Recent reviews by Inoooh

This plays like a game where the developers were too lazy to program AI. I understand the argument of it being "based on the board game," but we're not playing a board game. Having to chaperone every single unit because they'll just stand there and be shot at is tedious at best, and is one of the biggest gripes I have with the game. The campaign also has a few missions that are incredibly unbalanced, and expect you to scrape by by the skin of your teeth (like mission 5, which starts with the enemy already having map control and you losing tickets before you even move from your base). The game is very poorly optimized, even on a 3070.

The game does have its strengths, like unit identity, but that's also where part of the game is at its weakest. Shield units all have a barrier, sword units all have a charge, archers/artillery all have a barrage. The game is basically just Rock-paper-scissors, and is mind numbing in the "I wanna turn this off and take a nap" kind of way. The voice acting is fairly good, but I've noticed several moments where the lip movement is fairly off from the voices, but that's not a voice acting problem. The graphics are very nice, and the sound design is good, nothing crazy, but it's satisfactory.

I would not recommend the game to anyone who likes to play RTS games unless you wanna babysit each individual unit like there is not a single thought between their eyes.

TL;DR at the bottom:

I want to love this game, I truly do. As others have pointed out the game is buggy, it is early access after all. I feel the game does a fantastic job capturing the atmosphere. . . At first. In the first mission (a tutorial, really) I truly felt like I didn't know squat about the game, and it made it that much more terrifying playing on the hardest difficulty with only a few magazines and an unknown amount of enemies. But then, the moment the second mission starts, even if you ended with an empty gun in your hands, you suddenly have max ammo and are ready to pump lead into every creepy insectoid that wants to eat your skull.

Now, that's not bad per se, but it is a little odd and breaks my immersion a little bit, and also devalues the horror of a shooter like this. It's like playing a resident evil game with unlimited ammo, you lose an element of resource management that makes the "survival" aspect just a black and white "you live or die." Now, this is a minor gripe, and I'd still recommend the game were it not for other issues involving ergonomics and locomotion.

The guns will wildly go from controlling like you're an expert marksman, to baby's first pistol. The laser from your firearm sort of fades out after a certain distance, establishing a "range" of sorts for your weapons. Now, if the laser IS over an enemy, you'd think... It's gonna hit right? Except, it doesn't. At least, if it's intended to, it doesn't like to. I remember several instances of pointing at an enemy that is near motionless, popping off a shot and hearing it hit the wall. Now, when this happens when I'm in no amount of danger that's fine, it's just one shot. But when it happens fight after fight, and leads to whole swarms flocking to you like Winnie the Pooh to honey, it becomes frustrating. Eventually, you do get access to another character, and this dude is in no means an expert marksman. As such, his hands sway much more when holding the gun, making him more a "oh ♥♥♥♥" kind of character to use in only emergencies. I do enjoy this aspect of it, as they can still defend themselves, but at the same time it is exacerbated by the Scout (the starting operator) just... randomly missing.

Now ironically, I'd still be playing the game, albeit with mild frustration, were it not for a problem that is just infuriating: the locomotion, aka movement of the game. At first I absolutely loved the way the game controlled, it reminded me of old school flash games, and tank controls from even older games like resident evil. But, as I played further and further it just became... infuriating. I know some people will say you just gotta "git gud," but I've never had problems with games like these in the past. The controls/movement in Hidden Deep leaves MUCH to be desired, as it explains the fundamentals of it to you, but never how far they actually go. For example, once you reach a certain point you're shown how to zipline, and to zipline in the game the only thing you have to do is jump onto the line while holding a certain input, but did you know there's a height limit to how far you can fall from onto the zipline? Cause I certainly didn't before watching my character plummet to his death. At first, I thought I just did it wrong, so I tried it again. Trying it 3 times in a row just to make sure, you can infact fall too far onto the line.

Now, I honestly thought it was funny, until I realized I burned through 4 of my 7 lives just trying to test something the game never explained to me. Nonetheless, I moved on. Later in the same level, there are several instances where you have to climb up and down ledges (or use the grapple hook) to traverse terrain. On multiple occasions, and in the tutorial itself, I found my character looking at the ledge, spinning around to grab the ledge, grabbing the ledge, and snapping back forward and walking himself off the ledge to his death. In the tutorial alone this happened a dozen times, and it was frustrating enough I had to take it off realistic difficulty, as I wasn't even certain of if I died after the level finished if I'd have to start all the way from the beginning of the game, or if I'd just restart the level. But, it continued to happen. Again. And again. To the point I stopped trying to vault, and just traversed all terrain with the grapple hook, which in many instances was better as it allowed me to also shoot enemies that may be lurking above ledges. But, you can't always grapple (at least easily) so you still have to vault from time to time. And wouldn't you know it, just about every other vault I performed my character would snap around and do a front flip off the ledge and snap his neck.

Now, understandably the issues I've listed are likely just the result of bugs (hopefully?) as they do not seem to be design features. That said, they created enough of a negative impression on me that I cannot recommend the game in its current state. Despite that, providing these issues are amended, and more content is added to the game, I'd be happy to give it another try and amend my review. I really want to love Hidden Deep, as the aesthetic and atmosphere are great, with the sound design being pretty much right where it needs to be. Maybe a bit more ambient noise would fill me with a bit more dread.

TL;DR
+Good atmosphere
+Decent sound design
+Niche, nice aesthetic

-Bugs make required aspects of the game unplayable
-Gunplay is wonky
-Player Movement is unpredictable
-Too much ammo on higher difficulties

While it was a game I could beat in its entirety in one no-life game session, the game has a very satisfying loop that hooks you in and makes you forget to eat lunch. The game starts the runs (at least the first few) fairly slow, and I can say with honesty that it almost made me go "Is this it?" Then about 10 minutes into the first run, the game suddenly forces you to turn into a beyblade to escape with your life. As you get more and more comfortable with the different weapons, you'll learn some neat little secrets and "synergies" between the trinkets and weapons, making EVERY weapon highly usable. Anytime I picked up a weapon I didn't go "Well this run is bricked," instead it was "Oh my god if I can find this one trinket I'm gonna shred 'em."

Is the game worth 3 doll hairs? Are you second guessing purchasing because the game looks like it is running on an SNES? Do you wanna mindlessly kill literal hundreds of thousands of bats, skeletons, zombies, mummies, snot monsters, and gorgons to get every achievement like the achievement hunting little boi that you are?

Then buy the damn game, it's 3 doll hairs. It's worth it.

The game is phenomenal and the developers are actually engaged and listening to the community. The game is constantly changing, though some builds are always at the top of the meta, but even ignoring meta you can still have an absolute riot with the game. 550 hours currently, and likely 550 more as long as they maintain the same course that they have for years. Also, PoE2 hype.

If you're not a fan of theory crafting/Action RPGs (like Diablo)/actually having to read what abilities do, this game might not be for you as it is quite involved, but that's part of the charm of it. The game allows you to do so many different builds, and while you can finish all 10 Acts with any build fairly easily, the game doesn't end there as maps are the real endgame and that's where your build will be challenged to the extreme.

If you like a game that won't hold your hand, but is engaging and has some of the most unique skills in an ARPG, that also has quite an excellent story to it, then look no further than Path of Exile.

I love this game fervently, it takes a lot of the elements of Darkest Dungeon and really stands on its own feet. I can see myself investing countless hours into this game, but unfortunately the game suffers from incredibly skewed boss fights. Not, "Git gud" fight, but instead incredibly random RNG fights. An example I can recall very vividly is that of the inventor, and his 10% luck that crit 9 times of the about 12 times he used his 4 tile electrocute. Not only does the RNG seem so aggregiously skewed, but the fight doesn't seem to have been playtested either (this is an early access I'm aware) as whenever you destroy his turrets, they come back. ALL of them. Even if you destroy 2-3 turrets in a round, he comes back and brings up all the turrets AND still gets his turn, typically using it to shock you as no turrets need repairs now. Mix this in with the fact that if he gets 1, let alone TWO support turrets you will actually just be stun locked with 2 people the whole fight.

I've put a fair amount of time into this game already and plan to put in more, but it is painful to literally throw wave after wave of perfect parties that should handle the physical damage/soak rush that this fight requires just to have the Inventor spit on my corpses. I'm not a game developer, but I can tell from the countless corpses thrown at this guy that he is incredibly overtuned, and even the streamers that I watch that are Darkest Dungeon veterans have stated that they believe the boss "wasn't playtested" or is "overtuned." I want this game to do well, and will continue trying to beat him, but I only have a surplus of so many corpses before the Inventor will have drained the last of my will out of me.

TL;DR I recommend the game, but to those looking for a more casual experience with a Darkesst Dungeon feel, this is not that. The game will beat you down and keep you down. If you like a challenge, with bosses that have unique mechanics, this may be your cup of tea, but this game won't hold back. I have a fair amount of time in this, and Darkest Dungeon and believe this to be a solid entry, if a little skewed toward the RNG.

EDIT: It is worth noting that the Devs have now released a balancing patch that is designed to address some of the issues with the game. When I have the time I will be attempting the boss again to determine if the changes have made a big enough impact!

EDIT2: I have faced the second boss, and even with just level 1 Lost soul, Dark knight (x2) and a Skeleton, I was able to defeat the boss with only losing the Skele and Lost Soul. The change has definitely made this boss less of a headache! .