Building is similar to Ark/Rust only if Ark and Rust allowed you to freely place as you please, and had a structural integrity system that limited on only how high (sometimes big) you make make your structures. Furniture has a use other than decoration by increasing comfort levels which increase how long that much needed "rested" bonus you get, which is integral to staying alive by doubling your stamina regeneration. Don't worry about destroying misplaced buildables, as you get 100% refunded materials that was used to make them, unless they are damaged in which case: repair first. Don't destroy stuff that has values store in them (like fuel in torches) as they won't get those values returned when destroyed.

The loot and materials in this game is always usable and necessary throughout the entire progression, as they become part of a lot of recipes you will need to make/upgrade/build stuff out of. You can never have to much metal, always needed in building certain things (like Sconces), and a lot of materials is consumed if you choose to make equipment and upgrade them, so always bring back the goodies, even resin, which you will get a lot of during your progression in the game will always be relevant as you need a lot of it to refuel your sconces and torches, or craft much needed fire arrows with them.

In terms of character progression, There are skills with levels (from 0-100) that you unlock as use them the first time, and they progress as you use them. They aren't as integral as the gear you will be using, and they don't lock you out of using said gear if your not high enough. Instead they help you out by making you do more damage with the tool/weapon and reduce stamina usage (much needed as stamina is important).

Combat is an absolute treat. It is a Dark Souls-like combat system, where dodging, blocking, exploiting openings, parrying, and stamina management is crucial to defeating enemies, especially bosses. You will run into issues with stamina as it regenerates slowly, so keep up with your rested bonus by resting (standing in shelters with fire for a bit, or sleeping), and with your food. Keeping up with your equipment is also necessary if you don't want to die, which death can be punishing in not only needing to do a "corpse run" (Which you beeline to your deathspot for your dropped items and gear), but also reducing your all leveled skills by a small percentage. Once you die though, you're given a mercy buff which prevents further skill loss for 5 minutes, so if you die over and over again doing a corpse run, your not punished skillwise. All the bosses except the first one will be a challenge, so come prepared to face them not only in equipment, by consumables as well (like poison resistance mead and the like).

Adventuring and gathering materials is also a little more realistic in some regards, as you not only have a limit in your inventory slots, but also a weight limit (300) meaning you will be going back to your base more often to offload your loot. As you progress your means of bringing back stuff will also improve, unlocking Carts and Better ships to store stuff and haul. As for carts, they like to get caught up in things and as the cart gets heavier with stuff, it gets harder to pull, making uphills a nightmare. So making roads and smoothing pathways, make its easier to get around. Making outposts and shelters along the way makes it easier for you to get that rested bonus back as you adventure, and allow you to sleep and skip the night on the fly. There is also teleporters which will make offloading lighter loot and RTB much easier, but the heavier valuable material like ores cannot be brought through, forcing you to haul it back the hard way.

Overall, if you like survival games, this is one of them best. Wholeheartedly recommend this game though and through. At early access, and at $19.99, there is more content then most finished games, and will take you hours upon hours to complete (even if you try to speedrun it).

If you plan on waiting til its "complete" I recommend buying it now while it is cheap. For how great it is, It will definitely have a price hike in the future.

After all these hours, plus extra from PSVR version, I gotta say that this is one of the best rhythm games ever.

You can get a great cardio workout from playing the higher difficulties, In my opinion the best way to get fit with a VR game. It can get quite intense, especially when playing any of the Camellia maps, or any of the of Ranked custom maps (Mods)

On steam version specifically, there is a dedicated community with tons of of mods and even more custom songs awaiting you to play them. Download and play your favorite songs, or try your hand at the ranked songs and increase your rank, Or just play the 1000+ community song maps out there, as almost every day, like 10+ maps gets released by the public on Beatsaver (Custom songs mod).

This is one of those games where this is no real skill ceiling, so you can keep getting better and better with each play, just make sure to actually use practice and no fail on song maps you have trouble with and you'll work it out no problem as It took me around 40+ hours of play over time to be able to effectively do Expert+ on the original Beat Saber OST and its song packs.

Unless you hate rhythm games or a good cardio workout, this is a must have amongst your VR titles.