Recent reviews by Admiral Picard

I enjoyed this game, but the criticism is fair. It's visually stunning, I spent quite some time with the photo mode snapping pics which is something I rarely do, the sound also combines with the visuals to provide an absolutely lovely ambiance. It was a pleasure walking through the world, especially in the first half.

The gameplay is a little lacking. It may have been that they thought the vacuum mechanic would be enough, and it is extremely well integrated into the game, but it feels lacking in variety and depth. We've seen a lot of games that try and do way too much, so I think this was better than flooding it with 1-time use mechanics.
Gameplay mechanic spoilers ahead: Having said that, the upgrade system paints a different picture. It gave me things I never used, entire mechanics that were were never explained nor actually required. Did you know there was some kinda lure in the game? The laser shooting thing was great, but I don't know what else the upgrades did.I think the devs probably knew the core gameplay needed something, but perhaps only realized this too late in development so it feels tacked on rather than well integrated. Maybe this is more reflective of me not spending enough time to learn and experiment with them though.

The scope of the story and world felt a little too self contained. The characters didn't really help with this. Similar to the gameplay, perhaps this was also a conscious choice to keep the scope limited and polished, but especially compared to the visuals, it was just lacking.

Story/Character spoilers ahead.
There was interpersonal conflict that emerged mid-game but I think it came out of left field. We're given no context, no backstory, the characters are 2 dimensional where we cannot build any understanding of who they are and what makes them the way they are.

Why did Rani want to explore more? Run through a corporate machine and desperate for adventure and to help others? She's lost her arm form a previous adventure, again we're told about that later, maybe a light joke about it early on in the game if that's how they want Becky to be portrayed, or maybe concern? Let the player know what the dynamic between Becky and Rani is. At the moment it's completely detached, they're just 2 beings sitting in the world.

Why was Becky so frustrated with Rani? We're told this towards the end of the game, but that's far too late. We've already seen Becky being completely uncaring towards Rani's desire to help save beings lives. Sure, we're in debt, then maybe we should know that. Maybe there should be contextual clues so we can understand that she's so consumed with the bigger stresses that we can sympathise with her situation. Context dumping after it's needed through dialog just felt like a bad way to handle that.

It's obvious the devs really cared about this game, it has a lot of charm and beauty. I hope we see them produce more like this in the future, if they can take the positives from this game and develop the weaker bits, I think we could see something extremely special.

This may be the most beautiful piece of media I've ever experienced. Thanks to the devs for making something so moving.

Don't look up anything about this game, and once you've finished it, make sure you continue for another play through.

I'd highly recommend this game if you and a friend are looking for a coop game with puzzle elements.

This game has some flaws and lacks polish in some areas. The 3 examples below contain minor spoilers

* One of the roles can feel slightly tedious as there'll be lulls as you wait for your teammate to read and decipher information.
* A couple of the puzzles are frustrating, in particular the office computer password. After solving it, it felt like it needed brute forcing after that, the hint in the e-mail wasn't quite enough
* The introduction training was a little clunky, and I think players should be urged to play both sides. I also think that maybe it needed some fresh testers who hadn't played it before to give some feedback, as the language used felt a bit ambiguous, out of the 4 people I know that have played it, 3 of us got stuck at points due to ambiguity of it

There are 3 other points, these will be major spoilers so AVOID reading until you've played this game.

* The areas are fairly disconnected from each other, and I wish there was some tighter coupling for narrative sake. Each area felt interesting and captivating, but just when the going was getting good, it would end and you get shunted off to another area with some new info. The bits where there is crossover (such as the hole in the wall by the elevator) was great.
* The ending level you play is wack. The actual ending conceptually was great, the possible implications that we're in a simulation although some further expansion on the rogue AI would've been nice to see.
* Similar to the above, a connection to the training levels would've also been nice, I feel the atmosphere it set right at the start was amazing and that rode through particularly the office levels, I was held on edge for that whole time

Even with those points, it was an amazing game. I was spooked by it, excited at times, and utterly captivated. Some intensely satisfying moments when we solved a couple of the harder puzzles.

I'm extremely excited to see what else the devs can come out with in the future, Fantastic game guys, I really hope there are future titles that build upon what you've achieved here.

Congratulations Helldivers, that was our toughest general order yet, but you came together with an exemplary display of democracy. We couldn't be more proud.

Now get back out there and continue to liberate our colonies. For Democracy

Removed from my library. Every monster is just someone getting too close to their microphone. There's not even meme potential

I had a great time, I'd recommend this if you're looking for a puzzle adventure walking sim. It's got me wanting more from this genre.

The negatives
* Performance issues in the last 2 chapters was frustrating although I'm playing via proton
* During the later stages of the game with the water it became difficult to visually assess what was going on around you in favour of eye candy, after such as strong visually themed start, this felt like a bit of a letdown
* The resolution of the story felt a bit rushed and I wished there was more of a slow build rather than throwing it all at your face.

The story is the creation of a tweaker on a 14 day meth binge, what a hollow ending

Broken Linux compatibility for reasons of greed

They turned off the online servers for this game without patching in a p2p or dedicated server solution. An absolute shame.

Edit: They turned the servers back on

Edit2: They turned the servers off again

Ridiculously fun little game, definitelly worth your money