Recent reviews by Baiter

Great start for an early access game.

Graphics/story:
This is one of the best looking graphics of any early access game I think I've ever played. The bare bones are there, now it just needs the developers to add the meat. Story has some holes in it and without spoiling the ending, the ending introduced characters that felt they should have been encountered/introduced at some point in the middle of the game which made the game feel half or maybe even a quarter complete. Ending was an interesting one, just needs more build up/support/explanation.

Building:
Building introduced a new system that at it's core feels natural and fun. I found myself coming up with designs on how to customize my mini village and experimented with a bunch of different architectural work/ideas. You can switch to the original game's style of building with prefabs but are very limited in what is available to you. There are some things in the original game that do not make a return to SotF. Overall, a lot of game time goes into building and it is very fun once you get the hang of it. I pretty much deforested a 400 yard area around my camp/village.

Gameplay:
Gameplay is very simplistic and familiar if you have played the original game. Hit cannibal/mutant, get hit by cannibal/mutant, kill them or die, repeat. There were times when I was actually more terrified with SotF than I was playing the original my first play through. (One scenario that comes to mind is dealing with a shark in the water of a certain cave. This simple concept scared the ever loving piss out of me, I didn't even know I was afraid of this situation.) What made this singular moment stand out to me though was the fact that, to get out of this particular cave, I had to conquer my personal fear of getting in the water to get out of the cave even after the shark was dead. I felt such a sense of personal accomplishment that I conquered a new fear in real time to push the game forward. Gameplay feels great and engaging most of the time. Lots of walking between destinations, but surprise situations like an enemy popping out of a bush or a random village appearing on the horizon keep travel engaging for the most part.

AI:
The companion AI is phenomenal. Kelvin, is such a great success already, I feel at this point any other game that has singleplayer as a feature needs to use this AI implementation in their game-play. Even with the glaring issues (Kelvin cutting down various player's tree-houses in search of logs) the good far outweigh the cons in this avenue. For Kelvin being a tactical soldier, he sure doesn't like to fight. I think he should have some yearning for combat. Virginia is an interesting introduction and a great companion to fight enemies. Giving her a handgun and watching her mop the floor with it is hilarious when juxtaposed to kelvin straight up running from the fight. Protip: Put a GPS locator on Virginia once she becomes friendly to you as she does like to roam. (She went missing for 3 in-game days my 1st play-through and I feared she might have died, she didn't, she just went looking for aloe for me I guess)

Enemies:
The enemies are very cool in concept and implementation. Enemy AI is astounding as you can see where they took a system already in place with the original and just cranked it up in SotF. The way they move and interact with their environment is very immersive and where at times, it did seem clunky. For the most part everything seemed polished when it came to enemy movement, behavior and interaction with player.

Overall:
I'd say for $30 you're getting a decent game in it's current state. It isn't some crazy masterpiece but it is definitely showing signs of a great game assuming Endnight devs treat SotF the way they did the original. The game gets really fun with other people but single-player is still fun and engaging. If you're looking for story, wait for updates to polish the story-line as there are plenty of plot holes. Game-play is very much playable in it's current state. The game will see plenty of major updates following early access release and official release date so a lot to look forward to.

In the off chance that End Night reads this review I'd like to share this:
Just take everything from the forest and put it into the game, Copy and paste if you have to. Then, begin to add more content into SotF. Address all glitches/bugs as they come up and the game will be a success. Kudos to you guys for just sticking with the release date and releasing what you have so far, it's not as bad as some in the community make it out to be. My biggest gripe is the story and how fractured it feels.


(Warning story spoilers follow, so if you are not looking to spoil this game do not continue reading)

Explain where the 4th guy in the ending scene with the cube comes from. Also fix the alternate endings to feel more meaningful. If I save Virginia/Kelvin and took the many hours to ensure they live, reward that with more than just they're here in the scene with you. Add more voice acting. The scene when the man tells his son to "Get down" as he shot a blob was the best sequences in the game but, it felt separated from the rest of the story. Who the hell is the woman with a revolver (I'm guessing Barbara but she being the main antagonist only shows up twice in the game). Add a boss at the end. Ascending into hell and fighting demon-like creatures was a very fun part of the game but it felt lackluster to just press "E" and the final cut-scene runs. I was reading the notes along the path with molten lava and read things like "Stay in the cube to stay alive", "The cube only activates every 8 cycles", etc. As I read this I felt there was most likely gonna be an epic boss battle ahead, so I mentally prepared for this. So you'd imagine it was a little disappointing for the game to end the way it did.

Fun game. Lots of missions and side quests to do. The game does not feel empty like other early access/newer releases. The combat is fun, challenging and you have a decent variety of enemies. The atmosphere in the game is well executed. You do not feel like the only human in the game, but the only human who can make a difference in the world. Haven't felt this type of power to the player since the Halo series. Gun customizations are abundant and not too complex. The player level system is a fun addition to make the game feel more RPG-esque. The game is a FPS.

Pretty much the closest you can get to 5E DnD in a video game. Great game! Do not purchase in early access unless youre a fan of Baldur's gate (not at all a continuation of the first 2 games) or you are a fan of CRPGs.

Rape references aren't funny.