Recent reviews by MethodicTea

An absolute blast. This is one of those games that will have replayability for a very very long time.

The performance issues are certainly something they need to address, as well as their really bad server stability. With that said, this game is beautiful, refreshing, and fun. If you've been waiting for a squad based shooter that you and your friends can get addicted to, I think this is a great option. I'm excited to see where this goes!

Also, the community has been impressive. 9/10 people I interact with are laid back, fun, and helpful.

If you enjoyed Banished, you will really enjoy this game. Ostriv is a charming and simple city builder with some great mechanics that make it feel balanced and intuitive. The management aspect is not as complex as other games in the genre, but that adds to the charm in my opinion. It is a visually fantastic experience, and the little extra love for detail the developers put into the core of the game is lovely.

Great game. If you loved Rim World, this is a great alternative. Continuously updating to improve as well.

How did they manage to make such a beautiful game, and absolutely destroy the gameplay with the game modes? If you like treaty(No Rush) and/or Half Map modes that previous AoE incorporated, just know that you need to subscribe to a mod for those "advanced" settings. And the mods do not even function properly to restrict exploits(such as allow enemy players to build outposts inside of your town during peace time). It is an absolute waste of time.

I thought long and hard about whether or not I was going to recommend this game or not. Rust has such a special place in my heart. I first purchased this game in it's early access phases, and watched it grow into what it is today.

If you asked my a couple years ago whether or not I recommend this game, I would've told you it's by far the best game ever made!

What changed my mind?

In short, the development team unfortunately lost vision of what I believe the foundation of Rust was supposed to be. A brutal survival game that focused on a BALANCE between PVP and base building. Throughout the years, its seems every update pushes further and further away from the balance, and more in line with what we've seen with any other game that has gun; battle royale.

The building mechanics of this game were fantastic, then it got forgotten. Even though youtube is filled with build exploits that secure bases to the max, the development team has yet to address that it is an ISSUE that players need to exploit building mechanics in ways they weren't designed to do, simply to be better fortified again people who solely focus on raiding. Have a full blown raid strategy is fine, thats apart of the game, but the limitations on the defensive side is horrific. Someone that jumps into a fresh wipe and focuses solely on base building has 0% chance of survival if a person that is focusing solely on C4 gets ahold of them first. There is no built in opportunity to have close to equal chances against an offensive strategy. The best you can do is grind for Tier 5 Armored doors, which take the same amount of C4 to blow through than a Tier 2 Garage Door..... like what? That's not balanced, and players will quickly learn that any other strategy than being a nomad that grinds to raid is the only truly successful route to take in Rust.

And that's what it is now.... a server filled with nomads that raid as soon as possible, and quickly diminish the population of the server to be a war between the toxic.

How did they address this? They removed the ONLY last balancing feature that kept PVP somewhat hard to master. Previously to the most recent update, all guns had a very difficult learning curve to master the recoil. This prevented a numbnut from hopping in and just taking over with PVP. It forced people to grind and learn the combat mechanics before going into full blown PVP mode. It forced people to learn how to Rust..... hide, build, defend, and scavage the land to give yourself a better opportunity to survive in a SURVIVAL GAME.

Now, even that is gone. There is no more reason for anyone to learn to Rust. The new recoil update turned Rust into Warzone.... you can hop in, never learn to craft, never learn to build, and simply have warfare immediately because the recoil pattern is quite literally exactly what COD games have in place.

Rust is no longer the Rust I fell in love with, and it's truly sad to see.

Squad is by far the best military sim game out there. They've managed to simplify what Arma provides with the in depth simulation, without taking away from the realism and seriousness of the gameplay. The best part? This is not a toxic community. A large majority of servers have a helpful group of folks that will happily answer your questions while working towards the objective. Not to mention, the development team is still putting in work to make sure it continuously gets better. If you're on the fence, this game is worth every dollar. Get it!

Do you like survival games? Looking for something different? Buy this game.

Overall:
All in all, Icarus has been an extremely unique and fun experience. There is nothing like this game in it's genre, and it really capitalizes on the best parts of survival games in my opinion. It has a really satisfying yet simplistic building system which is a must if you're anything like me and really enjoy building bases. Icarus also has a really nice crafting system that perfectly balances the grind needed to reach certain goals in character development. The best part, is the extremely unique storyline/mission system that is in place. Almost every survival game is repetitive and lacks an end goal after you've mastered the basics. This game has a TON of "prospects", which are the missions you complete, that always differentiate from the others. It keeps it interesting.

Pros:
-Unique missions/storyline that give purpose to your gameplay, and plenty of them.
-Complex, but not overly complex crafting/experience system; perfectly balancing the grind and making it worth it.
-Beautiful Graphics
-Excellent and simple building systems
-Consistent updates with a development team that listens

Cons:
-The game is demanding. You will need a good rig to run this game at even medium graphics. Even with a great system, lag and unoptimization with certain things will really drop frames and stability at times.(Though this is actively being addressed by their development team, and it has gotten WAY better with recent updates.)
-Every time you complete a mission, you lose anything you built during that mission. If you are someone that LOVES building, like I do, it can be hard to say goodbye to your builds, but you keep all experience and character development of course, making it easier as you go. They also have a sandbox mode(endless play) if you need to get that satisfaction without the timeline.
-Can get brutal in certain missions, best played with friends.(Have not played solo so I do not know if it is nerfed to make it easier solo)

The reviews are mixed because there was backlash due to the lack of stability of this game when it was launched. The development team has acknowledged these concerns and is actively working to correct the issues. The most recent update, Talent Respec System, they essentially asked the community to rethink our outlook on the team and the launch.... they deserve this review, and they deserve much better reviews.

This game is a masterpiece. Visually stunning, and unlike any other game in it's genre.

The best city builder released, by far. The DLC expands the potential of city management in the funnest way possible. It can get pricey to get all the DLC, but it is worth it. Wait for the sales to get DLC bundles!

Timeless classic. A true strategy game that is very challenging but worth the struggle.