Recent reviews by LanoxKodo TTV

No Man's Sky is a game that has come a long way from it's release, by far the work that was put behind it to get it to where it is now is amazing. The game itself is nice and one where there is no problem playing at your own pace, the game will challenge you so long as you put yourself in the spot to be challenged; it being an open-world (or, open-galaxy~) game really helps drive that home as areas will vary in many specs for how easy it is to survive there or not.

Given the game keeps receiving updates that continue to go beyond what we now at the current time, it is always fun to get back in the game and see what is new and possibly changed. This is one of the game's I never found interesting for the lore, however it delivered completely everywhere else where similar open-world games tend to fall flat in some way. If you like the survival-like experience in games along with endless exploration, and of course base building wherever, this game is for you.

Quick Note: Game runs fine on Linux (Arch in my case), use Proton and you're good!

Nostalgic entertainment based on the movie it's from. I'm going to write lightly as this game is still young obviously - the asym horror game everyone references at one point too was as well and I remember that game from those days, give this one some time to age and be developed and expanded.

The game is fun on both sides, I genuinely love the quirky way things are approached. Matches are not eternal, as human you must escape before the time runs out through any of the 4 [plus 1 last-chance] escape routes; then as a klown you need to eliminate the humans or prevent them from escaping. Teamwork on both sides is not always required, things are dynamic!

Game has a revive mechanic for both sides, klownz also are not "unstoppable" monsters like in a different game, which means both sides have many ways to play out situations. Any dead humans can be revived once in one swing if the machine hasn't been used. So if you get out early you technically can continue later on. Be sure to do minigames to give yourself good stuff while you wait!

Some things I want to see addressed for user-sanity:
1) Input mapping - The game has 0 options for changing keybinds. On keyboard and mouse, I myself find the keys F/G/X/B unacceptable given the distance from the movement keys and all the buttons my mouse has I would like to map things to, your example of button mapping may vary obviously. The game should in the future address this by letting users map inputs to actions for such things.

2) Expanded VoIP - The game does not allow you to individually control certain players volume. If you want to use VoIP, you have to hear EVERY comm (for your team of course) - no matter how loud or quiet anyone is. Some people are excessively loud and if you use headphones instead of a speaker setup of some kind, you may suffer some pain from such excessively loud players whom thing screaming into the mic is equal to normal speaking volume. The VoIP volume control under the settings only affects your output; as you could imagine, this is terrible in cases where people don't want to enable Push-To-Talk which has a default and unchangeable keybind of T, so probably a lot of people find that too annoying to enable in the first place as it's 'out of reach'!

3) Spawning - opposing sides should not spawn in line of sight of the other. That just leads to immediate chases and possible quick downs (not always deaths!) which may put off some users. The spawning algorithm should be reviewed by the devs for these issues. In my experience this isn't consistent, but happens enough to where it seems the game does not check for this before loading all players in, this goes for post-start joins as well for players who join mid-match.

I'll update this review as time marches on. As I mentioned before, this game is very new, it's got things it can improve, but as it stands it's very much playable and without too many "unplayable" issues you might see in other releases these days. Just be patient and allow the devs to further improve things and enjoy your time~

Preface:
All below are my current perception of it based on my playtime amount, will update in due time as I progress further and take note in greater details of quirks involved with the game. None of this is based on past knowledge of the game for I only heard of the game when I had to restart Steam due to a bug and the game showed up on the front page and it caught my attention, never knew it was a somewhat watched game prior to release.

Linux compatibility:
Playing from Garuda, an Arch-based distro, I can confirm in my case getting the game was not a problem whatsoever. Simply in my case it was wait for the game to download and install and then press play, no configuring of proton or other layers needed. Whether that's a result of Steam doing it behind the scene though is out of my awareness, all I know is I (the user) did not click anything besides the Play button to get it to boot. Obviously if you have trouble then I assume the mates on protonDB will have some info that might work for your particular case.

File saving:
This game takes autosaving seriously. From what I can tell of my single-session multiplayer save with someone else, the backups originally started at 1 hour intervals but after a bit that was lowered to roughly 10 minute intervals, probably due to our adventures before getting off and thus triggering some save-specific code to work. I consider this very nice given other games generally don't bother with saving like this; in a worst case for this game it seems only the latest save instance would be lost, but a slew of backups would be ready in recent-ish time from the missing file. Any setback is upsetting sure but anything more than starting back at nothing is always a boon to enjoy. I feel at ease with the saving system being proactive so I myself only need to be reactive when I need to pull from a backup.
Saves are located in a directory away from the game-files. Ie Windows: Roaming folder, Linux: Steam -> compatdata -> 1623730 folder

Graphics:
I like the visuals, obviously not a game going for life-like visuals but the theme appears to be generally consistent and thus has not been displeasing.

Multiplayer and Networking:
An area of needing improvement according to some people online. You are made clear when starting a multiplayer instance that it recommends a decent setup; no potato computers since you are acting as the server which must be able to handle the world state, and all actions by Pals and any player, including you. Thus if you are hosting and have a computer which is generally slow, struggles with things like memory or other similar performance areas (Not GPU related, that's client side), you will most likely encounter issues during the entire playthrough as your computer is not able to handle, with ease, what the game is trying to do. Please be advised on knowing your system and those whom you play with should they host.

As for actual networking issues, I cannot comment here as my current session count is only 1, I would like to have a few more to verify/cross out related issues once I have other sessions in my awareness. Will update this once I have information I can verify from at least a few more sessions to ensure I understand in full what the game is actually failing with, if at all.

Bugs:
Surprisingly I haven't seen as many bugs compared to other Early Access games. Usually games release as Early Access and have bugs-galore that every user faces. I can't say I see that kind of bug presence in this game thus far. The bugs I've run into was a graphical issue in a very obscure location and then another where I got stuck in the terrain of a cliff only to spam my wasd and space keys to dance my way out. After some time I eventually broke free from the pocket of the ledge I was in only to then fall straight down into a body of water - rip my stamina at that point, was funny tbh, nothing that has made the game unplayable by any means. I imagine your mileage may vary, slightly.

Character Customization:
In-game they make it aware that currently what you choose is stuck for the entire run (per save obviously); they do further state they plan to upgrade the game to support changing your customization choices later on.

The Pals:
They're cute, some pack a bunch, others are rollovers: All very good stuff nonetheless. When playing with friends in the same guild as you, you seem to share the Palbox Worker section but not the portion that relates to per-player - you only need one of these for a base. You also can trade/swap Pals as you and a friend might see fit, they don't seem to be locked to a player in a certain sense as any Pals put in the work section in the Palbox are able to be grabbed/replaced by anyone with access to the Palbox (assuming working as intended). Regardless, helping others get XYZ Pal is entirely possible and trading via the Party menu is convenient as well.

Overall:
Game feels well-polished for its current age. While it might be quirky here or there, and also have room to improve, I genuinely find the game appealing in the current state and look forward to continue playing and seeing what updates come around to build upon what is already present!

Oh my this game is truly different, it gives me joy that I don't acquire from most games. This game is simple, calming and very soothing, especially that sweet Saloon theme! I highly recommend to anyone who hasn't tried the game yet, you might end up liking it just as much!

Cities: Skylines is an amazing city-building game! Every detail to make the game unique has been perfected unlike other games in the genre. I would say this game is relaxing in its nature, there's never anything to stress over!

**Updated **
**Updated Again 2/26/2017**

Please read through the first part here as it's more relevant to recent updates as much late Jan. to early Feb.! (The older part will be noted as such and will be left for new users to base opinion on for later times)

UPDATE 2 (2/26/2017) Pros and Cons - both put together:
Updates-Still don't tell what they are for, but seem to have actually improved game functions!
Bugs-As of this/these past few updates, the game has been running EXTREMLY better! I'll explain like this:
1 -> Maps seem to have less gltiches like invisible walls. (there are still some but are small now)
2 -> Infinite Loading Screen has seem to disappeared completely (after 3-5 months its finally gone \(^_^)/ again, if it does occur, it actually goes to the nect screen now! Thank goodness)
3 -> Latency/Lag has seemed to been decreased in MANY cases, meaning people with slower connections are actually able to stay in the game now without losing connection.
4 -> Being kicked from a server is now very minimal as of recent times!

Overall thanks to these new updates the game is no longer unplayable, so instead of waiting literally half an hour to get into 1 match, thats now reduced to roughly 1-2 minutes at the most! That's absolutely amazing to see after months of slow degeneration of game capabilities!

EVERYTHING BELOW THIS POINT IS FROM AN OLDER UPDATE AND MAY NOT BE RELEVANT ANYMORE!
Lets starts with the cons...my cons:
Updates-Whenever an update comes out, you get NO info on what is being updated, like today (1/19/2017) there was a 193.6MB update, and I couldn't find any info on what was in the update and none of my below issues were fixed!
Spawning-Always spawn near the killer causing me to get hooked within <2 minutes
Latency 1-As a killer everyone can outrun me with no problem, but if I'm out running a killer (with 4 perks might I add) I get caught easily as if game latency kicks in...so much for good internet from ISP and 4 Perk killers or 4 perk survivors I use...
Loading screen bugs-Push "Play as Survivor" *boom* infinite loading, "click ready but others don't in lobby *boom* infinite laoding screen again, what there's more? Yup, push "Play as Killer" wait a bit for when you are hosting (more rare) *boom* infinite loading screen once again...
Kicked-Being kicked from several lobbies after pushing "Ready"
Bugs-Bugs are NEVER fixed, why you ask? Simple answer: DLC > Bug Fixes : ALWAYS... (stability is on a downward spiral, ask anyone)
Easy-Anti-Cheat-Yeah sure it stops some hacks, but others can get in easily without a doubt, it's like the common cold; CDC creates vaccine for 14 strands -> 23 more appear immune to vaccine...same thing here except with hacks and game defenses.
Over powered-(or underpowered) killers and/or survivors...I don't even want to touch this as it would be a NY Times article on all 7 survivors and 6 killers...
Hosting-If host (the killer) leaves/disconnects/loses internet access during game -> you lose a pip or even a whole level due to something OUT OF YOUR CONTROL! I went from level 16 survivor to 20 because of that within 2 days due to that fact...
Maps-Maps are glitchy, how? Easy, if its a hill, stay away from little dips near the edge, instant stuck (I got stuck for 10 minutes in that one spot and someone couldn't push me out.), another is cracks in the ground usually near half walls or whole walls, they act like little invisible barrier - survivors get stuck 50% (generic number from my calculations) more than killers.
Lag-OMG this is by far a HUGE issue on my list and here's why - anyone can host (which is always the killer, obviously), for example: if you and 2 other survivors live in the USA, and the last survivor in Germany, but the killer/Host lives in Swizterland, the people in America suffer game latency because YOU CAN'T CHOOSE YOUR REGION FOR GAME SERVERS!!! (Honestly this game makes Minecraft look faster in terms of ping on a LOT of Home-basement servers).

Pros:
-Fun game minus all the cons as you can tell.
-Good idea for a game.
-Amazing setup of everything minus maps and such
-And the other "Its awesome because *blah blah blah*".

New Advice!: The game is now in an extremely better playable mode than before! If you want the game I now totally recommend it once again! *Below advice is old just fyi, but it'll stay for new buyers to decide just incase!*
Advice: wait to buy the game when the Devs fix a majority of the issues the community is throwing in their face like Politics on the news - unless you want to play a buggy as hell game that makes you wanna take down entire Servers due to "Issues"