Recent reviews by Zanzi

The game is good but I think it's going to have a lot of pacing issues when it comes to the potential replayability that most of the games in the series are known for.

RE9 gets you into the game quick enough without too much sit and wait, but it's the opening segments that hamper the pacing, as they kind of feel like heavily disguised tutorials before it lets you get into something that has a bit of staying power with Grace or Leon.

And to me it feels like they've tried to make two games in one, it kinda feels like RE6 all over again, just not as overcrowded with the 'game feel' offerings. Grace is essentially RE7 if it promoted more of a heavy stealth focus as there's now a LOT of crosshair wobble whilst aiming and enemies are way more spongier than before. And then you're playing what I can only describe as a more up-to-date RE5/RE6 with Leon, as you can just stun and then roundhouse kick the zombies as if you're in a round of Mercenaries.

Game runs pretty well on my rig at 2560x1440 resolution, highish settings no RT enabled, constant 120fps with native resolution, no upscaling.

It's free and it looks good, so that's nice.

It IS a good game, but it is held back by technical issues mostly and given how brutal it is, will likely deter newer folk from sticking around due to the age old issue of 'longer game out, harder it is to get into' when it comes to PVP; the knowledge + experience gap is biiiiiig big big big. But if the extensive amount of learning and effort required to enjoy the game isn't a put-off, then EFT could be something you'd want to try.

I think Tarkov is great as a PVE game, even if the original design given the tasks and such feels a lil' awkward since it started off as a PVP game and evolved from there over the years. I do think it's a big blunder on BSG's part to not just include PVE Zone as a part of the base game package on Steam, they could have brought in so many more players if they did this instead of part and parcelling the game in such a manner.

As a PVP game. Yes it's good barring the technical issues, but, if you want to get into it as a new player, it's going to be a grind, more than a grind than for whoever with 2k+ hours is playing, repeating the same tasks for the upneeth time now with the 1.0 wipe, as they've only got to retrace old steps whereas new players have to learn those steps along with everything else on their to-learn list.

As a new player, it's a full on uphill battle that is very harsh and unforgiving -- that said, the highs are extremely high and the lows are extremely low, so if you're about that, then Tarkov would be the game for you.

It's free, what are you waiting for?

I think ABI and EFT are just as good as eachother, albeit it would really boil down to how you like your Extraction Shooters served.

ABI has a lot more QoL Features, much faster matchmaking times and much better optimisation. Obviously the graphics are a lot different, I wouldn't say they're inferior to EFT's graphics, but they are much more different. ABI is also free to play, so the barrier to entry is so much lower compared to EFT and it's myriad of editions you can buy.

I think EFT is still a great game, especially with the addition of the PVE Zone, but of course SPT existed beforehand which I played a lot of, which really made me appreciate EFT a lot more. I really enjoy playing EFT alone or with pals in Co-Op, but back when I first got it, the 12 minute matchmaking times for PMC/Scavs in PVP along with just how steep the learning curve EFT possesses put me off of it.

If you want a much more casual friendly and less punishing extraction shooter to play, that isn't as brainrotted as Warzone DMZ, then ABI is worth giving a shot to see if you'll enjoy it; it's free, so if you got a couple of spare hours that's all it'll cost!

Yes this game is amazing.
It'd be even more amazing with higher player counts, such as 3v3s and 4v4s!

Gonna need those map sizes and max players pumped up, I need to do comp stomp with the boys.
Make it happen devs!

This is the real Sims 4.

This is probably the best Exile-like ARPG released to date.

Overwatch Marvel Edition.

I find it is more fun than Overwatch 1 was and definitely more fun than how Overwatch 2 is.

The game's graphics are pretty stylised too which works, it definitely looks like they just ripped the characters straight out of the comics and cartoons and that really helps make this game stand out more.

There's a good roster of heroes and villains to play as and the third person perspective is good since you get to see the characters do what they do. Which is another thing, the camera work in this game is pretty decent, one of the biggest gripes I often have with third person shooters is that the camera or movement can be clunky, in Rivals this isn't as much of a problem and it's very easy to pick up and get into.

Here's to hoping they make the game bigger and better, since it has started off with a good foundation! Which shouldn't be hard for Rivals to be the top dog in the genre, especially with the current market of hero shooters.

Keep it 6v6, don't put characters behind a paywall or grindwall and keep releasing new modes and maps and hopefully, it'll not end up like Overwatch which is known less for the game these days and more for it's very inspired media and fan art by dedicated fans and artists...!

Plays nothing like the mod for those checking this out who had played NMRIH1, so be warned.

Overall my experience has been pretty negative with this one.

To be honest, I'm not even sure how the hell they can advertise this as a "8 player co-op action horror experience", when nobody spawns together and most players just end up dying anyway before meeting someone else but yet you're expected to group up on an oversized map whilst as an individual player you hold less power and agency as you did when you were solo in NMRIH1? I don't know, it just confuses me a touch by what TB decided to do here.

And I'll point out this game's biggest 'positive' right now and that's the price, it's priced pretty nicely at £24.99. But the pricing does not cover up the fact this game has massive problems even if it's 'early access'. Difficulty wise, it's "harder" than NMRIH1 and not in the good way. It's "unfun" difficulty, chore-like even, it doesn't give me the feel of being challenged by the game or the maps like in NMRIH1 but more as if the devs are trying to clonk me on the head with their game design diploma repeatedly at every possible moment, think nmo_suzhou's finale but all over the map if the spawns instead were not scripted and instead constant and dynamically placed around you to keep the oppression up.

This game doesn't feel fair in the challenge department whereas in NMRIH1 most of your deaths would eventually fall down to you messing up or biting off more than you can chew, in NMRIH2 it's kind of forced especially with the fact everyone spawns separately with very little starting ability to fend off zeeks that are always on your back. It feels somewhat cheap and coupled with the character permadeath extraction shooter mechanics that were slapped in and well you've got quite frankly one of the biggest confusions ever for a sequel, considering the non-TB NMRIH2 was almost complete but got scrapped FOR THIS VERSION which I'm still trying to wrap my head around and understand why this happened in the first place.

---

So my biggest gripes with this game so far;
The stamina system is awfully balanced; Four light swings with any weapon and you're out of breath, heavy attacks drain you even faster and shoving takes a lot too. I don't remember NMRIH1 being this bad, or at least, NMRIH1's melee in tandem with the stamina system was both better paced and better balanced.

Melee system and balance is complete garbage; You'd think with TB jumping on, the devs of Chivalry, that you'd get a melee system which is supposed to be an upgrade from NMRIH1, infact they decided to make it an absolute downgrade in terms of feel and balance. So far, it feels as if aiming my melee attacks to the head is pointless, along with heavy attacks with most weapons, mostly the starting weapons, being way less effective than just shove and light attack spamming. Ontop of that I cannot tell which weapon is supposed to be more effective than the other at dispatching zeeks, at least with NMRIH1 you could get a feel for the melee weapon hierarchy and even then a lot of melee weapons in NMRIH1 were closely matched with one another, you didn't feel defenceless unless you only had a maglite. MOST melee weapons in NMRIH2 are weak and give you no real agency at all, which is a massive problem considering you start off on your own and the current spawn system is way too oppressive, have fun spending 4 to 6 light attacks to take down one zombie whilst two more spawn near you or the objective you're working on.
Not only that, I've had trouble telling just how far my melee attacks can reach as well as the reach of the zombies towards my person, as your altered FoV doesn't scale the viewmodel to your current FoV, so if you stray away from the default, have fun with an additional learning curve.

Zombie variants that make no sense; Why does a zombie, covered in blood with red eyes magically takes more damage than all the other zombies that aren't as bloody? NMRIH1 didn't have this, infact in NMRIH1 the only zeeks that could potentially take more damage generally were the military zombies with helmets on, outside of Nightmare difficulty, so why does this game do things so half-baked? Instead TB should probably make it so if a zombie has a stab-vest or military outfit on, MAKE those ones more tanky instead, not "lol blood here more chonk", it's bad especially when you have a mob of zeeks altogether. And quite frankly it was a rude surprise when I found out I had to waste four or so stamina bars in melee back to back just to expend this one zeek that had the +1 blood cloak of divine protection equipped, that gave it godlike protection from blunt force trauma to the head.

Infinitely spawning zombies and runners inside objective areas; What the ♥♥♥♥ is this, nmo_suzhou on crack? If my character is unable to effectively clear zeeks of any kind because melee is generally weaker and slower than it was in NMRIH1 and ammo is hard to come by but also really easy to end up going through with the current spawn system. What chance do I have solo after every other player has died at the start of the game to finish the match? Seemingly none, that's what. At least with most NMRIH1 maps barring a few exceptions, you could slowly but surely carve your way through the crowd as well as dodge through, but this isn't as easily done in NMRIH2 as zeeks seem to just spawn in constantly, either around you or nearby you, or ontop of objectives, making it more cumbersome than it should be to progress the match. And before people go "but NMRIH1 had infinitely spawning zombies all over the map", yes, but like I pointed out, you could at least make some room and push forward to the objective, especially in a team, as there's a grace window for zombie respawns in a zombie spawn area for most NMRIH1 maps, which is not the case for NMRIH2!

Simplified inventory and firearm calibres; The new inventory is both a blessing and a curse and is probably one of the better things they've done for NMRIH2, the big issue is that now the weight and capacity of an item is completely ignored, so you can probably carry a lot more high value items than you should be able to. At least with NMRIH1's system, you had to balance ammo with utility and even consider just how much room your melee weapon would take up along with your guns, which is no longer the case with NMRIH2. As for firearms, ammo has been completely simplified into types rather than calibres, this is better for accessibility and newcomers but also means you have way more incentive to hog and horde ammo now as it's light/heavy/shotgun/magnum/pistol rounds instead. If they had kept it as calibres such as .45acp or 5.56mm etcetera, you would see more teamplay on the resource side of things as it was in the first game, with players organising their ammo between eachother. NMRIH2 misses this by a mark and whilst you can be a packmule for other players in NMRIH2, by holding onto extra rounds; the current inventory system being slot based, discourages that.

It's been released in EA whilst undercooked; TB have decided to release this now, without the major selling point of a zombie game, that being the infection mechanic and whilst I understand they need feedback and so on to develop the game better, they already kind of spat in everyone's drink by scraping the previous pre-TB NMRIH2 and instead releasing an extraction shooter which nobody to my knowledge expected NMRIH1's sequel to turn out as. And of course, bugs, bugs, bugs, but bugs and glitches are to be expected with early access titles so no point talking about 'em.

---

I'll be honest, I was hoping for this game to pop off and prove me wrong. I really did but with how it's came out right now, I would recommend everyone to stay away from this one until after a few major patches come out, maybe then I'll change my tune but in it's current iteration it is such a chore to play.