As far as concepts go, these games do something a little different than what I'm used to in that you need to command villages to really advance further in the game. Some characters can use diplomacy... other need to use force... and some are a blend. You get to hire lots of mercenaries/cohorts (and they are pretty much a necessity) and build up your group and your villages. Those villages start to give you tribute after a while. It was also pretty cool to get a Nordic vibe from a game like this... I don't recall any other game doing that. Potion crafting was a nice touch. Lots of magic items to bolster your character and his minions. That being said, combat is pretty bland in that you just click and everyone swarms/shoots the target. Anyone can be a target and that means big mistakes if you forget to sheath your weapon. "Man I got a lot of good loot! I should sell it to the... STOP KILLING THE MERCHANT!" So you should save constantly. Not just for that reason... but because occasionally you run into an enemy that will completely wreck your world. Movement and gameplay are pretty slow if you don't know how to speed up the game. There really isn't explanation or tutorial on how to do anything in the game so you have to figure it out yourself. Story is pretty gimmicky "Dude found an all-powerful artifact, got corrupted, someone needs to stop him, and that someone is you" and never really develops from there. When you assign people to villages, they take the merc with the highest appropriate skill. So if you don't want to lose that person in your party you have to do some fancy party reassignments to give up the guy you want. Grinding is pretty essential in both games... whether it be for tribute, skill gains, or leveling up. It was pretty fun for a while but it got pretty underwhelming fairly quick and wasn't for me. Beat them, deleted them, won't be going back.
Pros: It starts off as a lot of fun. Waves upon waves of baddies to mow down, increasing in power as the game goes along. You can find, or buy, new guns through-out the game to combat those ever increasing powerful aliens. You can upgrade your Speed (how fast you move), Strength (how much ammo you hold), Health, and Accuracy (increases damage too!) Basic objectives are kill every alien and blow up every teleporter that is bringing these punks to fight you. It's a whole bunch of mindless killing and requires very little tactics. There also happens to be secret areas that contain weapons and money if you blow up certain walls... which is always a plus in my book. The high score board at the end reminds me of good old arcade games. Cons: Enemy AI is sorely lacking... many enemies will just get stuck behind a wall and not move. Stat increases are capped at 3 each, meaning you quickly max out your 4 skills. Old weapons become pretty worthless pretty fast (that grenade launcher you loved? complete garbage about 2 levels later) In conjunction with weapons becoming ineffective, ammo drops are still random in later levels meaning your gonna get shotgun shells near the end instead of those plasma bullets you REALLY need. Overhead map control is clunky at best. Sometimes you can see all the way to the edge... other times only about 3/4 of the way... Meaning that baddies can see you but you can't see them. Meaning if you are low on health you can expect to get mowed down. Or if it's the rhino looking thing with lasers on its back that doesn't miss, you're gonna get shredded. It's hard to know if you are hitting or doing any damage to an alien. You can pump dozens or hundreds of rounds into a monster, only to find out you were probably hitting that crate instead. Overview: I very much enjoyed it for about 3-4 hours... but then it became very frustrating and repetitive. Wouldn't buy at full price but worth a run if it's on a GOG sale.
I don't know if there is one redeemable thing about this game. I had never played it before but was/am a huge fan of C&C and Starcraft and the overall RTS genre, so I decided to give it a try. Terrible decision. There is no tutorial to speak of (that I found) and was thrust right into the game. I made some troops, sent them out, and BLAM a giant explosion out of nowhere that killed all my troops. Started over, made some troops, BLAM something called chaos popped up above my troops and they all started to shoot each other until only 1 was left standing. There is no obvious rhyme or reason to anything in this game in the 2 days I played it before I gave up. Money gets deposited into your bank at an unknown interval. Troops have no description of what they can do (and once again, no tutorial on how to use them.) There are up to 5 "cards" in the corner that have no description or how to use them... They are extremely powerful but you have to accept that you might blow up all of your troops trying to figure them out. The absolute worst part of this game is selecting your troops and their path traveling AI. They'll get to where you want them to go however they want, devoid of logic and reason. It's not Point-A to Point-B most times... sometimes it's A to C to D through an enemy base to E to F and finally to B... And that's only if your troops decides to move in the first place. It might be enjoyable to those who have a ton of patience to figure it out, but I would personally encourage everyone looking at this game to just move along.
