Recent reviews by Captain Betty

I would like to enjoy this game but they're making it difficult. My issue largely come down to problems with the keybinding system making a game that would otherwise be fun a chore to play due to unintuitive controls. Before writing this review I posted online to try and find any work around, or if I was just missing something but was not able to find anything to contradict what I've found.

• To start our journey off, the default keyboard and mouse controls actively handicap you (immobilize you while choosing stratagems.) But look, they have an incredibly detailed and flexible keybinding system so you can change it to whatever you want. Unfortunately no one seems to have ever done even cursory QA testing on this system and it largely fails to work at all or behaves in very unintuitive ways. I have spent about two hours doing detailed testing of various keybind settings. The list below is what I was able to find in that time but I imagine there are more cases I didn't find.
  
• Movement keys are locked to binding on hold, this isn't really an issue in itself as I only considered changing it while looking for workarounds to other issues, but I don't see any clear reason for this limitation.
  
• With a system allowing a variety of input types for a different key, it is a pain that if two overlap you have to wipe the other. If I want to bind something on F with a different input type and I already have press F bound to something I either need to bind the new input which wipe the old one, switch it to the now input time (double tap for example) then go back and rebind my original function, or change the original off press while I adjust the other. Plenty of other games let conflicting keybinds exist and just don't let you bring the changes into effect until you resolve the conflicts.
  
• Various bindings you are allow to set just don't work at all for inexplicable reasons, for example you can bind aim on press or hold, but not on tap
  
• There are 3 main input 'states' which can have overlapping keybinds (maybe 4 if you count the weapon configuration menu). We'll call these normal, stratagem, and map. When the same bind is used across these states the logic for handling overlaps is inconsistent. As mentioned before the default setting immobilizes you while in the strategem state because the bindings are on the same keys as movement, locking them out. Okay I say, I'll rebind it to mouse 1 and 2 and the up and down scroll wheel so I can move while doing it and keep control of my camera. That works except for right click which is bound to aim normally and immediately exits you from stratagem input instead of following the keybinding. However, it does work if you change aim from hold to press input type, but this brings in a further problem that you can only enter first person aim by tapping the aim key while it is on the hold setting and I haven't found any other way to enter this mode. Unclear why it is a gameplay setting and not its own keybind since the system should support it fine if it worked like it seems meant to. The melee attack key will also break the strategem state.
  
• The map control to move around is set to whatever your aim key is but this is not mentioned anywhere and there's no reason they couldn't be bound separately.
  
• Having multiple bindings on the same key with different input types often results in unexpected behavior there are too many cases to list but as one example, while trying to make a workable setup to have crouch and sprint on the same key, if I held the key down my character would begin to have a seizure and would walk at a rate slower than crouched movement.
  
• Sometime simple binding also behave strangely, I bound crouch to tap and about 50% of the time when I stood up from crouch it would crouch back down halfway through the animation.

• On any keybind conflict between different states, always apply the binding for the current state.
  
• When multiple input types are bound to the same key, only one of them can activation for a given input, right now it will often try to perform both to strange behavior specific to each case.

• Very often I will end up stuck 'between' states halfway between them which tends to lock out most controls until I find the random key that will finally fix it. One example is begin stuck in the stratagem state but without being able to make the inputs but also unable to shoot my gun (no stratagem in hand to throw).
  
• Fairly often controls just won't work. Doesn't seem like simple missed inputs as it seems to stick around for an extended period, usually until I die (due to the inability to use a critical input). Due to the deaths its hard to tell if it would clear up on its own without dying. This also may be the same as the above stuck state problem, but the situation is to hectic and I die to fast to confirm. Most notable case was spending about 5 seconds spamming the stimm key while running from enemies with nothing happening (I was not out of stimms, staggered by any hit, or otherwise impaired.)
  
• In one strange case for about 10 second the Dive action stopped landing me prone and instead landed me on my feet functioning more like a dodge roll.
  
• Public vs Private matchmaking should be a setting on the mission select screen, not in the gameplay options menu.
  
• If you click too fast on keybinding, it will bind before the prompt comes up then you need to hit escape to exit.
  
• If sprint is on toggle instead of hold it will stand you up if you move while crouched or prone
  
• You also can't go prone at all while print is toggled on except by diving, seems like they could just be one function modified by sprint

The 'Other Issue' are fairly understandable and expected in something as large and complex as a video game but the keybinding issues should have been caught by any amount of testing, I started finding problems before I finished the tutorial. This is one case in the ongoing trend of companies relying on players to be QA testers rather than doing it themselves. Gameplay itself is fun and all the hammed up democracy is fun, I wish I could enjoy the game with functioning keybinds.

Negative review purely because of the game DRAGGING YOU TO A FIGHT OFF SCREEN with your rival before giving you a chance to heal or use items. You owe me 250 pansuns.

Combat is bad an inconsistent, occasionally fun when it works.

Everything wrong with pathfinder now in real time.

Best card game I've played and I can play drafts all I want for free