Recent reviews by Tayro_AG

TL;DR: Deep Rock Galactic is one of the most fun multiplayer games I've ever played, with an actually good implementation of seasons. If you for some reason don't own it yet, I strongly reccomend you check it out.

Deep Rock Galactic (aka DRG) is a coop PvE shooter that despite it's seemingly repetitive nature, manages to remain fun after hundreds of hours. I bought it on a Steam sale almost a year ago, letting it collect dust in my library until my friends begged me to install it. Safe to say, I was immediately hooked. Now that the autumn sale has arrived and Steam wants me to write a review for a game I've nominated for a Steam award, I figured it was about time I wrote a review for this game.

The first thing you'll notice about DRG is that instead of a menu, you have a space-rig where you start missions, modify gear, buy upgrades and kick barrels to your hearts content. Everything is close together so you don't have to run for minutes just to start a mission and there's plenty of fun side-activities scattered throughout such as a flappy-bird style arcade-game (that one of my friends has a ridiculous high-score on), a hoop that you can kick barrels into, and most importantly, the Abyss Bar, where you can order all sorts of beer that do everything from giving a small buff in your next mission to letting you play prop-hunt. The space-rig is also decorated during certain holidays, adding many more props to kick around (and sometimes break).

Then there's the missions themselves, which is (obviously) the main part of the game. As of writing there are nine different mission types, with a new one being added every season (more about seasons later). Each mission can have randomly chosen warnings and anomalies, which either make the missions more difficult or change the gameplay in sometimes very fun ways. The maps are randomly generated with a fully destructible terrain and all sorts of different events and encounters, meaning that every mission plays out differently. Only thing that stays the same is that there's plenty of minerals to mine (some of which change depending on the biome you're in) and lots of enemies to kill. Some missions will periodically send in swarms, which encourage players to stick together while fighting to stay alive while an absolutely amazing soundtrack plays in the background.

Of course, can't talk about DRG without mentioning the classes. There are four classes you can play as, all of which have their own arsenal and playstyle. The Gunner is probably the most straight-forward one: you get a big minigun to mow down enemies, a powerful revolver secondary, a gun that can set up ziplines as well as a deployable shield that you can use to protect yourself and your teammates. Next is the Scout, which as the name implies, has a focus on mobility with a grappling hook and a gun that launches flares that light up the caves better than any other light-source, while also carrying an SMG and a sawed-off shotgun. Then there's the Driller, perfect for the players who prefer to dig through walls instead of going around them. You also get C4 that can be ugraded to deal massive damage, as well as a flamethrower that makes short work of swarms. Finally there's the Engineer, with the ability to build sentry guns and platforms, in addition to a shotgun and devastating grenade launcher. Each class has six different weapons with many different upgrades and "overclocks"(powerful upgrades that either give the weapons a considerable buff, or alter the way a weapon works entirely), allowing for almost limitless combinations and playstyles.

Finally, I have to mention the seasons and the included "performance pass". While this is unfortunately something every game seems to include nowadays, DRG is a special case in that the implementation of it is actually good. Each season lasts about six months (currently on season 5), and feature a battle pass called the "performance pass". The good thing about this pass however, is that while most games make you pay for it, DRG gives it to you for free. And if a season finishes before you manage to complete the pass, you can freely change which season you have active, allowing you to complete unfinished performance passes or try out seasons you may have missed, while still being able to play with players on other seasons. I honestly wish more games did this, as it makes the season mechanic actually fun without the pressure to complete the battle pass before the season ends.

Overall, I think it's safe to say DRG has become one of my favorite multiplayer games. The gameplay loop is fun, the weapons are satisfying, the music is amazing and is a blast to play with friends, while also containing a season system that is actually good. If you still haven't bought it for whatever reason, then I strongly reccomend you do so as it is one of the most fun multiplayer games I've played.

TL;DR: Far Cry Primal is a Far Cry game that manages to be both very unique with it's setting and gameplay, while still feeling very much like a Far Cry game. If you enjoyed Far Cry 3, 4 or 5, you'll most likely enjoy this one.

Far Cry Primal is an interesting entry in the Far Cry franchise, taking place during the stone age instead of present day. Instead of guns you are restricted to a bow, and the wildlife is a lot more hostile than in other Far Cry games. However, despite how different it is, it's still very much a Far Cry game, and a surprisingly good one at that.

First off, there's the gameplay. The general gameplay feels almost exactly like Far Cry 4, however as previously mentioned your only ranged weapon is a bow, instead of the large selections of guns seen so far in the franchise. To compensate for this are the new melee weapons, a club and a spear, both of which can be really powerful if used correctly. There's also additional throwables, such as the berserk shards and bombs, and some more familiar ones such as the fire bombs. Instead of running around with a camera or binoculars you now have an owl, which literally gives you a birds eye view to scout the area ahead, mark any enemies and even drop berserk bombs on said enemies, a feature that I honestly wish would return in a later Far Cry game in the form of a UAV or something like that. The guns for hire system from Far Cry 4 has now turned into the beast system, which involves taming beasts around the map that can follow you around and fight alongside you, all of them having different abilities for different situations. However, despite all this, the gameplay still gets fairly repetitive somewhat quickly.

Second is the map itself, Oros. Oros is a beautiful map, with everything from dry forests to frozen landscapes to lush forests, and feels a lot more vertical than previous Far Cry maps, despite there being quite a bit of verticality to those as well. It has no shortage of pretty views and landmarks, but is also a lot more hostile than in other games, with predators lurking around every corner. I remember hearing there being some recycling going on in terms of the map, however I was unable to notice anything similar at all, although that could be because it's been almost a year since I played Far Cry 4.

Last off is the story, which is a little different from other games up until this point with there being no main villian, but instead the "villians" are two enemy tribes that you constantly fight throughout the game, each having their own leader that you eventually have to deal with, kinda similar to how it was handled in Far Cry 5, although with quite a bit more freedom with how you could progress the story. The story is told pretty similarly to previous Far Cry titles, the main difference this time being that everyone speaks in an ancient language, meaning that if you don't have subtitles enabled you literally won't have a clue what anyone is saying.

Overall I'd say this is definitively a Far Cry game worth checking out if you don't mind the more repetitive gameplay loop and you're looking for a more unique approach to the formula. It's all in all a mix of Far Cry 4 and 5 taking place in the stone age, and I had a blast from start to finish.

Teardown is a game all about destruction. Everything in the world is made out of voxels, allowing you to destroy it in just about any way you'd like. It's a simple concept, yet it executes it perfectly, making a surprisingly replayable and fun game. Even though I finished the campaign almost a year ago, I still find myself returning to this game, jumping into a sandbox map to tear down some buildings, and manage to overheat my PC in the process.

The campaign:
The campaign takes place in the fictional municipality of Löckelle, located in what is most likely Sweden. The player works for Löckelle Teardown Services, a family owned company, together with their mom. After facing some harsh economic situations the player finds themselves having to accept some rather sketchy job offers, which eventually leads to the player being caught in the middle of a feud between two company rivals, an ambitious police investigation and lethal security robots.
The levels in the campaign are diverse, taking place in multiple locations at different times of year, and feature multiple types of objectives. There's the classic "steal all the items before time runs out", destroy the structure/building, get chased by a helicopter and survive against weaponized robots. Each type of objective requires you to think differently, and similar to how Portal encourages you to "think with portals", Teardown encourages you to literally tear down any obstacle in your way.

Sandbox:
The sandbox is probably what the majority of people own the game for, and I can see why. While the campaign presents a nice challenge, the sandbox mode allows you to go crazy on different maps with all the tools you have, usually making for some pretty satisfying destruction. Mods really shine here, as you can mod in the most unusual or powerful tools, some of which can even crash your game with a single click if you aren't careful. I've lost count of how many times I've completely removed a part of the map using explosives, only to have my game get locked at 2 fps because of all the debree. Despite the performance issues, the game still manages to remain fun.

Overall, Teardown is a solid, yet somewhat simple sandbox game, which allows you to do exactly what you want it to do: destroy everything in your path, even if it involves crashing your PC in the process. Wether you like a good campaign or are here simply to burn things to the ground, Teardown is a solid game for anyone who likes causing some destruction one way or another.

Tl;dr: If you're familiar with and a fan of the vanilla Arma 3 singleplayer experience, and like adapting your strategy and improvising during gameplay, then feel free to buy it on sale. It has it's highlights, but at times it can get frustrating as well, especially if you're not good at adapting and improvising during missions.

The Tac-Ops Mission Pack for Arma 3 features 3 new singleplayer campaigns, which stand out from other singleplayer campaigns in that they allow you to experience the same mission from multiple perspectives. Some of the missions also give a bit of extra lore, for the people who are interested in such. Like the other Arma 3 singleplayer campaigns it can get frustrating at times, but overall it's a pretty good experience which is worth giving a try if you enjoy the other official singleplayer content for Arma 3.

First off is the "Beyond Hope" campaign. Taking place 9 years before "The East Wind", you play as a member of what would later become the FIA, fighting against what would later become the AAF. The campaign consists of two missions, one where you play as infantry and one where you can play as either infantry, mechanized or sniper, each with a different objective. The first mission puts a big focus on recon and being aware of your surroundings, as there are plenty of surprises hidden in the dark. A lot of them I didn't even realise were there until my second playthrough. The second mission is a lot more chaotic, with a focus on staying alive during large-scale combat. This mission was a bit mixed for me, partly because the roles have different objectives, but also because your objectives are a little vague at times. Overall though the campaign was pretty good.

Second up is the "Stepping Stone" campaign, which takes place at the same time as "The East Wind", where you play as one of two NATO soldiers capturing the island of Malden. This one also contains only two missions, both allowing you to play as either infantry or special forces. Infantry is exactly what it sounds like, running around with bullets flying overhead and capturing enemy objectives. Meanwhile, special forces is more similar to the first mission of the previous campaign, valuing recon and locating any possible threats or objectives from a distance before either capturing them or blowing them up. Here the infantry role was my least favourite, as the overall objective layout is kinda akward, and while constantly reloading saves because my squad was being camped by a MRAP the objectives started bugging and automatically completing themselves which completely ruined the pacing. The special forces was more enjoyable, being able to clear out areas before the infantry moved in, and snipe targets from a distance.

The third and last campaign is the "Steel Pegasus" campaign, which is also the longest, containing three missions instead of two. Taking place a little after "Stepping Stone" during the Altis invasion, you play as a NATO soldier who has survived a crash-landing and has to regroup with any survivors at an emergency rendezvouz. The main focus on this campaign is improvisation, since you start off with very little and have to take whatever you can find to keep going. This can both be really fun and really frustrating, depending on your playstyle. If you're unable to be flexible and adapt your strategy, then this campaign can be a little annoying to play through. While this does allow you to try out multiple approaches during a single mission with what you have gathered, it also means that this is the only campaign where there is only one perspective, and not multiple like in the two other campaigns, which does limit the replayability a bit. There is also some moments later on in the campaign which gets buggy, including mission critical AI not wanting to enter a vehicle because you are inside of it, despite there being plenty of space. Overall this campaign was still fun, and quite different from the other two, both for better and for worse.

Lastly I'd like to mention the achievements. This isn't something I typically include in reviews since not everyone cares that much about them, but because of some of the achievements in this pack I feel like I have to at least mention them in case you are an achievement hunter, like me. While most of the achievements are pretty simple and straight forward, there are two specifically that I had a hard time getting, "Forward Observer" and "Saviour". They both seem pretty self explanitory. "Forward Observer" requires you to hit some APC's with artillery, and "Saviour" requires you to save two different NPC's during the same mission. However, because of how Arma works, both of these achievements can be really frustrating. "Forward Observer" is obtained during the first mission of the "Beyond Hope" campaign, where you're given exactly three artillery strikes to target three APC's. The problem about this is that to get the achievement each APC has to be completely destroyed by the artillery, but you can only call in the artillery in once, and the spread of said artillery is random. This means that this achievement is a lot more luck-based than you'd expect, and for me it took 4 hours of non-stop reloading of savegames before I finally got the achievement. The "Saviour" achievement depends mostly on how you approach the mission, which objectives you approach first, and similar. If you don't attack a specific group of enemies at a specific time, you'll have to deal with at least 20 soldiers from all directions simultaineously, in the middle of an open field. It took me three tries before I managed to achieve an outcome which was beatable after loading the game a few times, however it was stressful enough.

Overall it is a pretty good DLC, although a bit different from the others in that it only contains a set of new singleplayer campaigns, and no new weapons, props or anything like that. The missions have their moments, but also a bit of frustration as well, especially if you aren't too familiar with the singleplayer experience. If what most of the things I've mentioned above sounds interesting, then feel free to buy it, preferably on sale.

Tl;dr: Don't buy this if you want to fight aliens. However, if you're interested in mysteries surrounding said aliens, or want an amazing terrain and lots of new content, go ahead and buy it on sale as the overall price is a little high for what's included.


It's been a hot minute since I've written a review, so I figured I'd write a review for Arma 3 Contact since I recently played through and completed the campaign, and had a lot of fun doing so.

First off there's the main selling point of the DLC, the "First Contact" campaign. It tells the story of a group of NATO soldiers conducting training exercises with one of the new factions, the LDF, in the new terrain, Livonia, when they suddenly make first contact with aliens. While it can sometimes be similar to other Arma 3 campaigns with moments where you run around not always knowing what you're doing, its overall a very fun experience, featuring moments where you use the new Spectrum Device to mislead enemy squads and the ED1 Mini-UGV to take samples of alien materials. The highlight for me was when I saw the aliens for the first time and tried communicating with it using the spectrum device, which for some reason reminded me of the game signal simulator. The campaign's overall atmosphere is great, and it makes good use of the terrain, mainly taking place in areas with heavy forest. I get how some people are disappointed over the fact that you don't get to actually fight the aliens, however the focus on the mysteries surrounding it all was much more fun in my opinion.

Second is the terrain, "Livonia". Its the only Arma 3 terrain that isn't surrounded by ocean, and features a nice combination of dense forests and open fields. Compared to the vanilla Arma 3 terrains, Altis and Stratis, Livonia's forests actually feel like forests, and it feels a lot less like everything was copied and pasted. I've yet to fully explore the map in the editor, but just from the areas featured in the main campaign I can tell I'm going to be playing much more on this map in the future.

And lastly, the new content. Contact features a lot of new content, with many new props and items, some new weapons, and two new factions. The new items include military tables, storage solutions, lights and tents, as well as new research and biohazard-related equipment. The new weapons include differently colored variants of vanilla weapons, a new bullpup, two new AK-variants and some classics like the Mk-14 and a break action shotgun. The two new factions are the Livonian Defence Force (LDF) and the Russian Spetznatz, featuring new gear for each faction.

Overall I'd say this is one of the better DLC's for Arma 3, despite the overall review score saying otherwise. The campaign is fun, the terrain is amazing, and there's plenty of new content. Personally I would reccomend that you buy it on sale, as it is a little expensive for what it offers.

This mod could really need more work. It focuses on the appearance and scenery, and completely forgets about gameplay. I couldn't even bother to finish the game. From what I experienced, this mod doesn't have a proper story. It starts off in a big open area with a few buildings where you just walk around for 30 minutes not knowing what to do. Then you get teleported to some odd seemingly meaningless area, then you go to city 17 for a few seconds, and suddenly you're in some sort of abandoned building where the zombies have invisible headcrabs (also, the fast zombies sound like stalkers for some reason). The point where I stopped playing was in an area where I supposedly had to open a door of some sorts. After walking around for 20 minutes I couldn't find anything that helped me. Then I somehow managed to jump out of a window, only to realise that I wasn't supposed to do so (I also managed to do something simular in the intro).

All in all, the mod prioritises scenery to the point where it forgets that it needs to be playable. It does have some potential though, so if the devs make it playable and actually add a noticeable story, then I might change this review. For now though, I really reccomend that you don't play it. Seriously.

An amazing remake of Half-Life. Many years in development, the mod has undergone many changes until it finally got released early march this year. Many sections of the game has been improved, such as "On a Rail" and the entirety of Xen. The most noteable is Xen, which has been in development for so many years, and it is a lot longer than it's original counterpart (it's a lot more fun to play too).

There is simply too many changes between Half-Life and Black Mesa, so I'm gonna list a few below:

1. Graphics.
The game looks so much better than Half-Life. This is quite obvious though, seen as Half-Life was released on GoldSrc in 1998, and Black Mesa was developed on the Source engine and first released in 2012. Crowbar Collective modified the Source engine a bit, and it allows for much better graphics. Xen is the most beautiful part of the game, seen as it's a completely different world, and the devs has done a lot of work on it. However, the nice graphics come at a cost. Performance. Although games on Source can usually be run on a card reader or simular, Black Mesa tends to have a little performance problems in the bigger areas. This doesn't bother most people, but since I have a not-so-great computer, the game starts lagging heavily in the bigger areas of the game. Xen is the most obvious here, as it causes frames to drop down to 10 fps from the usual 30-40.

2. Gameplay.
A lot of gameplay stuff has been changed between 1998 and 2020. The AI is one of them. The AI is a lot smarter and "realistic" in some cases, and some aliens act more like aliens. The HECU AI is very different from it's original. Instead of having the classic "military feel", it's more or less just the Combine AI from Half-Life 2. Thankfully, some measures were taken to not make it identical to the Combine AI (some stuff which I can't remember).
Another gameplay thing is that guns have a lot less ammo than they did in Half-Life. For an example, the revolver ammo has been reduced from 36 to 18, and the SMG ammo from 250 to 150. I'm not entirely a big fan of this, but the devs seem to make it work somehow.

3. Map layout.
The map layout in Half-Life was ok. Sometimes it could get a little confusing, but overall it's pretty good. In Black Mesa, most areas were changed. Some are almost identical, some are unrecognizeable. Take "On a Rail" for an example. In Half-Life, On a Rail was one of the more annoying chapters. In Black Mesa, it has been completely changed, and it's a lot more fun. Xen, which used to be an annoying platforming sections on some floating rocks in space, is now it's own alien world, with every map being made from the ground up.

Conclusion:
Worth the money. An amazing recreating of Half-Life, and it deserver your attention. However, I reccomend playing the original Half-Life before this, unless you care too much about graphics.

I have played a little of it, and the things that were in the game then were just enough to have fun for a few hours. Now that the game has gotten a lot of updates since I last played it it is probably a lot better, but I'm waiting until it's finished. Hopefully it will be just as good as the main Subnautica, and maybe even better.

The idea is good. Ravenfield with friends. Fight against something smarter than AI that can't see the enemy sometimes. It's just that this mod makes the main Ravenfield feel a lot better.

First of all, it's outdated. The main Ravenfield has improved a lot since this mod was developed, and it's way too obvious. Second, barely anyone play's it. Third, moving sideways or backwards doesn't do anything at all compared to moving forward. May as well get rid of the ability to move any other direction than forwards.

Although it can be fun sometimes, the cons stick out too well to be able to have a really good experience. The mod could really need some tweaking and updating at least.

I have mixed feelings about this mod. It features some interesting things, but could really need more work.

The mod takes place on a cargo ship, wich has been attacked by aliens and a blue HECU. You go along the cargo ship killing aliens and five blue HECU soldiers, until you meet a guy at a backroom talking about some sort of specimen which is basically just a Nihilanth with a barnacle tounge. After defeating the barnacle-Nihilanth the mod ends, without explaning anything.

The mod certainly uses some interesting things, such as putting all the action onboard a cargo ship filled with aliens. However, there isn't much fun when the music is about to rupture your eardrums even when you have it on barely any volume, and you don't even know why you're here or what's happening.

Decent mod, but could really need more work until I can reccomend it.