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I remember the trailers for this game as vividly as the announcement I'd never get to play it...but somehow years later Captain Blood is back! And it's a nostalgic blast. It's slippy, ridiculous, and bombastic but it feels so comfortably of it's time: the era of God of War and Devil May Cry where spectacle fighters were flashy and madcap. Not as nihilistic as GOW or consciously 'cool' as DMC, Captain Blood is more about telling a story between arena bouts that break down to keeping massive amounts of enemies at bay with abilities and improvised weapons as well as your trusty blunderbuss. You can collect coins to buy more moves and items in a store located in the menu for some reason, but it does make killing enemies more than just removing obstacles. It is very fun to pull off combo attacks, grapple and finish off foes, and there are different kinds of enemies to mix up encounters, some which require certain attacks or strategies to take down. So if you don't mind a couple holdovers of the past (fixed cameras, a couple bugs) this is a grand ol' time!
Medieval Dynasty is a fantastic game, and this is basically that game with some new editions and some streamlining. The main thrust of things is the game loop is both slow burn...and completely satisfying. The basic concept is you are a peasant trying to build a village, and you will do it building by building, villager by villager, stone by stone. You constantly have something to do, something you don't have, someone you need to talk to which might seem hectic but the world operates with the same rules you have. People need to walk to get around so bandits can't reach you in less than a couple days. Your villagers will need the same supplies you have so you need to gather for your stores to keep people fed and armed and with the right raw materials to use. Controls are tight. The one major issue with Medieval was the combat, but here's it's much smoother and satisfying. The speed for construction has been stepped up. Food and water have been combined. If you liked Medieval but wish it could get to the village stage faster without all the quests and walking, this is much more to the point. Almost immediately you're controlling a little group as opposed to the years it would take in Medieval. Different experience, but not a bad one. And like other dynasty games, this is the longhaul. TONS of micromanaging but a great U.I to use so it's not frustrating. Tons of events. Systems and peoples and creatures all operating independently. I recommend it to either fans of Medieval who like Japanese history or just people who find satisfaction in stepping away from a building they put together using logs they hewed and stones they gathered.
I still recommend this game, it just has a couple issues people might take and need to be aware of! The Good: Atmosphere is impeccable. Everything is creepy, slanted, soaked in shadows and gloom and perpetual rainfall. Dialogue and music is pitch perfect for a tribute to H.P Lovecraft's haunted world. Character design, U.I design, the environment of looming statues and ancient secrets...very very good! The Intriguing: This game has an extensive tutorial, but like the game Anno it borrows from, so things you just need to find out by trial and error. The tutorial will tell you to make wooden effigies to the Old Ones, but YOU need to figure out you can actually add additional materials to the effigies to make the offerings more favorable. The tutorial will tell you to put down Lumberjacks for wood, but YOU need to find out how to keep those Lumberjacks surrounded by forest to keep them efficient. The Not So Good: Little graphical hiccups are here and there. The worker wagon just runs in place next to buildings being made. Some pathing issues. The MAIN issue that might turn some away is all the timed events. Everything seems to take an arbitrary amount of time to do: making effigies, waiting for rituals to refresh, gathering materials, refining materials...etc. Some things you just have to wait for, and you don't always have something to do except admire the scenery while your cultists get on with it. Also there's the slight issue of extreme micro management. If you are fanatical about efficiency get ready to ritual scar EVERY SINGLE cultist you own and wait for the timer on assignment rituals forever to get everyone situated for their tasks. Chances are good your first crop of cultists will really love doing something you do have a building for, and so the cycle of inefficiency followed by micromanagement begins. STILL great game. Intriguing if linear story. Variety of gameplay. Staggering amount of intricacies. If you like Anno and Lovecraft, book passage!
I can understand why they needed to use CGI for the characters, but the nice thing is the technology is MUCH higher than something like the original VR Myst and the dialogue recordings are almost all from the original Riven so it didn't bother me. Speaking of authenticity, it's all here: the sounds, the music, even the iconic mouse cursor! There is something stunning about walking without loading between screens in Riven as a fully realized 3D world. Now cutscenes happen around you so you can turn to look at events as they happen instead of the camera being pulled out of your control. There's elements here that you could imagine in the original game but are now realized: smoke stacks, distant figures, birds, rolling waves. Riven is like Myst but much more grand in scope. You've got the same combat-free exploration/puzzle solving game, but with a story in all the hidden details and much more focus on traveling back and forth across the world with new knowledge gained to access new locations. This just makes me wish we could see more classics revitalized this well. Zork Nemesis Remaster anyone?
I have all the original Ultima games because of the stories and characters but they are almost impossible to play nowadays thanks to the U.I being incredibly cryptic so it needs a manual open on your lap. This game combines the charm of really excellent pixel art, the massive scale of a classic Ultima style game, and the sheer amount of stuff and options you can have when your graphics aren't all 3D photorealistic drains on processing power and the time of developers...BUT importantly, it doesn't shy away from quality of life improvements modern gamers have come to expect. There's a tutorial! You can use common hot keys and a mouse. There's a button to make clear what you can interact with. There's drop down menus and descriptions if you hover over skills and objects. This is how you do an homage. There was another game that tried for the FULL experience with none of the niceties of the modern age, but this game gets it that you can have the feel of the classics without making things as clunky as earlier games were out of necessity. The original developers of classic games probably would have been pleased to have sleeker interfaces and easier to parse numbers and actions. Sometimes you can bear reverence to the past without being stuck inside of it. Now it would be awesome if they remade something like the Dark Sun games with this kind of interface...
Why did it take so long to realize this combination? It's rather brilliant. Turn based combat with super heroes makes so much sense given the tropes of the genre, which are lovingly recreated here: rescuing civilians, combining attacks, disarming bad guys...etc. In a city taken over by super villains and an unlimited squad of bald stormtroopers you command a roster of new blood resistance fighters with super abilities. Simple, effective plot. The writing is cheese-tastic but I guess that goes with the genre. It's not much better or worse than a typical Marvel film, although maybe with a little more swearing. But the meat and potatoes of the game is as solid as the clean, chunky, appealing comic book art style. Each of the thirty or so levels is custom made thankfully, not procedurally generated, so you have opportunities to take advantage of cover and other environmental cues while enjoying the dynamic locales that are distinct. Gameplay is familiar to anyone who has played XCom: turn based squad combat, but with the advantage of heroes being able to do anything they want to within the limit of their energies rather than an arbitrary 'move' amount. Extra energy is added to the 'ultimate' status which is basically a limit break and unique to each hero. This Ultimate is compounded by the fact that heroes have tie-in attacks with specific other heroes which are very powerful so it encourages squad builds with compatible heroes. And after each battle you go back to base to improve your skills and your powers, find new allies, progress the plot. It's all rewarding stuff. I enjoy the grittier take on super heroes, the simple to learn/lifetime to master systems, the full voice acting although VERY overwrought is welcome. Overall a creative and enjoyable twist on a genre I already loved!
After all this time I finally got to play the game, and this seems like the version the creators intended at last. I had one bug with a character refusing to go into standby, but thankfully ending my turn fixed the problem. The graphics look good, the game runs smooth, I quite liked the blending of alien lore with a viral threat and a surprising nautical theme. Phoenix Point almost feels like a very extensive mod of XCom Enemy Unknown, playing on similar themes, giving you the geoscape with missions, a base to manage, a picked team of customizable soldiers to fly to troubled hot spots, you research enemies and build equipment...etc. BUT The additions are where things get new and exciting. No more RNG! You can take physical aim at anything you can see. No more whiffs at close range. If you miss a shot chances are good something got in the way. There's a faction system now which is fun and packed with story, allowing you to finagle resources for favors and get in good standing by making the enemies of your allies your own foes. Maps are vertical: climb a roof and get a vantage. Maps are destructible: blast the room your foe is standing in until he's exposed. People say the loop can be repetitive, but that's not going to be an issue very quickly as there's lots of different missions in different locations. You can buy vehicles and drive them into combat. There's multiple endings. It's an excellent game! Might have taken awhile to get there but this stands toe-to-toe with Enemy Unknown now, and I prefer hitting what I can see.
This is a game I never thought would resurface, but I'm so happy has not only reappeared but is now in optimal working order! This is Mass Effect for spies: classic Mass Effect for all that that entails. The heart, the ambition, the creativity is all there even if the slightly rushed schedule can lead to some rough edges. But the main attraction is the sheer amount of interconnected roleplaying options. You can address people using different tones, from Bondlike suavity to cold professionalism. You can hack and sneak or blast and martial arts chop your way through practically every mission. Like gadgets? We've got those. Experience goes to buying yet more abilities making you feel even more like a super spy. Combat feels precise and punchy and fun. The mini-games are challenging. Movement is brisk. The only real issues here rise up that the game wasn't quite finished the first time round so as the campaign continues the seams start to show with re-used scenarios or choices making increasingly less impact. But none of that takes away from the atmosphere and the sheer fun of playing a spy just a cut above the realistic. If anything ever needed a remaster just to fill in the gaps it's this game, but the first time round it got so much right I don't even think the current industry could match the enthusiasm and style and costumer centric philosophy. Thank you Gog, from all games thank you!
This is the kind of experiment I dig! It's an RPG where you actually have to ROLEPLAY instead of just bash things. You are an inspector so you gain experience from detective things: eavesdropping, sneaking, spotting, doing quests to butter up the locals so you can interrogate them. There is a skill based system you can improve, but a lot of puzzles are closer to a traditional adventure: picking up the trail of logic, talking to the right people. Essentially your skills are short cut, but a welcome one in situations where there are guards patrolling. This is not the world's most 'triple A' game. Graphics are rudimentary (but charming), the game begins in German and needs to be set to English and although it is voice acted (and not badly) the dialogue seldom fits the subtitles, and some things remain untranslated. You also need to make some educated guesses as to how to use items and where. For a brief summary, consider a much more forgiving Pathologic meets Disco Elysium with a dash of Monkey Island, but all in a unique historical setting. I like a game that tries to keep it's feet on a ground and bit and mines a culture for the atmosphere and experience of really getting inside the head and life of someone you might never have supposed to before. That's what true Roleplaying is about. There's probably some hiccups given the way it looks. I'm guessing some edges are rough in addition to the shaky translation, but some far it's a hoot!