Recent reviews by cat

woefully mid

KILL KNIGHT

I've been playing Darktide since July 2024, and I think it's time I put in a review after 1031 hours. This is probably the most solid horde shooter money can buy in recent years. Sure it has it's problems, Veteran and Zealot's talent trees are... pretty bad at the time of writing, but outside of that, this is a Fatshark game. The skill expression that this game allows you is insane, and I'm still learning to this day. Each class has it's own quirks, own strengths, and weaknesses. The dialogue is always wonderful. The game is fun to play. It presents real challenges if you truly want them. It gives you the option to do what you want and succeed, even if it's not optimal. It's plain fun with friends, and usually pubs, provided you can pull a bit of extra weight to keep yourself live long enough to pick them up. If you're looking for a horde shooter with some more mechanically in-depth gameplay, this game is for you, even if you're not a fan of Warhammer 40K, as I was when I first began playing.

Some key points to mention is that this game won't run great on a potato, that you should expect to be dying alot when first starting out if you don't have a friend to teach you the ropes, and the game is very bad at presenting information accurately to the player. If you want to really learn the game, please use the pinned guides in the game's official discord class channels. They're a very nice resource for new players.

Also the cash shop sucks major doodoo.

Sony and Shams Jorjani can both suck on my taint. Greedy corpo bastards.

tl;dr, it's good

i love karlach very much and withers is the coolest grandpa ever Ending Spoilers: (he brought a minor deity to my cool party)

now for the long-ish review

Larian Studios have made masterclass RPGs since their founding basically, and Baldur's Gate 3 is their crowning jewel of achievements in the genre. The character interactions, the side quests, hell, the main quests are so well crafted it makes it hard for me to remember the last time I played an RPG this enjoyable.

The adaptation from DND 5E is impeccable to a fault, crappy spells and all (we love you True Strike, useless as you are). The charm of the characters is absolutely unforgettable, baddies and goodies alike. They all have stories to tell.

10/10 performance kind of sucks in act 3 but it isnt too bad

This game is as close as a normal person can get to experiencing bipolar disorder with how quick you go from laughing your ass off to almost ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ yourself out of fear

(This review was written before completing the game)

This game is LEAGUES better than Remnant: From The Ashes, but that isn't to say that it's predecessor is bad. Gameplay is still as crisp & fluid, build crafting is way much more fun, and multiplayer is pretty damn stable usually. Boss design is leagues better than the original, as well. They strayed away from having every boss having you deal with an unending swarm of ads, and instead giving them interesting mechanics while still providing a challenge in fights that force you to learn how to avoid attacks. There's a few "bumps" in terms of difficulty curve, but nothing most people shouldn't be able to handle. Great game to sit down and play with your friends, wholly recommended.

Edit as of 7/16/2025 - VOID Interactive has zero ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ clue what they're doing with this game anymore. Actual mouthbreathers.

(Playtime is at 32.2 hours as of writing this review.)

I'm a newcomer to games like this, so bear in mind my viewpoint may be vastly different to others, and I will also review it AS IS, Early Access or not. As a developer, you are beholden to any f*ck-ups you make in development regardless, and my main issues with it will be addressed further on.

-----TL;DR-----

First of all, and most importantly. This game is a *game* first. It is not heavily story driven on the surface level. This may leave some players wanting who desire a strong narrative for their goals & actions they will be making in this project. However, this is a net positive in my personal opinion due to the fact that the core mechanics of a game should always come first when it comes to releasing a video game. If it isn't fun, why play it? Because the story is good? Who cares if it sucks to play. Good news is though, that the gunplay, movement, and interactions with the world-space are very fluent for the most part, but more on that later in the following breakdown. Co-op is definitely the way to go if you want the peak experience of what this game has to offer, but there is a decent singleplayer experience even if your team AI is a bit slow.

-----BREAKDOWN OF REVIEW-----

This game is obviously, as stated by many other reviews, a spiritual successor to the SWAT series. Take this as a negative or positive as you will, it is up to the developers if they are either held down by whatever shackles their predecessors may have put on their own game, or to remove them and improve & polish on concepts that may have been lacking, or left behind entirely.

So, the important bit out of the way first.

-- Gunplay --
This is one of THE best "realistic" first person shooters out on the market as of writing, even if it is PVE and PVP is more your thing. Weapons feel great to shoot, look gorgeous (for the most part), sound great, and most importantly, function as you would expect them to. It's a gun. Putting on a suppressor suddenly doesn't cut your damage in half or some bull like that, it's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ bullet.
Speaking of which, weapon attachments & support equipment. This game has a healthy selection of attachments you can put on your primaries and sidearms both. Each has their own purpose (except you, shotgun slugs, somehow flat out worse than buckshot in every aspect), letting you to pick and choose for whichever playstyle you personally enjoy most out of your options, even allowing you to pick which ammunition type you'd like.
There are also a plethora of tactical options to pick from, including a mirror wand to check under doors for traps & suspects/civilians in the next room, door wedges to prevent enemies from coming out while you clear another area etc, tear gas (gas mask required or you will suffer), pepperball grenades, battering rams, a ballistic shield, breaching shotgun, and a launcher for your tear & gas grenades.
There are also 3 options for non-lethal weapons as well, including a pepperball gun, a beanbag shotty, and a taser for your sidearm (don't)

-- MISSION STRUCTURE -- (reviewed as a coop experience)
Most of the time, you will find your fellow operators you join in on (or host for) playing in Barricaded Suspects or Raid (which has looser rules of engagement, allowing you to be more aggressive with hostiles). What do one of these look like?
Depending on how many members you have in your squad, like a duo, this will require you and your team mate to take it slow. It requires clear and concise communication, and demands that you do not leave important details out to reduce risk of failing the operation. However, if you have the maximum (a squad of 5, including yourself), it opens up the possibility for you to split up into groups & push more aggressively into situations that would call for you to be way more methodical in how you approach them, and typically, you will find players taking up specific roles in your squad.

-- MOVEMENT --
This section is going to be pretty short. There is no sprinting in this game, and your movement speed is dictated by what armor type you are wearing & how much of that armor you are wearing, but regardless of this, movement is always fluid & responsive. The only minor gripe I have with this system, is that you move at a snail's pace even with the lightest armor, and it only gets worse the heavier you go. Either way, you'll just want the heaviest armor at that point typically.

-- COMBAT --

Combat in this game is tense, fast, and requires you to be alert. Hostile NPC's will knock you flat on your ass at a moments notice, and will get back up if you do not have them cuffed, or pull out an extra firearm, or charge you with a knife. It's always best to get as much information as you can from a situation before you rush in head first unless you have backup with you. However, this does not mean you can leave someone who seems to be non-hostile without cuffs. Everyone goes in em regardless if they pulled a gun/knife on you,
But, the AI is not without flaws either. Sometimes they are completely oblivious to you, will hear you through walls even if you're slow walking, or just have totally cracked aim and dome you in the head instantly at long distance, however, they typically go down very easy so this is somewhat mitigated (Still not an excuse for it to be that way. Fix it.)

-- THEMES --

This game features extremely heavy themes that many may find uncomfortable, including illicit pornography rings, hostage situations, and human trafficking, and unless you read the mission information beforehand, you will not know. That aside, if you aren't affected by those things, the atmosphere this game has is amazing. It is cold & harsh, and does not pull it's punches.

-- PERFORMANCE --

My rig isn't the best, but it should be more than enough for what the level sizes are in this game. However, this game is pretty poorly optimized ngl. Unless you have an absolutely baller system, expect to turn some stuff down and use DLSS/FSR (both of which are available). Expect hitches in your framerate, especially on larger maps like the Barricaded Suspects version of the hospital.

IMPORTANT SPECS:

CPU - AMD Ryzen 1600AF
RAM - 16 GB
GPU - Nvidia 2070 Super

-- MODDING --

This game primarily uses mod.io similar to Deep Rock Galactic, and is integrated directly into the game. However, the ingame user experience for adding, managing, and keeping mods up to date or telling what no longer works in this case is absolutely atrocious. Just use Nexus.

Other than that, this game's modding scene is alive and well, with mapping competitions hosted by the dev's discord, and plenty of weapon skins, voice replacers, character replacements, AI & gameplay tweaks, and more. Enjoy it to your heart's content.

----- FINAL SCORE & SYNOPSIS -----

This game is really good fun with some friends, and is basically the only things keeping the tactical shooter genre alive right now, after R6S abandoned that vein of gameplay.

8/10. Fix the performance issues and major bugs, and you've got an absolute gem on your hands.

is good

it is pretty good if you are good at metagaming, this is definitely not for beginners though. the only thing i would recommend for newbies is look up actual guides on how to play the game if you want to get into it, the ingame tutorial is basically useless for newcomers.