Recent reviews by Ashrac

Game full of flash and reward gratification. Combat is simplistic and overly easy. Fun for a little while but then you realize all the QoL restrictions on the free version, things like inventory size and excessive research times. The ways around that are a cash shop that feels like it's double the price of what it should be for the value. Single use cosmetics, especially dyes is just predatory. There are better looter shooters to spend your time on.

As a long time fan of Tower Defense games, that aspect of The Front is what I am having the most fun with. Being able to create your own pathways and traps and trigger the raid event is (to my knowledge) a unique concept for a tower defense game. As a long time player of 7 Days to Die, and Valheim, this is exactly what I needed to recapture my joy of open world survival style gameplay. If you want a break from the Tower Defense aspect you can easily go explore the map, attack strongpoints, or even add the Rust style PVP aspect.
Are there some bugs? Sure, it's an early access game, but nothing that I have experienced so far is game-breaking. The development team seem very responsive and are putting out updates constantly, sometimes multiple times per week.
I do think the experience playing on a private dedicated server with my friends is different then those some people experience on the public servers and I would recommend playing on a private dedicated.

Building structures is akin to Sons of the Forest/Rust/ARK as opposed to the voxel based building of games like 7 Days or Valheim. The downside to this is no terrain modification, which also can lead to some janky building on non-flat ground.

I'm excited to see where the developers take this game and what new content they add. The roadmap has already been released and has some great updates.

For the cost, if you like survival games, especially if you like Tower Defense games, you should pick up The Front!

Say what you will about a game with a cash shop, Lost Ark is still a fun game to play. If you are a completionist there is PLENTY to keep you engaged and busy for awhile. Combat and class skills are fun to use, and give you a good feel of perceived power while slogging through large groups of enemies that explode in a satisfying way. As always, best played with a group of friends to complete the dungeons/raid bosses. A final note about the cash shop, you can max out on everything without ever spending a time, it does however, provide a speed boost in getting there. It is nice to play a AAA title that is polished and finished, compared to the recent spat of broken releases.

Unlike some of my friends who have been playing this for years, I started at the beginning of A19. This game has always provided a ton of fun and challenge. Would really like to see the lore developed and fleshed out, but the sandbox nature of the game leads to hours of fun and variability. When you get bored or it becomes too easy you can install one of the many full overhaul mods. One thing this game has going for it is a very active and creative community that makes some amazing mods. For the price, it should be a game that everyone checks out!

The changes since release made this a fun game! The New Horizon update has been blast to come back and play through. Expeditions were well done!

I've been a huge NW supporter for the last 3 years. Multiple alpha and beta phases, capped to 60 a few times. The issues since release have completely gutted my desire to play. The latest November release sucked the remaining fun out of the game and made already grind heavy systems even worse, with minimal reward to show for effort. Having a sizable portion of the population already capped BEFORE these changes, just made it worse for those that weren't able to dedicate massive hours every day farming early. I login and just sit there thinking whats the point anymore, why am I bothering. Hopefully upcoming changes will bring back the spark that made the game enjoyable, until then, I can't even justify paying my house tax.

Such a fun time. Amazed at how intricate some of the systems are.