Recent reviews by Keytargonian

I am going to struggle to put into words how much I do not get this game. Not in the sense of I don't understand the mechanics, or the intentions or goals of this game. I just don't get why so many people act like this game is amazing, or it's fun, or scary.

I've not tried to play this game solo, and perhaps that colors my perception of it, but I've played with people who are super scaredy, and know the game and will teach you while you play but even then, It wasn't fun. The game is entirely tied around trying to find out what kind of ghost is haunting a location. You get a ton of tools to find clues, and then you narrow down your clues until you find out what type of ghost it is.

Really, this should make for a fun experience. You're actively putting yourself in harms way to complete your objective, and not in the traditional horror way where the monsters are in the way of your objective, the monster IS your objective. In theory, this game is a super unique and fun experience.

In practice, it's dry. You're walking around a house, waiting for the Ghost to do something. You'll swap between tools to try different things, maybe a haunt will happen, and the Ghost will start attacking, but even then, the game just isn't scary when that happens?

That's really the whole story of it. This game in one word: Dry. Plus it costs more than it's worth. I would have refunded it, but it took my friends three weeks to actually get on and play it when I bought it. I do not recommend. Play literally any other co-op horror game at this rate, at least some of them are bad in a fun way. This one is just bad in a bad way.

I don't think there's a game that I have more mixed feelings about. If you have friends, and your island luck isn't terrible, it's so much fun. The achievements are fun to hunt for, and it's a platformer that doesn't take itself too seriously. It's also just charming. The graphics are simple, but oddly pretty. The game has a really fun art style that really lets you just get into the game, and it's odd world.

The climbing itself also tends to be really fun. It's much more simplistic, and if you want a game that's more seriously about climbing, then you should looking something like Peaks of Yore, as opposed to this game, but this game also has a more oddities than Peaks of Yore, and that gives it a really fun personality. At it's best, this game is super fun, and it can be a challenge that's fun to try and overcome.

Me and a few friends have had a ton of fun hunting for achievements in the game, and getting each other the outfits we want. The game can be a super fun, enjoyable experience.

That being said, this game still needs work. Solo, it's just middling, and the shortcomings of the simplistic mechanics really show their flaws. Due to the island generation being entirely random, sometimes, the islands are just infuriating to play on. Each biome also has its own challenge, where the weather with go against you, and you have to play around it. This sounds great, but in reality, they range from practically nothing, to being horrifically implemented.

In the Tropics, this is rain, which makes it different to climb upwards, so you have to hunker down, and wait for the rain to go away so you can continue. This challenge is just so middling, as it doesn't get in the way often enough to be a real issue. You're either lunging for the top, and odds are you'll make it, you're just climbing back down the way you came. It's such a non-challenge, and I've never been in a situation where the rain actively gets in the way of progress.

Then, there's the Roots, where wind can pick up and blow you away. You'll have to grab onto something, or get behind cover to not be blown away, and this is another case where the weather just doesn't tend to be all that dangerous. You get a few seconds before the wind is coming at you in full force, so nine times out of ten, you have plenty of time to get to safety.

The Mesa is where I think the weather is done best. During the day, the sun with burn you, so you have an everpresent threat during the day. You have to run between the shadows, or find sunscreen to protect yourself. This makes the first part of the Mesa already challenging enough to get around, and getting across the canyon also turns into a time where you have to strategize on how to handle everything. That being said, the Mesa does have issues, but first, there's the weather of the Alpines.

The Alpines, is the worst biome in the game. The wind in the Alpines is frustratingly inconsistent, where sometimes you'll think you shouldn't be safe, but then you are, and other times where you are completely covered, and the wind STILL hurts you. It's become such an issue that there are days where I will just refuse to play the game because the Alpines are such a pain to deal with. It's not fun to play when the Alpines are in rotation.

And the rotation lasts a full 24 hours. So just about every other day, the game is frustrating to play. Then, you add on the issue that the game is almost entirely randomly generated, and the islands just have a chance to have one clear super simple route, or a couple of challenging routes, or everything is just a cliffside, and the game is a total pain to play. I also would like to get ahead of a common defense of this game, that being, "it's so fun to play with friends."

Really, this is true. Even when the islands suck, playing with friends is still enjoyable. But that's not because of the game, that's because of having friends. That's not points towards the game, that's points toward socialization. Dead Island is a super mid-tier game, but I had a ton of fun playing it with friends. This isn't the defense for this game, or any game that people say it is.

I won't act for a minute like this game is never fun though. With the right group of people, it's even super fun, but solo play is just too much of a middling experience to recommend. If you're looking for a solo climbing game, look into Peaks of Yore, or White Knuckle. If you're looking for a group friend game, I think I'd still push for R.E.P.O. or Lethal Company over this.

At least this game is inexpensive. If you pushed me on it, I think I would recommend it if you want a co-op game that's not a shooter, or horror-adjacent. But really, I still think there are a ton of games I would rather play with friends. All in all, I guess I recommend it, but I don't think it'll ever be my first choice of a game to play, whether solo, or with friends.

I don't think I've played a more overrated game if I'm honest. The game is fine for the first hour or so while you're learning, but the more you play the more you realize that this game is 95% luck, and the odds are heavily stacked against you; and this isn't the type of Roguelike where you can play around some bad luck like Cult of the Lamb, Faster Than Light, or Risk of Rain. This is the type of Roguelike where the game gets to decide if you win, not you. You can be having a great run, get to Ante 7 multiple times, but then the game decides that it's time to give you a Boss Blind that locks you into one hand type, and then you get the worst draws of your life.

There's nothing more infuriating than losing a game through what feels like no fault of your own. There is no real or actual skill, and any strategy that can't be undone in a single hand. Knowing Poker will only help you for a little bit, because the only skill this game tests is patience. Do you have the patience to keep playing and try to get a win? If so, then eventually you'll win, but I guarantee it won't be because YOU played well. It'll be because you got lucky.

And sure, it's a poker game, so luck is going to be an important aspect, but this is where the gameplay should come in and let you play around bad hands, or bad shops. The game just doesn't. There's only so much you can do with the Arcana Cards, and the Planet Cards don't end up doing enough to make things worth anything. It's an infuriatingly luck-based game.

This isn't to say there shouldn't be any luck in this game, but when the win is decided 90% by luck, it doesn't feel like I did anything to get to where I was. I'm just hoping the game gives me good hands, and that the shops have good items, and if I get lucky, then maybe I'll have a chance, hoping that the Boss Blind isn't terrible, or the game doesn't just decide that I don't get to draw anything good.

Game is average at best. Get it on sale if you're going to get it, but I can't recommend it.

Game is really good. I got it yesterday, and have already been playing way too much. Game has a great sense of progression, and getting the mechanics to work in your favor, and it's just plain old fun.

The time management also works really well here, I never feel like I have too much time, or not enough time. It's a real goldie-locks zone.

Mixing is also such a fun mechanic to mess around with, and having to plan routes around cops, and trying to decide how much product you want to risk having on you makes the game have a constant risk/reward feel to it. It's genuinely fantastic. For a game that has some immature humor, and looks like it should be a bad game jam game? It feels awesome, and has clearly had so much love and effort put into it. I doubted the game would actually be that good until I realized people weren't going to shut up about it.

My words before buying were, "Okay, fine, I'll try out this stupid game."

I ate my words, quickly.

Really excited to see where things go from here with it.

It's not perfect though, I will say. AI is kind of bad right now, not horrendous, but it's definitely gotten in the way sometimes. There's typically some kind of work around, but it's definitely not perfect.

Also, the "Indian Dealer" achievement seems like it's in bad taste. I understand the entire game is in "bad taste", and that's kind of the point, but I think the game gets a little too "edgy" in some cases, and in general it feels like it wants to be more silly and ridiculous, but sometimes oversteps the mark. I think of "Jennerizing" status effect, or the aforementioned "Indian Dealer" achievement. I understand these are meant to be funny, but those go a little far for my taste, in an otherwise quite silly experience.

The entire vibe is quite silly, with the game having the vibe of a high schooler making it (I don't mean this in a negative way by the way, the graffiti is geniunely and strangely hilarious) but also there are times where it feels like it's going too far for a joke that isn't that funny. But it feels like at times it's edging too far, and the game would be better humor-wise if it weren't referencing Caitlyn Jenner, and a racist saying from decades ago. The dev clearly knows how to make funny jokes here too, a reference to Tropic Thunder for example was hilarious, and several of the Graffiti made me laugh out loud, the "Spongebob" one comes to mind. Right now, it feels kinda rough humor wise, and at times it's goes too far, though I confess I don't know what I expected with a game like this.

I didn't have performance issues when I started, but now I do. Updates have made the game run worse. New Title Update fights aren't any fun either.

Why did I just spend three hours on a game about digging a hole

Why did I love it

If you want a really good SWAT game, get SWAT 4. This game would be good, however the more you play the more the issues with it come to light. Playing non-lethal is the only way to get the highest ranks, and doing so feels like it puts such an insane difficulty spike on you, that it's just not worth it.

The SWAT AI is so often incredibly stupid. They get in your way all the time, I've had times where they just get stuck out of no where, and all and all they're just frustrating to work with.

Suspect and Civilian AI is frustrating. The game wants to be realistic, and be a genuine SWAT simulator, but the suspects and civilians have no sense of self-preservation, and even with supposedly trained guards, they don't stop to consider, "Am I really about to fire at a SWAT team?" Sometimes they try to justify this with saying they don't believe you're ACTUALLY SWAT. Which is just stupid. Even the untrained suspects, they're all John Wick. A lot of these people are low-level criminals, yet they fire insanely accurately and have incredibly low reaction times. It's ridiculous. This can make sense when you're dealing with some of the terrorist levels, but when you're stopping a gas station robbery???

The writing often ventures into being good, but has very little to say other than, "These things happen, and they sure do suck." Like, it's shocking to see CSAM the first two things, but shocker, like, a third of the levels are about a CSAM ring. There's a school shooting. Neither of these exist for any reason other to be an antagonist, and while VOID claims this to be realistic and dark, it just rings as, "Look how GRIM and DARK our game is!"

The game is more interesting when it's dealing with the domestic terrorism side of things. The Left Behind are a legitimately interesting piece of the world. Ex-military service members who are responding to their government pulling their benefits that they need to take care of themselves. It's interesting, and fits perfectly within the world, and the game is at its best from a lore, writing, and world perspective when you deal with this group.

The other two main groups are a Middle Eastern terror group, and a Mexican drug gang.

The main story of the game follows the dismantlement of a CSAM and a Human Trafficking ring. It starts on a funny level, with a SWATing of a Streamer who happens to have CSAM in his home. Then you go to business he had ties with, leading to a rich guy, and eventually finding a location where people are being actively trafficked. It builds on itself well from a gameplay, but it mainly just events happening so that the next event can happen.

Even though the worldbuilding in the levels themselves can be downright amazing, the gameplay itself is more often infuriating than engaging.

At $50. It's just not worth it. Again, get SWAT 4. It's $10, and the quality is so much better.

Game is fantastic. Anton is an amazing dev who has so much love for his game, and the community. Literally my only complaint is that it's VR only, and that's not even against Anton or the game, but solely because VR options right now just suck (Do you want expensive as hell, or terrible software that doesn't work half the time?). I want a desktop version of Take and Hold SO BADLY

Game is fantastic. Amazingly written characters, and fun gameplay. Worst part is that part 3 isn't out yet ):

Game good. Game funny. Game has fish.

Play game.