Recent reviews by SkunkZi

The game itself is pretty great, even topping it's prior entry (The Citadel). But its the attention to detail that really wins me over:

-Enemies can bleed out/go down and reach for their pistol, as well as have heavy breathing, crawling movement, and agonizing noises.
-Holding a weapons binding key (number row) opens the chamber/mag to show ammo
-You can pick up discarded, unused bullets and mags
-When turning or jumping, the avatar in bottom left shifts her eyes
-Getting and losing armor phases in and out of the same avatar
-Holding fire on the snub .44 mag, and then right clicking to ADS does western-style rapid fire shooting.
-Hitting "space to start" before the stage loads results in an error buzzer noise
-You can press V on your melee axe to repair it, and it plays a sharpening animation

This is just a couple of the subtle qualities that really enhances the gameplay.

Of course I get the shopping cart with the bad wheel...

21yrs later and I still suck at air control.

Just as good as i remember it from the PS2.
On another note, this game is LEAGUES easier when you're not a 6yr old and know how to lock on.

I just spent 3hrs building with legos. I might as well have gone to my parent's and pulled out the ole tupperware storage bins of legos.

Not really sure about the microtransactions since I got the Awesome Edition from HB, but when was the last time you sat anywhere for 3hrs just building with little bricks, being entertained the entire time?

I shouldn't have to do a guess-and-check approach in settings for every single race to decide what settings feel the least like my wheels are butter above 60mph.

Place all obstacles on the spirals.

Super Earth is a selectable planet.

Comrads... I don't think this is one we win.

There comes a time in missions where you go from surviving and completing objectives, to just treading and waiting for the inevitable. At what point in this campaign, I ask you, do we just start treading?

After working for the DRG, I thought I knew what overbearing bosses were.
...time to go back into that cave.

Absolute gem of a game.
I had a blast playing through this game and 100%ing it on a single playthrough. It didn't feel like any of it was a drag, the characters had quirky personalities and lines. The combat was fairly simple, but fit well for its style, and I actually ended up using numerous consumables in this game instead of just "i'll need this for later" hoarding them. The side quests were interesting, the minigames were super fun, the world itself was very unique, and I haven't played a game that had the world quiet like this one. I love the aspect of it going from a 2D pixel sidescrolling action, to a 2.5D pixel, to having a full 3D open roam area. Even the Mysterious Game Console ministory was a fun addition to play through.

My recommendation is to play on the harder difficulty, as well as do all the sidequests on the first playthrough to get the full experience. It is by no means a hard game, and I feel the added difficulty adds to the combat to help it be immersive instead of just a rapid click slaughterfest.