Recent reviews by AkrekZ

Pokemon with guns they said, more like ARK with Pokemon-esque aesthetics.




AND IT WORKS!

---{Graphics}---
☐ You forget what reality is
☑ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

---{Gameplay}---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It‘s just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{Audio}---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{Audience}---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ All

---{PC Requirements}---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☑ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{Difficulty}---
☐ One click to win
☐ Easy
☐ Significant brain usage
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☑ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{Grind}---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☑ Too much grind
☐ You‘ll need a second live for grinding

---{Story}---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☑ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It‘ll replace your life

---{Game Time}---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☐ Average
☑ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
☐ Depends

---{Price}---
☐ It’s free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ At least wait for sale
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{Bugs}---
☐ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☑ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

---{Adorableness}---
☑ YES.

---{How closely can i simulate North Korean working conditions}---
☑ ALSO YES.

---{Comments}---
Seriously buy it its absolutely worth it, its like a game that shouldn't even possibly exist a melting pot of everything fun you can imagine and instead of turning into a hot mess it works, it just works! (Take that Todd Howard)
And its still in early access on top of that.

Total 9.5/10 (Bugs are like the only issue)

Now then, this is an interesting case.

---{Graphics}---
☐ You forget what reality is
☑ Beautiful
☑ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

---{Gameplay}---
☐ Very good
☐ Good
☑ It‘s just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{Audio}---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☐ Good
☑ Not too bad / Does glitch sometimes tho
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{Audience}---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ All

---{PC Requirements}---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☑ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{Difficulty}---
☐ One click to win
☑ Easy
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{Grind}---
☑ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You‘ll need a second live for grinding

---{Story}---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It‘ll replace your life
...Extra...
☑ Dude, what the f*ck??

---{Game Time}---
☐ Short
☑ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
☐ Depends

---{Price}---
☐ It’s free!
☑ Worth the price
☑ If u have some spare money left
☐ At least wait for sale
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{Bugs}---
☐ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☑ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☑ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs *wink wink*

---{Strategy}---
☑ Click to win
☐ Matching pretty colors
☐ I'm afraid we'll have to use ...MATH
☐ Now this is actual war
☐ Kenny McCormick vs. the armies of hell

---{Comments}---

As alluded to The Hive is an interesting case in so far that anything that isn't directly the game itself is incoherent non-sense.
The intro tells of humanity abandoning earth and settling on a new world, they never show up again.
Game starts your first worker has just evolved (or maybe re-evolved i couldn't tell you) to the point of sentience emerging from a pool of glowing water. That sentience is you, you're the Overmind. But in case you don't quite know what to do yet dont worry you have an insectoid advisor to accompany you now all of a sudden. Love the moment you gain sentience you're apparently hit with multiple personality disorder as well.

Your main goal now? To get to the surface.

Why? F*ck if i know!

Underground you will slowly fight your way through [random lizard people] until you reach a large temple of them. Defeat the [random lizard people] and you'll see the map (which you can always entirely see, an odd choice tho i actually like).
The path goes in 2 directions:

North towards an broken temple surrounded by lava
South towards an oceanic cave housing a giant hermit crab

What now? We go north sacrifice a few of our guys in a cutscene to the lava temple and summon Satan to ask for directions on how to find the ancient hermit crab we just passed by in smell distance. He tells us and that killing it would make him really happy but also that the sacrifice we gave him wasn't enough and we still need to pay a price, we wont. So we kill the hermit crab to take the water orb of wisdom from it.

That was level 1 i'll summarize more now you have an idea of how "special" this story is.

Eventually the [random lizard people] are defeated and you move to fighting the Charla'toi empire.
They look like some kind of chaos cultist human babarians tho it isn't clear if they are all 1 species or not.
They worship the drowned god but then sometime didn't so he flooded their capital which is now the drowned city.
So thats where we go next.
Theres also treasures and ghosts and tombs in most levels.
In their capital we seek a pool of pure water of life stuff, using this water YOU can finally get a body of your own, an Avatar. The pool is protected by the most powerful Charla'toi, the Necromancer (why a NECROmancer would protect the cradle of life, who knows), with their capital in ruins the empire collapses, an all out war between several factions rages trying to get a piece of the empire (aka the lizards show up again).
So we kill some mega huge charla'toi, cus flex.

We reach an area with only a couple lizards strewn over the map.
We scout and find an ancient derelict starship which could be one of the human ships we saw in the intro.
The humans do show up afterall? Nah the ships infected with some psychic parasite that takes over your scouts while your insectoid advisor completely freaks out and now you have to slowly grind your way through the map fighting stronger and edgier looking versions of yourself. Focus on the hives and queens they carry the parasite if all red glowing ones are dead you automatically win.
Rather than investigate further or try to eradicate the parasite we just leave.

There once was peace between the underground factions and they had great gates to the surface but when everything fell into disrepair and war the artifacts to power the gates were lost, the orbs we're collecting (why only mention that now? cus the game did)
We go to one of the last places the charla'toi still hold, The temple of the drowned god.
Inside we engage in highly intellectually stimulating puzzles like
"Put specific bug on picture of same bug"
and
"Literally go around collapsed door"
We reach the inner sanctum and the glowing orb of live.
Revived, the necromancer shows up again. It is hinted that the power of the orb of live has been leaking into the waters causing the different factions to evolve and gain sentience like we did (obvious time paradox!?)
We defeat the edgy wizard who doesn't really do anything necromancer-esque and claim the orb of life.

Taking the orb awakens the drowned god, turns out to be a giant lovecraftian tentacle monster with an arena wide insta-kill attack which would be frightening if you couldn't just leave the arena at any time.

We kill god, our insectoid advisor goes nuts and corrupted from the surge of power of the orbs, and then hes cool again and we finally go to the surface, not through giant gates but tiny mineshaft staircases.

And then John Rico and the Mobile Infantry show up and blow us to smithereens in the outro, like im not even kidding.

Also the orbs sometimes talk to you like a second advisor because drugs i'm guessing at this point.
__________________________
I would not be surprised if this games story was scripted by AI.
The twists and plots and turns and story beats and even some world building are there but mashed into an incoherent feverdream.

Gameplaywise the game does nothing new or unique but what it does it does rather well. A good RTS but very shallow and very easy, You can win just by spamming/peppering your enemies to death. The fully revealed map, the fact you can just leave and take breaks during boss fights and the strategic AI level being on par with a dead cat further make this game a complete cake walk. Your only danger is during the beginning of a level when your enemy might succeed in overrunning you, and ressource management overall.

Its not a great game, but its a good game and if you like RTS games specially of the easier variant and/or you like playing the insectoid factions like Zerg for example, this game could definitely be something for you.

Overall: 7.5/10
(Might be biased because insects tho)

---{Graphics}---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☑ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

---{Gameplay}---
☐ Very good
☐ Good
☑ It‘s just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{Audio}---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{Audience}---
☑ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☑ All

---{PC Requirements}---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☐ Decent
☑ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{Difficulty}---
☐ One click to win
☑ Easy
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{Grind}---
☐ Nothing to grind
☑ Only if u care about leaderboards/unlockables
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You‘ll need a second live for grinding

---{Story}---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☑ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It‘ll replace your life

---{Game Time}---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☑ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
☑ Depends

---{Price}---
☐ It’s free!
☑ Worth the price
☑ If u have some spare money left
☐ At least wait for sale
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{Bugs}---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☑ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

---{Cuteness factor}---
☐ I love you!
☑ D'awwwww
☐ Made we say "awww" once
☐ ...
☐ I legitimately WANT you to get hurt

---{Comments}---
While a bit shallow maybe, a very cutesy game about surprisingly and absolutely shocking ...bees.
I would place this game alongside games like Dredge: A very relaxing play with lots of minigame elements.
It however had some definite quirks, the Chase challenges for example sometime you win before you even realize it already started and sometimes it is simply impossible (The same one mind you).
The challenges radar feels too short range.
And quitting out of the splitscreen mode apparently just doesnt work.

All in all:
Very lovely game in need of polish. (And maybe a few less puns and references)
-----{ 8 / 10 }-----

When i found this game during a special sale i thought that like most games in this price range this one will be a haphazardly cobbled together heap of barely playable junk but might as well give it a try.

And this assumption was 100% wrong.
Beetle Uprising is the beetle equivalent of Empire of the Undergrowth and then somehow manages to slightly outpace EotU on basically everything it scores on (aside from optimization).
Where EotU gives you slight variations and behavioral changes in your ants, one of Beetle Uprisings core mechanics IS the genetic variance and behavioral changes you induce in your beetles.
Instead of EotU's architectural management of the hive in BU you directly interact and decorate the nest and directly give your beetles food toys sleeping places and grooming tools adding a slight virtual pet aspect to the game.

Only con i have encountered so far is resource availability so far i control 6 areas and even after completely plundering them i can still barely keep my nest from running deficits for the moment.

Absolute recommendation including outside of sales!

Pros:
Humor is on par
Graphics are decent
Very good story
High replay value
Easy to learn hard to master controls very reminiscent of the Metroid Prime series

Cons:
The only cons i experienced are both related to the difficulty but oh boy they will definitively tarnish your experience

First, the difficulty in-game is absolutely inconsistent you'll blaze through most of the level and then die 20 times at that one part and only through ridiculous luck will you get past it (Attack of the Stone Angels for example) the difficulty is a flatline most of the time and then spikes into the obscene

Second, on hard difficulty (professional) especially this game is a non-stop torture session not because of the difficulty itself but rather because your teammates are so utterly useless and their AI so broken it almost feels on purpose
If i have to fight and defeat the final effing boss on hard in a 5 man team SOLO because my teammates prefer being dead im guessing (and no reviving them only keeps getting you killed) theres only 3 emotions ill experience 1 Despair 2 Amazement when i somehow pull it off and 3 im utterly peeved at the only difficulty not coming from the game or any extra challenge but from an essential central part of the game being broken

Yall can probably judge from this rant just how much this peeved me off and that it'll likely mess with you too.

In summary:
The AI is total garbage and the overall difficulty either spikes or flatlines the jokes are funny the game is full of callbacks theres lots to scan and collect even so the game is very very linear and short but its fun (for the most part).

Verdict:
If you like Metroid Prime or the Ghostbusters franchise this game should be worth it for you. If not or you're not familiar enough with either get it during a sale then it should still be worth it for you once you get the hang of it catching some ghosts is really enjoyable.

Also:
Its still better than Ghostbusters 2016.

A very enjoyable little puzzle game where you're the monster for a change feels very similar to carrion.

Graphics 7/10
Very basic retro style
Gameplay 9/10
They linger on just long enough before introducing new mechanics before it gets boring
Story 6/10
Kinda meh very loose and vague but more then you'd expect
Difficulty 4/10
Enjoyable and simple but the difficulty is very inconsistent (disregarding the levels introducing new mechanics) it spikes A LOT

Overall 6.5/10
Very good for a little bit on the side but not much more
Still worth it tho.

Talk about a redemption arc.

This game was a rushed buggy content lacking MESS in the truest sense of the word.
And what did Hello Games do instead of cashing in on release date and running for the hills?

Put actual work into the game diversified the environment and animals added actual multiplayer rehauled the whole game and essentially made me play it for 5 days straight when i picked it up.

No Man's Sky as it is right now is a story rich space exploration game where most of the challenge comes from the environment (and the robot version of fridays for future) not so much from hostile aliens and combat.
Your hardest hours will be trying to find certain ressources and finding them on radioactive toxic worlds where the sentinels have gone mad.
That one really gave me that fight to survive feeling that most games like this try to emulate through uninspired food and water mechanics.
Its base building survival with an extreme heavy focus on exploration.
Its not a hard survival the likes of "subnautica", the forest, osiris or grounded but as said it can surprisingly create a better more realistic and intense "fight to survive" feeling than all of those.
Also dont fear since death is more annoying than punishing, essentially using the same mechanic as World of Warcraft with the added effect of breaking one of the many modules you have, fixable and only slightly annoying unless you get very unlucky and have one of your more important modules break.

The only thing that bothers me, at least at this stage, is that a complete survey of a planet is very very tedious work im still not even done with my current HQ planet.

All in all a borderline masterpiece that truly showcases a developers dedication and ability and this industry could use many more like it and many more game like this too.

Tho to be honest gotta mention they went a bit overkill with making the aliens look "alien" while the actual hostile aliens are just recolored zerg ripoffs of the china budget variety.

Edit: After this long time it not being fixed i think i should mention that the main enemies in this game, the sentinels, will in the pursuit of you phase through most solid objects like the ground.

Pokemon-inspired RPGmaker game.
Nothing groundbreaking, nothing disappointing either.

The Resolution like typical for RPGmaker is relatively low therefore recommended to keep the game in windowed mode especially since it has graphics-wise the typical GBA-type look and you dont want to stretch that over a 4K screen.

Solid gameplay
8/10

Graphics
N/A (cant really judge it)

Interesting Story(drags on a bit at times)
6/10

Cute and quirky characters
8/10

Surprisingly little grindiness
8/10

Varied endings based on your Playthrough
9/10

Absolute merciless/silly humor&bad puns
11/10


#edit: re-reviewing this review it might be worth mentioning that i, like quite a few others, have bought this game after the supposed feminists behind this game clashed with the supposed feminists of the rightfully infamous resetera forum.
while i wont change my impression and rating of the game,since i was aware of this previously and haven't changed my opinion, i still think it should be mentioned that the game does bludgeon you over the head with the very "stereo"typical talking points of that spectrum (for example literally every major character is gay and female) if you have trouble ignoring such stances/implications etc. once aware of them this games entertainment value will likely be dulled considerably for you, otherwise you can ignore this paragraph its a neat little game eitherway.

[insert joke about 41% or something]

As a player of the original Empire of the Ants in the late 90s i'd say this is pretty much a polished and streamlined version of it with very much improved Overview

Graphics: 8/10
Not the greatest but if you played the original you definitively wont complain
Story: 6/10
to be fair theres not really that much of a story anyways besides some psycho researcher i guess
Bugs: 10/10
not once did it glitch or bug and froze like once
Gameplay: 10/10
hours just melt away

A bit simplistic but if micromanagement games are your thing this one will surely be entertaining for you

*Read till the end*

Certainly in recent years nothing has become such a household name for "build your own ♥♥♥♥" sandbox games like minecraft.
Now imagine it streamlined with amazing graphics a less obscure story and in space.

Thats pretty close to what Osiris: New Dawn feels like.

Pros:
A relative wide yet sense making Tech-Tree which retains a good overview during the game
An interesting yet at times a bit shallow feeling story
A small yet realistic variety of native creatures tho the balance between hostile and non-hostile is a bit shoddy
A barren wasteland that offers far more exploration and surprises than you`d expect
Its a bit sluggish at the beginning but through this has a relative ease to getting into it

Cons:
The ghosts ....just srsly
As to be expected of an early alpha its still riddled with glitches
Speaking of glitches im always taken aback when the hostile natives start quantum tunneling T-posting at warpspeed all over the place or run into a mountain side and launch themselves into outer space and generally go totally nuts and ram me into a wall which beasically forces you to kermit sodoku this is especially true for the first base you encounter
Also DO NOT ever use a mecha-crab and run into self-built structures nor have it parked atop of structures because i now have one stuck in my living quarters and one caged in my biodome
Updates continue tho feel sluggish and slowed
Framerate remains stable for the most part unless you look at anything that causes a high degree of lens flare like lithium ore that TANKS your fps like hell
Some effects look extremely cheap as if they are just placeholders like the gravitation lightning
Resources gathering can become quite the chore as you burn through collected resources very quickly
The ghost again they tend to glitch alot like multiplying if youre standing above them and their electromagnetic shockwave remaining in place should they despawn during an attack
Difficulty curve flatlines relatively early

edit: while the overworld difficulty flatlines quickly the mines are really tough

Overall:
Idea 9/10
Gameplay 7/10
Bugs&Glitches 4/10 (Updated 7/10)
Graphics 7/10
Story 7/10 (Updated 5/10)
Environment 7/10 (Updated 6/10)

Would i recommend?
Yes tho i would still suggest maybe waiting along the development progress abit as there have been quite a few questionable changes back and forth

Update:
Its been like 4 years since this review?
To my surprise this is not abandon ware, work is still being done progress still being made but still very slowly.
In typical Osiris New Dawn fashion the development makes 3 step forward and 2,9 steps back.

As a reminder i use the stable game version not the experimental one!
As for the progress, essentially all my major issues have been address (thanks for that btw):

The animals act and path find much better they seem to look better too and most importantly they do not launch themselves into outer space if they happen to walk into a pebble anymore.

The lens flare associated lag is gone.

The mining and ressource system has been overhauled completely to where collection and usage feel more realistic but more importantly alot less tedious.

AND DEAR GOD THOSE GHOST ARE GONE, THANK YOU.

The sandworms also seem to only attack you in the red sea desert now, giving them a similiar mechanic to the matured ghost leviathans of subnautica.


Now what has gotten worse:
The active in-game story is basically gone aside from "build X" theres nothing.

The wildlife seems to have been reduced by quite a bit (are Tumbos and Orceks still in the game?)

The environment is also emptier (Site B is playable but Site A is a complete empty wasteland with a few forgotten pre-overhaul ressource nodes)

Potatoes. Kinda trivial but also geniunedly annoying that i can soft lock myself out of a fundamental food source and all subsequent food items because i recycle the ruined bases around the map which i believe is the logical thing to do here.

I maintain this game as recommended.
However if i come back in another 4 years i might chance that.


Update: Aaaaaaand its abandonware now
The Dev Team released the 1.0 "We give up" update and are now just lashing out at the remnants of the fanbase which for a game so long in development with such a solid base is an absolute shame
OND was one of the most solid Alpha releases i can think of but similarly to Hello Neighbor earlier versions are just more enjoyable.
I would have recommended getting it during sales as this very good foundation of a game is still there but watching the current actions of the team .....just forget this one ever existed quite frankly


Update:
Okay sooooo its been another 4 years and a bit the FLAMEWAR between the devs and the community and the game getting delisted from Steam and we're now getting news of updates and bugfixes
I maintain as not recommended.
However should the makers actually make an actual good faith effort for this game and not try to squeeze some more cash out and run again as many suspect.
The game might be able to be revitalized albeit with severe difficulty this solid core is still there and even a decade delayed would still be a waste to be left to rot.

I'll keep this review updated