Recent reviews by Aria-3

Old and timeless like the first day you found out about Minecraft when it was a browser game, except it's still in development and hasn't been microsofted to Helheim and back.

You'll binge and take a break. Then come back and take a break. Then rebuild a base that feels and looks better than your last one, but this time with friends. And then leave before coming back years later.

For me, it's the Warframe of survival games ... and still the best thing about Valheim in my opinion is the fact that it's the only game in 30 years to make a thunderstorm as magical and beautiful as when you first saw raindrops in Zelda: A Link to the Past on the SNES.

Why do you need a steam review for your decision to lock in?

Game of the Year across a dozen categories. Coolest and most gamer-friendly developers. Voice acting that reminds us why we love this genre. Endless ending and choice/consequence options. Co-op with friends. Easy respeccing, variety of gameplay using magic items and builds 5E only wishes it had in the ttrpg.

Buy it already it you haven't.

Not sure you need a choomer like me to tell you to try the game. I had a crap pc for 10 years, 4 of which couldnt run the game after I bought it on launch.

Now I'm living the Night City dream like a bat outta hell. If you haven't played this yet and always wanted to, it's time. Bugs are fixed, DLC is implemented into the campaign, mods all work.

Just don't play it for more than 16 hours in one sitting. Not for health reasons, no, but because the client doesn't seem to be able to handle that much work without a clocking out for a lunch break without crashing.

Hoo boy. Where to begin. First, a small bit about me and where I'm coming from as a gamer. I wasn't a huge 40K fan until two years before buying this. I'm a trans gal who likes eldar and values great writing over pandering to whatever sells the most money. I've played hundreds of hours of BG3 and thousands of hours in tactical rpgs and mmos. I didn't know about this game until I decided to buy a new gaming pc fit for Space Marine 2.

And in the eternity that spanned 2 months for my gaming pc to be assembled, I decided to try a well-reputed 40K game to pass the time until the Ultramarines of desktop rigs could arrive in the mail. If you're like me and you hadn't heard of this game in its 2023 early access and subsequent release, you could probably be forgiven on account of Baldur's Gate 3 ruling the universe that year.

Simply put, Rogue Trader has the complexity, depth, lore and production quality of BG3. It is essentially BG3, but replacing Forgotten Realms with 40K's grim darkness of war. And Warhammer has never tasted so good. God this game is unexpectedly good.

GRAPHICS: Average (but ultimately unimportant)
AUDIO: Phenomenal (and memorable)
COMPLEXITY: Endless character/team buildcrafting (prepare to respecc and restart a lot)
DEPTH: Lots of side content, attention to mechanical detail, and DLC (one is out as of writing this, another on the way)
LORE: Immersive and inclusive (delicious attention to the world setting, and keyword/jargon explainers for those new to the 40K world)

GRAPHICS:

With a 10-year-old 'gaming' pc from Alienware, running the game on lowest settings was painful and sluggish. Even now, running it on an Omen work of art, the character models and expressions are nothing to write home about. It's not why you're playing. If you're on an older pc with an outdated video card, you're in for some chop. Be prepared to face a 2-minute load screen anytime you get into and out of a cutscene, a transition from one room of your voidship to another, and everything in between. Have a graphics card you can be proud of and these load times are shortened to a few seconds. The Emperor protects.

AUDIO:

The audio in this game is an unexpected treat, as an inordinate amount of production time and money has been diverted to this part of the experience. The music you'll hear in every part of the game is heavily immersive and situational. The darkness of the world on the brink of collapse into chaos is richly expressed through a musical score you'll look forward to. Battle themes vary wildly depending on your opponents -- and depending on how well the fight is going. Akin to BG3, if you start a fight against chaos, the theme is bombastic and terrifying, almost catchy. Kill a few and the tone shifts to one more controlled and optimistic.

Although a great deal of the dialogue in the game is voice-acted, not everything has audio lines. It's similar to how much breadth of voice work BG3 has. Your canon party members and select NPCs have dedicated voice work included for every possible dialogue choice and question. Your protagonist has up to 5 or 6 different personality voices to choose from. You will come to love certain war shouts of victory from your companions and the battle cries of your protagonist in space battles (yes, it has space ship battles.)

COMPLEXITY:

I thought I was a conscientious buildcrafter in D&D and BG3 until now, and even though I was very new to 40K and Rogue Trader ttrpg systems, I thought I would enjoy the customization diversity. I do enjoy it, but I was not expecting just how flexible and synergistic Rogue Trader could be. I played until Chapter 4 of 5 thinking I liked psykers and snipers, and used key party members in support roles. That's when I stumbled onto the community in reddit and youtube, only to discover dozens if not hundreds of combinations other players were using in their games.

I'm not sure I can do the depth of systems justice here, but I will try. In D&D, you get a race, class and subclass choices. And maybe some spell selections with one or two feats. Here in Rogue Trader, your background, your starting class and your homeworld all affect feats (called talents here) you can choose in a vast levelup system. An intelligence-based character can choose a strength-based subclass later on (among many other options), and your warriors can specc into charisma subclasses or something else entirely. And you can be a psyker (the game's magic) ON TOP of those choices.

I've respecced countless time, and restarted twice before playing to Chapter 5. Building custom characters (which you can do that are as good as your protag and not just BG3's followers) and a team around them is addicting and easy.

DEPTH:

The game explores more than just tactical, bird's eye view of rpg combat. You can customize and upgrade the armor and weapons systems of your flagship for use in naval space battles (which the community appears sharply divided on its difficulty and fun factors). You can explore a vast network of star systems with the guidance of your Navigator (who is powerful af and equally adorable) and establish new warp routes. You can establish and personally dictate the growth of new colonies and hive cities on planets in your territory. Many explored star systems have unexpected encounters, battles, loot and quests that fit perfectly into the grim dark world of the Rogue Trader taming the boundaries of the Imperium.

Playing through and doing every side quest and DLC plot thread I could on normal got me to about 140 hours by the time I cleared Chapter 3 of 5. A subsequent restart on a higher difficulty + ironman mode soaked up 40 more hours (until I unceremoniously bit off more than I could chew in a difficult part of the campaign). Despite being given the option to continue the story or start over, I am not terribly daunted by the idea of repeating another 100 hours of content in this space epic.

LORE:

I've lost track of how many hours I've spent at the wee late hours of my work shift reading the 40K wiki, listening to youtube videos and podcasts about the lore of the world, and listening to my forever Space Marine friends talk about the intricacies of this sprawling story that still has no end in sight. Whatever your opinion is about the direction Games Workshop is taking the narrative in, you will not be disappointed in how faithfully Owlcat has kept the faith.

The personalities and lingo expressed by every NPC and cast member is pointedly diverse and in-character. Even if you're not an Adeptus Wikisaurus, you will given reminders and tips from in-game dialogue to learn the significance of what's expressed rather than expecting you to go to a 3rd party and watch some video for context. You'll see why the Inquisition is feared. You'll get a front-row seat to the dichotomy between aeldari factions (even the harlequins), and you will probably find out sooner than you'd hoped why an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ showing up in terminator armor to your stick fight was not on your Bingo card that week.

I've gone on longer than I intended, but if you've gotten this far and haven't given Owlcat some of your hard-earned paycheck, I hope you've been given some food for thought. After all the patches, the game has only crashed twice in my 186 hours, and I've encountered no hard/softlock bugs.

TL;DR

If you loved BG3 and/or Pathfinder, you'll feel at home here
If you love 40K in any capacity and want to try a quality title, look no further
If you love tactical turn-based games but are new to 40K, this could be a great place to start
If you're wondering why you hadn't heard of this game on your content creator feed, look to BG3

Don't be a mon-keigh and pass this up. Be an elantach and have faith this is an absolute game.
All else I can say is it's worth it.

Going to start off by saying, the daily routine and weekly activities of this game might not be for everyone, but I have truly enjoyed Beyond Light as an expansion.

The superb gunplay Bungie was famous for cementing in the Halo series is one of the primary reasons I come back to Destiny as a game to use my free time. The PvE sandbox is still in the process of evolving, and early reviews that suggested there wasn't enough to do in the opening weeks were right. But after we've started unlocking more of Europa and the world first raid clear unlocked much of the planet's quests, there's quite a lot to do and many weapons worth chasing.

Visually, it's a gorgeous game. Transmog itself might not yet be in the game for us to make our guardians look how we want, but between Europa's roaming blizzards of varying intensities and visibility, and the falling debris from the destroyed space station (see the new raid) all combine to make a bleak frozen hell into a wintry wonderland with a lot of graphical personality. Bungie's starting to get the hang of their cinematic skyboxes in strikes, raids and patrol areas. Although some folks aren't jazzed about the state of Crucible, the amount of love the art team put into their locations makes me grateful.

I'm not much of a pvper and probably never will be, but I can definitely agree that fighting people who use the new Stasis subclass is frustrating. Getting cc'd/frozen mid-super or before you can avoid it is incredibly frustrating, and it feels like Bungie opened Pandora's box for the rule of cool (pun intended.) Good thing I don't spend a lot of time in Crucible, but I can see where a PvP player might feel shafted.

And then there's the raid. It's the best thing since Last Wish, hands down. I might enjoy it more than Last Wish, to be honest. You don't know delight until you've launched yourself into orbit a few times via a rocket pod (and watched the planet zoom away below you) in the middle of a boss encounter. Feeling the ground shake and viewports go fiery when you pilot the space station into atmospheric re-entry. A jumping puzzle in space with the calmest of music to frame a view of a planet from zero-g that you thought you'd only see on National Geographic or NASA TV. The fights aren't so bad now, so seriously: enjoy this raid if you have the chance.

The game's at times still buggy, still laggy, and PvP and Gambit are mostly ruined because they feel like afterthoughts now. But since I like raiding and doing co-op events with friends after work, using weapons I enjoy and new ones I didn't think I'd enjoy... Beyond Light does it for me. It's fine if you don't agree. Nobody's forcing you to play with us. Hopefully you didn't spend too much money on the game.

Oh, and when you see me in the 2nd raid encounter, take a good look sometime. Elsie Bray isn't the only exo who decided she deserved some curves on her robotic body. You think I'm joking.

After another kinda meh afternoon for my day off, I looked through my library, wanting to play something new, fun and exciting. I saw a lot of old titles that I'd played before, but I knew what I was in for.

I recently noticed that this came out AND was getting overwhelmingly positive reviews. For the price of $25, which is about a full gas tank or 3 meals, I figured why not give it a go?

I have not had this much fun since my first time playing Transistor. And I haven't stayed up late playing a game since Three Houses.

The game is ALL about replayability, and you'll almost certainly never play each run the same way twice. The random nature of the bonuses you collect throughout each life encourages you to make the best of the abilities and perks you have in creative ways, and my playstyle changed drastically each time. Depending on the weapon, the epic talents I luckily found, and the risk/reward fighting style... it's the best roguelike out there, and it's crazy how much I look forward to trying NEW things even after enjoying a combination of traits and perks to death (literally).

There's no real losing except giving up. You're a god, so when you 'die' you just start at the beginning... but while some bonuses and currencies reset, others stick with you. You have progression, an encouragement to play skillfully and creatively, and have no choice but to explore the surprisingly in-depth combat system. From debuffs, to branching and combining modifiers, to unexpected ways to use skills you thought you hated... this game took what was delicious about Transistor and made it endlessly replayable AND different every playthrough (which take about 40 min to an hour depending on how it takes you to die).

I've paid two or three times this game's price for titles that left me dissatisfied after hundreds of hours and investment. I'm not even a day in and I feel like the game's selling itself short. And they're still IN DEVELOPMENT, ready to make the game better. $25 for this masterpiece is a steal. Gobble it up, I say.

Ever wonder what your brain would sound like if you gave a voice to your logic, your drama and your encyclopedic parts of your brain? Then had them debate amongst each other while you figured out how to respond to a question?

Should I be witty? Sarcastic? Play dumb? Straightforward?

Chances are your more dominant personality quirks will have something to say on the matter. And will probably disagree with one another. If you had a few more seconds to consider what goes on in the synaptic pathways of the most complex organic muscle computer we know of, this would give us an inspired glimpse of it.

I kind of don't care who killed the murder victim. I'm fascinated to see what kind of person my character becomes as he fills in for the blank canvas he calls his mind and identity. And you get to choose it all.

Roleplaying dialogue and inner voice focused. If you were looking for an RPG that made you think more than rolling min/maxed dice sheets, consider giving this a try.

Only been an amateur bartender for three hours. I've got six hours before I need to be at work, and I'm probably not the only one. Sure could use something a lot like an iced coffee that's bitter and soft before bed.

... If the overwhelmingly positive rating or the hordes of delightedly surprised reviews or the unabashed cyberpunk tropes in the videos aren't worth the second glance, and you somehow stumbled upon this part of the internet that smells like soap and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, then I'll try to keep it short and sweet for you.

The characters talk like real people, with all the slang and personality of characters who aren't tropes or memes or archetypes. I want them to come back so I can hear their stories, help make their days a little better, and maybe get closer to paying my rent while doing it. Even among the catgirls, sexbots and cyberpolice, they all have endearingly human stories, backgrounds, stuggles and dreams.

Welp, I'd better hit the hay before I run out of time. Thanks for the tip and maybe I'll see you back sometime. Just... stay safe, okay?

Was a backer since its announcement more than a year ago, because chances are I took a hard look at this game for the same reason you are: Harebrained Schemes, the epic RPG/RTS developer who produced the unprecedented and oldschool story-heavy RPGs that reminded us of our childhoods.

Finally, we think, these guys come out with another full game around a beloved IP and rpg franchise like Shadowrun. But it was crowdfunded, right? Is it any good? Does it live up to the high standards they set in Dragonfall and Hong Kong?

I'm only about 5 or 6 hours in, but what I'm seeing right now is delicious. And here's the appetizers:

- You know how you can't seem to get any of the old Mechcommander games to work on our new pc's? Command interface initiated.

- Remember how choosing a specialized or unique backstory in a game like Mass effect changed how you interacted with NPCs and the world around you? Hey boss, you went through some ♥♥♥♥ back there, so that's why we put you in charge!

- Ever get lost just chatting with the NPCs and falling in love with the full immersion of being in the tabletop rpg you grew up with? You can spend as much time being back in the pilot seat before the Clan Invasion, because this is ten times the Battletech universe we ever tasted in the RTS games that came out twenty years ago. It's not just the Davion Guard now.

- Remember what it was like building up your small mercenary life in Mechwarrior 2 Mercs? How exciting it was to decide between C-Bills and Salvage and relish the thought of getting that juicy Kodiak at the end of the tunnel? Do what you want because a pirate is free!

Already in the first half-day of playing, I feel like this was everything I wanted in a Battletech game. The music has the same moving effect it did from Hong Kong, and it's deliriously wonderful to be back in the Inner Sphere again. FINALLY.

If you didn't crowdfund it, hey no problem :) It's here, at long last. It even has multiplayer, although I haven't tried that yet.

Oh, and for those of us who might be comparing this to XCOM, you'll be pleased to know the % chance to hit system isn't rigged against you. It's just like it used to be: select what weapons you wanna fire, heat sinks be damned, and give em hell. I'm looking forward to playing as much of this game as I can before I reach the end of the campaign.

If a several-years-old action game with "Overwhelmingly Positive" in both time categories doesn't convince you to at least give this Free to Play game a try, I guess you're still looking for a testimonial.

I raided in Warcraft for more than a decade. I played Destiny and Destiny 2 both on their releases, and raided to the cutting edge on both games. Both franchises have their highlights, and both franchises have aspects of the day-to-day that could be considered fun if you can tolerare the grind. You'd probably play Patrol on Destiny if you liked the gunplay and the semi-open world. You'd probably do World Quests on WoW because they have changing rewards even though none of them was remotely challenging. Both franchises had ceilings you hit quickly in terms of gear progression and combat. Fights are over in seconds. You might think you're okay with this.

I encourage you to give this game a try for no reason other than to get a fresh taste of what proper action combat should be. Warframe is not a game that is out to limit how powerful the players feels. This game helps you relish the feeling of mercilessly, relentlessly using an endless selection of Warframes (what are essentially classes for mmos, or heroes in mobas) and an endless selection of weapons and mods (customizable gems/materia/talents options.) You can level everything up in this game, from your gear to your mods to your collection of warframes. And not unlike one of the only good things Bioware did in their multiplayers is that you can choose to reset your level for a given gear/warframe to give it a slight buff to its base stats, making its next level-cap iteration even stronger than before.

The best weapons, gear and warframes are obtaining through a pretty clear path, and require no real money to acquire. I've been playing about two weeks now, and have my first Prime crafted, a berserker melee goddess called Valkyr.

In Warcraft and Destiny, I sometimes loathed the grind that I endured because the grind was a means to an end reward. In Warframe, I thoroughly enjoy the combat part of the grind, and barely notice time go by after trying my hand at a fistful of warframes with playstyles I liked.

You can play the game entirely without paying money, and it has a support staff and community who are more friendly to new players than any game I've sampled since high school.

And if you're like me and you enjoy customizing the appearance or transmog of your characters, the meme known as Fashionframe is very much a thing here. Endless shader options to all aspects of your frame, their weapons, their armor and attachments, even different skins submitted by the Steam community -- all color customizable.

This game helped me realize how bad Destiny is becoming, and how blind I was for years in settling for a mediocre time investment after work. Please, do yourself a favor and at least try it, especially with Public matchmaking. I hope you enjoy the game as much as I am.