Recent reviews by Hawkmaraar

A nice evolution onto the original game. Plays pretty different: A focus on (at least early) more "in-your-face" fighting. Big fan of the addition of the healing systems: When a tech gets broken in a fight you can repair it a set amount of times before needing to recharge it. Being able to go into an engagement, and know that you'll be able to come out the other side with eventually the same tech is a very nice evolution. While the licensing system is very different, after getting accustomed to it, I'm very much a fan of it.

I'm a fan of base-builders, so the addition of the satisfactory-esque elements is a welcome evolution. While crafting is still mildly annoying (being able to pull from silos on the same base when trying to craft in fabricators would be very nice), it's much nice compared to the relative slog of trying to set up any kind of production in the original game.

Technology (not 'tech' vehicles, the systems) have been evolved on well. The planet is orders of magnitude more detailed and interesting to traverse vs. the kind of low rolling hill monotony of previous. The addition of the ocean is very nice. Not at flying vehicles yet, but about to get into them. The ability to terraform the world and also have it be this detailed is an achievement. The planet is curved and seeing a structure you build have to contend with that is pretty cool imo.

Overall balance of progression has been very nice- That 'scrappy-fighter' stage that feels tense but rewarding in the original game is extended over a longer period of time, and feels quite nice. The first hour hurts, no doubt about it, but it's not from a lack of trying. The FTUE having just playing the original is always going to be hard. But if you can get to the other side of that, just a few hours in, it's been quite worthwhile. Progression takes a good path that feelslike F:NV or BOTW where difficulty is based on the area. You can return to where you started from later on, with a stronger craft and a better understanding, and you can feel the progression you've made in learning the systems, as well as the power of bringing more talons to the fight. Enemy respawn/despawn could be a bit more forgiving. Killing a drop-squad into fighting a backup team, only to have the original drop-squad have respawned is quite an annoyance. I'd say (at least for the medium difficulty) double the distance needed for an engagement to be able to respawn. At least for early game maybe. Being able to clear a path through an area, at least for say, that day/night cycle, would be more rewarding and hopefully incentivize clearing out paths more, rather than just running past hoping to not catch a stray grenade.

As a fellow game dev (given, in a different genre), I hope you guys & gals at Payload don't get discouraged by the current mixed rating. What's currently in is (imo) well worth the price, especially during the Autumn Sale currently going on. The core of what's here & to come, while VERY different from the original, is very strong. As someone who loved From The Depths when I was younger and has searched for something to scratch that itch, I'm very glad I saw that they're making a 'sequel-of-sorts'. (Consider having a bundle w/the new game on the original TerraTech's page or in-game of the original. I didn't even know this follow-up existed. Also recommend re-recording the cinematic trailer/EA Launch trailer. The new UI, while simpler and less interesting visually, is an easier sell to anyone who might be coming from the original. Glad to have found it though.) The flight model is a little squirrely: positioning of engines is very sensitive, and holding acceleration for too long builds up a resistance to changing direction a bit too strongly vs how sensitive it is when not accelerating.

As noted in other reviews, removed Linux support for not particularly valid reasons. Other competitive games are able to overcome this issue, with both higher and lower player counts. Not sure why leadership chose to fix it by dropping the platform.
Interested if they'll do before/after numbers on this, maybe it's actually justified, at least.

Gaming

Make Titanfall 3 please, good mechanics good

Made a floating arm trebuchet that exploded and killed 30 guards. 10/10 would trebuchet again

Lots of little hints and secrets to find. Would reccommend c:

Nice building game, but physics would be appreciated. An on/off option for some claims would be useful for those who don't quite understand or don't want to deal with load-bearing.