Recent reviews by Clearwater

Very short experience - The game can be finished and both endings achieved in literally less than an hour - But atmosphere and dread were absolutely immaculate.

(also Gianni Matragrano jumpscare)

Leaving a positive review to help boost the game through the unfair review bomb it got because some people don't have the patience or knowledge to go do something else while servers were down on day 1.

The first Splitgate is one of my favorite FPS games ever made, born out of love that harkens back to the arena shooter days of Halo while mixing in Portal-style traversal mechanics, allowing for 300IQ plays and comeback mechanics.

The sequel shakes things up with new maps, gamemodes, class systems (no, it's NOT a hero shooter) and equipment/attachments, as well as faster movement. Some are better than others - I tried to like Firecracker but if I want to play something like that I would just go play Search & Destroy on COD instead.

Even if the initial launch was shaky, things are patching up very quickly, I have full faith in the devs they can deliver. Go play this game and support an actual passion project!

I've not even played this for more than a few hours so far, yet already this has to be my pick for Game Of The Year.

Utterly incredible presentation, intriguing and haunting premise & story with an introduction that left me emotionally floored within the first half hour alone, challenging turn-based combat with a few real-time mechanics rewarding combo dodges and parries with hefty counters, and an absolutely wonderful soundtrack.

Despite it running on Unreal 5, which is known for being a technical disaster, the developers did their homework and made the game run extremely well while retaining a very respectable install size of about 40GB, in stark contrast to a lot of other games using the same engine that are massively overbloated. (Sorry Oblivion Remastered, I love you but how do you manage to go from ~20GB for a game from 2006 to more than 130GB on this engine?)
This is proof that all of the best talent in the video game industry are all stuck in the Ubisoft mines, and that this is the kind of stuff they're capable of when freed.

TL-DR: The game is a lot better now than what it was on launch. Many major points of concern have been addressed and changed and I can now recommend it, but for those still on the fence, give it a little longer in the oven.

Hyper Light Drifter and Solar Ash were some of my most favourite indie games to ever be made, so suffice to say I was extremely hyped (pun unintended) when this was first announced all those years back.

It's now in our hands, and despite a fairly rough start, the updates have been coming regularly, and the state of the game has definitely been improving with it.

The world generation works well, procedurally spreading out intended objectives, structures, encounters and boss fights in a neat way, with plenty of traversal and mobility options to get back and forth. A fog of war mechanics prevents you from simply cheesing each run by making a beeline between each point of interest, you'll need to actually explore the world to discover objective locations, boss arenas and the like.

Combat is in a better state now too than what it was on launch. Enemies still hit hard and can rip into your health early-game, but once you start obtaining upgrades and levels you can start hitting back as hard as them. Parries feel better to time as well as they are now omni-directional, but still feels a bit too high risk for the reward it can pay out (regenerating temporary lost health). Alternate healing options do come in the form of collecting bushes and trading resources for medkits at shrines, as well as the option to temporarily extract out of the world to refill supplies, upgrade equipment and refocus.

Performing actions in the world - whether it be killing enemies, snagging loot or discovering locations - steadily fills up a world tier meter, which gradually increases the danger posed by enemies, but also increasing the chance for rare loot to be found, as well as triggering danger events such as mobs of enemies or minibosses. In the past, these used to happen far too often far too quickly, but this has since been changed much better and now only procs once every 5-10 minutes, giving you much more breathing room to plan out and prepare. (Also radiation zones have been removed, thank God.)

PC configuration and settings are about what you expect - Terrain and texture detail, resolution scaling, shadows and ambient occlusion, etc. Still missing a few additional things that would be appreciated like upscaling or particle quality. Performance has also steadily been improving with each update, however drops when looking at a lot of terrain or when there's a lot happening on screen should still be expected.

I was genuinely sad at the state of the game when it first came out, but expressed hope that things would improve, and I'm very glad to say despite a bit of a false start, the game has definitely been getting there. I would still wait for a bit more content to justify the price, but if you want to support a studio that absolutely cares about the state of their games and their community, it's worth the leap.

(Disclaimer: I play the XBox/Microsoft Store version of this game due to no cross-save with Steam, so my displayed gametime here on Steam is NOT representative of my actual playtime. I have about 100h logged on the XBox/Microsoft Store version at time of writing this review)

Handled by Sumo Digital, who were responsible for the Sonic & Sega All Stars games back in the day, the dev team definitely know how to make all the great aspects of a kart racer, mixed in with some BR elements. 60 players, 3 rounds per series, with everyone scrambling to get out in front and secure their positions for the next race.

Game is very well polished and optimised, although a bug related to alt-tabbing can cause 100% GPU usage due to it running at uncapped FPS while minimized (Devs are aware at time of writing and should be fixed next patch)

Absolutely no pay to win, although expect to be grinding for kart upgrades a fair bit (and even without them you still have a good chance of winning with track and game knowledge, the upgrades are just a compliment), fantastic community and devs who clearly care about the game and aren't afraid to make changes to things to make the whole product feel and play better.

Absolutely worth a try if you're looking for a new racer to sink your teeth into!

Current beta branch MASSIVELY cuts the install size as well as improving performance, so back to positive my review goes.

One of the best and most fun multiplayer co-op shooters out there.

An exquisite blend of Titanfall 2 movement, precision slow-mo combat, INSANELY amazing drum & bass soundtrack all set to a backdrop inspired by the likes of the real-life Kowloon Walled City and Ghost In The Shell.

Unfortunately a fair bit on the short side - I completed the campaign in 4-5 hours - but absolutely well worth picking up, be it either on discount or full price.

A fairly short, but perfectly formulated package harking back to the golden era of 3D platformers from the N64/PS1 days.
The game refuses to hold your hand from the outset and figuring out everything on your own may be a bit intimidating, but the rewards reaped from gaining new abilities and ways of traversing the world is extremely satisfying.

Also goat lady. I approve of goat lady.

Roguelite Borderlands with robots, extremely satisfying gunplay and movement, a soundtrack that goes Hotline Miami levels of hard, and devs who clearly care about the game and the balancing.

Absolutely worth getting.

Genuinely surprised I haven't written a recommendation for this sooner. One of my favourite games ever made that oozes colour, atmosphere, worldbuilding, storytelling and ambience without so much as even uttering a single letter of dialogue.

Combat is blazing fast, tough but fair, and open to many various strategies to counter opponents.
Masterfully composed soundtrack from Disasterpeace that evokes isolation, desolation, ruined beauty and dread.

Please just buy and play this game. It's an experience like no other.