Recent reviews by Pump-Action Pete

Game crashed and killed my GPU... troubleshooting now, but no luck as of yet. This game is pure poison and must be avoided at all cost.

An easy to learn, dungeon-crawler romp with a good foundation that just needs fleshing out.

What I enjoyed:
- Easy to learn combat mechanics that (although a little clunky) work fine and feel nice when a limb is dismembered. It does need fine-tuning, but I've definitely experienced worse in other games.
- A minion command system that's on the right track. Combined with a resource gathering / raid mode, it made the whole experience that much more. Being able to Level up minions and outfit them is also a plus.
- Side dungeons that offer decent equipment and are short enough to not get too bored of.
- The loot table seems substantial enough. I just wonder about the stats of items (such as defense for weapons?)...

What I didn't so much enjoy:
- The forge only half works. I was able to craft with it, but not dismantle my inferior equipment which was clogging up my inventory. No choice but to drop it all. I'm certain the demo is only meant to introduce it, but it is something that would be important in the full version.
- Numerous grammatical errors in text and dialogue.
- "Spirit" mode. This is more of an undecided point, as I'm just afraid of this being overused in the full version. I understand it is meant to act as a puzzle element, but it could easily become boring if used too heavily.

The foundation is there for an enjoyable hack and slash roguelike, but it needs more content and tweaking regarding mechanics.
And that's it for my armchair review. I hope it's worth a read.

23/11/2023 - Still keen on the full release.

I feel as though I have to leave a review, given the amount of hours I've sunk into this title and how much I enjoyed it.
This is my second playthrough, the first being when I originally beat it back in 2012.

The long end short of it: A classic story where the protagonist is kept in the dark about their identity until the very end where it all comes together. An easy to follow narrative, nothing overly complicated about the themes within, and though many of the NPCs feel re-skinned and copy-pasted, a consistent quality can be felt.

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Things I enjoyed:
+ The art style (The HD textures they've included in this re-release do their job at looking pretty most of the time)
+ Functional combat (that is easy to master and somewhat varied allowing the player to choose their preferred style)
+ Level progression/Play style (easy to adjust points when leveling Skills and Abilities with plenty of options. Sometimes you just feel like trying out a different spell or ability to tweak your build. It happens.
+ Decent overall RPG experience (easy to get into with the player determining the difficulty of play. I've read someone in the discussions mention the term "balance" and how it shouldn't apply to singleplayer RPGs.. at least not to the degree some people think it should. I have to agree. The focus of these games are exploration and storytelling, and in my opinion this game does a solid job of it)

Things I didn't care much for:
- Inventory management (very simplistic and forces you to rely on backpack upgrades to actually be able to carry items without worry of running out of room. On this note, when picking up items that you already have a number of [let's say lockpicks] at a time when you are at full capacity, you are not able to add it to the others until you make at least one unit of space. Something that irked me in particular)
- Character pathing (can sometimes be annoying as there are invisible walls in some spots where there shouldn't be. For example, when casting a spell, or sneaking along edges to manoeuvre around enemies and you get blocked by aforementioned walls.. Although NPC pathing has improved as I haven't had any becoming stuck at any point)
- Typical quest types (fetch quests, simply kill that and come back etc. A lazy type of filler gameplay that I've come to expect from most RPGs. Not all quests are like this, but there are plenty that operate on the premise of fetch and return with nothing else involved. Just something I've become fairly critical of.
- Pricing (this title is overpriced, plain and simple. Given that the re-release was brought out with zero patches to begin with, and offered little to nothing new other than HD textures, makes it seem like an obvious marketing play. Game-breaking bugs need to be squashed, glitches fixed, and new content brought out before such a price hike can be justified over the original title. I'm glad that some of the bugs have been dealt with, but more needs to be done)

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In saying all of that, bug fixes have recently been released, fixing some exploits and glitches present in the original game. Yet, many reviewers state that "a ton of bugs" are still present. I can't comment on this as I experienced very few bugs if at all. I've only really experienced glitches which were largely purely visual (Stash containers spaced too far from their base, disappearing NPC bodies with just floating armor appearing, floating NPCs in sitting position etc.)
These should have been released with this title to justify actually selling a re-release, along with perhaps fixing the grammatical errors I've encountered in the text. Spit and polish maybe, but would make a difference overall.

And that's it for my armchair review. Hope it's worth a read.

Pete

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Update 23/04/2022:

I've finally played through the Fatesworn DLC, Completed all side quests as well as the main. I can say that I did enjoy it and that my opinion of the game hasn't really changed.

My gripes = The main story didn't really grab me, and certain side quests really just felt like they were there to prolong gameplay for the sake of it without offering anything. I definitely didn't enjoy grinding to close all chaos portals to 100% the game.
My likes = I did like the new items added (armor sets and weapons). There are some new punchy weaps that helped me through the boss battles.
The level cap was extended to 50. Players will easily reach this through normal play.
The end boss was quite challenging, even though he was mainly just a bullet sponge spell-spammer.

Overall, the DLC is not a bad addition to the game, though I'm still unsure of the pricing. Though if you're like me, then you do get a decent amount of bang for your buck. Get it during a sale!

Coffee and chill, even if you're not a fan of coffee. Visual novels aren't usually my thing, but this one does a good job of keeping me entertained with its' smooth background tunes and real-world issues throughout in-game conversations.

Does not work on my PC running Windows 7. Tried all kinds of fixes to get rid of the multitude of errors that kept coming up (fatal error, kernel32.dll error etc.). Never experienced these issues with other games. Yet it says Win7 is supported in minimum system requirements?

Being a big Postal fan, it was clear I had to give this alpha a quick play to see where Postal 4 is at. I will revisit this review as the updates are pushed through, but I just wanted to compare some of the bits and pieces between this and the ol' favorite (Postal 2).

- The first thing that hit me was the level of eye-candy staring back at me from the computer screen. This is already a good-looking game! The level of detail throughout the level is amazing. Everything looks like it has been gently brushed, and I didn't find many textures that didn't appeal to me. Even the animal models were great. I gave the third-person, over-the- shoulder view a try and that worked as expected. The Dude looks as majestic as ever, though lacking his classic trench coat. The weapon models look good too, though I only found half a dozen different weapons in the half hour I played. The NPCs looked fine as well, though that was were I began noticing a few issues.. which leads me on to..

- The AI. I understand the NPCs are running to a similar degree to what Postal 2 had, but they seem extra janky in their movements. They would often get stuck when standing up, and I feel their movements are just too rough in nature. Their voices are also a little odd, sometimes switching from different voice tones when conversing with each other. This is an area that I suppose will need addressing in the near future.

- I do appreciate the similarities between Postal 2 in terms of sound. I recognised the same sound effects for certain actions, such as kicking things and collecting items. And the sounds I found new fit in nicely for the most part. The gunshots had a nice "weight" to their acoustics, as did the usage of items. What I didn't really care for was the screams and reactions of NPCs. They seemed a little watered down and unenthusiastic. But that's just something else to be worked on.

- The on-screen indicators (or UI) look fresh and familiar in a way, which I respect the devs for. Sometimes you just need a fresh lick of paint and light redesign to make things look brand spanking new again. The keys for switching between items have been carried over from Postal 2, making things a little easier for me. (Though one thing that annoyed me was the unzip pants key. It has been changed from R to C which is just odd).

I also like the new "map", and additional stats/info tabs.

Overall I found this to be a good starting point for an Alpha build. The foundation is there for something decent, and though there is a lot lacking, there is also potential. I understand it is early days, and so I expect many changes to be made in the coming months.

So far I have enjoyed Zaccaria Pinball more than any other pinball game available on Steam. There, now that my opening statement is out of the way I can go into more detail.

I'm what you would call a casual pinball player. I don't seek out ultra realistic gameplay when it comes to these sorts of games (or any for that matter), but in saying that, Zaccaria does really well in fleshing out the experience of hitting a metal ball around a table. All aesthetics/decorations are customisable, as are things like ball size and viewing angle, which may not mean much to many people, but does provide players with full control over almost every aspect of pinballing. It is easy to get into and there are plenty of game modes and tables to explore (should the player wish to invest).

I haven't encountered any bugs to speak of over the course of its' development, but I am confident that had I experienced any my feedback would be valued and help in improving things. Not all Early Access games end up stagnating and succumbing to an early death.

Some of the negative reviews I have read state things which are confusing and make little sense:
"Every click costs money"
"Technically this game hammers too much on GFX instead of quality"
"By modern gameplay standards, 80% of the tables are straight trash"

See, the thing is, communication is key with Early Access games. If the devs aren't told about issues then they can't very well work to fix them. And leaving a negative review after a couple minutes of trying to get the game to work seems like the individual never really cared much in the first place. The dev team is small, but they operate efficiently in pushing out patches/updates on a regular basis which can only be a good thing.

And the best part is, tables are really quite affordable if you buy the bundles.

P.S. I'm going to allow comments because I'm not a nutless monkey :^)

Thank you Zaccaria. Keep up the good work.

Not a bad game to be sure.

First of all, I am really enjoying the game. Spooky ambience, with all the sound effects and gloomy scenery. Loving it so far! The dev seems to have put a great deal of effort in making this game work straight off the bat, which is always a plus.
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I've always fancied a story involving a protagonist with unnatural powers (or just serious monster-hunting skill) hunting all manner of undead. Especially with a 1700-1800s industrial age, Van Helsing-esque theme. Not many FPS games around in that area.
For a game in its early access stage, it does very well. Bugs are few and far between (haven't really experienced any myself as of yet) and the game mechanics work well. Sure there are a few areas which need a little ironing out, but aside from that it is all shipshape!
Definitely recommended if the above gameplay video and screenshots appeal to you.

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Update: 8/07/2018
I've managed to finish the game and obtain all the achievements. Overall I had a very enjoyable experience surviving each encounter and exploring the map. The developer has continued to update the game regularly fixing bugs and tweaking certain parts of the game to make it better. I think he has thus far succeeded.

Update: 11/22/2018
New achievements have been added recently along with further fixes and tweaks. This game has been my favorite title of 2018.

Leaving Lyndow is a short, yet somewhat sweet teaser for an upcoming title still in development.

To be brief, I quite enjoyed what was on offer. The scenery is very nice, foliage and vegetation detailed quite well. I loved the architecture of the buildings. The tavern, the main character's house, the docks, they were all well designed.
In fact, the only issues I have graphics-wise is perhaps the character models. They... need refinement.

Most complaints about the game range from a short, non-existant story that is already explained before you
start the game, to an empty/lifeless world. Apparently there isn't enough going on for people to fully enjoy.
Others find the world completely devoid of life and meaning. I feel that these people are looking for too much.
After all, this is a prelude to something bigger, right?
I, on the other hand, understand that this is just a brief and relaxing glimpse into what may be.
This "what may/could be" is what will bring me back to give the title in development, Eastshade, a try in order to
hopefully be more thoroughly invested.

Overall, don't go in expecting too much, and you won't be too disappointed.