Recent reviews by Spare

Disclaimer: I play Enlisted on the Gaijin Launcher so my Steam hours listed won't reflect actual time played.

Enlisted is a first person shooter where you can quickly swap between members of your squad to meet any situation you find yourself in. There are many soldier classes, weapons, vehicles, and squads in the game that you gain access to through the research tree in each faction. You'll begin at Battle Rating (BR) I with squads mostly filled with Rifleman wielding bolt action rifles. An item's Battle Rating gives the player an idea of how it balances against other similar items. This is in place to avoid unfair matchups between players like BR I bolt actions not having to fight BR V assault rifles. As you progress through the research trees, you'll unlock higher BR items and equipping them to your squad will shift your matchmaking to match that BR. Squads mode, the main gamemode of Enlisted, features mainly territory control objectives with attacking or defending a common focus.

While the game features arcade elements like health to heal with bandages and limited sprint stamina, the battle damage model is unforgiving. While limb hits will do less damage to soldiers, rifle rounds often either one shot or instantly down on impact. Explosions from tank rounds and aircraft bombs are even more lethal, easily wiping out whole squads in the realistic damage radius those weapons would have in reality. This places a huge emphasis on thoughtful squad positioning to allow your computer-controlled squadmates to contribute to fighting while not placing them at a disadvantage. You can issue commands to your squad while near them, no matter which member you're controlling, allowing you to tell them to hold position where you mark.

This game also features vehicle combat and in stark contrast to War Thunder's approach with third person control, Enlisted offers a more realistic, through the optics point of view. This goes for aircraft as well so you will rely much more on spotting from your team to quickly pick up targets from the air. Enlisted also features War Thunder's vehicle damage model systems, including the shot camera, with the arcade twist of showing green and red reticles for whether you're able to penetrate the spot on the target vehicle you're currently aiming at. Experienced War Thunder tankers can easily pick up the tank gameplay on offer and I'd argue you get a much better Tiger experience in Enlisted over War Thunder. The brutal, positioning-based play affects vehicles, too, because practically any infantry soldier class can equip some manner of anti-armor weapon. This means you'll have to learn the map routes well and keep infantry out of arm's reach in order to use your tank. Luckily, the tank crew isn't locked into the vehicle so they can get out if they need to and the commander seat often allows you to fire your small arms as you need to defend yourself.

While there are many historical squad offerings in Enlisted, the four common faction trees are: Soviet Union, USA (with British forces included), Germany (with Italian forces included), and Imperial Japan. These trees feature weapons and vehicles, many of which include new squads which allow you to specialize into roles for your team. Unlike War Thunder, your gained experience from whatever you may be doing in regular Squads matches go towards your selected research item. You don't have to use tanks to unlock tanks or fly planes to unlock planes, which I find a lot more freeing and allows the player to contribute to the victory AND get the most out of each match for research.

Enlisted, at time of writing, also has battlepasses and events to unlock special items. In comparison to War Thunder, it is far more enjoyable to engage with these bonus mechanics in Enlisted. Complete basic challenges that you can easily do without thinking about it. No special tasks, tokens, annoying nonsense like it is in War Thunder. I'd argue Enlisted respects your time a lot more as despite not actively grinding out these things, I've been given actual items to enjoy. I know the bar is pretty low but it's something.

Lastly, if you're a fan of ForgottenWeapons.com, I think you'll genuinely enjoy this one if not only on the sheer amount of historical and developmental firearms featured from end to end in Enlisted. I just think it's neat.

I really enjoy this game and the moderate pacing of gameplay reminds me of multiplayer gaming long lost today.

Disclaimer: The very highest battle ratings of play are extremely unbalanced and if your desire to play War Thunder comes from wanting to experience the vehicles of top tier, I promise that it will not be an enjoyable experience for you. Starting new and free-to-play will require a significant grind to reach top tier and paying for a premium pack or vehicle to bypass the grind is expensive and not worth it, in my opinion.

War Thunder has been around for a while and has lots of content and lots to grind for. I have a specific interest in armored and aerial combat that only this game really fulfills to an extent and I would only recommend this game to people with a similar interest because if not, the way this game plays will not carry your experience. I entered this game interested mainly in World War II German tank technology as do many players who found their interest in various pieces of war media. If you're here because you want to fight in a Tiger tank, there are probably better games to get that experience.

With that disclaimer out of the way, War Thunder has a lot going on and it can be a lot to take in all at once so I'll explain the game the best I can and as simply as possible. A new player will start at 1.0 Battle Rating with Reserve vehicles: (at the time of review) ground vehicles, planes, patrol boats, and small naval ships. You are matchmade into games based on the highest Battle Rating of your lineup of vehicles. The Battle Rating or "BR" is the way the game rates a vehicle's combat effectiveness overall in the game. This tries to prevent unfair matchups like a M5A1 light tank having to fight a T-90 Main Battle Tank.

As stated, you will start at 1.0 BR and, by earning score in matches from damaging enemies and completing objectives, earn Research Points (RP) and Silver Lions (SL) in order to make progress on a new vehicle. For example: play well in your He 51 biplane and you can unlock a Bf 109 fighter plane. As you complete research on a vehicle, you then use Silver Lions (the currency that you earn freely by playing matches) to purchase the new vehicle. As you rise through the Battle Ratings vehicles will advance in technology.

There are also back end aspects of the game to be mindful of. These include the skill training of your crews, the costs of doing business (such as ammunition), and the cost of repairing your vehicles when they are damaged or destroyed. It's not as much as it sounds.
As you play, your crew will passively learn and allow you to spend crew XP to make your vehicle operators better at their jobs. New players will have new crews and each slot in your lineup has their own crew XP and vehicles they know how to use. Upgrading your crew skills can be things like Targeting where your Gunner will move the barrel both up and down AND left and right at the same time rather than in steps, allowing you to get the gun on target faster. When you purchase a new vehicle, not only do you spend your SL on the vehicle, you also pay a SL fee to train a crew to man the vehicle; so it matters which crew slot you train so you can form a lineup of vehicles for your matches.
After each match, you can check how much that match costed you in SL. When your vehicle is destroyed, you have to pay a SL fee to repair it otherwise you can wait for a set amount of real time for it to be repaired if you're hurting for SL. Keep in mind that the vehicles marked Reserve at 1.0 BR are free to repair so you'll never get blocked from playing the game. Many types of ammo also have costs to replenish. Often better types of ammo will cost a small fee to refill any used ammo, which you can also toggle off if you're hurting for SL.

Depending on the game mode you are playing, maps, vehicle performance, and other elements may change. In Arcade modes, vehicle handling is very game-like and you'll see where enemies are even through walls. Often Arcade maps are smaller and sometimes more exotic with objectives that can be wild. In Realistic modes, vehicle handling is more grounded while letting you operate in third person, game modes are usually territory control or target destruction, and the game no longer tells you where to aim. I recommend Realistic Battles. I don't have much experience with Simulator mode but it requires you to play in first person, with very little information displayed including teammates names, and there is friendly fire. This mode is a challenge and it pays better than other modes.

There are tons of maps with varying themes and locations. Vehicle eras aren't locked to certain maps, either, which takes away from immersion for me. You can fight in a modern city in your Tiger tank. From my earlier experiences, one of War Thunder's biggest negatives in my eyes is the map designs and how they are balanced. Often maps will have next to no protection for spawn areas. this leads to steamrolling and spawnkilling, especially at higher Battle Ratings where vehicles can engage from further away. Older maps that weren't designed with newer vehicles in mind still appear and maps that work well for World War II vehicles often don't work well with Main Battle Tanks from the 2000's era. You will experience this issue, likely often, and at the time of writing, it doesn't seem to be going away any time soon. All you can really do is learn to work around the poor map layouts.

Aside from that, there are also several premium vehicles for purchase with real money. These vehicles are often powerful or unique in some way and while many are just extras for enthusiasts, some are very powerful and common in battles. They are never required to be successful, of course, but you may face them more than you like, unfortunately.

War Thunder often hosts events that reward exclusive vehicles as rewards for grinding a long time during the event. These events also often have little game inside a game elements that, personally, seem to only exist to force players to spend more time on the game. Again, if you don't have an interest in war vehicles already, this game may not be worth your time because it often feels like it doesn't respect your time. Progressing in general can feel like it requires you to treat this game like a second job; which works for Youtubers but not for many of us that actually do work jobs.

I do like the gameplay, don't get me wrong. There's a lot here to experience and enjoy especially as you personally improve and learn how to succeed. I have 631 hours as of writing this to say that much and that's just what I've done on PC, nevermind the thousands of hours on Playstation 4. Yeah this game has crossplay and cross-progression (sort of).

If you do choose to try this game, go in patient, check the keybindings, and make sure not to frustrate yourself too much playing. This game is ROUGH and I've stopped play sessions many times from frustrating matches. It certainly helps to make friends and join groups. Good luck.

I was hesitant when my friend asked me to get this game but after playing in his survivor community, creating my own, and finishing my first story, I'm glad he got me playing. The short of it is: if you're looking for a fun solo or co-op open world zombie game, this is one to consider. Read below to get an idea of the game.

State of Decay 2 in so many words is a zombie survival, third person combat game. It features a huge arsenal of recognizable firearms and melee weapons such as the Glock 17 9mm and Crowbar but also had unexpected things the more savvy would recognize such as KSG shotgun or APC9 submachinegun.

I had a few issues with the game in the form of performance. Often when the game cloud-saves, it would freeze my screen for a moment and this was bad for a game like this where zombies are charging me. Gameplay-wise, zombies could occasionally counter my attempts at takedowns with ridiculous reaction speed (I.E. takedown starts and fails because the zombie instantly changes direction to face me) that would cause me to take damage. Some game elements are unclear. When I started, I was unaware that completing a community's story would end that community and they were lost forever. This was luckily changed recently but it still forces you to move to a new area. Weird choices but overall a great experience.

The game caters to a wide array of playstyles and skill levels. You can independently choose how difficult combat is like how much damage zombies dish out and take, how generous or rare loot can be, and how difficult or easy it is to run your survivor community. (I play on Lethal zombies, Green map, and Green community, so combat is always a challenge but the rewards are also great and my community isn't too hard to run for me.)

The game world feels full of stuff to do. You assign a leader to your group and, depending on the character, they can become a type of leader and that dictates the sort of attitude your community has to the world. This is very customizable, too, because even though you are given the choice of two characters who then get two more in the tutorial, you can completely trade out anyone. Often you'll be visited by someone wanting to join your community and you can say yes or no. You can dress up your survivors, give them weapons, you can even recruit one to follow you if you're lonely and they have unlimited ammo as an AI. You could be driving on a supply run and get a call on the radio to go help a neighbor but you don't HAVE to, though they might die forever or turn into a hostile group. Bandits might move into town.

One of the big gameplay elements is how you layout your home. Where you make your home matters and there are different ways to lay it out based on what you need and want. You might not need to find a power source because your home has power built-in.

The big core combat challenge is clearing the "Blood Plague" from the area. Several spots on the map will be super dangerous to go to because blood plague kills quickly and makes zombies stronger. It's a decent challenge and incredibly cinematic the way it plays out clearing them. Oh and also this game does perma-death so if you lose a character, they are gone and that adds to the tension greatly. On Lethal combat difficulty, I was always cautious but it never felt like I died instantly. This is a play smarter not harder game.

Give it a try and if it's on sale, maybe bring some friends.

Hell Let Loose. at its core, is a slow-paced and brutal first person shooter with a heavy emphasis on teamwork. Set in the Second World War, in locations such as the hedgerows of Normandy and the bombed-out ruins of Stalingrad, you and your squad have to work together to overpower the enemy.

The name of the game is territory control through attacking or defending. Player health is minuscule with often one torso shot from a rifle being enough to drop you. Explosions from artillery, tank rounds, and grenades are utterly lethal and will gore you. This is a game where you will die many times for the cause and often from an attacker you didn't see. Sprinting, climbing, reloading, every action is slow-paced so your positioning and tactics are more important.

You will need a microphone so you can effectively work with your team, especially if you're part of the chain of command. You will often have better matches using a microphone to communicate your team.

There are several roles on the team you could possibly be part of, including: frontline soldiers, recon squads that largely operate behind enemy lines, engineering units, tank crews, and artillery crews. It will be uncommon that you get to play as a Sniper in a recon squad unless you have a friend willing to play Spotter, so don't expect to get to play it like the youtubers do.

Hell Let Loose sets out to create a cinematic battlefield experience with excellent sounds and heated confrontations. This is what it does well. In contrast, many of the gameplay elements are tedious or shallow. Quickly building anything as the Engineer is difficult and while you may get a decent tanker experience here, I can't recommend this game for those coming in specifically for tanking. Unlocking the additional loadouts for soldier classes feels like a huge grind, especially for the combat-oriented ones that don't get a lot of support experience added on.

For many of the play styles I've seen in this game, you'd probably find more enjoyment out of Gaijin Entertainment's game Enlisted. Same setting, the ability to build stuff as the Engineer much faster and easier, swap between members of your squad on the fly, gain easy access to snipers, flamethrowers, mortars, you can build mounted machineguns and anti-tank guns, and control your whole tank yourself with more depth to the tank combat than Hell Let Loose. Hell Let Loose only beats out Enlisted in a few ways, namely, the newer looks of the game and the voice-oriented chain of command. In short, come to Hell Let Loose for the Band of Brothers experience, go to Enlisted for depth of gameplay mechanics.

I don't really recommend this game as many of the core gameplay experiences can be found better elsewhere. This one is better with friends or groups. Get it on sale.