Recent reviews by Captain Doughberry

I am just blown away by the charm of this game. Is it as polished as Baldur's Gate 3? No. Is it a little clunky? Yes. Are all of the DLC's home runs? Apparently not. Does it scratch that Dungeons and Dragons itch? YES IT DOES. I am HAPPY to forgive this game its flaws, because when it shines, it shines BRIGHT. If you love Dungeons and Dragons 5e, you will not be disappointed playing this game. I made a custom party for my first run using 4 of my previously played characters from IRL campaigns. It is surreal to see them all in cinematics, discussing and bantering between one another. This game is beautiful and a wonderful gift to those who love D&D. My recommendation? PLAY IT.

Poker roguelike. It's like real life.

For the company...

Great game. Replaced HLL when Team17 ruined that with their takeover. Devs are incredible.

Spent 3 hours in my first run and was enjoying it greatly. First run came to a halt when 2 U.I. popups for events happened at the same time. I had an event that gave me a free leader, but had 1 too many, so I had to decide who to get rid of. Simultaneously I had the "Ran out of fuel" event popup. None of the U.I. worked other than the "Open map and refuel" option. Once I did this, I did the standard wait, but after I gained fuel, my only option was to backtrack into enemy lines (one jump behind me) where the scrapper fleet was. All other forward options were grayed out and would not respond to my selecting them. I got into the bugged/forced battle AND THE "you have too many leaders" POPUP REMAINED ON SCREEN AND I COULD NOT EVEN INITIATE THE BATTLE (which I likely would have lost anyway because the scrapper fleet battles are so difficult). Broken game, wasted 3 hours and money. Will likely not be playing much more of this.

(Original Review)
Hell Let Loose was a 5-star game with a 5-star Dev team. Team 17 absolutely broke the balance, performance, and direction of the game after they acquired HLL. This is now. 3-star game at BEST and has a 0-star Dev team IMO. Have uninstalled and will likely NEVER play this game again. Do not buy or play. Do not encourage these larger game companies ruining of great games. I hope it crashes and burns. If you’re interested in big war games like this, go play BattleBit Remastered (some of the most sweetheart gaming devs out there created that masterpiece) or Holdfast while it lasts. This is a sad time for fans of HLL.

EDIT: I have new thoughts returning to the game after some time. First of all, I love the players. Everyone seems to be eager to teach, roleplay, or lock-in. Many beginner friendly servers are still up. Every time I play this game I have an absolute blast interacting with and talking to the playerbase. You get bad eggs every now and then, but this is not a Call of Duty lobby, that's for sure.

Team 17 seem to have reverted a lot of their nonsense changes from when they first took over. I rarely see cheaters, and when I do, they don't last long. The game is fairly stable and I've never encountered a crash. Server performance is solid and I rarely have issues with it. A few of the maps have some stuttering issues, but this can be remedied by flushing your GPU memory (SHIFT+CTL+WINDOWS+B). Annoying to deal with, but not game breaking or rage inducing. Most maps do not have this stuttering issue.

The last and most important thing. The game is FUN. There's not a game like this, that I've played, that offers such a consistently enjoyable experience. Granted, I have a bit of time in the game and know how to play, which does take time. But for those who do have experience playing and are coming back, it WILL scratch that itch. I absolutely adore this game. I once roleplayed with an entire squad as "reporters" whose job it was to "interview" the other team (we were essentially a tank spotting, counter-intel squad going deep to find enemy garrisons). Absolute comedy gold, still influential in the match, and had a BLAST. I would like to thank Team17 for keeping this game alive and well with frequent bug fixes, content updates, etc. Although the updates are not all home runs, and have their issues, the effort is appreciated. Your willingness to fix things you broke and listen to the community should be applauded. Are you perfect? No. Have you kept one of my favorite games alive and fun? YES. Thank you for doing so.

In the words of one of my role models, "That'll do, Donkey. That'll do."

Kill in the name of the Emperor. Pox scum.

Fun

I have spent hours that equal days in this game and have not gotten bored yet. The difficulty, smoothness of game-play, and randomness of each new game makes this game a blast even after beating it. The co-op is slightly buggy at times, but for the most part is a fantastic addition to the game. This game needs to be made more popular, it's one of my favorites!