Reviews
New World Review
New World is an mmo by Amazon Games and is currently doing a preview until 9/4/2020. This review is based off that. To start, this is the build that would have released back in may and again in august on the 25th if they had not decided to delay it using covid as an excuse.
The character customization options are horrible. They feel like a 90s rpg in terms of how limited options you have. But hey, atleast females can have facial hair right? From that you get a fun little cutscene and then a basic combat tutorial that takes you to the starter quest person.
The world itself looks beautiful. However, there is no jump. It is 2020 and a 3d mmo has no jump is just a sin and should not be allowed. The combat is wonky and off. It feels like they wanted to make dark souls combat, but then realized it was too hard for them to play so they butchered it to whatever this is. Blocking only works half the time. The moving up on objects does not work half the time, which would be solved with…a jump button.
The quests are so standard and boring. They also take you to the same locations from level 1 up thru end game. You will for the entire time of your pve leveling be going to the same spots over and over. Killing 20 mobs and looting 10 chests. Hardly any variance at all.
The mobs are the same models over and over. There is so little variance that by level 10 you’ve seen 90 percent of the mobs you’ll fight all game already.
The leveling is also horrendous because someone thinks that when you invite 500 million players in a game at once, you need 5 minute timers for one mob spawn. Seriously, who does not understand mob timers? Even uo and eq did not have this mob spawn problem.
The game is not hard. Infact what makes it hard, is having to wait 2 hours to complete a kill 10 mob quest because there are so many trying to kill the 10 mobs and they take 5 plus minutes to spawn.
No mounts exist, and your fast travel is pretty limited. So you will be running alot. For along time. All game.
I feel like they left the mob spawns so slow and all this walking to hide the fact the game lacks content.
The magic staves are cool, but only two exist. Magic almost feels like an after thought added to the game, but magic and ranged combat tends to be the most op in terms of mob killing.
The pvp system is a joke. It is flag pvp and there is zero point to pvp or flag. The end game pvp is 50v50 instanced siege that is basically wow battlegrounds, but with a lottery system that you may not get picked for. So pvp is basically absent from a game that promotes pvp as a core feature.
End game pve is one “boss”. That is it.
Crafting feels like it could be good, but it is missing something. Like a lot of something. It really does not feel important or impactful in the current state of the game.
The housing system where you have houses in the world is pretty cool, but also pointless really and might as well be instanced housing like final fantasy xiv.
This game needs about 2-3 years more of actual work for it to be anywhere near decent.
Here is a video review of it here: https://youtu.be/hZJSOMoKCEg
Grounded Ea Launch Review
Grounded by Obsidian Entertainment has officially launched into early access with a decent pricetag of 30usd. This game is set in the genre of survival sandbox and uses xbox services for its multiplayer.
Many “issues” negative reviewers have complained about are simply silly. Co op works and you simply need to use the same login you do for windows. The game launches fine from steam.
The current main story quest in the game is currently rather short, however, there is tons of things to do as it is a survival game. Tons of other quests, things to explore and find, things to learn to craft as well as an interesting building system.
The setting and world and graphics of the game are incredible and really make you feel like you are shrunk down and wandering around a backyard at the size of a bug. The way you chop down grass, find rocks, use insect parts as well as the basic other things is just really well done.
There are no levels in the game and instead you use a research device to unlock new recipes by bringing things you find to it. You can also get new ideas for recipes by crafting or finding things.
The building is interesting and I can see some crazy bases being built with the system they have. It is similar to other games like the forest or green hell in how it is done.
The enemy ai does have a few bugs to work out, but for instance if you kill enough ants a giant force of ants will come for you. This is the type of AI I do enjoy in survival games.
While the price tag for many at 30usd is steep for an ea game and I do understand the why, but the game itself is currently loaded with fun for survival genre fans with a story added on as a bonus.
V4 Nexons Autoplay MMO Review
So V4 global launch happened and I tried it out. It launched for mobile and pc in the NA and Euro markets. The game seems to be a direct copy almost of BDO Mobile. Like Direct Copy.
From the start the character classes are gender locked with only limited presets available to “customize” your character and make it your own. Character names are limited to 8 letters or so even. Really really limiting most identity one may have. And in an mmo your identity can mean the world.
I was hoping for more but this game is basically autoplay on everything. From combat, to quests, to gathering crafting materials to infusing and other things. You can literally auto everything and do nothing.
Even boss fights are easily autoed with zero engagement. The only engagement you really have to do is clicking complete quest and accepting the new quest. Then it auto does everything else for you.
While I do realize it was made with mobile as the main focus, it is just kind of sad. You would expect to need to do some playing yourself.
If you have ever played Endless World Idle RPG this is basically that but in a “mmo” form. If that is your thing I am sure you will enjoy it. But for the majority of mmo players it is sorely going to be lacking well everything.
I do however like the camera options one can do. But outside of that there is not really much to like or enjoy about this horrible entry into the mmo genre. The cash shop is loaded with high priced packs for launch as well. They are totally focused on the micros and yes there is some p2w elements involved here. But one could most likely do fine with being totally f2p but it would take you along time to do all the upgrades you would need to be competitive that way.
So to recap if you are a fan of idle games this may be waay up your alley. Otherwise I doubt many will really enjoy it.
Here is some gameplay video from my stream to see for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sc_EwOm5Gs
Aeronautica Imperialis: Flight Command Review
This is a game made based on the games workshop tabletop game aeronautica imperialis. It was fully released today on steam as of this writing. In it you are commanding a small squad of airplane like ships and fighting agaisnt orks or humans in the grand scheme of things. It currently costs 22.29 with the discount from 24.99. It is not even worth 5 dollars.
I did all there was to do in the game in an hour and a half. Most of it was not enjoyable. Now I am a fan of the tabletop version so was looking forward to this but am truly saddened by this “release”.
The game has around 6 to 8 tutorial missions to teach you the game. 6-8 scenario missions which you can do with other players on your steam friendslist.
The last thing it offers is a campaign that can be complete in 25 minutes to an hour depending on the length you choose of the campaign which just consists of you doing randomly generated missions that grant points to hit a point total to win.
That is it. That is the game. There is no multiplayer, no painting or customizing ships or fleets or even pilots really.
The game has it where you choose all your ships moves, then it does a camera mode of them all doing their moves. This camera mode is really really bad. You can barely see what is going on or what happened. It is easier to skip it and see the results.
Ships can fly thru other ships without anything happening what so ever.
It feels more like they pushed out a side mode of an actual game to try and make cash of the skulls event rather than anything else.
Sorry fans, it seems the bad GW games curse is back if the game isn’t made by the total war team.
Here is my full stream video to see for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfcDhzY99MM
Crucible Review: Amazon Fails
Before Crucible even launched it had poor misdeeds. It was over an hour late to launch on steam but they failed to even comment until an hour after launch to tell people it would be coming soon, but only for north america. The other regions would have to wait and considering how bad they are at communication for their first game…who knows when that will be.
Next they launched as much dlc paying options on their steam store as they could before launching the game. Giving you an idea of where their focus is.
Of course streamers got to get in early.
Onto the game: It is poorly optimized and has poor loading times. The tutorial is a joke. It tells you to do this or that but barely explains anything and really is just a waste of time as it is.
Matches, on launch day, not even an hour after it was able to be downloaded take over a minute just to find one. Considering I can find matches in under 10 seconds on other games in the genre this game is aimed at well…
The abilities are quite frankly uninspired trash. You have four abilities. One is a move ability, 2 are pointless, and I guess the last is an “ultimate” which is basically a regular attack in every other game in the genre. Outside of that, the characters themselves are generic. The only one they seemed to put any effort into is the rocket raccoon clone.
The maps are big and movement is slow and stiff. There is no run, only a movement ability that has a cool down.
There is zero real direction in a match. There was no talking or typing in game, I could not even figure out how or if it was possible. The only way to communicate is by very generic bad pings.
I went a melee class and had the most damage in game and tied for kills first on team. Because shooting is just that bad.
This game is a poor poor first launch for a new game company in an already over crowded genre that brings nothing new, interesting, or even a nice story to get into.
Population Zero Review
Yikes. The only word that comes to mind with Population Zero. If you want a game that takes the worst aspects from mmos and survivals and puts them together than this is a game for you. From the start of the game it gives you a crappy custom character creator that is pretty limited. Then it shows you all these cool options but nothing you can do until you level up the “account”.
You create and then click play. Then you are given 3 game modes but can only do the pve mode because all the rest is locked behind your account being higher. You cannot even pvp until you level up more.
Upon logging on you are met with a barren world with few things to interact with, very few people, and even fewer npcs and mobs. You are given a few supplies and a metal pipe. Upon doing the quests and finding the npc city for questing. Yes this is a game that takes the kill 5, gather 10 quests everyone mmo fan loves and decides you need 10, or 100 of them.
The survival aspect is in the hunger, water, elements and toxic elements. All of which are pretty extreme and silly.
Crafting? Well you can unlock tons of crafting recipes, like stone, bone(a bonesword that is very similar to last oasis), leather and other basic crafting. You know, the type you expect in a nonscifi mmo. But no ranged that I have seen. This is a scifi mmo that apparently everyone forgot how to even cook meat on a campfire or how to even make a campfire let alone anything more advanced than level 20 ark player.
Also there are no stones to be found. Took almost 2 hours to find 3 stones. Now you could say it is because the game is so populated, but, at of writing this there was only around 736 in game. So to advance past your crappy metal pipe you start with, you need stones for stone weapons and tools to even gather most stuff. Which you cannot get. As stones do not exist.
The way to advance is thru quests and finding new objects which help give you points in various sections. However the land is either weather extreme so you cannot explore, or so barren of anything to interact with or fight it makes you want to jump off a cliff.
Also there are apparently only 4 mob types and most of them are just the same model but colored different.
The graphics and art style is “okay” and about the best part of it.
This game was not ready for early access and should be avoided. Maybe in 3 years with a new dev team this game might be something. It is also at a mostly negative review on steam as of now.
Fallout 76 Steam Release Review
F76 had a very rough launch when it came out. However now they have released it on steam with the wastelanders dlc. The reviews on steam currently sit on mixed on it. I had gotten it at launch and so signed up to get it free on steam.
After playing it today I must say I have enjoyed myself and am impressed with how far it has come. Starting a fresh new character you are almost immediately thrust into the new real npcs and a starting quest line which was way more fun than the starting experience upon the original release. The npc quest and options when talking makes it feel like a real fallout experience.
The quest line itself is actually fun, engaging and features lots of action, puzzles and not much traveling but enough traveling to get you to explore the world abit.
If you just go thru this quest line you will hit around 6-8 off of it. You will also get a nice weapon at the end of the quest.
Upon hitting level 5 you are able to pvp, pk and have the same done to you for everyone 5 and above. This is a big thing for myself and many. As survival games, pvp is a big part of them.
The game itself feels way better in terms of combat and optimization. I did crash once in my 4 hours of playing. Which is better than my once every 10-15 minutes at launch.
So if you do enjoy rpgs, open world, fallout, or survival I would suggest picking this up now. It does seem like we may have another no mans sky situation on our hands with this.
I did a video you can check out for in game footage here
Savage Lands Review
Last Bastion Studios Savage Lands is an interesting game with an interesting history. The 2 people who worked on it originially kind of lost it for awhile and ended up getting it back and really turning it around. It started out like any EA survival type game but with some twists. Then it seem like it was more than likely going to be in the long pile list of abandoned survival ea games that are never finished. Then Last Bastion Studios acquired it and it has been worked on and improved greatly for awhile.
So what is Savage Lands? Well the steam page lists it as open world survival and crafting. Which it is. But it is also other things as well. For instance ontop of what is listed it also feels like a virtual tabletop dungeon group game when played multiplayer. The look and feel is also akin to a Kings Field like vibe.
You can craft various items, weapons, and armor. As well as potions and food. You can build various buildings, crafting stations, traps and defenses.
Survival wise you are constantly battling the frozen cold in the land as well as hunger. Trying to survive against the AI Denizens of the island as well as the giant dragon that flies overhead.
There is no level or stats outside of the gear.
The lore is spread across the isle as are various dungeon like places, boss types and tons of things to explore and discover.
All of this together does make it more like a kingsfield era game but with friends.
Ontop of this in your multiplayer games you can toggle on pvp. Or you can stay offline and play singleplayer. Sort of catering to everyone that way.
But if you want to enjoy your tabletop gaming group during social distancing this game might just help scratch that itch a bit. Or if you are looking for a bit of a Kings Field itch to be scratched. This might do it as well.
For a survival category title it is a bit weak compared to any of the others on the market though. But the pvp toggle does add some to that.
Some of the cons to it is the lack of building options to furnish your buildings and lack of customization for armor and weaponry. There are various weapon types but they do all look the same.Lack of leveling and skill points is also in that category.
Some other cons are the AI can be weird and dumb. Hit boxes can be off at times, including for looting. As where the body falls may not be where you loot, but where you last killed it.
Some will consider the graphics a con, but I think the graphics is ahead of the next era. That era being ps1 style graphic games as opposed to voxel or 2d.
Recent updates do include steam trading cards and more bug fixes so it is actively being worked on and the devs value input for suggestions and bug reports.
It is currently on sale on steam for 2.99 down from 9.99 until april 17th.
Or a 4 pack for 10.49 down from 29.99.
If you would like to see someone bad playing it here is my two sessions in it:
DingosGaming 