Recent reviews by FullROMSimon

Shotgun for mutants, rifle for humans.

Stay cheeki breeki!

Really good game, if you like Survival Horror type of games. Doesn't hold your hand, and you need to play smart to win most encounters. I.e. pistol can penetrate, so be sure to line up enemies for best effect. Sometimes running from enemies is not an option, because they will merge with corpses and become a lot tougher. I've had to die and replay an area twice to force myself out of the habit to run from enemies, instead of fighting them. Yes you spend resources, but having enemies become stronger is a bigger problem.

Combat feels like classic "tank" maneuvering, but not as terrible like in old-school games, like classic RE2 for example. Melee is stiff and don't expect to easily spam melee, because you'll get punished. At best you can sometimes get an easy leg shot and stomp a few times. Saves you a few bullets but it won't be somethign you can exploit. Landing accurate shots is VERY important, you can't waste ammo in this game at all. I like that you are forced to spend and use materials that are intended for crafting because it prevents you from hoarding them. I beat Silent Hill 2 with over 30 syringes in inventory, so having a system that forces you to craft/use/store items at safe houses provides a very easy to grasp gameplay loop that doesn't just allow you to have near infinite ammo and consumables at any given moment.

Think of this game as a slower and more methodical Dead Space, with some elements borrowed from Resident Evil (tight inventory management etc.) and a bizarre story that is more in line with something you would find in Silent Hill, but with more sci-fi mixed in. Atmosphere is very eldritch and explains very little to you, which keeps your interest going the more you interact with the world to try and understand what happened.

Also, the 1980's Poland aesthetic is quite accurate. Not surprising, since the devs are from Krakow ;)

Love the game so far, a new strange IP in a niche genre, that rarely sells well. Nonetheless it's a game from my Polish neighbors! I can only be proud of them <3

Not recommending only because ping is 130+ in EU server when I'm based in EU. Unacceptable in this day and age. I had better ping 20 years ago in Lineage 2 when playing on shady servers hosted on potato gear.

Will change if they fix this.

I really like this game. It masterfully blends old-school Resident Evil mechanics with a retro aesthetic, offering a relatively unique survival horror experience set in WWI—without resorting to zombies to fill the setting. WWI was horrifying enough as it is. The combat is janky as hell, but that’s almost a given in this genre to ramp up the challenge. Most enemies are fairly simple and can be easily kited, and you can reset their positions by leaving and re-entering a room or area, which is a handy trick.

The rat mechanic isn’t too frustrating since the rats are easy to kill (unlike the Crimson Heads in RE1), so they’re quite manageable. Plus, you’re given a decent amount of fuel to burn corpses. However, the spawn rate of rats is inconsistent. Sometimes they spawn after you leave an area twice, and other times it takes four or more loads. Still, rats aren’t a major issue if you don’t kill every single enemy or if you manage to stack them and burn them efficiently with a single use of fuel.

However, the one thing that prevents me from fully recommending this game is the excessive backtracking. My frustration began around Chapter 3, where it was just barely tolerable. But once you hit Chapters 4 and 5—oh boy, it becomes too much. I’ve played almost every survival horror game out there, but I’ve never encountered as much backtracking as I did in CONSCRIPT. Nearly 50% or more of the game time is spent backtracking, retrieving items, and then trekking all the way back to open a door, only to find yet another item that needs to be used on the opposite side of the map.

To make matters worse, certain parts of the game have "world events" that change the map, making the backtracking even more tedious. Just when you think you've learned the layout, you’re forced to navigate it in a convoluted, snake-like manner. The Town section nearly broke me by the end.

If the backtracking weren’t such a huge pain, I would definitely recommend this game. This issue seems entirely fixable—unless it’s just me and I’m not seeing something others aren’t.

I’ve never had a problem with backtracking in any other game, but in CONSCRIPT...man, it’s a real ball-buster.

First impressions are pretty good, however some things to consider.

Gore is less modular than it was in RE2. Zombies are slightly faster, probably to compensate for wider areas and your ability to dodge. Corpses don't persist, so you don't have the same feel of exploration when you clear our zombies. Ammo is plentiful, unless this is only intended for the demo version. You can just open crates by using handgun ammo. You can take an extra hit, before going to Yellow state on Standard difficulty. Dodge mechanic is fairly nice, because it promotes reflexes and timing - you can't just dodge into zombies, like this was a roll mechanic from Dark Souls to avoid damage, direction where you dodge also really matter. You can also chain dodges, if you are fast/good/lucky enough.

Now, next big point is Nemesis. He is fast and relentless. If you thought Mister X from previous game was annoying - prepare to prostrate yourself. Nemesis lunges at you from massive distances, dashes into you can chains punches that can get you from "Fine" status to "Dangerous" in a single go. I'm certain the red barrels that can be used to clear out zombies will also a part of decision making process "Do I use this to clear zombies, or gain temporary breathing room from this butthead?".

Some of the technical weaknesses still persist from previous game, like 30fps animation rendering from distance - you can really see it here, due to larger areas. Otherwise, the game looks just as good as RE2, if not more.

I still wish we could use a laser sight like in RE4/RE5. I don't know, for some reason I really dig the laser sight option and wish it was still a feature in these games.

Full game is most likely not going to disappoint overall.

Loads of good fun. Except:

- Platforming sections in DOOM, really? Hope the guy with this idea in id Software is fired.
- Too many progression items. I mean armor upgrades, crystals, runes, weapon mods, weapon upgrades (to upgrade the mods) then it's the weapon mastery... TOO MUCH NONSENSE, JUST GIVE ME GUNS AND DEMONS TO KILL THEM WITH SAID GUNS, HOW DIFFICULT IS THAT?
- Level design is a step down from Doom 2016. Yeah the game is faster, but the platforming sections ruin the flow of the game and break immersion.
- Low ammo cap. Like really? I always have to stop and chainsaw enemies to refill ammo. Don't worry about the players not using all of your weapons. Often it feels like I'm playing Resident Evil or something, when the max you can carry without upgrades is like 16 shotgun shells.

Otherwise, it's fun - combat loop is very engrossing and addicting. Game is relatively short and the multiplayer Battlemode is super forgettable and lackluster. Progression unlocks are lazy, and feels like they were implemented 10+ years too late, since Modern Warfare 2 (cards, icons etc.).

Overall, Doom 2016 was a better game. Not to mention it had a level editor - which was really fun to come back to after 2-3 months, to see what autistically creative people made.

Oh, the soundtrack is awesome. Mick Gordon ftw

7.5/10 , if you're not a massive DOOM/FPS game fan - I would suggest waiting for a sale.

Hey hey, people.

Mandalore here

Game keeps kicking my rear, and I keep coming back for more. Pleasant art-style, smooth gameplay and the premise is interesting and story so far is also quite interesting.

Definitely worth picking up, considering it's technically in Early Access but plays better than most "full" release games.

A beautiful side story. If you liked the original Metro design of more linear encounters and world-building, then this DLC is perfect for you.

Tightest first person melee combat system ever. Hitboxes feel accurate, and you never feel like the person that killed you did so from a weird angle or clearly a connection issue was the cause. It's hellishly fun to run into a medieval mosh pit and flay your weapons around until some heads start to roll, or you hear a satisfying sound of a mace hitting a face, that is akin
to hitting a watermelon stuffed with corn flakes.

Found a catapult and started using it towards the enemy spawn. After getting 2-3 accurate shots resulting with multikills, enemy on horseback tried to rush me down, but did not notice a spike barrier placed by an engineer and he instead skewered himself onto the spikes. Made me laugh like a dental drill. Next up, I threw some additional stones to the enemy spawn, but instead one of them hit some guys from my team and I accidentally killed 3 teammates. In the end, I got ganged up by my own team, and some enemies.

It's janky, but loads of fun, without any extra baggage or time wasting unlocks or any other crap that festers in most games nowadays. Load up and jump into a battlefield, kill some peasants, knaves and whatnot. Price is fair and future mod support might add some really cool features, like previously seen footage with lightsaber gameplay.

Oh, and the developers are quite active and ironing out the issues as we speak. This game is sort of like For Honor, but not trash.