Recent reviews by jdudezzz

Personally I like it. But this may very well change once I've finished the game.

Pros:
1) Feels like a Jurassic Park-esque game: The dinosaurs look great and the sounds are well done.
2) Fairly good animations considering the game style.
3) Has a means of progression that can help you land on your feet in the beginning and later stages (Islands).
4) The random challenges can be good and can change up the pace of the game you're playing.
5) It's relatively easy to learn.


Cons:
1) No timeline (day/night and seasons for stormy seasons vs winter).
2) The contract system can be pretty stupid. On my third island I can take the weather protection contract, then destroy the buildings, get it again, destroy again, etc. ad nauseum and continue making money. Also, the game gives you contracts you can't complete until you reach other islands. Pretty stupid.
3) I've noticed fencing doesn't do anything. Basically you have to keep your dinosaurs happy or they will definitely escape.
4) The UI is not as intuitive as it needs to be. It makes a lot of tasks tedious and boring.
5) There should be more depth to upgrades, including research. I also wish they gave you an entire island.

Unknown:
1) Replayability. I suspect it doesn't have much replayability but I have yet to finish the game.
2) There are no sea or airbourne dinosaurs. Will they arrive via DLC?

I recently created a video on this particular DLC on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obXMhCfBeaw

It's good. You play as Ripley running around trying to escape the ship, it's short though. I finished it on hard mode in about 40 minutes. Is it worth the price? Maybe, maybe not but if you're a hardcore Alien fan like me, then you may be able to rationalize buying it :).

I've played through the first 50 minutes thus far and posted it on my YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/L8tSVRHMcMQ

I've really enjoyed this game thus far. The atmosphere is a huge selling point and it sounds and looks amazing.

It feels like a mix between Redwall and the Secret of Nihm. Unfortunately, it only has 4 levels, that I know of, thus far (Sewers, Jail, Courtyard, Far Tower). Nonetheless, it's full of quests that are quite fun and not linear. You don't need to be stuck on a single quest in order to explore the world and move to other quests, kind of cool if you ask me.

While you can't simply take out an enemy guard, you can throw bottles and distract him with sticks. The game makes it feel like you can't do much and you have to be a bit more creative in how you approach particular areas or enemies. It has a sneaking system where you can't be too noisy or simply run at enemies bashing their heads in. I like that.

I haven't finished this release of the game, being that it's still in Early Access but I'm looking forward to finishing it and for future content. Definitely recommended.

Some have already noted that this game has no season pass(es) and no in-game purchases among other annoying new trends among developers. Honestly, this team of developers has done a great job at creating a really fun, fast, dynamic game. Napalm, lots of guns and a soundtrack that matches the environment perfectly. It is the only game that I play with the soundtrack on in the background.

It's hard to compare many aspects of the game to Red Orchestra 2. Of course the graphics are improved and the maps are beautiful but the weapons and the squad gameplay have made the game less of a static shooter game. It's nonetheless realistic but the gameplay is more dynamic. The squad system is also different whereby players can either create their own squad or join a squad of six. Markers on the battlefield tell you who's in your squad and who's on your team, this doesn't necessarily take away from the realism, it's simply something that RO2 probably should have had yet did not.

I'm not a huge fan of the territories gameplay. The An Lao map is generally speaking a slaughterfest at C and Song Be tends to drags out if the two teams are relatively even. It becomes quite boring. Nonetheless, this game mode does not exist in RO2 and I can see it's appeal for many, I'm simply not a fan.

Hue City, Cu Chi and Hill 937 (?) are my favorite. Hue City's initial points of combat through the white buildings and points A and B are amazing, love it. Tunnelling around Cu Chi and Hill 937 with a pistol is not only terrifying but thrilling and is no wonder half the players talk about PTSD and playing this particular game. Firebase and Compounds are great maps too. They promote tighter combat engagements and beyond stressful moments.

Napalm and arty going off in the distance is a beautiful sight to see. The developers have done a great job with the visuals. Watching a helicopter flying 90 degrees and crash is pretty fun too. Heck, yesterday on the first day of release on the third game played, a helicopter landed softly behind our lines as 4 of our guys spammed AK fire at its cockpit only to realize that both pilots were sitting there dead. C'mon that's pretty cool.

Running around the game the first few times has a number of pleasant surprises such as traps, claymores, squad tunnels and your everyday random grenade launcher shell landing next to you. As I mentioned, the PTSD element of the game is not only sudden but happens all the time. You can play any style you want. This is somthing that adds to the dynamism and turns this game into a more realistic shooter.

This game does have bugs and does not have a lot of maps. I may have missed a few maps above unfortunately however. Of course, in RO2 style, I've been stuck in the bridge on Hue City and have had nades apparently land right beside me only to kill a teammate 20 feet away. These are not game-breaking bugs but slight annoyances, unless you're a fan of raging.

Yes, recommended: 9.5/10


=================2021 Update===================

Still a fun game but buggy and perhaps worse than the earlier versions I had played. Weapons randomly disappear, you get stuck in random textures, when you hit escape to leave a server it flashes and you're back in the game. Lots of really annoying bugs that are actually incredibly common. You'll run into at least some kind of bug virtually every game.

Yes, recommended but a notably lower score 7/10

Overall gamplay is good but worse than AS1. The lag and the inability to fix it since it's release is mindboggling. See strat29's comments.

Edit: The game has been updated since early October however the update has not drastically changed the game to differentiate it enough from Assault Squad 1 (AS1). It has fixed the lag issue for the most part but it seems rather strange that the game was originally launched with such a blatant, arguably unplayable issue in the first place. There are no new factions, very few new maps, inability to play the large maps (8x8 for example) and a game that essentially replicates what AS1 does. Worth a buy? Maybe. Worth the supposed upgrade from AS1? Nope.

Edit #2 (Version 3.115.0): In the last few weeks a new update and new features via a DLC were issued through steam. They've ironed out some of the issues that plagued the game since the latest series of updates but the game still has some relatively large issues that continute plague performance and multiplayer gameplay. If you're relatively new to this game and you're looking to experience multiplayer and ultimately test out your strategies, you may not have that great of a time. While many players will experience the following, it is new and casual players who will experience the following in a more frustrating fashion. Multiplayer is not "smooth", in fact many have complained it is essentially broken. Crashing (out of sync, random black screens, random dropping) is very common. Second, lag is an issue, period. Whether the lag issue is due to bad PC performance or latency issues, it is a problem for many. Third, multiplayer often requires you to connect with other players and form regular teams which can and is often frustrating for new and casual players (although I'm quite fine :)).

A few more notes on the latest series of updates:
- No 8v8.... yet?
- Replay via the DLC is great but arguably a tad expensive considering what you get. Plus the replay feature does not have any control functions like pause, fast-forward, etc. Further, it is bugged.
- Spectator slots are a great addition but it is also bugged and likely causes out-of-syc crashing issues.
- Steam overlay is all messed up. The latest updates have rendered it useless which is a step backwards and quite surprising that it was not looked at before the release.
- This company seems to think it's cool release release notes several days after an update.


I can definitely understand why new and casual players find the multiplayer aspect of this game frustrating. Not only is there a steep learning curve, it has a number of other issues which I noted. I should also note that the overall gameplay is still not better than AS1.

Edit #3 (Version 3.122) as of May 23rd, 2015: This game has been updated several times since I last looked over my review of this game. I would like to note the following:

- SOME Out-of-Sync in-game crashing has been fixed but it still occurs enough to delay a 2v2 tournament and was the direct cause of cancelling the 3v3 league (which I assisted in administering). It is a MAJOR sore spot in the competitive part of the community.

- Replays still crash as much as before.

- I began a campaign for new maps to be implemented in a future version given this game's focus is primarily on multiplayer. I hope this is done because this game has lacked new, quality maps ever since it's release. I have no idea why this didn't cross their minds before hand... It now appears DMS may very well be including it in a future paid DLC pack, which if true, is a joke given that the maps they're reviewing are available FREE as a MOD (unfortunately too many AS2 players are ignorant of this).

- Performance issues still exist (lag, PC performance). Still worse than AS1 in terms of performance.

- Steam overlay is still completely broken, about a year since it's release.

- Matchmaking, I finally tried it. It's been plagued with issues from day one, no end in sight. It is also not taken seriously, at all, by us in the competitive community.


Edit #4 (Latest version as of July 16th, 2015): It's been almost two months since I updated this review to outline the latest version(s) so I'd like to note a few things:

- Many people still play this game, albeit the singleplayer part of this game. Unfortunately this game, as all RTS games, is geared towards multiplayer. With that being said, the crashes I've noted early, among a new crash since the end of May and the out-of-sync errors that still occur have really hurt two communities: the more experienced modders and modding community and the competitive community. As of three weeks ago I stopped playing due to the sheer amount of errors in multiplayer and overall instability in the game's performance.

- DMS has struggled to provide a smooth, stable multiplayer ever since it's release. I've been cautiously optimistic and hopeful but I've decided to move on generally and wish everyone good luck playing the game. Out-of-sync issues has decimated larger multiplayer games and as I've noted, the competitive side of the community. It's virtually impossibly to play consistent, stable 2v2, 3v3 and up games. With that being said, It's a game that I truly enjoyed but it's become too unstable to continue forwards.