Recent reviews by GuerillaTactix

+ Ultra wide support
+ Lots of accessibility features
+ Visual setting actually give you a representation of what your changes will look like
+ Key remapping
+ PSN isnt even required to play the game.


- No FOV slider, cause me moments of motion sickness.

- Forum staff are ultra sensitive, Not a natural hair colour between them, leading to mass bans.

-PSN is not required to play the game. Look, PSN shouldn't be required, but Sony denied millions from having an opportunity to buy this game simply because of where they live. Sony has failed to create a work around for this and now they are straight up lying on their store front about PSN being required. I'm not sure if Sony is just dumb, if there is a currency issue which makes it better to just lie on the store page or is Sony is just this incompetent. Either way I feel bad those in the 3rd world who are being denied the ability to buy something because of policies which Sony doesn't even enforce.

Conclusion: I'm relatively early in this game so it not a full blown review. I did play it on PS5 so I know the annoying and boring parts to come. I also know about SBI shoving DEI into the game with the one character that is not like the others. The only thing I am not sure on is whether or not the PC performance will take a nose dive. For now it gets a thumb in the hole, but it could change.

Great game, constant crashing since latest patch. Do NOT buy, wait for the winter sale and see if there has been a patch to resolve the crashing issues. PC Specs listed in my profile if you want to see what I'm running, but its happening to all different PC configs.

Review in progress I guess?

Gameplay:

Its your standard almost Ubisoft open world type of game play. You get this huge map with enemy bases to clear out, people to save, random busy work activities to do. You level up as you kill enemies, upgrade your skills, buy new weapons and armour, etc. You know the drill, pretty standard stuff. The two things which have been enjoying so far is 1) There is no mini map. Essentially you follow a gust of wind to guide you to your next objective. Thus, while keeping with the whole objective check list game loop, while riding around on your horse, you're able to take in more of the world as opposed to following the quest marker in the corner of the screen. 2) In order to refill your health you need to block attacks, parry attacks, dodge attacks, kill opponents. I forget what its called, but doing those type of things fills up 3 circles above your health bar. Each time your health drops, you use a circle to refill part of your health. Its put me in a situation where my cheeks are getting clapped by 3-4 enemies all circling me and I'm unable to heal because I'm not doing the things that I need to be doing in combat.

Speaking of combat, its pretty much a meta game in the game, You could have a basic swordsman, a big brute with a mace, a fast rouge like character with two daggers and an enemy with a bow. You have to recognise the enemy attacking you, whether or not you can block their attack, whether or not you can parry their attack or if you have to dodge their attack. From there, you also need to recognise if they have a shield which would mean you need to break their defence and stagger them. Then from there you need to decide if there is time for a quick attack, a strong attack or a straight up mid level stabbing motion attack. The combat has you recognising your surroundings and forming tactics while in the heat of the battle. Its very fun.

The game also gives you the option to approach situation from a sneaky stand point or a samurai honourable stand point of facing your opponents head on. If you choose to go head on, you can challenge the best warrior of the enemy party to a standoff duel. Its basically holding down a button (in my case Y) until the enemy starts their attack then releasing the button. If you time the start of the enemy attack correctly you'll pull out your blade and slice them from crotch to forehead before the can land a blow. Then its the combat detailed above for the remaining enemies. Honestly, the standoff was cool at first, but after 10 or so times it became rather tiring. I think there is also a morality system built into the decision to stealth assassinate your enemies or face their challenge head on. At least that is what the game is leading me to believe.

Sound:

This one is going to be short. It sounds good to me! Both with headphones on and playing through my speakers, the sounds clanging, the way your shoes sound wet when coming out of a body of water, the screams in the distance, the sound of an arrow wooshing by your head. It all sound immersive, combining this with a 21:9 aspect ratio, when I play the game nothing else matters.

Controls:

I can only speak to the Xbox controller hear as I have yet to do m/kb. For the most part it all works out well, the only slight gripe I have had is that it appears the actions that were used for the PS5 controller have wonky inputs. For example, to activate the wind gust for direction, you have to press right on the Dpad while flicking the right stick up. It seems simple enough, but when I first attempted this action, I entered the photo mode somehow. (user error) There also needs to be button mapping. As of right now, the most you can do is download a steam controller template for the game.

Performance

For my money, the game seems pretty well optimised. Playing on a 2080ti at 3440 x 1440 I was able to play on high setting, with shadows at medium and Depth of Field turned off + Motion blur turned off ( settings I turn off in every game) and I was able to average between 70 and 80 frames with DLSS turned off. On a 3090, with the same settings, minus the DLSS, I was able to average around 90 frames with the same settings. There were a few drops here and there, depending on where you are on the map, but I was able to stay above 60 consistently. The most taxing part of the game thus far has been the open battle where flaming arrows are hitting the ground as two armies battle it out.

When it comes to the 21:9 aspect ratio, for the most part it is implemented well. That being said, in a few cut scenes the top and bottom of the screen had black bars. In another all four sides of the screen had black bars, however the aspect ratio still remained 21:9. These are minor issues though and it is possible the issues may be address in the inevitable patches that come in the days and weeks following AAA game releases.

PSN Account Linking + The Regions Unable to Purchase the Game:

This is the massive elephant in the room. In the Steam forums for the game I have had people try to convince me to review bomb the game because of this decision by Sony and I have had others try to get me give this game a positive solely to stick it to those people telling me what to do (irony much?). This all comes in between people calling me out for buying the game and telling me to refund the game... (Too late now)

Here is my stance on the whole thing. I won't be linking a PSN account, which sadly means I can't play legends or get the random cosmetic things Sony is trying to convince people to link up for. While Sony thankfully isnt requiring me to yet add another launcher just to play games on my Steam account, the overall idea of having to have multiple log ins just to play a game is becoming annoying. I think its disgusting that I have to essentially go through multiple hoops just to play a game which I spent over $90 Canadian Monopoly dollars on. I have a Steam account, I bought the game on Steam, let me use my Steam account to play 100% of the game. Instead I have to keep track that the single player portion of the game can be played without linking a PSN account, but online requires a PSN account. I can also play the game on my Steam Deck despite it being listed as unsupported, but if I want to link my PSN account and play online, I need to be on windows PC because of the anti cheat not being supported on Steam Deck. Like bruh, why does it feel like in a few years I'll need an excel sheet to keep track of how I'm supposed to play my games?

Its also straight up cheeks that people in unsupported regions can't even experience the single player portion of this game, which is supposed to be around 60 hours on a 100% run. This "optional" PSN linking has removed their ability to even purchase the game because Sony doesn't offer this "optional" account to link in the vast majority of the world. Which I question why Sony would even push such a thing knowing that for whatever reason they are unwilling or unable to provide the services people want to them. This very month alone Sony proved cross play is possible without the need of a PSN account. Anyway, I hope that there is a resolution for the people who want to play this game but are being excluded by a corporation in an industry that brags at nauseum about diversity, equity and inclusion... Unless you live in one of the 121 countries where PSN isn't a service being offered for your "optional" linking.

Conclusion:

This is appears to be a well made game by Sucker Punch. Nixxes appears to have done a relatively superb job at porting the game. I am seeing some issues here and there on the Steam forum, but with PC gaming there are some many different configurations that problems tend to arise. I personally am experiencing very minor annoyances and there are a few things that I would like to be changed / added. (see the controls section)

This game gets a positive from me.

No forced PSN account linking.

(Review text hidden)

It's a fun game, but I doubt I will have access to the game in a few years. Thus I suggest people pirate the game before Ubisoft shuts down the servers and removes the game from your library.

IMPRESSIONS, NOT A REVIEW:

Positives

+ Character creation is very deep.
+ Lots of fallout references, right down to the music and vault door opening after you create a character
+ Skills and perks system actually surprisingly deep for a Western RPG
+ Ship building is satisfying... but there will be some negatives about it in the negatives section.
+ Ship combat is fun, even if the combat does feel like a bootleg Star Wars Squadrons. Plus VATS made it to ship combat!
+ Gun play feels solid. Its not COD levels or even Wolfenstien, but it feels passable and not as clunky as other Bethesda open world games.

Negatives

- CPU intensives with seemingly nothing happening. Like honestly, there are no cars, just people walking and for some reason this game is more CPU intensive than Cyberpunk.

- A lack of DLSS. Thanks to the AMD partnership or Bethesda just being stubborn, depending on which side of the two companies you believe, DLSS did not make it into this game. Instead what we got was FSR and only FSR 2. Thus unlike DLSS, this version of FSR does not tackle frame rate jitter.

- Lack of Nvidia drivers. This one isnt on Bethesda, but we're reviewing the game here and since Nvidia has yet to release any new drivers we're stuck with old drivers and a lack of attention given to Nvidia users by Bethesda. Therefore, unless you have a high end PC with the top tier card from either the 30-40 series, you're likely going to be unable to power though this technical disaster of a port.

- There is no FOV slider. Pretty self explanatory. Due to this, 3rd person is a must for me and even then I sometimes find myself getting motion sickness with the sudden drops and narrow FOV.

- Stealing a ship feels pointless. To buy a ship is expensive, like buying a house in 2023. Thus your other option is to steal one. The only problem is, in order to upgrade a stolen ship you have to register that ship, which would be the equivalent to trying to rent a house in 2023. Registering a ship is damn near as expensive as buying a ship. Thus you're stuck in this almost endless loop of stealing a slightly better ship than you have to use it to steal a slightly better ship of the last ship your stole until you find one that could be solid enough as the ships for sale. Then you can sell your life away to buy that ship and upgrade it. Its fun, but ultimately a grind which feels pointless when you sit back and think about it.

- The story is a slow burn. Some may like this, some may not. I look at it from a backlog perspective. How do you know if you want to play a game or drop a game. If it doesnt hook you within the first hour, its usually a drop. This game hasn't hooked me in the first 11 hours. Space is cool setting and there is a lot of busy work, but its many open world games have cool settings and busy work. They also hook you early.


Overall Impression thus far:

The ground work is there, but the lack of a day one patch mixed with a lack of support from both Nvidia and Bethesda for anyone with Nvidia GPUs makes this a no go right now. We're in the start of the holiday gaming line up release with two more steam sales to go before the end of this year. I'm not saying to not buy this game, I'm just saying that if you have another game that you are excited for maybe buy and play that first. Give Bethesda and Nvida time to patch the game that is playable for people who don't buy the 90 version of video cards every year they release. You may even catch the game on sale.

This is a cellphone model game, There is nothing here.

The game play is fun, but how many times over the course of this game can you play online matches or exhibition mode? All of the content is locked behind multiple season passes. Thus to get a whole roster you need to buy 3-4 season passes at over $20 a pop just to play as wrestlers, without dated attires and entrances in even more exhibition matches. The career mode is a joke, a trash pile, a waste of time. I see what they were trying to go for with the multiple branching paths thing. When you can't be bothered to add voice acting and instead use text and a JPEG background for everything, it doesn't exactly make me want to play the career more than once.

5 / 10... It functions, but its not the 90s anymore. I'm not going to get pizza and play random matches with the boys over and over all damn day. At least release the DLC with character + addition stories for each character. The lack of tangible content is laughable. A bunch of mini games that the average person has zero interest in. It functions though and could be fun for a day if you can get it on a Deep DEEP discount.

Leave Children Alone.

Steam Deck impressions

Right off the bat I want to say my PC set up is listed in my profile so I have a more than capable PC to run this game. That being said, I have a Steam Deck and I figured others would be reviewing on full fledged PCs so here is my opinion thus far of the game on Steam Deck. I would also like to state that I did NOT play this game with my steam deck "docked" as the official dock is not released and and if I were going to play this on an external screen, I might as well just play on my desktop PC.

Visuals:

I played the game with both the in game and system refresh rate set to 30hz at 720p, native resolution. I've averaged around 2 hours and 30 minutes of run time before my Steam Deck needed another charge. Take it for what it is, but in my opinion that is a relatively decent time frame for a game that looks like this. Speaking of visuals, if you have played the Epic version of this game, the exact same settings are there. There is no exclusive full screen, there are no advanced visual settings, hell there are no medium settings. You have your choice of "borderless full screen" or windowed. You have standard 16:9 resolutions, not wide screen or ultra wide resolutions to select. Your only setting are textures (Low or high) and shadows (low or high). You also have an SD or HDR option and brightness, along with the frame rate. Note: I did not bother to try anything above 60 as the Steam Deck's refresh rate doesn't support 90 or 120hz in handheld mode.

I will say that while entering the reactor level of Mako Reactor One the visuals felt like a bit of a downgrade from what I remember playing on the Epic version. I used the exact same setting, which are high textures and low shadows. I may just be the colours of the Steam Deck's screen compared to my desktop monitor. That is not to say the game looks bad or anything, actually I found myself amazed that I was playing the remake on a handheld. Its just something to keep in mind that its possible that Square Enix downgraded the visuals a tad bit while trying to improve performance.

With the game locked to a 30hz refresh rate, the game seemed to hold the 30hz target. In fact the only time where I experienced any major slowdown was during the opening cut scene of the train pulling into the Mako Reactor 1 train station. The transition between cut scene and game play thus far has maintained a solid frame rate and during game play with all of the effects and explosions I have yet to experience any more frame drops. Of course, if there are frame drops in the game, you can mitigate them by going to properties and changing the game from DX12 to DX11. (See google for instructions on what exactly to do)

Controls

The Steam Deck automatically gave me the same control layout as Playstation only with, well Xbox button prompts. There are also community layouts that can accommodate you if you'd prefer to play with the track pads or need any additional accessibility controls. (shout out to the Steam Deck community)

Sound

I played with the sound turned up fully on my Steam Deck. Playing the game in such a manner was enjoyable. I'm not actually sure if there is rumble support for this game as I couldn't find it in the settings, but I could feel and hear every slash, gun shot and explosion. I am still impressed by the sound of the Steam Deck.

Overall Impressions Thus far:

The game is a lazy port on PC, there is no denying that and there doesn't appear to be much upgrades and fixes from the Epic version. All that being said, thus far its been an enjoyable experience on the Steam Deck. The game came out verified on launch, the controls all work, the battery life is actually good for a game that looks like this in my opinion and the frame rate seems to be more stable compared to how it launched on Epic. Not to mention that Square is giving a bit of a discount to buy the game at launch. If you wanting to play this game, but are worried about how it will do on the Steam Deck, thus far it performs adequately and looks stunning. These could be famous last words, but as of right now (and I'm only in Chapter 2) I would say this game is a worthy purchase if you're a fan of Final Fantasy 7 and wanting to play it on the Deck.