Recent reviews by ccc

I rarely write reviews, but this game needs all of the positive press it can get. This game isn't the spawn of satan, it isn't concord 3, it isn't going to poison your water supply, burn your crops, or deliver a plague unto your houses. Calm down.

Vibes are immaculate, soundtrack hits hard, the performance is phenomenal on PC, and although the concept of shells (heroes) is still iffy to me, they are implemented very well. The game is somewhere in between the difficulty of arc raiders and tarkov, and as someone who didn't really get into either because of their difficulty (or lack thereof in the case of arc), this reaches a perfect balance for me. Solo runs are terrifying and highly rewarding if you extract (even if the literal reward of what you extract with isn't all that much), and playing in squads remind me of playing apex season 1, fast paced frenetic fights but drawn out to get blood pumping. The variation between the two modes of play adds so much spice.

With the way that loot is handled, it almost plays like a PvP roguelike, slowly upgrading your weapons and character abilities into unexpected and unique builds, before you die and ruin it all. That feeling of dread that comes from dying in any other extraction shooter is dampened by the fact that, the next random build you stumble into will be unique and equally as engaging as the last. The excitement of trying something new is enough to keep me going, rather than the pain of just praying you have enough money or luck to get the same weapons and gear you had the last time as with what happened to me in arc and tarkov.

Almost everyone complaining about the game online have never played it, or has only played it for a short while during the server slam, the steam reviews alone are enough to prove this. This game NEEDS multiple hours for the hook to set in, 'If it doesn't hook me right away then I'll lose interest' is a valid, although a very tiktok brained way to gauge interest in a game. All I'll say is, you might be missing out.

As someone who clocked probably 50 hours into the demo... This full release sucks, it gates almost all of the new content behind the new mode that I found to be the most unenjoyable. Stack the usual UE5 performance issues on top of that, and you're just in for a miserable and infuriating experience. PLEASE bring back the ability to do random weapon/armor 1v1s with specific tiers, the realism of the combat and the ability to master a weapon and the combat system is what brought the game so much joy for me in the demo.

This game has the strangest monetization scheme I have ever seen in a f2p game. In summary:

1. Gacha based, but no way for f2p players to engage with meaningfully (3 free pulls a WEEK, not a day, a WEEK)
2. For the few items you can get through your free pulls, they are 'bound' to your account, what this means is:
3. f2p players cannot engage in the in-game economy as any 'bound' item cannot be sold on the open market
4. The only way you can organically get premium currencies (not paying for) is by participating in the open market (IE f2p players can NEVER earn any premium currency)
5. This game can't even be considered 'predatory' in the traditional sense because it hasn't even bothered to set up a trap to get people who wouldn't normally participate in gacha mechanics to start paying up, the lack of free pulls or a starter banner makes it so f2p players can't even get a taste of the gambling mechanics.
6. Unlike literally any gacha game, ever, the gacha pulls do not meaningfully change gameplay, they are purely cosmetic, there is no drive to spend money to unlock a cool character that might make my build better.
7. Well clearly if it's cosmetic only then that means that it's a good f2p! Except that all that means is that f2p players will always look like f2p players due to not being able to unlock any meaningful outfits, leaving them no reason to stick around in the long term for any reason other than gameplay.
8. If F2P players always have F2P outfits, and paying users, well, pay, then everyone will be able to identify the idiots that actually spent money on this game.

So how could this be fixed?
1. Eliminate all bound currencies (at least Bound Rose Orbs)
2. Make earning rate of Rose Orbs much lower to compensate
3. Get rid of the 3 pulls a WEEK!? (eliminating bound orbs would do this)

OR

Just introduce some way for F2P users to earn premium currencies? It can be a tiny, tiny amount, but at least the knowledge that 'maybe, someday I will have enough of this currency to hit pity on a banner of my choice' will make people stick around.

Also the question that is still lingering in the back of my mind... Why TF is this game a gacha game at all!? The predatory F2P MMO market already has plenty of models that could have been followed, so why did they settle on this nonsensical BS?

The entire monetization model of gacha games rely on f2p players bringing in new whales, without a reason for f2p players to stick around, they have no reason to invite their friends and potentially new whales. It's almost like this game isn't predatory enough as insane as that sounds?


TLDR, this game's monetization model doesn't make any sense even for a gacha game, making the game less enjoyable for both paying players and f2p players. This will likely lead to its swift death. Avoid this game unless major changes are implemented.

There is currently no way to choose which gamemodes to specifically queue for, if you hate any one gamemode, that's too damn bad. TDM is an awful experience, give the option to queue for objective gamemodes only.

I'll still play it, but I would suggest you just buy the original Dragon's Dogma instead. This game is an extremely dumbed-down version of DD1, with almost all of the unique and interesting mechanics stripped down or outright missing. There is nothing new in place of these missing mechanics except for maybe pretty visuals (and performance issues on PC, still, half a year later).

Buy DD1 and be happy, when you're done with it, mod it, play as a different vocation and character. Just don't play this one.

I'll still keep playing it because it IS one of the best VR shooters on the market, but it suffers from too many issues for me to recommend, especially for 30 smackaroos. I bought it for $3 lol, I'm not in deep. This game is worth $3 at least, but not $30.

1. No OpenXR Toolkit compatibility and limited compatibility with Virtual Desktop. These are things that need to be fixed, period. If you try to use either, be prepared for the most motion sickness inducing visuals of your life. Pro tip, if your visuals are delayed significantly causing SEVERE vibrations and motion sickness, turn off OpenXR Toolkit, if in VD, Turn on VXDR. VXDR eliminates the 'head lag' and jitters, but introduces UI bugs that could probably cause seizures, or at least a migraine. It's really bad, you have been warned.
2. Weapon balance is a joke, ARs are objectively better than SMGs, SMGs have no use case as they usually have more recoil and less damage, and not in exchange for a faster fire rate with some SMGs. All ARs one shot head shot in close quarters, SMGs do not, if the player with an AR hits the headshot (which most people do in close quarters), they win every time even if the SMG shoots first. Snipers are useless because only two maps have the range to use them. Headshot ranges are inconsistent and messy. Maybe make SMGs have perfect running accuracy? Also, for the love of god add inaccuracy while dropshotting. I really hope you like using the MK418 if you buy this game, because it is the only good gun for probably the first 5-10 hours.
3. Progression is implemented the worst way imaginable for a 'competitive' shooter, the competitive integrity is ruined if the meta build is gatekept by playtime. Granted, the best weapon is the first weapon you have access to, but that causes even more boredom and burnout realizing the gun you started playing with is the one you'll be using 50 hours in. And come on, keeping weapons locked behind what I'd estimate to be a 15 hour grind, in a VR game? My favorite AR from the early access phase is now one of the last primary weapons you unlock, I have a distinct feeling I'm going to quit before I ever get to use it again. XP gain is painfully slow, and each level grows longer and more grindy, I've gotten to a point where my 2 hour sessions will only net me one level before I get tired of using the exact. same. loadout. Also, why was there a random XP reset? I went from lvl 18 down to 0 again, brutal.
4. Weapon holster/ammo pouches/etc. are horribly implemented, I don't know how to quantify it, but I can never grab what I am intending to grab. Everything for some reason is in front of your character rather than say, behind the back, or at the hip (with the exception of the pistol, that has good placement) I'll try to grab my gun in a stress situation and grab a mag instead. My suggestion to fix this would be, allow players to CHOOSE where the mounting points are for all of these items, if I want my ammo pouch directly in front of me, or on the left of my hip, I should be allowed to do so.
5. Map design. Can't quantify this one either, but few maps really have a good 'flow' to them unless you are playing SnD or whatever they decided to call it in this game. Sometimes you wander for minutes at a time and find no one, sometimes you spawntrap the enemy for five minutes straight, it's really not in a good place.
6. Map voting, surprisingly a very large issue for me. Usually it works just fine, but then you get trapped in a lobby with people that only want to play scouts knives for the next 3 hours, you can't do anything about it. Solution? Re-queue. Oh wait, but if you do that you have to re-launch the game because you won't find a lobby until you do, it's a bug. I usually just get off for the day at that point. Add playlists or something, being able to hop on and know that I am going to play TDM and only TDM for the next 3 hours would do a lot of good when the progression system is THIS grindy.

Negatives aside, Gunplay is good (not perfect, but 10x better than the slop all other VR shooters serve you), optics choices are amazing (although some of the holos are objectively clearer than others?), gamemodes are varied and filled with the classics, skin progression is well implemented (although I am still of the opinion that this should have been the only progression system in the game.)

TL:DR, worth $3, too many glaring issues that should have been fixed pre-launch. Here's hoping.

Grab 3 buddies and prepare to **** yourself

Logged back in after 3 years, 'you need to play 15 bot matches before queuing with other players!'. My 180 hours don't count towards any of those 15 matches? Is this a joke? What new player would want to play 15 bot matches? And don't even get me started on the visual style changes from gritty and realistic to literally just black pink being added as a cosmetic pack, who are you pandering to?
You are a shell of your former self PUBG, RIP.

Some of the most fun I've had in a long time. Tight controls, an amazing world, and hours of content (when including the dlc). I'm still not even close to done with all of seal the deal.

Just friggin play it

Within the few hours I played the game, I had killed at least one of every enemy. I had access to the highest rarity loot in the first hour. The game gave away all of it's most interesting features within such a short period of time. And unfortunate too, as it was pretty fun and eerie at times. Just unfortunate that all of the buildup towards larger enemies was made moot by the fact that they were so easy to kill.