Recent reviews by nWg. SC[m]STR

this game was bland and buggy.
I would not play this game even if you bought it for me. Which you didnt. I bought it for DAYZ when it was a mod. and DAYZ was ♥♥♥♥♥♥. and it is still ♥♥♥♥♥♥. And will probably continue to be ♥♥♥♥♥♥ for a long time. Which is sad, honestly, because it promised a lot and... gave very little of what it promised, and what it did give, was terrible.

bland. buggy. filled with 10 year olds roleplaying and killing you when they have a gun.

the engine is also bad. feels like an unpolished version of morrowind running bad netcode made by whatever the military version of a weaboo is.
badbadbadbadbadbadbadbad

I dont remember much about this game when I played it long ago. Like years ago.

but what I do I remember to be mindblowingly bad.

It's in early development.
Doesn't seem as good as the first one, I feel like they're trying to up the replayability of maps or something...

We'll see where it goes, but for now, everybody that I played it with got bored after like 2 days of playing.

value: ~5$?

yes recommendation only if you really liked the first one and plan on following this one, otherwise dont bother unless this comes out and gets not ♥♥♥♥♥♥.

This game is pretty cool. Good music, cool artwork, GREAT movement, neat overall game.

UNFORTUNATELY, even with the great amout and style of hiding secrets, it falls a bit repetitive quickly.

I'd put value on this game somewhere under the 5$ level. I really wish there was more here, but of what I played, I got bored very quickly for some reason.

If you're wondering what this is, it's like somebody took the climbing (kz_ or xc_) maps from counter strike and made an entire scifi game around it and gave you double jump and a weird gun that shoots the /use command. There are one or two other mechanics, but thats about it. Also, has no airstrafing.

I could get past the bad voiceover that people mentioned in reviews by just muting the game, but the fov/console lockdown? Nope. Google provides no solution.

My rule: if the fov is locked to something stupid and I can't change it, your game is unplayable and will get a no recommendation. PERIOD.

slightly less piece of ♥♥♥♥ than the first game. intro was actually okay. the slowmo ice shot with everything crumbling made everything in the prerendered video in 360p that played on my desktop comptuer; everything else in the video was pretty stupid and ignorable and generic.

launcher for mods and ♥♥♥♥♥♥ settings that CANNOT BE CHANGED IN GAME. "RED" engine (bad forshadowing for future games in this engine) looks slightly better than unreal 3?

so, all camera controls are completely ♥♥♥♥♥♥. first, the main menu and ingame menu mouse are seperate, both have their own smoothing and damping and acceleration and negative acceleration.

prompts for controls are art-presented in HMMMMMM CIRCLES?!!!! (console port zomg!)

so, pretty much couldnt figure out how to fix controls in under 45 minutes, restarting the game to see if changing values in config files does anything.

uninstalling this unplayable piece of ♥♥♥♥ on both moral grounds and frustration on the mouse-lag/sensitivity/acceleration/deceleration thing.

fov is like 20 too.

that all being said, what I did play of the game (put non-soaking boots on that i looted) showed a little promise in the inventory management. Still uninstalling becuase i cant stand it.

in steam overlay in the game, having weird chat focus issues where i cant type unless I ctrl+A, DEL each time I open the overlay

♥♥♥♥ this game and its retardedly unjustified high praise. and i'm going to judge reviewers on if they like this game or not.

biggest piece of ♥♥♥♥ game ever. looks like ♥♥♥♥, runs like ♥♥♥♥, intro is ♥♥♥♥, controls are ♥♥♥♥, camera is ♥♥♥♥, combat is incredible ♥♥♥♥, animations are ♥♥♥♥, menus are ♥♥♥♥. I have no idea where any praise for this game came from. if you priased this game you are bad and should feel bad.

Okay so, whoever says it's not like Portal is a damn liar.

The game plays like the level selection/collecting things in one place and unlocking in an unknown other like smb64.

Feels like Myst and Portal minus all of the abstract myst stuff (interpreting weird things and hidden doors and traps).

I want the full game to be much fleshier and more mysterious. I found myself sinking simply into running around and doing puzzles. Though this is fun, after I saw the terrible remake of Mario 64's level select castle (also reminded me of the hl2:dm puzzle maps), I kind of lost hope.

I really like Croteam, they're really solid with secrets and feel of game and I've played and loved most of the SS games. But unless the full game gets REAL reviews long after the initial fanboy hype wears off, I doubt I'll end up buying this.

Most reviews I've seen far overblow hype and coolness on this game. To me, it feels not only unfinished, but leaning on its weak atmosphere far too much.

[Graphics:] at first, 8. After beating, 5. cool and pretty, but somehow underwhelming
[Audio:] neat music. probably adds a lot to the game. solid 7 (good, but average, not bad)
[Play:] I noticed some casual things (not good signs for things i havent seen outside of the demo) fun, but repetitive. at first, 8. after beating, 7. Could be boring and repetitive as hell, but could open up and have lots of neat little things.
[Attention:] there's always something to be doing on these mini sandbox maps (think mario 64ish). no healthbar, so unless they take a page from myst, the four or so tools will get really old really fast.
[Replayability:] none unless you havent unlocked/found a secret. There is no sensual mechanic and probably wont be other than maybe climbing challenges or teleports.
[Fizzy:] eh....? the outside map star with the laserdoor glitch effect (you either know what im talking about or dont) got me excited, but most of this stuff we've seen all before.

[Overall:] "we'll see"/10. It could fall drastically one of two ways: kind of neat puzzle game with pretty environments OR Croteam finally redeemed themselves from SS2 and {see other hype reviews here}

last words:
I really want this to be good, but maybe i'm expecting too much from croteam. I'm giving it a YES recommendation so that you all will buy it and support one of my favorite devs, while I sit back and wait to see if it's truly good (because im poor ♥♥♥♥ you).

sh!tty. negative acceleration. super high mouse sens even at 0 sens. unbindable keys (it even tells you that you cant use said key, but doesnt give a reason). redundant actions (use vs open. i think there were three). the cover is completely useless other than peaking corners, but because everything is wallhacked/esp it doesnt matter and you just run and shoot at them anyway. low fov. over the shoulder offset 3rd person. boring as ♥♥♥♥. really easy to run and gun with shotguns. ♥♥♥♥♥♥ rpg (bf style) unlocks and teirs. just a bunch of samey crap, really. and it looks nothing like the screenshots. aliased to hell and back, with no video options (literally had VIDEO OPTIONS: low med high)

if it didnt have such horrible consolitis, it would (still) be an incredibly boring game. but because it does, its an incredibly garbage game.

if you like crap, you may have fun on it for a few days.

2/10 badbadbadbad

8/13/2014
got my alpha code in email because i had played it a while ago. last time i had played it, it was very similar, but a lot more buggy and had less content. that was probably 1-3 years ago, i cant remember. but i had only played it for an hour and got fed up with it before uninstalling it because it was so ♥♥♥♥♥♥.

NOW, it installs over steam, has longish loading times (who cares though), the controls are kind of ♥♥♥♥♥♥ for m+k but work if you're patient and learn to tap and feather the keys you can deal with it, and the graphics (artstyle) are fairly nice, but a little lacking contrast in the colors.

The game runs fairly well, considering how much ♥♥♥♥ is actually being drawn on screen and how the devs implemented it (see: placing a bunch of objects on screen by hand). Which means: its really nice to explore and see the sights, but you need a powerful computer to do it. I'm running a 768mb 460gtx and a first gen i7. With all graphics up to high (except the garrys mod-esqe post processing) I get about 15fps while completely stationary in a forrest. with most things on lowest or low (lowest threshold until the game looks like ♥♥♥♥ due to flat meshes and NO shading) I can get up to about 55fps.

there's a lot of pop-in for random tree areas and buildings, which isnt really a big deal but worth noting.

the car handling itself is fairly difficult, because at low speeds the cars handle alright but once you speed up, the fps chugs randomly, the cars feel like they're on ice and makes crashes/flips inevitable. It almost feels like they're trying to make you crash. This is neat for showing off your crash mechanics (which i admit are incredible, i ripped out a part of my steering on one side because i high centered over a large rock and couldnt control that wheel much) you can ctrl+r to reload your vehicle and drop five feet away, but the location drifts a little to one direction each time and you can easily be stuck in a load-loop into a wall or trees or some other obsticle with no way out except to keep hitting reload unti you come out the other side. Pretty annoying, yet..... somehow satisfying when you're free.

If I get a wheel or controller, a more powerful computer, and they keep adding content and fixing bugs, I'd say this game could be the driving sandbox (gta style raging/romping) equivalent of a walking-sim type game. There are jumps, trails, roads all around the island in grand touring style, big meadows, swamps, ponds, beaches, abandoned buildings a la ken block, and lots of things to smash your car on and have to reset. It would make a VERY nice exploration/relaxing/personal satisfaction driving sim with a high potential of adventure.

My biggest desires for adds/fixes for this game are:
1) customizable suspension and drivetrain settings to tweak
2) them to keep adding more content because I like the style they're doing it in (the offroad 4x4 stuff is REALLY nice)
3) optimizations ZOMG<---
4) better color palette (its not bad, just leaves something to be desired and feels washed out when out in the open)
6) more cars!!!
7) the handling to not be so ♥♥♥♥♥♥ (maybe this is just because im trying to control a sim driving game with a keyboard)
8) better follow-view camera
9) some extra motivation for playing it besides just screwing around (missions, characters, story, multiplayer, rpg, unlocking more content/vehicles/zones/parts/things, races, timetrials)
10) the ability to get out of the car and do other things, gta style)

Right now, the game isnt worth much if you dont like driving around irl or in gta games. I dont know much about the pacing of the dev, but Im going to go ahead and say they're slow as ♥♥♥♥.

In a few years, maybe this game will be really cool. But, until then, its very much in alpha and has been for a long time. If this is your thing, cool, if you can't entertain yourself by driving around and exploring in a very buggy game, steer clear of this one for now.

sound: 6/10 (nice directionality, but all cars sound the same and stuff isnt very dynamic. great ambience. not too buggy.)
graphics: 7.5/10 (if you could get it all to run at a decent fps with no pop-in or stuttering, it would be VERY nice.)
menus: 5/10 (lots of options, yet somehow still lacking options. average to bad organization. very ♥♥♥♥♥♥ loading times.)
art: 7/10 (cool, sterile, matrix like maps. really cool idea of loading up a world feel. surprisingly immersive. "cozy".)
playability: 4/10 (sub average. frustrating experience driving around on the roads, but very pleasurable 4x4 experiences.)
value: 6/10 (the ability to drop in with no strings is a double edged sword. easy to get into, easy to get out of once it crashes.)

overall: 6/10 (its a slightly above average early access game with a lot of potential. whether or not the devs will realize their own potential is a whole different story. I'm going to learn towards "yes, but not in any near time in the future if ever")