Recent reviews by AftermathJonathan

Alot of EA games have a rough launch for various reasons. Most give up and go home.

These guys didn't.

When this game first launched, the overall design of this game had flaws. Instead of quitting, these devs took time to listen to the players and redesigned a great deal of the game to be more of what everyone asked for to make it a much better game. It's much much better and way more fun now. And they are still going. Kudos to these guys. It's rare to see a dev team so dedicated to making their game perfect.

I'm loving the new content. I play FO76 with my family and we're having a ball.

Now the rest:

This game had a rough start. A really rough start. I'm a huge Fallout fan and even I was a bit baffled at the start as to what they were doing. There was no communication, strange elements of the game had no explanation, the CAMPs (thought a great idea) were pretty limited, and the quests were more of an all-around tour of the areas in the game.

Yeah it was weird.

Then as the year progressed, and they started to improve it, it got better. As time went on and they added more and more features like display cases, increased storage, and more interesting events were added, I came back and played more. The main problem was that it felt like the world was a big sandbox and it was up to us to play in it. We actually had a pretty good time with it. But the problem was you were always in the remnants of a world-long-gone. There wasn't anything to tie you to it because your quests were primarily revolving around pretending to be people who had died before the war so you could get prewar robots to help you. Naw, I get why they did it story-wise (i.e. the irony of the prewar world working towards being automated and yet those automations were all that was left) but it just didn't make you feel like you were truly involved in the world.

Then when they announced NPC's I admit I was super excited. Having NPC's back in the game, random NPC events as you travel, and factional quests...that was the part I really felt was missing. Now you had stories YOU were involved in. YOU were making factional decisions. And they need YOUR help.
And the Overseer finally returned. All this time this leader of Vault 76 was only heard from in tape form from messages she left behind and you never got to meet her. Was she dead?? What happened to her?? So having her return gave us a missing piece there.
Now the areas that were primarily empty except for scorched and mutants now have purpose and a reason for being there. Now you are working towards a better goal. And now you can have NPC's that are IN your camp as opposed to being alone there. Yeah, it's a HUGE improvement. With this and the new addition of instanced-interiors to help with story-driven content, it's a game-changer. NOW I feel like the framework is there to be the game I wanted.

Sure they took a year to do it. Sure, they had to fix some pretty serious stuff. But -- much like No Man's Sky -- they stuck to it and are trying to repent. And look what NMS has become as a result. I think this game is well on it's way to doing the same.

Long story short, give it a shot. Forget the Bethesda-hate-train we were all on there for a while and play it for yourself. And if you played it earlier and quit in annoyance, I totally get why...but give it a try again with a fresh set of eyes. You may just be surprised.

In just the short time I've played this, I can already tell 2 things: the devs wanted to make the Fallout game they always wanted to play, and not only did they accomplish it, they did it perfectly. It has everything that made the original Fallouts awesome and even has some of the inspiration from Metro 2033 as well. I can tell this is going to be a gem!

Hands-down one of the best farm-sim games out there! My daughter and I play this religiously. There's no time-pressure, there's always something to do, and best of all, the devs update it every week. :)

Hands-down not only one of the best-looking games out there, but also one of the best survival games out there. Oh, and make no mistake...this game is a horror game hiding cleverly behind a happier exterior. If you don't believe me, try it and let me know how that goes for you later in the game. ;)

Hands down one of the best VR games out there. The sense of "being there", the interaction with the world (I punched out a car window to use the door as cover...seriously, that is just crazy cool), and the tension you feel when one of the zombies is a foot away from you reaching out to grab you...all of this makes for one heck of a ride. These guys nailed it. I show this game everytime I introduce someone to VR. After that, they "get it". They understand why VR is so cool. We need more of this. :)

Absolutely recommended! My review on Shoost gives a much more in-depth explanation than I could write here:

7 Days to Die Review [shoost.co]