Recent reviews by Leon_UK

Gorgeous environment and character art, fun combat and a intriguing world. Keen to play further

I dont know if its just because i love the work BBI does and their own sensibilities for aesthetic and simulation match my own, but this is a great game. It feels fleshed out and not starved of content like many early access games. Its can be either relaxing or challenging based on what you want from the game, whether thats casual work or speed running for leaderboards. Im left with an excitement for what may be added in the future, and a level of content at whats already present

• Looks great with a sleek clean style that has hints of a more low-poly /voxel look without actually overtly crossing into it
  
• Simulation mechanics built around shipbreaking that hold enough depth to offer the satisfaction of becoming skilled at, while not being so obtuse as to get in the way of itself
  
• Fantastic soundtrack that adds to the frontier feel of the setting
  
• Feels very homeworld in its sensibilties, without actually being set in the universe
  
• Offers enough variety in each model that shipbreaking the same hull type doesnt get repetitive quickly
  
• Fun feeling over discovery as you work out how to most efficently break down each ship type and develop your own methods

• No multiplayer (although this is more a personal desire than something i feel the game is missing)

As expected the dev reply to this review, which included the following statement turned out to be utter nonsense/lies as a new €19.99 DLC was announced. Therefore the rational of the high price is indeed that you must pay for their continued development of a janky mess:

Sheep_Wielder - Iron Harvest Dev March 19th 2021
"The high price reflects all the content that will be released for free in future as the game continues to be developed and get updates every 2 weeks. Also there are regular 30% sales, such as this weekend"


Hard review to give as i think the game has many redeeming qualities, but ultimately sitting for an hour waiting to find a multiplayer match that never appears is not fun. I get its a small community but not including a server browser is laughable.

1. Unique setting.
   
2. Good visuals, despite relying on temporal anti aliasing (thankfully can be turned off).
   
3. A new RTS.
   
4. Largely fun campaign with a competently told story.
   
5. Mechs have personality to them.
   
6. Devs still working on game.
   
7. Nice clean HUD.
   
8. Doesn't try to re-invent the RTS genre.

1. Absurdly high price in 2021 for a RTS, especially for how little content there is.
   
2. Faction diversity is poor. All infantry units appear to be the same, or at least feel the same for all factions. One factions flamer is the same as the other two factions. Maybe im wrong, but thats how it feels. Dev advised this is not the case and i defer to them until i can further play to confirm.
   
3. Gameplay has an overall feel of "jank" and lack of polish.
   
4. Cover feels like it serves no purpose in game. Devs essentially confirms in MP it serves no purpose below?
   
5. No server browser to see what handful of players are playing.
   
6. Pathfinding is terrible and units frequently dont seem to follow orders.
   
7. Absolutely dead playerbase means finding MP games is almost impossible outside of discord
   
8. I will repeat it, ABSURD price for what the game is. £20-£30 maybe but £50 is a joke for what is essentially a single player RTS.

Im not interested in getting into a tit for tat but some points bare exploring.

"- The high price reflects all the content that will be released for free in future as the game continues to be developed and get updates every 2 weeks. Also there are regular 30% sales, such as this weekend"

Counterpoint:
I think it bares mentioning that continued development of a game that has clear issues should not be a rationale of an unusually high price. Further more, there is already a paid DLC out (cheap though it may be), so not all content can be said to be "released for free". But if the upcoming new faction is free then i shall amend the review upon release.

Beyond Light and Destiny as it stands review

Beyond Light "Expansion"
Ive been on the destiny train since D1 ps4 and have bought every previous piece of content (including d2 ps4 and then PC) but this is where i get off.
I dont mind impulse buying games but i truly regret buying this "expansion" in hindsight.
With Beyond light they have stripped out 70% of the content i and many people paid for under some ridiculous guise of "less content = better game". They argue that because its not being played it should be taken out. Things removed:

• Effectively all gear from before Beyond light except for exotics. Almost everything pre forsaken seemingly removed from game but anything between/before Forsaken and Beyond has been power capped 200 points below current so its literally irrelevant.
  
• Literally half the destinations/planets since launch have been removed including their associated quests, gear and story.
  
• Every campaign or story quest that released before Forsaken. You literally cannot play D2's story from launch to present. For some reason they are ashamed of their own years of work....

So what did we gain for losing all this? A smaller install size. Oh and the fact that Bungie will now sell you content you may of already bought, and they have now removed, back to you down the line.

If you think that sounds too scammy to be true, i advise looking at how Bungie has historically treated its Destiny audience when it comes to money. Silver, the Eververse store, and season passes now comprise almost everything you would previously of played the game to obtain in D1. That is, before they removed almost every item in a "looter" shooter.

New Story content
Beyond light itself has an utterly underwhelming 5 hour story that is literally a reskin of Forsakens "hunt these guys one by one" revenge plot. My opinions about how stupid "embracing the darkness" is as a narrative device aside, the story goes nowhere interesting and provides no real resolution to anything other than some legacy characters lore questions (exo stranger and Banshee).

Entertainment value/replayability
Destiny as a whole has historically been pretty good for these as they offer diverse and numerous activities and tasks/rewards to chase. Shame they removed most of it.
After 6ish hours with beyond light i already see no reason to keep playing now that ive finished the new story.

"New" Gear ect
So far ive had 2 new armour sets and 5 new weapons for a £40 "expansion". The gear isnt even particularly inspired or original. Its the same clothing and gun base designs from year 1, with just a few more art assets thrown on. Yet again

There is the new stasis subclass which so far while new and different just feels awkward and less usefull than legacy ones. The icewall is kind of cool i guess.

Performance
Previously to the games credit D2 ran wonderfully and even on older hardware i was able to get 110 avg fps fully maxed. Whatever they have done with the lighting in this update has utterly decimated game performance by up to 50% in many places. Moving around the map see's regular massive fps drops or stuttery freezing so intense its almost amusing

Conclusion
I planned to not buy this expansion because the whole concept of removing content seemed beyond stupid but i caved because i care about the lore and the universe. But what i came back to find is a hollow shell designed primarily to keep people engaged just long enough for them to spend their money and then be sold literally the same content again and again in 3month/1 year intervals.
I would advise others not to follow my footsteps. Save your money. Its not good value for your time or your money, regardless of how much disposable income you may have.

Early on review:

Sent here on Mandalore's recommendation.

Really fun cyberpunk/industrial aesthetic with compelling combat and gameplay, clearly has a bit of a skill ceiling and a lot or replayability.

Price feels fair for what it is

In the first hour im not a fan of the grav vehicles on relative controls but im sure with practice or settings it could feel better

GREAT soundtrack and if your willing to dig for it some compelling lore
Will update once impressions fleshed out but so far seems like a good time

Game feels poorly realised and lacks anything to keep people playing. Monetization system isnt particularly offensive but i saw no reason to buy anything.

Maybe in time it will be worth checking back in on but for now it feels like a game consigned to fall off quickly

++Pros:
-Level is nice looking i guess?
-Its a new moba-esque shooter ala Paragon.
-Its free

--Cons
-Character controls feel loose and imprecise, no ability to sprint so movement around the map is painfully slow
-Character levels in match feel inconsequential offering things like "+2 rounds in magazine" instead of meaningful choices or upgrades.
-No text chat or voice chat in 2020
-Character designs and universe feel generic or straight copied from other games. There are a few that are interesting.
-Barely any graphics options, and the game isnt stellar looking.
-Only 3 or so types of mobs to kill, which get tiring quickly

Nowhere near as bad as the review metric makes out. Lots to do and many ways to play. Runs fairly well at around 30-50FPS on a 1070gtx and I5 on highest settings.

At 20 hours it feels like its met the £1 per hour entertainment value well

Recommended