What are you getting here with this Mary Skelter 2 product is a game that Ghostlight has shamefully censored solely for Puritan reasons. There are no good or sensible reasons to censor it, which is why Ghostlight refuses ever to explain publicly why they did censor it. The only public statement Ghostlight has made about why they butchered this game is deliberately vague, nebulous, ambiguous, and obfuscatory. Ghostlight certainly was NOT compelled to censor this game by Steam, because Steam happily sells other games that have precisely the exact same type of content that Ghostlight has decided to censor out of Mary Skelter 2. Those games include Mary Skelter 1, and Moero Chronicle. Ghostlight was certainly also NOT compelled to censor the game for any legal reasons, since all those games I mentioned are being legally sold, and have been for years, with no problem whatsoever. Not only did Ghostlight ruin this Mary Skelter 2 release with censorship, but they also, as well, ruined the bundled remake version of Mary Skelter 1 that is included in this release, which they also butchered solely for Puritan reasons. The Nintendo Switch version includes both the Mary Skelter 2 game, and also the remake version of Mary Skelter 1, and both of them are 100% uncensored, with all of their content intact, on Nintendo Switch. That proves beyond any possible doubt that Ghostlight had zero legitimate reason whatsoever to butcher the product in this release. Since when do PC releases have to be "more censored" than console versions? That's right, NEVER in history: because there is no such thing as that! If you buy this censored garbage version from Ghostlight, then you are sending them, and the entire industry, the loud & clear message that you WANT the publishers to alter and butcher all future games you buy, for Puritan reasons, before they are sold to you. It is now 2022, so is why is Ghostlight censoring their games AS IF they are Puritans living in the 1600s?!
I beat 100% of this game's content (at least as much as can be done in one playthrough; some quests are mutually exclusive based on your choices). That took me just under 25 hours. Who Is This Game For?: RPG lovers who want to experience a world that is ultra dark, mature, gritty, grimy, dirty, bleak, depressing, grim, unsettling and creepy. Pros: - The game does an excellent job at creating an immersive atmosphere that seethes with all those traits I just mentioned. - You will make many choices that affect the world. For example, you can choose to side with the city guards who enforce the law, or the cartel who operates in the slums illegally. - Almost all of the characters are complex, with very few of them being clear-cut "good guys" or "bad guys." Instead, the "good guys" have some evil traits, and the "bad guys" have some good traits. - Because of the characters' depth, you are forced to make complex moral choices, with no clear "good" choice. Often, both possible choices will be bad, and you must choose what you judge to be the "least worse" option. - Unique ideas that I've never seen before: I was very impressed with how this game presented new concepts instead of only rehashing the same tired old tropes. A great illustration of this is how a scandal erupts in the city because the brothel features services with undead prostitutes who cater to men who are only interested in those type of "women." - All of the dialogue is voice-acted, with most of the VA's doing an amazing job. Cons: - The combat is not the best. It's not bad, but it's not great either. It's middling/average/mediocre. - Potions are too scarce, and combat on Normal is quite hard. - The final two chapters are worse than the first three. The devs probably ran out of time. - The "ending" is pathetic. It was clearly setting up a sequel or expansion pack, but due to poor sales, that never happened. Hence, the story is incomplete. Conclusion: great game; it's worth playing!
I’ve been alternating between HOMM 3 and also HOMM 5, so the strengths and weaknesses of both are very fresh in my mind. Many reviews of HOMM 5 contain incorrect misinformation. They say the AI takes forever to perform its turn. But truly no, it does not. In actual fact, their turns complete in less than 5 – 10 seconds. The players complaining about this probably have defective hardware - but that’s not the game’s fault! Another common complaint is the “bad story” of HOMM 5. But at least HOMM 5 *actually has* a story! With HOMM 5, for each map of a campaign, you get a cutscene at the opening, and a ton more as you are going through the missions, and also a concluding cutscene to each map and campaign. Plus, all of them are voice-acted. Yet in contrast, HOMM 3 *barely* has any story at all. When you beat the end of any level, or even the final one of a long campaign in HOMM 3, you get absolutely nothing as a reward: no cutscene to conclude the story, and no text either to describe the (non-existent) ending of a campaign’s story. So the point is: whilst it’s true that HOMM 5’s story is generic, it’s untrue that HOMM 5’s story is somehow “worse” than HOMM 3’s. Really, HOMM 5’s story, imperfect as it is, it is still *infinitely* better when compared versus HOMM 3’s abysmal (non)“story.” As for gameplay, HOMM 5 is also better than 3 in many ways too. Heroes feel more special & engaging in HOMM 5 because you have options either to cast a spell, or physically to attack the enemy, or to cast a special unique ability. For example, the demon lord has a “Mark of Death” ability that lets you mark an enemy stack, which your hero will then automatically retaliate against whenever it damages any of your units. Contrast that with HOMM 3: your heroes can either cast a spell OR...wait a second, there is no “OR!” They have *no* options to participate in the battle *other than* to cast a spell, and none of the spells are unique to any hero in HOMM 3.
