Recent reviews by HuggyDeathBunny🐰💀

Another one I'll get around to a full review soon...
...for now though:

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Been a long, long time since I've really felt like all the dumb things I'm doing running around collecting rubbish and hoarding materials actually is making a difference in any way. The Settlements system is just awesome, very cool and so many options!

Your NPC buddies really have character and actually are useful.

The weapons and combat system is damn fun and meaty.

Story is cool, I mean...Zombies amaright?

Co-Op system is excellent with hop in and hop out working flawlessly, so getting aid or aiding friends is a seamless experience that doesnt detract from you plowing on further without them.

The tiny few niggly things that exist, such as pathetically fragile vehicles (I WANNA SMAAAASH!!!) can be "fixed" with mods, just be careful not to go overboard and water down your experience too much, for example don't take invulnerable cars mod...rather just buff the resistance 75%. Who needs the door flying off after just 2 clobberings? Ffp.

Bloody and awesome, bloody awesome too, just stupid at sale pricing.
Get it.
Get it now.

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For more reviews and rantings, march over to my Curator Page, The Imaginings of a Gamer|

...and renamed it Marvel Rivals

Expectations vs Delivery

An incredibly similar thing occurred with Gotham Knights, a decent story and fun world traversal slapped on top of a rather average, far from revolutionary and unexciting combat system. While Gotham Knights at least had some variation, and some really cool co-op(tional) team up moves, Suicide Squad is just 2 ways of shooting a gun and a punch. That's it.

Coming from the Arkham series, which Warner Bros lent its SUPERB combat system to the Shadow of Mordor/War series (which evolved it), this to me is the single biggest idiotic and unfathomable design choice. Which they already screwed up in Gotham Knights and then repeated the mistake! It does hurt the game massively to not have this, but fortunately avoids completely destroying it.

Lets put it this way, if you have never played those titles, you won't notice it missing and you'll go...ok 3rd person shooter with punching, wee!

• ...because what that mediocre combat system is encased in, is a SUPERB story and AWESOME environment.

The opening sequence and the introduction as to what the hell is going on is all very cool. Not once did I get itchy "skip skip ffs move it" syndrome. Great writing, brilliant execution.

Each of the four characters have very nicely been mixed into recent DC Movie vibes and looks which in turn were faithfully reproducing the initial comics, except ofc for Deadshot. While the race swap is revealed in comics after Will Smith played him in the first live action movie (and did a great job!) to have occurred because the original was an impostor the entire time, and is done well enough, it does unfortunately smack heavily of "Hollywood Dabbling". Hilariously, one of Harley's opening lines directed at Deadshot is "are you not supposed to be white".

Notwithstanding this, King Shark is sharky, direct and wierd, cowering Captain Boomerang is Ausie as all hell, Harley is squeaky and nuts, while the focused Deadshot is uncomplicated and organised.

The takeaway from all this, is that an unfortunate miss has left a potentially excellent combat game as a merely acceptable and fun enough 3rd person shooter, albeit with one of the best storylines and telling of it done in a while. The Co-Op(tional) aspect is simple enough, the AI controlling the other 3 characters after you choose your controlled nutjob can be hotseated by other players, be they pugs or freinds, and can only do better than the mediocre AI really.

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While the endgame is heavily criticised as being repetitive, I don't care. The AAA pricepoint is to be avoided under my advice, and the game bought on sale to enjoy the superb story experience and just blast through the levels solo or with a friend.

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For more reviews and rantings, march over to my Curator Page, The Imaginings of a Gamer|

Look, Rats (Vermintide) brought about an evolution from Left 4 Dead's melee combat which was truly fantastic. In your face grubby gorey smash n dodge gameplay. Innovative and damn good fun.

So now Darktide continues the gameplay evolution from Rats1 > Rats 2 > Darkrats, by re-introducing ranged combat as a primary yet equal footing option, whereas before it was very secondary, even tertiary.

What this means, is while you are being moved from the Warhammer Universe into the Warhammer 40 000 section of lore, (which for the uninitiated shares the Gods but not the species/factions or locations) your previous hit-dodge-hit-push-hit method of playing now is shoot-shoot-shoot...hit-dodge-hit-push-shoot-hit.

There you go all done, review plus+1000.
...Except, not quite.

Hidden inside a gloriously crafted, lovingly and Lore accurate world is a:

• Squad system
  
• Gearing progression
  
• Mission based character growth experience
  
• Actively evolving player experience

The Dev's pay attention to player input, which is seen quite clearly as the Mixed Reviews slowly march up into Mostly, now Very, and hopefully soon Overwhelmingly Positive Steam Review status.

This has been mostly as the lack of true single player potential was corrected. The optional bots filling in for real players have needed to learn how to behave in this new world (they had their issues in Rats1&2 as well!), and mission failure could occured often from idiot player behaviour, essentially "wasting" your time gaming. All of which has been remedied in recent massive patches.

Currently, this works quite well in that if a player loses connection, an AI bot literally picks up their mantle, allowing the player to then reconnect directly into that bot at a later stage if they try, or another player to drop in and take over (if your settings are such). The end result being in a "so-what" attitude when such issues arise, as you can still get your XP and loot.

Circling back to the gameplay allows us to investigate the four major classes:

• Ogrym - Tank with optional massive shield or bullet wall minigun. Very in your face even with ranged
  
• Pysker - The "mage" with powerful single target ranged options, and huge cqc aoe's
  
• Veteran - The only truly ranged focused class, cqc optional but not great (only for emergencies!)
  
• Zealot - The middle ground jack of all class with melee emphasis, equally comfortable at ranged, cqc, aoe or single target.

...and what really makes this all shine, is every class has optional Squad Boosting abilities available to them. A well crafted squad can synch these features to make an overwhelmingly effective ball of destruction, or people can choose to try be solo ninjas which, while potentially possible, is rarely effective when swarms arrive (they always do).

Bottom line here is whether you are with bots or playing with online friends or PUGs, group play is key!

Overall, if you are a fan of Rats1 or 2, then Darkrats is going to thrill you. New to the genre? Bit if a learning curve, but you'll get there, and when you do...bashing time!

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For more reviews and rantings, march over to my Curator Page, The Imaginings of a Gamer|

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                                                              GAME ON!

(Can't believe your eyes or my loving review? Play the Prologue Demo!

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Being a single player experience and thereby skipping out on the potential shenanigans and tomfoolery available in it's inspirational granddaddy game, the depth added via the storyline mode and what evolves into a series of connected experiences couples wonderfully with all the gadgets available to you.

For those of you criminally unaware of Viscera, the premise there was you are a cleaner tasked with removing the detritus left behind after a Computer Game Hero blows through a level (Doom, Shadow Warrior, etc.). In this world, you are a contract cleaner for the shady. Think Mob hits that need to not have happened...

• The method of tool usage are excellent. Very intuitive and neat, with no annoying hassles.
  
• Location(s) are very cool, with detailed realism and immersion
  
• Voice acting and plotline are top tier
  
• The "just-one-moreish" aspect is powerful!

This all is overshadowed by a hauntingly personal tale of the protagonist and amplified by the characters he interacts with via recordings, emails and phone calls at Hollywood levels of story scripting.

Excellent experience and highly recommended.

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For more reviews and rantings, march over to my Curator Page, The Imaginings of a Gamer|

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                                                              GAME ON!

A tremendous update to the first game, awesome fun solo and great with a friend(or 3!)

While a caveat is necessary regarding the current server behaviour when trying to start up a co-op session, being an older title Ubisoft has put this guy onto some sort of aged hobbly decrepit cranky server listing, meaning starting a co-op session requires intense patience. The trick is to wait until the in game store is accessible on both Sessions before attempting to join...

Which leads into the second seemingly negative sounding statement regarding this SUPERB title. The DLC and in game stores are both just horrible. The DLC (Narco Road & Fallen Ghosts) actually require a completely SEPERATE toon! Meaning your main game character is not used in any way, and, the writing is rather naff on both of them. Avoid. The in game store allows for "boosting" XP and credits and weapons, avoid this too. Oddly, the free Ubi-Rewards give you 2 of the most powerful and in fact, overpowered weapons available in game...sooo...buy the base game and you good.

Right then, on to the cool stuff, because my god this thing is awesome:

• So big.
  
• Excellent story.
  
• Varied environments
  
• Range of uniquely performing weaponry
  
• Multitude of gameplay / mission completion options.
  
• Can take as long or as short as you want to finish
  
• Cool hidden stuff.
  
• BASE jumpiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!!!

The Chilean peninsula this game is situated in is Fictional, but based on superb real world research that includes wildly differing regions varying from Andean snowcapped Alpine peaks to humid swamps and heavily wooded rolling hills, all with industry and town locations fitting to their regions.

This accentuates the background to a rather excellent storyline which is wonderfully voice acted and I presume mo-capped. The production values are impressive across the board in this regard.

While it is clear many locations have buildings copy/pasted, their interiors and exteriors are all individual removing "repeated dungeon" fatigue common to many titles. The indistinguishable primary bases scattered throughout this world sized....world immerse one even further.

The World itself really feels alive with AI citizens wandering around on foot, plane, train or automobile and commenting on story driven events, alongside radio broadcasts setting the scene and enemies commenting on their lives and postings or patrols. All have reactionary based animations and behaviours. Your squad even comments on regions you enter, adding further to the experience.

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Combat AI is...an interesting one. Depending on your difficulty level which ramps up dramatically if you choose the endgame ranking system in order to unlock more toys, skins and cosmetics, you can end up in one shot instadead territory if discovered. Which does bring forward the GHOST intended nature of the game, you are not really meant to be seen at any point!

One can however, allow full degeneration into CQC combat, but the realism kicks in here with you being as squishy as most of the enemies. First shot wins. While playing with the AI teammates who are essentially gods and effectively give you a "life" (later 2) if you are downed, your Co-Op experience will vary in this regard. If your idiot buddy stirs a hornets nest, it really is best to run and hide to return to resurrect them, or let the timer run out and they teleport back.

Death merely loses you your most recent XP, resources and objectives earned before the last autosave. Autosaves occur on Teleportation, and entry into fresh combat zones, so its pretty good in that regard.

Avoiding all that is done by playing the game as intended. Careful reconnoitring of the objective, enemy patrol patterns, resources and backup potential allow you to select your infiltration point be it via BASE, HALO, ground assault or even using the Rebels to attack and distract.

The Rebels you are assisting can be used to call in Mortar Strikes, entire backup squads, auto-recon, or do distraction attacks on command. Your squad, can also to a degree be controlled in this manner, sending them to specific points, holding zones or going stealth or full combat.

This leads to the coolest feature of the game, Synchronised Shots. Sync shots with AI are a bit overpowered and can be used to reach all sorts of locations, while doing it in co-op is a lot more satisfying and a true art form. Marking targets, you then wait until all are lined up for their shots and call a simultaneous hit dropping them all without alerting the remaining enemies. Very effective.

While the better weapons and attachments are hidden across the entire map, usually in Points Of Interest, some are inside main bases or mission areas. One can attack mission bases outside of the Mission to gain access to the loot, and when you return on the Mission you'll find enemy layouts and triggers dramatically different. POI's are not required to be fully cleared to complete the game, unless you enable the endgame scoring system in which case you'll be hunting for every advantage possible!

To be clear, Tier One (endgame scoring) is totally optional, and just ramps up the difficulty while forcing you to then invest in upgrading your weapons to match enemy armour levels. A bit of fun and not terribly complicated, but totally unnecessary to finish the game.

The Rebel Leader, Pat Katari is a bit of a miserable qunt. Whenever you do call the chap to drop in a vehicle for you, the clown will do his best to confound you by placing your called in item either halfway up a cliff face, in the middle of traffic, or on top of an entire enemy squad. This feature though is best used when clear of obvous pitfalls where it then behaves as intended, and makes for trudging your way on foot from a random location you found yourself in, back to civilisaton far less tedious (or just teleport to a base...but break your immersion).

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For more reviews and rantings, march over to my Curator Page, The Imaginings of a Gamer|

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Sure we are flying planes (trains and automobiles?), but this is a heavy arcade iteration of the genre, and....
...its done damn well.

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The atmosphere and flight model sure do make you think you're in a genuine flight sim. The radio chatter, incredible visuals, cockpit detailing, flight model itself, control system (head look is default) all make things seem to be at a high level of realism....but no jets perform quite like these guys do.

And this is far from a bad thing, in fact, it makes the game infinitely more enjoyable to not have to worry about G-Forces, wingbreak, lock on angles, sheering and realistic stall speeds or redouts. Focusing on air based destructive mayhem makes for a really engaging and fun gaming session.

My singular biggest gripe, is while it is relatively hard to get shot down and destroyed by the AI, if you do, or worse, you misjudge an attack run and crash...that's it, game over. Not in itself surprising or annoying...but...the missions can be very, very, very long. Which makes crashing into the 2nd last enemy required to complete a 30mins long mission annoying as all hell.

What I'd love to have seen is similar to the War Thunder Campaign missions, on death you swap to a wingman's control. I mean, the thing is called Project Wingman after all. Which also makes me wonder why my friendly AI is less useful that it should be, I mean, it lets me blow more stuff up...but I think the whole thing could have been raised to 10/10 Five Star levels if done this way.

A Campaign driven experience, one can hit Freeflight and enter a Conquest mode both of which rely on unlocks of the vehicles and weapons to enable later activities to be easier to complete (you can use the first offering all the way through...buuuut....)

The entire game is a fun semi-futuristic variant of our reality, using what seems familiar vehicles in slightly different iterations, and countries and conflicts that also have a head scratchingly familiar sense to them but are completely fabricated. Think Cold War situations modernised.

This is amplified further by some of the vehicles being Sci-Fi levels of improbably unrealistic, such as massive behemoth transports and vertically orientated dropships. Super cool for gameplay though.

Overall, visually splendourific, audibly explosive, engaging aerial destructive mayhem.
Great fun.

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For more reviews and rantings, march over to my Curator Page, The Imaginings of a Gamer|

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After playing the demo for their later release, Stunt Paradise, found this gem!

What is essentially a far less irritating version of the TRAILS series of games, but with a little car instead of a bike and a cool light...err...Rogue Lite...aspect thrown in, where the more you play a level the more toys you can buy to get you further in the same level.

This varies from its obvious influence in that purely knowing the track to complete it is not enough, and adds a even more of a moreish drawcard to the deck.

...and
.....you'll never guess
......go on guess.
...........no you won't get it
THERE ARE ZOMBIIIIIIIIIIIES!!!
Weeeheeheehee

The added bonus gimic here are little angry lurching re-animated dead you can sqish and gish and bludgeon or blow up as you progress through the level, and are counted as obstacles in that the more angry ones will slow you a bit if not dealt with timeously using "other" methods.

Great fun, cheap to boot, well worth it for a 15mins at a time hop in and out Arcade game.

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For more reviews and rantings, march over to my Curator Page, The Imaginings of a Gamer|

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How dare they release a genuinely F2P open world RPG that tops Steam's play charts?

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...and this is what makes Once Human truly stand proudly and well above the crowd, of the many large scale F2P games lurking around out there, only Warframe comes vaguely close in the financial modelling used here.

Where Warframe gives you access to cosmetic purchases, most of them actually contain massive gameplay features and improvements over the stock items you can collect. Once Human's only purchases, are 100% Cosmetic.

Even the Cosmetic Items that DO actually carry in game uses (Bed with faster sleep regen for example), are only purchasable with in game earned currency, and not real world money at all! And while the paid for BattlePass's Premium variant is mostly Cosmetic, the bonus items it includes are just nice while being far from critical.

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So why all the fuss?
Further than just being a stupendously honest and open financial model, the game...is amazingly well done, and the Chinese Devs have proven twice already in a very short time to actively listen to their playerbase, in a big way...going so far as to lower items costs in game and refund those who paid the higher amount!

While all very impressive as a company, the game? Well:

• Uses every major currently played game's main "gimic"/feature as a single entity within the game soup. Think Valheims Building, with Destiny 2's run n gun, with Assassins Creeds stealth kills, with...
  
• Loot Goblinitus Infected will never get tired, being selective in your hunt for resources is just as efficient though.
  
• Crafting is very clear, and Materials are easily sourced (see above), with multiple options for the same items.
  
• Open world is feature rich and varies greatly, with only a few locations copy pasted for layouts, random outlying houses for example and a few of the main bases have suspiciously similar interiors.
  
• Progression is excellent, with the main questline feeding you information, gear, and abilities as you cross into higher level zones. The in game Tutorials are wonderfully clear.
  
• Co-Op is huge, and mostly optional for the Solo players, but Teams are easily joined and left ad-hoc.
  
• Group content (larger than Co-Op), is excellent fun and very impressive...although does take a bit of research to fully understand (which is great).
  
• Gear Builds are varied, and one can actively swop Loadouts.

Furthermore, you can...BUILD A HOUSE! Yes, all you builders out there rejoice. The potential furnishings, design options and layouts are tremendous and wonderfully done, albeit with a few annoying snapping issues specifically on the rooves...Your home is your base of operations as well as Fortress for the optional PvP and the necessary PvE Defend event.

What is super awesome about this, but also the reason for the only major PROBLEM the game has...is that all player houses are permanent structures in the world. This results in a very "lived in" feeling and is really cool wandering around especially in the higher level zones visiting other player's creations.

So the "problem" with the game is the limitations enforced in how your created Toon and access to the server it lives on is implemented. This clearly is a byproduct of being able to have the super awesome permanent in world player housing, because allowing for any player to enter any server any time...would mean needing to hotswop Houses much like Fallout76 does.

This limitation means if you have not joined with friends at the same time, you probably will not be able to have them join you later...however...the Devs have very recently introduced a "stuff me in" code, allowing any player 5 "stuff me in" limited codes.

This idea still needs a bit of testing to see if it doesnt pinwheel out of control as 5 players invite 5 more who invite 5 more exponentially overloading the server...But currently my 2 servers I play on are both well populated and behaving.

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The other "problem" might be less of an issue to most of you, but I feel is a bit sad and holds this superb title back from a 95+% score and settles it into 80% range, and that is what plagues wierdly most Korean and Chinese titles, a rather confusing and badly told main storyline.

While this clearly at times can be put down to a lack of English Voice acting being implemented, as many cutscenes currently are just text... most of it is just...odd, and clearly not for a Western audience. The gist of the story is told well enough though, I just feel it is a wasted oppurtunity to become one of the best games of all time.

Whats even more annoying, is some of the Side Quests are done EXCELLENTLY....the insane clown is a prime example, and many of the super short side quests are really well done with great mini stories and well written/voice acted lines!

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The only other thing worth mentioning here, is while this is a Chinese Developer, Steam has to date not ever released a game under its banner that is "evil" in any way. They have stringent controls that specifically are designed to avoid what the uninformed and panicky claim to be spyware invading their PC's.

Once Human does add a startup value to your PC's Registry, but it does not run anything on startup. The 2 values are part of the game's anti-cheat system and do not affect your PC in any other way and are essentially providing a fixed value for the game to identify your account and PC to the Anti-Cheat.

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Friends who want in, be sure to contact me for one of my limited invite codes!

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For more reviews and rantings, march over to my Curator Page, The Imaginings of a Gamer|

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                                                              GAME ON!

...a superlative title that grabs you with its fluid engaging action combat, then keeps you with its strategic depth.

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Rogue Lites can be infuriating, especially when you're not prepared for them. This iteration almost ignores the die-grow-die cycle by being...Light...in that department.

What drew me in was the insanely satisfying delivery of combat move animations effected through a wonderfully rich and unique sequence of art styles. This is what truly pulls Beneath Oresa well ahead of the multitude of Card Battlers.

This art style helps clearly separate the different Families you can play, all with unique primary skill-sets that dictate their special card draws, shared with universals that are friendly and familiar.

The actual strategic element does take a bit of cranial application though, and can even be daunting at first especially as no two runs will be alike. Your deck is constructed through choices over random drops, but its not that random...

...once the nuances are learnt, stacking your deck (aha. ahaha) comes a lot easier. Then tactical choices start becoming fun and rewarding in their outcomes. This does however cover my only light criticism, in that learning the icons and needing to mouse-over everything to check what they do and affect can become a bit tedious. This becomes less of an issue though over time, and the tooltips are very clear.

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For more reviews and rantings, march over to my Curator Page, The Imaginings of a Gamer|

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