Recent reviews by somedude

Playing this almost feels like a reminder of how far games have progressed past this playstyle. It's obvious that the game is well-polished and the graphics are pristine, but at the same time, it takes up a full tenth of my SSD, for... hallways with banter between obvious arenas littered with chest-high walls, the occasional minor "large" encounter, and the predictable (yet somehow even more boring) chapter-end set-piece followed by all of the really cool action taking place in a non-interactive cutscene. Take into account that the other games of that size are generally massive open worlds with relatively free exploration, and the gameplay just feels... antiquated, and not in a good way, with not enough advancements beyond previous games in the series. Add to that samey, unflinching bullet-sponge enemies, largely uninteresting weapons and lack of different animations, and the whole package seems like a step backward in gameplay that belies its relatively recent release date.

Admittedly, I've only played some of the campaign, but what I've played so far does not inspire me to finish playing it. It's not that it's too hard or frustrating, it's straight up boring. It just plain isn't fun. There's no point if most of the time I'm playing the game, I'm wondering why I'm not playing something that is.

Maybe some of the other modes redeem it, but if you want it for the campaign, I'd say skip it unless you get it for something approaching free, or if you really like the Gears universe. The production values are slick and obviously big-budget, but there are so many other games out there that are far more deserving of your time.

Didn't even get past the EULA, as this one has a particularly nasty arbitration agreement (I couldn't even find an opt-out clause, actually tries to take away more rights than even the standard boilerplate, wtf?). Avoid unless you're in a country that bans that sort of awfulness in user agreements.

There aren't a lot of proper simulation-style pinball games out there today, and this does provide some solid simulations, and really is the only one that has a full presentation of pinball styles, equally representing EM, solid-state, and full-featured modern remakes. It also wins hands-down in being able to customize the game environment. Physics is so-so (and occasionally completely unbelievable), but overall play is responsive with little to no lag (although it does not play well in that respect with some screen-recording programs). Overall it's pretty good as a pinball simulator, but the physics issues and the marginally "freemium" pricing mean that my recommendation is not the most enthusiastic.

shooting = okay
jumping = agonizing
enemyswarms = unfair

You know, the most recent update really is emblematic of the continuing issues the game has had since the massive overhaul was revealed. In the most recent patch, the developers made the following decision: that on difficulties higher than the default, the gear needed to survive those difficulties could only be *earned* in those same difficulties.

Literally the most fundamental concept in a loot-driven ARPG is that the gear dropped in your current difficulty includes gear that allows you move up to the next difficulty level. The fact that they willfully failed to understand and implement this most basic structure is a severe indictment of the level of competence and care that this game has received as part of its update.

Furthermore, this update was not announced in advance, or even in the patch notes, but only after the fact when people realized loot in the game was broken and called them on it. When you not only make game-breaking decisions, but won't even communicate them to your player base, that's even more problematic.

While this is only one example, it is illustrative of the vast majority of the changes that have been implemented in this update. From the movement speed changes to the power bar limitations, decisions have been made that have harmed the game to no clear benefit. As someone who followed the beta testing of this update, and viewed the mountains of feedback pointing out the clear problems that were entirely ignored, I can only say that the development team was made more than aware of the problems they were causing, and knowing this released the update with all of these problems intact, with no clear plan on fixing them.

As it stands right now, this game is fundamentally broken, and while veterans may be able to struggle through for now, if you are reading this review and trying to determine whether this game is worth your time and money... as of this point, it is not, and you should absolutely stay away. If this game is generally fixed at some point in the future, I may update this review, but right now, this is not a game or a game company that should be rewarded for the changes that have been made so far.

tl;dr: Recent updates have taken what was a fun, casual and interesting game and made it a boring, unrewarding grind that as of now actually tries to prevent new players from advancing beyond the easiest difficulty tier. It should be avoided unless and until it is fixed.