Recent reviews by TheAlmightyOS

Great Game. Bad Port.

I really want to recommend this game. I do. It is an absolute masterpiece and I loved playing it… on the PS4. On PC this game is nearly unplayable unless you have only the top of the line hardware or willing to play one of the most beautiful games of the last generation on settings that make it look like minecraft. It barely hits 60fps with major graphical downgrades for me and I have a 2070 Super FTW3 card. The stuttering, the huge 20-30fps drops in places, the nearly 15 minutes you have to wait for shaders to load EVERY TIME YOU START THE GAME. It’s a mess. Now, will I remove my review if the Devs fix these issues? Absolutely. That hand will flip to a thumbs up and I will get to write a review about the gameplay itself. But, as it stands, you might be better off picking this game up on the PS4/5. And that pains me to say as a proud member of PCMR.

--Edit as of 11/27/20--
The dev is proving to be committed to this game and is patching it at a fast pace. Some issues have been fixed but many more remain. FPS is still very jittery and can rip you right out of the experience. While there is improvement, it might be many more months till this is what I consider playable.

--Edit as of 12/04/20--
I have 100% this game now, and let me tell you it was much easier on the PS4. The game would crash at the worst times and the frame lag would make some battles more about where could I lure the enemy where I could get a smoother framerate rather than just trying to take down the enemy. A 40+ frame drop at the wrong time could mean having to reload a save.

I will say the 1.08 patch DID help with many of the issues, it just isn't enough though the devs are making great improvements. While I can not endorse this game as is, I highly suspect that will change in the future.

--Edit as of 12/12/20--
For the record, my rig doesn't even have integrated graphics (for the person that asked) and drivers are up to date. This isn't my first rodeo and I have been building/repairing/maintaining PC's for over 25 years now. I am not an idiot with a 'gaming craptop' that doesn't understand the capabilities of my machine and how games should run on it. For H:ZD I did everything I could to give this title a chance: Limited to 1080@60, OC'd my card, dropped shadows and reflections down to medium, medium textures... and STILL was getting jarring and unreasonable FPS dips.

--Edit as of 4/5/21--
I have not had a chance to get back to this game after the latest patch, however a quick benchmark shows significant improvements with few dips. Will try to find time this weekend to give it a good play test.

While it does require a bit of work to get set up for your specific story, once it is this software is a must have for large stories.

I have only played 6 hours so I will only give my first impressions and not a full overall rating of the game.

The game is fun, it is immersive, and weapon / armor crafting can have grabing trash like a klepto to upgrade your equipment. The post apocalyptic feel is present as well as that signature not-taking-itself-seriously feel of fallout.

However, that is the only bit of fallout I see here. Yes, we got vault-tec and pip-boys and power armor and deathclaws... but it feels like dress up, like something key is missing. That something is the stats and leveling system. The S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attribute character creation system has been bastardized and the stats and leveling almost completely removed for a "perk" system. Instead of putting points into skills you unlock or level up perks. Perks have always been in Fallout games but never has the entire skill point system been removed. In my personal opinion, I think it was done because some COD players can't handle math and I shame Bethesda for removing this essential RPG dynamic because some people don’t want to figure out how careful leveling one skill’s gives you benefits in all aspects of the game. But I digress. We must look at Fallout 4 for what it is: A fun RPG and one I like playing. Yet it is not a Fallout RPG anymore, not in the classical sense anyway. It could have easily been placed under a different title.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there was FreeSpace2. This Space Combat Sim became arguably the best in the genre. Sadly, when FS2 came out in 1999 the Space Combat Sim genre was slowly dying. It was the last of an era and no others that came after could hold a candle to it. I played thousands of hours on FreeSpace 2 and the various fan made mods for over a decade, all the while wishing for someone to come revive the genre with a game worthy of FS2's legacy. And it wasn't until 2013 that my wish came true with the release of STRIKE SUIT ZERO.

STRIKE SUIT ZERO -
CONTROLS -- The game gives Space Sim enthusiasts the ship control they crave while giving the casual player easy mouse control. After the first mission I was digging around in my closet for my old Saitek x36 Flight controller. Mapping controls was easy enough, but be careful if your rudder is messed up. Axis Z is hard coded to menu navigation and could make mission and craft selection a pain. I would hightly suggest turning up your X/Y Axis sensitivity as the default setting makes your fighter move like an overloaded freighter.

GAMEPLAY -- The missions feel like those from FreeSpace, my meaning being your not the focus of the fight. Epic battles are being waged around you. You are only a small cog in the machine, as it should be. You have specific objectives assigned to you while other units perform their duties. There are only four ships to chose from in SST, but I did not find the selection lacking. They were easy to customize to my flight style though the use of weapon load-outs (which remind me of the load-outs you could pick in Freespace, just with fewer choices). SST adds its own interesting twist to the genre with the "Strike Suit", a craft that has the ability to transform into a mech like something out of an anime. At first I thought this was going to be a cheesy gimmick-like easy button, but I was pleasantly surprised. The strike suit mode was not overly powered and did require a decent amount of skill to use effectively. You have to charge the strike suit though "FLUX", which can be gained by dishing out damage or less so though damage received. Your weapons in Strike Mode use up FLUX and once it is used up your ship is reverted back to interceptor mode.

CONS: The game is woefully short. I would have liked to see multiple campaigns and possibly a co-op mode. Also, you have no control over your wing-men. In my honest opinion that would have made the game better for me. However, this is just nit-picking. The game is awesome.

Anyone who has played FS2, I highly suggest this game to you. When Born Ready boasts that SSZ is "Space Combat. Reborn" they are not just talking out their ass. They delivered on that promise. Check it out.