Recent reviews by WhiskeyNinja

What can I say? I see a ship? I break it down.

This is Early Access, and the game does what it says on the tin. Do you enjoy gritty sci-fi? Do you like puzzles? Do you like games with upgrade systems? This is a game where each ship is a puzzle you need to solve in a set amount of time (in campaign mode, at least, free play has no restrictions), in order to complete your work orders and make enough cash to pay down your enormous debt to Lynx corporation.

There are 2 classes of ship in the game right now, and each ship is slightly randomized so you aren't doing the same orders over and over. There's a method to shipbreaking. With a Mackerel I always like to depressurize the hull, cut out the floor panels, and collect the reactor right away. I love the chaos this can create in combination with a time limit. I've been in a rush and forgotten to depressurize before I cut into the hull before, and had an explosive event that shattered the back half of the ship, but I still made the order.

If that anecdote sounds like heaven, buy the game. If it sounds interesting, give it some time in Early Access and check the reviews when it's on sale.

As for my opinion? I still owe Lynx Corporation 972,000,000 credits. I've got work to do.

2021 Update: More ships. More progression. Still good.

I just finished the campaign, playing on a complete Valve Index rig.

All in all, a fantastic game, and the new bellwether for VR FPS titles. Here are some thoughts:

Pros:
-A physics based simulation means all the fun you remember having the first time you played Half-Life 2. You can touch anything pick up pieces of a broken box, sweep items off a shelf, shove enemies, do pull ups, climb pipes, use the tip of your weapon to open doors... the sky is the limit. This alone makes the game a must-buy, it's a singular experience.
-Tons of items to play with. Assault rifles, DMRs, pistols, knives, crowbars, clubs, kunai, bopper swords
-A complete campaign. Clocking in at ~9.5 hours for me, this is a full game, with a (confusing) story, puzzles, jokes, and everything you would expect from a crafted FPS experience.
-There's a wave based Arena mode, and a sandbox mode that you can unlock.

Cons:
-The standout for me was the pacing. The levels are crafted well-enough, but I felt like the VR environments didn't have as many obvious set-piece memorable fights as I was expecting. The flow is more or less - explore, key hunt, fight/physics puzzle. I want to be clear there are some GREAT set pieces tho - a sewer fight in the dark, tense gun battles up a canal.. I just wanted to see more combat overall, and different ways to use all these cool items I grabbed. The last 1/4 of the game is also not strong on pacing, without much of a climactic gun battle, relying instead on a jokey fist fight (fun, but a bit of a let down).
-The narrative is apparently a part of Stress Level 0's meta-plot between all there games, and if this is your first experience, it's going to be a bumpy ride. Lots of names and ideas tossed around without a lot of explanation, verging on incoherency towards the end of the game as you face a series of boss battles that feel improperly introduced.
-The need to unlock sandbox and arena mode grates with some folks - I don't mind terribly, and you can unlock the first sandbox level within the first 20 minutes of play (if you look up how to do it) but the 'secret puzzle' portions of the game are pretty much guaranteed to need an internet guide to discover.
-The insane amount of detail put into this game makes any feedback on how interaction work sounds petty, but I would have liked it if weapon slides could collide with the environment (so you can charge pistols against eachother). I also found that despite full simulation, the later levels didn't inspire as much creative puzzle solving as the earlier ones.

Takeaway:
This is a game worth getting into VR over. With Half-Life Alyx coming out in a few months, Boneworks sets the watermark for my expectations from future VR experiences. I will be jumping back into Boneworks for months based on the content provided alone to unlock more sandbox levels and weapons and enemies, and to show off what VR is really capable off. Despite some design hiccups, it's an overall well crafted game, and more importantly, lays a very solid foundation for DLC or expansion content that I better see.

Personal rating: 4/5

This game is absolutely fantastic, and with all the post Early-Access development is easily in my top-10 games.

The Wintermute campaign was rough around the edges during development, but with the added love they gave it, it's a superbly directed and acted experience, where the survival mechanics enhance the story being told without getting in the way.

Survival mode is a moody exploration of your patience and diligence, tracking your body temperature, weight, how wet your clothes are, and how warm you are, hunger, injury, thirst... but it never becomes too much to track. They call this the quiet apocalypse, and it is. Animals and your own exposure to the elements are the extent of the risks you face, without the need for the crutch of zombies or aliens to justify or enhance the situation.

If you like survival games, and you'd like something moodier, I cannot recommend this highly enough. Absolutely wonderful experience.

This is everything I've wanted from an Iga title in years. I don't have a lot of playtime, and will update when I finish, but from finishing the first level this is all the evolution the X-vania series has needed in years.

This game reminds me of Myst, Euro Truck Simulator, Elite Dangerous, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, and FTL.

It it's core, Deep Sixed is a resource management and memorization roguelike. You are stuck in deep space with a busted up ship, and as part of your involuntary indentured service, you have to take missions, which earn you credits to repair and upgrade your ship. The ship systems require constant maintenance, and the game includes a digital and printable manual that you can reference, or pass off to a friend for co-op action.

I haven't completed a full run yet, but I'm several missions in, and I enjoy the sense of mastery over this tub. I know what to do when the scanner displays error 105, I know how to modulate lasers, replace control boards, and hit the vent just right to reactivate a stuck fan. The game has a good sense of humor about the hopelessness of the situation, and I enjoy the relationship that develops between the player character and the AI companion.

Things can and will go wrong, but it's fun to acknowledge what could have gone better, submit to [asphyxiation, explosion, overheating], and commit to doing a better job the next time.

I'd recommend this game to the following: Those that enjoy mastering a complicated process, folks that wish they could play spaceship mechanic, and anyone who likes it when the operations of a spacecraft are fleshed out a bit in sci-fi.

I can see myself enjoying this game for many more hours. I'd definitely recommend.

This game is great, if you like Hotline Miami-styled chaos simulators. Lots of really neat ways to play, randomly generated maps, and limited use but extremely useful gadgets.

I think my favorite part so far is that if you play as a group of randomly generated characters with vendettas/missions (kill the guy that tortured my son, make the big heist and retire) at a bar (one at a time), and if one of them dies, there's a chance the next character's mission will be to rescue the last character. The game constantly dares you to risk everything, and then floods you with options to escape when you get in over your head.

The randomness of the galaxy map means that your item unlocks will be uncertain game to game. The item unlocksare based off of space stations you unlock as your individual crew members reps.

I highly recommend this game if you like a heavy dash of critical thinking with your action. The launch trailer for this game really describes everything you need to know about it.

I heartily recommend this.

I started playing this, and I didn't stop.

If you played with toys as a kid, and enjoy a gentle economic simulation, as well as the satisfaction of doing work without the effort of actually DOING WORK, I can't recommend this enough.

You start with a farm and a few fields, you plow, you cultivate, you sow, you harvest, you sell your crops,you buy bigger and better farming machines, you diversify, get into forestry, or raising animals, you conquer.

The game has great mod support, as well. Tons of free additions for functionality and more vehicles to try.

It might be a bit a bit dense for kids, but great for bringing them along for the ride.

A+ would sheep farm again.

Beautiful, story and narrative driven RTS.

This will be an ongoing, updated review, as I progress through the campaign.

CAMPAIGN

I've completed the first two missions and the tutorial so far. If you enjoy any of the following, I'd recommend the game based on my limited play:

• Hard-sci fi narrative in RTS
  
• A decent mix of tactics and strategy
  
• Big Damn Trucks

The gameplay is much like the Homeworld series, streamlined, with an even greater emphasis on narrative. The game is gorgeous, and as mentioned, it's all about Big Damn Trucks.

This is a game that emphasizes strategy, not actions per minute. There's a nice combination of use of high ground, and unit special abilities to keep engagements fresh and allow specializations.

BBI has been great about supporting the game. If you're a fan of their art style, the DLCs are well worth it.

I've generally had a wonderful time with this, and definitely think this product is worthy of support. It will likely never be as big as Starcraft, but it's not trying to be that.

Cons
No docking animations for resource harvesters.

As someone whose image has been a google search result for some years, I am intimately familiar with the idea that once you have created/shared something on the internet, it no longer belongs to you. It belongs to everyone.

I think the same can be said for a videogame. Once a creator has made something, it belongs to everyone.

So the message I took away from this game seemed a bit pretentious. If you make something and share it, other people will be affected by it. Will take it and change it's shape. Will share it again.

That's the way the world works.

That's not condoning plagarism, of course. Owner's rights should be given to an individual that created something, but they can't reserve the right to have their work not be interpreted by anyone they choose to share it with.

That's stupid.

So this game? It's a fun piece of fiction. An interactive matinee. But as a game developer myself I have trouble relating with the core message, or at least what my interpretation of it was.

So if the game's goal was to make me think: Mission accomplished. It was worth the entrance fee for that. But I hesitate to recommend it to others. But I suppose I will, because I'm glad I had the chance to think about what the game meant, and others deserve that experience.

If there's some hidden meaning that I'm missing out on, then I wish the game would have tried harder to clue me in on it.

This feels like the best parts of the original Planetary Annihilation, with the best parts of Experimental Units from SupCom.

If you didn't like the core of PA, this won't change much.

If you liked the core of PA, but wish it had more STUFF, you will like this.

If you didn't play PA, this is the best starting point. Lots of micromanagement, lots of awesome end-game units.