Recent reviews by SubZeroDestruction

As of the moment at this price and for early access, I wouldn't recommend Hyper Light Breaker to most people, but I do think the game is promising and could be great once fleshed out and balanced more - If it was possible I would rate this with a middle-thumb, but I give it a thumbs-up only because I don't see anything outright bad or unplayable about it.
Unless you are looking to test or help improve the game, and or simply want to play it while it's being made and see what's changed, removed, added, etc, I do think one should avoid purchasing until some more updates are released.

With the patch on 1/16/25, I have high hopes that this game will meet and exceed expectations similar to other early access games and legendary indies (Hades, Risk of Rain 2, Subnautica, Satisfactory, etc) due to the devs taking the feedback so far and prioritizing as necessary.

Initial thoughts-

The gameplay loop and the seeming game philosophy behind this is very promising if it's pulled off correctly, and I trust Heart Machine with that, but it is still definitely the very early and rough stages of getting everything into place.

Early-game enemies are very strong and punishing in terms of damage output (especially given how large their agro-range seemingly is). Even if you're good at these kinds of games you'll likely struggle a little bit until you can find/buy better equipment/perks and or upgrade, and until you can unlock med kits, since there is no self-healing and healing that you find or that drops is very minimal and scarce (especially in the "easy" zone).

I've not yet put enough time in to get past the first boss, but in terms of mechanics, the parry system does seem entirely useless/out of place due to how fast (melee) enemies can attack with minimal (if any) tells. Larger enemies do provide more feedback prior to an attack, but the game seems to reward hit-and-run fighting over skilled timing, especially due to the majority of interactions being against groups/swarms of enemies.

The hoverboard/sprint is nice, but it does seem "too" sluggish/slow when it comes to turning, where-as it feels like it should be a bit more responsive and snappy for mobility/turning. It shouldn't be easy/possible to 180 or 360, but at the moment it does seem like just a tool to just get to places.

Exploration does seem a bit minimal at this time, and it may improve or be a goal to expand upon it, but I do hope there could be "dungeons" under/above ground, or at least more complex layouts of structures, similar to HLD.

When trying to upgrade your character, prior to starting/continuing a run, at the moment it's very unclear that you have to upgrade each stat individually. I did not realize it until hovering over each stat, that the cost changes. Additionally, your total resource count needs to be visible during that screen, as currently it's not.


I'll look to update this again as more updates release, and upon full release.

It's just more PvZ GW, but far more expanded upon the original while not compromising on any aspect.
If only they made a GW3...

A great hero shooter that puts Overwatch to shame.

Balancing could use some work for some characters as of Season 0 (Hela, Hawkeye, etc.), though I wouldn't consider this as competitive as other games like CS2, R6, etc. due to the balancing definitely leaning towards a more casual playstyle.
The battlepass looks like a reasonable ask and is far better than most due to being permanent once bought, though it would be nice for the pass to just be permanent regardless of purchase. Shop prices are about average as most other in-game stores.

I highly recommend Rivals as it's on-par with TF2, CS2, etc. when it comes to being one of the better free shooters at this time.

This expansion is literally just more of the same great game as the first. While the map isn't as large as the base game, it's still a significantly large area to explore, and makes far more use out of the vertical space available.
There are some performance hitches, but otherwise I highly recommend it.

Nominating for Best on Deck 2024.

I want to play more even when I don't have time for it.
Practically impossible to say this isn't just as good, if not better in various ways, than Hades.

It takes the foundation set by the first and kicks it up a notch in different areas such as music and the combat, but it also has it's own unique spin on the foundation by changing it just enough to make it a new experience worth playing.

Will look to update this once the full release happens.

Helldiver's 2 is a solid and fantastic game that actually was made as a game first rather than being a storefront with a game slapped onto it, similar to its cousin Deep Rock Galactic.
Diving into a match and bringing bullets to bugs and bots on randomly generated maps and a variety of environments is a great experience. One moment you might be killing everything with ease, and the next you're overwhelmed on the edge of losing.
With a variety of weapons, utility unlocks, and cosmetics, each match and player will likely have their own unique flair and play-style.
The visual and audio design are both great without doing too much at the detriment of performance or gameplay.

While there is a paid currency and a free & paid "battlepass" it does both with respect to the player, There's no requirement or need to pay money, and everything could and can be earned by simply playing the game enough, while only offering similar side-grade weapons and optional upgrades in the paid pass. Even if you decide to spend money on the game, the currency packs aren't egregious with the pricing for how much you get in return.

Aside from server issues when it comes to quick-play which will be ironed out, so far I have not experienced many detrimental gameplay breaking bugs or issues, aside from the ones you're killing.
There can be some weird collision issues at times which could get you stuck in the environment, but those seem pretty difficult to end up.
As long as the devs continue to implement new gear, enemies, and mission types- the current core loop of every player working to defend and liberate planets could result in strong and long-term lifespan for the game depending on how the shake things up throughout this first year.

I highly recommend Helldiver's 2, especially if it goes on sale.

RE4 Remake is a solid game and another fantastic entry from Capcom. I highly recommend picking it up if you've played the other remakes or even if you haven't.

Nominating for Steam GOTY.

Baldur's Gate 3 is a once in a generation type of game. With over hundreds of hours of possible gameplay, thousands of lines of unique dialogue, and a multitude of various outcomes for nearly all situations, the amount of replayability is up there were the most popular rogue-likes.

I highly suggest picking up BG3 even if you've never been into the genre before.

If you haven't played FF7 Remake, you're certainly missing out on a solid game.

Extremely brief review. I will look to update this as I continue.

Overall, the game visually and audio wise is great. Gameplay, so far, doesn't seem extremely complex, but that's not an entirely bad thing.
Voice lines/dialogue/characters are a bit hit and miss, personally, but there's certainly worse. Still, it is extremely well done overall.
Story seems pretty straight forward, and choices don't seem to have any long-term impact beyond exposition or changes in who you might interact with.
The world map seems, at an early glance, extremely large in terms of overall area to explore. However, that really depends on whether that space is more than just empty forest with nothing to look for or do. It seems to be on par or perhaps larger than RDR2/Cyberpunk, but I can't say yet if it utilizes the space in a similar manner to either game.

Performance however is pretty horrific in various areas, just within the first couple hours of gameplay. At this current moment, there is no clear resolution to fixing this officially, however it seems adding a few .ini settings via a Reddit thread does look to resolve most performance issues for players. I've yet to personally utilize it, so the following FPS is based off of the base game.

I've only seen a few visual bugs, and one soft-lock early on:
- Mirror(s) don't seem to correctly reflect, at least the one within Ravenclaw's house.
- Some flickering at the edge of some lighting
- Professor Weasly can do a minor soft-lock to your game during the stair-well walking section, if she ends up walking backwards into the wall. Requires a reload.

I only suggest buying if you don't mind tweaking settings, config files, or dealing with inconsistent frame rate at this current time. Otherwise, I suggest waiting for a few patches to hopefully resolve performance issues and fix various issues.


FPS Average within the castle: 50-70~,
Lowest around 20~
Highs of 100+~

Brief Settings:
All High
No Blur
VSync Off
No RTX

PC Specs:
GPU - 3070
CPU - 3600x
RAM - 16GB
Resolution - 1080p