Recent reviews by That One Guy

Game itself is alright, but right now there's some very snake-y business going on with the AI-moderated voice chat. This game was already shooting itself in the foot with the absurd moderation of the most white bread of offensive content but now it's just ridiculous.

Alright hold on, cuz I got a lot to say:

This is game that has had an unbelievable amount of effort put into it on all fronts: The game-play, the art, the setting, the voice talent, all of it tip-top notch. I would love to recommend this game to everyone that either enjoys fighting games or just supports the wonderful art of this game in general. But unfortunately at this time, I feel I need to tell people to stay away from it, at least for now. Because for whatever reason, there has been some issues with this game not on the game-play front, but on the artistic front.

For some reason, there has been a patch that has made very confusing changes to the art of this game. Certain illustrations for cut scenes and artwork have been edited because I assume someone thought they were "controversial". Which is confusing to me, and apparently a lot of other people as well. Changes to make certain things less "sexualized", even though it's abundantly clear that at least some of the appeal for this game comes from the good-looking female characters, it is far from the ONLY thing people like about the art, let alone the hardcore players of this game that are dedication to becoming the best of the best at the game, not because they're obsessed with the characters on a sexual front, but because they genuinely enjoy the game-play aspect, which as I mentioned before is some of the best I've seen in a fighting game.

Now make no mistake, this is not the first time this has happened. Certain animation and artwork has been tweaked before, and though I've never been one for censorship, I can understand why. The game is rated T, and the changes that were made way long ago, though I still think is silly to do given the obvious reasons behind the choices taken with the art-style as a whole in the first place, I get it. But this time it seems to be coming down on the whole idea of it having that aspect of the appeal at all, despite that being a core part of not only the game's art but part of the reason it's so well known and loved by EVERYONE who likes this game. Big emphasis on the PART of core part. People like this game for more than just the pretty ladies.

Some of the other edits include changes made to Big Band's backstory where they censor 2 shots of him getting a Robocop-esque beating from corrupt cops. Again, this appeal to sensitivity makes no sense: The entire reason it's there is to portray what an awful place this setting would be to live in, hence why all these characters are getting into so many fisticuffs. It is portrayed in a very negative way that is meant to elicit sympathy for Big Band and make the player feel that he is that much cooler for being able to come back from that and keep fighting on as a cool instrument-cyborg.

And then we go on to the changes to make the Black Egrets and their like to less resemble a certain real-life faction of evil men (who I only refer to as such because I don't know if Steam has a problem with me stating the name, not because I think saying their name five times in a mirror will make them appear). This may seem like a more valid change to some than the previous points because yes, the group of people they bare a resemblance visually to were very bad people. However, it does tie in to my problem with the previous points. In this particular case, I feel that to suggest that because the Black Egrets were artistically based on that certain group of bad people that they are somehow radicalizing youth to thinking the bad guys they were based on are somehow more right or agreeable is unbelievably childish. And to suggest that because the mere presence of exposed skin or certain articles of clothing on attractive female characters is somehow demeaning to real women (in spite of these previously mentioned female's characters abilities to kick ass and do tons of other things that would be just as applauded by fans if they were done by the opposite sex) is absurd. And once AGAIN to suggest that merely presenting violent cops beating up a good guy just trying to go about his business is somehow going to promote violence by... portraying an event that is bad as bad that is meant to make you dislike the violent fellows and sympathize with the guy getting unfairly treated?

Are we really going backwards in time and suggesting that video games radicalize youth into causing violence or believing bad things because they saw it in a piece of fictional media and are unable to distinguish fiction from reality? I thought we were over this repeatedly proven lie after Jack Thompson and his ilk were laughed out of Court. And yet today, many people who seem to have completely erased this dark period of gaming history from their minds, where the actions of truly evil individuals that would have committed evil acts with or without the visual stimulation they had at the time were blamed not on the individuals themselves but rather some company that wanted to make either entertainment or art to be consumed and enjoyed by those that sought them out. I think that to continue operating with this mindset that the mere presence of the fiction in question leading directly to evil actions and beliefs is not only dishonest (as it has been psychologically proven that normal, functioning human minds do not work that way) but harmful to expression as a whole.

For all these reasons, is why I took the time to type up this massive wall, because I'm so sick and tired of things like this. And now it's happened to something I truly admire and care about. People look down on review bombing, but maybe, instead of dismissing it as a "bot attack" (as people often like to do when they're criticized in a public manner in about the only way those that take issue can), you ought to instead look into the "why" instead of the "what".

And to top all that off, this game came out over a decade ago. People that form these niche gaming/art communities around fighting games that aren't Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat have already been determined and set in stone. Everyone was fine with how the game was. Why on Earth are all these changes being made now? I guarantee close to 0% of the people that still admire, play, and support this game wanted any of these changes and yet they happened. Why?

EDIT: So guessing by the removal of the "Off-Topic" reviews, the current devs of the game are not actually that interested in what people, and are more concerned with promoting the narrative that everyone is perfectly happy with the game as is and ignoring any and all criticism of their decisions. Good to know they care about what people say, I guess.

A fantastic game, and now that ID Software continues to fix what Bethesda breaks by removing the Anti-Cheat nonsense, there is now no reason you shouldn't buy this game if you like what it's always been selling.

For right now, do NOT buy this game.

This game plays like an early alpha; The dinosaurs themselves look very detailed and nice, but the AI is bare-bones (the guests come in and just walk back and forth, as do the Dinosaurs, while occasionally eating), things like Draw-Distance on even a good PC is far lower than it should be, and the sounds are almost non-existant, aside from some ambience and the Dinosaurs when they are made to roar.

And in case you're thinking "Well as long as the gameplay is good, I can still enjoy it", I'm afraid there's barely anything for you. The guests just pop in out of nowhere from the entrance and, in addition to the guests not doing anything besides walking back and forth, you recieve money even if there are NO dinosaurs in your park. After 3 years of development, that's very concerning.

I really want this game to be good and still have positive expectations, but until the Devs give a good explanation for this and fix it up, this game is absolutely not worth any more of your money.

I'm a fan of this game series, and this one was a nice little game, but I can't help but feel that this game could have a little more to it, all the same.

This game had a kickstarter that I ultimately contributed to, only to get refunded a few days later because the kickstarter failed. As a result, the game didn't have a lot of the extra content that was going to go into it, initially.

Hopefully as time goes by and the game continues to turn a profit, the creators will begin to add things to the game and keep it fresh and replayable. Until then, I think it's worth your time if you're a fan of the series.