Recent reviews by BrainDaWGs

For years I've been looking for a good co-op game to play with the friends. This is it.

My recommendation is to pick this up when it goes on sale if you're curious.

So far my opinion on the game is that it has fallen short almost everywhere. I have found no mechanics that I can say are enjoyable. If it requires 20 hours before it gets good then maybe they should've designed the game better. Save your money and buy a better game like Baldur's Gate 3 or any other game that has received acclaim in the past 5-10 years. By the time you're done playing all these good games from the last decade you'll be just in time to pick up this pile of ♥♥♥♥ for 90% off in next year's summer sale.

People say this is Skyrim in space. Skyrim is better than this game. Go play Skyrim.

Takes a long time to play, but it feels like I'm taking part in a space ecosystem rather than a void filled with pit stops.

Great space tycoon game with a decent flight system, very clunky until you understand the controls.

Not a fan of survival crafting games after getting burnt out on so many lackluster experiences.
This game is definitely an exception:

Beautiful game, consistent art style that looks odd at first but pulls off the style so well that you forget the game looks like a higher poly runescape.

Simple, streamlined mechanics. There are no time gated tech trees or weird combat systems. Everything is gated by resource gathering & crafting, monster slaying, or exploration. You can get caught on terrain easily but movement is very fluid when you are in familiar surroundings.

Only negative is the time it takes to gather resources, especially ores. Upgrading tools helps but getting a sufficient amount of metal like bronze is a huge time sink.

Still playing it, but the game seems to have a good overarching goal that drives the player forward.

I recommend getting it before guides and spoilers become commonplace. Not knowing much about the game is one of the best parts, every new biome and enemy is unique and terrifying until you master them. Not sure about replayability but the first playthrough is completely worth the price.


The bees are happy.

Definitely worth it if you get it on sale. Good single player rpg. Similar to fallout. I recommend normal or storyteller. The game difficulty is just a sliding scale of bullet sponge. Supernova just adds inconveniences rather than interesting challenge.

Great for popping open a couple thousand sodas with the boys.

After playing the game for a while I can tell you it needs serious work.

The trading is unenjoyable, the game doesn't help explain anything more complex than keybinds. Some might try to defend it saying it is a steep learning curve but that implies that the game attempts to help you learn. Tooltips on everything would be extremely helpful. If I would suggest anything it is a tooltip system like Crusader Kings 2 where it gives you the conditions to be met or a good description of what is being done.

The player faction AI is absolutely terrible. My ships don't even defend themselves, they don't attack targets which I tell them to, I have low ability captains but the option to "Train" them is never explained or available.

The UI is okay in some aspects and horrible in others. It would be nice to have filters for stations selling and buying certain products on the map. The map has the most problems as it is really unhelpful when you are trying to find certain buildings in space. That being said I've had a lot of problems buying things only to realize I bought it for the wrong ship, which coincidentally cannot actually sell anything because it has a lack of cargolifters. Maybe a prompt straight up asking which ship you want to use that isn't ignorable would be much more helpful.

Player ship combat is decent. There are a lot of different munitions to choose from for missiles but my main energy powered weapons seem very limited.

The minigames are simply stupid. Many times I've landed in areas that aren't "purple" and "scored" but sometimes I get it in the purple and the game still fails me. If this is the route you want your game to go then at least make it more defined. Honestly I hated the minigames the most.

Controlling other ships is mostly a hassle. Creating a station seems very important but it is woefully underexplained in the campaign "tutorial". Although the one thing I do like is docking in capital ships. That is awesome and I love how I can see the outside while it is flying me across the galaxy.

The voice acting for NPC's is god awful. Different lines are few and far between. It seems like whenever I talk to female traders they keep asking me if I want to see their boobs and my captain has expressed their joy in meeting me for the first time... for the tenth time.

Graphically this game is pretty decent. Not AAA material but good. Although the NPC models are extremely bland. It's like everyone is bald except for my energetic rebellious do-gooder copilot.

I have no way of really gauging how good my ship is compared to others except by looking at their armaments. What good is telling me how much flat damage my missiles do if everything is only measured in percentages?

Hireling skills really confuse me. What exactly is the difference between a 1 star and a 5 star? In a game governed by trading and numbers it seems this was an afterthought. Honestly a lot of the percentages and numbers in this game feel very meaningless. Like my cargo allows me to have so much m3 but I can only carry so much of one item. It should probably give more information about this in ship details.

The plot of the game is decent, but it really railroaded me along and it felt like that was the only thing that gave the game any meaning. Also, I changed back my ships name from Albion Skunk to Albion Pride but they keep calling me the Albion Skunk, probably should lock the ability to change the Skunk's name.

All in all the game feels very empty. I liked the premise but I don't like the feel of this game.

The main reason why I bought Arma3 was for the Wasteland mod. I played Arma 2 pretty heavily and I can say for sure that Arma3/Wasteland is far superior than DayZ in every respect except for survival/foraging. I played quite a bit of Arma2 Dayz and I feel that the mod is extremely overrated compared to the other MP experiences Arma has to offer.

This review may be more helpful to those who are thinking about the decision to move to Arma3 from Arma2.

Arma 3 improves upon Arma 2 in many ways. First it reduces the amount of clutter on the keyboard. Now there isn't (what feels like) fifty keys dedicated to command/radio and now there is more of a streamlined feel to the game. That being said, it's extremely necessary to play with voice, as calling out targets/orders is something that is required in this game, unless you are a lone wolf or you are in a rather large group where the need for such things is lessened.

Also, a major update in graphics, which I must say are stunning compared to A2. This doesn't make Arma, but it helps you stay immersed. Needless to say, Arma will always be unoptimized, so please, learn simple optimization tricks before giving up after seeing you have <30 frames. It's worth it.

The amount of customizations in this game is extremely helpful/useful. Be warned though, it may take some time before you get the hang of it as Arma, being buggy, has a tendency to make things hard. Plus there's the fact that sometimes a player can get their hands on a fantastic sniper rifle, minus the scope (I'm pointing at you wasteland). So be warned of these situations before you find yourself in one that isn't to your liking.

After all of this I would suggest that people with lower end computers don't buy this game or be prepared to run it on low settings. But the low settings are nothing to be mad about, as they are still pretty damn good, and graphics are not something that you come to Arma for in the first place.


Now for those who haven't experienced the Military Sim feels (you know what I'm talking about)... Arma. Delivers.
When played right, it delivers a deep comradery that cannot be gotten from most other games on the market. When you achieve something with your friends, who you sometimes have to place 100% trust in, it can be awe inspiring and can lead to many ecstatic shouts over the radio for doing something seemingly insignificant if seen through eyes of a standard FPS player.

Now about gameplay; Arma requires an extreme amount of patience. Normally you have one or two rounds of fire to get things right or you will be sent to the death screen. Bullets hurt. Really bad. Normally getting hit with one is life threatening if it's normal caliber, but any more than that and you could be facing a bit of a journey back. This normally means 10-20 minutes to regroup and find another battle worth fighting. But don't worry, many of my fondest memories of Arma are from moments that are just random and unexpected, and they don't even require the slightest trace of enemy presence.
( http://i.imgur.com/GgapTFX.jpg ) <- From Arma2


TL;DR
Arma 3 is a much improved upon Arma 2, nothing extremely new here but there's still quite a bit more which makes it worth getting if your computer can handle the game and you can handle the buggyness/playstyle of Arma. It is one of my favorite games and is the leader of its genre, and rightfully so.

For those wondering approximately 300 hours of game time logged on Arma2.