Recent reviews by TalonFace

The best game I've played in the genre in a long time. Runs typically take around an hour and so far every run has felt different. There's a ton of weapons, items and characters to unlock and you can dynamically add difficulty modifiers to the game before a run to make it more or less challenging. While it doesn't have the sheer quantity of unlocks like Isaac or ETG, I'd argue that the tedium required to get the unlocks in this also makes the game more enjoyable.

It's a fun game with great moments and quite possibly the worst monetization system I have ever seen in a game. Gaijin keeps making changes that make players who don't pay for premium poorer and poorer. Additionally, there is a major power imbalance between vehicles at lower battle ratings. It can be downright unfun and unfair when you spawn in a 2.7 vehicle and face things at 3.7 which you have zero chance against. Air battles are just as frustrating, with premium planes in nearly every match that absolutely knock the base planes out of the water, and repair costs that make it nearly impossible to progress down the tree without owning a premium vehicle to farm lions with. What's sad is that I've had a lot of genuine fun with War Thunder, and I really enjoy the game, but I can not recommend ever beginning to play it at this point as the grind would be absolutely horrendous at this stage in time.

What a comeback. I first played the game on a console when it came out for around a month before I grew bored of it. I was surprised to see several of my friends still playing the game consistently on PC a few years later, but they told me the game had gotten much better. After repurchasing the game I can agree. Plus Ubisoft got rid of the awful starter edition which is also good. One thing I don't like is that depending on which edition you own it can be a rather tedious grind to unlock all of the operators, although the weekly and daily quests greatly help with the amount of renown you can gain even if they mean you'll have to play a lot of terrorist hunt. Overall the game is in a really great place right now and even if you're bad you can still have a lot of fun!

Man am I disappointed. I had been watching this game for a while and was excited to pick this up. That quickly faded when I started the game up. It presents its self like Hotline Miami but it lacks the skill involved in making the gameplay feel good. I do like the artstyle and the music and I may have been more forgiving of the frustrating aspects of the gameplay if the controls didn't feel so terrible. The AI partner is also completely useless to the point of ridiculousness. I really wish this was better, but sadly I just can not recommend this game at all.

It's honestly a good DLC. The society stuff is a lot of fun, and really does add to the game. Hopefully with upcoming patches the current issue of evil societies being completely overpowered will be fixed, and the DLC will be perfect. As it stands you get the following with the DLC:

• The best portrait pack to date (Seriously it's really good and makes playing the game way more enjoyable just based on how good looking everything is.)
  
• Societies with intersting mechanics:
  
• The Hermatic society being a standout as it lets you do interesting things like turn your spouse into your apprentice and go on a crime spree across Europe smashing labs, stealing artifacts, and in general being nuisance all in the name of science
  
• Artifacts which buff your character in intersting ways while also giving you choices on where you want to focus things. Plus it will never not be fun to steal the foreskin of Christ through war.

The DLC does have some downsides though:

• Evil societies need to really have the abduct ability nerfed. Right now if you pick them anyone with a lower rank than you can easily be abducted and sacrificed to effectively remove them and gain their titles. Your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ brother who's always plotting against you? Kidnap him, sacrifice to satan, get all his titles etc. It's just too easy.
  
• Monastic orders are kind of boring. Don't get me wrong I love the flavor events but the two catholic ones are very samey and don't really impact the game much.
  
• Alchemy seems like it was cut in order to release the DLC faster. Apparently it's coming out fairly quickly so until then that's a con.

This game is really great. Between the soundtrack, the tactical gameplay, and the overall feel of the controls, there is a lot to love. However the game also suffers from certain issues that may disuade people.
Pros:
Music:Great soundtrack from Makeup and Vanity set that has been added to through recent updates.

Difficulty: The difficulty of the game can fluctuate wildly, although most of the time it feels like smart play and knowing the strengths of your loadout will help you prevail. Overall the best way to improve is through practice, you can't just jump in and expect to win missions or contracts on your first try.

Story: The lore has been expanded upon and is interesting to read, however I feel like locking it behind a credit wall was a bit unnessary, as it would be better served to unlock it by defeating enemies or by completing a certain number of missions in an area.

Cons:
Loadouts: While mentioned as a pro, certain campaign missions feature loadouts that are near impossible to use (at least for me), and as a result it can be very difficult to complete missions.

Visuals: While the visuals give you a great feeling of destruction and power in a mech, it can be difficult at times to find smaller enemies who have the ability to detonate and remove a huge chunk of your shield in all the chaos. This can be especially frustrating when you already have low health and you die from it.

Lore acquisition: To give yourself a better understanding of enemies and what you'll be facing, you need to purchase lore with credits. These aren't necessarily expensive, but they can add up quickly for what is essentially flavor text and minor tips. Really this should be changed based on encounters or enemies defeated.

Overall: It's a great game that invokes the feeling of Hotline Miami and similar games at times, although this has to be taken with a grain of salt, as missions are longer than Hotline Miami, and the game is much more punishing for death. Smart play and tactics are necessary to succeed, and the controls do take some getting used to. However the great soundtrack, numerous unlocks, and different types of mechs make it all worth the investment.

It's basically a huge expansion for the original. As someone who played a lot of the first one I'm shocked that I'm still unlocking new items and content. Initially the original was hard to get into for me, and i'm sure this one will be the same for many new players. However if you spend a few hours doing runs you'll get much better and you'll soon see this game has a ton to offer.

10/10 I put a hanger through my face.

It's like a much better version of terraria.