Recent reviews by Hellrot

Might not be the fanciest ghost hunting game out there with regards to visuals and scare factor, but there's a reason all others are pretty much dead.

Phasmophobia ghost types actually have their unique personalities and it feels satisfying deducing them correctly, especially on higher difficulty levels.

UPDATE 07/12/2023 - Rather than address the issues "their" long-time fans have as consumers of their product, Hidden Variable Studios / Autumn Games have colluded with Steam to hide the "wrong" reviews they do not like by default. If this is not enough not to give those people any of your money that they believe they're entitled to, then I don't know what else you honestly need.

As of June 2023 it's a shame I can't recommend buying what had become a truly classic gem. The core strong gameplay is still there, but one of the key features of Skullgirls is (was) its unique artistic vision and style.

The game is over 10 years old. While still a strong fighting game, it doesn't enjoy the amount of attention it used to have back in the PS3/360 days and when first long-awaited DLC dropped and re-ignited the fanbase. There is little reason to make any drastic changes.

Yet here we are! The current devs (who were not the original developer team from 10+ years ago) thought they had to change what worked perfectly for over a decade and run the game's sprites through 4Kids-style censorship by removing such "offensive" elements as armbands and panty shots, for the reasons and moral standpoint known only to them.

While not a huge change, the provocative ("edgy") nature of some of Skullgirl's art was deliberate and reflects the OG artists' vision.

However, the sprites isn't everything that was changed - they actually removed some concept art that you had to pay separately to access ("Digital Art Compendium" DLC).

They removed several voice lines from a few voice packs.

They removed the “Soviet” announcer pack content entirely! As a Russian, I’m beyond confused whom this was supposed to be “offensive” towards.

I feel it is not only disrespectful to the people who made this game possible, it's also an anti-consumer practice that clearly goes against the wishes of their fans that kept this (niche by now) game alive through sheer enthusiasm, not the amount of
still active players.

The real highlight of their moral compass is the fact they censored art used in promotion for a cancer charity drive (!!). It's in the patch changelogs!

If the publisher or the new development team has a problem with such an old game, I feel like the appropriate measure would be to address the "issues" they have in a sequel, a different game, or, if their personal religious or moral compass does not allow them to carry on as is, resign from the company and work on another franchise, something less "offensive" in their eyes.

Instead, they chose to "fix" what wasn't broken, to meddle with something they didn’t originally build. I would argue that they messed with work of someone who’s more talented than they are. This is my opinion.

I didn't care when earlier they suppressed a Steam guide with a mod to remove a certain controversial e-celebrity from the 10+ years old game that was added as an NPC in one of the relatively recent patches (in their view, apparently you don't have the right to install mods that only affect you, and nobody else).

But this clearly unpopular, unneeded change that goes against the wishes of their loyal customers is a clear indication that A) they don't deserve your business because they do not respect you and take you for granted; B) that you really ought to buy games on physical media when possible. There is no way to opt out of updates. Because of this, the only way to play Skullgirls with the original artistic vision is to resort to illegal means, even if you paid for the game a bunch of times on different platforms throughout the decade that it's been around for.

A great entry point into the series which retains good world building while excluding (and subverting) some of the cringe-worthy, obnoxious tropes introduced with Ace Combat 5 and onwards aimed at edgy teens and their huge egos.

The gameplay is as good as Ace Combat mechanics can get. While the idea of clouds influencing modern aircraft and its weapons sounds ridiculous, it actually adds an interesting layer to the old formula.

The graphics look wonderful, the visual presentation is the pinnacle of the series. The aforementioned clouds are stunning in 4k.

The plane roster is decent, but then there are some weird decisions like including several versions of the same aircraft (Flankers are trash :)), or an A-10 - a slow, sluggish plane good only for one mission (but then just like in real life you realize it doesn't offer anything that an F-16, an F-15, or an F-35 can't do better). There's also not much incentive to diversify your choice of aircraft, as once you've unlocked the F-22 - you don't need anything else (best AA dogfighter, best Air-to-Surface weapon in the game).

The multiplayer is ridden with hackers, and it doesn't look like we're getting a proper anti-cheat system. And it's not that popular by now, as the game and its genre are a niche.

Overall, it's a surprising comeback of a franchise thought to be long dead, you can safely ignore all the review bombs by salty hotas manbabies, because they've introduced hotas support, but if you're planning to play this game with anything but a gamepad - there's something really wrong with you.

The PvE content is shallow, and once you've experienced all types of procedurally-generated missions, you have experienced it all. Unless you are going to play with other people, there is not much to do on your own, except take pretty screenshots - visuals are one of the few things this game is admittedly amazing at.

PvP fights can be fun, but only when they work. Three problems: 1. This "MMO" provides the means to avoid direct PvP alogether and encourages unsportsmanslike behavior like exiting the game when in danger and abusing Block lists, without any penalty. 2. This game wasn't exactly built for it, because it uses P2P infrastructure, which results in game-breaking connectivity issues between the players. 3. Dedicated PvP requires you to be an end game player. There is a high demand, and no reward for sustaining this playstyle.

The developers are refusing to address core issues of this game, with priorly advertised game mechanics such as PowerPlay (inter-faction guild PvP) basically abandoned to decay and remain laughably broken for years.

With the few great exceptions (shout out to my boys at ♥♥♥), the community at large is composed of non-players who actively prevent this game from taking the direction to become an actual game instead of a pretty screenshot simulator, or one of those German work-games. Example - at some point FDev has introduced an actually great QoL feature, allowing players to move their ships across the huge Galaxy remotely, without having to haul them back and forth themselves.

The transfer was instant, allowing more gameplay versatility - after all, each possible activity in Elite Dangerous requires specialized ships for each. The community at large protested, and they have eventually voted to introduce egregious timers to ship transfer, which makes you literally play less. This is all you need to know about the majority in this community.

Looking back at the number of hours I've invested in Elite Dangerous, I regret doing so. Most of this time was grinding, artificial time sinks and fighting frustrating technical issues of this game. The only silver lining for me is meeting some great friends in the PvP community and PowerPlay guilds.

If you're looking for pretty visuals and amazing audio without expecting much - go ahead and try it. If you're looking for a good game, you'll be disappointed.

In this age of hipster shovelware, it is a truly rare occasion to find an indie game that is easily worth an AAA price tag. Having learned of this jewel only recently, I was instantly hooked by its familiar yet original art style, addicting gameplay and just how polished it is (immersive soundtrack, actual character voice overs, etc). You won't regret purchasing this game, it's a great example that the platformer genre is not dead. Surprising that Freedom Planet was basically made with a relatively primitive Sonic games constructor.