Recent reviews by Messiah Complex

I respect this game more than I like it. The developer took the most mundane game in human history and did something interesting with it. That's worth praising. Also, I'm a sucker for good presentation and UI, so the game gets bonus points for that.

Once I realized that there was no failure state, however, I also realized that the story elements were going to be mostly (really, almost entirely) disconnected from the game play. After that, you're left with a good, but not great implementation of a game you've probably played tens of thousands of times, and a story that's not interesting enough to stand on its own. I'm sorry to say that, because I wanted to like the game, and I want to encourage indie developers to make games like this.

Straight-forward mechanics and excellent presentation are something I've been missing in games lately. I'm glad I bought this game, for that reason, even if I didn't actually care that much for it.

I've played this less than two hours so far, but I'm having fun. The L4D inspiration is unmistakable (as is the Falling Skies theme), and I'm cool with that. It feels easy at first, but just like in L4D things can go sideways really quickly. Aside from one DirectX crash, the game runs very well on my rig (GTX 980 Ti). The bots are a bit moronic most of the time, so it's advisable to play with three friends.

Early on, the game introduces you to the barrier-erection mechanics (somewhat like Rainbow 6 Siege) that allow for funneling and area-denial. It seems like a gimmick at first, but it becomes apparent by the second map that ignoring the ability to set up defenses is a bad idea. Good aim will only carry you so far.

I'll update this review after I've played several more hours. I posted early because I was pleasantly surprised by an early-access game, and that hasn't happened in long time. That, and the fact that it's not on Unity, make me optimistic.

Decision time: play a bit more to see if things get better, or stop playing so my refund window doesn't close. Easy decision. Only took an hour.

Given that a large chunk (or maybe all - idk) of the first hour of the single player game mostly consists of cutscene-like things, I jumped into the co-op mode with two friends. That's what I bought the game for anyway. We were treated to downgraded visuals, silly clipping issues, and absurd NPC behavior (call it Artificial Unintelligence). It was not fun, not even in the ironic sense where bad game design can be unintentionally hilarious. It just sucked - in an entirely bland and tedious way.

Homefront: the Revolution isn't ready. For anything. It's the Aliens: Colonial Marines of 2016. In honor of the 16th anniversary of Old Man Murray's "Time-to-Crate" review system, I'll grade HtR on a scale of "Time-to-Refund," and give it a score of 20 minutes (the time I spent in the co-op). I think that's like a 17 out of a possible 100, if 100 represents the two-hour refund window, or something. Who cares.

Save your 60 bucks for something else, like a vacation to Detroit. I hear it's nice this time of year.

I stopped blinking about 10 minutes into it. The game is mesmerizing, and completely addictive. The controls are excellent, the game is challenging, and I didn't have a seizure. Not once.

10/10. Would go blind again.

Rust is a fun game at the beginning. As time goes by, though, the feckless update cycle becomes frustrating. And while the mechanics are constantly tweaked and reworked, there's very little depth to offset the repetitiveness.

For example: mechanics changes have made resource collection more tedious over the last few months. If Facepunch sticks with the recently-introduced inventory stacking limits, building -- both for security and creativity -- is going be more effort than it's worth. If people have to grind just to build a rudimentary house, they won't have much incentive to accumulate items. That, in turn, disincentivizes raiding: all the effort currently required to raid will result in progressively smaller payoffs.

You could forgive an early-access game for going through a period of tweaking and breaking stuff, but the problem with Rust is that it doesn't seem to have any direction. "Survive" is all the context you get, and it's fun enough at first. But once that gets old, there's nothing to motivate you. There's no high-level play, and there's no end game.

And there's no sign from Facepunch that they want the game to be more than that.