Recent reviews by Artek [General]

Why reinvent the bicycle? There is no need. The bicycle is perfect - all the parts do what they're supposed to do, and that's that. So... How do you re-sell a new bicycle to someone who already owns and likes the previous one?
You make it bigger. You give it an armored frame. You put self-charging flashlight on it. You paint it red so that it goes fastah and maybe. Maybe a gun holster, i don't know.

This is how i see FromSoft making the same game for 10 years... And i'm perfectly fine with it.

• 100+ hours of another explorative adventure. My completionist first blind playthrough run took me 150h;
  
• Certain improvements on the classic Dark Souls combat formula: proper combos instead of spamming same 2 swings over and over, counters give shields a reason to exist, characters can actually jump now like normal game characters, etc;
  
• I know some people don't care but: LoRe. The world of Elden Ring and how everything ties together is exceptionally fascinating. This is especially potent to me after DS3 left a confused, incoherent taste in my mouth.
  
• Basic crafting system which allows you to make up some makeshift arrows and bombs on the go if you need them in a pinch.
  
• Introduction of random resources to support said crafting system really feeds into my Compulsive Obsessive Looting Disorder. I know i don't need the Herb x257, but its RIGHT THERE, how can i not?!
  
• As always - some very lovely and rememberable bosses, including those that push your sh*t (in a good way).

• Optimization: allegedly the game struggles to run properly on old gen CPUs. I've upgraded my GPU while playing the game - and it BARELY made a difference, the game doesn't even utilize it that much - all the hardship goes straight to CPU, especially the trillions of particles.
  
• There are inherent issues with Open World games, and ER is no exception: getting lost, trying to remember every optional path i didn't take so that i could go back to it later, simply taking WRONG turns. I accidentally skipped the "tutorial" early area of the game and came back to it by accident later way too overpowered for it, commencing an indiscriminate genocide on the local population for the sake of "i bought the whole game - i will play the whole game";
  
• Some attacks by certain opponents feel rather cheap: way too often i had to ask myself "How was i supposed to dodge that?", quickly transforming into "How am i supposed to dodge that?", and then finally "Am i supposed to dodge that?...";
  
• Dogs. They're still here. They still suck.
  
• Ash Summons are OP and frankly kinda ruin the challenging aspect of the game, which is why i had to avoid using them unless i just REALLY didn't want to go through that one area again. Although probably not that different from summoning cooperators in the old games, so... Eh.

Overall i'd give it 8/10 tops. The issues i encountered did not ruin my experience in any meaningful way - i still got my little big adventure, just as i was hoping to. Frankly - this is an Apex form of that "i wonder what i'm gonna stumble upon next" feeling that you find in the previous FromS titles.
That's gotta be worth something.

• Adds the so called Marketplace to geoscape. It's a static POI / settlement where you can purchase various things provided by this DLC.
  
  
• Adds ability to properly customise ground vehicles. This includes ability to finally customise their appearance and apply special upgrades to them that either directly buff, or change the way said vehicle operates.
  Using Scarab as an example: you can give it an upgraded rocket launcher that deals 50% more damage with 20% extra blast radius, give it extra armor that resists Acid, and then give it special heavy duty tracks that can crush worms, mindfraggers and myrmidons.
  
  
• Adds Kaos Buggy - a completely new vehicle defined by raw firepower when compared to the alternatives.
  
  
• Adds a series of special make-shift weapons that are produced exclusively by the Marketplace. These makeshift weapons are exceptionally powerful and are effectively superior for their respective weapon class on top of having infinite ammo.
  
  
• Marketplace rotates its' stock daily, so you can check on a regular basis if you can find anything interesting.

• Initial costs are ridiculous and frankly should be ignored. You should only start TRULY interacting with the DLC once you've completed all of the Marketplace's special missions, after which they give you a "discount" and only then their services become cost-tolerable.
  
  
• The makeshift weapons come with a catch: each consecutive shot increases the possibility of the weapon "failing", wasting your soldier's turn, if not straight up blowing up in his face. So you pay something like 140 materials for a 40x8 assault rifle, take like 3 shots with it, and on the 4th shot it suddenly jams, if not worse.
  I thought we were trying to be different from XCOM, no?
  
  
• You are not the only one who gets access to these vehicle upgrades. I've already encountered hostile Aspide with dual 120x2 laser cannons. Thank god it was stupid enough to get too close before shooting, so that i could kill it in a single turn.

Overall its a pretty nice addition and gives some interesting gimmicks to play around with. I'm yet to see my upgraded Scarab in action, but i'll definetely make an edit once i see if 1200 materials were worth it.

It was worth it. The missiles easily obliterate even the toughest of pandorans. It might not a kill a 400 HP Arthron Alpha, but it will leave him with a multitude of broken limbs for sure.
Depending on how poorly enemies will choose their spawn points - you can easily secure the initiative on the first turn by putting multiple targets out of commision one way or the other.

Upgraded armadildo is terrifying.
+14 speed allows it to cross the entire map in a single turn, literally runing circles around enemies, while napalm grenade launcher is devastating even with limited ammo.
Any arhtron or triton caught within the fire are doomed as any attempt to escape the flames just causes them to lose more limbs and enentually bleed out.
Commiting war crimes never felt this good.

• Adds The Behemoth - a mountain-sized creature that joins your game somewhere near begining of mid-game.
  The Behemoth will inhabit the strategic layer (geoscape) and will occasionally go for a walk - damaging, infesting or destroying havens that it will set its' sight on.
  While at it - it will also give birth fo airborne monstrocities that also go out and attack random havens in the area, damaging their infrastructure. Including your bases.
  
  
• Your aircraft will be provided with tools to combat the aerial menace.
  Intercepting and taking down pandoran aircraft upsets The Behemoth, slowing it down and eventually causing it to leave (and also sometimes provides resources).
  
  
• Not all tools are for combat - some are useful for casual exploring, like on-board stamina regeneration or increased effective range of the aircraft.
  
  
• A new mission type where you cleanse an infested haven to return it to normal.

• Crafting new modules for ships requires notable amount of resources and defeating pandoran aircraft doesn't give enough back.
  
  
• If your ship dies in a battle - the whole squad is lost with it. Save often.
  
  
• The DLC is not balanced at all, with aerial combat ranging from laughably easy to ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hard with no in-between.
  With late game targets it's a game of rock-paper-scissors. Brought a wrong gun or defensive module? Eat ♥♥♥♥.
  Or, alternatively - disengage, haul your ship to base for repairs, send another one to finish the job.
  Basically it is often recommended to have 2 ships in the area on stand by to gank on a single pandoran aircraft.
  
  
• The visual representation of aerial combat is, quite honestly, pathetic.
  It reminds me of mobile games. That's not a good thing. How did XCOM: Enemy Unknown - a game from 2012 - got it better?
  
  
• The new mission is... unfun. Map design is terrifyingly clausthrophobic. There are parts that soldiers can enter, but can't leave. Bazzilion mindfraggers everywhere. Reinforcements (oh for ♥♥♥♥'s sake...). The "boss" of the area is a pain in the A.
  
  
• New ground enemy: Myrmidons.
  Dog-sized grasshopers who pack a nasty bite, can take way more punishment than they should and later evolve into living bombs throwing out the only viable strategy for killing them quickly which is a shotgun to the face. Also no melee.
  Now its 2-3 AR bursts from mid range. Or 2-3 sniper shots, because its totally fine for a glorified grasshoper to have 200+ health.
  Their signature ability is basically a mimic of heavy's jetpack jump. They can take a flight to any part of the map and even can take a bite right after. Which is exactly what they often do.
  They basically provide pandorans with ability to deliver guaranteed 60-90 damage to any soldier in the open, including rooftops.

First coming of The Behemoth i pretty much did nothing, because i didn't understood what i could or supposed to do.

Second coming happened on the other side of the planet - North America (i started in Europe). Behemoth had grand ol' time there by himself and by the time i reached NA - there were no havens left. It's a dead continent now.

I thought i was ready for the Third coming, with my upgraded Thunderbirds.
Got my ass kicked immediately because i lost rock-paper-scissor game where my extra armor did nothing against fire weapons. Good thing thunderbirds have enough health to disengage.
And those were only medium planes. Apparently there is an even worse one. How many planes will it take me to kil those? 4?


After some extra time with this DLC - i'm still mad, but not as mad anymore.

Some of the out-of-combat upgrades are actually pretty neat.
The extra speed one especially - it adds raw 100 speed to the aircraft, which means ~20% extra speed for Thunderbirds and 40% (!) for Tiamat. That's very nice.

I found the most "optimal" tactic for fighting against aerial menace and... I'm not a fan.

• First of all: you can throw every single weapon in the game in the trash except for 2: Jericho's Gauss Cannons and Phoenix' Armor-Shredding Cannon. Especially the latter.
  
  
• Make 2 of each, equip at least 2 planes with matching pairs (preferably synendrion's aircraft, since health is not going to be a part of the equation, but speed is).
  
  
• Go in, aim at opponent's most troubling weapon, get in range, take as many pot-shots as you can get away with before they fire back (usually just 1) and then disengage.
  
  
• Disengaging aircraft will "escape" to the closest POI, after which you can just send it right back.
  
  
• Rinse and repeat these hit'n'run maneuveres until target's long range weaponry is offline, at which point you can go in for the kill. The only "difficulty" is how many such maneuveres it will take until enemy aircraft can't defend itself.

It works, it's effective... And at the same time i just feel like i'm playing the game wrong. Not to mention how pissed i am to find out that basically anything that has range under 1700 is effectively worthless. Why would anyone bring a shotgun to a sniper contest?

Cleanse Haven missions are... Managable. But i'm still not a fan. They are just full of all kinds of headache.
The kind of headache that has 4 little legs and keeps trying to jump on your face.

The single best thing this DLC provides is the best aircraft in the game: MASKED MANTICORE, which acts pretty much identical to normal Manticore, except it fits 8 soldiers instead of 6. It's even cheaper to produce too - the TECH / MATERIAL costs are reduced and compensated with 500 mutagens, which is not a big deal.
Once you take out Behemoth for good - your cursed, flesh-made aircraft is free to roam the lands, quickly delivering overwhelming man power to where it is needed.

Now if only i could ♥♥♥♥♥♥' dismantle the rest of aircrafts, or at least change their ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ order.

It's 50/50.

You get used to playing with aircraft upgrades - speed one especially.
Masked Manticore is too good to pass up.

But there's just too much headache to ignore too.
Myrmidons alone are an absolute bane of my existence. Hate em' - simple as.
2nd coming of the behemoth seems to always happen on the other side of planet, which means you are guaranteed to not be able to do anything about it and watch helplessly.
Infested Havens are cursed.

If you're ready to deal with the pain - go for it.

What's that?
A new overpowered enemy that causes me to ♥♥♥♥ blood from frustruation?
A long-term debuff on my soldiers' maximum Will Points?
A new niche soldier class that does NOT compensate the difficulty spike?

Must be a Phoenix Point DLC.

• A new "Mutoid" soldier class. They are artificial cannon-fodder soldiers to fill in the ranks while you try to get someone better.
  
  - Mutoids are all about the mutagens: they are created with them, unlock skills with them and even upgrade stats with them too.
  
  - When you create one - you get to pick what class it's going to be. As they level up - you can give buy them a single, level-corresponding skill from ANY class, allowing for some tactical freedom.
  
  - They also have a separate skill tree where they can unlock some skills stolen from pandorans (like poison spit).
  
  - Mutoids are immune to the new "Corruption" mechanic.

• The new "Corruption" mechanic.
  
  - Some missions will be "corrupted". When soldiers go to such a mission - they get +1 corruption point (CP). When they get hit by anything in the mission - they can get some more.
  
  - Each CP reduces soldier's maximum WP by 1, but in return provides soldier with +2% damage output.
  Example: a soldier with 11 WP can get up to 10 CPs, reducing his MAX WP to 1, but granting him +20% damage in return.
  Damage is nice and all - but soldier's power comes from their abilities, which they won't be able to use, or use them very sparingly. So overall its a strain on your fireteam's performance.
  
  - Corruption can be cured with Mutagens, but the price is pretty hefty: 25, 50, 75 or 100 mutagens depending on how far the corruption has gone. Multiply that by a squad of 6-7 people and you get the idea.
  
  
  
  
• A new enemy: Acheron.
  
  - Basically Chiron 2.0 on frustruation scale.
  
  - These guys are not particularly dangerous in terms of direct damage output, but instead they provide support to the Pandorans, buffing them and debuffing you. And they are damn good at it.
  
  - Possible abilities include, in no particular order: leaping across the map, calling additional pandoran reinforcements, ressurecting the dead, spreading acid mist, repairing armor for nearby pandorans, shooting goo, stacking additional CPs on your soldiers and more.
  
  - While their large, bulbous bodies make for easy targets - they have a decently large HP bar of ~800, so killing one is not exactly a quick and easy job, which means they tend to stay on the battlefield for longer than one would prefer. Especially since they tend to stay out of direct combat.
  
  - Because this is Phoenix Point - multiple instances can spawn per mission. Have fun with that thought.
  
  
  
  
• Mutoids are not super-soldiers. They are cannon fodder to fill in the gaps in your ranks while Jon Schmo one the other side of the planet is busy unlocking his 2nd, cross-class, LVL7 skill. They have some arbitrary limitations, that ultimately make them an inferior human resource.
  
  - They don't use helmets. Their mutated head provides some basic 20 armor, i believe, but no accuracy or perception bonus. Not the biggest of their issues, but still something to consider.
  
  - They don't have talents.
  
  - They can't be healed with medkits or other conventional healing means. They are either healed after the operation with injection of mutagens, or they can unlock a skill similiar to that of Triton's vampirism, provided they can get close enough.
  
  - Their maximum level caps at 5, compared to proper soldiers' 7, which means they don't have access to some of the best abilities.
  
  - The additional mutations they can unlock do not compare - they are a neat bonus to have, but nothing that will help you to kill a Scylla.

In conclusion: i find the vanilla game infuriating enough and rather not deal with this as well.
Mutoids seem to be a net-loss to me. I'm going to replace them with proper soldiers anyway and mutagens wasted on their creation are better used constantly healing corruption that keeps hindering the performance of my human soldiers.

This one will be turned off in the next playthrough and probably will stay that way for good.



After playing for some extra time i have some new thoughts on this DLC.

Eventually you will be able to "cure" corruption, permanently removing it from the game, which is nice.

The new enemy type is a double-edged sword for pandorans.
While generally still a massive A-hole, their AI is not that great.
Their single most dangerous ability is one that calls in reinforcements. Everything else is not a big deal and they don't carry much in terms of offense.
They often waste their turns by just jumping around the map with no real plan and their fat ass makes them easy, but low-priority targets.
Sometimes they just waste spawn slots for enemies that could actually hurt you.
Think of that what you will.

One word: meh.
This DLC provides you with a folder located at "Steam\steamapps\common\Phoenix Point\DigitalExtras" which contains some bonus content to enjoy outside of the game.

1) "Album' folder containts MP3 files by one "Mokushi" which include some weird techno music (early dev OST concept?... i have no idea...) as well as one weird lore dialogue. Cringy one too. I don't know what to make of this.

2) "ArtBook" contains a book describing and showing early game concepts and how they changed through development.
If anything it just makes me sad for the game that could've been, as i frankly find early concept, "The Thing"-like pandorans much cooler, but that's just me. Not to mention how cool certain armor sets looked in the past.

3) "Manual" contains the game's detailed manual, with item stats, recommended tactics and yadi yada.
Manuals are not my thing.

4) "Soundtrack" contains... Sigh, you know what it contains.
Here i'll have to criticise game's soundtrack. Because frankly i don't find it worthy of extra drive space.
The general concept for it seems to be "spooky ambience". A lot of tracks are slow, semi-quiet ambient tracks with spooky violins and pianos. Like... Why would i want to listen to this outside of the game? To feel creeped out and anxious? Not to mention that some of these give me PTSD now because of the game itself.
Since the game lacks proper combat music - there's nothing to write home about. Compared to soundtrack of even X-COM: Enemy Unknown it's just... Bleak. Not to mention that you can barely hear it.
The only tracks that caught my attention are the ones that play in Strategic layer, which are:
"Survival" (sad piano)
"Futureproofing" (bittersweet techno + piano)
"Eternal Struggle" (anxious techno + violin)
"Dawn of Determination" (anxious techno + piano)
"After The Deluge" (anxious synths)
"Requiem" (more anxious and sad synths - probably THE most memorable track)
Backer build seems to contain music that plays during Pandoran turn. Probably the only proper "combat music" in this game and again - not exactly a 10/10. But you might find it interesting.

5) "Stories" contain a colleciton of mini-stories that provide precious lore for world building of PP.
Might be interesting, but i honestly don't remember what's in it.

6) And finally "Wallpaper"... Yeah.
Comes in 1920x1080, 2560x1440 and 3840x2160 resolutions. There's a total of 7 pictures. Maybe you'll find one worthy of your desktop.

Personally i don't see much value in this thing. There is some, but very little. It's a neat bonus for buying special editions, but i wouldn't buy this separately.

GTFO is an immersive, teamwork-oriented, coop survival horror where you and up to 3 other unfortunates are sent into the depths of abandoned underground facility with an important mission... And they don't actually expect you to come back.

Now, let me get this clear: don't think of this as another L4D or B4B or whatever else.
This is different.

How do i even explain this... Think "SWAT" meets "The Thing" meets "Aliens".
The loud shooting sections only make up like 1/3 of the game, with majority of time being spent on stealth, exploration and trying to figure what is even your objective.

• Immersive tactical horror sim
  
  
• Challenging objectives that will often take multiple wipes and reattempts
  
  
• Teamwork is not optional - good communication and preparation is key to success
  
  
• Amazing feeling of accomplishment when you complete the mission
  
  
• Subjective: cool aesthetics of "heavy industrial sci-fi"

• Completely unfriendly to solo players.
  
  Playing alone is not really an option. You have bots that work OK but lack the intelligence to perform advanced team maneuveres which is crucial to complete advanced missions.
  You'll be able to get by through A's, B's and maybe even some C's with them but by the time you hit D's - either you find actual players to work with or you're stuck (unless you are a god gamer or something).
  
  
• Mandatory Official Discord Server participation.
  
  As of v1.0 release (Rundown 6 update) the game has a proper "matchmaking" feature.
  Unfortunately - it basically doesn't work. Not because it can't but because it has no one to work with.
  95% of the game's most active community members all hang out on the official Discord server and use its' LFG (Looking For Players) channels to find people to play with.
  Every so often a newbie comes by, asking why the hell he can't find anybody and we have to explain to him why and make him part of the cult too.
  And so it is, that matchmaking remains undead.
  
  Here's the link btw: https://discord.gg/gtfo
  
  
• Low performance.
  
  The game is build on Unity Engine and has some intense visuals, but also new levels are often not very optimised. Depending on a level my average FPS can be 100 or 50 on my 5/10 PC. It also tends to degrade with longer sessions and checkpoint reloads, especially the latter.
  
  
• Long gaming sessions that require commitment.
  
  Missions take on average ~60 minutes to beat, with shortest being ~30 minutes and longest up to ~90 minutes. This does not account for team performance and wipe restarts, which can prolong a single mission attempt to 2 and more hours.
  There's no "continue" option - either you get it done in one go, or you wipe / quit and try another day.
  
  
• Overbearing, borderline sadistic difficulty.
  
  This won't hit you immediately, but it will.
  A and B tier levels are fine, but once you hit C-tiers - the game will start showing its' true colours. Don't even get me started on E's.
  
  Soulsborne's Git Gud crowd got nothing on these psychopaths.

Each mission has its own unique set of objectives. Usually its something related to keeping Complex operational, or making progress on whatever the hell Warden is up to.

The gameplay generally consists of 2 sections: stealth and loud.

Stealth is NOT optional. Most of the time, anyway. Ammo and other supplies are scarse and it's preferable to avoid any unnecessary spendings.
This is where most of playtime goes into. You'll be crawling through dark rooms, smacking sleeping monsters on the head, until eventually you'll run into one of alarm events.

This is where loud section begins.
The alarm will keep blaring, sending waves of monsters your way, until you do something to stop it. If you even can, that is: some alarms are permanent and will continue until the very moment you extract.

During loud gameplay the rest of game's mechanics come into play.
Not only prisoners have access to a variety of firearms, each with their own strengths, weaknesses and roles, but also to tactical tools: automated sentries, mines, construction-grade foam and even an Alien-style biotracker.
Bringing correct tools for the job and using them appropriately is the key to success. You won't get away with just shooting things yourself - not with this limited ammo supply.

You stealth to conserve bullets, you shoot to survive, you survive to get ♥♥♥♥ done, and you get ♥♥♥♥ done to get your extraction point and GTFO.



It must be noted that there is no progression system in this game.
All the gear is available from the start and there's nothing new to unlock, not even a new aiming sight or anything - all the guns come completely pre-baked.

You do, however, receive random cosmetic items for your character upon successful expedition clears. Better than nothing i suppose.

Blasphemous is a fairly standart take on a metroidvania formula. A 2D platformer where you play as a Penitent One - a religious warrior armed with a sword, miracles and his own blood.

The gameplay loop is a fairly simple 2D hack-and-slash. Dodge an attack, strike back, heal if needed, yadi yada, you get the idea. There is a souls-like element where dying is normal and you'll die a lot, so be ready for that.

The main selling point here, IMHO, is a unique visual style combined with a fairly deep lore inspired by aesthetics and lore of Spanish branch of christianity. Raw, violent and absolutely crazy.

Main criticisms: platforming sometimes feels slugish, some areas and enemies are designed in very annoying ways and the world of the game kinda gets to you eventually with how absolutely cursed everything and everyone is.
Oh and i'm not a big fan of backtracking and trying to find every little secret place AFTER you got the ability that actually allows you to reach it. Hate that.

Other than all that: decent game, 75/100.

Extremely powerful weapons that are superior to anything else in their respective class and have infinite ammo, so no reloading and no resource drain after operations.

In order to get these weapons you must:

1. Complete a special mission that activates the DLC (a fairly hardcore battle against New Jericho soldiers) ;
   
2. Complete a bunch of missions to get blueprints to craft the DLC weapons (the easiest part - just use a scavenging team with a support vehicle, steal it and drive away) ;
   
3. Build a special facility (requires resources) ;
   
4. Craft special probe drones (require resources) ;
   
5. RANDOMLY shoot those probes around the map ;
   
6. Discover ruin sites (if lucky);
   
7. Excavate them (requires resources) ;
   
8. Wait 3 in-game days ;
   
9. Defeat the security detachment, which consists of about a dozen humanoid robots who have riot shields and shoot lasers that deal from 90 to 140 damage, so that's a guaranteed destroyed limb on hit and there is always a giant robot around who deals even more damage. Not impossible, but pretty dangerous even for experienced soldiers ;
   
10. After the site was secured - a manned aircraft must be stationed near it to extract resources at a fairly slow rate ;
    
11. You need to secure 3 unique resource extraction sites and THEN ALSO secure 3 processing sites in order to even use the resources you excavated to craft the weapons. Processing sites THAT YOU MUST FIND FIRST .
    
12. Oh and pandorans and other factions will sometimes attack these sites, and you'll have to protect them, usually placed in the dead center of the map surrounded from 2-3 directions.

In my first blind playthrough i managed to find all 3 types of resources (some in spares), but only ONE PROCESSING SITE.
As a result i could only craft ONE weapon - a one handed melee stick. A good one. But still...
I couldn't craft anything else. So i never got to experience the greatness of other weapons and i honestly couldn't be bothered to continue because the final mission was already available to me and it was time to end the game. I couldn't wait another 3 days.

Crap ton of resources spent and lives of soldiers risked, to craft 4 melee sticks and only deploy 1 for the final mission, which can't even be used on the final boss.
Oustanding.



Let me explain: some Arthrons will have "Tar Shadow" ability on them, telegraphed by a small purple mist.
If you kill them - their deathspot becomes a spawning point for Arthron Umbra - a ghost-like, unarmored, melee version of arthron. Once the spawning point appeared - you can't do anything to it. The Umbra will spawn and immediately take a full turn once yours is over.

So, what can happen is:
- Your squad gets approached by a surprisingly suicidal arthron ;
- They kill him ;
- Umbra spawn point appears ;
- You have no idea what it is and what to do with it ;
- After your turn Arthron Umbra spawns ;
- Immediately proceeds to beat the sh*t out of one of your closest soldiers, potentially killing him (loves snipers especially).

I f***ing HATE this guy. A giant pain in all of the asses. He can be countered but the amount of trouble this a-hole gave me is... Urgh.

Terrible DLC that eats away at your resources and requires A LOT of effort AND luck to get to the good sh*t.
Not worth the trouble.

Also subjective point of criticism: i find the generic "Golden Fantasy Magic-Tech Fusion" aesthetic of the DLC to be very lame and frankly damaging to the game's baseline Lovecraftian horror vibes. Golden Sirens just do not look right - its like i'm playing a mobile game and Pandorans have bought themselves a premium unit.

• An exceptionally tough armor set that provides decent stealth and accuracy bonuses on top of exceptionally thick armor. Any class can use this, so you have a lot of room for experimentation on who can make the best use of it ;
  
• An 30x6 assault rifle with decent accuracy that shoots corrosive bullets to harass armored opponents ;
  
• A heavy cannon that's about as powerful as New Jericho's, but also applies poison for each hit (5 poison per bullet, each bullet deals 35 damage and its a burst of 10 = potential 350 damage and 50 poison per burst), accuracy is ♥♥♥♥ though so don't expect to hit much ;
  
• Both weapons have infinite ammo, so they do not require reloading and don't eat your resources.

• You only get 1 instance of each and can't backwards engineer them ;
  
• You get them by completing special missions that are hard to reach and complete. I got armor early game, rifle mid game and cannon approaching late game. My soldiers almost died securing the rifle ;
  
• The weapons have low durability and are easy to destroy. A lucky sniper shot destroyed the rifle some 3rd-4th operation it was on and that was it. Lost forever.

As a free DLC its a neat bonus, but i probably wouldn't pay money for this.

One of few truly good DLCs for PP.

• Introduces augmentations' related research and facility, which will allow you to augment your soldiers into superior combat units.
  
  
• The Heavy Augmentations (Basic)
  + 30 Armor, +3% Accuracy head which makes the unit completely immune to mind control ;
  + 45 Armor, +1% Accuracy, -1 Speed torso which allows one to break straight through walls and other elements of environment, with integrated riot shield deployer ;
  + 40 Armor, +3% Accuracy, -1 Speed legs that prevent fall damage and ignore goo .
  
  
• The Offensive Augmentations (Advanced)
  + 16 Armor, +12% Accuracy head that allows one to disrupt enemy units, preventing them from using special abilities ;
  + 30 Armor, +8% Accuracy torso which doubles unit's weight capacity and allows to install mounted weapons or robo arms (requires profficiency however) ;
  + 20 Armor, +3 Speed legs which provide an ability to commit medium range vertical jumps, acting as a discount middle ground between assault's dash and heavy's jetpack jump .
  
  
• The Stealth Augmentaions (Restricted)
  + 20 Armor, +10% Stealth head which passively and completely silences firearms used by the unit (meaning enemies will not be drawn to unit's location, unable to determine where the shots are coming from) ;
  + 22 Armor, +20% Stealth, -3% Accuracy torso which allows the soldier to use melee weapons, while also reducing the cost of any melee attacks to 1 AP ;
  + 20 Armor, +20% Stealth, +1 Speed, -3% Accuracy legs which make the unit immune to overwatch (by never triggering it) .
  
  
• Augmented body parts do not cause bleeding when disabled and provide some resistance to Poison, Paralysis, and Viral attacks.

• One word: expensive.
  Not only augmenting a body part is slightly more expensive than manufacturing a similiar armor piece - but damaged body parts must be repaired after the combat for a price as well.
  Took a single AR bullet to the head? That'll be 20 Tech & 100 Materials, chief ;
  
  
• You can only augment 2 body parts, you can't reverse the augmentation, nor can you swap to a mutation. You can only change one augmentation to another (for a full price too) ;
  
  
• Augmented body parts are vulnerable to Acid, receiving double amounts per attack ;
  
  
• Introduces a new faction: THE PURE (♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥).
  The Forsaken on steroids - THE PURE are soldiers that undergone complete augmentation and lost their marbles as a result.
  The main issue with them is that they almost exclusively consist of heavy-duty augmented soldiers, which means average 40 armor per body part and they spam the ever-loving ♥♥♥♥ out of the integrated riot shield. The only 2 reliable ways of dealing with them are explosives and snipers on overwatch. Assault Rifle and other small caliber fire just bounces off.

Heavy duty head and legs are effectively direct upgrades for Heavy soldiers, providing rougly same armor values, but granting accuracy bonuses instead of accuracy penalties.
Upgrading any Heavy with an augmented head and legs sends their accuracy from -16% to only -2%.
Immunity to both mind control and sudden landings gives heavies extra security when jetpack-jumping to far away places and high roofs, making mindfraggers irrelevant and preventing sudden deaths from being shot by a rocket and falling down from a 3rd floor.

Heavy torso can provide any soldier with ability to boldly push forward and stay protected even in the open field. 45 Armor + Riot Shield make any small caliber fire innefective.
Ability to break through environment creates unique flanking opportunities, or you can just demolish target's cover and let the rest of the squad have their fun.

Assault head and torso provide the highest accuracy bonuses in their respective category, for a total of +20% accuracy when combined.
You can use them to completely nihilate the negative penalty from "Reckless" talent, turn any "Cautious" soldier into perfect sharpshooter, or even make heavy weapons actually viable for medium range combat.
If you've got a sniper with a "Strongman" talent - you know what to do.

Assault torso's feature to install mounted weapons allows you to take advantage of "Bombardier" talent no matter who gets it without having to sacrifice Accuracy and Speed by wearing heavy armor.

Assault legs grant superior positioning options and make for a great choice to dedicated scavenging teams, allowing soldiers to jump straight to high-placed crates without having to search for and then climbing some rusty ladder.

Stealth head is great for infiltrators with profficiency in firearms.

And the melee proficient stealth torso creates the most broken class in the game - Assault/Heavy melee brawler who can oneshot 80% of enemies in a single swing, and gaining 1 AP for each succesfull kill.
Entire maps turn into a game of checkers as you win the mission without taking a single shot.