Recent reviews by BunNGunLee

Tempest Rising is a natural successor to C&C 3: Tiberium Wars, often to a fault, but at the same time, this game scratches an itch that has been desperately need of attention for upwards of a decade.

If you were looking for an RTS like the classics of the C&C series, this will not disappoint in the slightest.

An excellent entry in the Monster Hunter franchise, this game takes the classical elements of Monster Hunter and applies it to a vibrant and active world, leading to high intensity chases, clever trapping, and ultimately a blast of an experience to play with the friends.

Furthermore, if one is curious about jumping into the game this late in the life cycle, the developers have given a fair number of catch up mechanics and equipment to help people get through the base game and into Iceborne as quickly as possible, streamlining the grindier aspects of the base game so that you can experience the more difficult gameplay quickly.

A wonderful experience, although one that I think is helped immensely by an excellent co-op community. If I have any complaints, for a co-op player, the unskippable cutscenes can be rather annoying, and apply an unwanted tedium to a new player wanting to play with their friends. As well, not all weapons are created equally. For many hunts, monsters are simply far too fast and aggressive to recommend using slower weapons like the Heavy Bowgun without an exceptional amount of skill at reading the monsters.

Still, a lovely product, and with an immense amount of replay value if you've the time and desire to see it through.

Remnant: From the Ashes sits in a unique position as both a third person shooter, pseudo-rogue-like RPG, and successor to Souls style games. As a result you have a very unique experience that is difficult to describe in terms of other games. The best I could say is if a Soulsborne game meets Destiny.

The core gameplay is that of a third person shooter, however playing through the campaign you will quickly start to see the roguelike elements come into play. The campaign is split into several worlds, but each playthrough can have numerous specific instances in it such as differing bosses, Random Events, and side-quests. For example, the first set of zones are on Earth, but the specific layout of the world is derived from a series of presets. What this means is the exact experience is not the same each time and in fact it may require several different plays through the same world to actually see the majority of the content.

This is facilitated by a relatively seamless drop-in co-op mode, as well as the freeform Adventure Mode, which creates a new version of a specific world-type leading up to one of the World Bosses without changing your overall campaign progress. This is to help players experience more of the randomized events as well as collect the quest items needed to complete side-objectives that unlock new weapons, traits, and equipment.

The RPG elements are minimalistic. Much like the Souls series, you select a class at the beginning of the game. However these are not hard classes so much as a preferred preset of statistics to help you get started. If you want to prioritize playing as a short-range brawler, long-range sniper, or a mid-range support character, each class gives you a set of Traits that should help facilitate each playstyle. You can however, easily pot your Trait points as you play into Traits that have nothing to do with your starting set. Equally, as you progress you'll unlock new traits to invest into as a reward for certain actions and questlines. As an example, playing as the Ex-Cultist class lets you start with Vigor, Stamina, and Spirit as your initial Traits coinciding with Health Points, Stamina Points, and Mod Power Charge. (The rate at which weapon mods recharge). A few minutes into the game however, a Random Event occurred that let me unlock the new Trait "Bark Skin" which increased the effectiveness of my armor, letting me choose to invest more into a more aggressive playstyel.
This freeform approach means you're never going to be locked into a specific way of playing the game and can adapt on the fly to what you want to make your experience simpler.

In general, the core gameplay is fantastic.

However, as always there are flaws to the experience. Because so much of the game is based on luck in your world layout, Random Events, and bosses, you may have a lot of trouble getting access to weapons and traits that support your desired playstyle, and I could easily see it being very difficult for someone who doesn't peruse the game's wiki to know that much of that content even exists.

Additionally, playing the game on PC can be rather sluggish in the controls at times, such as transitioning from ranged to melee combat on the fly. A simple problem, but one that can lead to frustrating encounters. As well, the Unreal engine has crashed a fair few times while playing the game. Not a critical failure, but it can be annoying at times.

Overall, Remnant: From the Ashes is a fantastic experience, especially if you can gather up a few friends to have a nice romp with. Definitely worth the sub 60$ price point. Full of replayability and a game that I sincerely hope continues to be supported with new content.

Risk of Rain 2 takes the roguelike party elements from the first game and applies it to the 3D perspective. What's more RoR2 features an online matchmaking system to replace the rather complicated port-forwarding from the first game.

What this leaves you with is a fantastic experience that can fulfill both as a quick party game with friends, or a long-form game where survival can last an hour if you're lucky.

For veterans of the first game, classic characters like the Commando, Huntress, Mercenary and Engineer all make their return alongside new survivors such as Rex and the Artificer, all of which bring unique gameplay styles and item synergies to the table to ensure you have a dynamic and fast paced game. The game is currently in early-access and is receiving large periodic patches as the leadup to 1.0 rounds down, meaning new characters, new maps, and new challenges are appearing every couple months.

Definitely worth the price-tag.