Recent reviews by waterlubber

Phenomenal game. The gameplay is very solid, remaining challenging and satisfying across a range of difficulty levels, playstyles and skill levels. The playerbase is respectable and respectful, lacking much of the salt of other multiplayer shooter games.

Here are my thoughts about Control.
-- STORY --
Before playing, the only thing I had heard was that it was inspired by the SCP Foundation. The in-game organization, the Federal Bureau of Control, is indeed very similar to the SCP Foundation. However, if you're a fan of the wiki (as I am) - don't expect an SCP game. The "Altered Items" are much more "shallow" than many modern SCPs, and I'd compare them to Safe-class Series I items at most.

I was originally disappointed as I played through the beginning of the game - the story seemed weak, and forced. However, as I progressed and read the in-game content, I became far more engaged - the main story of the game really does expand to the sort of scope one might expect from the SCP wiki, and if you're a fan of reading notes in games and the SCP wiki you'd probably enjoy the story here too.

One minor nitpick: the game's technobabble is *awful.* They really like to use the word "resonance," which has little relation to anything that goes on. One of the reasons I liked the SCP wiki is its much stronger technobabble and coherent in-universe terminology (despite being an amalgamation of independent writers work), so it was disappointing to find mushy words thrown about with little depth. Same goes for the whiteboards, etc. in-game -- they were mostly just random science-related topics thrown onto the board, with no thought into how they might play into the story.

-- Gameplay --
I don't typically play shooters, especially third person ones, but I didn't have too much trouble with Control. Several of the missions eventually became frustrating as I died multiple times -- however, death isn't too costly, and I eventually formed a plan for each boss fight that was successful.

There are side missions with entertaining (and often hilarious) story and characters. While I enjoyed the setting and the dialogue, the missions themselves were quite boring -- oftentimes just "kill these enemies", "clean up this item", etc. Talking to the plants in Research was fun, though.

The late-game combination of abilities and weapons is truly fun. The general progression of power is pretty well-balanced, and provided you grab most of the loot available you're going to be having a blast in the later levels.

-- Atmosphere --
I'm separating this from the Story section because it was my favorite part of the game. The Oldest House, and its inhabitants, are awesome. Brutalist architecture juxtaposted with technology from the past results in an excellent environment to explore in. There are plenty of nooks and crannies with loot, and the game allows for a good deal of non-linear exploration (for fans of Prey to enjoy).

Overall: I greatly enjoyed the game, and finished it wanting more. (Luckily I have two (2) DLCs available). If you enjoyed games like Prey or Metroid (The game is quite similar to Metroid Prime in gameplay), you'll probably like Control. Be patient with the game with its opening story, and make sure to read every pamphlet and watch every Darling video to cringe with glee. Don't expect a story worthy of a N000-series SCP contest, but expect to be pleasantly surprised by a number of twists and turns. Don't eat the plants, either.

Prey is a fantastic game and I highly recommend it to any player.
Before you continue reading this review or any others: do yourself a favor and play the game blind. There are a lot of really cool moments that are easily spoiled if you read into things too much. (I avoided any such spoilers in this review.)

Gameplay:
- The gameplay is delightfully nonlinear. Similar to other Metroidvania and open world games, Prey allows multiple correct paths and solutions to many challenges -- you can often solve problems they way you might in the real world, rather than being railroaded into a certain solution. Unlike other Metroidvania games, however, its execution of this concept was stupendous. Despite a complicated map and constant backtracking, I rarely found myself getting lost.
- Combat is satisfying, and the games nature allows you to tune its difficulty just by spending your time in different places. Having a tough time in combat? Gather some materials for upgrades and health. Still having a tough time? You can take advantage of the environment in nearly the entire station -- the whole game is built around outside-the-box thinking.
- The game also subverts many common video game tropes. Areas that appear blocked off (normally unmodelled or empty in other first-person games) can almost always be accessed -- I don't remember seeing an area I couldn't get to, one way or another.
- Sequence Breaking, or skipping parts of the story via alternative means, is not only possible but arguably encouraged. Having a hard time finding a code to a door? Simply unlock the Hacking ability and brute force it. The story accounts for this; you won't mess things up even with extreme shenanigans.
- You can collect pretty much every object and use them to make tools, weapons, ammo, and upgrades. It's surprisingly satisfying to loot every container, and you don't have to worry about keeping eight different varieties of wire on you -- recyclers don't care what they take in.

Story:
- Prey does an excellent job of supporting its story. While the basic idea isn't too exceptional, the addition of logs and highly coherent, interwoven characters allows you to relate to story concepts. Often, a background or joke email will direct you towards useful areas.
- There are several decisions you need to make as part of the game: some of them are especially challenging. One of the hardest decisions I had to make was something I simply stumbled across; it wasn't even a main story event -- just a side quest.

Execution:
- The game is very well executed. Graphics are decently performing, even on my older RX 480 (and running through Steam Play Proton on Linux!) Bugs were few and far between: the only really notable one was an area where you could see through a window to some upgrades, even if you'd already collected them (leading me to search around for a room I missed -- it was just a room that hadn't updated.)
- The design direction in this game is clearly apparent: areas of the world have their own aesthetic and it greatly helps with player orientation (eg the Art Deco lobby or the brutalist Psychotronics)
- The soundtrack is well-composed, although I felt like the selection is a little limited and sometimes the triggers for songs didn't always hit.
- There isn't a way to turn off the (relatively minor) motion blur effects. Annoying if you're playing at a low framerate, but the dynamic resolution option worked well to keep the game running nicely.

It's a game where you write assembly. The tutorials start you off quite easily, if you have any programming background, but you'll soon run into some tough problems, mostly trying to shave off an instruction here or there. Probably one of the best ways to learn how to optimize code, though.

The aesthetic is great. Building ships is very easy and, in general, fairly intuitive. Don't count on too much realism, or the ability to micromanage your ship - most things are fairly plug-and-play. There's a lot of gameplay available here for not a high price, so this is a great game to pick up at any time.

If you enjoyed Factorio and hate dealing with "life" or "responsibilities" I recommend this game.

Pros:
- Game itself is very stable
- Linux port
- Very open ended, and you design solutions to your own problems

Cons:
- Duplicant AI is stupid.

It's promising! The game is taking a from-the-ground up approach. There isn't much to do right now, but what does exist is great. Graphics look fine, and the amount of detail and accuracy is impressive. A lot of the spacecraft controls are based on very real physics.

If you enjoy Kerbal Space Program, Space Engine, or Orbiter, this game is for you. It's not like Elite or Star Citizen. It's something different!

Factorio is a very, very addictive game made by some of the best game devs out there. Endless hours were captured by this vicious time consumer.

Pros:
- Extremely fun
- Long replayablity
- Very stable
- Extremely well designed
- Devs are extremely transparent and stay in touch with the community

Cons:
- Will be the only game you play
- May cause sleep deprivation and underperformance in the workplace or school

As far as the game engine goes, this game is awesome. Very few bugs, graphics are amazing with very little stuttering or lag. The support team is top-notch and will help you out with any hardware or in-game issues.

Horizons, the only real DLC, is part of the format the devs have for releasing the game, a set of DLCs every couple years. Each usually has 4 major content updates and each update also adds to the previous expansions and base game.

In terms of gameplay, the game can be bittersweet. The developers work with the community to add lore and content - if the community figures out an in-game puzzle, changes for everyone can be seen (and it goes a lot deeper than that).
However, the game can be grindy if you decide to run straight for a ship. This is a bad idea.

The reason you see so many 1000hour+ reviews that are negative is that these people immediately rush for the biggest ship, burn themselves out, and stop playing. The game is much more fun if you just screw around and do what you like, and much, much more fun if you play with many of the guilds or groups available (see http://reddit.com/r/EliteWings).

This game is defiately a new style. The art style is fresh, even with the retro graphics. The game has an excellent soundtrack, and there's action around every beacon. The game follows an Elite-style progression system: You need to find store outposts to repair and refeul, and distress beacons can earn you much-needed in game currency. The game starts off easy-however, once you get into the rhythm, you'll need to pause and take a step back to make decisions. Some of them can earn you new crew members, but some can damage you. If a fire breaks out on your ship, you must manage your air supply to cut off it's oxygen. Enemies can board your ship, and you'll need to defeat them before they sabtauge you on the inside.



I definately would buy the game--right now it was on sale, and for $10 it's an excellent deal!