Recent reviews by procreator

Absolutely love playing this with the boys, but this game desperately needs a type of single player against bots. The workshop has a goalie AI that works pretty well, but the actual practice in this game is severely lacking in my opinion. I'd love to join some more servers, but the skill ceiling is quite high in this game (which is a good thing) but its hard to actually PRACTICE and get better on your own since you're constantly battling for getting control of the puck. I don't even care if I get absolutely demolished by AI, just please introduce a 2v2 or 5v5 mode to play solo or with friends please.

The servers need some maintenance, or the direct host needs a bit of an overhaul, as my friends and I have recently been struggling to maintain server stability when playing together, with some pretty large random lag spikes and overarching jittering.

That all being said, this is a ridiculously satisfying game to play. Learning to hit different shots and then making a goal just scratches a part of my brain that I have been missing. Trash talking and getting demolished is even more fun.

Footy stands for ḟ̶͕̻͔͔̘̥͒̐̈́̇̑̓͘ō̸̧͇̩̯͉̘͇̠̤̓̊́̏̊̔̀͗̀̇̆͘͘͜͠ͅo̷̭̘͚̘͖̔͆̐͆̋́̇̅̀͊͠t̴̛̪̩͔̝̔̓̑͗̏̅͂̾̑͋̿̍͠͝ͅą̷͖̱̤̥̖͋̊̽̃́̃̎̎̃̚͘g̴̰̠̹̹̖̰͎͚̦̣͔̈́͂̈́̅̀̐͂͊̑͑͒̀̈́̀̒ë̶̦̣̪͉̜̝̳̜̰̕͠͝

My demo experience:

>spend first 4 days refusing to do anything at night due to primitive fear
>find night vision in locker
>decide to myself "ok, now I can brave RG-East and complete that elimination contract"
>stock up on ammo at RG-West and wish Dr. Mosby a good day

>open RG-East and am immediately greeted with a primordial shriek that I feel in my bones
>go to the quarantined zone and look at the fence and warnings
>another shriek happens and I am pulled 100 feet forward, finding myself face to face with a full-black, 10-foot elk skull looking entity

>mfw

>I run away and jump off of a balcony
>he pulls me back to him

>MFW

>I pull out my anti-material rifle and put four .50 caliber incendiary rounds into him
>to my relief, he falls to the ground dead
>in my primal state of panic, I forget that gunshots create noise, and a .50 caliber is very loud.
>four acid-spewing enemies show up and start attacking me
>I run away and get cornered in a lab
>the four acid enemies turn me into a new experiment

>I quit the game, stand up from my computer, and proceed to drink water while staring at my desktop from 20 feet away
>I buy the full version of the game.

This is genuinely what I have been craving for the past couple of years. Good gunplay, enemy AI actually have decent tactics, and the "mystery" that you solve throughout missions and contracts genuinely has me interested.

I am very excited to see where this game goes from here. Don't balk at the $30 price tag. Give the demo a shot, and see if you like it.

Edit/Update 8/22/25: I'm sad to see that the demo was removed due to "public domain" music that was improperly labeled and NOT public domain. However, after around 20 more hours on this game, I am WILDLY impressed.

The immersion is PHENOMENAL. You have to use clues to actually figure out where your objective is located, but they tell you the general location or give you some context clues and it usually isn't all that difficult to figure out. If you are ever stuck behind a locked door, there is usually another way to get around the obstacle. Night time is terrifying, underground labs are great for nightmares, and you really need night vision if you don't want to feel blindsided by.... well anything. Computer terminals in this game are perfectly done in my opinion. You are actually required to type in functions and commands, and in high-stress situations you really have to reconsider if opening a door or turning a light on is your best course of action. These terminals (and rare books) provide some great lore to the world and game, and I recommend reading everything you come across (because you will need it eventually!) Example (minor spoiler): One of the missions you have to retrieve some documents from an office's records room. You figure out where the building is, and that the doors are locked. You read one of the computers and it tells you that one employee has a key, so you have to go to reception and figure out where they live and track down this key. or you figure out that there is another way into the room without a key

Gunplay feels sublime, I keep going back to other games and missing the feel of Project Silverfish. I don't even notice not having hands anymore, and I think it actually adds to the charm of the game. Enemies won't go easy on you, so you have to get good at aiming and leaning if you want to survive some of the more intense gunfights. The AI will flank you and spot you if you aren't being careful, and their grenade aim is impeccable. The variety of enemy weapons and environmental obstacles means you have to adjust tactics based around your active environment, the guns you have, and the amount of ammo you are carrying.

Enemy factions are very distinguishable, and so far you can do a pretty wide assortment of missions for those factions. The standard/default is to spawn with the Freelancers which gives you a wide assortment of missions and objectives, and you can also join up with the Rebellion as their relationship with the Freelancers is neutral, and they also provide another set of missions and objectives. But, you can also create new characters with the Military or Insurrection, which provides a completely separate experience as both of those factions are very distrusting of outsiders, and getting your reputation up with them enough to the point where they don't shoot you on sight is a very difficult process. The Black Market Broker, the Shopkeep, and Dr. Mosby all provide another grouping of missions, but they are not a faction (besides your reputation with them).

Sound design has the audiophile in me absolutely satisfied. Some of the anomalous entities have screeches or yelps that give me goosebumps up and down my body. I'm literally so freaked out by one of the noises that I stop any objective I am trying to complete just to track it down and kill it. Echos, distant sounding noises, and the ambient atmosphere are also expertly done.

Honestly, I'm just super excited about the future of this game. I'm almost obsessed with the world and feel of this game (as you can tell about the massive essay I just wrote about it). This game has a TON of potential, and utilizing the faction system is a great way to keep coming back with different characters.

It's a little unintuitive at first, but I think it has some potential and I am having a lot of fun with it. I think there needs to be some more variety with boss fights, but this game can be funny and fun at times.

I do think there needs to be some work with the AI pathing for sea creatures. I spent a lot of time waiting for a shark or turtle to come close enough to land so I could make better equipment.

However, gambling.

Gamble with your friends on what you will roll for extra pro gambler experience.

I had around 40 hours in the playtest, and am really happy to see RageSquid listening to the community and continuing to improve upon the game. Great movement, reasonable bails, and genuine fun with this one.

It was a great choice to delay the release, and another great choice to launch in early access with a clear roadmap. I'm normally not a fan of early access launches, but RageSquid is still updating the original Descenders to this day, and I have high hopes that they will give Descenders Next a bunch of loving care as well.

What I love about Arkane is that they are consistently trying new things, and I think this game was another positive step forward for the studio, even if it falls flat for people.

My rationale? It's a classic Arkane game wrapped in a neat little time loop with a new concept on levels and missions. There are four individual well-crafted levels that can be visited at four different periods of the day, which change the enemies and parts of the map layout. The game also has the excellent combat, stealth, and powers that Arkane is renowned for. Concept was really well done, the characters were nicely crafted, and I think the execution was almost perfect, but there was just one issue which made the game lacking for others.

The main problem? There is only one solution, only one "Golden Loop" as they put it. This unfortunately locks you into a pretty linear path, even if you explore the rest of the maps for the solution during the time loop period. This paired with the invasion style gameplay (which I really liked) meant that the majority of invasions occurred in 4 set places and times, and that led to people only using one path/spot that they knew really well, rather than exploring and moving around which is when Arkane games are at their best.

Had there been multiple solutions, even just 3 or 4, this would have opened up so many more opportunities for players to explore and replay the game and maps alike, and would have extended the shelf life of this.

I still absolutely adore this game. It's really well designed, the powers are satisfying, and being able to infuse your equipment meant you'd never feel lacking in your next loop attempt. On sale, worth every single penny.

Honestly, give it a pass. Physics are absolutely broken at the moment, swinging a weapon is pretty much completely random, and they seemingly refuse to add any new maps but instead just add new mid game modes.

Grabbing? Absolutely stupid. Game will literally pick EVERYTHING else up BEFORE the thing you want to. Doesnt matter if its a person or an object, the game will ALWAYS decide to pick something else up.

Don't ask how knockouts work. The developers don't even know. You can throw someone out of the map and they will survive for 15-20 seconds, and the second you get out of the arena, you die.

The community is 90% toxic A-Holes, and losers who have spent the last 2 years playing nothing but this.

Garbage physics, garbage community, garbage game.

If you're on the fence about getting this, just take a look at the average times played between negative and positive reviews.

"I've spent some time but I just don't like 'X'" - 1 Hour on record
"Nothing interesting to do here". - 1.5 hours on record
"I just really don't like the server lag, but otherwise its fun" - 850 hours on record

Its a sandbox building game. I'm not sure why anyone is expecting a massive campaign?

Once you start to understand how the vehicle builder works, the opportunities become endless. Take a little time to learn how the scenario builder works, and you can manufacture fun missions to play by yourself or with friends.

I'm honestly having a lot of fun with this. I didn't go in with any expectations, and I was pleasantly surprised with how the game managed to hook me. Obviously there are some issues with the game, but the movement, worldbuilding, exploration, sound design, visual effects, and the voice acting are all phenomenal. The combat system has a solid variety, but could use a little more fine tuning.

Probably my biggest disappointment with this game was no option for a "Dumb" playthrough like in New Vegas or The Outer Worlds. Setting your intelligence to the lowest option does not provide any funny options like in other Obsidian games.

Genuinely, if Obsidian adds just a few things to this (and hopefully Outer Worlds 2), the game should receive a bit more praise.

1) There needs to be some form of encounter system when exploring the main maps. There are a few scattered around, but it's missing the "traveled roads" feeling with all of the empty roads and trails.

2) there just needs to be a little more motion and movement in cities. Add some pathing to civilians and these gorgeous cities will feel much more vibrant.

3) Stealth needs an overhaul. We get this sweet godlike power that is only used for stealth, a ton of placed and crafted bushes to hide around in the world... and you're lucky to get one stealth kill before everyone is alerted. Add pathing to the enemy AI, suppress the noise generated by stealth kills, and let me snipe people quietly with a bow so there is a true reason for me to use a bow over an arquebus. Dishonored is my favorite game series of all time, and the movement in Avowed genuinely reminds me of the movement from Dishonored, and improving the stealth system would get a ton of those stealth players on board.

4) Add just a few more mob types. The game isn't as bad as "ugh you only fight lizards and bears" like people complain about. But there are some really cool mob types that aren't seen until late game, and having a few more varieties would brighten up the gameplay and the vibe of the Living Lands.

Overall, I honestly really like this game. Wait for a sale if you're not entirely sure about pulling the trigger, or try it for a month on gamepass and see if you like it. I'm 99% sure that Xbox and Steam saves are cross-compatible as long as you log into your xbox account.

TL;DR - Game is a grind, rather than fun. At the end of the day, tying player progression to in-game purchasable currency is truly unacceptable. I've been frustrated with the cosmetics being tied this way in the past, but player progression is a true nightmare.

Jeez, what an absolute mess. Lets see what we have here:

1.) VC rewards akin to a Free to Play model, screwing over matchmaking for anyone who didn't want to pay $100+ to play early. You earn 9 VC for matchmaking, and 54 for an 18-hole.

2.) Your wife catching you in bed with 4 strippers is going to be more forgiving than this game (0.02% off rhythm = 9% reduction in power on Pro-Am???)

3.) Constant controller disconnects, making Divot Derby basically impossible if the game decides to stop detecting the controller.

4.) Everything costs VC. A single outfit item varies from 350-1200 VC, so you'll have to decide if you want to upgrade your character, or make their clothes anything besides the ugly starting outfit.

5.) Don't worry, they give you a bunch of upgrade abilities to get started! But they cost VC, and its 9K to use all of them.

6.) Random phantom balls flying across the green while spectating.

7.) The music assortment is all over the place. Goes from trap, to 80s vaporwave, to alternative, to orchestral.

8) Oh, you don't like taking shots with an angled shot plane? Don't worry, you can upgrade your clubs to reduce that! By spending VC.

9.) Playing a scramble with 3 other friends, excruciating amount of time to get through 9 holes. Game crashes during the transition between the front and back 9 holes, none of us get any XP or VC for any of the holes we played.

10.) Oh, I got a really cool looking shirt out of a reward, but it's for a body type "B" and I cannot use it on my character.

11.) Absolutely horrible UI. Laggy, takes forever to move a single menu, intrusive tutorials.

12.) Don't even get me started on the whole "Swing Bias Input Offset" that requires you to have an offset swing trajectory. But of course, this can also be mitigated with VC and upgrades, so good luck playing against randoms online.

13.) Forcing me to choose between an obscenely heavy draw or slice is bad game design, allowing me to mitigate it by yet again spending VC is downright criminal.

This is just 2K's version of the classic Battlefront 2 "sense of pride and accomplishment". Ridiculous grift. 2K should be ashamed of themselves.

Anyone buying VC are the problem with modern day gaming.