Recent reviews by /k/ILLDOZER

Surprisingly good stealth based old school Splinter Style game. I hate how many modern stealth based games have "fluid movement mechanics" and that honestly sucks. I like to take things slow and steady in a stealth game and this is what this is.

Notice how older games don't have yellow paint splattered everywhere as way point markers? You have to pay attention to audio chatter and actually read the progression log to figure out what to do next. AI is half decent and gun play is fun.

However, the story is very predictable and boring, and the idea that you can make less lethal ammunition, bombs, and sleeping agents out of scrap plastic, metals, and chemicals laying around everywhere on the map is hilarious. Still, interesting mechanics nonetheless.

You have the option to kill enemies, knock them out, and permanently put them to sleep for the duration of the game chapter/level. It's very similar to the mechanics found in Metal Gear Solid, but simplified. They don't even alert HQ to bring in backup at all, so you can knock them out as much as you want without putting them on heightened alert status.

Graphics are decent for a 2005 game originally made for the OG Xbox. For a game that cost me $1, this is a must play game with absolutely zero bugs and glitches. You do need to go to WSGF.org just to install a patch to play this game on widescreen or ultra-widescreen monitors, but that's not an issue at all.

7/10 in my books!

By the time I finished this game, I was still in queue for Helldivers 2 from the login page, unable to get in the fight. While this game is free, Helldivers 2 is not. I wish I could refund the latter...
Good job on the devs for "20 Small Mazes". At least your game is functional from the get go.

Ehhh things have improved over time, not to mention better frame rates now. For what it is, the developers are at the mercy of the publishers (Sony Corp). Not a whole lot we as gamers can complain over. I guess the rule of thumb here is to never buy a Playstation console so the executives at Sony HQ can fully understand why they're horribly mismanaged.


--// Secound edit from May 4th, 2024 //--
I can no longer support this game due to the poor and dishonest responses coming from the game's developers and community manager(s).
This game already has a terrible anti-cheat that practically does NOTHING despite it being a ring zero kernal anti-cheat (legal rootkit) with a concerning and scandalous past.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1anz3w3/

In fact, it is so useless that you can easily use cheats in this game offered openly on Nexus Mods with zero issues as per the latest comments on that page (i.e. samples +5 collected upon one collected, unlimited stamina, ammo, nades, fast run, low weapons cooldown, etc).
Source: https://www.nexusmods.com/helldivers2/mods/36

The community manager known as "Spitz" is well known for having an ego and is still hired by ArrowHead as their CM.
Source: https://nichegamer.com/helldivers-2-cm-tells-pc-fans-upset-with-sony-to-refund-and-leave/
You can also look up his name on Twitter since a lot of people are complaining about it. Yes, he has recently apologized and is now more professional, but time will tell when he will repeat the same mistake again. This isn't his first time after all. (i.e. Discord F @everyone Incident).

Furthermore, another ArrowHead CM recently admitted that the mandatory inclusion of a PSN account for linking is so that "it is easier to ban problematic players on HD2". They also hire community managers with questionable pasts and questionable political affiliations:
Source: https://twitter.com/Grummz/status/1786564212669714736
https://twitter.com/Grummz/status/1786771949714378974

There's a whole lot more issues which I will link later, but the amount of control ArrowHead wants over players in a PVE co-op shooter is extremely baffling. Not even comparable games like Deep Rock Galactic is this bad. What gives?


--// First edit from February 28th, 2024 //--
Much of the prior issues and bugs have been resolved. I can now properly join quick play lobbies and enter friends' lobbies via my Steam friends list. Progression is fun and rewarding, and they don't force or nudge you to pay with real money currency unlike other similar "live service games". RMCs are earnable within missions at low rates, but you can easily unlock the premium battlepass with ease.

Graphics are great and still look great on medium settings. Can't wait for mechs and tanks though.


--// Original comment from February 18th, 2024 //--
I only played the tutorial and a single game by myself. Unable to play with anyone. Can't even get into the server or play with anyone since yesterday.
I might request a refund if this isn't solved in the next few days. Waste of time and money. Don't buy it until they fix server issues.

The fact that you can actively customise your experience whether it's easy or hard mode is a blessing. I hope they add more character customisation soon, that would be a blessing. Base building is really rewarding and I hope some of the props can soon be intractable for roleplay reasons. i.e. opening a bar at your base.

Best $12 CAD (or $10 USD) of my life. At first I was pissed scared, but now that I know the mechanics, it is rather fun especially with experienced players. My friends "Big Smegma" and "Mr. Vinyl" run through the complexes with confidence, so I usually follow them and not dare to go alone when possible.

Challenging and great game!

Only buy this game during a sale when it's just $10 for the whole collection. Don't buy it at regular price, the devs don't deserve it.

Game is fine for the most part. But I don't understand why they need to shove pride this pride that up everyone's faces. I don't understand why they removed a law enforcement (Sirens) themed nameplate from the game, all because a racist troll complained about it on Twitter for clout and the lulz.

This video explains it best, skip to 3:43 timestamp: https://youtu.be/vZXJEVbqL8Q

I have zero faith in 343 as competent game devs. They haven't made a single good Halo game since they took over the franchise, their community is toxic (left wing bias), and their community enforcers (mods/janitors) are incredibly ban happy if you have the wrong opinion of things.

These "people" if you want to even call them are incapable of any kind of criticism. They make ♥♥♥♥♥♥ games and their community is ♥♥♥♥. They claim for inclusivity and safe space but they're intolerant of valid criticsm. But hey, keep it up with the ban hammers. I'm sure this will bring more people to play your games, hahaha.

For the sake of transparency, I have never talked on the forums. But I have seen the damage and figured I should do my part.

I "don't recommend this game" only because a lot of quality of life features are still missing. I know they're releasing hovercrafts in the upcoming update, but where are the wheeled vehicles? I only play PVE and it is difficult to travel to far away places. I just hold shift + w to have my character run to the mission hotzone that's 2km away, and watch my twitter or facebook feed while I'm at it. Devs should have prioritized vehicles somehow, but they haven't.

The PVE experience is lacklustre with the same type of missions every single time. Everything else is just a grind. Where are the animals as well? That's missing other than ducks. They didn't even introduce lights or torch + fire for bases. You can only light up campfires if you're cooking.

There is also no real story. Another similar game I used to play had proper animals and vehicles, as well as a story. The only reason why I even play this game is because the gunplay and movement system is a bit better.
I'm hoping to come back to this game after I confirm the devs include more QOL features.

==// NEW REVIEW (Jul. 22, 2023) //==
Considering I now have a combined 15 hours of gameplay of this still in Alpha game, a lot of things have been "improved" upon while other areas are still lacking.
The devs have been hard on work on the main campaign (Area 12) while other parts like Outpost Raid continues to be neglected.

For Area 12 main campaign, they expanded new areas. The new Anomaly SCP is interesting but it's a bore since it's mostly just a puzzle. But the Flora Ranger SCP is an interesting addition to an already existing part of the map. So those are the two main additions for the current update, and while they are still working on the next SCP themed around a biomass biohazard.

Apart from that, I felt the game crashed less often, but they still need to fix the ping issue. As well, major drops in framerate "occasionally" occurs when one player's ping is exceedingly, randomly high (despite everyone being from North America). Finally, using zoom optics affect the framerate as well despite adjusting the graphical settings to the lowest even with FRS on.

But for the most part it is indeed fun and due to the excellent design of Area 12 as a whole, you can play the same map 5 times in a row without boring out. This is because the devs follow the same map design principle as the ORIGINAL Bungie devs from Halo. That is, 30 secounds of fun. If it isn't fun every 30 secounds, then it's a ♥♥♥♥ map or game. In which case, SCP 5K's devs nailed it very hard with Area 12's map and game mechanics design.

Finally, I'm just hoping they fix Outpost Raid eventually because once everyone is dead, they are unable to restart the game from the beginning. It's that bugged (see my older review) since last year.

I have not tried PVP yet, but Wave Survival, despite being very lacking and basic, is somewhat "fun" if played with 8 players or more. You also get a nice achievement for surviving wave 100.

Please keep up the good work.
Cheers!

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==// OLD REVIEW (Oct. 30, 2022) //==

I don't recommend this game at the moment due to numerous bugs existing in this game. Main campaign is playable and that's about it.
The mode where you kill PMCs in an outdoor complex is just not optimized at all. Aiming down through ACOG/ELCAN lags the game down to 30 FPS from 70 FPS unmagnified. It was difficult finding the documents. Myself and my friend could only find 5/6 of the documents, and was killed by a never ending spawing of NPCs trying to get me despite killing all 30 as per the task list. You also cannot respawn unless you finish at least one task. Unlike the campaign, there is exactly 6 documents to find as opposed to multiple duplicates scattered within a small area in the Area 12 Campaign map.

We're not going to play wave mode. I bought this game on Humble Bundle for $16 CAD. It is definitely not worth $16 CAD. I should have bought it on Steam for $18 CAD so I could request for a refund.

I can forgive the crashes that happen every so often, but it's just lacklustre at the moment.
I'll come back to this game in 3 months and hopefully bugs are fixed as well as a new map introduced.

It's a fun game to play on the PVE server with friends or alone. It is in need of content, sure, but the remaining players who still play this game are friendly and willing to give you free mid-game gear and weapons to give you an advantage early in the game. Public lockers near the trade outpost are filled with free gear and weapons for you to take and leave. Pretty good for a $1 game.