Recent reviews by Raiseo

Janky, but very fun and unique, especially with friends.

I love this game, this is a love letter to the 90s and I'm all here for it.
How did this do badly?!? Please continue the development, I will buy all your future DLC.

TL;DR: If you like 90s, Payday, Miami, cheesy movies and light management/roguelite mechanics, absolutely get this. What an absolute hidden gem.

Full review:
My first exposure to the game was seeing a review describing how bad it was, so I was put off initially, but I saw it on humble choice and wanted to try it for myself.
Boy was I right, I think this is one of those games that either did a bad job in marketing, or it's polarizing in general, you will either love it or hate it.

It's similar to Payday if you've played that, you do a bunch of heists trying to conquer the city in a roguelite campaign. You have a light management system where you commit soldiers to either attacking, defending territories or acquiring intel for heists and then you have your crew where there is your Boss + any crew you pick up during the game.
The crew can level up and become better at what they do, you can buy and equip them and there's stronger and weaker versions.

Stealth gameplay is great, you have a strike system where you're encouraged to play it clean, subduing guards and civilians and once you're done securing a map, you can holster your weapon to not arouse any more suspicion and focus on looting. If you get spotted, you're not penalized that much (except a select few stealth only missions that will fail and make you extract) and you can switch to loud.
Going loud is a lot of fun, it's a good first person shooter experience, you can reload in ADS, you can slide, all the modern things one might expect. Again, if you've played Payday, it's similar, cops come in waves while you're trying to loot and pass bags to each other, but every character can have 2 bags at the cost of their primary weapon/speed (this can be mitigated with perks and consumables).

The best QoL is that you can command your bots to loot and subdue civilians or guards, practically delegating what you don't want to do. They even lockpick or smash the cases depending on if you're loud or quiet.
You can also switch characters mid-game, if you want to fine tune their position or use appropriate gadgets.
You can also speed up the drill and saw with a little minigame, they don't break on their own, but enemies can break them for you to restart.

And yes you heard that correctly, bots are actually useful in stealth, you can give them orders for multiple takedowns, you can park them at a risky place like guarding a subdued enemy, and they will automatically subdue if they're spotted.

The campaign is randomized everytime and everytime you get a new cutscene and a new storyline with events, heists and such.
After a while you kind of know the formula of how these come in, but that doesn't diminsh the fun.
You can bring your boss, Travis Baker, on the field of every mission, you will probably play as him most of the time, he will actually give you more loot and can be used twice a day, BUT you are fielding your king. This means, that if you fail and get everyone downed, or Baker gets shot too many times, you are DONE. Your whole campaign will fail. I love this risk & reward, not only does he not require a cut of the profits (because he's your persona), he will essentially, after some upgrades, become the best character you have and giving you bonus loot to boot.
I've lost so many campaigns to this because I am greedy, but I accept my defeat every time, I could've played differently, or just sent my crew, but I sent my boss in.

Also, after every failed campaign, Chuck Norris does a little quip either taunting you or telling you to learn from your mistakes. How can you be mad at that?

Let's also talk about the stellar vibes, this is a 90's B movie in fictional Miami and I love it. There's a lot of famous actors involved, your nemesis is effing Chuck Norris, your fighting captain is Michael Rooker, there's Danny Trejo in the game, Kim Basinger and a lot more. I also grew to like Michael Madsen in the role of Baker after a while.
Everyone just spews one liners every single line, it's silly, it's great, some of the deliveries are iffy, but it's so cheesy that after a while I stopped caring.
The music also cements this perfectly, Freestyler (Wakamakaphone), Blaze of Glory, and other iconic songs.

I won't lie, the game feels a little rough around the edges sometimes, but it's full of great moments, good ideas, it's clear the devs were aiming for good, replayable FUN.
There's also many silly ideas in gadgets, like the lewd magazine you can throw at guards and they "wander off", then there's spy gadgets and katanas, and more!

My only complaint is that the roguelite campaign can't be played multiplayer, that would elevate this game so much, I would play it with my friends.
The multiplayer isn't bad per se, you can do heists and other arcade modes, but the campaign is where the game shines.

Game is good, great even, but not excellent.
I'm enjoying my time but there is a lot of jank, small bugs that break immersion but they can be tolerated, nothing game breaking so far.

Performance issues probably tied to Unreal Engine, but also poor optimization in general.

Gameplay is good but there are questionable design choices, which make the game feel ever so slightly disjointed, I guess it makes sense considering what is happening in Ukraine. However, these small inconsistencies can be fixed with mods, in that sense it feels a little bit like a Bethesda game, the developers gave the meat and potatoes, and then gave the ingredients for the gravy to the community. Even small mods elevate the game from a solid 7 to an 8.

In general, the release of 1.0 feels like a hidden early access copy, like a 0.9, but it's nowhere near as bad as other launches we had in the past, it's relatively decent. Patches are also coming in at a steady pace.

Reading from the path notes - THIS WAS JUST FIXED
I absolutely detest one mechanic however which I guess might be patched at a later date, but it's kind of core to the game right now. Sometimes enemy squads spawn around you VERY close to you, I've had a few instances where I was clearing out a complex of buildings and a team of enemies spawned behind me, in a location I already cleared, which is also walled off... I try to roleplay it as a team sneaking up on me, but sometimes the spawn in is very blatant.

All in all, I recommend Stalker 2, it could've been much worse to be honest and we're starved for good immersive sims.
If you're on the fence tho, wait for some patches.

UPDATE AFTER 28 HOURS:
Guys the game is super fun, you can play four or you can play two or whatever number.
Me and my friend just did 31 objectives with a fully decked ship in a campaign lasting 4 hours, just the two of us. It was epic.
Devs also fixed the turrets that shoot automatically so they're more precise now.

Game definitely recommended and I would love more content, even if paid.

FIRST REVIEW AT 3 HOURS:
Everyone is saying how difficult this is in solo or two players.
Just bought it and played two players, we got to the boss on our third try with barely any skills unlocked and no prior knowledge.

I think the difficulty is fine, don't get me wrong it's hard, but not nearly as impossible as people make it out to be.

Other than that, the game is fun, I've always wanted a space roguelite to play with friends and this is the best I found so far.
Would not mind more ships tho, not only different configurations but full fledged ships.

Remnant II is an incredibly well made game that oozes charisma and passion.
I liked Remnant I, it was original and pretty good, well, I'm happy to say they improved on the formula in a lot of ways.

People describe this as dark souls with guns, while in part true, I feel Remnant has its own identity at this point, it's far more forgiving of your deaths, but doesn't pull punches when it needs to. Combat is fluid, responsive and satisfying. You can choose your weapons of choice, your class and subclass and off you go. These are all switchable by the way and I feel like you're encouraged to experiment with what works, a lot of classes have fun perks and combos, some work better than others, but I haven't found a straight up bad one. The myriad of rings and amulets you find during your travels practically allows you to fine tune your build however you want, not to mention the relics, runes, prisms, weapon mods, and so forth.

The story is pretty straightforward and a nice homage to Remnant I if you played that one, without spoiling too much you will become kind of like an adventurer exploring alien and distant worlds and I just love this premise, as do the devs too it seems. There's a Sci-Fi world, there's a Forest/Spiritual world, there's decadent victorian London with vampires, werewolves and stabby poor people (Bloodborne on PC?!?!) and many more. Why bother with one tileset? Put them all in!
Your overall campaign is kind of randomized in these adventures, which you can also reroll outside of the campaign, because get this: There's multiple storylines that you can have with a different overarching quest and different side quests/dungeons in between.
For example, if me and my friend both start an adventure in Yaesha, I have a mission to either kill or side with the Ravager against the Doe while he can be teleported to the Empresses' Court, where he can do her bidding or rebel against her.
Different storylines, different rewards, different maps (they are kind of randomized), but we can experience both if we join each other worlds!
Once you're done with the adventure, you can reroll the world and see what you get again!
It feels like RP oneshots where you generate an adventure, spend 5-6 hours there and then move on and do it again somewhere else.

Another point, the secrets, man. The game is packed to the brim with puzzles, secret passages, hidden tunnels, an invisible wall, different choices during quests, traps, events that can go either way. All of these give you something unique and I just can see that dev giggling while he hides a secret within a secret, yes that is a thing. All in all, we're always on the lookout and it's fun to discover these.

It's just enjoyable, there's so many original and good ideas in the game, be it weapons, stories or boss fights. Boss fight mechanics especially are all memorable to me, even the mid bosses and the smaller bosses. I don't want to spoil much, but there's one that made me really laugh. A decadent "thing" invites you to banquet for the new King (this is in the victorian world), but the meat is rancid and spoiled. You and your other players oblige and you get taken by the "Ravenous" status, which disables your "estus". During this section, you get swarmed by enemies and you can only heal eating the rancid meat or human slaves that run around... when my friend fell, I went there to pick him up and MY CHARACTER ATE HIM like a cannibal/vampire instantly killing him! I even got a new trait card for that! I loved that.
Another boss is inspired by the king in yellow, and so on, so forth. If it's fun or sounds interesting, it's been added which is why I say it feels like a labor of love, they clearly had fun with it.

As a last point, multiplayer is seamless and effortless which is another big plus, you can progress someone else's world, you can progress yours, you can just generate a oneshot adventure... and the scaling has always been good so far, doesn't matter if one character is stronger than the other.

I knew Remnant II was going to be fun because I enjoyed the first one, but it's even better than I imagined and I applaud this studio once again.

We are so back.

Nominated as my choice for 2024 GOTY and Oustanding Story-rich game.

This game perfectly scratches that itch I have for a tactical game where you get a bunch of random peeps you start to care about, games like XCOM, FFT or Darkest Dungeon. One of those games where if you play Ironman, you will lament your favourite unit dying to an unlucky crit or an overconfident (aka stupid) decision you made.

The levelling system is similar to Fire Emblem and the game has different inspirations it wears on its sleeve, but the combination of these mechanics truly make it shine. This game oozes labor of love vibes in every choice and decision that went into its development, yeah the art is a bit hit or miss granted, but the combination of classes, stats, skills, traits, equipment and mechanics truly make it shine as an incredible game to dive into.

I'm not going to explain all the things I enjoy about this game, because this review would be too long, let me tackle a few and nominate some others.
One thing I like is that every character has its own stat growth that depends on their talent for a stat, their traits and their class, technically you want to get them a better class asap (by reaching stat requirements) so their stat growths are better and they get stronger. The system is random (you can reroll once), but seeing a character with 110% get a +2 is pure dopamine.
Another mechanic I like is Bravery Points, it's like a morale system where your units get buffs the more confident they are... but if you want, you can spend these points for extra actions or extra effects.
For example, you have 1 action for movement and 3 for moves, let's say your mage wants to have a particularly deadly turn, so you don't move, use your best spell which costs 3 actions, then spend 20 BP to get 2 more actions and with the movement you didn't spend that's another 3 action spell you can cast. So double spell turn! You pay your price in morale but with devastating results that can turn the tide of battle in your favour, making these very cool or very desperate turns.
Another thing I enjoy is the fact that the adventurers can form rivalries, friendships and even relationships to really make you care about them. My star celebrity strongest high mage of the guild keeps rejecting my aloof paladin (sorry buddy!).

Last but not least, the developer included a lot of tools to customize the difficulty and some mechanics you might not enjoy so kudos for that.
I went into this game knowing I would probably enjoy it, I didn't know I would enjoy it THIS MUCH, it has become one of my favourites in the genre, even if it can seem unpolished or quirky at times, the meat of a great game is here.
Some people will say you can't compare it with the bigger titles, I say I can and I will, this game has a unique charm and some mechanics that you can't find elsewhere.
I think the overwhelmingly positive praise is well earned, I recommend this and will be playing it a lot in the future, especially after we get that mod support.

I usually enjoy a challenge, but I feel this game is way overtuned, I've won a few games but I've lost the majority of them against the first two adversaries.
I feel like I only have a chance if I specifically build for that adversary (I've tried less desirable combos that I wanted to try and I just kept losing very fast).
It's a bit fiddly in real life so I'm grateful for the digital version and it's not like it's the digital developer's fault, althought I would appreciate some house rules to make it easier (granting 1 black die if we so choose for example).
It's a bit like Spirit Island that you're trying to go over the curve, scaling harder than your adversary, but it feels much harder and somehow less impactful when you do get there.

It's a bit weird because your adversary starts the strongest at start, while you're weakest, so you have to muster whatever you got to confront him to weaken him, but at the same time he also gets a little stronger with time.
It's a balancing act, you can't confront him because you need to get more dice, but he's the strongest right now and he's stomping you so you need to confront him asap to get some breathing room.

All in all good adaption and enjoyable game, a bit rules heavy for being so small and the difficulty might turn off some people.
While I love the theme of this game, I think I prefer One Deck Dungeon which from what I remember is a little bit more forgiving and gives you a more gradual challenge even with unoptimal combos.

So, I've tried this game in 2024 after all the fixes and drama died down.

Honestly? The game gets a bad rep, even today people tell you to "just play Left 4 Dead 2" when I was researching if it was worth it.
If you judge the game by today's version, I'd say it hits all the right notes.
Let's talk about the card system for example which I enjoy immensely.

There's two parts for this, one for your campaign and one for your character.
The campaign one is like a Director playing and randomizing cards against you, the more you advance, the more cards and different modifiers you get for a specific level.
This level has exploding ridden (zombies), nastier Stalkers and what's this? Smaller health pool and a regenerating health for everyone? Interesting. How about the whole map being covered in razorlike worms? It changes the gameplay and makes it very replayable, forcing you to stay on your toes. I enjoy the randomness of it, especially on higher difficulties.

Then how about the cards for your cleaners? (survivors)
You can make custom decks to personalize your experience. Want to be the group's healer? Maybe find more grenades? Maybe disable ADS, stack some run speed and play with hipfire? A combination of all of these?
You can, and I enjoy it immensely, there's even cards that apply to the whole group. The customization you do pre-campaign and during the campaign by buying upgrades, new cards to add to your deck and attachments to your favourite weapons, it's what I always wanted from a team survival shooter.

Look, I'm not a purist, I'll be forever grateful to Valve for releasing L4D2 but I needed something with fresh ideas, roguelite elements and a more involved gameplay. I'm enjoying this game a lot more than I thought I would and I keep finding new ideas the devs keep throwing at me and say "Wow that's really cool! That's original! Why didn't this game have more success??".
I would argue L4D2 is an almost perfect design in balance and casual gameplay, but if you're willing to overlook the negativity and try something new, there's a pretty cool and original game here that you might enjoy.
Shame that we will probably never see B4B2.

Adorable raid simulator to play with friends, inspired by FFXIV and it shows.

The fact that it incorporates roguelike elements and the fun of raiding without all the tedium of farming for weeks to get the proper gear in order is fantastic.
A lot of the "focus on your rotation while dodging and doing mechanics" feels a lot like home to me, it really nails down the feeling it wanted to go for.

At the same time, it's looks easy for anyone to pick up, but hard to master.

Good work! I hope you get every success and I'm hyped to see more content and classes.