February, 2024

08

06

I liked this more when I played it in 2019. The mission rewards and the event that's running right now are creating a ton of clutter and free rewards that damage the quiet, isolated exploration and the friction of the progression curve that used to require you to push against your limitations. Now I got a free battery after like twenty minutes and the ground all around my base is a mess of spare resources and tech.

05

Just reminding myself what it's like to play this as I get ready for the sequel. I still love the more realistic and tactical elements, like discarding unspent ammo left in a mag upon reload, diving prone beneath a minigun turret, and quickly reloading another player's recoilless rifle from your support pack. I always meant to push into harder difficulty missions with players who were more serious about making use of cooperative features and coordinating strategems, but that never happened. My friends don't handle failure well, and I didn't seek out other groups.

02

January, 2024