If you've played games like Stardew or the HM Rune Factory games you know what you're getting into here. The game looks nice and there's lots of do. It's MUCH more focused on resource gathering than farming though. It does do a good job of making it feel more like you're running a business taking commissons for the bulk of your money, rather than just jamming vegetables into a mystery bin every few days. The combat, while extremely simple compared to any real arpg, is at least a bit more involved than it was in Stardew. Having a skill tree is welcome as well, making progression feel better. There's some clear 'this wasn't really finished' issues though. Some lines are voiced, but many are not. Even in the same conversation, one line might be voiced while the next isn't. There were a lot of major bugs, and while it being supported post-launch I personally got stuck twice (it literally warped me into a room with no exit in the sewage plant dungeon). There's also no saving except when you sleep. This is 2019, come on now. My one major complaint though is the sheer amount of waiting. Only a handful of items can be processed immediately, the rest require hours of in-game crafting time. Making a stack of 10 takes a full day of game time, and it only gets worse as you get to more advanced materials. You can make multiple furnances of course, but they all require constant supplies of wood to keep running. It got to the point where my 'day' would be (literally) clearcutting the nearly woods, slamming a bunch of raw materials in to be processed, and then going to sleep. Sure there's no time limit on the big jobs, but there's still no reason for all the waiting. Don't get me wrong, I still had fun playing it, but I really think this would benefit from a mod that cut waiting times down and cut the amount of raw materials needed. It really starts to feel like some decisions were made to pad the running time rather than be fun, a problem I never felt with Stardew.
I remember playing this a lot many years ago and was nostalgic to try to again. After playing it for a couple hours, I think I some old games are just better left as memories. The game is very slow placed, but not in a good way. Most of the game is spent walking around (it takes forever just to move from one capital to another), waiting on resources (even the most basic units are incredibly expensive), waiting on healing, and babysitting your territory against the true enemy of the game; the marauders and the terrible UI. Unless you're playing on hard, the other nations don't do much. They mainly just sit around and await you or Death to come take them over. The marauders on the other hand keep spawning out of nowhere, constantly take over anything you don't leave garrisoned, and the UI doesn't tell when they've gotten into your unit production buildings. This is a constant aggravation when you have 3-4 capitals and you keep losing a barracks (setting you back 10 turns of troop training) because you missed the very tiny grey flag before hitting Next Turn. Most of the game is spent trundling around with a Doom Stack of units until you can afford a super unit and a bunch of high level mages (attack magic always does fixed damage), then you go stomp on the Death leader and get declared the winner. Despite their being 8 nations to play as, there's little replay value because the game plays out the same every time. Since the start is always racing to take over the other friendly nations, giving you access to all their unit production, you're never actually just playing the nation to chose to start with. There are some special scenarios that are a bit more interesting since there some actual story, but suffer the same annoyances (slow movement, slow healing, always waiting on resources). Ultimately I think LoM was good in its time, but has not aged well at all. Other more modern strategy games simply offer better UI, more depth, and much better game flow.
A sort of comeback for point-and-click adventure, though ultimately not as fun as some of Telltale's offerings. It looks good and there's lots of puzzles, with no death or ways to permanently get stuck (ie no missing key items early in the game) so you can just keep trying everything until you figure it out. The puzzle logic is straight up terrible though. Some are fine, some I had to look up a guide and went, "What? Seriously, they expected you to come up with that?!" This first game had a decent overall plot and humour, and IMO it might have been better extending it and just ending the story here. Rufus is a selfish, unlikable ass, but in this first part it doesn't go too far, is played for laughs, and he does actually have some justification for it at the start (stuck on crapsack planet, father ditched him and is also a selfish ass). He also starts to grow up and develop an actual conscience near the end, which makes it all the more jarring in the 2nd and 3rd parts where he fully reverts and crosses the line to outright cruelty (they try to handwave it late in the third part, but it's hard to swallow). On its own this first part has its faults but isn't bad overall, the problem is the game doesn't end here and, IMO, goes downhill in the next games. Taken on its own I'd rate this first part 3/5. If you can get this part on sale for $1 or 2 it's worthwhile. The trilogy as a whole I'd rate 2/5, and simply cannot recommend it over classic adventure games or Telltale's entries .
SW does a far a better job than most FPS reboots. It looks like a modern FPS and has modern additions such as an upgrade system, a sprint/evade mechanic, and various special powers; but it still largely plays like the classics. Huge weapon arsenal, big (though linear) levels with plenty of secrets, and constant waves of enemies to fight through. The swordplay in particular is quite fun, and is entirely viable as a primary weapon throughout the game. They have of course not forgotten to keep the humour as Lo Wang packs plenty of great one-liners, and some fun banter with Hoji. There's a story. Kind of. Like the first game it's not really important. +Excellent graphics +Old-school FPS combat meshed with some modern additions and great swordplay +Upgrade system gives some customization (you won't get enough points to upgrade everything) +Decently long, will take most ~15 hours to finish +Big levels with lots of secrets hidden around +Funny one-liners and dialogue -Some of the bigger enemies take a long time to kill and later levels throw many at once; the pace of the game really starts to drag towards the end when combined with... -Too easy; fully upgrading your sword skills drops the difficulty several notches particularly due to the 'drain HP on attack' skill -The power of the sword completely overshadows the guns; you'll still need them against the major bosses you can't reach with melee and enemies that self-destruct but that's about it Overall the pros greatly outweigh the cons and mostly enjoyed playing through it. I'd rate it 4/5.
