TheSlowKenyan
"The freedom of birds is an insult to me. I'd have them all in zoos."
Sorry if my review is a novel, I've the gift of a good ramble, but I'll try and make it worth the read at least.
I've shamefully fallen for the 3070 meme.
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Certainly a “game” to make you feel something bizarre and not really entertain you. You are given a Game Boy to play and you'll read frequent letters sent to your cell and that's sort of it. Most of this game is just learning the world outside of your cell is apparently dying to some horrid virus, though you'll never catch a glimpse of it, your window is too high up to see out of.
I thought it was interesting how I hit a certain point where I was just apathetic about the outside world. Good or bad, it doesn't matter much to my prisoner, who at this point only really lives to hopefully escape (unlikely) or beat the absurdly difficult games on his Game Boy. I found Charlotte, a woman confessing her affection towards me through writings, to be quite sad as I thought that poor woman doesn't even know a single thing about me, including whether or not I'm even alive. Part of me liked getting her kind letters and another part of me was pissed when they'd slide under my door because now I gotta go read something instead of beating this Snake level. Ugh, Charlotte, how inconsiderate.
It's a sad project as its creator took his own life at a young age. Robert Brock makes you feel a lot with very little in Presentable Liberty and he clearly had visions he wanted to display. I wish things had been better for him.
I think Presentable Liberty is worth checking out. It's free and will only take about an hour of your time.
Want a plot? Watch "Starship Troopers". The devs saved a pretty penny by just taking that game's world almost wholesale, which is kinda funny timing considering there's a Starship Troopers game in Early Access right now alongside Helldivers 2. Apparently that game's in a weird spot, meanwhile Helldivers is flourishing like mad.
It's good. If you've been seeing your Steam friends list lit up with this and wondering why, the reason is simply because "It's good". Great atmosphere, audio/visuals, enemy variety, world variety, weapon variety, it's live service but seemingly in the least possible predatory way, etc. You will feel great dropping an Eagle Airstrike on bug holes, closing up a few and obliterating those who'd spawned outside of them. When you and a teammate open a bunker and as the doors slowly roll you press 'B' to fist bump them and they bump back before you two collect the free premium currency inside? You're gonna mutter "Hell yeah."
It's not perfect: there are many 'bugs' that need working on immediately. Characters get locked into poses that affect gameplay, bile spewers will miss yet somehow hit and kill you immediately, joining another team's mission can be horrid as it never connects; and when the devs toss out a patch to address some of these issues? They can make your game randomly crash when your teammate uses a certain weapon type. It has happened to me, of course while walking to the extraction area after completing a map, and it's very infuriating.
For $40, I think Helldivers 2 is a no-brainer. It's best with friends, but I found myself able to play with randoms just fine, which is always a pleasant surprise. You can easily communicate through pings and emotes, and with everybody sharing everything and a total team victory being the best possible outcome, there's not really an incentive to be an asshole. You may still find a few, but that's just the internet for ya.
I recommend Helldivers 2. I'm sure it'll get patched up in time (and it needs it), but it's definitely playable now.
I've more cons than pros with Turbo Overkill, and while the pros are pretty strong, I just don't think they're quite enough.
This game doesn't run very well which I don't understand. As I type this, it's stuck loading the main menu from the credits since I've just beaten it. I had long loading screens on an SSD (why is dying four times faster than reloading a checkpoint?), bullets freezing in midair, enemies dying but their bodies remain upright and running, FPS drops with seemingly no source, some cutscenes seem to be missing audio cues (which is either a glitch or bad design), terrible checkpoints, and I'd frequently slide into corners/under objects where I'd get stuck. Doesn't feel very “turbo” to get wedged under a rock. I just Alt-F4'd the game to get out of that aforementioned freeze.
The visuals kinda gave me a headache given time. I was reminded of the System Shock remake, only I think I grew accustomed to the blaring lights there and just never quite did here. Maybe this is boomer-brain creeping in as I age, but it was a bit much. When you pick up the DOOM-like upgrades of power fists and what-have-you, it puts a color filter on the screen that made it even harder to see and stand.
Environmental dangers insta-kill you at times which obviously grinds the pacing to a halt for those rooms. Again, not very turbo.
The entire thing is reminiscent of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon but lacks its charm. I don't mind aping off of something else as long as you separate yourself somehow or at least do a damn good job. I don't think they did either of those, here. I don't think it was ever “cringy” but even calling it “serviceable” may be a stretch.
I found myself almost dying instantly, losing all armor and nearly all health, from mid-to-low tier enemies when they used certain attacks like explosives or fire. This was wildly frustrating and didn't make sense to me. I found some of the earlier enemies harder than later ones because of this potential. I played on Street Cleaner (Hard) and there are two difficulties above that, I cannot even imagine how annoying those are.
But the pros I mentioned: Gotta go fast. Johnny Turbo and his chainsaw leg (called a “chegg”, what a gross word) go fast. Some upgrades are just a waste of time and some are obvious necessities, like the one that turns all enemies into health packs if you cut right through the crowds with your chegg. With the right upgrades and the grapple hook, you can basically fly, which felt great.
The weapon upgrades are all pretty good and turn previously useless weapons into powerhouses, like the pistol getting an upgrade to do tons of damage as long as you build up a streak and don't miss. Everything was already pretty tense, but now you feel like every shot needs to count, which can be thrilling.
Some levels have very good arenas and accompanying soundtracks, such as “The Wastes”. I made note of that level because it really nailed both of those, though it did have a lotta green going on and again, potential headaches. Not every level will hit the highs of this one, either, some just suck.
The vehicle segments are all pretty good. Fortunately there are only a few, but I think they were handled well.
You can “cancel” animations and reloads by switching weapons, which Dusk didn't have and drove me insane. Here, it keeps things fluid and fast with the player having the option to do more and get more out of it.
I think Turbo Overkill has shown me that these games need to be short and sweet. Both this and Dusk were too long.
Despite liking some things here, I think I don't really recommend Turbo Overkill. I got it on sale but this was one I could have just missed, easily. It was fun becoming a living chainsaw with guns, but I had to put up with a lot of problems to get there. If you love boomer shooters, you'll enjoy this, but for me? The price of admission felt too high.