So, Battletech... I love the lore and settings, so when a friend recommended me this game I thought I would try it The good things I have to say about it : Nothing to say about the graphics, as they're pretty decent and the mechs look amazing. The story of the campaign is also pretty nice, and wonderfully embraces how morally grey the universe can be. Now what do I have to reproach the game ? Game design, pretty much everything about it. First thing, combat is RNG-based... EVERYTHING in said combat is RNG-based You don't win because you're good at the game, but because you're LUCKY, that alone would be enough of a red-flag for me, but that's just the first issue. In this game, you can only deploy 4 mechs per mission, no matter if you just start the campaign or if you're very late-game you can only bring 4 mechs The AI doesn't have this limit Just in rank 2 missions, you're fighting 2v1 (at best), and it only gets worse as you progress. On top of that, the AI cheats and hard. Accuracy is basically a non-factor for it, you have no way of avoid damage while YOU have to find ways to bypass the AI's evasion stats Combine the two, and basically 1/3 of the game's mechs (the light ones) are basically useless, as they just get killed instantly. No team composition, no team synergy, you just put the heaviest guys you have and pray RNG doesn't hate you too much And it gets worse : all the main missions in the campaign are very poorly designed. Between escort missions, getting spawn-camped by 8 turrets right at the start of the mission or simply fighting 3 times your mech's numbers (and usually better mechs than yours as well), every main mission felt like a chore Once the power-fantasy of big giant mechs fades away, all that's left is a grindy, very unfair game with horrible RNG If you're a huge fan of the licence, you may find ways to appreciate this game, but if you're not I cannot recommend you try it. It's not good for your blood pressure
This game gives me feeling that are difficult to describe, but I'll try my best here. On one hand, the story and the way characters are written instantly clutched onto me and made me want to discover more and more of it. But on the other hand... The game seems to have been crafted in a way that makes it hostile to that very idea. Not because the game's difficult, because it's not that hard. It's based on an efficient management of your ressources and workforce, so as long as you know what you're doing you'll be fine. The problem lies in the fact the game doesn't tell you anything about how to play. It doesn't tell you how to put workers on a station, doesn't tell you how much food you're gonna have to spend at the end of the week (until you have to do so, and at this point if you happen to not have it you just screwed your week and have no way of knowing it), you get research points but have no idea what they're used for, the list goes on and on. There is nothing that comes close to a tutorial, you have to discover the mecanics all by yourself and said mecanics are locked to certain chapters of the story. So what happens is : you start the story, arrive Week 7-8 realise that you're screwed because of something you should've done week 4 but had no way of knowing it back then. Add to this that there is no manual save, so everytime you end up in this situation you've got to go back to the week save and redo everything again. You want to progress in the story, but can't because the game is designed to hinder your very understanding of how to play the game, so you have to redo the exact same thing over and over again. In my first attempt I had to restart the story 4 times before I even reached week 9 in the story because I kept discovering mecanics that would've been useful to know from the start. The game is good, the story is good, the characters are good, but having to redo everything all the time simply because the gameplay hides itself from you is frustrating
I got this game in promotion, and by it's "darkest dungeon" appearance it gave me proper expectations... Which quickly turned sour. First of, the good parts : the art direction is pretty nice, managing to blend both dark and colourful aspects in one. The game has RPG elements, which while being pretty basic in scenario give the game a bit of a soul and discussing with the different characters is pleasant. Unfortunately, while the art design is good the GAMEPLAY part is severely lacking : In short : it's not "inspired" by Darkest Dungeon, it's an inferior rip-off with no real qualities. No choice in character abilities, no overlay to tell you what said abilities do, forcing you to pause and open the character details to be able to see what it's abilities do... And even then it kinda don't : no indication of how much damage is dealt, no accuracy indicator, no telling what each status effect does until you see it in action for the first time. Special abilities are tied to a "special action" gauge, which means you're stuck using only 1 ability for the whole battle until you finally get to use the others (each character having 4 in total). Abilities providing "protection" against damage are utterly useless since the mobs completely bypass them and there are no healing abilities usable in combat. On top of this, you have to manage the weight of the equipement and loot you carry, which wouldn't be a problem... If half of the items didn't show their weight stat. Consumables and key items (that you HAVE to keep in your bag) all have their own encumberance stat, but the game doesn't tell you. There are also areas to explore that don't allow use of the map, making it very easy to get soft-locked in an area simply because map layouts are very labyrinthic. If the game had been released before Darkest Dungeon, I would've given it a 3rd point, unfortunately it doesn't have that excuse. Very disappointing >
This game reminds me a bit of the old "Heroes of Might and Magic" in a rough draft while trying very hard to appear like it's own thing. First thing : the "card game" aspect is fake. You don't build a "deck" of card, it's just the special abilities of your heroes that appear as card, and display when they're available. So if card games aren't your thing, don't worry it's not a real part of the game. The game also changes from the usual tactical aspect of battles by having the units move by themselves, and you can only influence the result of the battle with the ability cards available to your army. It makes it a bit more of an "autobattler" than a real strategy game, but it blends in very well with the ability system. HOWEVER, and it pains me to say this, it all comes out as bland to me. Maybe it's because I've played tons of strategy games, but nothing the game does makes it feel either unique or special. It looks like a HMM, plays like an autobattler and makes you drag cards for ability uses. It blends multiple genera on their basic level but never goes deep into any of them. Plus, the balancing between factions is bad, really bad and it clearly shows which one was the dev's favorite (spoiler alert : it's the one with knights riding cows). So playing the campaign ends up feeling like a chore, and multiplayer isn't very interesting either as playing 2 of the 3 factions makes you lose practically by default. In the end, it's neither a bad game nor a very good one it's just... Ordinary to me, thus a 3 star score fits perfectly in my opinion.
Last train home is a game that I have a hard time getting a proper opinion for The game has issues, lots of issues especially in the combat part First of all, it gets tiring. Yes, it appears you have options to handle the different objectives given to you, but in reality you end up doing the exact same strategy every single time, just on different maps : stealthy takedown of every enemy unit Because despite it's appearance, this game is EXTREMELY HOSTILE to any form of direct confrontations: -Ammo and class abilities are both limited, not just in mission but in the game itself (for they use consumables that you have to stockpile inside your train to equip your guys) -Soldiers are very fragile and die super quickly, just two or three bad shots and your guys are dead -Injuries are kept after the battle and have to be healed afterwards, which takes a lot of time and disables your soldier for quite a while This won't stop experienced players, but it will tire them out pretty quickly : after the 15th mission in a row spending half an hour taking down the enemies one by one to avoid any possible injury... I got bored, that's all there is to it An issue increased by how long the campaign is (about 46 hours for a single playthrough) And to that, we need to add some technical issues. Not common, but not rare enough to be ignored: Erratic behavior from ennemies (sometimes they're blind, others they rush you from the other side of the map) Units that stop responding to orders and remain stuck in place Bugged vehicles that can't even move Etc And yet I liked it : The story is very good, inspired by the true story of the Tzchecoslovac Legion of WW1, equiping and upgrading your train as you stroll through Siberia is nice and the fact the combat can be punishing made it very satisfying to reach the end without losing a single soldier. I can't call it a "bad" game, since it's got real qualities, but I can't call it "good" either because it has too many issues.
This game is incredibly light-hearted and full of humor, and it's a lot of fun to stroll through. Buuuut, combat is way to clunky. It's got good gameplay ideas, mixing efficient use of the environment and rapier fighting... But the PC controls are too poorly managed. Placing the Dodge on CTL is a bad move, camera tends to panic when there is more than 2 opponents on screen (there is an auto-lock mecanic which centers the view on your opponent when you get close to him... So when you're surrounded the camera doesn't know which target to follow and constantly switch between them) With a controller, the game might be more enjoyable, but on PC it makes combat a headache, which is a problem when the gameplay is centered around it.
I don't have much to evaluate here : the game instantly crashes the moment I try to play it. It launches fine, then the moment you hit ANY button (even the settings) it instantly shuts down. Got it refunded, I can't recommend a game that you can't even play.
Bought the game, installed it, launched it for the first time. The cinematic glitches like crazy, which isn't a good sign (for reference : Age of Wonders 4 runs on my computer without any issue), and then the game starts. Or rather it DOES NOT, since I can't even select anything on the main menu. The game doesn't register the use of neither mouse nor controller so I can't even try the damn thing. Got an immediate refund, the thing's completely broken.
If I could give 0 stars I would. Ugly graphics, incredibly poor PC controls plus the fact it crashes CONSTANTLY, I can't even qualify this as a proper game. It looks like an alpha-build sold at full price. I got this game on sale at 60% off, and that was still far too much paid for the result T-T
Installed the game, tried to run it for the first time... Antivirus and firewall both going in full "red-alert" mode, game's files get put in quarantine which cause my computer to crash. Spent a full hour checking everything to make sure whatever virus they put in there had been removed. DO NOT buy that thing, it's a trojan horse to get access to your computer !
