Recent reviews by Lazbot

This game is insanely immersive.
The combat is satisfying so far.
The world is beautiful, and rich.
The systems so far feel great.

This is exactly the kind of game I have been looking for, for a long time and it's scratching that 'immersive sim' itch I have been having for a while.

DISCOUNT ONLY. I'm being really generous here...

TLDR: maps too small; campaign too short; started intriguing but ended up nonsensical; too few unit options with significant units made pointless by small maps(*1). Lots of potential, environmental interactions were interesting and fun(*2); combat was familiar and enjoyable; controls were good; graphics and music good; moments of fun highlights, not immersive enough and need option to engage hyperspace on own terms(*3). Tried war mode, seems interesting but not feeling it right now.

Conclusion- it's fine... unfortunately just fine. Which honestly isn't good enough. There's some fun to be had though. I'm sure the skirmish mode would be alright, but after smashing the short and disappointing campaign I lost my mood for more HW3 unfortunately. Same as for the War Games mode. It's not a dumpster fire but there is no where near full price worth of content here. I'm sure when I get over the campaign I'll come back to it and find some good ol' RTS fun in skirmish and war. Honestly, DISCOUNT ONLY. Has to be less than half price- I can recommend it at that (...I guess).

*1- there's 1 corvette only. Unit cap on capitals means I never built a battlecruiser (sadness) because capturing enemy destroyers was too strong. Carriers, mine laying frigate, and turrets serve no purpose because the maps are so small that your entire fleet is always within range when you position yourself properly. I tried, I really did to try to take advantage of forward or flank bases but it just made no sense and was not worth the effort. There is 1 mission specifically built for these 3 units, literally, and it was pretty fun actually, but they exist only for that mission.

*2- there are a couple of missions that while maybe not accurate in terms of cosmology were a lot of fun. About 2/3's into the campaign you end up in an ice-shelf, moving through sensor dampening 'mist', you can pop in and out for attacks and flanks, it was legit lots of fun. But other missions like asteroid frogger (you'll know), was meh. I tried to enjoy it by going for some risky salvage but I was forcing emergent fun out of something that didn't work well.

*3- when I finish the last battle of any mission I want to partake in the spoils of war and take a moment to salvage the wrecks if not for anything but immersion, take a moment to recall my fleet, do a count, take inventory, and you know, I actually really enjoyed in the previous games just watching my fleet dock en-masse in preparation to hyperspace. But somehow in this iteration of the game, fleet command figures "hey, this area is cleared and there's no more danger so no point chilling for even a second. More fire awaits!". Come on...

On its own feet this is an awesome game. It is my first in the series.

It is a lot of good ol' fashioned fun. The story while unclear and muddy at first becomes more and more engaging through NG+ and NG++ as you get the alternative endings and start piecing things together. In typical FromSoft fashion there are many questions I don't have answered but I felt seeing all 3 endings left me sufficiently satisfied.

The combat is fast and the missions are well paced. Generally missions are quick but with substance; they simply do NOT drag on forever. In fact, some are just boss fights which I personally love. There are longer missions but the check-pointing system was well done in the spirit of keeping the pace going. The customisation options are great and all the weapons feel good. Having just played through NG, NG+, NG++ and S-Ranking all the missions, I haven't burnt out yet (surprisingly) even if I am a bit tired.

Is it perfect? (Is any game?) Of course not. The game can be both really difficult or really easy at the same time; confusing I know. But basically it comes down to if you build your AC appropriately for the encounter/mission. The campaign difficulty curve was good for base NG playthrough, especially for first timer to the series.

There are builds that can trivialise some (read that as almost all) encounters once you starting getting into NG+ onwards and S-Ranking missions (I'm looking at you Zimmerman shotgun). And it is unfortunately easy to fall into the trap of sticking to that one build when/if you discover it. It can still be satisfying but those looking for a real challenge or a variety of builds for each mission might find disappointment IF they fall into that trap of sticking to a single build and optimising the fun out of the game.

The great thing is, is that I found that so many (if not all) of the weapons are fun and effective if used CORRECTLY and in combination with other appropriate weapons. You just have to make the decision to try them. Fortunately everything you buy from the shop buys and sells at the same price, and so your money is more of a 'budget'. Buy and sell freely and try all the weapons. You'll love it.

In either case you are certainly going to get your money's worth. I am looking forward to any potential future expansions to this, or a sequel.

I also am really glad to have discovered Armored Core and knowing nothing about the previous titles, I feel like I have become a new fan!

You've heard all the criticism and I'm going to broadly say that most if not all of it is valid. I am going to save us both the time and not repeat them.

Having said that- is still fun. Really.
Yeah it's NOT genre defining or spectacular in any way but it does 'enough' to keep you hooked if you are into the Bethesda style RPG-lite's.

I am finding that despite all the immersion breaking hoo-ha, loading screens, lack of 'exploration', etc., that the facilities are fun to raid; the looting is satisfying; the combat (read gunplay) is quite serviceable. They did a good job of intermixing levelled enemies with weak grunts and is a far better experience in terms of 'balance' compared to past titles. I am only about level 30 at the moment so this may vary later on and with NG+.

Additionally the quests for the most part are pretty engaging and I'm enjoying romping through them. The space combat is basic but boarding and looting all the contraband and raiding the captains locker is satisfying.

All this circles around to making enough credits to literally spend hours on customising my ship. Yup, I spent basically 6 hours today just customising my ship and I had a blast.

I have not touched outpost building but I am looking forward to dabbling in it.
There is an achievement to hit level 100 and I intend to go for it mostly because I want to unlock quite a lot of skills to engage with the rest of the games mechanics.

Needless to say I smashed 60 hours of this game at least, and considering I am happy to write a mostly positive recommendation I can safely say I got my money's worth (thumbs up); and you probably will too!

Great pacing (in the first 3 hours at least, at time of writing).
The game play loop is a lot of fun and varied nicely.
There is a lot to unlock.
The styling and visuals are top notch.
Music is great.
At the price it's at- you can't not try it.

The button mashing is a bit annoying and will be worse for some more than others.

Good ol' fashioned fun.

Short and simple: it's an improved version of more of the same- which is great in my view. They nailed the first game and this is more of a chapter 2 with some extra goodness.

There are definitely advances in some areas such as combat and more variety in platforming. The level design is great, the length and difficulty are good, and so on.

Issues you ask? Not really no but things to noe: I was able to reach MANY of the collectables well before their intended unlock point in the game via triple jump and some tight platforming. Doing so was not game-breaking at least.

To nitpick some of the combat abilities are pretty niche/unused- I find I stuck with what worked, swapping out a couple of moves only and finding it hard to find scenarios where some of the other abilities are worth the effort.

Other than that, there were a couple of glitches that start appearing after extended play time. For example when grappling time would slow but sometimes Ori would accelerate off screen at insane speeds.
Or when warping the screen would fade in a second time quite late after you have already begun platforming, sometimes returning you to a new starting position. But again- this was only after extended sessions, re-opening the game resolved these issues.

TLDR: If you enjoyed the first one, you'll enjoy this one about the same amount!

This is a fine game on its own.
While it hasn't had the time that CIv5 or previous titles had to garner additional content, like all Civ games, it'll undoubtedly get there. The AI could use some improvements, but the districts are an interesting and welcome addition!

Re- Redshell. It has been removed as part of a patch (20/07/18).
However it is unfortunate that the games reviews marred it so heavily and do not represent the software quality itself- so much as the frustration of the inclusion of Redshell.

Best RTS ever?
Is for me!

I played this completely SINGLE PLAYER and intend to play with a friend or 2 at a later stage.

At this point, Astroneer is extremely promising. The POTENTIAL here is massive.

But do be warned when you hear the word potential. Obviously because this is Early Access (and quite early still) the amount of content to discover is ...conservative.

You will be able to experience/unlock all the goodies it has to offer (at this stage) in about 6 hours.

Granted, it was an extremely fun 6 hours! 20USD well spent: so I am already satisfied with my purchase, even if nothing more became of the game. (To give some perspective.)

I am very pumped to see what more comes to the game in the future. More construction, vehicles, resources, recipes, buildings, and reasons to explore, etc would be OUTSTANDING. I don't know what else was envisioned for the game and whether something like 'combat' (for example) is planned... but either way, I am eager to see and hear more.