Recent reviews by VYRNACH GAMING

GLOURIOUS VICTORY (for now)

7March2024: Everything mostly working fine now aatleast for Asia region. But some network issues still happening but much rarer now
22Feb2024: Quickplay and matchmaking is finally working (atleast for ASIA region) after not working for almost a week. However, many players in some regions are STILL unable to get into the game like NA. Some instabilities are still present tho

Review will be updated to recommended WHEN the server issues are resolved. Trying to warn potential players that the server issues are very real and very bad

Game is really fun but their implementation of P2P with online only GAAS is treacherous and undemocratic. You'll still get the occasional disconnection losing almost an hour of gameplay simply cause of crashes and losing connection to their congested servers.

Trying to match-make with players? Well too bad cause it hasn't worked in DAYS. Not a problem if you already have a full squad of 4 and the game would scale properly to the amount of players right? RIGHT? Well the newer patches pretty much forces you to have a full squad all the time now on higher difficulties TO EVEN HAVE A CHANCE. It's just starting to get more frustrating than fun.

Tl;Dr: buy it if you have a full squad. It's working fine and you'll have a blast. If you're a solo gamer looking to match-make with other players or in a 2man squad, wait. You might be fine with 3 players but that's still depends on the difficulty.

Ignore all the haters with all their fake news BS. As someone that grew up playing the Pokemon games since Pokemon Red, this is well and truly THE DREAM POKEMON GAME WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR. Sure it may look really off with the guns, the Amazon warehouse workers level of workplace violations, slavery, and war crimes, it still really is an amazing game. Albeit very glitchy and buggy at times but it still has more content and is more polished than most Early Access games out there. After sinking countless sleepless nights and almost 100 hours at the time of this review, I think I can give a simplified "if I should buy now" review based on your situation having experienced ALL of the following situations:

Just don't read any guides and just explore and learn the game as you go. Just maybe turn off Base Raids and building damage if you don't want your dream base to go down in a blaze of glory especially if it's of a certain wooden type. I just learnt lightning bird raids love stone buildings so just turn it off unless you're totally fine with your base getting destroyed and enjoy the challenge.

1. Solo gamer (and not interested to join others): Game is mostly very playable and without much game breaking issues. There were a few like the reset stats item but even that has been fixed. You'll have a blast with almost nothing to worry about as local games have even backup saves and cloud saves* (I think).
   
   
2. Small PRIVATE friend group (2-4): Game is playable and with SOME game breaking issues. There are still numerous issues that can corrupt your saves like quitting guilds among others. As long as you keep your game private, you don't have to worry about the plethora of other issues. However, the host will always have to be online to resume game-play if you plan to host locally (without a dedicated server). Currently there's a lot of simple config that you can't change easily like how many bases you can build without using a very hack-ish "UE injected mods" which may corrupt your save file. But that won't matter much cause it's just a small group of you.
   
   
3. Big PRIVATE friend group (5+++): Game is playable, with SOME game breaking issues and possibly major performance issues as you must use a dedicated server for more than 4 players. I'm not exaggerating when I say the host must have a powerful PC with a lot of RAM and at least some experience with hosting game servers as it's going to CRASH A LOT. Like you'll must have a restart script every-time it crashes for truly 24/7 dedicate servers. Depending on the performance of the server and the number of players, your performance will vary.
   
   There are still numerous issues that can corrupt your saves like quitting guilds among others. As long as you keep your game private, you don't have to worry about the plethora of other issues. However, the host will always have to be online to resume game-play if you plan to host locally with a dedicated server. Currently there's a lot of simple config that you can't change easily like how many bases you can build without using a very hack ish "UE injected mods" which may corrupt your save file. Sadly, this will greatly affect your game-play as all being in the same guild will greatly limit your ability to progress as you're only limited to 3 bases and the game isn't scaled properly to this much players. You could increase the resource and Pal drops config but this may have very strong implications on the the default game-play such as being too easy or breaking core game-play loop.
   
   
4. ANY PUBLIC SERVER (1+++): Game is playable but is hugely defendant on the situation, with a HUGE number of game breaking issues and major performance issues as you must use a dedicated server for more than 4 players. I'm not exaggerating when I say the host must have a powerful PC with a lot of RAM and at-least some experience with hosting game servers as it's going to CRASH A LOT with a lot of troubleshooting and such cause every patch will introduce new issues that you'll likely need to find your own or rely on the community in the form of the official Discord. Like you'll must have a restart script every-time it crashes for truly 24/7 dedicate servers. Depending on the performance of the server and the number of players, your performance will vary. Even with a top end server, game starts to deteriorate into UNPLAYABLE territory around the 15 player mark which is when the server FPS starts to dip below 10 FPS with major stutters for long running public server with many bases. So it may be a good idea to limit players to a certain degree.
   
   There are HUGE number of issues that you'll need to resolve: 1.that can corrupt your saves like quitting guilds among others, hackers messing with server data corrupting your character stats and possibly the actual server save file, 2.game spoiling issues like hackers spoiling games by spawning items and possibly corrupted items in everyone's inventory, hackers getting themselves into everyone's guild and destroying everyone's bases, hackers stealing resource and pals from bases and getting everyone banned in the server whenever they want. Game is really not scaled to this much players so you'll need to spend a lot of time tuning and tweaking to find what's based for your community of players. Highly recommend to go back to private games until they resolve all the major security issues. At the time of writing, none of these issues has been resolved. If you really still want to continue with a community, you'll need a lot of measures such as regular backups and manually inspecting the game world and the ban-list to see WHEN a hacker incident occurs.

Edit: server issues have MOSTLY been fixed. You'll still get weird networking and party bugs all over the place. Game in general is fun but everything just felt ... incomplete for the lack of a better word. I'm not gonna repeat what has been said in other reviews but it's still a very good idea to wait especially for a major patch that is hopefully "responding to general feedback".
DO NOT BUY THE GAME. It's day 3 and many of us still can't play or can't play properly (without xp and progression issues galore) a game we paid for. I simply have no words. This is looking to be the worst game launch ever in history

Finally tried it and it's pretty awesome. Right up there at the top COOP games for sure

EDIT: Multiplayer stops working if you have more than 300 Steam Friends. This is not a joke

fix for NETWORK disconnected:
You have too many Steam friends. I'M NOT KIDDING. Remove or block friends until you have 300 friends
https://steamoss.com/app/534380/discussions/0/3186862118582919077/

DO NOT BUY if you expect it to work fine playing multiplayer with your friends. There's major issues stopping affecting the online portion of the game. We already spend many hours trying to get the game working but it seems to be a major issue on their end. The game itself is pretty awesome so far but we bought into the game for the multiplayer and it simply does not work right now

Will update when I play enough of the time for a proper review

[Updated for December update]
Tl;Dr: Ignore the hate and just try the game on Microsoft Game Pass for $1 and see for yourself if the game is worth it. Recent December update has incredibly MOSTLY resolved my biggest issues with the game: unfair/unreasonable difficulty and counter mechanics for corruption cards in the form of burn cards. Unfortunately, it has also introduced a fair share of bugs which is something the game STILL struggles with since beta. Game is definitely not worth full price and should be bought during a big sale. The real main problem with the game is there's simply not enough content in it's current state to motivate players to keep playing and sadly the recent update nor any other future update will resolve this.

Full review:
I feel like I can finally leave a proper review that isn't based on a kneejerk reaction to a really bad patch as someone who has finished almost everything in the game (Cleared nightmare legit before difficulty nerf,almost got a full ZWAT). This is easily one of the best coop shooters that I have played in recent memory when it works as intended. It's far from perfect but if you can hop in with a group of friends and all of you don't mind the challenge (so much easier now), it can be quite fun. The various features you can come to expect from a 2021 shooter game are here; wide array of guns, attachments and quality of life features like marking and hit marks. I especially enjoy the RPG gunplay side of the game and wished there was more to it like being able to mod and remove attachments at will (this will be possible in the January patch with a card).

I̶ ̶p̶e̶r̶s̶o̶n̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶d̶o̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶m̶i̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶s̶a̶n̶e̶ ̶c̶h̶a̶l̶l̶e̶n̶g̶e̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶a̶c̶k̶n̶o̶w̶l̶e̶d̶g̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶y̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶n̶e̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶d̶o̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶b̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶m̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶g̶a̶m̶e̶ ̶m̶u̶c̶h̶ ̶m̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶a̶c̶c̶e̶s̶s̶i̶b̶l̶e̶ ̶e̶s̶p̶e̶c̶i̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶s̶i̶n̶c̶e̶ ̶p̶e̶o̶p̶l̶e̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶p̶l̶a̶y̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶g̶a̶m̶e̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶s̶o̶l̶e̶s̶ ̶(̶d̶o̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶t̶w̶i̶s̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶s̶o̶l̶e̶ ̶h̶a̶t̶e̶ ̶p̶l̶e̶a̶s̶e̶)̶.̶ ̶E̶v̶e̶n̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶P̶C̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶g̶a̶m̶e̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶V̶e̶t̶e̶r̶a̶n̶ ̶c̶a̶n̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶s̶a̶n̶e̶l̶y̶ ̶d̶i̶f̶f̶i̶c̶u̶l̶t̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶c̶e̶r̶t̶a̶i̶n̶ ̶m̶a̶p̶s̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶c̶e̶r̶t̶a̶i̶n̶ ̶c̶o̶r̶r̶u̶p̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶c̶a̶r̶d̶s̶ ̶(̶e̶g̶.̶ ̶T̶5̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶f̶i̶r̶e̶ ̶o̶r̶ ̶a̶c̶i̶d̶ ̶z̶o̶m̶b̶i̶e̶s̶)̶. The card system makes you think about what to bring to your team and keeps you engaged. The zombies have their set of randomized cards that tries to keep your next playthrough fresh and vastly different from your previous runs.T̶h̶e̶s̶e̶ ̶R̶N̶G̶ ̶f̶a̶c̶t̶o̶r̶s̶ ̶f̶r̶o̶m̶ ̶b̶o̶t̶h̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶c̶a̶r̶d̶ ̶s̶y̶s̶t̶e̶m̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶v̶e̶n̶d̶o̶r̶ ̶u̶p̶g̶r̶a̶d̶e̶s̶ ̶s̶a̶d̶l̶y̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶d̶o̶u̶b̶l̶e̶ ̶e̶d̶g̶e̶ ̶s̶w̶o̶r̶d̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶c̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶e̶a̶s̶i̶l̶y̶ ̶m̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶o̶r̶ ̶b̶r̶e̶a̶k̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶n̶e̶x̶t̶ ̶r̶u̶n̶.̶ ̶I̶ ̶c̶a̶n̶ ̶d̶e̶f̶i̶n̶i̶t̶e̶l̶y̶ ̶u̶n̶d̶e̶r̶s̶t̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶f̶r̶u̶s̶t̶r̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶s̶t̶e̶m̶s̶ ̶f̶r̶o̶m̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶d̶o̶e̶s̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶e̶x̶a̶c̶t̶l̶y̶ ̶b̶r̶e̶a̶k̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶g̶a̶m̶e̶ ̶a̶t̶ ̶a̶l̶l̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶m̶e̶.̶

Game is so much easier now in a very good way. Gone are the days where you will have to resign to a hellish gameplay where a single mistake or a really bad mixture of bad RNG vendor upgrades and corruption cards would almost inevitably spell your death. You even have a really practical way to counter some of the really difficult corruption cards with certain burn cards such as fire resistance cards for fire zombies card which is stackable up to an insane 80% damage resistance. You can also recover "continues" which drastically changes the game loop should you recover from a failure (you can't use a burn card upon failure of a level). This and other positive changes paves the way to a much better random matchmaking gameplay experience as "the game doesn't have to be prefect to win" especially in certain maps in nightmare. The game still does manage to have a "proper challenge at times" which I think is a good thing. Us long time players have a new difficulty in the future to look forward to so we shouldn't complain too much.

I personally bought the ultimate edition and wished I just settled with the deluxe as the skins are truly almost non existent and awful. But didn't feel ripped off at all as I totally enjoyed my time playing the game. I just wished there was more to do other than grinding for the ZWAT outfit set in nightmare. Quite a number of the maps are recycled and do not constitute as a unique map at all. There are definitely unique gameplay elements on some of the maps but sadly they're few and far between. The game is truly not worth full price at all due to the limited nature of the content. The replayability is subjective and I though it wasn't too bad.

Recent December update has incredibly MOSTLY resolved the my biggest issues with the game: unfair/unreasonable difficulty and counter mechanics for corruption cards in the form of burn cards. Unfortunately, it has also introduced a fair share of NEW nasty bugs which is something the game STILL struggles with since beta. Most of these bugs range from major annoyance like not being able to run after being healed by someone (heal someone else to fix, weird I know) to slightly game-breaking like like shots not doing any damage (drop and pickup your weapon) which you can easily die from. Game server lags and stuttering is still a thing since beta and sadly has never been resolved. Despite that, all of these issues does not ruin our experience that much and will likely be resolved in the next patch.

Still on fence whether to get the game on your launcher? Just try the game on Gamepass for $1! It's the full game and you'll know immediately if this game is for you

TL;DR version: Compared to PC's first year of release, game is so much better in terms "unrestricted content (activities,items,etc)", activity wait times especially for multiplayer, the "countless quality of life improvements"

Got the game as part of a GPU bundle within first year of PC release and clocked almost 200 hours on it when it was under a different launcher. Really enjoyed the campaign and general co-op but it quickly got repetitive with the very limited content which may or may not be due to me not having any DLCs. Nothing really wrong with it at all. Just that it was very lacklustre in terms of content.

2 long years later when the game came to Steam and and went F2P, tried the game again cause some friends are playing it and was really impressed with all the changes. Especially with what they improved upon. There's just so much that has changed that it's hard to list it all here. I've at my 8th day or so of replaying the game again and I've yet to explore all the areas, the changes and so on. There's so much you can do it's almost insane and this can definitely be a bad thing if you're new to the game.

It's definitely not perfect. Sadly, server, matchmaking and fragile P2P netcode (you'll get disconnect even at the slightest network instability) issues are still a thing which apparently is worst when the network is more congested now there's alot more players now. Give the game a chance regardless what you opinion is. It's free after all and you have absolutely nothing to lose. But do try to do it with a friend

There are only a special few games that I've played over the years that I always come back to. Not only for the events but just for the general gameplay and what it brings to the table for me in regards to co-op team survival. This game is one of it. Proper satisfying gunplay matched with a solid teamwork centric gameplay makes for a fun game despite playing countless hours since the first game

Ninjas high as ****, thinking they're space ninjas or something. Going around with armors and guns and killing things, with other ninjas

- Totally worth a try especially if you like Mass Effect style of action gameplay. Very fair game reward system and decent gameplay overall. Just try bring a bro or two with you

I really like the game, but atleast I found the cake in a Left 4 Dead 2 map =/