Recent reviews by LowKeyFROG

The gameplay is (for the most part) good; the mission design is interesting and fun. The in-game visuals are excellent, and the general UI is gorgeous. The story however, is seriously let down by the lack of a strong "narrative thrust" present in previous games, being overly character driven and by the dated, ugly cinematics.

All previous games in the series managed to evoke so much drama, excitement and mystique with simple, beautiful animatics , some of which still give me chills to this day. Sometimes less is so, so much more.

It is absolutely baffling to me that BBI chose not to leverage their incredible concept art team once again to tell this story, and instead chose less appealing, less atmospheric, and certainly more expensive pre-rendered cutscenes that you will start to tune out almost immediately when they interrupt your mission every 45 seconds. Such a waste.

8/10 Gameplay
9/10 Visual/Audio
4/10 Story

As someone who primarily plays these games for the campaign, world building and mature military/mystic sci-fi tone, I cannot fully recommend this entry.

Here's hoping BBI at least adds an animatic epilogue that helps smooth over the abrupt and unsatisfying campaign ending by adding a little wider context to what transpired.

Incredible. It's been a long, long while since a game has surprised me this much. Soundtrack is amazing!

Dripping in rich atmosphere and incredible aesthetics, good mix of fleet-level intrigue and heart-racing dogfights. So many fun details! There's something so uniquely satisfying about landing a damaged ship in the pounding rain and lighting storms!