Recent reviews by S0N0S

Most games improve over time. Unlike most games, Helldivers 2 has actually managed to get more and more unstable, and done seemingly nothing to improve performance. And it's not JUST server or capacity issues anymore. The game itself feels like a house of cards when it comes to completing a mission. Yet, they continue to pile on more cards with new content and microtransactions.

Sure the content is good and they're not exploiting players' fear of missing out with expiring battlepasses, but they might as well be. The amount of crashing kills your desire and ability to play so often you're going to miss out on the evolving galaxy campaign.

Now, after my 6th time crashing on extract with a fun, solid group... ya, I'm done. I'll check it out again when I stop seeing so many stories of crashing, when the simple act of adding a friend works, when mouse aiming without smoothing doesn't stutter (like virtually every other PC game!), and they implement adequate upscaling like DLSS or just anything better than literally the worst one currently used (I believe it's FSR1).

Game's really good, but completely busted right now.

Booted it just to see if the claims are true and yep: Offline only. That's it. Complete failure of a launch for online. Who knows when it will be playable?! :D

Edit:
I managed to play about 8hrs in total now fully online. Most of that time, it was fairly smooth and no major issues aside from some much longer than expected loading screens. The core gameplay is solid. The theme, music, art design, and atmosphere are attractive enough, but they're also not exceptional, unique, or offensive. None of the characters really stand out, nor do they seem too important.
It's all just... inoffensive window dressing for the gameplay, which is enough if that's all you play ARPGs for. Epecially ARPGs that are respectul enough not to min-max nickel and diming you.

Which, huge credit that it's pay-to-play that doesn't go overboard with the monetization like Diablo 4; the cosmetics are there in the social spaces and the store link is always a click away, but their presence aren't oppressive or annoying. I also personally prefer it to even free to play games that have these same systems. This, and the fully offline mode, is a big win for me given the other games out there in this genre.

Performance is solid (80-90fps at full 4k on a 3090 with most settings at high to ultra), graphics are modern enough, though the fidelity of the visuals aren't really improved with the graphic settings. Wish we could use reshade to add sharpening and other effects, because it's way too soft an image; the game closes after launch once it detects reshade. No reflex or DLSS, which would be nice to have with in-game sharpening options to clean up the image and run a locked 120fps.

Oh and no HDR, but you can use Windows AutoHDR or Nvidia RTX HDR.

My biggest gripe is the game feel. Moving feels sluggish and looks slow. If you've seen games where the speed of the animations and the character footfalls don't match the speed they're actually traversing in the world, that's what I'm talking about. This game not only has that issue, but people move so slow, it really seems like your movement is deliberately capped either to improve network performance and/or pad out how much time it takes to traverse the somewhat small environments. Until I unlocked teleport for my mage, I hated movement in combat and exploring.

Maybe traversal speed gets better later in the game, and the levels also open up. If not, I hope they increase base character running speed, add a sprint, or reduce cooldown+add an extra skill slot for traversal skills. That and clean up the running animations to match actual character velocity.

Overall, Last Epoch will probably end up working well enough to recommend once the server issues are resolved. Hopefully soon!

Summary

It's a better Bethesda game, in fact it's their best yet. I am immensely grateful for their not aggressively pushing monetization and FOMO, like battlepasses (thus far). And they've addressed the foremost concern about reliability given the (lack of) progress-breaking bugs and performance breakdowns. That said, Starfield still, surprisingly, falls well short of several basic customer expectations and has some serious accessibility issues; details on those below. For most on PC, the price to play Starfield is $70 plus an unstable 30 to 40fps, SDR only, no accessibility options, and nagging aspects that chip and chip away more from your entertainment (and time) than necessary.

If you are at all on the fence, value your time, and/or you have a full-time job (with other responsibilities and hobbies): just wait! Wait for modders to fix the many issues (don't count on Bethesda to), or try the myriad of other, quality, new titles out there, such as Balders Gate 3 or Armored Core 6. Or Jedi Survivor, which just had a massive patch that included performance fixes and DLSS 3 with frame-gen! And if you are conscious of where you spend your money, don't bother at all until Microsoft and Bethesda take responsibility and address the egregious accessibility gaps.

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Issues in Detail

- Poor Performance. Compared to most titles, Starfield just runs awful, on nearly everyone's machines and regardless of the CPU or GPU. 60fps, at any resolution or graphics preset, is simply unachievable "out of the box" for anyone not on a $3k+ PC built within the last year.
CPU benches: https://youtu.be/8O68GmaY7qw
GPU benches: https://youtu.be/vTNiZhEqaKk

- No Official DLSS/XeSS support, the only way to play at anything like native resolution and above 60fps. To understand the difficulty to do this (considering the work to implement FSR was already done): it took 2 modders ONE DAY each to release two different implementations, and less than a week to polish and also release DLSS frame-gen versions. Starfield was delayed several times, so I don't think it unreasonable for Bethesda to do to it within a week, maybe a month tops. (DLSS+XeSS mod uploaded same-day of prerelease: https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/196, FREE DLSS Frame-gen mod uploaded 4 days later: https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/761 )

- ZERO Accessibility options, such as FOV slider, gamma/brightness slider, and colorblind options. Microsoft owns Bethesda Game Studios, the developer of Starfield. They're known as a leader in pushing the envelope and raising the standards for accessibility in video gamss, and stand out from their industry partners/peers like EA, Ubisoft, Blizzard/Activision, 2k, etc..., all of which publish games on a regular basis that far outdo anything Starfield does for accessibility (ie jack squat). Disappointing for Bethesda, but completely inexcusable for Microsoft. If they are true stewards of accessibility they purport to be, Microsoft must account for these omissions and commit to rectifying it as thoroughly and as quickly as possible.
(Source:
https://www.eurogamer.net/by-microsofts-standards-starfield-is-a-giant-leap-backwards-for-accessibility )

- Frustrating lack of basic Quality-of-Life (QoL) solutions to issues solved in prior games, esp inventory management. There are several regressions here: can't swap weapon mods (Fallout 4 did it), can't eat food without picking it up, opening inventory, then eating it (Fallout 76 did it), and useless junk is highlighted equal to everything else. Oh! And the load screens! I'm almost in awe of how many are crammed into every minute of playtime; it's quite an achievement. Unlike battlepasses in other games, Bethesda "bakes-in" the time demands into to the core experience; well, that or it all boils down to rotting, untouched vestiges of Bethesda's more outdated game/user-experience design.

Each of the issues listed above actually came as a surprise for me, especially QoL, my biggest gripe. I loathe dealing with useless crap in my inventory, arbitrary weight limits, and watching loading screens. Each time I do makes Starfield's design feel... disrespectful, inconsiderate, or naive. And I was sure Bethesda had more resources, time, and incentives to at least TRY to modernize and get this right, especially considering the prior Fallout 76's disaster of a launch, their acquisition by MS, and the delays that were clearly aimed at polishing this up to nail it day 1.

Fundamentally for me, Starfield nets out to be no better at minimizing the most unfun aspects of Bethesda-style games, and arguably indulges in the worst ones (load screens) moreso than any prior title... with the possible exception of Morrowind on the original Xbox. (Respect for all those that suffered through that harsh wasteland to finish that game!) All these nagging issues... the FPS drops in cities... the stutters while roaming... the whole experience constantly boggs me down. It's been hard to get into a groove, make progress, and enjoy the best parts of the game, which are truly unmatched by anything else out there. Dealing with mods to fix the game and just trying to cope with it all is exhausting. I get this feeling that there's some star-gremlin behind the scenes, deliberately trying to waste my time. lol

Updated 12/26 with 92+ hours:

I am updating this review to reflect the changes to my experience with the end game (past level 30). It's become clear now that what is available today and on release was not sufficient for characters past lvl 30.

Personal skill, working with your team, and your gear+feats are all crucial to success. You can continue developing all of these past 30 on your own, but gear is entirely gated by random rolls. Gear leveling from the rotating shop slows to a crawl after 30. Crafting, the one way to possibly get around RNG, is so half baked and so hard gated by farming materials that I'd argue you're better off saving your mats until it's finished. One example consequence: for pysker (my main class), the best melee weapon is the warp sword with deflection perk. Perks are also all random, including emporer gifts, in game shop, and crafting upgrades, so you might never come across that perk... much less on a sword with decent base stats.

Now cosmetics...what a ♥♥♥♥ show. Don't let anyone tell you that these don't matter when this game is designed around distinct classes & builds, team play, a social hub, etc... From the start with the character backstory choices, this game reinforces that your character can and should continually reflect your choices... you. So what do you get for the price of entry to express yourself through physical appearance? Prisoner rags, standard issue Imperium uniforms via penances(achievements), pallet swaps of penance outfits in the (free) shop, and... that's it. Oh, and a few weapon charms that are impossible to see in game on other characters. Everything else is only available in the cash shop, or buying the premium version of the game. Not only that but the cash shop versions are easily distinguishable from the base game outfits and are everywhere; you see them in the social hub, loading screen, in-game, and end game screen. They are (made to be) impossible to miss...almost like little pop up ads. So be prepared to drop loads eh monay, grind out some achievements that force you to play counterintuitively with a private group, or cope looking like a standard issue scrub.

Summary:
My fear that all the random-rolls and micro-transactions that gate so many aspects of progression/character development would harm my experience has come true. These small asks for more time and money from you become demands if you want to make progress past 30 and they will frustrate you on a increasing basis, which... is entirely the point, right? What you get for $40 worth of character development: 5 characters slots, each with the ability to level up to 30 with decent gear, a bag of achievements, and a handful of cosmetics. Everything else: much more money, an unreasonable amount of time, or some lucky, random rolls.

(Wait... luck may not even be a thing. Maybe the "random" rolls are actually designed to frustrate you just enough to keep playing, but not enough to discourage you entirely. Sigh... this game is too good to be thinking about this kind of underhandedness.)

Nothing else has perceptibly changed from my original review. Considering the above and the lack of much needed performance improvements, I'm changing my review to Not Recommended. This game was not ready for release and it needs many, big improvements to the random roll gates for gear, paid gates for cosmetics, and performance to change my review. The foundation it's all built on (gameplay, art direction, music/audio) is solid, so all they need to do is lessen the actual and /or perceived roll of rng and mtx to end game progress. This probably won't be easy for Fatshark to fix and do so while still hitting their earnings goals. Let's hope they do fix them, but expect it to be a while, or possibly never.

Unless you've bought in already, hold off for now
There are better, more complete games like Left 4 Dead 2 and Deep Rock Galactic to check out; I've also heard Vermintide 2 is a better choice (Fatshark's prev game).

Original review:

Although there is so much this game needs to improve on, I absolutely love it in spite of its flaws. Will continue to play and support this game, but I suspect the flaws will grow to overshadow the rest more and more. I may update this review if that happens.

This review reflects a couple of hours played in the beta up to post-launch, leveling Psyker from 1 to 30. Prior to this game I did not play Vermintide 2 previously, had no interest in Warhammer or 40k whatsoever, and had hundreds of hours across L4D1+2 and some Deep Rock Galactic. If you loved those games, you'll find a lot to love here. Plus: Jesper Kyd!


Good to Great
Art direction & graphics (It's awesome, all of it)
Audio & music soundtrack (oozes atmosphere, <3 Jesper Kyd)
Core gameplay loop (Pure Left 4 Dead goodness, easy to find the fun with just 30 mins to play)
Looting and inventory management (like a minimal looter-shooter, this hits the sweet spot in how little you need to worry about your loadout & inventory)
Co-op, ease of playing with friends and with randoms
Positive community (everyone is helpful and cooperative)
Class & weapon balance (for the most part)
Intro cinematic (I actually enjoy this and watch it from time to time to get pumped)
No grindy battle pass (I'm getting sick & tired of these)
Minimal FOMO (sure there's a rotating RNG store, but at least we will eventually be able to craft gear)
Works out of the box on Steam Deck! (Hurrah for being able to play over the holidays)
Ping system (this wouldn't work without it)
Sharing of resources picked up in game

Meh
Mission & map variety (satisfied for now, but already getting stale; easy to notice reuse of environments)
Story (almost nonexistent, can't even find it if you tried)
Cosmetics (sure there's a premium currency only store and limited options to unlock through gameplay, but I like that it's purely cosmetic, you get what you pay for, and I'm hopeful they'll introduce more free options)
Achievements/Penances (could be more interesting, Pysker requirements range from stupidly easy to stupid to stupidly hard)
Build & subclass variety
Ways to express yourself in game (need more emotes, voice lines etc!)
Would be nice to hit a constant 40fps on the Steam Deck (barely get 30fps consistently, all settings on low)
Mission rewards (there should better match higher difficulty & recognition of accomplishments, such as time completed, killing daemon hosts, killing specials, etc)

Bad
Loading screens (by far the worst issue across the board, bane to all players, too many and too long; worse than 90% of games and cannot be helped with an SSD)
Performance (this is a must fix for such a fast paced game; currently impossible to hit 120fps consistently or fix the constant, intermittent stuttering)
End game (I worry about the longevity after lvl 30 with so low map variety, modifiers)
Lack of sharing of resources across characters (this must be added; no excuse other than time to do it)
Rewards from secondary objectives (I'm not sure effort to collect grimoires & scriptures is worth it)

This is the best BR out there. In fact, it's the only one I can stand playing. That said, it's surprising how broken the matchmaking for ranked is lately given how well funded this game is, or should be. About 20% of my time in ranked, I join with 1 or 2 missing people from my squad. My chances of winning drop dramatically. And playing randoms in pubs is well...frustrating. The result of this is I end up stopping after only a handful of games, either because MM'ing or the randoms I get matched with end up sabotaging the fun.

Unless you have a group you can consistently play with or you're just extremely patient, I don't recommend this one.

As I said in my prior review, I recommend against purchasing Hell Let Loose or it's DLC until the existing game is brought up to par. With Update 14 that launched today, we are still far from that point, so it would be inappropriate give any support for Team 17 given how poorly they've supported their customers.

Black Matter's tradition of adding faulty content to the stuttering, frame-dropping mess of bugs that make up Hell Let Loose is the only thing Team 17 has lived up to. Compared even to something like Battlefield 2042, a game which released in arguably worse shape, Hell Let Loose is still VERY much in a Early Access state in terms of polish and performance. Sure, they've added new content with the British forces, but they've fallen well short of standards set by prior additions of this scale, such as the Soviet forces, and are 0 for 2 when it comes to improving the existing game.

U14 features:
- XP nerfs across the board. Be prepared to invest years into this game now if you want variety in your gameplay options! (What's that I smell? Purchaseable XP boosts?!)
- Zero cosmetic options for British Forces (I guess these are purely reserved for the in-game cosmetic store now)
- The default P14 rifle is a trash at range compared to all other forces, and is just a baffling choice historically.
- No bipod on the Bren MG. I... I just... there's just no way to explain this one!
- El Alamein some how manages to run worse than Stalingrad (I'd consider that +1.5 new maps, at best)
- No desert camos for El Alamein, meanwhile the issues with Snow camos and lack of automatic environment-based outfit presets still persist.
- Baffling, unnecessary, and poorly communicated change to running speeds, including awful animations & sfx that've drastically lowered the bar in terms of quality and immersion. Now, more than ever, you too can experience an authentic, floating-head perspective of WW2!
- No improvements to performance at all. This especially is the most exhausting aspect to this update, since the new maps are even worse. To be fair, Black Matter set the bar extremely low, but there's just no excusing this with a new studio dedicated to this game.

Between the bolt action reload and voice comm bugs that went unpatched for over a month, the low quality of new assets and content for the British forces, and the horrible, horrible performance issues that remain virtually unchanged, I do not trust that Team 17 is capable or willing to meet basic customer expectations, such as a delivering a game that will run without issue, much less deliver improvements meaningful for the existing community. Unfortunately all I can do about it is leave this review, uninstall the game, and hope those steps will affect some performance metrics they're monitoring.

After 2 years, STILL not recommended. :(