Recent reviews by lieutenant columbo

Don't get me wrong, I love this game.

Decent but the endgame is really REALLY fun. People who say they love this game, I bet they were referring to the endgame. There's boss raiding, rare item hunting, hell even normal mobbing gets super fun. UVHM + OP levels feels like DRIVING FAST IN A FOGGY FREEWAY AGAINST THE TRAFFIC. You'll feel that adrenaline.

Why is this not recommended? Getting there (normal, TVHM, early UVHM) is tedious, boring and unsatisfying. This game has pacing issues. You are FORCED to grind exp either through mobbing or doing side quests because the main story quests don't give you enough to keep up. Try not to get attached to your gear because the guns you get, even legendaries become obsolete quickly. You are always grinding for exp or gear JUST TO KEEP PLAYING. It's terrible. I can imagine newer players getting turned off by this. You will loathe starting a new character.

UVHM + OP is great because it does not have that pacing issue. You don't have to grind for gear and exp anymore. However, not all guns are viable and you need a decent build to outdamage the UVHM regen. Basically, you need to be a BL2 scholar in order to enjoy the endgame.

Despite all that, I still think it could be worth it. If you want to give this a shot, you should boost your exp by ~10-15% with Cheat Engine, or just jump straight to the endgame with Gibbed. (don't forget to gibbed yourself a grog nozzle).

Highly recommended game.

The presentation is solid. It does a great job setting the theme of survival in a world that wants you dead. Every person is named and you can see them walking around the city. The music is top-notch too. The final storm event wouldn't be as epic without the music.

The cold is very oppressive which makes the game engaging. Resources are limited. It forces you act pragmatically instead of always doing the right thing, reminds me so much of Pathologic. You might have to send little Timmy to the coal piles if you want to survive the night.

The game loses its magic after learning the best effective strategies. If your city isn't struggling, you're playing on 3x speed, or you start min-maxing, it might be time to put the game down (some people like it, not me). The engagement comes from barely scraping by, probably why people suggest to go in blind.

Technical issues: crashing in endless mode, I saw other people complaining about it in 3 year old posts, still isn't fixed. Occasional CTD for unknown reasons. Random game freezing (maybe because of the cold hehe)

Very engaging but hard to get into. Weigh if something is worth pursuing because payoffs aren't always fair. In a few quests, the outcomes are better if you didn't bother doing them. Some quests feel like the devs pulling a prank on you.

This game will test your resolve and push you to your limit. It feels like the game is trying to make you give up (especially on 2nd half). Took me 2 characters to complete a run.

The writing and atmosphere are immersive. Simply WALKING feels like a waste of time so you always sprint. But sprinting drains your stamina and increases thirst faster. The game is basically like trying to solve a mystery juggling all these mechanics while walking on a tightrope. It's a puzzle, every day, new details are introduced and you get the full picture by the end. You just have to survive and depending on how well you protected the other characters, that full picture might be slightly different.

This is not for everyone, but everyone should try it. Very painful to play but I keep coming back to it every few years. This game is memorable and unique.

I intentionally let a child die for my 50th achievement. Yeah..

The writing is solid, you can beat the final boss by talking it out and convincing him that he's wrong. How cool is that. Interesting setting, the magick-tech dilemma makes so much sense that I feel stupid I've never looked at these two this way before. Be prepared to read A LOT of text. Hard to learn but very fun once you get into it. If you're interested, do not touch without the UAP. Beginner tip: don't give the camera to Ristezze ;)