Fabricator Locum Gulyuk FerroTiC 最近的评测

This DLC episode/mission is a fundamental change from original campaign and previous DLC maps.
Original missions were split into three to four chapters, with separate safe rooms and progression. After you completed the chapter, you could heal, rearm, change weapons, perks, etc. This new DLC map "Terminal error" was designed as one huge mission without separate chapters and safe rooms. Just one long mission from beginning to end, combining all mission objectives into one. In original campaign missions, you normally have 1 zombie hand, 1 document, 1 comic and 0-1 heroic actions. This DLC has 11 documents, 4 comics, 4 zombie hands and 2 heroic actions in single mission. It takes about 2 hours to complete whole mission. Since there are no safe rooms, you cannot save your progress and play another time, you have to complete it in one run.
This also means that your perks that are "per-run" (e.g enable you to get-up after you've been downed), are less effective.

Overall, map design is not bad, it is semi-open map, non-linear progression (you have to backtrack to previous locations a lot), you can diverge or split your group for each objective. You are free to roam and explore most of the map from beginning, you are not limited to corridors. Map includes lot of gauntlets (survive ambush) and arenas, fights in open terrain and indoor combat. It can get messy if your team splits due to shear size of map, and someone starts the gauntlet. Late stage encounters get increasingly harder and complex, hitting you with armoured vehicles, skull cannons, electric grenadiers, lots of heavy elites and a battalion of snipers. For some reason, there really is a lot of snipers in this map.

Not the worst designed map in the game, but by far the most frustrating map that I have played throughout the campaign. Mostly due to how long it takes to complete it.
EDIT:typos

Please read the complete review to see for whom this game is ment and why.

Tartarus gets often mistakenly compared to modern horror-survival type games like Alien:Isolation and Penumbra, but instead is much more related to older Myst and Zork series, point&click puzzle genre, which were quite common and popular back in the 90’s. Trying to label Tartarus as a ‘horror-survival game with a twist’ is doing more harm than good. It isn’t a survival game like Alien. It isn’t a jump scare horror Penumbra. The part where you move around, interact with the environment, talk with other crew members and read ship logs, is just a shell to explain the background story. In the old days, this part would likely be just a wall of text and some static screens or simple pre-rendered animations, but now we have the technology to modernize the story telling part. Thank you Unreal 4 and Unity engine.

The real core of the game present you with puzzles that you have to solve in order to proceed further. They aren’t simple task encountered in SOMA, where player has to press switches in the correct order; they aren’t riddles like in The Station, where player has to read clues and connect the dots (fyi: nothing wrong with that kind of challenges). Puzzles in Tartarus are full-scale challenges, that may take an hour or two to solve each. In most cases, player has to interact with in-game computer, connect or launch programs through in-game terminal (command line interface – CLI), figure out what the problem is and solve the problem through logic, mathematics and brain storming. Excel is your friend, so is pen and paper. Prepare to stare to a screen for a long time, asking yourself ‘dafuq am I suppose to do’ and a lot of WTF moments in general. Common occurrence for old games, but quite uncommon for Call of Duty generation.

Sometimes you have navigate through terminal, find the correct folder, open designated .txt file, copy the parameters from stored backup and paste them into production program. Other puzzles task you to ventilate the storage room by manipulating valves, changing permissions and security locks. In next puzzle you have to hack into a computer and decipher a MORSE code. The most challenging puzzles will need you to calculate correct power values and parameters to cool and shut down the nuclear reactor. You heard that right.

So, puzzles are core of the game. They are the greatest feature of the game, but also its downfall. The solution to any puzzle you encounter is ALWAYS simple, straightforward and linear, but finding the clues and methods is not. Opening a a pressure valve through manipulation is not a hard challenge, although it doesn’t make sense that valve will only react to pressure 16.998 Pa, but not 16.999 or 17.0 Pa. To complicate things even further, some puzzles requires of you to input all parameters to be correct in order to solve equation, if any of those 8 numbers is wrong, you only get a ‘FAIL’ message. There is no intermediary step. Combine this with very limited instructions with principle RTFM in mind (if you don’t know what RTFM means, this game probably isn’t meant for you) and command line interface from DOS era – same work flow, different names for commands; you are left pretty much on your own to solve the puzzles. Not holding your hands anywhere. It helps that you know how to use DOS/unix terminal, the basic of IP topology and most importantly, some physic lessons from the elemental school.

For most modern games that would try to integrate this type of CLI puzzles, I would slap a negative review instantly. Not this game. Even though for the most part of my gameplay, I was raging and nodding my head, explaining my wife why I am walking through the flat mumbling along about reactor rod heights. This game is different. It abruptly requires you to forget most of the modern gameplay styles and return to the past games and computer reality, where you had a problem, and you had to brain storm through it. I love it.


I would only recommend the game to specific subset of gamers, definitely a minority, because developers had the guts to do something unique and fresh (even though they failed at the execution). It is an unique experience, but not a very good game unfortunately. I applaud the developers for doing something different, but also slap their hands for making such obvious mistakes. Next time please do better!
Game is also available for Linux native, which is a big high-five!

PS: I intentionally did not mention and left out the last boss fight. It never happened.

About the port: SOMA is one of the best Linux ports I have ever managed to play. It was a Day-1 release, great graphics and performance even on RadeonSI open drivers. If you are Linux enthusiast and looking for holiday play of non-competitive, story-driven game, SOMA is a good candidate for your money.

About the game: The closest thing I could relate SOMA to, is legendary System Shock series. Story is surprisingly similar, with a cybernetic protagonist, unknown environment and AI entities similar to Shodan/Xerxes. It is a survival story-driven single player game, where you have to solve basic puzzles and environmental obstacles to progress through levels and advance the story. It is an enjoyable experience with some horror elements. The difference in gameplay compared to System Shock or Undying, is that you have no weapons, inventory or meanings to defend yourself. It is not a shooter like Alien: Isolation or even Thief: Deadly Shadows. You have to use the environment in your favour and sneak through the level. There are only couple of monsters in the whole game, but they are more like nuisance than real opponents though.
The only thing that bothered me was the lack of ingame journal/log/notes, where you could check for active quest status. Sometimes you have to find specific items or put them in a specific slot, however instructions are often given through hints or written stickies on the wall. After the dialog is through, you have no way to check the status and you are left in the dark (or check the walkthrough).

Anyway, SOMA is a decent linear story driven survival game, perfect for chilly winter holidays.

Mechwarrior Online came with great promises and expectations in 2012, hoping to revive the abandoned genre of Battletech, which was one of the most influential genres back in the 90's. There hasn't been a real Mechwarrior PC game since year 2000, so when the MW:O was announced, hype was real and genuine. The developers of Mechwarrior Online, PGI, stated that MW:O is going to be a credible representation of the rich Battletech universe, with tactical combat, simulator experience of piloting a battlemech, including a large, community driven territory expansion and character development ecosystem, combined with real-time lore timeline progression. PGI called their game “thinking man's shooter”, due to how deep the battlemech customization, information warfare and combat roles are compared to any other arena shooters in the market.

They weren't entirely wrong, but MWO left a lot of things to be desired. Game has been available for 3 years, however many of the promised features are not in the game, will never be implemented, or are bare bone functional.

MWO offers two game modes, available to any player. First mode, called “Quick Play”, is an arena game team deathmatch mode, where a matchmaker puts you on a random map of 13, with random people within your skill pool. There is nothing particularly worth mentioning, it is a Team Deathmatch of 12 players per team with no respawns. A quick, straightforward game mode, with high ingame currency and experience gain ratio. It is a recommended game mode for new players, until they grasp the basics of the game, then maybe join a clan and select their faction.
Second game mode is called “Faction Play”, previously known as Community Warfare. This is an advanced game mode, meant for intermediate players. You can play it as a novice, but you will be severely handicapped by doing that. FP/CW is a team deathmatch with objectives, where a team has to defend or destroy a mission objectives on the map to win the match. It is a slightly deeper in regards to tactics and drop preparation, since you can take up to 4 battlemechs in a match, however it is more time consuming and less currency friendly than Quick Play. This is meant to be the main game mode, but is currently in BETA 2, which is a PGI term for not complete. It should receive a significant updates in the future, but is severely lacking currently.


Mechwarrior Online is a game that is really unique in this genre. It is the only mech combat simulator on the market, and the feeling of piloting a giant combat machine is really outstanding. This is the thing PGI got right. Unfortunately not many other things are on the same level. Once you make through very basic new player experience, you will have a limited amount of really good experience exploring new maps, battlemechs and different strategies, but once the dust settles, MWO is only a mediocre team deathmatch arena shooter with mechs, played on a seriously flawed maps, lacking the promised combat roles and information warfare. Severely lackluster game modes, combined with slow content release cycle and non-evolving balance due negligence of developers leaves little hope for the future of the game.