Recent reviews by Dusk

Fun and silly

Very useful program that makes pixel art much easier! Tried free pixel-dedicated programs and they really don't compare. Non-pixel specific programs like gimp can work but are much less convenient.
On my first day I was already animating!

Easily one of the most toxic communities. If you do good, you will be called cheap for using X perk or killer or build. If you do bad, you will be taunted and called bad. Throughout the entire game you will have at least one player constantly mock you. As a survivor your team mates will intentionally sabotage you or give up, throwing the game or a killer will single you out and force you to die. As a killer the survivors will tbag and click their flashlights constantly or spam noise prompts.

Do not play this game if you can't handle 80+% of your games being filled with toxic players. I keep coming back thinking it'll be better and it never is.

#fixtf2 -- bots are in most servers

Not worth playing ranked anymore. New ranked game mode is really bad. Sad because last season was a lot of fun.

Worth playing only if you don't play ranked.

In my very first game I got carried by someone advertising their website to sell feet pics.

First impressions: I do NOT get the complaints at all. Everything seems fine. Aside from the sensitivity bug that affect(ed) players, I do not understand the complaints. Once you unlock the second booster ~40m into the game, movement feels fast. I was thoroughly enjoying boost-jumping off objects and dashing around. Every change made from Hawken seems appropriate for a PvE game.

As someone that had 1~200 hours on the original Hawken, I'd say this is a pretty reasonable PvE spin-off. I get it, we want actual PvP Hawken back, but that's not reason to trash PvE Hawken. Treat this like its own game and see what it has for you.

The good: Movement is still faster than most other mech games, and assumingly will be even faster as you get more upgrades. Storyline missions are brief and last just the right amount of time. I never felt like I was held hostage in them. Conversely, they nailed the difficulty for story missions. Managing your shields and protecting your health throughout a mission adds just the right tension. I never felt I had to play too passive, but I did need to take precautions. During an escort mission considering your own health and the objective's was the perfect balancing act. There are upgrades/mechs to work towards that are good for setting goals and give you more reason to work towards playing. Some of these are really cool. I really like the different thrusters. Going from a fast ground-based thruster to one that lets you fly high is a big change.

The bad: VERY little content right now. If this is a deal-breaker and you don't want to just try it out for a few hours, check back in a year. Mediocre story and corny dialogue. I don't think anyone wanted to play this for the story so not a huge loss, but you do have to sit through some weirdness. I just hope they focus on the extraction gamemode rather than story missions. Bugs. There doesn't seem to be much... except one that is soft-locking my game right now. Having your mech destroyed on the same mission that someone wants you to upgrade your mech seems to prevent any progress, regardless of restart. Unfortunately, until they patch this I can't play anymore. EDIT: Devs are aware and manually fixing any players that experience this bug.

The mediocre: There are Mtx for instantly unlocking whatever you'd like, including things that offer a combat-advantage such as new mechs & upgrades. Remember that the original Hawken had this too and that was a PvP game with p2w. The only Mtx I support is purely cosmetic, but unfortunately that's just not common in games anymore. I don't know how severe of an issue this will be, maybe it'll be fine and the resource grind will be reasonable, or maybe paying is the only "reasonable" way to unlock anything. It's too early to tell. However they price new mechs at $5, which is better than a lot of games. So at least that?

Tl;dr- It seems fine as a Hawken spin-off, just with little content at the moment. At least keep it wish-listed for later, if you're not going to play it right now.

There are 64 operators that cost ~$15 each (or in-game currency). You apparently need to put a lot of time (and in-game currency) in order to max each of their skill trees. The average upgrade will give you about 15% of a bonus, such as damage resistance on ability active, AoE of ability, extra reserve ammo, sprinting efficiency, etc. At 15 skills to max, you can expect noticeable advantages over non-upgraded players. There is a $12 30-day VIP that doubles your xp, and 30% battlepass progress. There are buyable xp boosts ontop of that and premium cosmetics. Legendary outfits give you passive benefits that apply even if you're not wearing them and stack with each one you buy. They cost $15. There are even items to buy ($0.75 each) if you want to change a single skill. To me, this means the devs are looking to milk the playerbase of their time and money. These are just my first impressions, though they should raise a red flag to anyone.

Gameplay-wise, it's pretty average. A lot of different characters is always welcome and they all have unique guns with no duplicates, along with different abilities. The biggest factor that sets Caliber apart from other shooters is its stamina system, which recharges VERY slowly and both your running and ability use it. A character will have about 500 stamina, but only recharge 1 per second, while using 10 per second of running or 40 per ability. It ends up being where you can't run at all during the game or you'll be locked out of your ability. At least it recharges on respawn, but ammo does not. Speaking of ammo, you will burn through it and have to constantly recharge from ammo sources, which are luckily plentiful. My starter character only has 100 ammo at base, which is 1 mag and goes through in 11s of firing. This can be alleviated by leveling up the character which doubles your starting ammo. Something that integral shouldn't be locked behind an upgrade, regardless of how low it is in the skill tree.

Buy for 60% off ($20 USD), which it goes on sale for every few months.
With this you'll have 16 additional Rogues, which is all of them except Juke, the Fixer, & Sigrid (as of March 2023). I also got 15,000 reputation, which I believe was a refund for already owning one of the Rogues since that bonus isn't listed.

I can't easily recommend playing Rogue Company without this pack as the rogues are the whole reason to play. At $20 this is a fair Edition to pick up and you can consider that as the cost of RC as a whole, rather than it being a f2p game. That being said, at $50 I wouldn't buy this and lacking 3 of the Rogues still is unfortunate.

This game has p2w elements. You can trade real money for in-game cash. If that's a deal-breaker, then you've been warned. However, as long as you know how to earn money so far I've had no problem affording everything I've wanted. Because of the level requirement on gear, the time invested in gaining levels far outweighs the time spent getting money. There is also a membership, but it only offers a +15% xp bonus, which is really small compared to other f2p memberships. You can also spend $10 on a characterslot (which is definitely overpriced) but I'd advise just playing on a different server if you want to make another character, as long as you don't mind not being able to trade between them.

Getting that out of the way, there's only one other warning you need: the first couple hours of the game are slow due to fetch quests that level you up to ~3/4. Once you're level 3-4 and heading off to explore the greater world, you're in for a treat. Though an unassuming game on the outside I've found myself absolutely enthralled with this world as I discovered efficient money makers, teleport locations, and useful tools (pliers, long-nose pliers, & hammer). Use a guide to find those items because with that basic knowledge the game really opens up. HOWEVER, try to avoid any spoilers about MTE/Watchers. Absolutely amazing part of the game that you'll want to experience for yourself.

So far even routine money making and resource gathering has been really enjoyable, which is normally a sore spot in these types of games. Early guns and skilltree are pretty lackluster unfortunately, but given how much there is to explore after finishing the fetch quests, I consider that a fair trade off. I can not understate just how enjoyable the world is. Dying to a the first wild boar I found really surprised and made me engaged in the game as I carefully tried to avoid it next time to pickup my loot. Finding another player's stash and being terrified they'd come back right then and there was such a thrill. Likewise being paranoid about hiding your own stash and rushing back to it after you bank/sell is a big highlight of the game. Speaking of paranoia, this game knows how to weaponize that at certain points, and I've never had more fun being scared of dying. From the howls of a dog pack when you're low level to bizarre anomalies that can kill you if you're not careful. The game's risks and dangers genuinely feel fun to face, especially if you're risking it all in an area you know you shouldn't be at yet. I'm still only level 7 and there is SO much left to explore of the world and that has me so excited.

Despite being a PvPvE game, the community is really passive, which I see as an absolute plus. 17 hours in and I've yet to be hurt by another player. Quite the opposite, we tbag & jump together, protect one another when being chased by enemies, and even help with lockpicking stubborn doors. Despite the competition for loot, there's surprisingly no killing being done. The worst experience I've had with another player was an accidental jumpscare where I came back from afk to find another player staring in my face.

If none of the listed flaws of the game has put you off, definitely give this game a try.