Recent reviews by JMess11

What can I say. This is a true ode to RPG's of the 90's. With remnants of Xenogears, Final Fantasy and Chrono Cross/Trigger. Once I started playing and dove into the story and environments I couldn't stop until I 100% the game. I spent nearly 80 hours on this gem (Side quests included) and not for 1 minute did I feel like there was a "grind". The rewards for the quests are more than adequate and the same goes for exploring. The battle system keeps you on your toes and requires you to mix it up through out battle. If only more games that were released in today's world showed this amount of passion for video games, then the state of gaming would be in a better place. AAA industry's need to take a page out of Chained Echoes and apply it to their products. The only thing I am waiting for now is that coveted NG+. Hats off to those behind this and to keeping true gaming alive.

Coming from Vermintide 2 and knowing what Fatshark was capable with the genre gave me high expectations for this game. Don't misconstrue my words. The visuals and slick shooting are fantastic, but you essentially polished a turd here with all of the underlying quality of life issues that are present at launch and continue to persist weeks after. The term Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is becoming more of a scapegoat now for larger developers, with this "Ship Now, Fix Later" attitude which is completely unacceptable and it's a shame that Fatshark fall prey to this chum in the water.

Let me start with the positives:

1. Great Visuals
2. Fast Paced and Slick Combat.
3. Smooth shooting.
4. Great Co-op, especially with friends.
5. Beautiful Grim Dark Level Design.

Now let me run out the long list of Negatives that should have been ironed out long before launch.

1. Hard Crashes mid matches. (Even with "Ray Tracing Off"). Yes Ray Tracing is causing crashes. SMH.

2. Abhorrent progression system. There is quite literally no reward for finishing levels even when finding all Grims or scriptures. Essentially you hope for a high level grey in the "Wait for Refresh" armor shop. then upgrade it to Orange with the hope it rolls with suitable perks. What happened to the Vermintide reward system? Why scrap that sense of reward after a long fought battle? It is more efficient to run low levels and hope for a drop. Why do Heresy or Damnation?

3. Power Level: What does this do? what are the advantages of increasing it? does it add stats similar to Vermintide?

4. Lack of explanation for stats on weapons and their effects. i.e. Blast radius on a grenade launcher "70%" What is the base stat of this to begin with? 2 Meters? 3 Meters? Who knows?

5. The Crafting System: Why is this being piece mealed to us? Why was there not a fully fleshed out crafting system from the launch? No way to re bless or add blessings yet so if your perk is not rolled the way you expect well time to start all over. (I know this will be added soon, but not at day 1 is a low intellect choice from the devs).

6. Dismantling: Where is this feature? dismantle tiers of weapons to receive diamantine, plasteel etc. The grind for materials is maddening, another ball dropped with the lack of this feature.

7. The Cash Shop: Oh the infamous cash shop, an ever more encroaching stain in the gaming industry. What can I say, there will always be people who purchase from it and that is their prerogative, but know this.. The cash shop will always take away from the game, it will ruin that sense of trying for a challenging achievement and earning a piece of cosmetic gear that could have been placed in the game to begin with. The fact that the visuals of these cash shop items are much better and far more enticing than what is available with in game money goes to show that Fatshark is in it to please the investors and not it's customers.

8. Premium Currency: Was initially suppose to be earned in a manner similar to Vermintide. But that was pulled right before launch. Showing Fatsharks true intent.

9. Shared In game Currency and Materials across accounts. A minor complaint but would ultimately provide quality of life for the consumer.

10. Various Glitches: Ghost bullets, grenades. Achievements not activating. Terrain glitches. Super Hound Flight.

11. Classes: 4 classes to start. down from 12. Sad to see this. Will additional classes come with a price tag? or be a "Free update"?

Conclusion: This game should be tagged with "Early Access" it is not fully complete. I would recommend anyone looking to purchase this to wait about 1 year for all of the QoL issues to get ironed out and implemented. It's a shame to see the current state of this game, I was hoping for great things and it fell short. This review is not to say I will not revisit this game down the road with hopes that Fatshark will listen to its long term players. Right now it seems like a far cry. Again I say the corporate term "Minimum Viable Product" (MVP) is becoming a larger ominous cloud over the game industry, Have devs not learned anything from Cyberpunk? "Ship Now, Fix Later" We as gamers have become to complacent with this style, you would'n't go to a pizza shop and ask for an uncooked pizza, so ask yourself.. "Why do I deserve an unfinished game?"

From what I have played I enjoyed thoroughly, when I was able to log in. Currently I can't even get to my character screen. Once servers are ironed out and brought to a playable status I will change my tone. Also a substantial amount of bugs, while not necessarily game breaking they are a hindrance and should not be present in a $40 launch purchase that mind you has been in early access for quite some time.