Recent reviews by vassilevb

Immersive. Pretty. Fun.

This is way overpriced, even with a big summer sale discount.

— SE/ZAT recycled engine (this made the game cheaper to produce).
— SE/ZAT recycled assets (this made the game cheaper to produce).
— ZAT recycled gameplay. But no, you don't get to snipe and no, you don't get pretty killcams (this made the game cheaper to produce).
— No weapon licensing (this made the game cheaper to produce).
— The only useful weapon in the game is Gehrig-Delgane S1 (modeled after the bolt-action Carcano series of rifles, but it shoots in semi-auto), because of its damage output and range (the only thing you really need in this game is damage and some aim skill). And it's not even stock - it's a DLC weapon.
— Inconsistent loot system - some collectibles' progression is shared between players, some isn't. This is a cheap trick to lure you into multiple non-engaging and non-fun playthroughs. Chores are, if ever, rarely fun.
— Repetitive (and, thus, annoying) narration (which, luckily, one could switch off).
— At the highest difficulty, the boss fights are simply dull. One's errors are mostly due to fatigue of doing the same $#!t over and over again. You can "roll", which practiacally makes you invincible, but you could roll at a direction where you can't see an (let's say, an off-screen or freshly spawned) enemy and you could easily get a succession of instant deaths. This, naturally, renders you almost useless and probably annoys your teammates.

Three original things (main production costs) — graphics, maps, a bit of music, and a few actors' unimpressive voicework.

Buy this only if you have a few friends to play with. This is the only thing that kept me from being totally disappointed.

Rebellion are getting greedier / o
uninstall / 1o

Yee-haaw pew-pew: Source, but it's free, so it takes the thumb up.

GTA levels of autism ARE OVER NAIN TAUZAND!

For the record: I'm not a fan of walking sims and I despise The Stanley Parable.

This one was enjoyable for me, though. I want to get my hands on the soundtrack. Oh, and, play this properly — with your headphones (preferably, ANC ones).

blue whale / 1o

Doom 3 combat + Mad Max setting + fake open world + pseudo RPG + fetch quests = no, thanks.

uninstall / 1o

Poor man's GTA. Not bad. Not terrible.

Despite being pretty biased (I despise primitivism, anti-technological sub-cultures and attitudes, etc.), I can't deny that the game looks beautiful (accompanied by a great music, of course). Interactivity is quite limited, so this makes it less of a game and more of a walking simulator (albeit not a bad one). Despite the overpraising in other reviews ("unforgettable", "joy", etc.), this will typically be played through once (or twice, for the missed collectibles) and forgotten quickly, I assure you.

If you want to actually learn something about marine life (and see its natural beauty and natural order which are incomparable to any game whatsoever), then go read a recent textbook of ecology/ethology/zoology/marine life*, or watch one of these:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1394028/ — Episode 3/6 of "Nature's Great Events" (2009) (a.k.a. "Nature's Most Amazing Events") series

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0905880/ — Episode 9/11 of "Planet Earth" (2006)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0905878/ — Episode 11/11 of "Planet Earth" (2006)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0296310/ — "The Blue Planet" (2001) (all ten episodes)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6769208/ — "Blue Planet II" (2017-8) (all eight episodes)

*For example:
Michael Allaby & Richard Garratt (2009). Oceans: A Scientific History of Oceans and Marine Life (New York: Facts on File)

John Francis Morrissey & James L. Sumich (2012). Introduction to the Biology of Marine Life (Sudbury: Jones & Bartlett Learning)

Bernd Würsig (ed.) (2019). Ethology and Behavioral Ecology of Odontocetes (Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, part of the series Ethology and Behavioral Ecology of Marine Mammals)

Bernd Würsig, J.G.M. Thewissen & Kit Kovacs (eds). (2017). Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals (Amsterdam: Academic Press)

o/1o wouldn't 【ＦＥＥＬ　ＴＨＥ　ＡＥＳＴＨＥＴＩＣ】again, but it's free anyway and it wasn't as bad as other free artsy stuff.