Recent reviews by A Spooky Wraith

"Do you like hurting people?"

*Hydrogen by M.O.O.N. starts playing*

(UPDATE as of 5/6/2024)
Appreciate you listening, Sony.

WE DIVE TOGETHER, OR NOT AT ALL.

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Helldivers 2 is a baller game that makes you live in a hyper-violent and (mostly) Starship Troopers-inspired universe as a Helldiver, one of Super Earth's most elite (and comically flimsy) soldiers to walk the galaxy. It has a special ability to really make you feel like you're in a cinematic Hollywood movie, explosions going off constantly, gunfire screaming through the air, Helldivers screaming at the top of their lungs "FOR DEMOCRACY", fire blazing, bugs exploding in violent gore and robots exploding into scrap metal. I cannot recommend the game enough, it is a complete and utter nightmare of chaos, friendly fire accidents, and satirical humor about an Authoritarian government flinging as many soldiers at the problem as there are patriots to serve and die for Super Earth.

10/10.
Hilarious.
Chaotic.
Hyper-Violent.
Get it.

https://www.stopkillinggames.com/

"The game feels too slow" - beta testers

As someone who also beta tested, turn your FOV up to 90 or 100. You're welcome.

The beta's FOV was set to 100 by default. It's down to 70 by default in full release. That's why it feels slow.

However, criticism regarding class balance is valid, please do give feedback about it! Despite that - This game is absolute fire, and very fun, it just needs some backend tweaks to the numbers for better balancing. Give it a shot. It's free. There's literally no downside to trying this game. It's unique, and very refreshing to see in today's landfills of battle royales and extraction shooters. Other people have described this game far better than I will. 3v3v3 or 3v3v3v3 king of the hill matches with insane environment destruction, respawns, and fun parkour esque running and mobility.

UPDATE (5/16/2024):
So I had to REDO this entire review now, because the terms have changed. Now, a lot of the negative reviews right now have a lot to do with people not fully understanding the context of what happened.

So months prior, Wayfinder was an MMO-lite kind of experience, though it has always been advertised as an RPG with online features, really. In fact they made it a point to never call it an MMO, because they didn't see it that way. That didn't stop people from drawing conclusions, but that's besides the point. DE (Digital Extremes) the publisher at the time, was to provide the online infrastructure and servers for Wayfinder to run on. They also put it forward with all sorts of microtransactions, founder's packs for quite a lot of extra money, and battlepasses and the like.

Then DE dropped their entire publishing arm, not only running away with the money from the founder's packs, but also leaving Airship Syndicate (AS) the developers of Wayfinder high and dry and to figure out what to do with Wayfinder on their own. They have clarified they had *several* attempts at getting a new publisher to help keep this product the way it was, but unfortunately, that's not what the industry was open to right now. So as a result, AS was left with a choice. Either try to take everything they'd made so far and make it into a playable game for people to keep, or drop Wayfinder entirely and let it die, because they did not have the support they needed to do so.

So, as a result, Wayfinder Echoes is the new path going forward. A Singleplayer/Co-Op experience that allows you to play Wayfinder very similarly to the way it did before, a lot of overhauled systems removing the online requirement, axing ALL microtransactions, no more battlepasses, you pay for the game, you get everything in one tight-knit package. Founders STILL GET the items they paid for, it's just not on a fully online game. Obviously some people are upset by that, but in today's industry, where Live Service games are prevalent, CONSTANTLY pushed to the forefront for our attention and then inevitably dying, this is, in my opinion, good news.

It means I can play this game with my friends whenever I want, in a world I think is really cool and the gameplay is fun, never feel pressured to constantly get on, and know that this game will not, in fact, one day, die. I can play it forever. As long as there is a machine capable of running it. It is PERFECTLY FAIR for some people to be upset. They are not getting the MMO-lite they were looking for, they are instead getting a similar experience, but as a Singleplayer/Online Co-Op game, and that is not what they paid for. But I would rather -THIS- alternative than the game dying outright, and we never again get a chance to play in the world of Wayfinder.

I like this game. It's fun.
I'm very glad Airship put in the insane amount of effort and work (AND RISK?) to still give us a game we paid for, in an industry that would have absolutely and otherwise screwed the customer over, and given them nothing.

Thank You, AS.
I appreciate you.

This game's just a boatload of fun, really. You race around an open world with not just race-based activities available to you. It's very fun, Mario Kart - esque, and the vehicles handle quite nicely depending on how you stat them out. The game's more advanced than I thought it would be, and the car editor is absolutely killer for a LEGO game. It's been at least 20 years since we had a LEGO Racer game, so I'd say this is a great and much-needed addition to the LEGO series. There is some staggeringly in-depth customization options for cars, and not only do you drive one car at a time, you drive three. A street car, an off-road car, and boat, all of which have their own physics and handling, and it's quite fun to blast through lego obstacles and boost through, shooting missiles at other racers. A lot of the humor is aimed at kids of course, but it definitely caught me off guard with a few chuckles here and there. I like a lot of the side quests, activities, and minigames that the game has to offer, as it gives a breath of fresh air from just the racing aspect of the game, and each of the regions are nicely designed. Solid game in general, the core is very strong.

However I do feel the need to point out some "grain of salt" stuff with the game. It does appear to be grindy. Other reviewers clearly didn't look at everything about the game to find out where else to earn in-game currency faster, but it is still not a great rate earned, despite being much faster than some are claiming. I assume you earn more with what 2K has in mind for this game - It's a live service game, with "season passes" (battle passes). Thankfully, it seems that 2K took the smart route with these, which is that they never expire, and there's no mention anywhere that there will be a specific 'buy period' before they expire. I believe you can just buy and progress whenever you want. Which is good, but still something to keep in mind. Once again, I assume a lot more of the game currency will come from these passes. Secondarily, this game does contain Denuvo, so you have been warned that that does exist in the game. Hopefully it does not affect your game, as my own game runs perfectly fine. Lastly, rubberbanding, or, "catch up" mechanics do exist. Still annoyed that modern racing games feel the need to include this when raw skill should be the point of racing games. And one more minor irk with me, I do think the game was priced a touch high, and I probably would've knocked it down about $20 off each of their prices listed. That is, if the story is as short as others say, anyway. I have not beaten it as of this review.

I think, overall, the game is pretty strong, and generally outweighs the negatives it has in my eyes. I wanted a good LEGO Racing game for years. I finally got one.

An actual masterpiece of a videogame. If you like some old school survival horror games like Resident Evil, let me tell you, this is that, and better. Mechanically very sound, learns a lot from the more classic titles. Sound, Music, Art direction, all of it is utterly gorgeous and nails it's cassette futurism aesthetic to a double T. I cannot recommend this game enough. At most, takes about 8, 8 and a half hours to complete if you're taking your time, and bad at puzzles like I am. Very good mixture of puzzles, combat, and boy is this game UPSETTING and UNNERVING. It does a very good job of making you feel uncomfortable. And the STORY? You'll just have to play it for yourself, because it's absolutely wild.

Pick it up. You won't regret it.
It is easily my 2022 Game of the Year.

10/10

Honestly this is my favorite Monster Prom game. I had some minor gripes about the prior two where it felt like my goals were obscured behind the scenes and I had no idea what could lead to my success or failure besides "say what the character likes". Understandably, that may have been on purpose, to make it harder when playing against other players. I just think a minor breakdown of stats could have helped in the prior two entries. In this game they have made it VERY clear what will earn you a game over, and how to manage your stats. They do actually give very helpful hints on what actions may influence certain stats, and that's huge in this game.

As always, the writing is top tier. I have had plenty of laughs with the dialogue, and thoroughly enjoyed the crazy antics that went on, I'd like to see how the game changes as I play more - I did not get any hitchhikers on my first run, so I'm curious how they influence gameplay in the future, but I have a suspicion of how they might work. Music's always baller, characters are great. Art always looks absolutely fantastic.

I am saddened that Dahlia very specifically, and is probably the only one who did not make it as either a player or hitchhiker, so she only pops up in certain scenes at random stops. I was hoping to see more of her, as I felt that, even though she's my favorite, she could have benefited from a little bit more defined writing to define her character and split her apart from other, similar, characters. So I feel as though with less screen time that might not actually help the case, but we shall see!

This was mostly just a ramble, the game's good, you should absolutely get it if you like Monster Prom, there's just more and more laughs to be had with a different style of gameplay, co-op, no less, instead of PvP, which makes it rather interesting. It's a fresh take on an already pretty unique series.

Absolute CLASSIC of an RTS. Very unique, and I've hardly seen anything released since that did what this game could do. Making armies of crossbred animals and creatures, picking the more deadly and strategic traits to conquer the opponent. And a wild story to boot. Awesome sound design, great voice acting, and boy was it fun to design units in the creature lab. Being clever with cost of your cheaper and more expensive units to give yourself a good balance for early, mid, and late game. I do hope, to some degree, that this series is revisited in the future and given a proper sequel. It's wishful thinking, but the idea was so fun, I'd really love to see what could be done with modern technology.

10/10

Meh. S'okay.