Recent reviews by BLOODBIT3

Feels like there is potential for this to drive really, REALLY well, but there are too many red flags to outright recommend this game. And I am glad that I found this for a much better discounted price of around $36 AUD (via Fanatical) than the Steam discount of $49 AUD... all before the v1.0 price hike. And I am also glad that I did NOT get any of the DLC.

The elephant in the room is the DLC... it is going to be an ongoing problem. As with anyone that enjoys hardcore sims, I am happy to pay a premium for a really good representation of the cars that I prefer to drive, and I would happily pay for the Ferrari 296 GT3s individually.... but throwing tracks into DLC packs with cars I do not care for and will never use? NO!

In total, upon v1.0 release there aren't many circuits, and some of those are locked away behind different DLC packs with cars that you too may not care for. So why are we being forced to become DLC collectors to pay for the continued upkeep of the game? The DLC model that is being implemented here is both outdated and lives up to the predatory stigma that the "simulator" world suffers from. There are other ways to get this right, and the history behind rFactor 2's obscene DLC structure that prevented the game from growing... clearly nothing has been learned from that, or what some of their other competitors are doing that has the potential to be more community-accessible by comparison (RaceRoom, AMS2, whatever AC-EVO and Project Motor Racing end up doing)

I have tried LMU awhile ago on someone else's account during the Early Access phase, so I do have more than my listed 1.4hrs on my review in regards to play experience ..... early days of v1.0, the load times are infinitely better, but still a little slow (they seemed reasonable to me). Menus have been improved dramatically too.

BUT, if you really are interested in trying this, buy the base game ONLY. I just spent my first sub-2 hours (leading to this review) trying to figure out a proper FFB profile for my Simucube 2 Pro setup. Unfortunately there are quite a few "Gold Consistent" rated profiles from others in the Simucube Paddock that make you wonder "why did you spend all that money on a Simucube DDU if your setup is no better than a soft wishy washy default Logitech G25 profile?"

This is going to apply to any and all other sim-wheel brands and models. You are going to spend a lot of your initial gaming time trying to find/dial-in a setup that actually gives you a proper sense of connection to the game's physics, as per your tastes. The default settings are absolute trash. It will remind you of Project Cars and Automobilista 2 = without EXTREME tweaking, you'll hate it.

I lucked out and managed to get something close to being satisfying within the first hour of test drives, but I am still finding the GT3 cars turn like pigs, and there are areas that still need serious tweaking to live up to the strong/detailed FFB settings that I prefer. The details are definitely there in the game, but it is going to be work pinning it all down in a usable profile.

Another thing to be aware of is that you MUST adjust all onboard settings for your cars, and every car is distinctly different, like they would be in the real world. ABS Cornering has a direct impact on those pig-like corners, as does Traction Cut Off, as does Traction Slide Angle. And with the Hypercars... the additional settings like brake regen, etc also have distinct influences on your cars handling.... and all of that is worthless before you get your sim wheel properly setup.

Hypercars are a prime example of this. Hard braking so far turns into a magic ice skating experience despite maintaining a perfectly straight trajectory. Why? Because there is currently zero feedback to the my Simucube communicating that the tyres are, all of a sudden, sliding and likely the car's wheels have locked up as well.

The solution? More tweaking of FFB settings, both in game and on the Simucube/hardware side of things

SETTING UP THE GAME IS A MISSION !!!!

I have yet to see a proper mention of that in any other reviews that I have read to date. So by the time you do all of this ground work just to get the game feeling like it should before you can even start to enjoy your very first race... you may realise that LMU is just a novelty point of reference to add and keep in your sim collection, perhaps with an eye on how things develop in the coming years in regards to content and community support/culture. You absolutely WILL break the refund time frame if you end up deciding that you don't like the game after all of this tweaking and tinkering.. hence, the excess of DLC is best left as a purchase well after you have explored the base client

I have no regrets adding the base game to my library, and I will continue to try and explore its potential, but unless there is some serious restructuring of the DLC model, this may be a "base game only" type of title that sits in my Library. It is also worth waiting to see how the v1.0 era of the game evolves. If you are forced to become a DLC collector simply to participate in multiplayer races that include cars that you do not yet own (and never intended to purchase)... that will be the ultimate Red Flag of a toxic business model.

As a side note, the Multiplayer section includes a basic ranking system. No qualification/driving school type of requirements (yet) as is already being implemented in AC-EVO, or has been around within iRacing for so many years... and was eventually introduced into their own rFactor 2. I don't even have to log in for the first time to know that most public online races will be Turn 1 Wreckfest derby's... like every other serious simulator.

Know what you are getting into and set your expectations accordingly, LMU could be great, but it won't lead the field... eyes are on AC-EVO and Project Motor Racing at this point.

This is a very skeptical "recommend" !!!

It plays like a cross between Ghostrunner and when Destiny 2 was good... engaging in melee combat as the Hunter. The world also has that very Destiny 2 sort of lush vibe... again, when Destiny 2 was still good. All of this packaged into a simple Devil May Cry/Souls style swarm-clear-then-boss-fight type slasher.

But... BUT!

UBISOFT!

This thing is being published by Ubisoft. Wait until day 1 release. If you see "Denuvo" on the product page, or any other bit of malware, add it to your IGNORE list. I will be adding it to my now 11,000+ and counting IGNORE list, with no regrets, IF they inject their usual malware into the game. Personally, I'd be willing to wait a few months post release simply because I trust Ubisoft to be Ubisoft, and add Denuvo months later like they have with other titles in the past.

And that would be a shame, because this actually looks like it could turn out to be a fun and very memorable reflex-arcade experience.

Worth a try, and hoping it turns out alright.

It looks very pretty, but unfortunately it also looks like it may be more Unreal Engine 5 slush. I had to run this at 720p for it to be playable.

Visually the city gives off vibes that reminded me of when I played the original Deus Ex back in the day... that "ooooh" feeling during the opening shot. The weather alterations from night to day, rain to sun shine... and rising up above the volumetric cloud cover... it all has a cool feel to if you are running it on Ultra settings (even at 720p).

I tried this demo with a gamepad... and it also gave me nostalgic vibes of what it felt like when the original PS1 came onto the scene and dominated with fresh, arcade-fun games.

I didn't play long enough to upgrade any items, so not sure if rolling your craft is simply an omission or an as-yet-to-be-unlocked function or upgrade... but it feels wrong to not have true 360 degree control. That is the one thing that was missing from completing that nostalia trip... which could have been a trifecta of DEUS EX - PS1 ERA - DESCENT.

There are audio sound effects and atmospheric/ambient music that were clearly inspired by (and almost stolen from) Cyberpunk 2077. There are references to "replicants", so you can tick the Blade Runner box there too. Again... this not-exactly-original but still genre-gratifying presentation is a strong reminder of the PS1 days when zombie games looked and felt like "THIS", stealth-ops were "THIS", racing games were "THIS", etc.

Gameplay did not look too innovative. Just your standard and simple arcade type missions for an aerial shooter of this type... fly to way point - scan vehicles - combat. If this is done "right", these simple mechanics could make for a great 360/space-fighter sim.

Controls are decent enough, but I personally would hope the devs tighten things up and try and capture a bit more of the manic twitch-sensitive flight nature of good ole Descent... within reason considering gravity is involved on a planet surface of course. BUT... that is all entirely dependent on if this thing can be properly optimised to handle fast flight controls and input with this level of visual detail.

Trying to pull brain crushing g-force moves during combat weren't possible in the demo. The handling of the flight craft and your controls simply does not make it possible in the way you would hope if you have spent any quality time in a proper flight-combat sim. And for anyone that understands how game engines, 3D rendering, etc. works... with an emphasis on how the bloated'ness of Unreal Engine 5 is NOT working "well" outside of staged and pre-rendered videos... that degree of sharp, though simple, physics based handling is going to be a problem in a very detailed world like this that struggles to render smoothly, This game is too pretty and visually immersive to play on anything less than Ultra settings, so this will need to be addressed come release time.

Right now the flight handling kind of reminded me of something half way between the old X-Wing/Tie Fighter games... and the mystery weighted strangeness of vehicles in Cyberpunk 2077... in a "there is potential here to be awesome" sort of way... but it's not quite there yet in this demo. And these handling characteristics do not help contribute to what also feels like unsatisfying weapons play. Just like you know really good "gun play" in an FPS (pre-trash-CoD, pre-trash-Destiny 2, Titanfall 2, etc.), there should be a real sense of "OOOFF" when using your combat-flight-sim weaponary and hitting targets. Right now, the weaponary in G-Rebels does not deliver that "OOOFF" feeling.

If this were 100% a demonstration of what the end product will be, then I would lean heavily towards a NEGATIVE review. Never allow the visuals to distract you from the reality of the handling and mechanics. The handling needs work to be awesome. If it remains exactly the same as it plays right now, it could still be fun.. but it will get old and feel dated a handful of levels/missions in. This is, however, labelled as an ALPHA demo... so for what it is, it is promising.

Good luck devs. Make the effort to REALLY optimise this properly, and make the right amount of physics and weaponary tweaks, and this thing could turn into an arcade sci-fi-space-combat-sim gem.

Not impressed in the slightest.

Gameplay wise this is poorly optimised, and feels like what it is... an Unreal Engine 5 game that chugs really bad for no good reason. Handling isn't bad, but it isn't satisfying either. It genuinely feels like you are either cheating, or playing a mobile shooter like Call of Duty Mobile with an always on aim-assist, and opponents that are mostly, if not all... dumb bots.

This is a copy and paste battle pass, loot box gambling battle royale. It does not take more than a few minutes of menu scrolling and gameplay to see it for what it is.

But to really illustrate the red flags before you even get into the gameplay.... the opening FMV is so badly optimised that it ends up being 10, then 20, then 30+ seconds out of sync.

SKIP

Next intro FMV (also out of sync from the 1st frame) with a trash talkin' drill sergent type... within the first sentence refers to you as a "regurgitated ♥♥♥ bubble"...

SKIP

Tried adjusting my base avatar appearance on first load to find the game just decides to force load me into a game without me having selected "join" anything.

Then the incessant in-game commentator dialogue, also like the ♥♥♥ bubble reference, is total reddit/discord-meme idiot trash. It is so dumb for the sake of being "hip" with the lowest meth-smoking-denominator of TikTok morons... and the commentator never seems to shut up.

I played part of one match, and the squad I was forced to join won... easily. One of the teammates was downed... I never was, despite lingering near loot chests to figure out how to pick up items, and what things did. Gameplay mechanics were a very safe mishmash of CoD Warzone and Apex Legends... but felt SO MUCH like CoD Mobile.

I was hoping to see something interesting, seeing as Gunzilla has gone the way of Web3/blockchain and NFT incorporation with their games/game-platform... but it turns out that this game lives up to the stereotypes of Web3/blockchain/NFTs being all about get rich quick TikTok /Twitch fakery and ZERO actual quality of life improvements to "the internet of things" or gaming in general.

All of that perceived "future is blockchain" has been reduced to a fake-population of bots while leaning extremely heavily on microtransactions and battle pass grinding.... this is not a future I want to be a part of.

HARD SKIP!!!!

Ultra simple mechanics, but implemented intelligently and in a way that allows for about as much depth as you can get out of a mindless bullet hell escalation of "kill everything" chaos.

At first the swarm feels like its rigged to make you fail, almost like it will provoke a mindless grind, but you pickup loot box upgrades quickly enough, along with the drive-in upgrade stations to open said loot boxes and apply attachments/upgrades, to make it worthwhile.

The frequency of these loot box upgrades is also, at first, a little jarring in how regularly they pull you out of the battle, but there is an interesting strategic element to how you add to your growing monstrosity of a vehicle and how you place your weapons (location and direction). After a while, as you get stronger, you can appreciate that the regular upgrading process actually helps to avoid giving you that repetitive "is that it?" feeling a lot of bullet hell games tend to have. The upgrades are also meaningful and constantly reconfigurable with genuine long-play depth, rather than a sad RPG'esque grinding of an upgradeable talent/skills tree.

Half an hour play time was enough to know that this would work great on a SteamDeck... the mass swarms on a smaller screen adding to the challenge of thinking in a spatial-tactical sort of way. It would give your play style a slightly different flavour going from big screen to small.

Also... keyboard controls or gamepad.... both felt equally well tuned, and neither come across as a token gesture alongside the "preferred" way of playing.

Put your money where your mouth is.. stop merely complaining about being forced to work a virtual job in garbage "simulators", ultra AAA RPGs that are 99% sad-live-event-crafting and 1% RPG, or the endless stream of CoD and other mega franchise-turned-trash titles.

Open Source is the future. Screw the mega AAA shareholders!!!

Interesting tech demo.

You play the dog, and you drag this poor little kid around the map. Ultra simple but effective basis for a light adventure game that has the potential to be really absorbing and immersive like the old LucasArts/Monkey Island era of games with a good story and intelligent, purpose driven puzzle-quest mechanics.

Path finding isn't necessarily the best for the kid. He gets stuck/buried often, but you have the option to buy into the Supporter DLC and try and fix it via the source code/files in Godot if you're keen on pursuing what that engine can do.

I am at a point where I instantly cringe at the sound of mumble-dialogue because of the obscene amount of ultra trash "indie" games on Steam (Humble Studios, Team17, etc.) that rely on it to pump out uncreative, generic, prefabbed filth... but it actually works here with the cutesy art style and "boy and his dog" concept.

Nice little stop-motion animation look to the movement too, and a supreme example of what can be done, efficiently without over priced, overly license-restrictive and bloated tools in 2025 (Blender vs 3DSMAX/etc, Godot vs Unreal/Unity/etc.).

While I totally support Blender and am still trying to relearn things that are "different" from what I used to do in 3DS MAX, I have absolutely no interest in Godot because it is C# centric and not made with Rust (I say that with over a year's worth of weighing up the long term value of Godot vs Fyrox and ALL the possible ancilliary plugins/tools available to either)... so I have no use for the supporter pack content whatsover... but the only way to break the stranglehold on the gaming industry in regards to the obscene behaviour of AAA publishers and studios is to support truly innovative, open source tech and projects... Supporter Pack purchased!!!

Strange Civ clone that seems to focus more on "representation" than any desire for even the vaguest historical/cultural accuracy, or militant value. I don't have a problem with female warriors, but let's not pretend like there were female scouts and front line grunts in the vast majority of cultures across the entire planet, for the vast majority of history. It's one thing to create a fictional/fantasy/sci-fi world where that kind of thing is normal and logical, but when you repaint ancient cultures with this modern socio-political brush.. it simply makes no sense.

One of the leader avatars to choose from is a blue haired, cookie cut "university activist" that just discovered Marxism... What?

Even the cutscene and tool-tip dialogue (which is frequent) is a bit... dumb. Like a school teacher trying a little too hard to be "hip" and modifying their material to be "simple enough" for the "simple kids" in the class to hopefully "get into history." 100% cringe worthy.

Choosing a culture to develop doesn't seem to really mean anything other than basic unit skinning... for the first couple of ages. I chose Olmecs, and by the time they reached the Middle Ages, units could be upgraded to a European style of knights. Zero effort put into at least coming up with a slightly logical evolution of what the Olmecs could have evolved into, had they survived and dominated.

This is basically a Civilisation clone made by people that:
A) Don't understand or respect history
B) Don't understand or respect strategy game design
C) Don't understand or respect cogent and efficient UI design
D) Really don't understand how politics work

I have avoided Civilisation games for years because I know what a deceptive and obsessive time sink a single campaign can become. Humankind on the other hand will make anyone that appreciates even the most basic qualities of a proper 4X strategy game not want to play 4X games anymore.

From a PC gamer perspective, this is a NO.

This game is perfect example of a "console game"... and it appears to be a very good example of light, casual, couch gamer'ing. But it does not translate to PC gaming well if you are looking for serious depth and challenge in regards to mechanics.

The mechanics are simple and interesting, but not enough to carry an entire game. And as some of the other more honest and detailed reviews have mentioned, this thing is cutscene heavy at the start. What makes it painful is the constant interruption for not just cutscenes but in-game and in-menu tutorial exposition. This game drip feeds every little development, every little mechanic, and it is all based around an out dated "point A to Point B back to Point A to Point C etc" fetch-filler mission form of game design. That plus simple forage-and-crafting filler mechanics.

That's great for the console market, and specifically kids that are still in school that have all the time in the world to play a drawn out game to completion... but it really becomes a chore fast if you want to be really involved in "the game."

The story, conceptually, is unique and interesting. The delivery however is also on par with the console audience it is targeting. It will be deep and have a lot of WOW factor to kids, but the older and more experienced you are, the more the weak moments in dialogue will make you cringe and you will start skipping much of the drawn out dialogue. Some of the voice acting can seem a little wooden at times, also indicative of on-screen actors not quite getting the voice-acting thing quite right the way seasoned voice actors can... or maybe that also comes down to the weaker/duller moments in the script.

The world itself has a great deal of atmospheric value, despite being very drab. And the (teaser) vehicle control that I experienced at the start of the game was pretty cool... but was it cool enough to grind through these fetch-filler mechanics to finally regain access to vehicles? Not for an adult with limited gaming time on their hands.. NO.

If you have the time for a light console gaming experience, this game is kind of perfect for that. it's very creative, not mind blowing or terribly deep, but it is well crafted and a genuinely original sci-fi-horror story. The simple mechanics could be compared to a very stripped down Alan Wake of mostly non-violent story driven exposition missions/mechanics rather than the deeply immersive-mechanics that Remedy do so well.

... but if you were expecting more, like I was.. and by more i mean the mechanics to live up to the visuals, the star power, and to capture some of that "purpose" that made the Metal Gear games so good back in the day... you will likely feel this like falls well short of all expectations. This is a very elaborate interactive story, with a shallow set of niche mechanics. I may come back to this to finish at some point in the future when (if) I have the time for something slow, but until then, I don't feel like this one lived up to the hype to warrant my time. I'm not saying Hideo hasn't made a good game here, but he's definitely made much better before. Celebrities, pretty graphics and stellar animation can't hide that hard fact.

Fun little tech demo of the more recent upgrades to the Source engine and the Steam Deck's functional potential.

It does not really play as a "proper" game, it is more like an interactive story... but how an interactive [short] story SHOULD be made, not the lazy "click and scroll" trash that is polluting Steam these days in that sub-faux-adventure genre. Takes about 30min to complete (I have more than 5min playtime, I just happened to play it while offline on my own Steam Deck, and the sync didn't follow through upon reconnecting, a day later).

Visually rather pretty AND resource-efficient, and the humour is on par with the Portal games. It actually gave me the urge to reinstall the Portal's to replay, and a good reminder of a golden era of gaming when reputable developers were still worthy of our support because they really did make good, truly original and immersive gaming content that made feel like you had a valuable experience with your gaming time.

Gabe, we need another, proper Valve game before any further hardware R&D. The industry is suffering from gross corporate greed and socio-political poisons... help bring the industry back to the "benchmark vs benchamark" glory days of Unreal Tournament vs Quake IV.... Half Life 2/Source vs Doom 3/iDtech... back when it was a win-win for gamers regardless of who ultimately claimed the crown of best game/engine.