Recent reviews by Elder Goose

THIS is the correct pick for Labor of Love.

TL;DR - Just play the original... but If you really love the OG Portal and want to play this campaign once to see it in a different light, then you might as well give it a go since it is free and quite short. I can't recommend achievement hunting this version or playing it for any extended period of time in lieu of the original though.

Visually, it is quite nice and occasionally you'll see a reflection or lighting effect that really makes you stop and go, "Dang, that is pretty." That is about where the pros end compared to base Portal.

Somehow the mechanics of passing through portals are significantly worse than the base game. Funneling doesn't work well and stops working without any input, carried items are dropped 75% of the time when you pass through a portal, and most frustratingly it is nearly impossible to predict your orientation when exiting a portal - correcting orientation is just as difficult.

Outside of gameplay, the game crashed an average of once per hour, weird artifacting will briefly flash on screen for assets that aren't even in the room with me, and it took a reasonable amount of research and tuning to get running at a bearable framerate.
Literally only recommending because it is free and as a single playthrough. Other than that, not worth the headache.

Epic Games will continue to systematically dismantle the library of games we've come to love and the relationships built upon them.

I played the OG Insurgency MOD, the first standalone title and have so much love for Sandstorm and the memories I made in it. It always worked flawlessly and has been an incredible experience for me and the many friends I got onboard to play with me - now I can't even start or join a party. Hell, I can't even play a match by myself for more than a minute without being kicked by the anti-cheat because my "Authentication failed."

Epic does not care about you or the video game community. This is a company that had one hit but can't maintain their market position and have continually failed to gain customers with their practices or product appeal; thus, they use their Fortnite affluence to grab your favorite games by the balls and leave you the ultimatum: bend the knee or lose what you love.

Hope you've all got diamond knees.

UPDATE: I tried the game again. I can actually play, but every time I open the game it force-opens my browser and takes me to the Epic Games page. Even after closing the browser and continuing to play it will wait a little while and open another browser mid-game, tabbing me out (usually resulting in death.)

If I were even 1/16th as productive in real life as I am in this game then I'd be Jeff Bezos.

Screw that tho, back to sinking my time into this sick game.

I recommend this for couch co-op or online play, but we struggled with Remote Play.

The game is well paced until the back half, but still doesn't do anything too out of place. Story is unsuspectingly good and the characters are well written. Gameplay is quirky and full of little flavorful distractions scattered around the world in the form of objects to comment on, people to interact with, and mini-games to compete in. The combat isn't groundbreaking, but maybe on par with the genre especially considering how little it is actually utilized.

Overall, it is a fun and relaxing romp built around a decent narrative - get it if you have a buddy and 8 hours to kill.

THE SHAPE IS COMING D:

I am having a lot of fun playing it when it works, but the reality is that it is a really unstable game that is plagued with a multitude of issues and fun eating factors.

Issues experienced:
- Every time I start the game it is a white, windowed screen for nearly a minute before the intro videos start.
- Every time I get to the main menu, nothing is clickable and I have to open task manager, kill the game and restart it (sitting through the same white screen again.) After the second launch, I can click things on the menu.
- Blue Screen of Death (System Service Exception) the other day during gameplay.
- Periodic crashes to desktop, some with a crash reporter, others without.
- Miserable performance a lot of the time; will just randomly go away under the same conditions though. (12 GB 1080 Ti, 4.3 Ghz i7, 16 GB of RAM, SSD)
- Zoo will function fine, then suddenly visitors start getting stuck all over the place while standing on functional paths.
- Same issue with staff. They will use the same unchanged path for years then all of a sudden all get stuck at the same choke point and the zoo will start falling apart while they all walk into an invisible wall. Had to restructure an entire portion of the zoo just for fix their pathing.
- Something broken with the ability to clean certain habitats. I have a Salties habitat built around a natural body of water (being cleaned) but it is always at 60% cleanliness or less even right after the keeper leaves.
- Getting paths to attach and lay down in a predictable manner without using the align to grid option is pretty much impossible and really limits creativity when you can't just paint paths more freely.

As a whole, the base of this game seems to have a lot of promise and even with the gameplay issues/limitations it would be a lot of fun; however, the instability and technical issues really put a damper on the entire experience. I recommend waiting until they either patch it or it drops in price SIGNIFICANTLY.

Great game made greater with great friends. For free.

What else do you want?

A game like this doesn't come along very often.

After playing for a very short period of time, I knew I was in trouble - this game was going to hook me hard. The characters are charming, story is well paced - drawing you in further at each turn, the soundtrack is superb, environments are immersive, and the gameplay is both dynamic and rewarding.

Puzzle and combat difficulty are independently adjustable of one another. Whether you are a completionist looking to gather 300 chests, a brawler looking for fast-paced and challenging combat, a 200iq puzzle solver, or a weekend warrior looking for a relaxing romp... this game is for you.

I recommend this game as a fan of the Danganronpa series, though I feel that the aspects which made me fall in love with the series were done their weakest in this installment of the series.

Not to discredit V3 from a gameplay prespective; here is where it

• Trial mini-games
  
• Bonus/post-game content
  
• Customization
  
• Freetime/Relationship building
  
• Skill/leveling system
  
• Logic when choosing truth bullets
  
• Character development and back stories
  
• And much more.

Danganronpa V3 still executes their basic formula from the first two games the same, but in the writing department it I feel that the writers may be getting tired of the series. As a result, the characters don't seem as phased by the murders when they occur, instead treating it almost like business as usual from the start; The Blackened's motives are less personal overall and have outside factors that detract from the sense of reward the player should feel from solving the case; large plot holes can be found in different cases; and the overall story is tarnished by a planted seed of skepticism toward the end.

Danganronpa V3 improves and progresses from a gameplay prespective and puts together a game that is enjoyable to play, both in the main campaign and in the bonus modes. Sadly, the emotive writing from the earlier installments that made me fall in love with the series is almost entirely stripped from V3. The result is a fun game filled with interesting characters who behave in immersion breaking ways and kill for less impactful reasons. Purchase and play it if you liked the first games and want to continue the story, but don't expect to be as moved by this one as the first two.