12 people found this review helpful
Not Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 18.8 hrs on record (5.1 hrs at review time)
Posted: 24 Sep @ 9:36pm
Updated: 26 Sep @ 8:36am

Early Access Review
Looks amazing, feels fresh but needs a lot of technical work to be playable.

Movement is clunky, you get stuck into everything, rocks, debris, even flat ground has odd collisions that gets you stuck and killed. The different movement speed between walking forward and sideways feels off, I understand the sprint forward goes faster thing but when walking it just feels bad.

Movement and stealth systems are not fleshed out enough for such an oppressive environment. Being able to prone, execute unaware enemies or even dropping your rig to fight then pick it back up later (Akin to Outwards), would be amazing additions.

The enemy perception is a bit inconsistent, sometimes they don't see you 2 meters away from their faces, sometimes they spot you instantly.

My verdict is that they need to focus on the core of the game before the looks, get the anim BPs working fluidly, get the interactions to be more consistent, fix the collisions on the terrain. A game is mainly held up by its game-play first, graphics and atmosphere second.

Hope this develops into the great game it is aimed to be, but for now I cannot recommend it.

PS.: After playing some more I've more suggestion that could help fix the gameplay issues;
- Alternative paths, the level design is too linear and it is especially noticeable in the closed quarters maps, you have 1 or 2 options to reach another area and both options are usually filled with enemies. Add vents, secret passages or at least better stealth mechanics.
- Contested extractions, just silly, your only way out is being camped by things that you cannot kill or evade in numbers you cannot get rid off. At least one extraction point should always be safe, especially in a game with no pause, I can't just sit there all day and wait for an enemy spawn to wander nearby them.
- Hunter Killer, this one could work but the threshold for triggering it is stupid low, an enemy that always knows where you are and never stops is just too much, not fun at all.

In essence I'd recommend this game to take a lesson from Kenshi, it is a hard game but it gives you things to do for when you are still weak, in this one all we can do is "sneak" and hope for the best but the stealth system is just crouching and the only noise source we have is our guns, can't even throw a rock somewhere to distract patrols. The ttk discrepancy between the weakest enemies and yourself is also crazy, everything is so much stronger then you and in larger numbers, definitely needs some balancing. (I came into this aware it was supposed to be a hard game, but this is just not fun, I've hundreds of hours on Kenshi, Elden Ring and Souls Games, this is not hard, is just unfinished.)
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