Recent reviews by HeartCoded

Ok... so the gunplay feels pretty good, but the meta-progression is insanely grindy and RNG, and the most PvP success I've had has been with the knives after a handful of faction upgrades.

What an interesting game. I like the events but any time I start a map event it's so loud that I'll get third, fourth, even fifth partied (outpost).

Also, for some reason spawns and bot difficulty in solo are same as in squads, so everyone will tell you avoid PvE at all costs, it's just a drain, and that leads to a lot of evasive, slow-paced, time-intensive grinding that I just can't recommend.

Cryo Archives was interesting, but the timing for it doesn't align at all with unusual work schedule, and the buy-in is still very farming heavy even at 38 hours of playtime because of slow faction progression. I have a ton of credits, but no way to convert them without the level-locked faction upgrades.

PvP is great, but no SBMM means the skill difficulty and gearing of squads and solos you face is inconsistent, and the limited escape options and low TTK mean if you someone sees you, you're fairly committed to the fight in many situations.

There's proximity chat, but it's superfluous at best and super toxic at worst, there's not much co-op unless in squads or limited circumstances with the rook (scav) shell.

Also everything resets. My factions are all about halfway to VIP, so expect to spend 80 hours or more, and then it all resets on a 3 month basis, so... I wouldn't really recommend this.

I'll probably check back when they do a season update, but I have a lot of real life commitments that will keep me from fully exploring Marathon season 1.

Not recommended due to lack of a demo, could have a lot more content for the price and better to wait for 50% discount or more. Could use more visual polish.

I think not only is this a bad game, but it's sending a bad message. Cigarettes everywhere and this is somehow a "dadcore" "camping sim" "cozy adventure" game. Every review site is shipping this slop as some kind of fun dad co-op game.

Then TECHNICALLY, the game also sucks. The NPCs blow, the RV integrity blows, they could've put effort into variation between runs but you can memorize everything the first run through. This is just normalizing and incentivizing ciggie use.

Bad devs, bad people.

Best extract shooter, hands down. Laugh, cry, rage, plot revenge, beg for boss kill collaboration, fail your task 12 times in a row and have an adrenaline high the 13th time.

Ok so its def still in the 'adult puzzle' niche, but i was pleased by the features. The row-and-column sliding mechanic adds a nice strategic layer, not just basic puzzles. The chill soundtrack and high-quality art are great, but the ability to import your own custom images is the real standout feature and helps with the relatively small # of base puzzles. More depth than it looks.

Has come a long way since launch, still has a way to go.

I would recommend this if you like pixel art explosions, soylent green, OCD stamping documents and READING.

Update, +23 hours:
The devs have optimized the game EVEN MORE and while there is still a ways to go to run it smooth at it's full potential on moderate hardware, this is one of the most worthy contenders in the extract shooter genre.

Instead of just cloning what's out there with a minor twist, Forever Winter HEAVILY emphasizes the environment versus environment aspect throughout their game design and the individual levels. Random events pepper the individual levels (secret cow level, cyborg hell) on top of ongoing reinforcements from different factions.

Extracts are easy to locate through the compass, and generally fast to use. I'm very excited to see future development on this game.


UNBELIEVABLY GOOD UPDATE! This game now runs at 60 FPS for me using DLSS Performance on Medium Settings and has much more positive rewarding gameplay loops, I'm having a blast and progressing through missions. I now recommend buying this to support the devs.

Dang I love pixel art

Edit: dang, I still love pixel art

Interesting! Like Dungeonborne and Dark and Darker, but faster paced. Also mobility is HUGE, you can mantle up and levitate, and levitate up in a BIG way in this game.

It also has SOLO queues, if you're just trying to play FAST, this is a big upside. The mobility plus the solo queues has led to some very funny 1v1 Priest PvP fights in the big castle area with both of us flying around and shooting holy arcs at eachother.

33 hours in:
It took me 4 hours of my 33 hours of total playtime to figure out how to beat Viper Napuatzi.

It broke me, as a character, and as a human being.

Ultimately, I had to reform myself into a sharp point.

A singular focus.

Stopping Viper Napuatzi from picking my soul apart in 1 hit?

Could I even BE resistant enough?

COULD I BE TANKY ENOUGH?

No.

I was a sorceress.

And the last 29 hours for me?

They were spent fearfully casting chill at everything that appeared on screen.

Because chilled slowed those mofos down.

And freeze? SLOWED THEM EVEN MORE.

So I tried, for hours. Energy shield couldn't help me anymore.

Her attacks slipped right past it. :<

That mix of chaos, and lightning, and poison.

So I built, and built, and built.

And I died, and died, and died.

But once, before I died. She froze.

Stock still, unaggressive, perfect.

And so I went to visit Sin.

And I asked him to give me all my points back.

And I went to my skill tree.

Because I knew, resistance wasn't the way.

I had to freeze too. I had to freeze INSTANTLY.

So I took every freeze buildup.

And I saw freeze buildup was damage based.

So I took every cold damage and critical chance I could get my grubby mitts on.

And I went back to visit Viper.

Three ice walls, and I was safe.

A frost bomb to cause exposure.

And an echoed Comet to bring closure.

For hours, echoes in my head.

"The Viper strikes!"

"Yaomac take you!"

"You will fall before us!"

"I will crush you, insect!"

"Bow to your Queen, or die!"

But now the echoes were more Comets.

Comets and Comets and Comets.

And Viper, no longer flying high above.

But dead, at my feet.

And I knelt, and I whispered,

"Why were you the hardest boss in any game I've ever played to gear for."

TLDR:
♥♥♥♥ this game, unreasonably hard for weird reasons like limitations on available gear affixes at the level cap where you stop gaining experience from the available maps up to Act 3.

TLDR but you're still gonna play the game and get stuck on this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Viper Napuatzi boss:
I beat Viper by exploiting the freeze mechanic on Ice Wall and Frost Bomb, then putting Spell Echo on Comet and spamming a rotation of Ice Wall x 3 - Frost Bomb - Comet.

YOU MUST max out lightning, chaos resistances and get life to at least 800 and armor to 30% physical reduction. I had 81% cold resistance penetration and used Hypothermia intermittently to reduce that further. I was never able to avoid the full-arena poison AoE when all the guards strike at once and had to build just enough survivability for that.

NEVER USE ANY SKILLS WITH GROUND EFFECTS. I was originally Frostbolt - Ice Bomb and that's just ♥♥♥♥♥♥ for this fight. There are so many ground effects you need to pay attention to that your own ground effects will completely obscure that will kill you within 1 or 2 hits. I had to eliminate Frostbolt entirely for this fight. I also had Orb of Storms with Lightning damage redirected to Cold before this fight, that got me killed numerous times just from obscuring deadly ground effects or incoming 1-hit spells.

Just wait, what a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ masochistic torture fest. They will happily ♥♥♥♥ your whole build over damage that bypasses defenses your skill tree is set up to build for the worst designed semi-final boss fight you've ever experienced in an ARPG.

29 hours playtime impression:
♥♥♥♥ this game, ♥♥♥♥ this game, ♥♥♥♥ this game.

Final boss of the game, Viper Napuatzi is a garbage end boss.
Random damage type switchup to Chaos? Check.
Side-enemies that can 1-hit kill you with Chaos? Check.
Resistant to all damage types except... Chaos? Check.
No way to build meaningful Chaos resistance at end of Act 3? Check.

23 hours playtime impression, post 0.1.1 Patch:
Wow, the end to Act 2 was crazy. I died 39 times in Act 1 and then only 3 times in Act 2. The biggest difference was I started trading with players to fill in the gaps that RNG just never hit for me in dozens of hours of play. Can I recommend it? Well, I'm addicted.

17 hours playtime impression:
I still kinda feel the same way as in original, but RNG has blessed me enough to squeak through the boss fights and I have accepted that boss fights are marathon endurance challenges.

Armor is broken, use Energy Shield. Ice damage has been super OP, and weirdly getting up close to most bosses makes them switch to lower damage melee attacks instead of 1-hit kill skillshots.

Original Review - 4 hours playtime:
Unbelievably disappointing in its current state. Love PoE and have "beat" it multiple times, putting this down until they figure out how to make the movement not glacial and the boss fights less garbage. How many dozens of times should I die to these cheesy, over-tanky bosses? Just not fun.