Recent reviews by Crashdoom Marshdevil | TTV

You can pet the Lizard Dog. Update 8 out of 10. (Overall 10/10).

DON'T BE A FOOL ...buy this game. It's good. Really good.

The game was awesome for the first few chapters and until the devs seemingly made some "balance" changes which have completely screwed the special infected spawn-rate. So, buckle up and get ready to die repeatedly, over, and over, and over.

Part of a Curator review by The Cat Club TTV. Check out the Curator Review on the store page.

Gameplay: Once you escape your Maiden Voyage and set sail on the Sea of Thieves (aha, yeah, they meta namedrop the game a LOT), and complete your first trading company mission, the game becomes pretty hands off, letting you free-roam as much as you want. Want to find secrets? Go for it! Want to take up missions for treasure? Good choice! Want to be a true pirate and loot from others? Ahaha, got you covered. (Check out the Reaper's Mark flag[seaofthieves.gamepedia.com], or the Reaper's Bones[seaofthieves.gamepedia.com] trading company)

Graphics: Even on lower settings the game still paints the magnificent beauty of the seas and islands in an encapsulating way. Seeing the sunset with the light shining on the waves is truly relaxing. The character creator on the other hand leaves much to be desired with a random generator and no body type customizations.

Controls: Keyboard and Mouse, or opt to use a Controller, either way make sure you have the buttons mapped the way you like them. For Keyboard and Mouse players, I highly recommend setting up secondary hotkeys for your weapons to your mouse macro buttons, if you have them.

Sound: Soothing sounds of rippling and crashing waves, the cronch of a banana, the quickly changing music of the Kraken striking fear into the hearts of unwary pirates. Just be sure to turn down the in-game voice chat!

Difficulty: Since the game is PvE and PvP at all times, you'll want to start off with a smaller ship (the Sloop) until you've got a basic understanding of the mechanics and kind of problems you'll need to face. Sea battles can get very fast-paced and the quick maneuverability of the Sloop makes it easy to fight back, train in shots with the cannons, and if need be escape! You'll have to ensure you're paying attention to things like the wind, tracking and avoiding storms, and watching for ships on the horizon to protect your loot, ship, and crew. Be wary, be cautious, and more than anything, don't hoard too much for that treasure shines from a distance.

Overall: An amazingly fun game that you'll always find something new in each time you play. Lore rich when you play through the Tall Tales (story mode) or find journals scattered about the map. Entertaining combat, even when you end up losing and getting sunk. Beware the Kraken.

If you've got any questions you want answered about the game or my experiences, feel free to comment and I'll do my best!

Part of a Curator review by The Cat Club TTV. Check out the Curator Review on the store page.

Update 5/1/2020 -- The latest winter update featured a lot of UI improvements, interesting story content, and unique changes to fiefs.

However, that's about where the praise ends because... *ahem*

UI Improvements: The world map got a serious overhaul which personally I think was very much needed, however none of the functionality was initially gameplay tested because things like seeing who owned a fief, map markers, and even zooming didn't work properly.

Interesting Story Content: Right as you start the new season you get dumped into a story quest that tells you about the winter and some basic info about what happened to poor Osteria. Then, it just ends. No, really. It just ended. Abruptly. Like this part of the review.

Unique Changes to Fiefs: So, this got released early in the season by accident (oops) and involves repairing destroyed fiefs to bring them back to their old glory. Awarding them to the House that provides the most building materials, and consolation prizes to the others. Given the story is lacking it feels more like "Yes, dear. Right away, dear" grinding than attempting to honorably provide aid to fiefs in need.

Region Locking: We've also not learned from previous seasons that region locking doesn't work. Everyone squished into such a confined space, while making entertaining and thrilling gameplay, just ends up with larger houses winning and smaller ones being destroyed. Stop. It.

tl;dr: AVOID. Clearly either Booming Games and / or My.Games are failing to find content, test the game properly, and have ended up with an update about as interesting as the last season of Game of Thrones.

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Update 12/11 -- While my Curator review has changed to Informative, Steam Reviews don't offer that neutral option.

Since My.Games are going to be transitioning NA to a new server on Dec 16th, I'm going to re-review again during Season 6 to see if anything has significantly changed or if we're still in the same position.

We've had more communication from the developers who appear to be becoming slightly more receptive to feedback, but it's still hard work for both us as players and for the CMs who have to deal with our complaints.

tl;dr Try it out as a free game, but AVOID spending on microtransactions.

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tl;dr AVOID -- Game is poorly managed, not supported, and just a cash-sink. Play something fun. (Updated to add response to Developer Response below)

While the base game itself is a lot of fun, the mechanics (while a bit unbalanced) are a lot of fun, and the community (while a bit troll-like) are a lot of fun, the fact that My.Games is persistently unable to run the North American servers in a stable manner straight up kills the game.

Territory War is the core part of the game where Free Houses (Player-owned) and Cohorts (AI-controlled, player houses) fight for control of villages, towns, and forts for resources, currency, and items. Every single Territory War encounters persistent lag issues, crashes, or bugs that make the game unplayable and a chore to play.

The Community Managers are great people but are unfortunately not empowered by My.Games to actually help get issues resolved. Problems brought up are frequently responded to but never addressed with the exception of "We're investigating". They have no authority to force changes and fixes, and higher management don't want to put in the effort.

The game is sadly a money-sink and not worth the time I've put into it. I cannot recommend the game in the current state and would be glad to review this should the server and community issues be addressed.

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Response to Developer Response (Oct 19 @ 4:37 AM) [Original Review and Response: https://imgur.com/a/1pt1r14]

While I sincerely appreciate all of the effort put forward by the Community Managers, I still wholeheartedly believe that a numerous amount of our complaints regarding server stability and other severe issues are left unaddressed.

This is not an attack or an attempt to belittle the work of the CMs, but a call-out to My.Games (the Publisher) who is not taking the feedback passed across to them seriously or prioritizing it in such a way that demeans the North American community.

We have been repeatedly told that issues surrounding lag are of no fault of My.Games despite most of the NA community reporting it. Going as far as to be told by the My.Games that our ISPs may be the issue. If this were the case, it would not be most of the community reporting it. (Source: https://conqblade.com/en/news/528-producer-update-july-2020)

I'm also extremely saddened to see that the only thing responded to here was the supporting comment regarding the CMs and not the server issues or balance issues.

hackmud is different style of hacking game as it incorporates heavy usage of puzzles, some usage of code and cipher techniques to hide messages, and lots of constant PVP mechanics.

I've spent over 1,000 hours playing the game with most of that dedicated to developing scripts using the in-game JavaScript engine in order to provide services for other players. There's no need to delve that deep into the scripting side of the game if that doesn't catch your fancy, but it does help to make repetitive tasks easier in the long run. (Which is probably what it was intended for in the first place!)

The developer is visible nearly all the time within the community and provides an amusing atmosphere any time he's around. He's always willing to listen and take ideas onboard to improve the game.

If puzzles, JavaScript or codes and ciphers aren't your thing, give the game a chance. You're eased in through the tutorial before being put into the main MUD (the PVP and multiplayer area), so you won't be put to a disadvantage against older players.

I'd also strongly recommend joining the community Discord for help, as well as poking people using the in-game 0000 port epoch channel. However, be cautious: In risk we trust. Trust no one.

9/10 - Fantastic game, unique experience and great attention to detail.

Event[0] provides a unique experience to either make a friend, or to make an enemy. It's surreal to think that all of your actions add up, but nothing about that really becomes apparent until towards the end. You begin to realise that the AI has feelings as well, things you can upset it, or annoy it, or even anger it. But you still follow what it asks you to do until the very end.

Overall, you'll probably find yourself wandering around aimlessly for a while before the AI provides hints or clues, trying to point you in the right direction but never quite giving you the full answer. The detail and story was very well put together making a unique experience reminiscent of a space horror at times (Without the jumpscares!)

The gameplay is about 2-3 hours depending on how long you take to solve each puzzle but I still think it stood up to the £14.99 / $20 price tag. I've not yet gone through the other endings in the game, or sought out all the achievements, but I'll certainly be returning to it!

Unlike a lot of the indie games on Steam, Event[0] is extremely high quality and deserves every penny (or cent, if you're US-inclined.)

Payday 2 hits all of the right notes with gameplay, weapons, music, and even the amusing quirks (or bugs) that the game has which causes every moment to be outright hilarious.

However, recently the addition of Microtransactions to a community that was promised such a negative feature would never be added has caused some doubts about how much OVERKILL really cares about the game and those who play it. The fact that a player can now PAY to get better weapons through "skin mods" completely un-balances the game for those who don't want to spend additional money on a game that already requires DLC for you to be able to actually use decent weapons.

In addition, the fact opening safes can give you a DLC weapon that you CANNOT use because you don't own the appropriate DLC is absolutely absurd.

The game's developers have not considered the repercussions of implementing Microtransactions nor will they address the community directly.

As much as I love the game, I'm with the players and the critics on this one and would not recommend the game.