Recent reviews by The Real Tim Shady

An interesting little tale... between this game and its prequel. There is not much story to be had, and the two games are only loosely connected through your character Nephise. To me, the story was more like a template of a story, but it was asking me to fill it in, and I wanted to do just that. There is much mystery surrounding this world and Nephise to me, and I've created my own characteristics about Nephise.

What power does the orbs that Nephise collects give? Why or how has she killed things only by touching them. Is it voluntary or involuntary?

Still, it's a simple story but a sweet and short one I enjoyed. It is accompanied by a small but sweet and soothing soundtrack. The graphics look fine, though the scenery can be breathtaking at certain spots. Some stretched textures and their use of parallax can be jarring on some cliffsides but overall looks beautiful.
+bonus brownie points for GLISTENING SNOW.

Is $2 worth just over half an hour of your time? Or is that soda bottle from the vending machine worth $1.75? You choose! Just make sure you dont make that comparison more than twice a month, then it might hurt your wallet ;)

I will post a pro/con TL:DR list at the end. Please x4 read the entire review if you have time.

EDIT 6/24/2017: I originally wrote a negative review of this game, although I have changed it to a positive one after the latest patch two or so days prior to writing this review. This is both a review for the consumers and critique for the new devs.

Firstly, what have I always liked about this game, even before the patch? The visuals as you can see are quite stunning. I have a dozen or so screenshots to prove its fidelity. I found the lava particularly interesting... having its own 3D mesh and animations. Lava-waterfalls are unrealistic but neat nonetheless. Seeing lava drip and droop from a hanging rock would be more realistic and pleasing in its own right :D

Apart from gushing about lava... the soundtrack is masterful, though VERY limited. It's so nice yet there's only two or so scores: combat and exploration. The game's premise is engaging as well. A crazy religious cult, albeit one very different than the one found in Outlast 2. It's a shame though, with such a nice world there is not much world-building. Sure there are word walls to find, but you need to learn the cult's alphabet first, which requires a playthrough in itself. I would feel more inclined to do a 2nd playthrough if this knowledge also led to new areas, and if I had already gotten a taste of the world's lore through a couple notes already in english.

It is a shame this game will be plagued with possibly inaccurate review statistics, containing many reviews with now false information. However, the devs have some blame in this as well... Many people, including myself, were upset about a number of things not included in the game. These are now INCLUDED IN THE LATEST PATCH

-21:9 support. Not flawless, though better than majority of indie games and many triple A titles
-FOV slider. The highest FOV allowed in the menu was enough for me, though picky consumers might want more. At least they have it now!
-Disable Head-bobbing: Sorry Telepaths Tree, the headbobbing was atrociously nauseating, coming from someone who has never really experienced motion sickness in games prior. Always keep the option to disable head bob, although I welcome a MILD amount of headbob for immersion.

-Mouse sensitivity and re-binding keys are still disabled as far as I know. Default control configuration is simple, standard, and fits our needs just fine. Devs, let me know when this has changed and I will modify this information so my review remains accurate.

I have earned respect for the devs. In the face of mostly negative reviews, they listened to our ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and complaining, implementing all these above features. Although they should have debatably been in the game to start, finding developers who listen and fix several issues within about a month are rare gems to find indeed. I do hope they profit from this game and continue creating games and improving their standards.

There is so much more I could go over, however I will leave the rest of the review with my TL:DR list, including some details I have yet to mention.

~~~~~~TL:DR~~~~~~

+Great for a relaxed gaming session with some action
+Stunning visuals. Feel free to check my n00b screenshots
+Friendly devs who listen to their consumers and issue patches in a timely manner.
+Engaging premise
+Very creative weapon designs (I love the animations on the 3rd gun)
+Great, but not flawless, 21:9 support
+Nice music (sadly, only two or so tracks, getting repetitive)
+Creative gunplay game mechanics. Use your own life force when you run out of resources :o
+Short and sweet game-length
+Guidance to objectives are relatively subtle and immersive
+BEST LAVA EVER
+Improved sound design (still could use more work, yet few games can compell me to look in a certain direction because I hear something)

-Poor launch: missing features (now fixed with latest patch)
-Little reason for multiple playthroughs. Lore is hidden behind an alphabet you translate throughout the game ONLY if you explore well enough
-Head-bob is absurdly nauseating, BUT can be disabled.
-Odd voice acting. Perhaps post processing to make voice marginally more gritty and deep like the NPC preachers would mend this.
-Performance improved but still not satisfactory. Frequent stutters, frame drops, and the like. That said, my gtx 1070 at 3440x1440 highest settings can run 50+ fps under most circumstances.

Telepath's Tree; if you would like a full-fledged critique then by all means contact me. I am no game developer or professional reviewer by any means, though I certainly have more things to say, both positive and negative.

Figure it's about time to update this review.

I have a good 380 hours in Killing Floor 1, and a handful in KF2 as you can see. Although I play this game on and off throughout their waves of updates, I've always kept a close eye on their many development updates/logs.

I won't be the first to say that KF2 IS NOT KF1. Fans of the first game may not enjoy the 2nd installment, and I personally still find KF1 to be superior. KF2 sacrificed the horror for streamlined sci-fi/military themes, surrendering their unique blend of horror, humor, and action they created in KF1. That said, the workshop has many maps already up for download that can help patch up their almost painful lack of satisfying mood. However, I feel this game has MUCH more to offer for newcomers to the "franchise." KF2 has updated graphics, more gun pr0n, somewhat polished and continually improved gameplay with a large and relatively open community, and a level scaling system to aid in offering many more hours than the game would otherwise lose without. Newcomers would also not be hindered by the past experiences/nostalgia and expectations KF1 veterans hold the series to.

In the not so distant past though, I would have not recommended this game to anyone. With the introduction of CS:GO-cloned microtransactions, a versus mode we didn't ask for, excruciatingly slow content updates, and forum admins flailing their ban hammer at anyone who criticized the game to make their already poor community bond, I had lost all faith in the devs. After all, while this is still Tripwire, it is not the original Tripwire team that developed the first game.

Since then however, word on the street is they've vastly improved (although they still have their cancerous microtransactions, I guess they are completely optional and don't affect gameplay). They appear to listen to the community, and talk back to us more effectively than ever before. They regularly push out bug fix patches, and even had a somewhat hefty list of other bug fixes in their most recent content update.


I really hope that one day this game can surpass its previous installment. Perhaps we will start so see that happen after the official release, and they begin creating holiday zeds and maps once again (if they do D:)