Recent reviews by BurnieByrnes

70 hours, 8 playthroughs with 3 being New Game Plus+ on a PS4/PS5 controller with 100% done. All story/season pass content done Will update as new content is added. Despite all short comings below i do hope this game gets a sequel. In short with all dlc available will recommend on a 50% sale.

At full price i do not recommend this game. If you play with €1 to one hour then this game is worth €15-20 A singleblind play through will get you 10-12 hours-ish. Game requires at minimum five-six playthroughs to 100% (2 to get all weapon upgrades, new game plus achievements and another two to do hardcore and hardcore new game plus). Also need to do the Contagion mode as well.

The combat is clunky to say at least and you will see what it all has to offer with dodge swing shoot dodge repeat. As long as you don't dodge twice in the same direction you can dodge 99% attacks. Combat falls apart when fighting 3+ enemies as it becomes a brilliant mess with only one enemy allowed to attack with the others standing there waiting there turn to swing, ranged enemies ignore this rule. Later wounded enemies will start spawning tentacles which if you don't dispatch them which causes all damage done before to be undone and they turn into a stronger variant. Dispatching them when fighting two or more becomes annoying as one is evolving the other ones are keeping you busy.

The game is a big linear ride from start to finish. There will be a small handful of alternate paths but usually leads to a storage room and loops back on the main path. There is a lot of set pieces of walkway/wall shimmy/vent crawl simulator. Enemy variety is very small, basic guy, big basic guy, infector type which only infects one scripted person and no more. invisible crawler and exploder enemy which appears late in the game.

The four recycled mini-bosses which are introduced 2/3 way through the story are very much a disappointment with just dodge,shoot,dodge,shoot,melee when he is stunned and repeat until hes dead. This mini boss is easy to dodge cause his attack is only one combo so as long as your are holding left/right while not aiming he wont hit you. The last boss has being mentioned as a controller throwing rage and your mileage may vary but he is just a enhanced version of the 4 mini-bosses so dodge,shoot,break his shield,shoot and kill his minions he summons and repeat.

Story is pretty on the beat. The trailer mostly tells you what to expect.

Hardcore mode which was recently added is unfun and tedious in its entirely. Almost everything is skewed heavily in both directions. Your baton does less damage and ammo is very scarce and selling high value items is half its worth. Enemies mutate a lot faster and money is insanely scarce (what you would normally get 12 credits you get like 3). Ammo is scarce enough that you will have little choice but to let enemies evolve which resets the fight. Fights with a low level baton can take minutes. Is a little faster on new game plus harcore as you have upgrades to bring with you. This update adds nothing new or no reward for it. If your reason to return is for hardcore i would not recommend.

Contagion offers next to nothing new, finishers that you'll only see if you let enemies kill you and the permadeath is bare bones as well as skins for guns. The difficulty is a little above Hard with items worth less in store and sometimes enemies drop nothing. The achievement for doing Contagion without dying can be bypassed by backing up your local save file at start of each chapter and disable cloud save, if you die you replace your save file (didnt need to use this) which can save you a 7+ hour redo.

Riot mode can real be described as COD Zombies of Callisto Protocol, an arena of multiple rooms on two floors, defeat enemies to get credits to spend on upgrades. The damage scaling or the enemies is lowered as its expected they will throw a lot at you, enemies cant one shot you and they wont grab you in this mode (Crawler not included). Once you have a fully upgraded baton, grip, pistol + main gun you are basically very difficult to kill unless you play reckless. The optional challenges that pop up each round are interesting and give good bonuses (Health, Ammo, Credits, free upgrades etc). The new rage mechanic allows you to one shot enemies is also useful as enemies do come at you in a horde, very useful against the two head mini-bosses. Riot mode for €10 is as fun as how much time you want to spend and want to keep playing. For achievement hunters it should not take more then 1 to 2 goes and ~3 hours. The new player killing animations are fun to see.

Lastly the new dlc story mode Final Transmission is about 2-3 hours on your first play-through, not much new to expect regarding gameplay. The new Gravity Hammer weapon is gotten mostly at about the last hour of the dlc and is mostly acts as an overpowered baton. The new BioBot enemies arent intimidating and easily dispatched. The new hacking minigame with aligning the lights is basic red light green light alignment. THe combat mechanics for Callisto are very much hard baked into the game so dodge melee shot is always the winning formula. There is opening here to allow a possible Callisto Protocol 2 either through a game/novel/comic etc.

Recent updates have fixed stutter on my rig , playing at medium settings , 4k , 60fps on a 3070ti.

52 hours and 100% achievement completion with a PS5 controller i can give this review a fair shake with 2 normal clears and one hard clear under my belt.
All in all this is at its core a PSP game still with modern improvements (graphics, skip in battle cut scenes, small battle improvements to make more fluid etc.) the world design at its core is the same as the 2007 game. The pre-order for the Dark Materia is not a must as you will get better more powerful versions later in the game if you are doing side content. I never used it or felt the need to.

The story remains the same as well there is no updates to put it inline with the FF7 Remake bar the voice actors replacing their Advent Children counterparts. First play through on Normal should take ~20 hours including some sight seeing and some side missions on the side. If you are doing a New Game Plus being over leveled, skipping cutscenes and running straight to the end of chapters you will beat this game in no more then 3 hours (this is if you know where to go and you beat all bosses/enemies in one punch).

Combat is standard hack and slash with block dodge roll with the ability to cast spells via materia. The games slots or DMV (Digital Mind Wave) is the games limit breaker and upgrades as you unlock more through story progress or side missions. It works a lot like a slot machine and gives in battle buffs like cant take physical damage or your spells are free to use for 10 seconds etc. The world was good for its time with a small hub of Midgar City or a linear path in the chapter story missions. The Buster sword which you get at start of chapter 7 is very powerful has a proficiency level which is worth investing in as it unlocks powerful upgrades (do more then 9999 damage at first and further allowing you to ignore defense spells like barrier and mbarrier) but no point leveling it after 45% as no other progress is made.

The side missions which number to about 300 can take your time and difficulty does ramp up so expect beefy enemies if you are not prepared. Side Missions shouldnt be missed cause they do have hold the best end game gear. The game does have miss-able missions/side quests so make sure you've fully wrapped up before ending Chapter 7 (The game does warn you in fairness). The bad thing i can say about side ops missions is there is only like 5 different zones (Country side , industrial , mine , cave & desert). If you plan to blow through them be prepared to be bored by the constant 5 areas being seen. In the games defense it is a psp game through and through

New game+ is a thing but you do not keep your side-mission progress as well as your limit breakers (you do keep you DMV progress) you will have to go out and get them again. Your character level , materia and armor accessories you keep.

Worth it if you are a fan or the FF7 series and want to play more after remake. For those on the fence would wait for sale.

Ignoring the "Im doing my part" review memes this is a decent RTS for those looking for a €20 experience and is a fan of the movie Starship Troopers from 1997 film.
There is no skirmish, no co-op , no online and no pvp experience to be had and there is no bug campaign as well.
The game has about 20 missions which can be quickly summed up as a one and done. The difficulty is spread into 5 tiers with easy giving you a double damage and brutal making you only do half damage.

The campaign difficulty curve depending on your chosen difficulty starting off can make the first half of the story a real cake walk as long as you are attack moving and reinforce bases as needed. There is a lot of complaints about the bugs Scorpion unit being too OP and this can be felt in harder difficulties if you dont counter them correctly. Needing the right units to counter bug hives is needed as taking too long to clear bug hives can make the entire ordeal a slog. On harder difficulty clearing a bug hive can take 10min in some missions and unit positioning is important as units can obscure each others vision to shoot.

The units available are ready flexible from rifle troops to deal with basic bugs, missile troops for armored bugs and specialized units that can reinforce and buff your units.

For people looking for a real bug horde hold the line mission there is not a lot to be had apart from the second last mission (This is no longer a thing with the Chemical Trooper update adding a horde wave mode). The norm of holding choke points is important as well as using unit abilities like the engineer flame grenade to create impassable terrain for a time is useful. Certain abilities are useless like the rifle squad grenade upgrade while choosing the shotgun upgrade is a better option.

Unit positioning is important certain situations of blindly attack moving can get your units killed as they run into bugs to get a firing position. Elevation is key on certain maps as buildings and walls to hold off bugs.

For €25 there is fun to be had here but after clearing the campaign the only other way to enjoy it is on a harder difficulty or challenging yourself with not using X Y Z.

Cleared the game on hard/brutal

UPDATE: With the new roadmap , scenarios , campaign , achievements this is a game i will and am keen to revisit in the future. This game has a charm that i will add to my yearly revisits.

When i started i was a simple boy, unclean and unkept with out my father my friend took pity on me as i told him i was a dirty dirty boy without a male adult figure who would teach me the ancient technique of washing with the sacred bar of soap and sweet lavender smells of shampoo/conditioner.
Along comes a game, not just a game, THE GAME on a steel stallion who lifted me to the golden halls of valhalla of cleanliness. This was a false god for it was not my father and but a pale reflection of the game this was as i dodged dipped dived and dodged through many naked dads seeking there sons risking imprisonment in this infinite labyrinth of showers.
i can tell you it made me the man i was , ranting on and on like a naked child in a shower searching for their parental figure.
What i can tell you is this i am no longer unclean,

100% this on Xbox and now on Steam,I've covered achievements you know

Makes my face tired

That second mission of pushing a barrel separates the men from the boys.

Game is very good and true to the actual boardgame.
However would hold off purchase until a local mulit-player is added to the game and a fix to the afk players is implemented, dont expect all players to stay for a full game.

Only way to get a six player game with friends is to purchase six copies or join a discord for the game to LFG for a game.

Played a few games and got one that lasted 3 hours that had a lot of waiting time and another where a player de-sync and everyone had to wait 45min for the user to timeout. Do not expect to start a game and end it with everyone, its easy to grief people by holding up the game.

I would recommend Tabletop Simulator and grab the boardgame in the steam workshop

Online servers are still active but no one plays and Games for Windows Live is required if you want to do online with friends. The game itself is fun but the gameplay can be described as bland

Did not know this existed tilll yesterday. If you loved C&C 3 Tiberium Wars and Kanes Wrath. Then you'll love this game.

Frank Klepacki soundtrack is a win win.

Brilliant cutscenes and tech trees show you the ins and outs of each faction with lore