So this one got a weird stealth drop on gamepass. It’s the Avalanche coop shooter that sets you up as a teenager in 80s Sweden fighting an initially unexplained robot invasion.

I really liked the premise but reviews at launch were middling to pretty damn poor. I always felt they might have suffered a little from the dip in perception of avalanche after the last Just Cause, and just the usual grumpy reviewers reviewing a game that’s too long for their schedule.

That said, it got middling user reviews on meta critic at the time too. Looking at steam though, it’s sitting at mostly positive in the recent reviews section. I know they did keep working on it so maybe they addressed the early issues.

All I know is, I was pleasantly surprised by the first couple of hours. Very atmospheric, evocative of the 80s, what seems like a deep and fun crafting system, tense, good stealth, and what seemed to me like very tight shooting mechanics.

I think it suffers from a respawn system that might have frustrated reviewers. If you die (you can res if you have the right consumable) you re spawn at nearest fast travel point. Trouble is that point could be quite a long walk away from the battle.

I don’t mind this. As penalties for dying goes, it’s enough to make you really not want to die, whilst not eradicating any progress you made, as everything you killed or damaged before dying remains dead or damaged when you get back to the same point on the map.

Regardless. I feel like it’s current metascore seems very unfair in it’s now patched state and I regret not giving it a go sooner. I’ll be playing regardless but if anyone fancies downloading it off GP and cooping, give me a shout.

A couple minutes of combat here.