Let me just preface this by saying that I finished the game before any notable patches/changes were made. I'll likely keep an eye on how it's patched/improved and re-review further on down the line.

I really wanted to recommend this game, based on the story alone, but I just can't. Not at it's current price in its current state. The game needed at least another year in development at the bare minimum. This might be a bit lengthy.

The story started off strong and intriguing and the accompanying cinematics are well done, but you never really get a chance to learn more about the characters or the world around you as it speeds up from 0-100 fairly quickly. Some sort of codex system with a bit more information on the world/characters might have been a good addition to help with this so you feel a bit more invested. The ending is left open for more and I can't deny that I'm curious to see where they might take this if given the chance as it's a fairly solid base to work from still.

Graphically it's not horrid to look at, but it's nothing to write home about either. I've always enjoyed the dystopian future/cyber aesthetic and I feel it was pulled off quite well. That being said the game does suffer massively from texture/shadow clipping, which really takes away from how nice it should be looking. It has dreadful depth of field (which they appear to be adding an option to adjust in an upcoming patch), but it also suffers drastically from view distance issues (I.E. When flying or high up, you look down at the city and cars are practically a slide show in the way they're moving around).

Performance wise I didn't notice too many issues, but those I did encounter were a tad bit infuriating. For the most part it ran well maxed out at 1440p, however you do notice some stuttering (typical of a lot of UE games) whilst driving and at certain sections of the later game it almost looked as though you were lagging around the place until the next section. In terms of FPS though it was mostly solid, but scoping in with the Sniper Rifle would cause insane FPS drops for about a second, every time.

The world itself isn't as "open" as some people probably thought it might be and I believe the Devs themselves even referred to it as a 'faux' open-world game, which makes sense. It mostly servers to accompany the story and missions. The game itself is obviously heavily narrative driven, so it's pretty much linear, although you do unlock a free-roam option at some point. At the moment there's not much to see or do within that.

The gameplay/combat is probably the second worst part about the game, by a mile. It's a very and I mean very, generic cover shooter at best. 90% of combat involves hiding behind something, aiming and shooting. There's no melee, no stealth, nothing that adds any sort of variety to it outside of some drone abilities you unlock and even those can't save the combat. The driving sections feel alright, but there's no combat from the car whilst driving yourself.

Alongside the awful combat is the AI, by far the actual worst part of the game. I genuinely can't remember the last time I saw AI this bad in a game. The enemy will literally walk at you in a straight line most of the time. Occasionally they'll take cover, but then I lost count of how many times I could be stood next to one of them and they didn't react. In addition to this, it felt like at least a few times per encounter I would see them randomly stare off/walk in completely the wrong direction and shoot at nothing. They would sometimes approach in packs of 7-8, all grouped up, walking straight or just in a line, coming out one by one. I could go on and on, because it really is that poor.

Overall it's a fairly solid story, completely letdown by atrocious gameplay and graphical issues. I bought it to give it the benefit of the doubt as I enjoy games with this sort of theme and I like to form my own opinions, but it's absolutely absurd that they feel it's acceptable to charge this sort of price for this sort of product. It will need a lot more work and patches before it even begins to reach being worth this price point. If you see it with a heavy discount and feel intrigued by the story, then go for it, but otherwise I would avoid it for the time being and see what state it's in within a years time.

I loved the original Dead Island + Riptide, but waited a bit after this came out before diving in. I'd heard mixed things, but I really enjoyed my time on this. It's not perfect by any means, but it's essentially more of the same which is great if you do love the original games. Really hoping for a third to dive deeper into the lore or at least some sort of continuation to this similar to how Riptide was to 1.

Out of the three most recent games, this is probably my favourite, closely followed by 2016 and then Eternal. Whilst I love all three, I just personally enjoyed this the most. The parry/shield system is super fun and I loved the feel of being a walking tank, getting up close and personal. The aesthetic/level design is fantastic and has a nice dark/gritty feel to it. It's also really cool seeing everything going on in the background as you traverse some of the maps. The Atlan/Dragon sections, whilst fairly simple are enjoyable and break up the game well enough to stop it feeling too repetitive.

My only real gripe is probably with the soundtrack. It was always going to be hard to live up to Mick Gordon's legacy and whilst the soundtrack isn't necessarily bad, it's just pretty forgettable compared to 2016.

Had no performance issues, everything looked amazing and ran perfectly. Only bug I encountered was to do with the 'Beserker' achievement, which is marked off in-game, but the Steam achievement has popped (which is slightly annoying as it's the only one I'm now missing, but I'm sure it'll be fixed at some point).

I saw some people complaining about this not being fast enough or difficult enough, but there are plenty of options you can adjust in-game to make it as easy or as difficult as you want. I've not personally messed around with it yet, but from what I've read, most people that have are happy with it.

Overall this is a pretty solid DOOM game and I've loved every minute of it. I'm really looking forward to whatever DLC's they add to it.

Took me forever to get around to finally playing this, but I'm glad I did! Hands down one of the best Metroidvania type of games I've ever played. The style/artwork is beautiful, accompanied by one of the greatest OST's I've had the pleasure of listening to in some time!

I've only got the first ending thus far, but read that there are a few (including a "True" ending), so I'm likely to revisit my save and go for that! My only minor gripe is that I wish the lore/story behind it all was a bit easier to follow, as I feel like I'll have to go away and read up on theories and what not, but I'm kinda used to that from the Soulsborne series anyway!

Overall, highly recommend giving this a shot! Really looking forward to Silksong now, whenever that my be!

Probably one of the most cosy games I've ever had the pleasure of playing. Fairly simple cleaning premise, but the soundtrack is super relaxing and the loddle's are adorable. Enjoyed every minute (although the Evolution achievement is a bit of a grind).