Recent reviews by FruitSyrup

I am the left hand of the Emperor, here to deliver unto his enemies a righteous fisting.

I am a Bulwark main.

Played a bit. It's good.

Hardly works on newer systems. Spent the better part of 2 days to try and get it working, succeeded, only for it to then stop a day later. If you can get past the constant crashing then it's as fun as it used to be.

With the recent turnaround from Sony and their truly baffling attempt to both region-lock a big chunk of the userbase out by forcing connections to PSN (likely due to a combination of shareholder bonus incentives, trying to lure PC gamers to the PS console, and collecting player data to sell off), I am willing to recommend this game again. That being said, it's still unavailable in 177 countries; hopefully this restriction will be removed with the rollback of the account linking.

The game has an excellent core loop, with a decent spread of mission types to keep you engaged, and no two drops being exactly the same. Planets have quite diverse and interesting tile sets to help maintain a freshness to the experience. The graphical quality is outstanding and the sound work is equally well-done. The constant string of blowing yourself and your teammates up with ill-placed artillery or bombing runs very rarely loses its charm, and when it does you can simply log off and come back the next day with fresh eyes and ready to murder whatever is in danger close of that 380 you just threw.

Both bugs and bots present their own unique challenges. Whoever tells you that one is easier than the other is lying: they simply require different skills and approaches to tackle, with bugs best dealt with using area denial and bots favouring weaponry that allows you to punch through their heavier armour. Bug breaches can be resolved using gas strikes and napalm (minus an existing damage over time bug that should be fixed by the time you read this review) and bot drops can be trivialised with the judicious application of anything labelled "anti-tank".

The game is not without its flaws, however: some enemy types are very frustrating to deal with, especially in large numbers, with ragdolling being common at higher levels and generally spelling a death sentence for you. Given the limited number of drops you have, this can very quickly become frustrating. The second issue is one mostly of balance, as many weapons are simply inferior in use case to others (the designated marksman rifles come to mind), and the very samey nature of many weapons renders them difficult to distinguish themselves as useful picks. Stratagems, too, suffer from a lack of good balancing. As an example, the railcannon is utterly inferior to the 100kg bomb in terms of utility once you have improved your Eagle a few steps, which doesn't take very long at all to do, and have a good grasp of where to throw your stratagems.

All in all, this is a very solid game. A strong foray into converting the Helldivers experience from an isometric setup to a third person shooter, and one that will retain your engagement for many hours, but with some areas for improvement. Those areas aren't core gameplay issues that will require much of an overhaul to fix, though, and with careful tuning they should vanish in time.

While I am incredibly enthused by the gameplay and MS variety that even free players can get into, I can't in good conscience suggest getting involved with the game until the absolutely atrocious state of the game's matchmaking and its connectivity is resolved; I'm not even sure how it's this bad, but it's almost certainly the worst I've ever experienced in a game. It will often take upwards of 10 "matchmaking failed" attempts and over twenty minutes at queuing for a game to actually enter a lobby, and sometimes you won't even be given that much feedback before you're booted back to the base. Lobbies will often take forever to fill too. There are also issues with disconnects during rated matches that will inflict penalties on you even if it wasn't your fault.

Until these serious networking issues are fixed, I would recommend staying at arm's length and waiting for things to improve.

You know, when I heard Relic was branching out into the world of Shooters, I was very, very intrigued.

You can imagine my elation when I got to play one that demonstrated the same quality standard of Dawn Of War. The over-the-shoulder perspective is not for everyone, I will admit that right off the bat, but if this doesn't bother you then you're in for a hell of a good time. The campaign is excellent; Captain Titus, the main character that you control, is the definitive Ultramarine. None of this Spiritual Liege nonsense: he's well aware of the Codex's limitations and is not afraid to break tradition to get things done. He kinda looks like your Dad, too. And show me anyone else who can solo 10+ bloodletters AT THE SAME TIME.

Whilst the multiplayer has died a quiet death due to a lack of coverage, it's still very much fun to play. There's a small community of players who've stuck around for a good long while since the game never gets old and it has matured exceptionally well. Horde mode is fantastic: you truly feel like a God among men, carving your way through hundreds of mooks with the support of your team.

11/10 recommend for devoted servants of the Emprah.