Recent reviews by UR|Zuzuzu

Better story and characters than in most major RPGs.

Better turn-based combat, too, with free restarts to try different tactics.

A simple, but pleasant game.

Unfortunately, it's a deeply derivative product. A vintage recipe of Commandos series was brought to the 21th century by Mimimi studios in their brilliant Shogun Tactics, and now everyone, including Mimimi themselves, feels obliged to copy that winning solution pixel by pixel, ability by ability. And that is very much the case here.

Having said that, what this game lacks in originality, it makes up with craftsmanship. It plays great. Character abilities are grossly overpowered, but the levels are complex enough for all that power to have a proper application. Visuals are great. Story is decent enough. No technical hiccups.

Basically, if you are at all predisposed towards this sort of games, don't miss this one. It's a good bit of casual sneaking.

First, the obvious: Factorio is a better game. Bigger, harder, faster, stronger. Tighter in design, richer in quality of life features and interface, yada, yada.

But herein lies a problem: I don't want to deal with hardcore gigabrain multiplanet megaprojects, resilient to bug waves and supply shutdowns. Instead, I want to relax on a beach and fiddle around with a few belts and wires, making them look nice. While also contributing to a production chain. Less is more.

And that's what Satisfactory does in droves. It is serene. You are never in a rush, nor in a danger. Whatever you built, will work forever, undisturbed and safe, with all the pretty bits you've put on it, and all the amazing scenery around it. And I love it.

Great piece, both as a standalone, and as a second installment in a series. Comprehensive story, neat visuals, handy controls.

Provides tension and challenge at all stages of the game, while being approachable and open for experiments: free restarts, mid-combat checkpoints, multiple build options, etc.

The star feature of the series is its aiming mechanic. It brings a tangible, interactive way of both judging and controlling your chances. Most tactical games incite massive outrage with misses on 95% shots, but this one doesn't: if you miss, it's entirely on you. Fair. Good sport.

It starts as a hilariously dumb and grimderpy noir antiutopia, wrapped into a mediocre walking sim. That's good. So far.

But it drops hard from there. Devolves into endless, unbearable scripted sequences of moaning and puking and schizophrenic visions, interspersed by pointless button prompts.

Murky non-sensical plot remains unresolved. Puzzles are limp and atrocious, but thankfully few in number.

The only reason to play it is to see for youself how bad it is. Oh, and gawk at a couple of decent cityscapes, I guess.

If any game ever glorifed a war, this is the one. The shared, communal exultation of utter righteousness. A mindless glee of violence against an enemy that unquestionably deserves it. If you ever wondered why war crimes happen, play this game, and you'll recognize the obvious: it's fun.

Combat and landscapes are visually glorious. The heft and make of issued weaponry is authentic and powerful. Detailed damage model turns fighting every enemy into an involved mini-game with a rich feedback. Fair unmissable monetization soothes the mind.

Pretty much everything is done right here. It's a titan among 4-player coops. An absolute must-play.

A dreary and tedious walking sim. However, I struggle to think of a better medium to convey the intended experience of traversing an alien planet. We're not a Doom Slayer, the very act of getting around *is* a core challenge, boring as it may seem.

But that's just the shape of the product. Once you get through it to the essence within, it is delightful and refresing. A strong straightforward sci-fi novel about smart competent people dealing with unexpected problems. A flawless adaptation of a true classic.

Add to that some breath-catching landscapes, awesome industrial design, passable controls, lack of annoying puzzles, and we get a genuine gem that really shouldn't be missed by anyone who's at least marginally interested in space exploration.

It is exactly what it apprears to be: a simple topdown stealth game. Kinda like Hotline Miami, but on heroin instead of cocaine.

Everything is solid and handy: interface, controls, weapons, enemy behavior, no issues whatsoever. A genuine joy to play.

As a game, it's a shallow primitive slog.

As a narrative, it's an exquisite masterpiece. Extaordinary, sublime, full of talent and passion. A true work of art, both literary and visual.

Also, how often do you hear of a game having a *bibiliography* section in credits?

As of "Locked and Loaded" update the last major issue with the game is gone, and I can finally recommend it. It still requires at least a dozen qualtiy of life mods to enjoy properly, but now it's possible. Original review (of 1600 likes) follows after the cut.

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Yes, it's one of those '1K hours, do not recommend' reviews. I'm just really into this genre. But it doesn't change that, taken as a whole, this product sucks.

Core gameplay is top notch. Sometimes frustrating, unfair, and heavily reliant on teamwork, but that is alright, it's by design.

Art direction is likewise peerless. Vistas, environment details, equipment, all is thick with style and sense of presence.

Everything else is terrible. Worse, it's *deliberately* made terrible. Some key features like crafting aren't in the game yet, so I'll focus on the ones that already are implemented.

All the resources and inventories are separate per character, meaning you are forced to either main one character, or lose the entirety of your progression every time. But fret not: playable characters here are faceless slogan-spewing mooks with no personalities, stories, or meaning to their existence, so you aren't really missing much by sticking to any one of them.

Said progression is obtuse and messy. Gameplay itself provides almost no rewards. You can't even tell how well you've done, because there is no scoreboard. The winning move is not to play: your main way of getting decent items is log into the game every hour to check the shop for randomly occuring drops, see if you'll luck out.

Cosmetics, barring some basic selection, are available through additional real money transactions. To further push you towards purchase, every time you switch character you're forced to sit through an excruciatingly long loading time into a third-person hub with other random players, that serves as a showcase arena.

Which, by the way, reminds me: performance of the game is atrocious, system requirements are one of the highest among current games, FPS are unstable, backend glitches with progression loss are quite common.

This game is made by the worst F2P guidelines of retention at all cost, in hope that gameplay alone, devoid of story, personalities, endgame mechanics, build variety, or any sort of respect towards the player, will suffice. Hopefully you see why I can't recommend it to anyone.

Play Deep Rock Galactic instead.