Recent reviews by rbnzdave

is a lot liek the first one but with a pile of new stuff, several system overhauls and new ways to play. is very cool. only had 2 random crashes so far.

first legendary drop has been so fun. cant wait to see if the next one is as game changing.

wow, slippery slope this one.

EDIT: Ok, so there are 2 sides to this, coz at its heart I absolutely LOVE this game. And if you are only ever going to play on servers in the 1 region, my argument is mute and you're going to be golden, to be clear, Regional servers are like Europe vs North America vs South East Asia vs (someday perhaps) Oceania. Currently playing in nz on South east asia and my ping is 120ish. However, I've got mates in the states I also play with, using the original "Loading Bay" loader. Thbey cant move accounts/characters between these, and thats fair. its not difficult, they just dont want to, and thats fair, would rtequire tooling.

But, I got it on steam so I could safely purchase stuffm via the tried n true. I got a bunch of sets ( not counting the random gambles, which in themselves should have shared the unlocks, as they said in their terms ) and then tried a char on the american servers. No purchases. thus;

Devious bait and switch.

Dont buy anything. It was originally stated that everything was shared across all characters on your account, as normal. But now they've stated this is per region. If they ever bring out oceanic servers, no-one will be able to bring any of their purchased kits/skins over to that either.

When it hasnt crashed for a weird reason when you are having an epic run, it so good. Some interface issues, like tooltips that show up sometimes, and some rather biased rng, bus as i said, when its good, its so good.

running on a 3060, 12th gen i7 w/64g ram, installed on an m2 drive.

Im playing on a 4k screen, but am not delusional so running the game at 1080p.

Its brilliant. You dont need anything from the store. infact so far the fast travel i've found only has 2 destinations aside from a placeable type and the wagons cost 200g ( like half what the average goblin drops ) which take a lot of the running simulator out of it.

The story is fairly good, tho some aspects i thought were weak and didnt follow the logic of the hero.... and could have had a lot more to them. The skillsets are decent, and you can always make a party with complimentary skills using hired help.

There is a lot of voice acting, tho the lines from the party get really old really fast, and are so over-repeated by everyone what seems like confiding in you from your personal slave very quickly becomes broken record. Some of the v/o was campy as hell tho, so many chuckles were had with some of the voices.

some of the pathfinding needs a lot of work. Also there seem to be events that dont play correctly, like a barfight that just despawned and i get told aw well, maybe another time.

Oh and lastly, aside from the constant memories of memes from vldl and other games of the ilk, you pick a voice for your character. and then say NOTHING. I mean i havent killed the final chatterbox with wings, but have yet to hear my guy make a peep beyond a horrible womanly wheeze whenever i get down to 15% stamina from running after accidentally touching the button.

Still fun tho.

only played solo so far, have heard from mates that its not the best performance wize or stable with more than 7 or so players. But is fantastic so far, its the pokemon't you never had - this is what poke should have been. Is brilliant.

Well, last time I played this ( like a couple years) it was a low budget "space hike" with an intrepid crew of you and some needy a.i. controlled bots or your useless, "if i could space you i would" mates in a fairly seemless tho underpopulated ? (not quite there, its got more going in but can be sparse sometimes) simulated galaxy.

Legit tho, this is the first time since playing the original "F.E.A.R" game decades ago that not only got the hair on my neck to stand up it fully tightened the skin on the back of my head. Thoroughly awestruck by that moment. wont say what it was, but no doubt rng. Probably needed headphones for it to have worked so well, but usually game in a headset so who can say.

If you like syndicated 1970's tv shows about stellar exploration on weirdly shaped vessels, this game is for you. Just dont expect the same level of detail as the official mmo of the genre has, because they got that producer money.

TLDR; Super satisfying mishmash of orcs must die and heists. You make bases, you raid bases, you watch playback from the peasant failures that die over and over again trying to raid you.

42 hours ? nah, surely thats wrong. Is great fun tho, and I find myself eager to check back in and see what delicious replays my vicitms have left me.

Starting out its definitely easier with a buddy, you can res each other after you finish laughing at their misfortune/stupidity. There is team killing. Sometimes it even by accident. There is clipping so no walking through your friend to get out of the way of the furnace exhaust you just triggered.

Base building can be annoying, the maps leave unmovable blocks here and there and the "goal" you are protecting ( think fortnight tower defence mode or orcs must die ) is also fixed to wherever it generates. As you leave the bases to run on their own you can watch player pov runs through your base and see what they got away with, or more importantly, how they struggled while your traps ad guards ruined their day. The only thing really missing is a mic feed so you can hear the rage as they start over for the 10th time.

It can crash a lot for some people, and sometimes it just doesnt want to behave. its unreal engine, so they'll figure it out eventually. This evening I've decided to give it a rest ( and let my outposts do the grinding for me) as it started crashing over and over. before about 20 minute ago, had a good 7 hours or so straight, so whos to say.

Definitely good for the survival exploration itch, but would recommend modding it with reforged eden.

Some of the starter planets are super easy, some are grueling.

My only real issue with this game is there are npc factions, all with different opinions of you that change with your actions. Accidentally hit something of theirs while in a firefight defending them, and you are less than scum to them. instant hostile, typically turrets finish you and your vessels off. The diplomacy needs to be fixed. badly.

There is a lot in the game, its certainly more fun with friends, tho even then the missions dont work perfectly with others, you'll find yourself skipping around in the task list.

But. There is something about parking your little scout ship in the hangar of your capital vessel and then warping to a different star system that feels very satisfying.

Not the best for people who dont like spiders.

So pretty. The finest art piece Ive ever played in an fps genre.

Devastatingly unstable, bug ridden mess with several crashes in the first 10 minutes of the campaign.

Multiplayer has a feature to mute everyone except your friends, which is nice, to stop the screeching children (oh and the open mics with those people that seem to live in vacuum cleaner testing facilities) and the bro's that are too good for this server and how trash we are and how we need to worship their ptw bs. Until of course, their luck runs out and there is no back for them to bring. Then they usually get all vague about things and change topic to what they want to touch.. But its so fun once that crap is muted.

Theres a bug, yeah, i know, i know, i mean a specific one that will make the battle pass tokens never get over zero. The fix, as almost everything else in this circus requires, is a game restart. And maybe validate some files. I admit I am kinda fascinated as to how many of these files get wrecked every time i play it. Oh and that fix only lasts until you have earned another token, then it'll go back to zero until you restart again. You aren't even fixing a visual thing, it doesn't seem to remember you have tokens if you earn a new one.

There's always validating some files. Sometimes, you have to do it yourself because the game manages to scramble itself so badly it wont even show up to tell you it needs to validate some files.

But its so pretty.