Recent reviews by Kerzid (@KerzidR)

The dispatcher gameplay feels a lot more involved than I thought it'd be. Feels very 'baby's first frostpunk'. I like it. Every character is also feels very whole so far. Can't wait for the full game!

CGP Grey Simulator.

Like a lot of people have already said, if you enjoyed Return of the Obra Dinn, this will be right up your alley (or the inverse, if you enjoyed this, go play Return of the Obra Dinn).

You will be tangled into this family's history whether you like it or not. Clues buried upon clues, you'll need a sharp mind and either a good memory or lots of note-taking. Details will jump at you resulting in a cascade of rapidly growing mounds of information that you have to sort through and extrapolate upon.

It is story-telling through your agency and curiosity. It is magical.

Obviously recommend; it's a must play if you have at least one trans friend.

That said, it's a little too short, or moreso the fun goals that aren't RNG-based are a little too easy to get to right now which makes it feel completed before you feel like you spent enough time to soak in and relax. It is fairly new so you can't expect lots of content, and even still, it does still have a fair amount of it. Just not enough that it really incentives you to make it your next Animal Crossing replacement where you just want to stay in it and be with your friends. For the moment, you can "finish" the game in a week or 3 strong-willed days or get everything the game can give you in 2 weeks or 5 strong-willed days.

It's well-made, but not fun.
Its well thought-out but uninspired.
It's cute, but that's the extent of its character.
It felt like it was made using a checklist and not with the heart.
There's no strong vision, just a "I need to make a not-bad game".

It fundamentally skipped the reason why people play games at all.
To see an artist's vision. To find soul in an experience. Whether it be making a game they've always wanted to play (Balatro, Project Feline), provide a deeply compelling specific experience (Don't Starve, Darkest Dungeon) or telling a story straight from the heart (Before your Eyes, God of War 2018)

This was made to make a game and it succeeded on that, but it was not made to be remembered and it shows.
I am aware this is his first game and this is his way of getting into the storms of it all but if your first game that took three years somehow lacks soul in the final product, can you expect it to be different in the next one?

Early impressions.

If you're looking for more Frostpunk 1. This is not it.
If you're looking for FROSTPUNK *2*, this is almost exactly as it should be.
It is grander in scale, complexity and is now macro instead of micro.
Management in societies and colonies instead of small intimate person-to-person, building-to-building management.
Note that I said *almost* exactly as it should be as a sequel.
It removed a lot of what I disliked about Frostpunk 1, but also did not retain some of what I absolutely loved about it.
You can't tell when you have a law available. You can barely tell amongst the chaos if you have a new research available and you certainly cannot ever tell if you have scouts/frost teams available.
There's a certain lack of sauce and punch to it all. While yes, it is less survival and more management, it just lost that oomph. That certain kick to it. The game is grander but the game aspects are less grander. The music is less grander, the sound effects feels weaker, and most certainly the hud is a lot less iconic.
What drew me into the first game is the ice-cracking, steam-pumping and gear-spinning sounds of the first game. It just felt like they knew everything about game-feel. And for this one, it lacks a whole lot of that. It lost a big part of 'Frostpunk'.

Now, why is this a positive review?
The amount they've changed. It is good. It's bold and I encourage it. Gameplay feels fresh, everything feels fresh. I just wish the fundamental things that worked on the first game didn't change, like good game feel. But I like that it is new and different and is still Frostpunk. It deserves the title of Frostpunk 2. And I just know just from the recent changes alone that the devs will work hard to make it what we all want it to be. I have faith on it.

A couple of big quality of life positives that make it better than Frostpunk 1:

The descent to madness is a lot more gradual here than in the first game wherein you can just go balistic NEW ORDER very quickly. In Frostpunk 2, it is a more slow organic progression towards radical ideas, that you won't even feel until you give it second thought. "Oh I've actually been approving really drastic laws and research the entire time"

A lot more complexity in resource management and research:
Frostpunk 1 gets ridiculously repetitive and minmaxy once you get good at it. In Frostpunk 2, just with the factions alone, you have to constantly adapt to political climate and the council. Everything is a gray area and you have to juggle between pertaining to trust and best possible outcome for the city.

Frostland exploration has a lot more depth and decision-making:
First off, no more weird coinflips and rng. The frostland exploration is as good as you make it to be with preparation and foresight. You either plan around it or you adapt to what it gives you and it is perfect. Only gripe is still UX related wherein you can barely tell when your frostland teams are available as it only quickly flashes white when they are.

As mentioned before, Laws and radical/drastic measures are much more gradual.
There's a better sense of progress to where your city devolves into. You only need segregation when there's population issues, you only need child labor when you have trouble with workforce or with the children themselves, and most importantly, they will only let you be more than what you are as a Steward when they truly feel like it. And that's perfect. Perfect for giving you that arc towards power. The city has to have that fortitude and resolve to give you the power that needs it.

ily checker xoxo wishing you the best

I can gamble with my lifespan instead of my money!

Unfortunately going to have to give this one a No. It's such a charming and sweet game full of passion into it but I just can't recommend it.
Overall experience is not very good, navigation around the map and completing missions do not reward any sort of satisfying gameplay progress or story reward. Combat lacks any impact, inuitive aspects and flow. Parries don't feel like parries. Hits don't feel like hits. It just doesn't feel like it has the good parts of a game. That final polish in gameplay. It doesn't scratch any itch. It's not fun.
The game looks so nice too and has the potential to be really memorable but I find myself equivallent to seeing a can of orange soda only to find it is orange flavored sparkling water.

The reviews I saw of this game made me hesitant to buy it but I eventually got it when it was on sale.

I've been having a lot of fun with it! The criticisms in those reviews are very valid and you must go out of your way to fix the flaws they've pointed out. I've already encountered run-ending bugs on every single run. It didn't stop me from enjoying the core gameplay loop though. It has something nice going on. The game feel is pretty much solid; constantly shambling and panicking on what to do and coming out on top (mostly). Though I haven't won a single game, because of the mentioned bugs, I'm sure I'll clutch through it eventually.

Don't be discouraged; just fix the as much of the critical issues as you can. It has a solid base idea. I'm sure after some adjustments and tweaks, it'll be the great game it is meant to be!

Unintuitive and deceitful. Hair isn't an automatic attachment system but instead a collection of models in a library that you have to manually attach to your character posers. "Preset poses" aren't actually poses and more-so a collection of object models. While you do get a lot of value from getting a lot of these models, it doesn't quite give what it is selling as an "Advance Poser Pack". It is just what I described; Just more object models. Doesn't actually add anything to the posing widget at all. I thought it would add better ways to modify the posers as seen in the videos (moving and adjusting body parts). I actually thought it was broken because it felt like it didn't add anything to the experience.