PixlBit

I'm a big fan of developer People Can Fly, so when I saw that this game was theirs, I jumped on board. I bounced off it a few times initially. I liked it but the feeling of the controls felt slightly off to me. I tried adjusting the speed of the analog sticks, but it didn't quite work. When I decided to really dig into this game, I figured it out.

The story is you are part of a colonizing convoy looking for a new planet to live on. On landing, you realize there is something extremely wrong with this seemingly perfect planet. Storms aren't mere storms of weather but of some strange energy that randomly mutates or kills anything it touches. After being injured by a storm, you are put into cryo. You wake up 31 years later to find a massive battle taking place between two factions of the colonists and see the results of the storm's mutations on humanity, including yourself. You have the mutation which gives you super powers. Eventually you find the better side of the two factions and proceed to explore the planet, fight the human enemy, other mutated superhumans, and strange indigenous creatures. Ultimately you are trying to find a way to end the human conflict and find the origin of the energy storms.

About the controls. It's, on the surface, very similar to Gears of War and why not? People Can Fly did Gears of War Judgment. You can lock onto defensive positions, shoot from the hip, or toggle into first person view as you look down the sights or scope similarly to Gears. But this is where the controls felt weird to me. While looking down sights, your look speed is much slower, so going in and out of first-person view is a bit jarring. I found my crosshairs zooming all over the screen when I came out of sights. Also, while in sights, if the enemy moves, I could't follow them because I moved so slowly. This varies a bit by weapon, but in general it was a little tricky to get used to. It's a more realistic feel. Even the aim-assist isn't as snappy and helpful as in the Gears games. You can't quick-scope targets as easily. You always have to make a quick adjustment when you look down the sights or scope, and if you don't do it quickly enough, the enemy seems to know you're sighting them and dodges or moves position. So, to sum it up, it's harder than Gears. 

Multiplayer works great. I opened my game to random online players and quickly got the 3-player max that helped me move the story forward. You can go on side missions along the way. In multiplayer you just send any travel request to all players and they vote to accept or reject your request. To make it easy, I just focused on the main missions and accepted any requests to travel (even for side missions) from other players. I tried not to annoy anyone. I wanted them to stay in the game and help me mop up enemies. 

I eventually switched to solo so I could explore more, do side missions, upgrade my gear, sell gear, and engage in a lot of dialog with NPCs; basically, take my time with it. I was enjoying it quite a lot until I kind of hit a wall in a particular battle late in the game. I took a break, also waiting for my friend to get the game. He got interested watching me play it. So, I'll go back to it, buddy up, and try and finish it. It's a worthy shooter.