Recent reviews by CarbonNotes

This is basically Portal 2: The Pre-Sequel. It is best played after Portal 2, in a very similar vein to Half-Life Alyx.

The game has absolutely amazing production quality, this is nearly on the same level as the original Portal 2. There are some small imperfections, but for a game not coming from Valve themselves, you'd be hard-pressed to find better work. The characters are charismatic, the gameplay is very fun, and despite the puzzles being challenging, the vast majority of them are still solvable without having to go look it up. After playing Portal 2, the graphical updates in Revolution were definitely noticeable. Despite improved graphics. my Steam Deck could maintain acceptable framerates with moderate/high settings, and my 6700XT could manage over 60FPS solid at all times at 4K max settings. The game expands the lore of the Portal / Half-Life universe from the Aperture side, but from what I can recall, matches with the untold parts of the story that were cut during development of the other games from Valve.

The default controller layout is a bit quirky on Steam Deck, but it is fixable by tweaking the joystick / touchpad inputs.

The short version: If you played Portal 2 and were sad when the game ended, this is several hours more gameplay exploring Aperture that feels right at home as an official Portal 2 DLC from Valve themselves.

A preface, the game is very much based around religious-cult ideas... A very fun, well-made game, but not a game to play at Church.

The game is extremely fun. It's excellent on a Steam Deck: the controls work very well, and it runs smoothly.
Combat seems well-thought-out, with enemies continuing to progress in difficulty as the player levels up and gains more strength and abilities. The combat is relatively fast-paced, but the controls are snappy and it feels good. Definitely a game that benefits from a controller.

Early on, the game does a very good job introducing a new player, and is forgiving enough on the default difficulty to allow the player to make some mistakes. The game requires the player to balance caring for their "flock" with crusades to go retrieve materials and progress through the game, defeating heretics along the way. Very fun, and definitely can hold attention for hours... Complete one objective, solve one problem, and another will take it's place. No single thing seems unachievable, always just requiring a little bit longer to get to the next goal... Just one more crusade, just one more day of collecting materials, just a little bit more... Next thing you know, the Steam Deck battery is dead and it's hours later. Very fun game, highly recommended, especially for anyone with a Steam Deck or other comparable device.

Best played with friends, and in short bursts. A few missions a day, too much more can cause it to get a bit stale quickly. The DLC packs are purely cosmetic, and the game itself is fully playable without spending any additional money. The level progression is nearly uncapped, however past a certain point, level gains don't actually mean much beyond a shiny new star above your player icon. There's enough unlocks that you'll be unlocking things for a long time, even if you buy all the optional cosmetic DLCs.

The actual core gameplay loop is rather fun; get on the drop pod, head to the caves, mine and achieve your objective while fighting off waves of large bugs, get back in the drop-pod, repeat. Simple, but fun, and with many variations in level and objective avoiding too much repetition.

I've spent many hours in this game, and made many friends. Unfortunately, the dev team has grown out-of-touch with their community, and gained a bit of an attitude causing them to treat their community poorly. I recommend trying other options in the Social VR space, with development teams who work with their community, instead of continuously working against them.

Additionally, some other social platforms officially allow 18+ content, with filters in place (including a free but age-gated DLC required to access any mature content). VRChat completely disallows 18+ content, but with an "enforcement loophole" that means that the content is still plentiful across the platform, with no proper way to choose to opt-out or prevent the younger audience from seeing the content that is there. Uploading or participating in mature content may get you a ban if reported by someone on VRChat, but the content is still widely available.

Bit Blaster XL is awesome. You have a ship, and you have two speeds: Going and Going Faster. The challenge comes when you have to shoot enemies to get more ammo/points, and collect powerups. The powerups have huge variety, from shooting multiple bullets in a sort of wall to exploding bullets. There are multiple ships you can upgrade to by collecting coins which are dropped by various enemies. There are also various types of enemies in the game, and to up the challenge you can disable autofiring and fire yourself. Both keyboard and controller are supported, and my Steam controller worked right away without even having to open Big Picture mode [ymmv].

The game (as of version 2.02) is somewhat sparse in the settings menu, but it gets the job done.

I have tested it on Linux, and it runs very well.

Overall the game is very well polished, runs very well, and I am happy with my purchase.

Just for reference before I start:

PC Specs:
Intel Core-i3-4150
8GB RAM
500GB SSD
GTX 660 2GB
1080p monitor

I can run this game fully maxed out at 1080p and over 60FPS.

I found Borderlands 2 very fun. The characters are fun to listen to, and it has a fun story with lots of sidequests. The random loot generation is also very fun, as you can get some amazing weapons and shields. While it DOES have DLC, it doesn't push it hard. It has a DLC option at the main menu, and a "Checking for DLC" thing when you first open the game. After that, the game makes no mention of it. The game without the DLC feels complete, and having never bought the DLC, I feel satisfied and found the game fun to play with myself and friends. The multiplayer integration is very good, and rarely had any issues short of someone's internet dropping.

It doesn't have the best replayability, as the voice lines tend to be stale after beating it.

It doesn't have the most amazing graphics that ever existed, but at the same time it has a unique look to the game. It doesn't look bad, so I won't count that against it.

Overall, I would say it is totally worth buying, doubly so if you get it on a 50%+ sale.