tl:dr absolutely unexpected banger of a game

my reaction when i saw a friend playing this was that it kind of just looks like some soulslop mid action rpg but streams and videos really dont do it justice. the markers of quality are apparent pretty much as soon as you start playing. combat is tight and satisfying with some emphasis given to exploration, gathering, and home base progression.

the big thing that surprised me was the general lack of invisible walls and arbitrary level boundaries - you have the ability to climb, mantle, and jump to all sorts of places. it's not something you expect to see in a top down game but its used to great effect along with the camera angle teasing loot hidden up in high places to encourage the player to explore and experiment. levels are compact and intricate with tons of verticality and areas interlinked with shortcuts.

on top of everything else, the art design is amazing. character animations and cutscenes are like pixar quality while the art style reminds me of elden ring but more painterly. level of detail in environments brings a level of immersion, like my monitor has become a window into this richly detailed miniature world.

i regret that this game has be framed in terms of "soulslike". while No Rest for the Wicked isnt shy about wearing its influences on its sleeve, everything I've seen so far makes it super clear to me that this is a truly unique vision that has been brought to life with great skill and it contains more than enough neat ideas to stand on its own as a great game.

I didn't even know this existed until a day before launch. Apparently someone at beloved development company fromsoft had this outrageous idea to take a bunch of assets and mechanics from previous titles and repackage them as a soulslike roguelike with battle royale elements and character build meta progression, and apparently the boss man said go ahead get cooking. It takes a lot of balls for a company with a tried and true formula to try something goofy like this, and the craziest part is that it works. I love the game.

You get soulslike combat but with the added pressure of a time limit which forces you to evaluate your choices and plan optimal routes around the environment. Map and game knowledge are huge. Experimentation is rewarded. Playstyles are diverse - I haven't really settled on any one character. Even the bow guy, who I expected to be boring, is dynamic and fun to use.

I have criticisms:

- You accumulate "scenes", basically stat-conferring slotted items used to create your build. I like the mechanic but you get a lot of them that are basically junk and the system for sorting, marking, and storing presets is in desperate need of an overhaul. It's just such a headache to work with and very time consuming.

- There have been changes made to armament stat scaling from Elden Ring; I think the goal was to simplify things given the high-pressure nature of the game but its still very confusing and you have to go pretty deep in the menus to find information. It's kind of a general theme, it feels like there's a lot of information that should be one or two button presses away but you actually have to dig for it.

- There have been some stability issues running on my 7900XTX with the occasional crash. Seems to have stopped since the patch but worth mentioning.

- Communication with random matched team members is very rudimentary, you basically just get a map ping and gestures and that's it. It would be good to see this fleshed out.

Overall this has been a really exciting game to experience and I highly recommend giving it a shot if it seems like it might be your thing. I was surprised to see it get so much criticism on sloptube. It's dark souls helldivers. Soulsdivers. As crazy as it sounds, I'm really hoping to see a good amount of post-launch support for this title. Yes, give me more classes, more map conditions, more wacky strategies. Please.

As an immersive sim enjoyer, its nice to be able to experience system shock with a comfortable condom of modern graphics and UI improvements. The basic structure of the game holds up well, and I like the updated style. retro texture work looks really good under all the intense colored lighting and the viewmodel animations are great. Sound design has depth and variety.

As for the gameplay:

System shock leans more into the puzzle box maze gameplay and is fairly light on intense combat encounters. I would recommend the hard difficulty for combat because my resources were never under any real significant strain and I think I would have had more fun if I was pushed to use my tools more efficiently. Areas also tend to remain clear once you've been through there and killed everything. Shodan will sometimes surprise you by spawning in new enemies but it doesn't happen often enough to make you feel vulnerable. This kinda sucks because there's a decent amount of backtracking around the station and those parts of the game start to feel pretty understimulating. Not a huge gripe but a missed opportunity.

The lack of clearly outlined objectives and locations is a feature, not a bug. The station is a thing youre going to need to figure out on your own by exploring and listening to audio logs. This is one of the games strongest qualities as it forces you to engage on multiple levels and imparts a compelling sense of realness and immersion. I can think of one instance where the solution to a problem is vague enough to justify opening a guide: There's a point where you need to open a door that is connected to a retinal scanner. It's pretty obvious you're going to need to find someones head or something to progress, but unclear whose head you need or where it can be found. I don't remember anything in the audio logs giving hints on this - if I couldnt just google it I would have been at a dead end. There's a possibility I missed something I guess, but every other puzzle is reasonable.

You can get creative with some of your tools to reach some areas early and find secrets, and explore to find stashed loot. I love this ♥♥♥♥, its just a shame I ended the game with such a surplus of toys to play with.

Overall I had a great time playing. Definitely worth picking up if you need an immersive sim to play and an especially easy cop if you see it on discount.

I don't even know what to say. This is nearly on a goat simulator level of stupid but it is also one of the most unremittingly hilarious and fun gaming experiences I've had in recent memory. The part of my brain that sinks hundreds of hours into Rimworld and Factorio is having a lot of fun experimenting, optimizing production and logistics layouts. There's a sort of Abiotic Factor vibe to the exploration and progression through the different areas.

This is clearly a product of joy and the developer's commitment to making something that is deeper than just a meme game but still just as funny. It's amazing what indie developers are doing out there. I'm really excited to see some polish go on this thing, and get into whatever silly ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ the developer has in store for content updates.

TVGS if you're reading this, you should really make this work with steam workshop. That would be huge.

first person zomboid set in monty python's black mesa research facility. this came out of nowhere and im shocked by how enjoyable it is. 10/10 cant wait to ♥♥♥♥ my doodoo ass and puke on my mates again

a year after launch HD2 runs well and the developer has addressed the most outstanding issues. balance changes have opened up a lot of build variety and performance has seen a great improvement. im hooked on the game and excited to see what new content the developer has in store.

I would like to see an economy update that balances the cost of ship upgrades - it would be good to get excited when i find anything other than common samples. also please give some functionality to helmets and give us the ability to swap color palettes on armor.

for democracy or whatever

rock and stone you beautiful dwarf