Recent reviews by waggington

this game honestly kinda blows for $15. like, i can't believe people convinced me that it was worth that much money. it's worth maybe $5. super simple, repetitive gameplay-- and even then it's only that much if you have friends to play with. otherwise, it's basically the video game equivalent the noise that your refrigerator makes. so i guess what i'm saying is: don't play it, unless you have friends, in which case still probably don't play it.

I really enjoy this game and I hope its future continues to make the same kinds of improvements they've been making even in the short time I've owned the game.

A lot of the PVE combat is centered around slow, methodical attempts at not revealing your position to other players. Kill some zombie-type-dudes and a few other monsters but be careful about how you do it, as gunfire will alert basically everyone on the map as to where you are. Try a knife or machete instead. Bash them with a rifle. Throw oil burning lamps at them to burn them. Once you do get entangled in a PVP fight, it gets significantly more tense, especially if the enemy has the drop on you because you were loudly running by a cage filled with dogs or shooting your gun off at every moment.

Both of these kinds of encounters are really just vehicles to get to the meat of the game however: boss fights. I mean, you can leave a map whenever you want as long as you get to a distraction point, but boss fights net you the best rewards and are often worth pursuing.

When you spawn into the map, you have to find 3 clues (or less if you're lucky and find a clue right next to a boss) that narrow down where the big contract bad guy is located on the map. Once you have successfully avoided or silently killed all the NPCs in your way and have those clues, you can go fight the boss: but remember, there are other players who can hear you popping off your gun, so you have to worry about them as well. Kill the boss and you get a good reward. Banish the boss, which takes a long time and gives other players a better chance at killing you, and you get an even better reward. You have to actually escape to keep all of your experience (otherwise, if you die, you lose your character and your account only gets half of the experience), which can be pretty daunting, although the recent patch made it harder for people to camp escape points.

It's an incredibly thrilling experience. The game looks good, the guns feel good, and it feels pretty unique in where it sits as a game. As someone who got worn out on Battle Royale games but still wanted to engage other players in an open world, it's a great alternative but still brings a lot of the tension that I enjoyed in something like PUBG.

My big complaints as of now:
- Duos are default. Meaning, if you're playing alone, you still get queued up with duo players. I will say that a lot of the gun fights and action feel more centered around being a smart player rather than just having good mechanical aim, so a single player can often defeat a team of two, but there are times when I wish I could just queue up alone and fight only other solo players. There are also times when I wish I could queue up with an entire squad. Neither of these are options (yet).
- Optimization. It runs a lot better than it used to, however, it still doesn't run great. They're working on it, but if you have a lower end PC or even a mid-tier PC you may want to hold off for a bit.
- Gonna be a wait for more content. The devs have been really great about focusing on the core of the game and making that better so this isn't a knock on them, especially since they have still been releasing decent amounts of content regularly. The boss fights are really fun though and as of now, there's only 2, so some more variation would be good. Same with maps, a new map or two would provide enough diversity to keep me playing for hours on end. There's a lot of interesting weapons, skills, and other items in the game already though, which is great, as it allows for different play styles.

The core gameplay is great. The heart of the game, what they've done so far, is super fun. As long as the devs continue to put out content and make adjustments at the rate they've been going so far, this game will keep getting better. Buy it now and get good at it before it blows up.

pretty bad game. it breaks so much. honestly it keeps breaking. my friend MATT works in IT and even he doesn't know what the hell to do so ??? come on

I have really high hopes for this game. There are plenty of things wrong with it, but the core gameplay is insanely fun and never feels repetitive.

Nosgoth doesn't ever feel pay to win. The skills you're given for each class are all good, they aren't weaker version of their initially locked counterparts - in fact, I found that a lot of the starter skills are better than the ones you can buy. Some of the ones you can buy might be better suited for your playstyle, but it isn't difficult to earn in game currency to get new skills. The only real benefit I can see to using actual currency would be to get in game skins, which is a good financial model and is something I like.

The gameplay can feel a bit unbalanced at times. When I first began playing, I noticed that whenever I was on a team of humans, I was bound to lose. This is probably because being a human requires a bit more coordination and teamwork to be successful. But really, this isn't a huge deal. Balancing the humans and vampires is important, but Nosgoth's games consist of two rounds. Team A will be vampires, team B will be humans. After that round (where the first team to 30 kills wins), it switches, and team A are humans while team B are vampires. I think this is the easiest way to balance any discrepancies between the two factions. Even if humans are a little bit worse than vampires as a whole, you get to play both in each game. The scores are then combined to a possible total of 60. Even if you don't do as well as you want as humans, you can make it up by doing really well as vampires.

The combat is fast paced and ridiculously fun, and even though there are only 4 classes for each of the 2 factions, there are enough skills in the game thus far that there are different ways of playing each of those classes. Even more variety would be nice, but what they have now feels like enough, especially for a closed beta.

So Nosgoth got some of the core things down pretty well. The core mechanics are all there. It feels really good when you get into a game with people around your level, and finish the game without any hiccups. Therein lies the problems with Nosgoth.

The servers aren't exactly stable right now. I've been disconnected from a number of games. On top of that, the partying system is shaky at best. My friend and I were able to get it to work for a couple of days without flaw. Then, suddenly, it would start denying us from joining up together. This is a pretty big drawback to a game where teamwork is so vital to success. The nice part is that while we don't regularly use the in-game voice chat to talk to one another, when we did want to talk to other players, it seemed to work fine.

Nosgoth's menus feel clunky and a bit confusing. They've recently undergone an update, and look and feel a lot better, but there's still room for improvement. For the longest time, I wasn't realizing that I was getting items for leveling my classes up. I didn't realize how to properly set up loadouts so I could have my classes how I want them. And while there is a tutorial, it is faction specific, not class specific - so if you're confused about how to play a class, the only way to learn is to play. It would be nice if there was a way to test out your characters skills and see what does what before heading into a game and realizing you don't know how to properly use the tyrant's charge ability.

Some more game modes would be a welcomed addition to the game. Team deathmatches are 4v4 and up to 30 kills, but it would be nice if there was a way to create custom games with different kill amounts and the ability to choose your own map. Maybe even different player counts per game, like 8v8. The only other game mode is called Siege mode, a mode which I have yet to be able to try. Every time I've tried to join a Siege mode game, I was placed in a lobby by myself where I sat for a good 10-15 minutes until I quit out of frustration. Maybe it's super fun. Maybe it sucks and that's why no one plays it. I can't say for sure, because the matchmaking system seems to be broken.

In fact, the matchmaking system seems broken in general. You'll get stuck waiting in lobbies a lot, especially if you play late at night. Playing with people not your level can be a huge downer too. If you're under level 10, you can join games specifically for people under level 10. But after that, you're on your own. You might drop into a game filled witih level 40s and get slaughtered. There's not much you can do but quit and hope you find a game with people you can stand up against.

Nosgoth is, at its core, an amazing game. Just the base gameplay is truly addictive in itself. If they address some of the more menial issues, like lack of game modes, inability to properly form a party, and the poor matchmaking system, it will be even better.

Definitely one of the best co-op experiences I've ever had, but I think the game truly shines in versus mode. If you can get together a group of 8 friends and do 4 on 4 battles, it'll be some of the most fun you'll ever have. Versus mode has become a weekly ritual for my friends and I.