Had a lot more fun playing Gwent in Witcher 3. Has a nicer player base, too.
I'm just getting into Warhammer 40k and after having played and highly enjoyed Necromunda: Hired Gun, I wanted to give this one a spin as it sat in my library for quite some time already. It's a game that was made with Multiplayer Co-op in mind and it sadly shows. In Singleplayer, your team mates show barely any initiative and while they are capable in fighting, they will not heal unless being told, get to the right side of the door you're trying to lock, get out of harms way and run straight in front of your barrel while you're trying to fight. You can commandeer them just fine but in the heat of the battle, this is often a luxury you don't have. I finished the game entirely in Singleplayer and had my fun with it, but if you got some friends to play with, I'm sure you are going to have a better time. Now AI isn't the game's only problem as there were quite a few other glitches from map markers over missing dialogues to in-game sound effects playing during briefings/cutscenes. Nothing game-breaking, but certainly that chips away at the experience. In the beginning I was also very confused and later annoyed by the fact that enemies essentially spawn endlessly from (clearly marked) spawn nests, and while I would still like to have an option of special game mode where it was possible to destroy these nests, I started to appreciate what the developers were going for. You have to push onward, claim every step, lock doors, plan your routes and it becomes a quite tense and exhilarating experience - although it can sometimes be a bit random and sway heavy between easy and barely manageable. The hordes of enemies are naturally also taking you away from being able to enjoy the awesome levels and their atmosphere and with a well fitting ambient sound design, they're really the highlight of the entire game. In short: flawed, but enjoyable. If you feel like blasting away hundreds of Xenos that would make Starship Troopers look like a walk in the park, give this game a go.
I wish I knew how to stop playing Loop Hero. But there is no Quit button. There is only the loop. There is no sleep. There is only the loop. There is no life... there is only... the loop.
There are plenty of great reviews of Halcyon 6 praising the game for all it does well. Instead of just echoing the same words, I'd like to add my own thoughts and perspective. I was drawn to Halcyon 6 because of its charming art style, not sure if I could even play it. I am very bad at strategy games and 4X, although I like what the genre bring to the table. As other reviews stated, Halcyon 6 simplifies the 4X aspect of the game to a minimum which is good, but I still feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of things I can do, questioning what would be the best to do. Especially in the beginning, everything seems important: Upgrading the base, automating outposts, researching upgrades, building new ships and you always seem short of resources and personnel. Luckily the game provides a large selection of difficulty modes, the easiest being rather forgiving so that you can experiment with the mechanics and see what works out the best. The space combat is wonderfully straightforward and it is fun to inflict status effects which your next ship then exploits, creating massive amounts of damage. This is great! ... and at the same time it bears the question why the ground combat is much more restrictive. It follows the same rules, but your characters have a fixed palette of abilities, which are more varied, granted, but make combos a lot harder to pull off. I found this a lot less rewarding. However, overall Halcyon 6 is great. Although I still feel occasionally overwhelmed by it, even after 20 hours I put into it, that's not the game's fault. Yet, I keep coming back, and that's definitely its fault. :)
The Falconeer fascinated me ever since I saw the first screenshot. Giant Warbirds shooting lighting and fire on the backdrop of a vast ocean–this is the essence of why I love video games! And when the game finally released, I was not disappointed. It takes the gameplay of space shooters I love so much and puts it into a unique and mysterious fantasy world that is riddled with amazing set pieces that invite you to explore. But that isn't to say that I didn't experience some initial turbulence when taking off (pun intended). While the controls are similar to games like Freelancer or Everspace, the rather organic and "weighty" movement of your majestic mount takes some time to get used to. And that can lead to some deaths upon your first few missions which in turn make you realize that missions don't come with checkpoints. However I do forgive a lot of that considering that The Falconeer has been the work of largely a single developer–Tomas Sala–who has been very listening to feedback and implemented improvements within just the first week of release. That said, once you get used to the controls, it becomes a real joy to play with Gamepad or Keyboard & Mouse. Both work great in my opinion and once a mission does become a problem, there is always new side quests that can help you to get the funds for a weapon upgrade or certain Mutagens and Chants that increase certain abilities of your Warbird. Eventually I got completely immersed in this fantastic world, its factions and the many mysteries the Ursee might hold. The stylized visuals and the great music generate a wonderful atmosphere that greatly contribute to the aforementioned immersion. I really enjoyed my time with The Falconeer so far and I cannot wait to dive back in!
Where the original Painkiller felt so incredibly rewarding and satisfying, Overdose was quite the contrary. Somewhere between the weapons, lack of ammo, more bullet-spongy and erratic enemies with a tendency of cheap shots, the recipe felt off. But that's not to say the game was without merits. There is tons of new enemies and some of them were really cool and imaginative. The same can be said for the levels. Although some were a bit hard to read due to the sheer amount of detail. So if you finished Painkiller: Black and are hungry for more, I'd say it's worth to give it a shot for the price, but do not expect "more of the same", but slightly less than that... with a protagonist who *really* wants to be Serious Sam.
I bought CONTROL on the Epic Store earlier this year, but after it released on GOG, I just had to buy it again because it is one of my favorite games in recent years. The star of the show is The Oldest House, HQ of the Federal Bureau of Control and place of power is a simply fantastic place. Visually beautiful, surreal, sometimes non-euclidean and always providing interesting architecture as stages for the game's enemy encounters. So you are offered a wide palette of opportunities to move, cover and attack. Combat, focused mainly on mid-range, is polished in every detail, movement always feels incredibly smooth and attacks-both with your service gun and your powers-seamlessly integrate. The game plays like a charm and even challenging encounters are fun and largely fair. Exceptions are some of the bosses which can represent quite the spike in difficulty. But every enemy always follows some sort of pattern and understanding that is the key to victory. And if that fails, the open nature of the game always makes it possible to come back later after you developed Jesse further. These developments don't just focus on making your attacks stronger or increasing your stats, but also add different fire modes to your gun, add new effects to your powers and so on. In the first hour of the game, the storytelling felt a bit messy to me. The Oldest House is full of cryptic notes, documents and Jesse herself doesn't feel like providing the player with exposition either. That can be quite confusing. But as the game goes on, the narrative becomes way more clear. In hindsight, I like this approach quite a bit because not only made it the world more believable, but it also added to the impact the Oldest House and this world had on me. And this is truly one of the game's strong points. If you like the surreal, the supernatural and Sam Lake's work in general, CONTROL can be a truly < immersive / gripping / fantastic > ride.
After licking Halcyon 6 a lot, I was excited about STAR RENGADES from the day it was first announced. And now that it is finally out, it is everything I hoped for and more. First, the game is incredibly beautiful, reminding me of both Octopath Traveller as well as Metal Slug regarding its sheer amount of detail and incredibly detailed animations. In terms of its gameplay, it bases loosely on Halcyon 6, but only in its foundation. There has been some confusion whether Star Renegades utilizes real-time or turn-based and to be be clear: the game's TURN BASED. However, STAR RENEGADES uses time as an integral part of its combat. Each round lasts 60 seconds and attacks take specific time to execute. This allows to order your attacks and hitting an enemy before they hit you makes it a critical which comes with its own benefits. That way you can also delay an enemy attack, even push them out of the round (Break). And that's just the beginning. From here, the game opens up, adding more complexity as you play with different attack types, elemental damages, (de)buffs, combos and much more. It's easy to understand, but hard to master as you want to carefully plan your steps, delaying heavy attacks and making time for your heroes to exploit the enemy weaknesses if possible. It's VERY addicting and even with certain elements of the game being subject to randomization, there is headroom to make mistakes - at least at the beginning. Speaking of randomization, the Roguelite elements of the game are actually fairly lite (pun intended), but especially noteworthy are the adversaries - the enemy hero units so to speak - they're uniquely generated and depending on the outcome with their battles with you, they may level and evolve as well. I could go on forever, but instead let me just repeat myself: STAR RENEGADES has turned out to be so much more than I hoped for and it's already on my list of Game Of The Year candidates. JUST. GET. IT!
Apart from a few rare exceptions - like Dishonored and Metal Gear - I am usually not into games with a heavy focus on sneaking. A Plague Tale Innocence has made it into this exclusive group. The gameplay - which is taught in measured steps - usually offers a lot of headroom and different approaches to every piece you're presented with. That is until the final few chapters, where some situations become a bit of a trial-and-error. But potential frustration is typically mitigated with well thought out checkpoints, so you don't have to redo long passages over and over and over. Aside from that, the slower sneaking sections are broken up with exploration, puzzles and really well staged action sequences. Visually, the game is stunning and if you like the atmosphere the Witcher games (esp. The Wild Hunt) produce, you will feel right at home. All is tied together by our two protagonists, Hugo and Amicia, whose voice actors do a terrific job and are actually really engaging. I felt myself feeling with them more than I usually do in such games. Overall, as said before, a great game!
