Recent reviews by Luke Karr 22

Single-player is lackluster, but this game is not built for that. It's built for co-op, and it does it so very well. When you get even one other player with you, that's when this game comes to life!

Excellent, highly recommend

UPDATE: So, it's been a little over two months since I last played The Long Dark, and there have been a LOT of changes. And as near as I can tell, all of them are for the good.

With my progress removed from the previous builds, I had to start over in the Mystery lake area and (with a couple of deaths) I've been making my way to the Coastal Highway, where I now make my temporary home, and eventually to the new Pleasant Valley area.

Some of my previous problems with the game have been entirely solved with the addition of difficulty levels. Before, in what I assume was the hardest difficulty (or perhaps they've changed some variables?) it was nigh impossible to find both a rifle and ammunition in the same area. Now, I've found both and have a decent amount of ammo, hopefully enough that I can survive the inclement wolf attacks, and eventually the bears of Pleasant Valley. In addition to that, I've survived many wolf attacks, given that I have some sort of defensive weapon on me. Before, that was absolutely impossible no matter what I did.

The Long Dark is definitely on it's way to being a game I can sink a lot of time into. With a few more tweaks, it'll be perfect.

ORIGINAL REVIEW:__________________________________________________________

After putting in a little over seven hours into this game, I've come to my verdict (in it's current state). At the moment, I find the game annoying at the worst of times and nerve-wracking (in a good way) at the best of times.

Once you learn the ins and outs of how to survive in this cold, dark world, reapiring your gear, making sure you're warm, and ensuring that you have enough food is an everyday occurance in this game. Honestly, that is exactly what you'll be doing 100% of the time you're playing. I would have done some hunting too, and probably a little more surviving than I have been if I had found a hunting rifle and some rifle rounds more than the handful of times I've found them se[erately. Though the exploration and survival elements already implented are fun, there needs to be more of both, especially the latter, for it to be a complete and playable game.

As it stands, the game is just too annoying for me to play for huge chunks of time. Every single time that I've died while playing has been due to run-ins with wolves. The only way you have to defend yourself against them is but madly mashing on the left trigger to get the power of your attack up, and then hit the right trigger repeatedly until you either 1) die or 2) get away with 1% or 2% condition left, from there either dying a few seconds after or act quickly enough to apply antiseptic and a bandage to your wound. If you have a weapon of some sort on you (like a hatchet or hunting knife, but those are as scarce as the hunting rifle), you can use it to fend off the wolf more ably.

This game has promise, and a lot of it. I will definitely give it more credit as it's in early access at the moment, but it and the Hinterland Studio team has a lot of work ahead of them in making it a fun and playable game, rather than annoyingly loveable one.

Sorry guys, but for the moment you aren't getting my recommendation. Hopefully you will after a few updates, but not now. Not in this state.

I dig this game for many reasons.

1) I love me some H.P. Lovecraft inspired stuffs. This game definitely feels like one of his great stories.
2) Sure, the graphics are kinda crappy, but that is kinda one of the charms of the game. They're attractive, in a crappy sorta way.
3) The gameplay is fantastic. Sometimes it's easy, and sometimes it's hard, but it varies enough to keep things challenging and entertaining the entire time you play.
4) It has a lot of elements that a lot of 3rd party developers could take a hint from. A simple and smart stealth system, a balanced currency/magic system, and a varied number of skills and weapons to allow several different approaches to the way you play.

Besides Mass Effect, its been a very long time since I've found a roleplaying game that I've really enjoyed.

Honestly, Shadowrun Returns blew away my expectations, especially since I didn't really have any going into it. I knew that it was based off a classic sci-fi tabletop RPG, but that was about it.

The first campaign, The Deadman's Switch, draws you into the world of Shadowrun very well, introduces you to some characters, and generally how the game works and feels. It's a nice introduction to the game, but it does have a few things that annoyed and irked me. Especially the linearity of it all. It was one story the whole way through, with not many different ways to approach things, or side quests to take up your time.

That's why I recommend getting the Dragonfall expansion with it. I've played the expansion for three or four hours at this point, and all of my problems with the original game have been taken care of, as far as I can tell. There are a lot more things put in place to sidetrack you, and I really like that.

But, there's also the horde of player created content that the game allows access to, and that could provide a lot more gameplay than the original campaign allows for, therefore not necessarily making the Dragonfall expansion worth it, but I recommend it none-the-less.

Despite what it may say at the bottom of this review, i don't know if I would recommend this game. From a shooter standpoint, it's a solid game. There's a good cover system in place, each of the weapons has their own set of strengths and weaknesses, and it's a generally fun game to play.

From a story standpoint, I just don't know. Things felt kind of all over the place, and even at the end of the game when everything is supposedly explained to me, I still felt confused. But, despite the confusion, I do appreciate the story that they were trying to tell. I don't like it, per se, but it does let the true realities of war through, whereas most modern shooters pawn it off as a fun filled experience.

Consider this review a "Maybe" instead of a full-fledged "Yes".

Do NOT buy this game. If you're a fan of the XCOM franchise, Enemy Unknown or otherwise, don't buy this game. It may have sounded like a good idea in practice, but believe me, it was horrible. I preordered this game, hoping for a mix between Mass Effect and XCOM, and what I got was just boring and monotonous in a semi-pretty wrapper. The only thing i can be happy about is the previous XCOM games that came with it as part of the pre-order.