Recent reviews by thegazbeard

This has to be the most chaotic, confusing and downright unintuitive set of game controls I have ever encountered in 55 years of gaming. The control and help menus do nothing to assist and critical keybinds such as how to apply a bandage are not even listed.
The tutorials consist of a series of short rapid pace missions with an NCO constantly yelling full volume at you like a parade ground drill sergeant even as you're trying to creep up on a sentry to take them down stealthily = guaranteed suicide action as all element of surprise is removed. There is little to no "this is how you do it" in the tutorials, and key mission objectives simply bork out and never reappear if you die on the first attempt.
As a platform on which other developers could build their own games, it is very comprehensive. As a game to play if you have more than one game in your Steam library, forget it. You have to dedicate your life to learning how to play Arma 3 or request a refund and forget it.

If you're into stompy robbits and like a bit of a story to go with them, this will scratch that itch in your paintwork.
If you like purely story led games, this might be a little too sandbox for you.
Game plays smoothly without many glitches and bugs, but when you hit that boss mission it lets you feel it - scum save regularly.

The early access playtest was really fun. I enjoyed it a lot and look forward to where they take this game and its final release.
I streamed and recorded my initial playthrough of the playtest, the 9-hour (start-to-finish) video is here - https://youtu.be/F5T0NYdTb9M?si=vBWNwiIsJ7TjXikx

They don't like the light.

One of the best, if not THE best, survival games available. Outside of story mode, in the sandbox, it's just you v the weather and wildlife with multiple difficulty modes to choose from (each with unique traits).

The timberwolves are a pain, but for the most part, wildlife can be outsmarted or killed to clear your path. Surviving 500 days (major achievement badge) is a real battle of willpower, but achievable with patience and knowledge of the game systems and maps. Average survival durations are around 10 or 100 days depending on mode.

Although many won't like the comparison, the description I give to my community is that Empyrion is like a meld of Space Engineers, No Man's Sky, and 7 Days to Die ... resulting in a game that is fun and playable.

The Steam Community Workshop has tens of thousands of pre-built designs to add to your game, with a style and type to suit everyone. However, the most fun and satisfaction comes from creating your own ships and bases in Creative Mode, adding them to your Survival Mode factory, gathering the resources, and building it. Just decide what you need next in the game, design it in Creative and add to your library using Alt+O, then in Survival add it to your factory and start inputting the materials.

Once you get started, you'll find the game is a pleasurable addiction.

If you're looking for an absorbing game with no PvP, zombies, or other combat distractions, I highly recommend FarmSim - it's uniquely immersive and addictive, and the huge list of easily accessed mods within the game allow you to customise the equipment and buildings you use on a map-by-map (or farm-by-farm) basis. The in-game mod hub also includes hundreds of maps from different countries worldwide ... allowing your farm to be based anywhere you'd like to retire to.

Very Immersive gameplay despite it's age showing in the character and NPC renders and animations. 65 hours in and still barely scratched the surface of the major and minor quests collection, I'm expecting to get a few hundred more hours from just the vanilla version of this during my first playthrough. The dungeons are awesome and very cinematic once you get away from the starter area.

Despite being in early access, and the occasional glitch causing a quest to need a roll-back to an earlier save, I unreservedly recommend Medieval Dynasty ... especially to lovers of games without fantasy creatures, zombies, etc. Lose yourself in this highly immersive world and it's best-in-class graphics.

Don't worry about playing online or offline, with or without a list of installed mods, nor rushing to the endgame - just play to enjoy it and this game will reward you over and over. With over 1600 hours into the game so far, there are huge parts of the "end game" content I've not yet seen or attempted because I'm still learning and enjoying the map and content from the mid-game areas.