Puzzle game ala Portal and its ilk except instead of portals this game uses game uses attraction and repulsion (think magnets) between two objects. Objects which either gravitate out from a fixed point, are on a track, are re-moving, shot across distances, etcetera. Overall the puzzles are not too difficult though some are less intuitive than one might think. Some areas are not even really puzzles at all, but more story-driven areas. Performance wise, this game suffers from the same problem as the original Portal in having the game pause between rooms. And just like portal, the game features an elevator between puzzles and yet still there's a pause in the game as a checkpoint is saved. This kind of thing gets really frustrating, with such small environments and an obvious loading area (the elevator), gameplay really should be seamless with zero stops at all. Narrative-wise, it's weird. It's a very familiar story and its conclusion is satisfying, but unlike Portal which had pretty normal story, the story in Magrunner feels like out of left field. That's not necessarily a problem but the game play doesn't really support that story for the most part, particularly in the second act, which honestly just seems like room after room of puzzles with no clear direction of where the game is going. The narrative is saying there's some clear direction the character is moving but movement within the facility seems completely at odds with that. It feels very disjointed. To the game's credit, it comes together nicely in the end adding some new elements of danger to the puzzles which I think could have been introduced earlier. The dialogue is mostly okay, but some of the delivery is off and some of the writing is just odd with the main character in a short conversation at the start of the room, asking say a question, and being met with silence. A lot of conversations seem to end in the middle. Just gives off an odd feeling. Overall though, pretty fun and worth a go
Unlike a series like Civilization, SimCity feels like a much more iterative game with less substantial changes to the game and its design. While the latest version was a misstep for a lot of people, I don't see why anyone would play anything older than SimCity 4. It's much the same game, just with more in it and better graphics. There's no real reason to pick up 2000 or 3000 except for the nostalgia.
I remember playing this as a kid and being very into it. When the game disappeared, I lamented for years afterwards that we didn't have the game or another one like it. Fast forward and here I have it from GOG, playing it again in all of its early-3D glory. Unfortunately, this game is a real slog. When things get going it can be fine, you can constantly be doing stuff, but early on you'll just be waiting for a train to get from one city to another. And if you happen to connect the wrong two cities or points of interest, might as well re-start. In theory that's all fine- but the problem I have is the resources- Resources are generated randomly each time and appear all over the map, though certain types are in certain areas. And the idea of hauling one thing to another place and then a manufactured good from there to yet another place sounds fun but in practice it really isn't. Map I'm playing right now has some cities like L.A. featuring Steel Mills, well- for steel you need Iron and Coal. Sometimes these are nearby, sometimes they're halfway across the country and even when you do haul these components to the factory it creates Steel and then guess who is demanding Steel? No one. Most of the time I found it most beneficial to simply take people between two more populace cities, or sometimes if resources were clustered together to take a big trainload to a manufacturing centre and back again. But sometimes taking a train from a resource to a factory literally takes YEARS. Some games have you move a trainload across the country, this can take 4-5 years when the train hits the mountains. Ultimately, can't recommend it. People need to PLEASE re-play these old games before you throw five stars on it. Don't review a game based on 20-year old impressions, replay it- see if it's still a "good old game". A lot of times it won't be.
Suppose it's competently done, graphics and controls seem tight but the game just didn't grab me. The storyline/theme isn't that interesting and I found many of the levels focused more on manoeuvring rather than combat. I'd rather have fewer, more memorable levels than a bunch of competent but forgettable ones
Played the civilization games for many years and had a particular fondness for this game for the setting, time period, technology and so on. But like the Civilization games, I no longer have the patience or interest in these types of experiences. Civ games boil down to building cities, improving the area around it with workers, building some improvements, military units and a bit of diplomacy. That's the components. The actual gameplay though is pushing units across a screen, turning black squares into green and blue while you wait for cities to produce enough hammers to construct a new building. Then on enemy turns, you can watch a lot of enemy units just loiter aimlessly around the area, sometimes squatting in your area to screw you, sometimes just moving around with little purpose or aim. What colonization adds to this is a ton of boring logistics. Move a ship from Europe to America, unload supplies and colonists, load up the ship with "new world goods" and move it back to Europe for a profit. On top of this you can add building Wagons, moving these wagons between your cities to distribute supplies either for manufacture or selling. And then proceed to move these units around for literally hundreds of turns while you wait for stuff to happen. I know these games are revered and loved, and I still have a fondness for this game despite this review- but while these games are addicting, getting you to click that next turn button- the actual gameplay loop, the stuff you're doing on any given turn is not interesting. Can't recommend it.
First of I'm not sure this game imports save games properly, I say as such because in the 2nd part I failed to achieve a special objective which would have given one character an ability and yet in this game he has the ability. Gameplay wise, it's pretty similar to the previous entries. Biggest addition is a waves system where additional enemies will come and you can swap out heroes for subsequent waves. This is a very good addition because it encourages uses the full cast of characters, that said I think there are still some heroes that almost never hit the battlefield in my games. Story-wise the ending is pretty satisfying, not over the top not disappointing just somewhere in the middle. I did find that the story didn't always respect the choices however, in one case the game adds a countdown to the game to finish a task- but this countdown is re-freshed multiple times, and at the initial time my countdown seemed to drop dramatically in a sequence where it was not counted. As such it just seems artificial, and idea, but with no consequence. Overall it's worth playing- but by the end I had certainly had my fill of this particular combat system.
Played this on the 360. Fun cover-based shooter with a 1950s setting and commands that you can give to AI-teammates. Like most games that bear a franchise name but jump genres, this game was sadly overlooked in favour of the TBS game that came out around the same time. Despite not being in the genre that most players wanted, this is a competent shooter with an original story and a variety of guns and enemy types to interact with. Some of the missions can be quite challenging, but overall I found it a memorable experience thanks in large part to the seldom-used 1950s setting and I would certainly recommend it, particularly when on sale.
