Mars: War Logs

The most important aspects in a RPG, for me, are the worldbuilding, story and characters. Solid gameplay and pleasing presentation are very important for a completely enjoyable experience, but I won't ignore a game if it doesn't excel here. Worldbuilding: 5/5 Spiders create a desolate and gritty Mars where I sure wouldn't want to live! Who would, actually? You have warring corporations fighting each other for control over the most important resource on Mars, water. You have soldiers thrown into the war willy-nilly, separated from their loved ones. Even the biggest cities are filled with poverty, crime, drugs and prostitution. It's not a live-and-let-live, but a eat-or-get-eaten world. To make things worse, after colonization Mars underwent The Turmoil, a natural and catastrophic phenomenon that rendered human life even more difficult in the harsh Martian environment. Some of the humans became mutants, being subjected to intense solar radiation, and have since been used as slave work force. Story: 4/5 I will refrain from spoiling it so you'll have to see that for yourself (and also: character limit!). Characters: 4/5 (most characters are very convincing) Gameplay: 3/5 - Invest skill points in fighting abilities, and talent points in various attributes, e.g. increased chance of loot from enemies - Crafting - Combat: it takes some time getting used to. You can attack, block, break enemy guard and roll (evade). Assign powers, bombs, traps to hotkeys or use the tactical menu - Some quests accept peaceful solutions - Reputation: MWL is one of those rare games where being evil is more convenient (extracting serum from fallen enemies is bad karma, but it's like squeezing $$$ from people, literally, so how are you gonna roll?) Presentation: 2/5 (bad voice acting, no facial expression, awful lip sync, but great Mars scenery and immersive atmosphere) I recommend this game, but do yourself a favor and play MWL first, then The Technomancer afterwards. You won't regret it!

This game reminds me of the kind of lore and writing BioWare used to be known for, only with a severely diminished budget. That budget has not diminished ambition though. Controls feel floaty, graphics are a little behind the curve, and there's some balancing and technical issues...but good lord did someone pour time and attention into tight dialogue, characterization, reams of world building descriptions, details galore in the environments. This is the kind of game the central concept is let down by limitations, but it doesn't quite dim out how fascinating this unique setting and storyline is. No wonder the series continued: this has cult classic written all over it. It's a bit janky, but the team was clearly invested as much as they could be. For primitive graphics there's little touches that bring things to life: a sheen on eyes, patches on clothing...etc. And it IS fun. Combat is shaky but not unsatisfying, it's usually clear what you have to do and where to go, and voice acting is WAY better than it really should be. Play for the story and the world.

STRONGLY RECOMMENDED. The character design and the scripting alone is enough value to play the game. The Silk engine runs amazingly well for a 2013 game and looks decent even in LQ settings. No bugs or glitches whatsoever. It has a lot of things like crafting and the Ass Creed fighting system in simplified forms. The quests are repetitious and the rewards besides experience are quite worthless, though extra content nonetheless. To unlock all the quests, you practically need a walkthrough to do the right menu choices. Those choices make no sense. For example, to unlock the two seperate quests, you need to kill a dude who merely refused to pay for his hookers and you need to SPARE A SERIAL KILLER (so that you can kill him later). It is extremely pleasant to play the main quest content if you do not spend too much time on the fighting. The content is only for three chapters, though there is plenty of progress feel and major plot points happen constantly. The main character Roy and the bounty hunter Tenacity have particularly good dialogue.

I have become a big fan of Spider games. They have a quirky style that I have come to love. You can just feel they love that goes into their games. A small studio that gives its all. I would rather give my support to the little guy any day.

This game reminded me of a time when there were more budget titles like it. The gameplay is fun all things considered. Looting, upgrading, and levelling up make the experience feel like more than button mashing. The combat has impact even if it feels a bit floaty at times (due to the cheap animations). Story wise, it's a schlocky romp like you would expect out of something like this. It's not terrible, perfectly serviceable if you ask me. The voice acting is like half a notch above New Vegas. And the dialogue sounds human, unlike a lot of genuinely bad unpolished games. Though the delivery leaves a lot to be desired some of the time. It doesn't get in the way of the experience in my opinion. There are odds and ends where the cracks show. Nothing totally glitchy, but unpolished. All in all this is a tight little RPG with engaing gameplay that is well worth the dollar I paid for it. It has honestly given me perspective, in the sense that there are fun "3/5" games out there.