Recent reviews by spdbV

Honestly?

After not watching any reviews about this title and playing through a few JWRC and Rally2 events, I think this is a good game

It has its flaws, bugs, and sometimes lacks important QOL features, but overall this is a pretty enjoyable (and often infuriating) experience.

Would I pay full price for it? Probably no

Would I buy it on a -60% discount? I did. And I did not regret it.

I played this game for 91 hours in like - 12 days - you can write the rest of my review yourself.

Co-op is cool, I really like it. But:

Multiplayer is straight up barely working.

DISCLAIMER: The numerous issues are tolerable when (or if) you get used to them, and start matchmaking only with the option "Skill Based" turned on. With that out of the way:

1. You can get easily stuck on doors, teammates, and even furniture because of the stubborn movement engine.

2. If there is a teamkiller the abuse feature doesnt even work, he will keep playing and will keep killing you.

3. The push-to-talk button doesnt work, after a few rounds something bugged that I couldn't even use chat and warn other players that the guy is teamkilling.

4. The overall movement is very heavy and its hard to get used to it.

5. If you don't have a flare on terrorist side and the CTs turn off power you are already dead - noone wants to choose a flare over a door trap, and flashlights are basically equivalent to letting CTs know about your exact location.

6. Players rarely join while the game is in progress but I've found myself joining only to spectate one side for a few seconds and then watch them winning the match without actually even playing.

7. The character limit in chat is like, 15. REALLY??

8. The game chooses a default bomb spawnpoint and most of the players dont know that they can change it and play the same site over and over.

9. When using the NVGs the recoil is horizontal and yeah its realistic, but is it fun? Hell no, you should give the player some more room for error.

10. Cameras don't really have a use, you should be able to move it around and ping certain spots like in, for example, Rainbow Six Siege.

11. The system that limits equipment isn't explained at all, and to this day I find myself really confused when I can't pick up nightvision.

12. The sounds are bugged, often the enemy will shoot right next to you and the sound que will play as if it was a floor below.

13. Two identical music intros play before the match starts overlapping eachother.

14. Sometimes you can get stuck in the cinematic camera looking at the building from outside after joining a match.

15. The abuse window even though it doesn't work, almost always get stuck on your screen even if the player leaves the game.

16. Players playing on windows are almost invincible, as they can clearly see inside and with terrorists unable to do anything to stop them from doing so.

17. The game doesn't explain material penetration, or even if it has one - I learned the hard way hiding behind a window barricaded with wooden planks from a CT that could clearly see me thinking its safe.

18. Since there is zero consequences to griefing and its ENABLED IN COOP (WHY), every mission is a competition who can kill more teammates.

19. Player characters have piss-weak cardio and are able to sprint only for about 10 seconds.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider - and why is it also a shadow of Uncharted:

Too much stuff marked on the map - It takes away fun from treasure hunting, and makes it more of a grind than anything else.

Difficulties below max are just plain and boring, the game instructs you step-by-step how to do EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. of the tombs.

The skill tree is confusing. I would spend around 5 minutes browsing through it in hope of finding something useful to buy, and in the end spending the points on a skill thats useless or at least inapplicable to my situation.

The side quests are frankly boring, and should not be in the game in the first place. More bonus tombs instead of these missions would be appreciated.

The overall graphics on max settings are pretty good, I must admit.

The game fails to capture the climate of being lost and on your own, opposite to Uncharted. It just feels like you are walking through a public space or a park, due to the dungeons being so close to the cities. Its almost like visiting someones garden and searching through their grandmothers grave.

Some of the riddles are really hard on max difficulty, often frustrating, but overall satisfactory. The paradox of the riddles being too hard on max difficulty and too easy on medium is making me mad.

I would much rather spend 10 minutes looking for a treasure than running straight to the marked location and picking it up without any fun to be had. I recommend avoiding "adventurers maps" or whatever they are called.

I got bored after 15 hours due to the longevity of the quests and all the boring deadspace that devs could fill up with some cool easter eggs.

Go to the [PLACE], take the [ITEM], bring it back to the [NPC]

The tombs feel really linear and surely weren't constructed by the Mayan builders that way, they are all just a bunch of corridors with occasional bigger rooms.

Like almost in any game, paid DLCs in the form of bonus clothing are also not immersive at all. The game gives you everything you bought instantly, even if some of the pieces are closely tied to the storyline and shouldn't be available from the start of the game.

--- STORYLINE SPOILERS AHEAD ---

Immersion just isn't there, even if you turn on the setting so NPCs will talk in their tribal language, Lara will still happily talk to them in English. ( as if thats less confusing to them than guns, Lara hides them every time when entering the lost city )

The creepy monsters in the jungle are a bit scary, but it would be better if the player saw them only rarely.

Stupidity of Lara learning the dead languages despite her talking to the villagers from the lost city with no trouble.

The part when we break out the kid from the prison and then the village leader (his mother) gets herself ***** jailed again because she didn't run as we were freeing him is frustrating as ****. WHY DID WE EVEN BOTHER IF YOU ARE GOING TO GET KIDNAPPED INSTEAD - I'LL JUST HAVE TO DO THE SAME QUEST AGAIN BUT NOW TO BREAK YOU OUT

The evil corpo doesn't do anything to stop Lara even when we KNOW she is on their radar is confusing af. Suddenly they are not hostile at all and much rather kidnap people than actually kill. Also, we know Lara doesn't have any kind of immunity (being a guest of the lost city leader) so why do they even bother instead of tearing Lara apart with a 50. cal??? Like, she is the only one stopping them from achieving their goal!

--- IN CONCLUSION ---

Uncharted is much better, if not my lack of a Play Station I would play the **** out of these games.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider below max difficulty is made for 5 year olds with learning disabilities.
It fails to immerse me into the world at any given situation.
Its often really boring leading to potential abandoning of the game.

Its not worth the price. The gameplay is fairly good, but the sheer amount of game-breaking bugs overwhelms me. There were no updates since 2018, so its basically dead.

Developers worked really hard these past years supporting and updating the game, that it became one of the most enjoyable games in my library. Good work guys!

theHunter Classic is a complete cash-grab not worth your time, but Call of the Wild (with around 7$ of DLCs, sadly) is a really good game. I would recommend it to everyone that wants a casual break from time to time.

ultra no-skill

Balancing is really f-ed up in this game. On tiers 3/4, ACAV is able to deal 600dmg every shot, and with 2/3 of them in a battle, heavy tanks are basically useless. You get spotted - after 5-10 seconds you are dead. When getting shot, the amount of effects are so disorienting, that you don't actually know who or where from you are getting shot at. Maybe if someone in the dev studio actually cared about this game, it could rival World Of Tanks. For now, its just a bad game.

-95%, sold 4 cards, got it for free