- Engaging stealth and tactical infiltration gameplay
- High replayability offers significant value
- Immersive story with deep narrative
- Rewarding progression system keeps players engaged
- Lack of polish and tedious gameplay
- Repetitive missions and ending issues
Emotions
Players felt satisfied due to the game's strong core mechanics, particularly its deep and varied stealth gameplay, strategic problem-solving, and well-designed levels. The engaging story, immersive world, and high replayability also contributed significantly to a rewarding experience, often exceeding initial expectations.
Frustration stemmed primarily from clunky controls, camera issues, and poor optimization. Players also experienced annoyance with tedious gameplay elements like limited incapacitation options, constant tool breakage, and restrictive save systems, compounded by unpredictable NPC behavior and misleading skill descriptions.
Disappointment arose when the game failed to meet expectations, often due to an unmemorable or poorly executed story, dull dialogue, and a perceived lack of expected stealth mechanics. Flaws like outdated graphics, persistent translation errors, and linearity also hindered the overall experience.
Excitement was generated by the thrill of cracking challenges, the game's dynamic and improvisational gameplay, and its successful evocation of classic stealth titles. Players also expressed excitement for ongoing updates and high replayability, indicating a strong desire to continue engaging with the game.
Players expressed hope for future installments, specifically desiring a sequel with improved visuals, a more polished UI, and richer content. There was also a wish for future games to incorporate more humor and less gloom.
Verdict
Mostly positive
Summary
Positive 81% · Negative 19%. Score: 19 / 100
Positives:
- Players highly praise the core gameplay, highlighting its engaging stealth mechanics, tactical depth, and non-linear problem-solving. The game offers diverse approaches to missions, allowing for both quiet and bold thievery, supported by intuitive controls and well-designed levels. The unique art style, immersive sound, and clever AI contribute to a captivating experience.
- The game offers significant replayability through varying difficulties, different playstyles, and hidden content. Players found the game's duration just right and enjoyed replaying missions, indicating strong long-term engagement and value for money.
- The game features an immersive, unique, and well-written story with a compelling dystopian setting. Optional side quests further enhance the narrative and add depth to the game world, providing strong motivation for players.
- The progression system, including skill trees, perks, crafting, and item management, is well-received. It allows for deep character customization and enriches gameplay, making each step of progression feel rewarding without being overly slow.
- The game strikes a good balance with its difficulty, offering a decent challenge without being frustrating. Players appreciate the fair difficulty curve, especially on harder modes, which encourages strategic thinking.
Negatives:
- Players frequently report issues with the game's overall polish, including clunky controls, unresponsive character movement, and an uncomfortable camera. This contributes to a tedious and frustrating gameplay experience, further exacerbated by poor optimization and a general lack of visual and audio refinement.
- The game suffers from repetitive mission design, particularly in later stages, and a rushed, underwhelming ending. Issues with mission progression, including bugs that corrupt saves and prevent replaying levels, further detract from the overall experience.
- The restrictive inventory system and limited tool durability force players to frequently return to base or restart missions. This design choice is seen as frustrating and disruptive, hindering exploration and requiring players to guess which tools will be needed.
- The skill tree design is criticized for forcing players to unlock irrelevant skills and for having an unbalanced cost-benefit ratio. This, combined with limitations on equipable skills and items, makes character progression feel unrewarding and restrictive.
- The game's stealth mechanics are perceived as overly restrictive compared to similar titles, lacking options for incapacitating guards or interacting with the environment. This limits player agency and forces a more linear, 'wait-and-see' approach.
Gameplay:
- The game is primarily a pure stealth, top-down infiltration game focused on thievery rather than combat. It emphasizes avoiding detection, studying security systems, and utilizing stealth tools, drawing comparisons to games like Shadow Tactics and Thief.
- Players embody an inexperienced thief named Jack, whose primary objective is to steal items for survival. The gameplay heavily involves using a variety of tools such as lockpicks, crowbars, and hacking devices to break into locations and acquire valuables.
- The game is structured into chapters with multiple levels, offering a linear stealth adventure. It includes challenge missions and multiple difficulty settings, though the impact of difficulty changes may not be immediately apparent.
- The game features a robust skill and leveling system where players earn experience and skill points by performing actions like lockpicking, hacking, and burglary. These points can be used to unlock passive skills and perks across various categories.
- The game's narrative centers on Jack, a former worker forced into thievery to survive in a dystopian, totalitarian state ravaged by war. This setting provides a grim backdrop for the stealth-based gameplay.
Performance:
- Players found the graphics to be average, noting the game's Unity engine and limited graphical settings. This suggests a desire for more visual customization or higher fidelity.
- A positive point highlighted by players is the apparent lack of bugs, indicating a stable and polished technical experience. This contributes positively to player satisfaction.
Recommendations:
- The game is highly recommended for fans of stealth games, particularly those with RPG elements or real-time tactics similar to 'Commandos', 'Thief', 'Metal Gear Solid', 'Hitman', 'Shadow Tactics', 'Desperados', 'Partisans', 'The Sting!', and 'Va-Bank!'. It also appeals to players who enjoy inventory management and character growth, or even 'Fallout 4' style junk collecting.
- The game is not recommended for impatient players or those who prefer fast-paced action. New players are advised to watch gameplay videos or try the game for less than two hours to determine if it suits their preferences.
- The game appeals to players who enjoy challenging themselves and using their strategic thinking. For achievement hunters, it's suggested to complete normal difficulty first before attempting survival mode to maximize rewards.
- One reviewer suggested 'Sumerian Six' as a superior isometric stealth game, indicating a potential alternative for players seeking a different experience in the genre.
- One reviewer suggested purchasing the game only if the price is 300 or less, indicating a price sensitivity for some players.
Miscellaneous:
- Players acknowledge the game was developed by a small, indie team, which leads them to be more forgiving of minor flaws. There's also a desire for a sequel with a larger budget, suggesting potential for growth.
- Several reviewers created external content, such as videos and detailed guides, to help others understand the game. This indicates a dedicated player base willing to promote and explain the game.
- The game's core mechanics are frequently compared to 'Thief' and 'Desperados', indicating a stealth-focused real-time tactics experience. Some also note similarities to older titles like 'The Sting!' and 'Va-bank'.
- The game is noted for not being heavily advertised and is distinct from well-known titles like Commandos, despite appealing to real-time tactics enthusiasts. There's also a mention of limited Japanese reviews.
- There's an awareness of ongoing efforts to improve the game's English translation, with developers reportedly planning fixes in future updates. This suggests active post-launch support.
