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I got it on sale but there's a lot of content here and it runs very nicely! On occasion I'm very happy to have a simple but extensive game to play on my Mac which runs smooth and doesn't require constant attention: something to play for a bit then pause when I need to get back to a Discord conversation or something finishes downloading. This game fits that niche nicely, arguably better than it even worked as a mobile game. There's everything here you could generally want in a no-frills RPG: loot, light character customization, an ongoing plot and sub-quests, lots of enemy types to fight, a straight forward interface, towns to visit for upgrades and buying and selling things. The Warhammer coat of paint is welcome because of adding some grit and personality to something that might otherwise have just been a D&D knock off. No voice overs, a pretty standard but not grating musical score, and thankfully what hasn't carried over is the constant adds or requirements for in-app purchases. For a tight, lengthy, simple RPG you can do much worse!
It runs smooth, it looks pretty darn good for an older game, and it's easy to control! The docked star is just for the voice acting. What is there is very poor and it's inconsistent. I'd prefer to have more acknowledgment from my fighters if they've engaged an enemy or are taking damage. Instead, apart from the mothership (which thankfully make monotone updates) every other character that speaks basically has one grunt sound when you select them and that's it. The weird space guitars are strangely soothing. All told this game is an almost zen experience when you set in lengthy courses through pretty galaxies and occasionally stop at nav points to recover something or fight pirates. You can speed up the game and pause it thankfully! This is more of a command game than an action game, and I like that. You spend as much time outfitting your ship, spending experience, gathering clues from stopovers at stations as you do strafing enemies. It's nice and intuitive and has a very good (if long and fairly routine) tutorial thankfully. User friendly is a good description. There's not much story (you're basically just going on privateer missions) and some things are a bit esoteric (I purchased something and it just vanished from my inventory once) but if you like more moody and chill space sims where you send your fighters out to get business done than snap up the rewards with your tractor beam, this is spot on.
It's a decent real time strategy game and a decent Star Trek story/sim but combined it's something really special. It's one thing to be commanding starships and building bases, but there's a special touch when you're dealing with The Borg or The Klingons or recreating famous battles from the Trek films like Insurrection. The graphics are crisp and the game runs very well even on a modern system. I had some graphical tearing in the cutscenes but that was hardly a deal breaker. There's no real tutorial here so you're assumed to have read the manual or played another RTS. On the plus side this means pretty much instant action. You're given an objective and the rest of your actions are up to you in order to achieve this goal. And there's a variety of goals. Sometimes you're base building and mining, sometimes using nebulas and black holes to escape superior forces, sometimes creating a flotilla of ships to hunt down invaders. It all sounds authentic, there's plenty of voice acting, and there's some nifty if superfluous visual touches like the game being in full 3D so you can zoom in on any combat or ship action to admire the models. It's got multiple campaigns with lots of missions and although clearly dated in some ways this is a Star Trek game through and through: shields, different stages of altertness (Green, Yellow and Red) and you repair vessels by replenishing your lost crew by beaming them aboard from a shipyard. If you're a fan it's a fine experience and if you aren't it's still a very solid ship combat RTS.
I'm a giant nerd so the sheer amount of Star Trek in this game is very welcome! You aren't just controlling the ship at the helm, you're deferring to your crew who each have a role in running the ship. Want to warp to a location? You can select a drop down menu or push a hotkey, but you can also tap your officer on the shoulder and ask them to lay in a course, half impulse. Every officer can be asked to report on their status which is a fine way to remember your mission objectives. Combat is similar. Contact your science officer to adjust scanners, you second in command to go to red alert, your munitions officer to target the enemy and redirect the shields to counter incoming fire. This is a pretty linear experience, but because of the tight structure there's voice acting for everything and a lot of incidental touches to the animation. Drop by a space station to refuel and repair. Fly to a planet to deal with a distress call. There's a variety of objectives and it really does get across the old school Trek feel of professionals calmly dealing with more and more dangerous situations. This is not a very fast paced game but it's no slouch for action. There's some timed objectives, dogfights, and even given the dated character graphics the space action is colorful and accurate to the show. If you want to go on a little ride in the Next Generation universe this is a fine choice. Thankfully you can at will make a lot of decisions and work out some things for yourself. Also you're not just shooting the crap out of aliens because that's not what StarFleet is supposed to do!
I like the Homeworld series, but as much as it does have responsive controls I often feel like I watching other pilots do their thing rather than commanding ships myself. Jupiter Incident is space ship combat like I've never seen: real time with pause with flawless precision. This is the kind of game you can zoom to any ship you command and tell them exactly what you want done, like prioritizing enemy systems. You can decide to blow up only the weapons on a ship and then send your marines in to capture it. You can target the hull and blow it to pieces. You can avoid scans until you're right on top of enemies to sail under their scanners and get the first shot. You really do at last feel like that guy in the captains chair shouting stuff like 'launch all fighters!' and 'target the shield generator!' Apart from this its fully voice acted and there's a weird but very deliberate section between each mission that will not only replay any cutscenes and messages but also show you your fleet, your progress to new levels of mastery, and your specific location in the universe. The story is an intriguing war of information and secrets between mega corps which is nothing new but charming, and thankfully the characters are likable enough. Music is atmospheric and not monotonous. Sound effects punch and even change in pitch depending on how far away you are from a battle. Great stuff! Graphics only falter a bit with some low rez asteroids, but they're far in the background. Everything else is crisp and chunky and make beautiful fireworks when you slam them with lasers. I was expecting some kind of managerial sim from the screenshots, but this is user-friendly space combat and easily my favorite now in the genre.
Dishonored as a series always annoyed me because of how judgmental it could be. Kill non-targets or raise alarms you get 'Chaos' which effects the endings, so there's only one real way to play. This game dispenses with the morality and just allows you to sneak and steal which is everything I wanted anyway. Also I think the graphics are much better and the characters more likable. This is NOT much like the original Thief games, granted, but some carryovers are welcome. You have gadgets to disable light sources and guards. You need to pay attention to your light gem and avoid loud surfaces or running when anyone is in earshot. The one big issue I had was this is a pretty railroaded experience. You cannot jump down or jump up unless the game lets you so you're less in a playground and more like a series of condensed jungle gyms, but luckily there's stuff to find off the beaten path and you can always replay levels for achievements or missed loot if you want to. I just prefer the gloomy, drizzly, high contrast city with a grounded steampunk feel to the weirdness of other similar games. The soundtrack is nice, the controls are responsive, and on highest settings it ran fast and fluid. Not disappointed at all, actually quite impressed!
It looks good but runs smooth even on older hardware and there's a lot of little adjustments to the turn based formula and action roleplaying tropes to make this game stand out. I like the stealth concept. You can wander a fairly expansive world looking for loot until you come across pockets of enemies and then you can ambush them as long as you stay out of their vision cones, which decrease depending on if you're walking quickly with your flashlight on or slowly with your flashlight off. When you level up you receive points that go into mutations which can increase overall stats or even provide new abilities at higher levels. There's a nifty lore/mechanic blending going on with artifacts. The characters don't know much about 'before' technology so they're always collecting mundane items of today they've elevated to mythical status in an amusing away (assuming a boom box is an explosive...etc). It's charming and makes collecting items more interesting, as well as encouraging exploration and fighting. There's some spicy language you but you the feeling there's some OTT edginess here for the sake a nostalgic 90s feel. Fits right in with the synth music stings and future-punk aesthetic. It's fun though, not as miserable as it could have been or as neon goofy as it might have been either. A nice balance, which describes everything from the challenge to the customization to the complexity. If you enjoy XCom but want something a little tighter, a little looser, and little more like Diablo this is a refined experience.
I remember the PC port of this game being infamous, but thankfully after this amount of time there must have been a lot of work done. It looks slick and moves fast! Even more so than Arkham City you feel in charge of your movement, grappling where you want, gliding where you want. Combat has been SEVERELY simplified (basically just hammer one button and you win) but you can mix it up with different abilities and well timed button presses, and the focus this time round is really on the vehicular battles. The Batmobile turns into a tank and has a whole system based on dodging and delivering damage to gain power for targeting missile attacks. There's even an open world element now where you can wander nearly anywhere and talk to anyone (as long as they don't attack you). Quite fun! Nothing really too new, but it's more like a greatest hits of the series in one place and time has been kind to this game. I didn't get any major slow down or glitches and overall a smooth and exciting experience.