never had a story based game draw me in this much this fast! writing is incredible, and the artstyle is fun as well. story choices present lots of opportunities for replays, so even though the main story is only 8ish ours long you can easily replay it atleast 2 or 3 times and get dramatically different stories. also, the stats comparison at the end is a fun way to see how you stack up to the rest of the community.

Ive even heard there are multiple endings? granted i have no concrete source for that last claim except internet rumors.

if you like the gameplay loop of extraction shooters but dont like the difficult PvP aspect (or you just suck at it like me) this is the game for you. its a silly parody of escape from tarkov. a top down PvE only extraction shooter with good quests, a good loot progression and a way to regain lost items on death. i mention that last one because its so nice to have one chance to run back in and get stuff you dropped if you found something HELLA rare and did something dumb.

the maps are large and ive only discovered 3 of 5 (think there are 5 based on the grayed out map display slots) and each new map i discover gets bigger and bigger! plenty to do basically. im at 30 hours of gameplay and nowhere near the end from what i can tell, and i still have a TON of content to discover.

lastly, there is a difficulty selection so if you do like the punishing difficulty of something like tarkov, then you can set this to hardest and have enemies deal 150% dmg or something like that. or, on the opposite end you can set it to easy or story and you can kill everything with a few pistol headshots. thats simplifiying it alot but the point is the difficulty slider is nice.

Changing my review to highly recommend. the very early game is tough as resources are scarce, but once you get going man this game is incredible! its not just another tarkov clone, its got an identity all its own. ive never played an extraction shooter and am generally not as good at PVP focused games, yet im loving this game!

another thing to note is if your not a pvp person, play solos. in trios its a kill on sight deathmatch where pvp seems to be a focus. solos however, everyone is willing to work together to achieve larger goals. its wonderful, and its entirely community driven. proxmity chat just makes everything better.

also, i have to call out the excellent AI enemy design. they are smart and a threat but not overwhelming. you cant just ignore them, but they arent impossible to defeat either. add in how stable the game is (very rare to get a bug or glitch, let alone a frame hitch.) and how well it runs and i cant reccomend this enough. especially since its only $40.

Changing my review after trying other classes. while i still wouldnt reccomend this game to others, its enjoyable enough. if they manage to fix the performance issues and bugs, and if they could clean up the UI by cutting the excessive menu count in half, then i likely would recommend this game. as it stands though, im neutral. and neutral on an $80 game means not recommended because thats not a low price for a neutral experience. very much 5/10 for me, middle of the road.

some specifics: the summonable vehicle is great! i love the mobility it grants. same goes for the glide pack that allows you to glide distances or dodge in any direction. makes boss fights so much better. the grapple is only useful in specific situations, you can only grapple to dedicated grapple points, but its still a nice tough. the story and characters are also well done, granted im not that far all things considered.

but the UI gets in the way. the fact that in order to check my remaining ammo count i have to go into 3 menus, same for currency, and the fact the backpack autosorts by manufacturer (the sort filters reset any time you change any menu interactable, so your setting your sort filter often), the fact that the item marking bug where it marks items your not hovering over still exists, and the fact we dont have autosell like in borderlands 3 makes the core gameplay alot less fun than in other borderlands games. additionally the early game reward loop being (admittadly expectadly) of poor quality, leading to no gun feeling fun or unique.

as someone who hasent played a rouge like before: such a fun game! love the variety of weapons and overall gameplay.

gunplay is very solid, getting to use a pair of frying pans connected via chains as nunchucks, a tommy gun that shoots buckshot occasionally, an ancient chinese blackpowder cannon (like whats used in the movie mulan) and more is so much fun! weapon variety is very borderlands esque, and the perks you can roll plus the classes and skills mean theres real buildcrafting ala destiny 2.

the only thing i dont like about the game is the limited difficulty scaling. normal difficulty is a good balance, but the difference between normal and easy (thats one difficulty level ingame) is VAST. easy mode is incredibly easy, while in normal you really struggle at the end stages of the game. the only improvement i'd make is making finer difficulty scaling with an increase to the amount of difficulty stages.

other than that, 9/10 game! especially considering the low cost. ive gotten 30 hours of enjoyment out of it, and while im pretty much tapped out (got what i think is 80% of the games content complete, just have the grindy stuff left to do) this game is only $20ish full price (i got it on sale for 12) so having 30 hours of very solid gameplay is great! granted i did have a friend to play with for most of that time which always makes things better, but this game is still a ton of fun and i highly recommend it, even to non rouge like fans.

warning, this game is addicting. its genuinly fun for the first, idk month or so? its got good early game progression for as simple as it is being an idle game, but its also an idle game. as far as idle games go, its a fun one but there isnt any long term gameplay (limited by the game genre) and it becomes addicting quick. one suprising thing is it is still seeminly under active development, with small tweaks and changes coming somewhat regularly. (considering the game is a 10 year old idle game)

TL:DR its fun in the short term, but try to avoid becoming addicted.

its ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ lit. also the game community is one of the best out there, a weirdly wonderfully high percentage have mics on and actively talk, and arent insane or tryhards. just dudes gathering around the digital campfire blowing the everliving ♥♥♥♥ out of robots and bugs with orbital cannons and all manner of weapons. also the graphics on max are something else, seeing a 500kg go off in your face is GLORIOUS. FOR DEMOCRACY! FOR SUPER EARTH!