Recent reviews by kvass1k

The recent beta patch notes are terrible and show just how disconnected the developers are from reality. Can't blame them too much though: the insufferable aura of toxic positivity surrounding the game and its design choices silences any criticism, constructive or not. This creates a feedback loop that will result in more and more idiotic out-of-touch balancing changes.
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Now to the specifics: most nerfs are well-deserved, such as Regent's "charge" card. Making infinites harder to come by is good, but not when the enemies' abilities and damage numbers are so absurdly overtuned that going infinite is the only option. Moreover, alternative non-infinite builds got gutted instead of being altered and/or buffed slightly to compensate. Doormaker and Sulking Colony are terribly designed encounters yet these two get even stronger. All Act 3 bosses are unfun to fight against, some hallway fights are harder than elites, Scroll of Biting should be reworked or removed from the game entirely, statements like "just block lol" betray one's ignorance and narrow-mindedness.

There once was a sprawling field of text swiftly typed mere hours after chapters 3&4 were released.
Have a simplified and greatly shortened version of what once was. Comments disabled since my desire of seeing a gathering of jesters has been fulfilled.

Terrible pacing in terms of both gameplay and story beats, noticeable reuse of assets and enemy attacks, abysmal writing (save a few narrative highs), consistently unfunny, out of place and tone deaf humor, at least two successful character assassinations, chapter 3 being a filler episode with such an unfathomably bland antagonist that it almost feels like a parody until the game forces you into watching a typical sappy backstory and expect me to care in the slightest.

The few good things: the minigames were well-implemented and the penultimate boss having them as a gimmick was neat. The music is consistently great though most tracks don't align with my tastes. The few highs in the story were so astronomically good they almost offset the overall steep decline in quality.

Игра позволяет себе неприлично много недоработок для адреналинового замеса на время, требующего от игрока максимум. В каждой миссии два побочных задания, выполнить все разом попросту невозможно, оттого каждый уровень требует минимум три прохождения для достижения желаемого результата. О духоте побочек судить не берусь, кому-нибудь да понравятся, к тому же дизайн локаций достаточно неплох и позволяет интуитивно пролетать по локации без лишних потерь из-за незнания местности. Визуал приятен глазу, но кушает подозрительно много ресурсов относительно своей проработанности, музыка разнообразна по жанрам и без проблем въедается прямо в мозг в наиболее благоприятном смысле.

Без лишней лирики перечислю иные минусы более-менее сжатым списком.

> ИИ оставляет желать лучшего (противники невозмутимо прут на протагониста, игнорируя здравый смысл и обходные пути как призванные давать 0.5 секунды за хедшот болванчики).

> ВРАГИ НЕ ИЗДАЮТ ЗВУКИ ПРИ ПЕРЕМЕЩЕНИИ. Забыл добить одного противника на уровне? Осознаешь этот неприятный факт только когда в затылок от гения скрытности прилетит пуля.

> Падение на врага с летальным исходом не всегда работает. Предположительно, виноват размер хитбокса.

> Один выстрел в голову с пистолета отправляет неприятеля на тот свет, а с автомата требуется минимум две-три пули. Очень странное балансное решение ввиду невероятной мощи дробовика.

> Наличие шлема на противнике не всегда очевидно (тусклый синий цвет не очень хорошо выделяется в полумраке зимнего леса)

> Процесс карабканья по специально предназначенным для этого уступам сделан крайне костыльно, не прерываем и не дает кадров неуязвимости. (Говорят, в бете выглядело и игралось еще более криво, потому, возможно, я зажрался)

> Брал игру в комплекте с еще одним проектом, поэтому слишком поздно увидел в метках "I Am Your Beast" аббревиатуру одной экстремисткой группировки, аж с меткой + в конце.

> Указанная выше неудобная система побочных миссий и требования завершить некоторые уровни на ранг S смотрятся как отчаянная попытка отвадить взгляд игрока от заветной поддержки сервиса Steam и избавить покупателя от щита в лице менее двух наигранных часов. А жаль.

Итого: ознакомления стоит, но с помощью не поддерживающих экстремизм методов, о которых я не имею права говорить, но которые всем прекрасно известны.

>Selling out to Gearbox of all publishers
>Pulling the game out of certain regions due to russophobia and political agenda (♥♥♥♥♥ сосать)
>DLC is lacking in content and quality control
>The game started crashing on startup on my other PC (worked fine a year ago on both computers I own)
What a time to be alive.

Axe wound.

It's almost as if every mechanic present in this game was carefully adjusted to provide the most tedious and unfun experience imaginable.
Allow me to elaborate:
1) Unlocking overclocks for a weapon is only possible on the next run (weakens a new player, unfun, grindy)
2) The drop pod timer is too strict (creates tension but causes frustration in most cases)
3) The hitboxes on some bugs - especially the Dreadnought - feel wrong.
4) The bugs' attacks deal a LOT of damage (fine with me, but 3) makes taking damage feel cheap)
5) Only one of four classes is available from the start
6) The game collects a mountain of data from your PC, opting in does nothing, everything about you has already been stolen.
7) Inability to manually aim your weapons
8) Grenades and other throwables work very poorly and most of the time end up away from the horde, IF ONLY I WAS ABLE TO AIM
9) The meta progression is awful and boring
10) Unrelated to the game itself, but the foul aura of toxic positivity emanating from the community is infuriating.
11) Again, not a criticism, but a hub of sorts would be nice.


What I DID enjoy:
1) Variety of weapons (along with some new ones)
2) Tanky enemies and their sheer numbers
3) All the eye-catching audiovisual fluff every game in this genre has
4) All the classes I've unlocked so far have been very neat in terms of shaking up the playstyle.

TL;DR: This feels like an in-house concept that somehow made its way to Steam. I sincerely hope that the game will get better over time, yet for this to happen a handful of core mechanics have to be reworked.
P.S: Fingers crossed, Rogue Core won't be as undercooked.

Boring and unfunny.

Managed to play through the full version, no way I'm buying this steaming pile of bad writing on steam simply to leave a review, hence I'm going to edit this one. To keep a long story short, the game outright copies so much from the way Toby Fox does things it makes me almost physically sick. (Because of an evident lack of creativity and taste present in the game, not because I'm some Undertale/Deltarune elitist)

Interior design,
Story beats (Brothers with puzzles, all the drama about protecting the bro and betraying their trust and expectations bla-bla-bla. Also Gilroy gets a deep wound across his chest like a certain skeleton),
Attack patterns (A certain mid-game boss throws the player around the box for the fun of it)
Even the soundtrack (Horatio's theme is so heavily inspired by the one Noisemaster has it borders on plagiarism).
I did enjoy most battles though, the visuals were mostly pleasant and the attack patterns were memorable and fun to dodge.
In case you thought the writing gets better in the full version - NO, NO IT DOESN'T. The humor remains redditor-tier unfunny. Also, fun fact: if a character that was portrayed as an annoying power-hungry prick starts talking about the player betraying their friendship (despite throwing knives at them earlier) IT DOESN'T WORK AS DRAMA.

Good game, insufferable fanbase.
Still considered an indie project despite having a sizeable yet languid development team.
Bear in mind that Silksong released BEFORE Ultrakill got out of early access. Hilarious. No scope creep in sight and totally no mismanagement to speak of.

Short, sweet, overrated.
Please refrain from trying to make me care about the insignificant tragedies of your characters, Mr. Fox.
A nice narrative does not overstay its welcome nor does it require painfully altruistic toxic positivity emanating from one's every orifice to achieve the "best ending". Try to SPARE an armed criminal and see what happens for yourself.
TL;DR "wah wah violence bad" delivered in such a one-sided way through a charming yet shallow world leaves a lot to be desired.
Some gripes have been addressed in "Deltarune", yet the writing had to be mutilated even more as some sort of payment for making everything else better, I presume..?
Nonetheless, despite everything I've said, form your own opinion. Get the game and do what your heart desires there, abandon everything the internet told you of this "indie gem", FIGHT those who you want to FIGHT and so on and so forth.
((and play OFF along with disco elysium you'll thank me later))

Do not purchase if you dislike the act of replacing one's genitalia with an axe wound or child grooming along with those who consider activities listed above normal and socially acceptable.
12 middle-aged neckbeards that wear skirts and get off in public bathrooms out of 10, would play again.