Recent reviews by RagingBaron

HiRez is so greedy. Every store implementation is just leeching the life out of your wallet with no F2P compensation. They refunded all your purchases with gems and said re-released skins from SMITE 1 would be purchasable with gems but they lied. Those are now locked behind diamonds because they are tied bundle that contains the original and chromas!!!! They have also implemented premium currencies within premium currencies like the new "Wyrm Seals" (Halloween had pumpkins) which incentivize you to spend money on multiple Wanderer Collections throughout the season to collect these while only giving you 2 free through the Wanderer's Path (free BP). So no matter what, the minimum purchase you can make with Wyrm Seals is 3 so F2P will NEVER be able to get one of the limited seasonal Wanderer's Collection, forcing players to spend money. All this, btw, hiding behind a "BETA" tag with a functioning rotating monetized shop. Minimum this game is Early Access but how it is actually being developed and monetized is any ol' live service game. HiRez has still stooped to their old confusing additive shop mechanics like a mobile gacha game. You have to navigate all the menus, all the features of constant new shop features that stack and stack that if you want to spend money you have to go through several different menus. OR, just pay 8000 diamonds to unlock the whole saga......SIKE! You have to buy the 7500 ($50) diamond package and either buy the 500 ($6) diamond pack or say f it and buy the "best value" 16000 ($100) diamond pack. If you play this game I highly suggest not buying anything unless you REALLY want it. Enjoy the game for what it is and login every day for 100 free diamonds a week...

I would say play the game now before the player-base falls off the map. Optimization needs to be fixed as most people will run the game on high settings and wonder why it is still blurry. The game is pre-set on HIGH to be 80% of your resolution. Frames drop off the map if you go to 100%. The recommended PC specs are a complete lie. Only 8 heroes at launch (one new one in Feb and a new one every other month), 5 maps (new map in Feb and then one every 4 months), 10 weapons and we don't get a new one till April. I think the biggest lacking thing is the sandbox. The sandbox does not consist of scopes (just get the tied in scope to the gun and ironsights), grenades are locked to your hero, no cool gameplay changing mods (extra grenades, larger mags, modification to guns besides rarity changes, etc), no nothing. Just a basic, dumb-down version of Apex Legend's sandbox. Wildlight needs to pump out content faster than what they have on their 2026 roadmap because this game will get stale real fast.

Classic Creative Assembly crying sorry when getting caught being lazy...

I am not going to leave a very detailed long reason why I love this game. Playing this game then going to Dragon Age: Veilguard and seeing how that franchise decided to shift to a more action adventure game rather than what I call "a true RPG" made me love this game even more. Want to be an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, go for it. Want to be a religious zealot, why not. Heard you can do a pacifist run, amazing. That is what I think "a true RPG" experience is. What a perfect medieval RPG experience. If you love RPGs like Baldur's Gate 3, Cyberpunk, Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect Trilogy, etc. Get this game! Don't know why they sell it so cheap honestly when it deserves a full purchase buy. Didn't know KCD 2 is coming out till I started playing this game in early October so I am super stoked. Breath of fresh air coming back from Veilguard

FTL is the best roguelike......goated

Loving the new monsters, new areas, more fluid and fast-pace combat with the silk-binds and the new moves that coincide with that mechanic. They put all the information you will ever need in this game like drop chances, more in-depth element mechanic showing tolerance level, etc. I love the new dog mechanic, quality of life changes to farming, and just a new feel in general. Rampage (tower defense) is pretty fun.

Negatives:
Capturing monsters give you two rewards instead of killing which gives you three (notably some drops are higher to capture than to kill but some rewards don't drop when capturing so reeeee). Instead of MHW where anyone can join any quest they have decided to separate that aspect with Village Quests (story and only single player) and HUB quests (Multiplayer). I really don't like that aspect. I wish it was more like World. Also this game feels a lot easier than World. Assuming it will get harder down the line but at the beginning it is really easy.

The multiplayer is just not sustainable fun. The incentive to keep playing besides the fun gun game-play loop is awful. There are no levels that show your accomplishments on how much you have played. There are no leaderboards/emblem record that shows you your accomplishments as a player are. Look to the past and see previous games and how it rewards players for just playing the game.

Let's talk about customization. If you want to customize....F*** you pay me money. At launch there was just the battle pass which is horrific. They just implemented an event that is a free battle pass but the way you level up the battle pass is atrocious. You are stuck grinding daily/weekly quests that can be as simple as get three kills to get 10 kills with a specific power weapon which are already heavily contested and map dependent. So you will be stuck on a quest for 20 games or here...a battle pass reward that lets you cycle an obnoxious quest. I feel like hunting quests would be less time consuming if this other negative was resolved.

The lack of playlists. You are stuck with THREE...count it THREE playlists.
1: Quick Play, Consist of a random map and four random game modes (Slayer, Oddball, CTF, Stronghold)
2: Big Team Battle, (Stockpile, Slayer, Total Control, CTF)
3: Ranked, same as Quick Play
Not being able to control the game modes in quickplay to play is stupid. Maybe sometimes you just want to play Slayer. More than likely you are trying to get these damn quests that require you to do something specific in a certain mode. Being stuck with two or god help you three quests that require the same specific game modes to never have it appear is freaking frustrating. Gate keeping the player with this dumb game pass and to then have it rely on so many specific requirements kills the fun.

This multiplayer is severely lacking. It reminds me of Halo 5's launch with their lack of variety. But at least Halo 5 came out with a new PVE/PVP blend with Planetside 2 like leveling that was unique and actually a blast (besides the fact power came from the REQ packs). Where is the innovations? Customization is gate kept by a horrible battle pass which I would rather have REQ packs because then I could at least look somewhat unique.

Weapon balance: Most the weapons are unusable. You would be putting yourself at a disadvantage if you didn't use the assault rifle, BR, or the pistol. They are unique, yes, but need to have some be increased especially if you are considering them as "power weapons". Weapons do to much damage to vehicles. Being able to two/three shot a banshee with a sniper is awful.

Closing thoughts: The game feels early access. The gun play is solid but the sandbox of the game feels like they separated further to what Halo use to feel like. You will feel like you are playing the same map over and over with about 10 quick play/ranked maps and 3-4 Big team battle maps. For being in development for how many years, this game is severely lacking. Disregard the fact that it is free, it really is not. The only thing they did was made a portion of the game free so that they can ruin the progression system and implement a sh*t-tier battle pass and micro-transactions for cosmetics. So don't give them props for making the multiplayer free. They have milked this IP dry and games-as-a-service has killed how amazing progression feels when you put time into the game. Games come out lackluster to make early money and beg players with crappy manipulative monetization schemes to push past how bare-bones the game really is to wait one-two years until it feels like a complete experience. Halo Infinite's multiplayer checks all these awful marks and it shows.

I am glad this will be the last Halo because I think 343 ruined how unique the Halo experience was and how it redefined the FPS genre. The multiplayer is fun but it has lost it's identity and feels more like a generic shooter experience with a Halo skin. Will be looking to see what more they add but for now there is no incentive to keep playing longer than 5-10 hrs.

This game is very fun, cute, and full of charm. Play it solo or with other players (playing it with my wife) and it is a joy. All the people you meet in the village have their own personalities and each cutscene you see will have you strive to be friends with all of them. It is very charming, loving, and a fun game to de-stress from a long day. A lot of replay value, soundtrack is "bussin", and the moment-to-moment gameplay is extremely satisfying.

Fun game but not worth $25. Probably worth like $5 tbh. There has been one map added in the last 2 years and this game will always be in early access.

Chip chip cheerio, good good