Recent reviews by Vanu

No one should ever buy this particular version.

As a fair review I'll say that it's like if Everspace was mixed with Stellaris and the budget was heavily reduced and it was top down. It's a big improvement over its first game which the visuals and engine I just can't handle. There's gonna be save scumming no doubt there for the scores, and near the end all the factions largely forget what just happened and you can't get new info or clarifications from the final entity or others. Can't go back and talk to a giant AI or anything else. In that sense it is quite limited. But altogether it's a good game. Tech tree is a bit small though and Saucer and Dreadnought suggested build templates don't exist so you can't build around them.

Honestly with the shield or without I'm not sure if on most difficulties it really even matters where your armor or deflectors are placed, that might be a misleading time sink. Though ships look much better in this than the original.

I recommend the game and look forward to a potential sequel or successor; however, it is important I point out the main critique and it isn't that trading is largely useless or dialog can be low and character development for others small or rare.

CRASH WARNING: The game had an immensity of crashes for me upon saving or quick saving after about 35 hours was played. So for the next 20 hours of my game experience it was on and off worries and I usually quick save a lot. Sometimes would crash right after loading back up others after a few quick saves, others not. It seemed to start after I dealt with the TREATY quest and went north. Either way, the game has major issues with crashes at this time for later game, at least for me and apparently a few other reports this year.

Hopefully that can get looked at.

There was an ungodly amount of random crashes it was hard to tell, with or without mods things were just very rough for me. That said I did finish it. Thankfully without energy sapping worms like in the first I was able to actually finish without rage quitting... The navigation was a lot worse given the lack of the life pod beacons in Subnautica 1 that helped get you to where you needed to go. Things didn't really feel like there was a pressure or rush and I travelled everywhere with a full 7-8 module sea truck that could barely fit into places.. miss that Cyclops sub.

Ultimately it was fine. But I think I agree the land sections were very weak. That said the plot I hear was a lot better in early access before they changed it. Honestly the story wasn't that interesting. Didn't mind the voice actors, just the writing was pretty dull.

I can't return after all those crashes though it was just too much.

I recommend the title though there's so many quality of life issues and honestly not having a scanner in the vehicle is tiresome too. But so many crashes...

So here's a recent and what I consider accurate short review.

The game is worth playing and given it's a bit over the length of a regular movie maybe 2 I'd say at the price of 15 - 25 it's reasonable given movie ticket and popcorn. Replay value isn't really there unless you forget what happened and replay a few years later, but who knows!

It's not really an investigation game and while I'm fine with linear games it is important to mention the plot largely is linear and the actions you can take are too. It's generous with the help in most cases too. It's more like an interactable movie from the main interface of a computer.

The plot and such isn't anything too crazy if you've seen Bourne and Mission Impossible and stuff like that, but it's a pretty good one.

The bomb segment is probably the best part, but it is an absolutely shame that the defusal process is NOT random but instead always the same thing. They had so much information for alternative bombs after all. The ending is highly depressing and ultimately doesn't make a lot of sense due to the wiping the servers and such. I think it should have kept that held back for a potential sequel.

I'd of liked more investigation options, more possibilities to really need to assess things. But I would be interested in a sequel or another game expanding on the systems.

Is it worth a purchase? Yes. And it does really good job at being voluminous in the details and subject matter that they're going into, sometimes a bit too confusingly haha. Whether that's technobabble or someone knew what they were writing about is hard to say. And the voice acting is solid too.

Makes no sense the agents don't have a partner with them at all times tho.

--- I recommend this purchase as a story focused gamer.
Other games you might want to consider that I've played recently that are also story focused or just good: Escape Simulator, Hades, Operation Tango, The Operator (this one), Roottree (tho it's less like a game), StarCraft 2 especially Legacy, We Were Here series sequels (but it can be hard at times), Ixion, Strange Horticulture, and a few others.

Thanks for reading --- February 2025.

Edit: As a side note, while the developer seems very pleased with its soundtrack there were a lot of times I didn't really hear any music going on which seemed a bit odd, like during the first server room pursuit to reveal some data.

Was a good quick game, but more clues or means of assessing and going over what was really happening rather than choose and look at a "2 of these are right or 3 are wrong" thing would have been good, a number of deductions had pieces that were kind of left field too.

Look forward to a nother.

Good game with a lot of fun, the tutorial says you can kind of carry over shards in gear but you can't, not sure if you can refund them after. There's some times where things aren't clear for max stars but it's very fun.

UNFORTUNATELY THE VOLUME LEVELS NEED TO BE EQUALIZED because they're so high even when you lower things heavily in the settings, except the main character usually but not always.

It's good. But when you host a game you find you load forever unless you click, same for the people to join. So.. always left click once you've pressed the host button.

Fun game but with a lot of still persistent bugs. I've never had the main menu get permanently overlayed on my save or been able to close a window before, but this indie game certainly has made me have that experience, from items overlaying until reloaded, to the save or reward screen overlaid.

It's honestly got a lot of bugs that shouldn't be there by now.

Still it seems fun, but it won't play like a game you're expecting. It combat is fun and isn't bad but without cover it's going to mostly feel like the same thing over and over just a matter of who damages who the most minus armor. I think without canticles the game might not be possible, but I'm not sure.

Even so, this sis one of the rare Warhammer titles worth the money.

Obligatory, even in death I still serve.

Divinity Original Sin 2 is a title I intentionally avoided due to my experience with the prior title. It isn't that I didn't think I might enjoy it or not, it is just that I wasn't sure if I could motivate myself to proceed in a game where I really didn't understand where to go.

I'll say it honestly, the reality is that I do sometimes need some hand holding. D:OS didn't have much guard rails and so I got not so much lost but just disconnected because I wasn't sure where to go.

Thankfully while Original Sin 2 does have some open world nature, it is a bit more easy to determine where to go in this one, and so I can recommend it. As an RPG though it isn't some great experience, but it IS a good one. It isn't super focused on story so much as writing, or dialog choices so much as having dialog, but it has a cohesive plot and a focus and I can respect it for that.

I don't really like that people refer to this game not for its experience but for the times they've gone back through it over and over. Playing games over isn't something most people do when it comes to good rpgs after all.

As for negatives... the main ones are serious. The gear scaling and armor requirements means you need to forget what you know from other games and instead focus just on raising that armor and putting stat improvements or fun traits in the backseat. Rarely will you find gear pre Act 4 that you'll really feel excited to keep or even get to and you could easily forget to likewise keep some gear from Act 1 that still has be It's also a bit *too* highly focused on stealing and then cheesing that out a bit. Easy to feel very weak if you try to go damage versus crowd control (though Lone Wolf mode fixes this but defeats the purpose of well an RPG with companions).

I enjoy the game, and it has made me appreciate the co-op experience that games can offer online when you play with a patient easy going fun person.

7/10 more a Dungeon Crawler than an RPG and suggest a few quality of life improvements and the script extender to make the game not change too much but not as tedious.

I roleplay with Male Khajiits with my Male Altmer and I sometimes complete a story or craft for free.