Recent reviews by Chillermaschine

Almost 7 hours straight, bug-free gameplay on release day in 2024?
Already GOTY in my book.
The PC i bought in 2022 specifically because STALKER 2 was bound to release still runs it flawlessly.
I was afraid of the optimization, Unreal Engine can be hit or miss, but for me it runs fine on an RX7900XT with FSR - after fiddling with the sharpening, it looks pretty fantastic most of the time.
Gunplay is really nice, sounds are fine, no problems with directional audio here either.
Mutants are too scary and NPC AI ranges from turd to Terminator.
All in all, most definitely a keeper, most pleasant release I've been looking forward to in a long time!
Really looking forward to Anomaly 2042...

Just for clarification:
I haven't played Helldivers 1 and kind of expected launch issues.
Random crashes were solved fiddling with graphics (Radeon RX 7900 XT) - will likely be fixed.
Disconnects became less frequent after a few hours - will likely be gone once they fire up some more servers.
Anti-cheat doesn't bother me, if anyone wants to steal my sensitive data -
they probably have already
(hope you enjoy my extensive picture collection of belly button fluff that looks like celebrities, you pervert).

As for the game itself:
The gameplay feels great, shooting anything is just so satisfying - screen-filling explosions are abundant and gallons of goo go flying regularly. It looks and sounds great, weapons feel massive and powerful, movement feels weighty but fluid. Co-op experience was great so far, best with friends of course, randoms were nice.
If you have no friends and / or hate people, you can go it alone - it's not easy but doable, depending on chosen difficulty.

It's just really f*****g fun for me and I suppose it'll only get better.

I love this game.
It's pure fanservice and I'm kinda mad there isn't more of it.
The soundtrack goes so f*cking hard it's simply ridiculous.
If you need to grow some chest hair, this game is so cool it'll sprout by the bushels.
Truly one of a kind.

Hands down the best Terminator game that exists today.

(Honorable mention to ambitious installments by Bethesda and some of the Arcade games,
if viewed through rose-tinted nostalgia goggles)

If you're a fan of the franchise or would like to become one, do yourself a favor and follow my advice:
Watch Terminator 1&2 and then play this game, as it was obviously made with a great amount of love for what made those movies so great.

As a Resistance fighter, it can be downright horrifying to spot patrolling T-800's.
As a T-800 (in the greatly appreciated Infiltrator mode) you'll feel like a killing machine.

TL;DR: Better than Terminator 3, 4, 5 and 6 combined.

Have you
*played Fallout 1&2 ?
*always missed 'em and never quite played anything like 'em (though god knows you grasped at every straw) ?
*become so cynical and jaded that you're not sure wether to give ATOM RPG a try?

If you can answer any of those with yes, you should already be downloading the game.

You most definitely should anyway, as long as you like turn-based CRPG's even a little bit,
since - in my humble opinion - it is an extremely well made game, in the "true spirit" of F1&2.
It's got the combat (which I find as solid as it needs to be),
the creepy desolate atmosphere of Fallout 1 (in parts) and pop-culture referring humor of Fallout 2 in one package.
It made some clever improvements, did nothing silly and will one day be, unironically, called "the Fallout 3 we deserved" with a bit more love and polish (which I am sure it will get)

Maybe I'll even praise it some more later on, but first I gotta sink a few more dozen hours into this baby...

And you, go ahead and buy it.
Oh, and YES, I (as a Fallout>Wasteland-guy) find it WAY, way better than I found Wateland 2. There.
WAAAAAY better, like, far out better
And I wanted to love WL2 and had little to no hope for ATOM to ever become real one year ago... So...

Yay, I finally got so fed up with Metal Gear:Survive that I felt compelled to drop a negative review.
As if THIS corpse of a game needed any more kicking...

While I admittedly like most of what the game offers;
the general gameplay, the engine, the unlocks etc,
I have come to absolutely HATE 2! things that kill this game for me;

1. The "SURVIVAL"-mechanics, i.e. the endless grind
to satiate your need for food and water - because otherwise you flat out DIE.
Yeah, you basically have 3 health bars, 2 of which are continually dropping at a ridiculously
fast rate, and on top of that you need O2 for your mask which costs the most valuable
resource, which also lets you level up etc... The grind is hilarious.
If you took that away, you'd be left with a fun experience (taking a third of the time), if it
weren't for...

2. ...the need to ALWAYS BE ONLINE.
Seriously, who thought THAT would be a good idea? Nothing frustrates me like losing
progress in a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ single-player game because my connection fluctuates.


Good thing I got this trainwreck for a steal!
Only recommended for masochists, sadly...
I wanted to like it, I don't even give a rat's ass about MGS in general,
or some Snake or Boss or whomever not being in it,
it's solely bad decisions in game design killed this sucker.

I don't usually review the games I play...
I just consume them nowadays.

If it's bad, it goes into the trash deserving my eternal silent scorn while it sits there
greyed out in my library at "0.X hours played" forever.

If it's good, I'm usually too busy playing to write a lengthy review, and since anything but TL;DR just doesn't cut it for me,
I don't review it ever and "binge" on it until the next thing comes along.

Then there are numerous early-access projects I supported,
some of which failed, some thrived - only once did I feel compelled to review, because I was honestly impressed and felt expressing that was justified (The game turned out nicely btw).

And oh boy, where do I start without making this sound like I was paid to write this...
But if you came here looking for an incentive to buy Exoplanet, I'd advice you do so right away.

"Why?", you'll most rightfully ask.

I figure if you've come here and made it to the review section already,
you'll have realized that it's an Early-Access project, rough around the edges, a glimpse at it's future self I shall say.
And you are, if I may allow the wild guess, most likely at least fond of either or all of the following:

*Sci-Fi
*Western
*Sci-Fi-Western
*Third-Person ARPGs
*Post-nuclear role playing games
*Lovingly handcrafted RPGs with the potential to develop a cult following

If any of that is true, then I'd strongly advise you at least keep it on your watchlist and try it out for yourself.
Let me elaborate!

THE GOOD...

I am presented to basically playing as a younger, more rugged-looking Clint Eastwood.
Ha, you clever dev's - I'd have ended up going for that look anyway!
Though I most likely would've screwed up the nose again, so good riddance to character creation I say!

What, you find that outrageous?

Where were you to rush to my aid when I was complaining about not being able to change Lara Croft into a middle-aged, scarfaced Clint-Eastwood-lookalike bountyhunter type?!

Seriously, I get it. I love diversity.
I have gotten so used to spending time on sliders and loadouts and warpaints and whatnot in games that I sometimes forget what I was actually playing.

Exoplanet's Jack is so damn handsome though he doesn't need a nosejob!
I mean he's well sculpted and proportioned, looks great with a hat and not like some dolt with a ponytail and he's rather well animated, although of course not in any final state, mind you.
There are a lot of small details, in the animations and visually in general - nothing looks like a cheap asset that was inconsiderably spat into the place. The art direction and level designers do a great job at making the world look believable.

The Engine produces nice crispy textures, most everything I saw was a pleasure to look at - the guns are a work of art for themselves, and as another review pointed out somewhere, the duster coat animation is so intricate you could mistake it for cloth physics. Really pleased with where the visuals are going so far.
In conversations, characters gesture, with their hands!
I love small stuff like that. It's not AAA-Eyewash, but it's got character.

There's no voiceover in conversations though, you read them and that's fine by me; I like reading, I liked doing that years back when I started gaming and got into Fallout 1&2. Sometimes it was hilarious to just be a smartass or rude or play dumb and the humor probably would've failed on many of those conversations if it had been voiced dialog.
I also like that the dialogs so far are somehow reminiscent of said game(s) in that they feel "natural" instead of the usual pompous, hollow blabbering that goes for dialog in some games.

A genuinely soothing guitar background track sets the atmosphere for exploring an alien world where I need to look everywhere and loot everything, where every of the numerous nooks and crannies might hold a few more shells for that new shotgun I just took off that unlucky gunman that made me use up all my medikits but was finally bested by my last few .45 bullets...
Often enough stumbling into treasure, new quests or simply death.
Yes, it's a dangerous world, K'Tharsis, for it's inviting to explore and curiosity kills the space cowboy as easily as the cat.
I feel that "Gothic"-vibe while all the while, with my neverending inventory and being able to pick up almost anything that isnt bolted to the ground.
As of yet, there is no crime and punishment system for stealing or tresspassing seemingly, though that might be subject to change.

The combat also may be quirky at the time of writing this, melee more so than ranged,
though it's serviceable for now and will be overhauled, like lots of other things.
The devs are very invested, open and honest. They have an open mind for the community and are thankful for our input.
Have an idea to make something better like, for example, implementing a talking cyborg-horse sidekick with a plasma lever action rifle and an attitude? No matter if it's a little delusional,
your voice will be heard and suggestion considered, these are really down to earth people that I'd happily light some bluethorn leaf with.

Are you still reading this?
Why are you not already playing?!

Well, for those still here and consistency's sake,

...THE BAD AND THE UGLY

It's bad that this project lacks attention, which is the main motivation for this review;
To get it out there, make it seen and known and provide people with the information that something good is in the making here.
All I want is for those dev's to have enough resources to make this game great and whole,
ideally making enough profit to motivate them into addons and sequels and putting some serious well deserved bread and butter on their tables!

And, uh... Steams store page is kinda ugly without Exoplanet popping up under Top Sellers.

Yeah, that's it.
We're finally done, if you followed my advice your download should be finished by now,
go try it for yourself if you don't trust my superior taste ;)

'...We aren’t going to continue to give away $60 or more worth of DLC for $30...’
-Pete Hines, Bethesda, before the season pass price was raised

They weren't lying, as it stands they seem to be opting to give away $15 worth of content for $60 instead.

*sigh*

Modders will fix it. It's my only hope.

EARLY ACCESS REVIEW
-------------------------


The sole reason I bought into this Early Access project was that I liked the premise of an ARPG with firearms.
One that preferably wouldn't turn into a pure bullet-hell late game, but took a more serious, even tactical approach.

Playtesting it, I was thoroughly surprised as to how well made it already was.
"I Shall Remain" offers a well thought-out experience even in its current state, you can feel from the very first minute that this is Scorpius' most ambitious project up to now and that a lot of work and love have already been invested.

The RPG-mechanics are by FAR surpassing what I had anticipated or would even have asked for, honestly.

ISR makes use of an Engine built in-house by the devs, seemingly built with the top-down perspective as a focus.
Nice to see some craftsmanship instead of Unity for a change, especially when it performs and looks very well.

Of course there are a few rough edges (mainly animations IMHO), but the devs are very open minded and already aware of what needs to be done. The biggest issues that have been brought up are already being adressed, THAT is how Early Access should work.

All in all, I am very much looking forward to the release and hope that ISR and respectively Scorpius Games get the attention they deserve.
My gut tells me they're going to finish this game 100%, no questions - and then probably pack another 15-20% on top of that, just because they're
1) awesome
2) convinced of their vision
3) capable of pulling it off

So, if you came here looking for the game that would've been the outcome of "Diablo" and "Commandos" making a baby while "Hellgate London" was spying creepily through the keyhole, this is as close as you'll ever get to that!

Deutsche Version ist nicht nur, wie von Steam angekündigt, geschnitten; Fürderhin existiert KEIN Support seitens des Herstellers. Deutsche Spieler müssen auf Patches, DLC's und das HD-Texturpaket verzichten.

NICHT KAUFEN.