Recent reviews by zakarywronka

tl;dr If you enjoy fetch quests and bad direction, see it through to the end. Buy it on 80% special and play to the lost river, then call it. The game stops being fun after that, as it becomes a series of time-padouts for no reason.

The game starts out strong, but slows down to a crawl as you progress further and further. Things are interesting as the radio transmissions come in, and you begin the drip-feed of information about the nature of the planet, as well as why you were shot down. The stories told via the datapads are excellent, and there's a good sense of progression as you follow the Degasi chain to its conclusion... But the game should have ended with the Degasi. Past the grand reef and lost river, things get *very* slow. The Seamoth (the practical, fast method of travel) is taken from you, the level design becomes extremely lazy (Primary Containment stands out), and the environments cease to be interesting. Lethal lava land is *incredibly* boring, and you need to come back multiple times to complete the final segment of the game (a damn fetch quest around the 5 most distant biomes). Oh, and one of the required items is a plant sample *only* available in Alien Containment... not that the game tells you that! Alien Containment is also very poorly thought-out, with an unnecessary second gate (oh, you forgot to bring *two* blue tablets? And the game only gives you one? Better go back to your base!).

The game ceases to be a fun romp through an alien world around the Grand Reef, and becomes a game of guessing how the developers designed their time sinks. You can't use the seamoth past the Lost River, you have to use the Cyclops or Prawn Suit instead (far, far slower methods of travel), and you have to use them *multiple* times to accomplish your tasks. I found myself spending more time knifing lava worms off of the Cyclops, than I did actually playing the game, and the enemies in the lava world are lackluster. And, because of the fetch quest, the lava world is the halfway mark in terms of playtime! I'll be honest, I just stopped playing the game at this point, and watched a clip compilation. Once the Degasi plot and survivor search ended, I lost interest; at that point, all that was left was the fetch quest, and building the escape pod (which was trivial by that point).

Extremely fun retro shooter! The humor and styling are on point (especially for the character presented as developing the game), and the gunplay and movement mechanics are on point. Perf isn't the best though, at least on Steam Deck. You'll never see past 70-80fps, and dips down to 45-50 fps are frequent. Nothing unplayable, but certainly not what you'd expect for a game of this sort of graphical fidelity (compare to Ion Fury, which easily runs 144fps+ and has similar graphical fidelity). Really goes to show how poorly optimized modern engines are. Would recommend!

I peed myself twice

I hate this game. Play it

Fantastic. Easily my favorite FPS, it's absolutely AMAZING. Buy this game, dammit!

Easily my favorite FPS. An excellent, atmospheric romp through a destroyed scientific facility, one where you're just barely struggling to cling to life. The way to play the game isn't running and gunning! Mod the game, put walking speed as default instead of running speed, and proceed *carefully.* Measure every action, think about every footstep, plan ahead and don't rely on your reactions, rely on your *brain.* Immerse yourself in Gordon Freeman!

One of the best games of all time. Has its flaws; the last two sections are very poorly paced and poorly designed, and the game has very few moments where you can truly "immerse" yourself in the role of Gordon Freeman. The highway section is probably my favorite bit, and Ravenholm is a close second. The most disappointing section is where you're infiltrating the prison. It started with excellent HL1 vibes of exploring an infested, damaged, decaying facility trying to survive... and then the bugs come in and ruin it!