Not really any spoilers, but if you're gonna play it anytime soon maybe skip this and enjoy the opening yourself.
Otherwise, enjoy this album of pretty Soviet retro-future aesthetics because I'm terrible at playing this game but ok-ish at taking screenshots I think.
Edit: The rest of the album is here. I'm bad at posting apparently.
Got baited because that's usually how games with Soviet aesthetics are.
Lmao me too! I'm like 2-3hrs in and kept waiting for a rug-pull but so far there's been nothing
The game is a little rough around the edges, feels like it’s maybe from like 2014, but fuck it I loved games in 2014 and I’ll take Bioshock-with-Soviet-characteristics
There was one sequence where I just got domed by that tunneling robot 3 times in a row for an instant death with no warning. That was annoying. Also “dodge when the red circle appears” doesn’t always work.
Oh also the main character’s English dialogue is dogshit. Holy shit dude please calm down you talk like a #triggered 14 year old that just learned what the word fuck is.
Yeah, I basically die any time I get got by a quick time event attack
I haven't even hit those yet. Just the first few enemies with those 'dodge the red attacks' moments. I'm so very old and my reflexes are terrible.
My reflexes are good enough, but it seems like the dodge doesn’t actually give you i-frames so I’m often up against some rubble I didn’t see and I dodge but don’t go anywhere and then I’m on the ground
the dodge doesn’t actually give you i-frames
There's an upgrade that gives it iframes.
so I’m often up against some rubble I didn’t see and I dodge but don’t go anywhere and then I’m on the ground
Yeah, getting pinned into corners is a pain and happens constantly in some of the messier fights. The mass telekinesis power can get you the space to move out of it, though.
Overall the strategy I've found to work best is to zap an enemy then spray goop everywhere around them and circle the electrified puddle that makes until all the melee enemies are stunlocked, then shoot/bonk/levitate slam them until they're dead. The strongest thing your powers give is CC and debuffs, and if feels like the combat was designed around using them well.
Coincidentally enemies that are immune to CC, like the fucking plyush, are a gigantic pain in the ass, especially when paired with normal enemies.
Nice, I figured the abilities would solve some of my problems, I’m still pretty early on
Yeah, quite possible. I feel like it's less than instant I'd you're mid-swing too which is realistic but tricky for me. I might need to knock it down a difficulty level.
Further evidence that if you're a Communist, you're going to use balloons.
It does actually seem to be legitimately pro-Soviet yeah, at least with the get out clause of a utopian version thanks to some alternate history.
I kinda love the "be kinder" message. PSAs like "Yeah sure the people here are criminals, but they aren't Nazis so treat them like people!" is such a specific sort of thing that actually makes this a believably communist world to me.
I absolutely agree and I was going to write a long thing but I'm getting drunk instead of playing or being sensible on a Thursday.
ok where. I see about a million things that look like amogus-bait but not a single sussy little guy.
What's that goofy shit they put on top of the Palace of the Soviets? Where's the giant statue of Lenin?
spoiler
Those are Sechenov's offices (see the plane screenshot) who is the lead scientist who saved the world and built this flying city complex. His building is just based on the Palace of the Soviets.
There are lots of statues of Lenin though.
The flags appear to just be the actual flags of the SSRs of the USSR, they're just arranged in 2 identical sets of 16 - interestingly the Karelo-Finnish SSR seems to still exist in this timeline, whereas it was merged into the RSFSR in '56 in reality.
Game’s set in '55 no? if that’s the case it’s some good attention to detail
So is this worth playing? I like the look of course but is it, gameplay wise, interesting? FPS isn't my go-to genre but I lovvveee a few of em like Doom and Wolfenstein. Enjoyed some BioShock. Etc
I mean that and a lack of anything to make me sit on the couch and play is what made me start and I'm still like an hour in.
Bit rough around the edges, but I’m enjoying it. It’s Bioshock with Soviet Characteristics, and you can see the seams of the game in exactly the same ways you could in Bioshock.
BioShock was fun if imperfect... So add Soviet characteristics and it can only be better
I'm about 2 hours in, it's a little bit like bioshock so far. the melee combat is surprisingly really fun. I'm definitely excited to keep playing
A good melee system is always appreciated in a first person game. Usually more into that than just shooting alone
You'll enjoy it a lot then! Melee feels smooth af with big, chunky hits, and you can combo them with soviet cyberpunk spells.
Honestly, I have no idea, I've played like 2 hours and the first was looking around the area most people will run through in ten minutes. I've just started getting into the spooky bits and keep dying, but the visuals and vibe are keeping me wanting to go back. If I had to guess/review now I'd say it's clumsy and middling but feels refreshing for not being some military shooter or 'shoot the outsiders' zombie thing.
That's probably good enough. I'm also the type to spend a long time just looking in every corner and starring at scenery. Since it's definitely a refreshing take that might be enough even with ok shooting. If the vibe is right I'm happy
Yeah, honestly the combat is a bit tricky for me being terrible at modern day games and apart from that (at least early on, apparently it gets better with more bioshoock style powers) it's nothing remarkable. But it is a backdrop/political approach that doesn't get made elsewhere which is interesting and occassionally patronises to us.
I mean it would be nice to play a FPS and not have to be like ohhhh lemme just ignore the American propaganda and enjoy the gameplay. I could be patronized to as a treat.
If you can GamesPass or pirate it do it. If you have to spend actual scratch it's all about whether you might get your money's worth even if it's not great.
I generally only pay for games if I'm confident the money will go the workers who actually made it... Ie indie teams of a few people.
Otherwise they just end up on my computer by who can say what means...
