Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun

I got this for free on Epic.

... and I bought it on Steam, because there: 1) the MacOS version is INCLUDED; 2) the game is CHEAPER. WAKE UP GOG! Otherwise they will eat your Sushi, your Onigiri, your Umeboshi cake AND resell your empty Bento...

Great concept and would have been very entertaining if the game didn't cheat. You will find often that you kill someone that is no sight cones or sound circles but will have a enemy turn in your direction and spot you. It wouldn't be so bad if this only happened once or twice but it happens all the time. The game does not keep to it's own rules, so your perfect plan fails through no fault of your own and this defeats the whole object of the game making it a frustrating mess when it could have been very enjoyable.

I'm 3 levels in, and every level so far has been limiting. Meaning, if you think that because you have different characters and open space, that you'll have options to how to complete the task? eh, well you'll be disappointed. You get some very cosmetic choices in how you do things sometimes, like do you go up the river and take everyone out slowly this way, or do you take everyone out and slowely work your way across the bridge? Both are basically the same choice, you're not really getting past either without first wiping all of the eyes in the area out. So to that I say, the level design is not fun, and they killed the tentalizing options you thought you might have with the different characters. I've played Hitman Bloodmoney, and Dishonored. The level design there was much better: how so? well you could play in ways the synergised with what you imagined you could do with your powers, but in this game - the moment you try to think of things that don't involve just killing everyone early on - you hit barrariers to that playstyle. After taking a break on and off from this game and still finding issues that just make me feel pigeon holed in a very boring playstyle of "kill the guy that see's this area, but first kill the guy before that because he see's the other guy" i've just lost interest in finishing this game.

I tried the demo and it worked like a charm on my MacBook Pro 2016 model (although the graphics chip is below the minimum requirements). Based on that I decided to buy the game. Sadly it is unplayable. In a steam forum I found instructions on how to fix this issue [1] - this involves installing an older version which does not seem to be available through GOG. The game remains to be unplayable and I'm rather salty over tossing my money out the window! The game itself is very nice (from what I can tell from the demo) and I'll change my rating accordingly, once this issue is fixed. I know it's technically possible because the demo worked perfectly fine. [1] https://steamcommunity.com/app/418240/discussions/0/1694917906656920443/?ctp=2