Recent reviews by core.bee ;>

TL;DR:
Awesome Indie title that comes with quite an unexpected depth and a kind of anti-climactic ending. The map, graphics and overall length are at an expected level and the gameplay loop will sometimes surprise you pleasantly with its mechanics and more to discover.

--- ATTENTION --- Gameplay-SPOILERS will be included in this review!

Graphics – 7.5 out of 10:
Since the game is made with Unreal Engine 5 it comes with its benefits and disadvantages. The benefits are e.g. the Lumen-system which can be spotted on a bit more powerful PCs and really help the visuals of the game. I’ve felt like the reflections in the garages are very awesome and really had some path- or ray-tracing-vibes to it. Some other stuff, like bloom, is way too saturated but that could be adjusted by the developers in the future. Especially if taking a look at some highlighted elements it really goes to show that it is too powerful. The LOD of houses, cars and trees could be further optimized and I would like to see some dynamic weather included as well. The visuals of some gameplay-mechanics were done in such a great way that it blew me out of my socks – see gameplay-section of this review. When going closer to an object some load-in times could be also improved to be more fluent. The biggest disadvantage that comes with UE5 is the smearing or ghosting – this is awful to the brim. Even when NPCs just go by your cars, they seem to be out of a horror game where ghosts theatrically pass by. Probably nothing that the developers can do much because it is an engine-related problem.

Map – 6 out of 10:
The map seems to be large in the beginning but when advancing through the game, it “becomes” more and more shallow. Your shop develops over time and looks better and better with each upgrade but the town and everything surrounding it is just dirty. Not a single building looks like it has some fresh paint on it and thus makes you want to skip through the neighbourhood and just do your work. The level of detail given to any enterable building is great. In the gas station, the bar, the market or your garage the lighting and art style fits the type of building. I would have preferred to have some kind of progression (like getting rid of the dirt) more in the beginning (so some sub-station of development in your office and garage) but in the end the upgrade system helps you out. The biggest wow-moment I have had with the map was when getting the more mid to high tier upgrade for your building. And the last iteration of your store is oof! Holy moly, that blew me right out of the window. What a great idea! Outside of your garage the map has nothing special to offer and seems to be sometimes even a bit procedurally made. Especially when going for an offroad ride (sometimes with intention, sometimes because I drive like a cowboy with 20 beers in his system) it comes to show that the game has some room to improve over time.

Gameplay loop – 8 out of 10:
In your early single player campaign, you will be introduced into the shady business and strategies of Sam (your helping hand on the phone). He will never show up until the end of the game (though can be found easily when you know where to look at). He will periodically ring your phone and tell you what to do – which helps you get the grasp of the fundamentals of the game. The gameplay loop itself is to search for cars, look at them and try to persuade the owner into a lower price. Afterwards you tow it back to your garage to fix the car if needed, get rid of dirt and clean the rust. Each stage has its depth which you really learn from the ground up and will get used to quite easily. Every iteration of your buildings offers benefits and will help you with something that enhances your gameplay. Some of the benefits are still a bit hidden and I did not get them until somewhere in the mid game. Towing cars, getting them on the hydraulic lift, fixing broken stuff, afterwards getting rid of the rust and washing everything felt quite soothing to me. When advancing through the game it gets a bit repetitive from time to time but there will also be some kind of turning point in which you literally lose this connection to the cars. (Probably this will happen in real life, too, but if you get the upgrades too fast, you will just go to your workers and tell them to do all and proceed with hunting down the next best trade.) I would have enjoyed to see some more progression in your tools and the stuff you have to do with the cars instead of just upgrading and getting NPCs so “early” on. The mechanics of mounting and dismantling have some issues with the UI but also provide impressive depth. It does not meet the depth of other games (like the car mechanics simulator), but is still deep enough to have you do a lot of work. If you want to swap out every piece of a car, it will probably take you up to half an hour – depending on your tools, skills and overall speed. In the beginning you will take a day to rebuild one or two cars which speeds up to an almost endless pace after all the upgrades were implemented. The overall feeling of you actually working on a car is very high in the beginning and lessens over time. You will have some other work to do in the end game that still makes you feel like the business owner. Your reputation will increase over time and unlock upgrades, benefits and more – leading to its end goal of buying out the whole business from Sam. One thing that I do not understand is the part where you can customize your business display but not owning the company. Owning the company should be a bit more gradual in my opinion – like buying out percentages until you hit the overall goal of 100%. After hitting at least 51% you should be able to change the name imo. This might be some personal preference though.

Physics – 7 out of 10:
Talking about the physics in a car dealer simulator seems to be maybe a bit over the top but still it offers some reasonable enjoyment and annoyances. When driving with mouse and keyboard you will often hit some unexpected behaviour – especially with higher speeds, but when also using a gamepad (Thrustmaster eSwap Pro X) it will get better. Sometimes I’ve spotted myself thinking “this was crazy, why did that happen” and then I checked the reality… when going with a car on your dolly and trying to get around a corner at 50 km/h you WILL spin because of the weight in the back. I though this would be annoying but have spotted myself being the monkey here. When altering my own behaviour to fit more like the real way of driving I did not come across the same issues. When reversing the cars spin a bit too heavy and also the bump and weight physics when hitting off road need a bit of an overhaul. If you go into the gras you could possibly go for a space launch, lol. Not sure if this game could work with my sim-rig, but I was not eager enough to find out. The physics overall are not meant to be in-depth and this is fine for an Indie title. Some bits could be tweaked a bit more but overall, it was a very interesting experience. Please make sure to have some working mirrors in the future, because this ruins the feeling you get in first person inside a car.

Progression – 8 out of 10:
Despite touching on the topic of upgrades and progression already, I will still make this as a stand out point now. The progression feels natural but has some weakness in when to do this or that. It is quite linear but still gives you a bit too much freedom in my opinion. Some of the upgrades are not needed at all or could be left out whilst other progressive elements are kind of missing. There is no clear path in upgrading and some of the items are not really worth its money. Gas station and underground parking – you do not need them at any point in the game because you have enough space and with a jerry can you will never be running out of fuel. The gas simulation is quite nice and does not feel too demanding but it also does not give me anything wh

TL;DR: Has some heinous mechanics that can be abused, annoying campers and misbalanced agents but overall a solid game that has a lot of potential to give you some good hours.

So, after about 111+ hours, I will have to say that the game overall feels very good. No weird lags, hitreg is also quite good (even with higher ping enemies) and the anti cheat actually works better than e.g. Valves AC does.

Do I enjoy the game? Yes. Either playing ranked or unranked always gives you a good lobby and they will fill it to the brim so that you can have your 10-30 min battles (Warfare).

Do I enjoy the campaign? Meh, not really. After a combined 10k+ hours in different shootergames I do not think the campaign is that well done. If they want to have it tactical - then they need to make it tactical and also nerf enemies when solo campaigning.

What are the downsides of this game?
- unpunished campers on every single map. Some maps are just absolute BS and on some maps you can battle them easily.
- vehicles (i.e. both ground and air vehicle) have too much armor and ENDLESS flares... Helis always just fly out of range and come back. Battle them with 10 stingers is still pretty useless. (Needs fix/nerf!)
- some weapons are misbalanced: AT4 can kill tanks on 100m but not an enemy in front of you - what?
- some game mechanics are blatantly annoying: bellyflopping whilst shooting, crouch flying across 10m and more... pls fix. Yes, some are maybe game mechanics for a good reason, but still - some of them are so annoying to battle against. And everyone is abusing the crouch/duck-exploit to make your head nearly impossible to hit. (I am in the top ranks, trust me - it is just blatantly annoying)
- some maps need a little more balancing and less options to camp. The map design is really good overall but there needs to be a little bit less clusterf***ing here and there.

What are things that I would wish to see in the future?
- balance AT4 and Stinger abilities to tackle helis and vehicle better.
- stop campers
- adjust the mechanics on bellyflopping and more
- give us a CQB-option for every map pls!!! (I am a solely shooter guy and I hate to battle vehicles, even in BF3 and more I hated them...)

If carnage was a game - it would be this. So much fun to play.

I have spent around 150+ hours and somewhat around 5000 EUR* to find out that I am poop at racing. :(

Just kidding - the game is pretty nice and the races feel intense. There is a lack of content here and there, but if you race online in leagues like LFM or PitSkills you will meet other players, have nice races and still spend a lot of money because it fixes you with an addiction to Sim-Racing.

But you do not have to go down the money pit - you can also race this title with a controller. Not even joking, I have spent the first 120 hours of the game with a controller (Thrustmaster eSwap PRO X) and it made a whole lot of fun. Even a girlfriend of mine got so into this game that she has purchased it for the Playstation. Unfortunately we cannot race together but that is okay.

--- TL;DR---
Graphics: 7/10
Story: 6/10
Physics: 10/10
Gameplay: 10/10
Free Choice: 10/10
My skills: 1/10 :(

I am very looking forward investing even more time into this game and by upgrading my setup I benefitted a whole lot. This game also saved a little bit of my mental sanity because other games got flodded by cheaters that I raged every day. Now I just sit in my rig and drive around Nordschleife or Monza which fulfills me very much.

* = Yes, I really spent that much money for a whole sim setup with a rig. PC not included though.

Just don't buy it at the moment until KT and Nacon have figured out what good server connectivity or an offline mode are. I cannot even connect to a single damn race at 3 o'clock in the morning because the server has lost its connection (after already trying to log in for 10 minutes already...). Big NO NO.

--- MAJOR ORDER: Disrupt Sonys undemocratic delivery of account linking ---
- STATUS: democracy has won! -

Game is great, but with the linking account policy this game got ♥♥♥♥♥♥. Sorry, but I will not trust in Sonys loose safety approach. They are known for several customer data leaks and killed the game now. Well played Sony!

TL;DR: 9/10 - would recommend for hunting amateurs and pros. Quirky storytelling and a save-bug drained one point.

> Graphics: The game was released back in 2017 and playing it in 2024 it has really matured a whole lot. This game does not only sound nice, it also looks astonishing. From a graphics point of view I'd rate it a high AA-title.

> Mechanics: Ballistic curve, different calibers, different animal that need a specific approach each. It is nice. Tracking a wounded animal feels real but sometimes the animal despawn. That is the only uncool thing about hunting. This game is possible to be played as noob or pro alike.

> Storytelling: This is the only point I always found very annoying. Unskippable cutscenes and "calls" from someone I am not interested in listening to. If you want to completely immerse yourself, it is probably still a solid 7/10.

> Bugs: Saves. Saves is the biggest issue. Your guns and scores will be saved correctly but everytime you join a map everything is reset. You have to go and unlock all the houses - over and over again. There were none other bugs I came while playing this game.

Overall rating: 9/10 - besides the quirky storytelling and the save-bug I would highly recommend this game. You need some time and also a calm personality to play this game. If you are more a run and gun shooter guy - this game is probably not what you are looking for.

TL;DR: 10/10 - I highly recommend this game for some chillsome gaming adventure in a "cute" environment.

> Graphics: simple but also very powerful (if you take a closer look at the water for example). It has some Animal Crossing vibes but enhances on top of this. I really like the aesthetics of this game and how it looks.

> Mechanics: Sometimes the camera AND grid-based actions can be a bit annoying (shovel and wheelcart is the best example here) but mostly you can compensate this. The crafting and building, the progression and storytelling is sooo very well done! This is the main criteria that keeps me in the game. A friend of mine and I always play this game together and it keeps us wanting to play more.

> Storytelling: Yeah, some spots are a bit questionable, but if you look beyond that and let yourself get sucked into the game - it is so nice. Your village will grow, you will become more and more occupied with farming, with "zoo keeping" and lots more. There is so much to see and explore that it compensates the "thin" storytelling.

> Bugs: Well, there is a problem with saves and accountsharing (one PC, multiple accounts --> overwrites instances of your own saves) and another RAM exceeding bug (RAM consumption adds up after some time --> will probably be fixed soon) but we did not have anything else besides that. Nice, finally a feature-rich game that does NOT break if you blink a little too hard.

Overall rating: 10/10 - would buy again and I recommend this game. Feature-rich, no stupid cashgrabbing mechanics - and this is only the Early Access version. I am so thrilled for the future of this game.

Where do I see myself in this game in the future? Probably I will enhance my village even more, because until now I only built it like a drunken baboon and saw some nice Youtube videos about this game and how to make your village look astonishingly nice.

NfS Heat was released 2019, so I have to take that into consideration as well.

> Graphics: Looks stunning, not gonna lie. Sometimes the weather is too moist and the skybox doesn't match the ground-texture but I guess we cannot get everything. (e.g. bright weather but water puddles on the ground...) Where the game can really "shine" is at night. The graphics at night are stunning and really come to play. If it is also raining at night - best game. Ambient occlusion, reflections and the beautiful city are worth exploring.

> Audio: Since I do not listen to the original soundtrack I can only give a feedback about how the game itself sounds like. The best thing I want to point out is the engine-sounds. You can modify them to your liking - and it is awesome. The game sounds nice, has some got "audio reflection" and overall is very well done.

> Gameplay: The storyline is quite okay and I think it is worth playing it, but in the end the map is cluttered with so many things to do and collect that you HAVE to filter what you are looking for. Personally I like the approach of a Day- and Nightcycle - though I would also have appreciated a more fluent transition between both times.

> Characters: Sometimes a bit shallow, sometimes also okay-ish, but I am not here to criticize it too much, because in the end you do not have that many options to write a massive story with deep lore and stuff. So it is okay.

> Physics: This is my biggest dissappointment about this game. Okay, I come from a more simulation-based approach and enjoy other games more but if I would isolate NfS Heat only it would also suck. It has such an unpredictable behaviour and I really did not enjoy it at all. Sometimes you go around a corner, just slowing down the car and it flips like I have tapped the handbrake. Other times I wanted the car to flick it did not - even with a handbrake-tap. Drifting only works with a weird tap and hold approach and not a Scandinavian flick or weight transition or handbrake-tapping. Do not get me wrong, I get it that this game is an Arcade-racer, but I also expect an Arcade-racer to give me the freedom of gaming. On top of this problem there is an absolute strange behaviour and when cornering because sometimes you get superglued so that you take a sharper turn than you want but if you want a sharp turn you slide to the outside. It has no linear features and the game behaves like a coinflip in those regards.

> Bugs: 1440p with the highest settings did not display sharp menu options, looked like a scaled 144p Youtube-video and thus led me to disliking the menus a lot.

> Semi-related topics: Unfortunately I was not abled to make Unite 3.5 work - which was my highest hope about this game so I cannot tell how the game would have felt with a better physics approach.

> Whom would I recommend the game for? Younger players who want to enter the racing genre and enjoy a fun time in an Arcade-Racer.

> Who should not play this game? Someone who enjoys realism, deep mechanics, predictable behaviour and a story-rich environment.



(Note: I have played this game on another account as well, but I write my reviews mostly here, so do not wonder about the hours - I should be around 100 hrs on another account.)

Since I am a fan of other hunting games I have bought this game and played it for a little time.

Pro's of this game:
- realistic hunting experience
- very well composed world
- nice UI design
- huge knowledge base available for the player

Con's after playing:
- quite over-saturated (some UE4 games have this strange HDR problem)
- changing some setup-elements did not really affect the game (e.g. depth-of-field didn't change for me)
- smaller mission-design-related things (no markers on your map, so that tracking an animal is very tedious)

You will also see that I have refunded this game. Why did I do this?
This game is very well composed and done in a great way, but I do not see myself putting a whole lot of hours in this game. I play after work and even with the easiest setup you will still have to put in some effort, where I do not see myself doing it over and over again. If you have some time and also your head is not already drained - this game is for you. It looks good, has a lot of elements that are great and I do appreciate the game for what it is - I just don't share a future with it :)

Cheers to all the devs behind this game - nice job ;)