Recent reviews by Serana Borogroves

Started playing Warzone/DMZ (both pretty fun) with friends. Bought the full game to do proper Multiplayer like TDM and Invasion.

Played through the campaign on Veteran to unlock more Operators for MP and... holy hell is SP buggy. First mission I hit a checkpoint, and the AI said "Follow me" and ran directly through a wall. Had several instances of friendly/hostile AI just walk directly through waist high cover that I could not, and if you killed them while IN the cover, they'd ragdoll like they were having a seizure (admittedly funny to watch)

Several missions had my sound other than my character's footsteps and my gunshots completely cut out, NPCs would be moving their lips to give orders but there were no subtitles either.

Final few missions, lights from the backdrop (headlights, lightning bolts, etc) would show up through floors/walls/ceilings, making some very strange visuals and getting me killed a few times because I couldn't see enemies for the lights that seemed to be overlayed on my screen.

Second to last mission, the Spotter Scope, Hybrid Scope, and all Sniper Scopes just gave a black circle when ADS, making those guns unusable.

SP I'd give a 6/10. Cutscenes are good and well rendered. Several interesting one offs, though they managed to make the Gunship mission in the AC-130 or whatever boring, which is honestly impressive considering it is an airplane with a 130mm cannon on the side.

But no one buys it for the SP anymore. MP is fun, Progression unlocks feel satisfying, and there's a lot of badges and calling cards that you can unlock by completing challenges.

I wouldn't buy it if I didn't already have friends with it that you want to play with, but the MP experience is solid and that's all I really wanted.

Fxck sleep. The nights are for running. ((MILD SPOILERS, NOTHING STORY SPECIFIC, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED))

Pros:
- FINALLY released
- BEING INFECTED FINALLY MEANS SOMETHING!!! You actually have an in game mechanic that requires you to not only manage your levels, but gives tangible pros/cons to being infected with the new strain of THV
- Branching story means your choices lead to something more tangible than someone "remembering that". Like a "Choose your Adventure" book, except if you hate the result you can't go pick the other page.
- Controls/UI are a mix between Dying Light 1 and Dead Island, which works pretty well
- Graphics look good, even on my potato (i5 4690k and GTX960, Low presets)
- Night time ambiance is amazing. Even in safe zones, hearing all the different zombies screaming loudly outside from all directions is chilling. Chases put you on the edge of your seat (At least on Hard, highest default difficulty)

Cons:
- Respawns can advance you towards quest objectives (ie die outside trying to pick a lock and you respawn inside, close to the objective)
- Sometimes picking up items out of openable containers like toolsboxes and coolers randomly causes you to forget what collision is, falling through the world and to your death.
- Hard is the highest default difficulty, meaning icons for special infected still show up and the game pauses in the inventory/map/skills etc, so forgetting your UV Bars isn't an issue because you can just pause, craft, and equip them now)*

*In fairness, I beat DL1 on XB1 before they patched in the Bow, and then rebeat it co-op normal with a friend when he gifted it to me on PC (Miss you Kevin, hope you're in a better place brother), so idk if Nightmare was available without beating the game first, but it REALLY should be an option right out of the gate.

TL:DR - There is a bit of jank, but as someone who hasn't pre-ordered any AAA Titles since Destiny 1 (Excluding Outriders, but that was to play with friends), this is an impressive release with a good story (so far) that offers a lot of replay-ability through branching paths.

EARLY ACCESS REVIEW

I dumped about 10 hours into the game when my modem crapped out, but apparently steam doesn't track offline time (downloaded with mobile hotspot lol).

The game is early access and it definitely shows. That being said, the concept has a lot of potential imo, but there is a lot of work to be done before I'd call it great.

Pros:
- Random loot spawns means you will get different stuff every run
- Parkour lets you reach several interesting spots
- Zombies are placed logically (handful on roads/small towns, tons in large castles, few in woods)
- Dismemberment looks cool, and is pretty satisfying
- Lake Ghost thing scared the hell out of me when I tried to take a shortcut across a lake

Cons:
- Parkour can be finicky, and certain areas can only be scaled from certain angles
- Standing next to a house wall can occasionally allow zombies inside/outside to hit you through the wall, while you cannot hit back
- Occasional visual lag spikes (See Specs section)
- Quest Markers on Map are floating roughly 2 meters in the air above where the quest is, so you'll have a ~3m thing floating around your quest while you do it (would be nice if they disappeared when you were within 5m)

Specs:
i5-4690k
GTX 760 2GB
16GB DDR3 1866
Win 10

I currently play on "potato" settings, but most other games I can run on High-Ultra (minus shadows and reflections). I hope to see the game improve over time, as I see a lot of potential in it. Definitely hoping they can get the optimization polished off, and I look forward to seeing how the game shapes up.

Step 1) Git gud
Step 2) Get invaded by someone who got gooder
Step 3) Watch them point down at your corpse
Step 4) Repeat

Pretty awesome mini series to get you interested in the Division. But

Sorry to be that guy, but having played 3 AAA Ubisoft Titles in the past 2 years, I honestly pray that they spent their "celebration" fund to make this (awesome) video, and none of the money set aside for testing and bug fixes.

1 Week in (Revised Review)

All in all, even on Medium Settings, the game looks beautiful. Tame Dinos, Build stuff, Kill Stuff, Defecate wherever you damn well feel like it... What's not to love?

PROS
- Tame Dinos
- Kill Dinos
- Build cool bases
- Crafting requires forethought if you want to make the good stuff (DON'T SPEND ENGRAM POINTS EVERY LEVEL!!!)

CONS
- Unless you have a $3000+ PC, you CAN NOT run this game on EPIC settings, see Notes
- Online play features teleporting Dinos as you fight, can be fatal
- Low End PCs will not play this. Don't waste your time.

Notes:
PC has i5 4690k, EVGA GTX 760 Superclocked, 16GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM, less relavent stuff
Game is in Alpha, so expect bugs and such

The 8 bit style animation reminds me of Zelda on the NES, overall the gameplay is fun.

Pros
- Craft cool things, like a Whip using Timber, Wire, and Razor Blade.
- Humorous NPC diologue bubbles. "I used to be a Hitman you know..."
- Does well at showing you how tedious prison can be

Cons (NOTE: Early Access Review, may be adressed later by devs)
- Occasionally you can dig into the floor and NOT make a hole, but still use up durability on your Shovel. or Plastic Spoon.
- Crafting Notes frequently give recipes you already have

All in all, I'd recommend this game for $10. Thx to Paulsoaresjr for showing this title on his YouTube channel!