Recent reviews by Sefph

Edited June 1st, 2024:
I'm leaving my original review up below, but wanted to add some additional information.

So, quite awhile after my initial review, Rebellion finally responded to my support ticket on March 1st, 2024. - a day shy of 6 weeks since I opened it. They recommended a single troubleshooting step for me to try, which didn't work. I replied that same day letting them know as much...and then I didn't hear from them again until April 19th, 2024, another 7 weeks.

This time they linked me an article that recommends to disable or remove various programs/services. The only one that would have affected me was GeForce Experience - which I've had trouble with before - so I removed it, just in case. Naturally this didn't work either, so I replied again and let them know. Another 3 and a half weeks later, on May 15th, 2024, I received my final email.

This last one thanked me for letting them know about my issue and submitting my DxDiag in case they look into in the future, but unfortunately we had exhausted all troubleshooting options , and that they have no plans to further update the game, which isn't really surprising. They apologized for the bad news but said they hoped it clarified their position on the matter.

For those of you counting, this all took about 4 months. During this time, they replied to me 3 times. Once with instructions to verify files in Steam with my antivirus disabled, another with the article to disable or remove programs, and the last one that basically said "Sorry, we've tried (almost) nothing, and we're out of ideas."

I just wanted to let anyone who sees this review know about my personal experience. Again, it was my fault for buying the game and forgetting about it for a few months, but it sucks that I'm basically out a game and the money I paid for it. I'm really only disappointed that the game doesn't work properly. I loved the Sniper Elite games, and the short bits I was able to play of ZAT were pretty fun.

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I can't recommend this game because I can't get it to run. I should have refunded it, but I didn't attempt to play the game until well after the 2 week return window had passed (totally my fault), so I just tried to fix the issue. I haven't been able to complete a single level - in fact I have a hard time even getting to a checkpoint before the screen freezes and I'm forced to exit the game from the task manager (which I have to Windows-key+tab and create a new desktop to even access), minus the one time I had to restart my PC. Sometimes I could play for maybe 5 minutes before the crash, other times I couldn't even load into the first level.

I've read where some people said the game is poorly optimized and doesn't work on newer processors with many cores. That might be true, and some have "fixed" the issue by setting core affinity and using only the first 4 or 8 cores. This didn't work for me, since tabbing out of the game to set affinity would cause the game to crash anyway.

For reference, I'm playing on a laptop with a Geforce RTX 4080, an i-9 13900HX, 32GB ram and running at 2560x1600 resolution.

I've tried various fixes, including updating graphics drivers, setting processor affinity, running as administrator, tried different resolutions, etc. It's been a couple weeks at this point and I can't remember everything I tried but I've spent nearly 3 hours of game time trying to get it to work at this point with no results. I even emailed Rebellion support in hopes they had some ideas, but they haven't responded. It's now February 2nd, I sent the email on January 20th. All I have received from them is an automated response saying they received my request. I don't know if their email support is even live at this point, and if it is, I don't think they care.

At least I'm only out $4.45 + tax I guess. A shame, because the 30 second to 5 minute intervals I was able to play were actually fun.

I can't speak for earlier versions of the game since I just started playing today. And yeah, I've only played for like 35 minutes but I feel I've already got my money's worth. All I know is I spent a buck fifty and am currently stuck on level 3. Or is it 4? I dunno, it's so stupid it's actually fun. I used to be an adventurer like you, but then I ... hit a trapped board and got launched into the stratosphere while bleeding from the knee. I believe this is my first rage game, but I can't be too angry at a game that allows me to change the music by throwing a chicken at the band (at least, on the level I'm currently stuck on)

This game is pretty fun. Let's start with some positives:

-The dark atmosphere is nice.
-The story and quests have been interesting enough, so far at least.
-The voice acting is alright. Not horrible at any rate.
-The combat is...average, I guess. Not bad, but nothing groundbreaking.

However, the game does have some issues. They're mostly minor, and, off the top of my head, are as follows
-Some minor quality issues - like collectible plants floating in mid-air, fast travel points labelled as "Fast Travel" (Are you sure you want to travel to Fast Travel?)
-There definitely seems to be a performance/optimization issue, as some other reviewers mentioned. For reference, I've been playing on a laptop with a 3070 Ti and an I7-12700h with 32Gb memory, running at a 2560x1440. While I can easily hit 60 fps in dungeons, it tends to run around 45-50 fps (and sometimes lower) while outside of dungeons. If I cast a magic spell at a point-blank enemy and get sprayed with particle effects, it drops to like 10 fps. Now, keep in mind this is mostly high settings with shadows turned off for good measure, but I really didn't notice much difference when toying around with other graphics settings. I would say this is the worst issue with the game.
-The other main issue I've had is with the questing. The quests themselves have been interesting so far, sometimes even humorous. However, there is a lack of direction or explanation with a lot of them. For example, I had to look up instructions for a quest where you perform a ritual at an old abandoned ritual site used by druids who are no longer alive. They tell you where to go, but when you get there, the option to perform the ritual is grayed out. OK, cool. Check my inventory for an item that contains the instructions? I think there was supposed to be one, after reading posts from other players having the same issue, however it's not in my inventory. Talk to the quest giver for a clue? He doesn't have anything to say about the matter. So, YouTube it is. Finally found the solution, and it was definitely worth doing in my opinion (I love what happens after perpforming the ritual), but it would be nice to have everything you need to finish the quest in-game (quest givers should always have some text lines or something to give you a hint on how to complete a quest, or, at the very least, the quest log should give a hint or conversation history, or something of the sort. "Go here and perform the ritual" but not telling you what reagents you need to perform the damned thing isn't very helpful.)
-Unless I've missed it, there doesn't seem to be a way to get detailed information on item stats and usage. What I mean is, there doesn't seem to be any differentiation between weapon types, other than one-hand, two-hand, and magic. So, for example, I'm using a Kamelot Soldier's Gladius along with a magic spell for one set, and a Soulsplitter (looks like a sword but might be a dagger?) with another spell as my second set. They're both one-handed, but have differing damage ranges as expected, but also have different stamina costs. With my current stamina, I can swing the gladius four times before I'm exhausted and have to recover. The soulsplitter exhausts me after 8 swings. I thought maybe it was determined by weight, but the soulsplitter is heavier, so I dunno. Neither has any obvious effect on stamina, the only effect I see is on the soulsplitter which has 25% lifesteal.

This is all I can think of right now. There may be more issues that pop up later, whether good or bad, but I'm not too far into the game yet. As far as a recommendation? Yeah, I think I can recommend it as long as you're aware of the issues I and some others have pointed out. It is early access, so hiccups are to be expected. If you're stuck in limbo waiting for The Elder Scrolls 6 and have played Skyrim to death on your pc/fridge/TI-86 (it's been ported to this already, right?) then maybe this will tie you over a bit, but if any of the negatives here give you pause, then maybe wait for a sale.

5/19/23 Update:

I'm leaving up my original review (minus the recommendation), but I no longer recommend the game. Initial impressions were promising, but at this point, it has been 79 days with no word from the developers and no updates. I dunno if they took our money and ran, or what, but given it appears they may have abandoned the game, I can't recommend it at this time. You might be better off spending your money on something else with a better track record, like Last Epoch (which finally released its multiplayer patch recently, if that's your thing) or Grim Dawn, for a couple examples. Diablo 4 also comes out in like 2ish weeks, so there's that.



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I do NOT recommend the game at this point. There is definitely some jank at this time. It isn't enough to make me regret the purchase, but if you have a problem with issues that tend to show up in early access, you might want to wait for this game to get a few updates under its belt.

I'll start with the things I like:

I like the graphics style. Kind of a Borderlands meet Diablo. Cartoony, complete with blood and gore.

The skill system is pretty nifty. It's somewhere between Path of Exile's gem system and Last Epoch's skill talent trees, I guess? The gems (called fuses here) are drops which add various effects to your abilities (such as projectiles splitting or piercing, increasing their speed, adding stuns, etc) often with negative side effects (think increasing projectile speed but losing a percentage of damage as a consequence). Once acquired, they can be slotted into your abilities in a hex grid. The amount you can fuse is limited by your character level, and slotting in these fuses also increases the level of the ability it's fused into.

The combat is pretty good. It's a little slower than I was led to believe, at least in the early game. It can be sped up, though, as you acquire gear and fuses.

The fusing system is the main thing that sets this apart from other games in the genre, and is easily the star of the show.

But as I mentioned above, there is most definitely some jankiness that needs to be addressed. Most of this can be explained by the whole "Early Access" thing and hopefully most of it will be addressed as time goes by. Here are a few issues that stood out to me, so far:

Some fuses don't seem to work as expected. This makes sense at this point, being early access and all, but might be annoying if you aren't prepared for it.

Optimization seems to be a problem right now. GPU usage tends to rocket up too 100% randomly, which causes micro-stuttering followed by a second or two of rubber banding. This obviously makes it very difficult to move, and may lead to or be related to the next issue....

There have been many times, while kiting mobs into a group, my character suddenly becomes stuck and starts to rubber band, like I'm being blocked by an invisible wall. And at one point, I was being attacked by invisible mobs in the first Freezer level. There was what I believe to be a resurrector that kept resurrecting other mobs (all of which were invisible, but could still be attacked).

There could definitely be some quality of life improvements. The update last night added the ablility to shift-right-click an item to identify it quickly, provided you have item scanners in your inventory. I have yet to see mention of this in-game yet, though, so I don't know how a new player would know this if they pick up the game later and don't read patch notes. An updated tooltip would go a long way here. Asking for an item in town to ID all items at once might be asking too much...but if not, hey, free idea, I guess. I know this isn't Diablo 3.

Speaking of Diablo 3, there doesn't appear to be any smart-loot-like system in the game, so don't be surprised to get lots of loot that is useless for your chosen class, more like Diablo 2. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, depending who you ask, but might be something to take note of if you prefer getting loot more suited to what you're playing.

Enemy variety is ... not great. A handful of enemy types are reused with different names , so far. You've got your slow zombie-like monsters, the ones that resurrect them endlessly, the bigger ones that leave acid pools on the ground, ones that pelt you with acid bombs from a distance, a couple other types that just randomly charge you, and corrupted suicide bomber bug demon things that like to charge into you when you open a door, Oh, and a couple nest-type monsters that summon more monsters until you unalive them. Typing it all out makes it seem like quite a few, I guess, but there could definitely be a little more visual variety. Hopefully there will be later.

The only other thing I can think of at this time, is there doesn't seem to be an in-game source of information, like a basic help menu with game mechanics and explanations. For example, I got some fuses while playing the Elementalist that give effects based on rage stacks (like increased elemental resistances), but I don't see anything on the Elementalist that deals with rage. I haven't tried the other classes just yet, so I assume it's something to do with the Technomancer or Berserker, but since I haven't seen it anywhere yet, I don't know for sure. A quick Google search indicates it might be a Berserker thing that isn't implemented yet, which is fine, but it would be nice to be able to find that info in-game directly.

So, with all this said, I do recommend the game. There's definitely a lot of potential here, and it's quite fun already. If early access makes you nervous, though, maybe give it a month or six or twelve, follow the game's progress, and check it out a little later down the road once some of these issues have been ironed out.

Edited 2/3/23 to add:

Huh. A dev actually replied, I wasn't expecting that, for some reason. Glad to know they read these. Also, I decided to play for a bit, and when I logged in, I see that item tooltips have been updated to show you can shift-right click to ID an item now. It's a minor change, sure, but the little things can add up to a great game. Keep it up!

This game is a lot of fun, more than I expected. It's also quite challenging and rage-inducing at times, to me anyway, but very hard to put down. I'm probably just bad, but in 17+ hours I've had one win, I think. Maybe 2. I've made it to wave 20 I think maybe 3 or 4 times. Boss is no joke, and I'm still working on Danger 1, which is like...the second easiest difficulty level as far as I can tell. To be fair, I've spent a big portion of my time trying to get the unlocks that don't require winning Danger 1 through the highest current difficulty level. Some of them are much easier said than done.

The character variety is good, with each having their own pros and cons. The weapon variety is nice so far, too. I think my personal favorites so far are the elemental weapons. Stabbing aliens with knives that launch electric bolts. Torches to set them on fire, shooting them with tasers, and - my favorite - the flamethrower. Might be a bit of a pyro...

Anyway, if you're looking for another game to scratch that Vampire Survivors (or other $3-$5 -survivors style games) itch, then you'll most likely enjoy this, but know that, at least for me, this one is quite a bit more difficult and fast paced. You need to be able to kite and dodge, and it's very easy to take a lot of damage very quickly - up to getting one-shot after a few waves - if you neglect your defensive stats. If this doesn't dissuade you, then $5 for Brotato is a steal.

This is a fun little farming sim that also allows you to build and decorate.

The game starts kind of slow - I've seen someone refer to the early game as "Wait Together". But if you stick with it for a few hours, you may find yourself struggling to finish everything you want to get done, as each season is 17 minutes long, if I remember correctly, and certain crops can only be planted during certain seasons, while trees can only be gathered during certain seasons. Animals require multiple feedings before you can harvest their goods (but you can use a feeder to alleviate this). Fish require no feeding, but you must wait between harvests, and almost all of them have less than 100% catch rate (the only guaranteed fish catch I can think of is the recent-event-related narwhal). Flowers can be planted and harvested at any time, but have a growth-time requirement, and are more profitable if you can keep them watered all the time, so I recommend sprinklers for the more lucrative flowers. All of these provide a specific type of product, such as fruits, veggies, cloth, etc., as well as gold (the main currency for buying crops, basic stations, animals, etc.) or diamonds (mostly for buying things like decorations, but can be used for some other things as well, like planting flowers than generate even more diamonds over time.)

In addition to all the stuff listed above, you can also complete quests, which involve gathering a certain amount of crops, trees, animal products, etc., and are the primary source of medals used mainly for buying certain buildings. You can also build homes, in which you can perform jobs to earn medals and tickets (another form of currency used to pay farmhands, which are this games form of automating tasks like caring for fields or animals within their range [though they don't seem to gather event-related items, so keep this in mind]). And obviously, in addition to indoor decorations, there are plenty of outdoor decorations that allow you to make each farm you create your own. And, finally, there are also a lot of other customization options that can be unlocked through normal gameplay, as you level up your account and each individual farm, which have separate levels.

Events take place often, feels like every other week a lot of the time. Events seem to repeat over time, but I think the developers add more rewards to them so it seems like there is always something more to unlock. Having a friend or two to play with during events will make them go much faster. In addition to being able to join each other's farms, it also allows you to exceed crop limits when someone else joins your farm. For example, if I have a 250 crop limit on my farm, but my wife joins, I can still only plant 250 crops, but she can still plant her 250 as well, which means both of our farms can have 500 crops on them. I don't know if this effect stacks with playing with more than 2 players or not, though, because we don't know anyone else who plays and opt not to join random peoples' farms.

The last thing I want to cover are the multiple DLC packs available. As of the time of this review, each DLC is priced at 3.99, and can be found on sale from time to time. Most of the content in these are cosmetics, like skins for your farmer or tractor, hairstyles, backpacks, extra houses, or decorations, but there some others that are not just cosmetic - the oregano pack comes to mind, which includes an oregano flower which can be harvested infinitely every 4 hours for a good amount of diamonds, while only needing to be planted once (and kept watered with sprinklers for best return on investment). While I personally enjoy them, they are in no way necessary to enjoy the game. If you buy the game and decide to support the devs, the "Complete" bundle can be bought for a discount later, even if you've bought it before, so it ends up priced at less than 3 bucks per DLC.

I highly recommend Farm Together to anyone who enjoys farming sims, decorating, progression though unlocking items and cosmetics over time, or just wants a relaxing game to play with minimal stress. The game is absolutely worth it at full price, in my opinion, but goes on sale from time to time as well, so if in doubt, wait for a price drop.

First and foremost, as others have stated, this is not a game for everyone.

If you are looking for voice acting, a gripping story, tons of abilities, and flashy graphics, you won't find it here.

If, instead, you are looking for a dungeon crawling RPG with nice art that has been stripped down to its most basic form - that is, dungeon crawling, killing creatures, leveling up, and looting - but that doesn't require large amounts of time in one sitting, then this may be a game for you. The animations are minimal and your characters are represented in battle with portrait cards.

Combat is quite simple. Creatures and your own characters have physical and magical defenses, and HP. Upon one of said defenses being lowered to 0, any further damage of that type will directly hit your HP. If that hits 0, you die. Some attacks can also attack HP directly (such as unarmed or poison). There's no mana, no stamina, the only limiting factor for attacking is the ATB gauge.

With all that said, there are some challenges to the game, which you may have already seen in other reviews. Did you get poisoned and don't have access the the passive ability that prevents it? Well, you'll need to drag yourself back to the nearest shrine/statue/whatever that you found to clear it. And petrification. I got petrified on floor 9 and had to leave the petrified character behind to haul the rest of my party back up to floor 7's Gorgon Altar to clear it. It wasn't a huge deal to me since it was only 2 floors away, it only took me a few minutes to backtrack. But I could see that being problem later in the game. Also, at this time, if a character dies I have to go back and find the nearest resurrection shrine to get them back in the game. If any of this sounds not-so-fun to you, you might want to skip out on this. Perhaps later there will be abilities or something that allow you to revive your characters aside from the shrine, but I'm not far enough in yet and information on the game seems to be relatively scarce at the moment.

In the end, I would recommend this game as long as you don't mind that it has next to no story, the minimalist style and gameplay, and having to backtrack to revive or otherwise heal your characters.

Edited 1 day after original review:
So I encountered a group of 4 monks on floor 15 that had about 10 times normal defenses and health. I didn't have time to whittle them down before they wiped my party, and was unable to flee despite attempting to use the Withdraw ability (I haven't yet had this succeed). I was forced to either restart from what appears to be an earlier save (around floor 4 or so), restart anew with levels intact, or return to the main menu. Those monks essentially deleted my party. For some reason I thought you would continue with current progress using other surviving characters but apparently not.

My recommendation still holds, but, man, that kinda hurts lol.

I never though I'd have so much fun with a game that is playable with 2 buttons. If you have 5 bucks to spare, this one is definitely worth the money.