Recent reviews by H3X

Went into this expecting to be playing a game.
At this point it's not a game, it's a chore and I'm disappointed.

The world, setting, etc are all really nice. It's oddly relatively well performing too which is more than can be said for a lot of bigger games in the last five years.

But, it's busted. The enemy AI targets only the player, doesn't take into account the player mechanics - so you're more than likely to end up between getting hit and getting hit, because if you deign it necessary to block, dodge or parry you are also allowing something else to do their thing because they basically ignore the rest of the squad. This extends out of the campaign to bots in the Operations mode, so there's no respite from awful mechanical failure there either. Never mind the minibosses that stunlock you because you miss a dodge and because of recovery animation just wail on you from 100% to 0 with no way to escape due to how the attack chains are set up. Or the lack of indicator on 90% of parry-possible attacks, or the lack of any form of recovery outside of what would be UT99's worst healing pack in a game that a basic mob can stunlock the protagonist. Ugh.

It feels like an attempt to implement an Arkham style riposte system, but it doesn't work when everything you do with it leaves you open to more damage. Why even use it at that point. Stop targeting only the damned player to the point it's not playable. Please.

EDIT:
After more playtime, some time in multiplayer and practice with the game systems;
Still not sure I want to recommend this.

Multiplayer routinely has connection/stability issues which are not PC/ISP connection related from what I've seen, and the combat whilst satisfying at times still has the issues with stunlock etc.

AI squad members (which you unfortunately see often) are also worse than I initially thought in both campaign and online, having no capability to follow directions (such as attack/defend) featured as part of the main UI, no perks in Operations, no proper target priority when picking one out, no damage against actual boss tier enemies, and more. About the only thing they can do properly is fire a weapon at mobs and recover their own health outside of combat, leaving everything for the player(s) to do which can be borderline impossible. They routinely ruin Operations runs for example.

This game has a single player tag on Steam, but truthfully is not one. If you would buy it as a single player game, look into the solo gameplay in existing videos or streams first as it's a bit deceiving to say it truly is a single player title. It's ALL focused on having a (human) group. All of it.

It seems fun initially but the story in MK11 was overall more entertaining. The PvE stuff they've implemented to replace the old mechanics is terrible. It lacks in customisation of the moveset and everything else. If I wanted to beat my head off AI I'd go ask one of the chat APIs to murder me.

The folks that stayed in MK11, you were right.

[EDIT]
I've tried to come back and try again after successive updates, though honestly it's only cemented my opinion more; MK11 did literally everything better. It even somehow looks worse, having gone back and looked at 11's cinematics and XRAY stuff. I'm not a fan of the character designs overall in this one but it just seems to lack the fidelity of the prior game for some reason. It's MK, so I want to like this, but, I simply don't, and don't understand why anyone would over the prior game.

Balanced around a one shot death, but doesn't allow the player to counter anything an NPC does. Which leads to one shot death. Weapon mechanics are cool but I'm not that much of a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ masochist to enjoy beating my head off this crap wall.

Some of you may recall the PS1 classic racer, Rollcage. GRIP is a spiritual successor to that and more; Not just fast but technical, not just hectic but tactical. Combat racing is back with a vengeance!

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This game makes me rage.. But I love it!

Firaxis studios' remaking of the older XCOM franchise is a great game all around without a shadow of a doubt. It has aliens, guns, global terror and addictive tactical play that I just can't leave alone.

The premise is simple enough, you're an operative for the XCOM organisation, and it's your job to direct the forces at your disposal to best serve the interests of humanity in fighting off the alien menace (more on them in a mkinute). You do this through turn based tactical combat scenarios and a metagame of base management and decision making that overarches the main gameplay by forcing you to choose which options you want to research, what facilities you want to construct to better your force or gear, and which missions you want to send your recruits on to shoot the aliens to bits.

At the basic level, that's what the game is all about really - decision making. It's why it works so wonderfully, and also why it will make you rage but keep coming back for more. The turn based nature of the gameplay means you can weigh the odds of different approaches as you go and take your time to figure out the various angles and opportunities you have at each point. Squad cohesion is important in mission gameplay, and a poor choice of action or missed opportunity could see you paying for it down the line with your squad members, when alien plasma fries them. It forces you to adapt and overcome your enemies, predict the outcome of your options and make the best choices, whether that involves a squad wide attack to wipe out the enemy or (occasionally) sacrificing one member to allow the others to move to a safer position or escape (though you'll find that this is a painful lesson when it's a high level unit with helpful abilities that you lose however).

There's plenty to keep track of and experiment with too. Your different units have classes that affect their weaponry loadout (heavy units being armed with an LMG and Rocket launcher at the first level for example) and abilities that go along with them (in the case of the aforementioned heavy, suppression fire and usage of the launcher etc), so making sure that the different specialisations are utilised well is wise to be keep in mind while on a mission. You are free to choose who you want to field however, so if you find you don't really enjoy using a particular class or would rather take another sniper than a support unit for example, it's your choice.

Outside of mission play the decision making is just as important if not more so. You'll create a base layout with facilities to upgrade or improve your arsenal and construct your gear between missions, and keeping appropriate facilities close gives benefits so juggling everything or putting one plan on hold to get a different module placed first can provide bigger bonuses down the line. The different research tiers as the game progresses ramp up in power quite nicely and are satisfying to play with when you finally get to top tier weaponry and armor (higher tier armors especially offering some interesting options in terms of gameplay, IMO). All important research unlocks all these goodies so taking advantage of your time at the base to figure out which projects you want to take next is the other main aspect between mission play to keep in mind - neglecting any one aspect ofyour squad's equipment can leave you underequipped for some missions but researching the alien tech and recovered corpses etc is also important so as to discover their weak points, making it a fine balancing act.

So yeah, as the title said, it'll make you rage. When Corporal Bloggs pops his head round a blind corner only to get it melted by alien plasma fire unexpectedly you might want to shout, or swear, whatever floats your boat. But it's so satisfying to play that you'll just want to keep coming back to try again. Maybe Corporal Bloggs' brother will have better luck on point instead..