first review of 2023, forgive me I am rusty. Also I am trying to add a formatting template to my reviews to make them also not an eyesore.

What is an Eyeball Hot Take?
If you have any sort of muscular or neuro eye condition that isn't SEIZURES... but all those other not-fun ones that make you vomit, migraine, vertigo, and unable to play a game. Seizure issues are above my expertise! Certain VFX/Lighting Types/frame rate/camera type induced 'pain' from types of eye issues? I'm the lab rat vomiting for you.
TLDR: You like video games but you don't want eye discomfort in the process! This quick hits review is for you. This is NOT about the quality of the game's narrative/etc, but rather if it will wreck your eyeballs trying to play it.

The Requirements for Eye Comfort and the Reality

Low End PC OK? aka will my older computer make it worse?

• Support for DLSS and FidelityFX 1&2 (nice wide range of AMD cards there) allow for lower end computers to smooth things out nicely. Not to mention if you are even an older nvidia card owner the geforce experience app will let you use their scaler to uprez from, for example, 2k to 4k with recommended settings and it looks pretty good. More about non-native game scaling at this nvidia help doc: https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5280/~/how-to-enable-nvidia-image-scaling (I am not embedding for transparency)
  
• It is a pretty dark game. It's thematic. You can turn down a host of things and it still looks fine. (Luckily you can get outlines on your allies and follow the people with better vision!)
  
• Game benefits from being a year old with 13 patches of optimization.
  
• I ran it on a mid-high tier AMD CPU, 3080RTX gen1, 32gb RAM, no fancy cooling and zero chug. My bestie has it on their budget Nitro laptop, no thermal issues. We used medium-high settings with DLSS and Raytracing 4k resolution 120fps.
  
• I have also played it on GFN (the streaming nvidia service) and it has performed smoothly just by lowering to 1080p.
  
• All these scenarios I had no frame jitters or camera stutter.

Verdict: Flexible range of PCs can play due to wide kit of settings. Lower end settings won't make you puke.

What about the Camera Type&Control?

• While in mission? Classic FPS. Tight without more modern sense of shoulders and feet. Some folks prefer this older method. Persistent Dot on Screen is great for sense of location focusing. (Note: Cross-hair mod exists to change dot into cross-hair etc)
  
• While very classically sparse, FPS view is pretty grounded by the melee animations as the game is more melee than shooting at many times with blocking and etc. Players of Vermintide 1 and 2 might be familiar with this.
  
• Non-mission time in "hub" space is 3rd person slightly offset, very easy on the eyes, no bobbing, etc.
  
• KBM Player speed is up to your Mouse (and settings) but also Controller players get good in game controls to adjust their turn speed (with differences between in scope and not, etc) and whether its consistent or speeds up (turn curve), plus dodge system isn't jarring or bouncy. I found the camera to be very smooth especially once I turned off any blur, etc.

Verdict? FPS Camera is Classic and might be a no good for players who need arms/legs ala CP77 but for those who can use focal dots and weaponry the camera is quite solid.

VFX Filters that make us go ow/puke

• Chromatic Aberration? None! Woo!
  
• Repeating white/blue flashing lights at a rapid speed? I have encountered none in every single mission type over the first 3 difficulty levels playing with all 4 classes. Also have seen several different kinds of bosses and I think almost every mutant/elite in the game.
  
• A wonderful note: The Fanatic's stun grenade aka the flash-bang is FABULOUS. Instead of being eye murder any game with a flash-bang it is actually just a sparkler effect and very dim. I am pretty sensitive to white flashing and this was like a sad firework that barely went off. Enough to know it happened but not enough to hurt, etc. (Kudos to a flash-bang that doesn't feel like misery... looking at you PvE mode B4B)
  
• Bad things? Milage may vary! The mutants and bosses have a ton of unique visual fx on your screen! Bloaters explode neon green and you get a green goo effect on your screen. Does it hurt? No. Does it make it hard to see? Yep. Daemonhosts will slowly purple your screen and also do some vignette fx... not painful but once again.. hard to see. I can't list every single mutant and the visual effect but I can say I found some of them really tedious and just No Thank You because it is a very Dark Setting and hard enough to see mobs to begin with.

VFX verdict sans modding:
Absolutely nothing gave me a migraine or made me puke. I could imagine that I would get some strain from an overly multi-hour session due to how dark the game is and *there is no accessibility mode to outline the enemies*... I believe the excuse is that it would just make the game too easy. Jumping out at you is core to gameplay ala L4D2 or B4B. So it is playable and not painful but if Dark Games bug you, then HARD PASS HERE. Tip if you still want to play: Melee ups eyeball comfort for sure. Also, guns with flashlights on them. Closer you are to things, brighter it is & 2 classes are melee focused!

VFX verdict with modding:
Mods will make this game MORE FUN and deal with a lot of the Dark Squint Argh Issues. There is a specific CLUTCH mod[www.nexusmods.com] that lets you turn off a giant list of action or Mutant Attack based VFX on an individual basis so you can have the exact visual experience you are comfortable having with. Don't want hassle learning to mod this game? Nice compilation pack of QoL mods here: https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2964086851&searchtext=missions
(Tip: Try the game vanilla first, then try turning on Some Things via the in-game menu, everything at once is kinda AHH. Things you hate remove from the load order txt file. This will make sense when you get to that point. Trust me.)

UXUI
UI is visually huge. So huge modders mod to make it smaller. There is a mod to move around the HUD pieces. Stock UI is solid.

Game length? Co-op 2-4 player vs AI! As much as you can stomach! 4 classes. With friends? At least 30+ hours.
Subjective PoV is it WORTH playing? IMHO, yes if you have at least 1 buddy to play with and enjoy the B4B/BL3Endgame thing.

It's B/B+ without Mods. Absolutely nothing vertigo or puke worthy was found which is neat considering it is a classic camera FPS. With some modding slides into the B+/A- territory because it still isn't puke or vertigo territory. My only concern is how dark the game is and a healthy caution that I wouldn't have a VFX based migraine, but maybe a "I played for 5 hours straight trying to stay at range" eye strain migraine for those with ocular muscle degen.

NOTE: Price, micro-transactions, etc. Lots of good grievances about this game. But that is NOT what this is review is about. Alright? Also better accessibility should be baked in so definitely don't pay full price as the worth is not equal to the SRP IMHO.

Quick Eyeball Hot Take:

Would I have recommended this at 1.0? No

Do I recommend this at 1.3c? Yes.

Adding fuzzy aim and slow down greatly improves the experience for folks with bad eyesight. Aim was a nightmare before any sort of aim assist and add eye issues on that? Pfft.

Now? completely doable. Also the stealth rework means you can sneak away with a knife and potentially avoid massive amounts of live gunfire.

Camera? Isometric with 3 levels of zoom. Snap in mode for aiming. Proper disappearing architecture instead of crash room when you are indoors. A+ for isometric cameras. There is a top down mode I didn't fancy but it is there.

Weird filter nonsense? Not that I experienced in my time so far (my hours are under total as I played a good bit of a friend's copy on PS5 -lovely clear resolution- and have played quite a bit using GFN as well.)

Also if something silly did pop up: The game developers have a suggestions/fixes voting board. I actively stumped for aim fixes due to EYES. Lo and behold even before 1.2 patch was done I got an automated email the aim rework was slotted for 1.3 ... so that gives me confidence the game has legs and the devs listen if a weird eye anomaly would show up.

Playing on a lower rig? Yes yes. The aesthetic of the game totally allows. I would say futz with your gamma/brights because it can be a dark game.

Eyeball verdict: Try before you commit as the style might not be right for YOUR eyes. The combat is really unique-ish with isometric but semi fast paced twin stick (controller fares better than kbm imho but kbm gets a tactical pause)... the 2 hour steam return window is definitely something you would want to be Mindful Of and really hit that combat ASAP so you can know if your eyes will be able to take this game longterm.

Not eyeballs side note: It is sort of an eldritch western. That vibe alone keeps me playing even though I am horrid at the combat. Don't see many good Westerns let alone spooky Westerns done right. However everyone's eyes are different so MAKE SURE YOUR EYES CAN HANDLE THIS COMBAT/DARK (GAMMA) GAME!