If you've played banished, imagine that on the scale of a total war game. Okay, you got the idea now.
This game is simply incredible. As a game designer I always thought games should strive to be simulations crafted by a machine (after all, video games are different from tabletops because we can compute far more stuff than some dude in a D&D meeting). Yet this game is entirely built of an incredible amount pre-made scenes and dialogue trees, expertly crafted in a way that that no algorithm could ever surpass. Disco Elysium acts as proof that though games may still work best when simulating a world, we ought not to ignore the fact that we can also use them to store an incomprehensible amount of branching paths capable of delivering a better >experience< than any algorithm ever could.
As a game designer myself, I have always wanted to play Syndicate, but playing it is a matter of sheer will due to how outdated and clunky the controls are. Controlling the characters feels slow and unresponsive. The pathfinding is laughably bad. Enemies can see you in buildings, but you cannot see them. (This was what made me quit) How to play is not really ever explained to you, the manual does a poor job at it. Overall, I am glad I played it, I can indeed see why it is considered a classic. But its flaws make it hard to recommend to a modern audience.
After 12h of gameplay in just one and a half days, I can say that this game is absolutely fantastic! The systematic gameplay and randomness of a rouge combined with the aspects of open-world roleplaying games is a fantastic idea, while it has been attempted before, it has always felt quite flat, not in Streets of Rouge though! Each level feels like an epic dungeon full of dangers, booty and adventure, yet it also manages to retain the feel of being in a living- functioning town. I truly hope more developers take note of this instant indie hit, because it sets a standard on how things should be done. We need more games like Streets of Rouge.
This game is a near perfect demonstration of all that a classic RTS game could ever hope to become. The story gives the player enough context for him to understand what is going on & also immerses the player in its world, setting the mood for play. The graphics are state-of-the-art, they just looks stunningly great, specially the SFX, whenever an artillery bombardment goes on, I get a boner. And finnaly, the gameplay is exactly what a by-the-book RTS game should be like, combat is satisflying, pathfinding & troop organization is as good as it is on AOE, all troops feel meaningful and have edges over other types of troops. I already owned the game on Steam, but the Steam version is horribly patched together, the GOG version however, flawlessly works without any need for mods or complex setups. In short, this game is all that a RTS fan could ever ask for, get it before Ubisoft decides it puts other products to shame and it must be taken off-the-store (Already happened in Steam).
