Recent reviews by Katana Zero DLC

So peak. You don't need to use a single thing outside the game to solve it, just be sure to check libraries and your notebook thoroughly. Some documents have multiple pages. Having a pencil+paper on the side is also a pretty fun way to visualise and solve puzzles. Not necessary but it leaves a really fun set of cryptic scribbles after you complete the game.

Don't want to spoil anything but the story and presentation are 10/10. Go in blind and crack some codes.

Updated Review:

This review used to be negative but I am changing it to positive because the studio provided a roadmap and stuck with it. It took a few months but they promised and delivered.

Bugs Fixed, boss un-janked, new survivors given expanded and improved tools, you no longer need to fight the new items, and the music and stages were already good from the jump. I don't think it's perfect and there are still a few items I consider mildly underwhelming but the majority are much-improved so your item pool doesn't suffer across a run.

I am critical yet hopeful for future gearbox developments for RoR2.

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The former review I had here has been archived below and no longer represents the game's current state. It's included for posterity and comedy.

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Invincible Mithrix, instakill yourself dashing on inclines, enemies fall out of bounds, enemy AI bugged to always jump, time scaling is borked, new items flood the finite drop pool and 80% of them are worse than existing items, seeker and chef both feel a little janky, and secret new character looks and feels like a modded meme. Actually, I take it back. Many modded characters were cleaner than this. I won't even comment on the xbox launch disaster since this is the steam store. At least the music and stages are cool.

You guys (gearbox) had to know this was the state of the DLC before you launched it. You play this game for like 1-3 runs and you'll see a ton of bugs.

I played Osu! for like 5 years, made it to top 30k. While the struggle for improvement is fun, the actual gameplay is abysmal.

Spin Rhythm is fun to learn and master, the gameplay feel is superb, and I am always enjoying myself while playing, even on easier charts. The skill ceiling is definitely high, though - don't sleep on this because the interface looks simple. The total number of charts is much lower, but the default charts are nothing to sneeze at, and the growing community is quite good at helping each other to raise the quality of each custom chart, even those made by first-time contributors.

Highly recommended you try this. It's worth it at 20 USD, and an absolute steal if you can get it for less on sale.

I hope at some point in the future the developers integrate and streamline the map sharing process for ease-of-use, because this game has what it takes to be one of the greats.

Fun Game. Lots of balance issues and the game's not perfect but the developers update fairly frequently with well-thought out changes and an explanation of why changes were made. Progress on new content is easily available on the Hunt: Showdown Roadmap.

Short Review:
If you like hardcore permadeath arena shooter games with heavy emphasis on taking it slow and playing smart, it's already more valuable than the price. A must-buy on sale. If you prefer a fast game, it might not be for you. Guns are slow, you're slow, and going fast is loud and dangerous.

Long Review:

Graphics:
Game looks beautiful. The aesthetic is great. Guns look great. Players look dark and grizzled. You can set everything to low to boost performance. No complaints. Very good overall.

Audio:
The developers did a very good job balancing audio cues by adding features such as muting noises through thick walls or having a heavier bass reverb when you hear an explosion underground. I believe more audio definition is coming after this review is posted but the audio is core to gameplay. Special shout out to the rocking gun noises on the powerhouse rifles and shotguns.

Gameplay:
Really nice. A good blend of tracking, zombie killing, player hunting, and banishing monsters to hell. All sound in the game gives you hints at where players are around you and learning audio cues is a huge advantage. Thankfully, most audio is easy to discriminate so you can tell the difference between a regular zombie groan and the growl a grunt makes when it hears or spots a player after only hearing each a few times.

Gun sounds are also unique enough that you can recognize what gear your competition has when you hear their gunfire on the horizon. This lends itself well to the themes of the game (you hunt and stalk rather than run n gun).

Clues and bounties are the only moneymaking rewards so all players gravitate towards one or both of those, ensuring you have a tense hunting competition rather than 10 players sneaking everywhere and never encountering each other.

I've gotten frequent janky rendering on the horizon but rarely does that affect gameplay further than being tedious when you see a Hive pop up 75 meters away or a distant tunnel being improperly lit, making it look like someone shot a flare in a hole. A notable annoyance but so far it's never felt like rendering has caused a death or disadvantage.

Network always feels responsive and I've been disconnected from a grand total of 1 game in 30 hours of gameplay. I did not lose my hunter from this disconnection and was even given rewards as if I had extracted.

Guns feel and handle like turn-of-the-century 18-1900s old-school rifles. It feels badass and weighty. Guns are tarnished and scuffed. It really adds to the feel of the world to be trudging through waist-deep swamps with a beat-up six-shooter and a sooty winchester rifle, searching for a monster to banish to hell while watching your back and ensuring that no one has their sights on you.

Biggest complaints section:
Matchmaking is rocky. Many games aren't too bad but a fairly good times during Tier 1 (pre-level 34) I would be matched against a level 100 player who would blast my ass with 5 rounds of shotgun pellets followed up by a bayonet rush. This is a difficult problem but I believe it will be alleviated as more new players join the game to allow Tier 1 players to stay match with Tier 1s and the Level 34-100 players to stay in their lobbies. The game already tries to match this way but it messes up sometimes. On the bright side, a winchester to the head is a winchester to the head regardless of your hunter's gear so it's not an insurmountable obstacle if you find yourself out-experienced and outgeared.

I'm not quite sure what causes this on the programming/network side but it seems to me that when a player is slowly sliding off a plank or narrow edge for more than a second or two, they will disjoin be repositioned as if they fell. Not usually an issue, but fairly annoying if you're creeping around and suddenly slip for a second, walk back into the plank before you fall, then get snapped to the ground.

Playing Solo is a huge disadvantage but many players still do it (such as myself). Solo bonuses do not adequately compensate for the difficulty that is added when you have no partner. A team shoots twice as fast, can be on two places at once, and can split their attention on two tasks. They carry twice the consumables (and can heal each other with them). Even better, players on a team can revive each other whereas a solo player is gambling with insta-death if they get hit by a lucky headshot or trade 1-for-1 with a duo and are finished off by the remaining partner. Being able to have one player kill a boss solo while the other goes on lookout is such a phenomenally better alternative to solo-killing a boss that all solo players get shoehorned into cherry-picking tactics to stand on even footing with a Duo. Solos need to instantly eliminate a player to begin a 1v2 fairly or kill both players with a well-thrown explosive. I'm not sure if a solo-only mode is a good idea because none of this paragraph is an issue at all when everyone in a server starts in a team, only when the majority of a lobby is teams and one or two players queue solo without knowing what they're signing up for.

As an aside, the nature of the game gives an advantage to duos who use 3rd party VOIP rather than the in-game one, allowing silent communication in close-quarter stealth situations. This isn't necessarily a failure on the developers' part but it should be noted it does give slight advantage to most premade (invited) duos rather than matchmade ones.

Overall Rating: Strong 8/10. Better long-distance rendering, price balancing and matchmaking would put it at 9/10.

Got molested 10/10