Recent reviews by Pinhead Larry

Holy mother of God I LOVE this game. Is it a battle royale? Technically yes. But it's unlike any other battle royale, or any other game (except maybe Tarkov) that you've ever played. Full disclosure, you will f***ing SUCK for your first 20 hours or so, at least. If I have one major criticism of the game, it's that there really is no way around that; when you start playing, you gotta assume that you're the worst player playing this game. Especially since the core playerbase has been playing since early access. There's a lot of meta-game to unpack and understand here and if you're not willing to suffer a few deaths over several hours to get the hang of it, seek a different game. Not casual friendly whatsoever. But if you're looking for an intense, competitive FPS experience, nothing will scratch that itch quite like this game. At first it will feel like you keep dying to bulls**t, but the more you play, the more you'll realize that you were either making too much noise, peeking an angle too many times, or straight up didn't anticipate a flank that would be obvious once you have some basic meta-game knowledge and map memorization. If you're looking for a game that feels good to get good at, Hunt is for you!

This is definitely a tricky one.

I'm seeing a lot of negative reviews for this game, many of which had valid points, but almost all of which seem to miss the point of an id fps entirely. Right off the bat, I'll say that if you enjoyed DOOM 2016 despite its repetitive nature, and finished the campaign and found yourself replaying it over and over, you'll probably REALLY enjoy this game, as the combat is easily what keeps the game together. If you're expecting an engrossing story and a vast, organic, and fleshed out open world, don't even bother, because you'll likely hate this game.

The combat is id in every way possible, and in my opinion, the mechanics and tools at your disposal are a HUGE improvement on DOOM 2016. You have many, many more options in the way of combat and how you approach a fight, and the game is easily at it's best when you're taking over very populated bandit outposts mid-to-late-game when you have found more abilities and weapons to fuel the perpetual meat grinder that is your character. And at it's heart, that's clearly what this game was made for: annihilating anything dumb or high enough to get in your way with extreme prejudice and creativity. The flow of combat is super well designed, and though it can get very repetitive like in DOOM, it never stops being fun or satisfying, especially with the implementation of a combo system that builds a meter that when full, can be activated to make you even MORE powerful, literally borderline unstoppable. I can safely say that this is the sole reason that anyone that has played this game is still playing this game...

...But unfortunately that's because the combat and gunplay are about the only standout parts of this game. The story is almost non-existant, you don't ever really come to care about any characters in the game, including yourself, and though I haven't finished it yet, I can tell from other reviews and my own personal experience that there just isn't enough content here, ESPECIALLY for an open world game.
And I came in being really excited about the car mechanics and combat, seeing as they were my favorite part about Avalanche's Mad Max game a few years ago, but sadly none of what made the driving and combat fun or even necessary in that game find their way into RAGE 2. The only thing to do anything car related is to upgrade said car, and the problem with that is that there is little to no reason to engage in car combat in the first place. 10 hours in and I'm still using the very first vehicle you get in the game, and I see no reason to use or spend time upgrading anything else, because I simply have no incentive to. The car is essentially just a way to get from one massive gunfight to another.

Overall, if you thought the first RAGE was alright/endearing, and you enjoyed DOOM 2016's frantic combat style, you'll probably have a lot of fun with this game, though maybe wait until it's on sale, as I agree that $60 is a little much to ask for it right now, depending on what you're expecting out of it. If you're looking for a vast open world like Skyrim or The Witcher full of interesting NPC's and side quests, keep looking.

Absolutely unacceptable release state. I have an MSI gtx 970 overclocked and an i5-3750K 3.4Ghz processor, and I'm lucky, LUCKY I tell you, to maintain 30 fps in outdoor areas and 60 fps indoors, on MEDIUM graphics settings. What sucks is that the game genuinely looks great, and I'm a megafan of the first one. That said, the hell if I'm actually going to attempt to play through this thing when it becomes unplayable during fights, and will randomly crash without ANY form of warning, causing me to risk losing more and more progress the longer I wait to save. This hurts me an unimagineable amount to say, but until they fix this thing, STAY AWAY.

Bethesda should be ashamed that they let this through and asked $60 for it when it's less optimized and playable than the vast, VAST majority of early-access games that I've played.

The only way that this game can be described is impressive to the largest degree. This is hands down the most crafted, perfected, and enjoyable early access experience that has been released in the history of steam's early access system. I have dumped around 17 hours into the game, and I would check in and play a little after every update to see the changes that have been made. Amazingly, the devs have kept up incredibly well with updates, and in the many months that I have owned this title, it has become a very different game, and all for the better. The atmosphere is incredible and haunting right down to the core. This is aided by the fact that your character has a limited cone of view. How so, you might ask? Though you can see things like trees and large rocks outside of the cone, you cannot see things like items, characters, or enemies, meaning that one of the many creative and challenging enemies in the game can still sneak up and attack you if you are careless. The way this is implemented is masterful to say the least.

The game demands that you be conservative with your resources, often making you choose between upgrading your weapon, upgrading your workbench to allow you to create more weapons and items, or fortifying your base to keep the mutated nightmares at bay once the sun goes down. And the night time changes everything in the game. Whereas in the day you can travel in relative safety and strategically kill or avoid most enemies that you come accross, the night turns you into the prey of the creatures that lurk through the forest. Not only will monsters invade your home and attack you at night, but depending on whether or not you have any fuel in your generator, dark shadows will close in on you and kill you, and are a threat that can only be fought off with a light source. While the early game will find you cowering in your home praying for morning light, you will later gather the resources and the courage to venture from your home at night, during which special and unique items and resources may be collected.

Lastly, the sound design: HOLY HELL, the sound design in this game is PERFECT. From the hair raising squeal that grounded objects such as stools and wardrobes make when dragging them accross the floor to the haunting moans and screaches of the night, this game will keep you scared and on your toes, especially at night. Take it from me, when you are cowering in your room with the door baricaded with the wardrobe while not straying more than two feet from your light source, and then you hear the slow creaking of the other doors of your home opening at the will of murderous, rabid invaders, you will feel a fear for your life the likes of which very few games can produce.

If I were to summarize this game in one statement, I would say that this is the most fun I've had from a horror game since Dead Space. At $15, this game is currently an absolute steal, and even more so when the final version is released. If you want a horror experience that is original, extremely well produced, and scary as all hell, do yourself a favor and PICK THIS GAME UP.

This game is one of the single most fun, addicting games I have ever played. It's a rougelike dungeon game in which you fight monsters, explore secret caves, and collect power-ups to prepare for the upcoming battle between a child and his sadistic christian mother. A must-have for all indie gamers! A 5 out of 5