Fun premise but the controls are awful. I paid $2 for it, not complaining, just think you need some kinda VR gloves or something to really do this right.
I wouldn't say I loved it, I backed the game. The turn based combat is painful, slow, feels clunky. It's a roll your eyes moment when the combat starts and there's more than like 5 enemies. The story was pretty well done, and I have to give them credit as far as writing goes and the level of depth of the ninth world (and previous worlds.) It had a lot of awesome concepts and nothing seemed bland. The music was really lousy, just flat honesty here. The combat music was dull, I complained during the beta that it should be improved and they kept the original score. Not saying my opinion is right, but if you hear it you'll be disappointed if you've ever played the original PS:T. Of course, Bioware's baldur's gate engine games all had an orchestral style phenominal "turn up the speakers and get it in your feels" score. The characters were neat, I can't complain too much about them. I'm not a fan about the 4 party max system (kind of like Tyranny by Obsidian), while it does offer multiple playthroughs to experience the characters, it can really make combat a nightmare depending on whom you chose. The character-to-character interaction is there, they each have a decently developped background as well. I've played through it a few times, it offers decent replay value, though the difficulty tends to be a bit unbalanced. Also with the turn based system, screwing up combat is painful because it's like 20 minutes of your life you just wasted. Would I recommend it? Not really, unless you're a huge fan of heavy reading and depth in a game and not so much production value, it's not worth it. If you can snag it for $20, go for it, but otherwise don't pay more. I backed $160 and received about a $40 value of game, they really s**t the bed on this one. Even delaying it one year it still turned out somewhat of a turd. Personally, I won't back InXile ever again, they screwed up Wasteland 2, and now they screwed up Torment. Not that I don't admire their work, just for 4 million or whatever we raised, they could've done much more. My advice? Get PS:T Enhanced by Beamdog, while it's nothing new, it's beautifully done and unlike the original PST with widescreen mods isn't likely to crash. Rumor has it beamdog is going to try their hand at a sequel, while most reviews will tell you they make poor content, I do have more faith in them than InXile. Plus they acquired an original developer of PS:T so it should be *decent*. "What can change the nature of a fan?" "This game."
An excellent modern revamp on the classic Baldur's Gate. I very much like the tweaks that Beamdog has added, it makes the game much more streamlined than the classic version. If you haven't played the game, it has a relatively steep learning curve, but it's not impossible. The game play itself is easy but unless your'e familiar with AD&D rules 2.0 it will take a bit of manual reading to get an idea of how the stats, attack rolls, and armor class factors in. Otherwise the game plays quite easily from the start as far as controls, but the game play itself can prove quite challenging at low levels. Once you level up to level 3-4 it begins to become a lot more manageable as your party members can become more robust and really carry their weight. It's a true classic, and beamdog did a good job of getting it streamlined. They added some new characters which I was apprehensive at first about, but later found to be decently executed and worthwhile.
While a lot of these reviews are negative, I can say that I genuinely enjoyed this game. The story wasn't incredibly epic, but I did enjoy the setting of Hong Kong. While not as mission-heavy as Dragonfall, I found it a good length, and the missions were fun and not frustrating. The characters were quite fun too. They were unique and had some good designs, and are quite powerful in their respective roles. This is good because it makes combat easier, but can also remove a bit of the challenge aspect. Either way it made for a fun combat experience that I enjoyed. It's the last of the HBS shadowrun games and it definitely shows it's refinement, while providing a lot of 'more of the same' shadowrun game play you may have come to enjoy from the previous titles.
Reminiscent of Fallout 1 + 2's style of writing throughout, "Fallout NV" is a series masterpiece. While it lacks the polish of Fallout 4, or the strong RPG elements of the original fallout games, it makes for an excellent improvement on Bethesda's Fallout 3 released a few years before. Written by a team of the original fallout developers, New Vegas has you getting deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole with their unique and skillful writing, environments, and character designs. Come explore the wasteland as it was originally intended! This game is definitely not on rails! You'll find yourself ignoring the main story quest, and going off on small adventures with the various side-quests. Obsidian placed a lot of emphasis on the need for open-world exploration, and taking a cue from fans, really went out there to ensure a fair amount of content. I've played 300 hours of this game and I doubt I've actually explored the entire mojave desert. The time to buy this game has never been better: The ultimate edition comes with all 4 expansion packs. The expansions for this game were all great and enjoyable, providing unique looking new areas to fight and explore your way through. Take a step back on the technological chart and explore "Honest Hearts", bringing you into the middle of a tribal warfare in Utah. Then take a leap forward into the future of tomorrow - today! Thanks to the sci-fi machinations of the Big MT research labs in "Old World Blues." Chase after a fellow courier with a real vendetta and a lot of power at his fingertips by playing "Lonesome Road". Last but not least, play a mutated "Danny Oceans" and execute a casino heist in the do-or-die "Dead Money." I enjoyed every one of them. If you're looking for *more* from this classic: there are literally hundreds of addons available online offering new content, new party members, better graphics, new animations, and almost anything else you might desire.
Reminiscent of Fallout 1 + 2's style of writing throughout, "Fallout NV" is a series masterpiece. While it lacks the polish of Fallout 4, or the strong RPG elements of the original fallout games, it makes for an excellent improvement on Bethesda's Fallout 3 released a few years before. Written by a team of the original fallout developers, New Vegas has you getting deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole with their unique and skillful writing, environments, and character designs. Come explore the wasteland as it was originally intended! This game is definitely not on rails! You'll find yourself ignoring the main story quest, and going off on small adventures with the various side-quests. Obsidian placed a lot of emphasis on the need for open-world exploration, and taking a cue from fans, really went out there to ensure a fair amount of content. I've played 300 hours of this game and I doubt I've actually explored the entire mojave desert. The time to buy this game has never been better: The ultimate edition comes with all 4 expansion packs. The expansions for this game were all great and enjoyable, providing unique looking new areas to fight and explore your way through. Take a step back on the technological chart and explore "Honest Hearts", bringing you into the middle of a tribal warfare in Utah. Then take a leap forward into the future of tomorrow - today! Thanks to the sci-fi machinations of the Big MT research labs in "Old World Blues." Chase after a fellow courier with a real vendetta and a lot of power at his fingertips by playing "Lonesome Road". Last but not least, play a mutated "Danny Oceans" and execute a casino heist in the do-or-die "Dead Money." I enjoyed every one of them. If you're looking for *more* from this classic: there are literally hundreds of addons available online offering new content, new party members, better graphics, new animations, and almost anything else you might desire.
Honestly I wasted my money on this over-hyped game. I like my RPGs, I like my text based cRPGs like Planescape, Pillars of Eternity, ones that enrich the story. But this one felt really hollow. The damage system and modifiers (like you soak someone and lightning does more damage, if you hit them with fire they get "warm" instead of igniting for example.) is brilliant, no question about it. However, the game itself and story specifically is almost too sandbox. I would appreciate if it held your hand for a bit then broke into sandbox but I spent the first chapter thinking "so what am i supposed to be doing exactly..?" logically- clearing the areas around the town, except the enemies are staggeringly difficult early on and can be too challenging depending on what kind of characters you chose. The character design (pick your own class, develop anyway you want) is a great idea, two main characters is cool too. The companions are mediocre at best that join your party. I didn't find them interesting at all. The story is fed to us through dialogs, kind of like planescape or pillars, I love both those games, but this one is dull and not very engaging. Not nearly enough cutscenes either, those can really improve the feel of a game. Without them, the game felt bland and unrewarding. I guess what I'm getting at is they have amazing ideas and as far as sandbox goes you can fill your boots with a beach-worth, but it was just so hard to enjoy and at the premium price (this game cost like $50 even after a year of release, it was ridiculous) I feel like I got ripped off entirely. It felt like a beta, which based on Larian's track record is no surprise as Kingdom's of Amalur: Reckoning felt like an unfinished MMO, a really fun one, but an incomplete game, same with this one. I wish I had a much better answer but my opinion is: it's boring. I'm used to RPGs getting me hooked, but for the first time I actually can't appreciate this one.
I was really excited for a release from Obsidian with yet another Pillars of Eternity engine but found myself left wanting. I'll break this review down for simplicity. The characters were interesting, as to be expected from Obsidian's work. I liked the two faction leaders serving Kyros (everyone's boss), as well as the companions you can add to your party. My gripe is that there is only 4 characters per party which in practice you'll find quite limiting. The variety of 6 characters really makes a difference in pillars of eternity in comparison, I mean you almost *need* a tank and healer so that's literally 50% of your party as opposed to 33% in pillars. The combat I found challenging compared to PoE, took me a while to get used to it. I don't know how anyone can do these games on Path of the Damned, I struggled on Normal and had to use Easy to get past bosses. Pillars was a struggle too but because I had more party members filling various roles, it tended to balance out a bit better. The story was alright, I was kind of disappointed with the ending, I exclaimed "that's it?" when I beat it after 15 hours with a good chunk of side quests completed. The interface seemed weak and didn't take full advantage of the Pillars options we're used to, fast forward has to be hotkey activated and manually controlled if combat breaks out. The writing and environments are great. No complaints. The spell crafting system and weapon crafting is a great idea but I literally ran out of "game to play" before I got anything accomplished from it. If the game was longer I might have appreciated it more. Great idea, wrong game to implement it in. My overall impression was this game felt really "rushed" and unfinished. Not what I expect from Obsidian. I was disappointed in many ways. It had quality, but no quantity. Save your money, buy it on sale. It's like temple of elemental evil is to baldur's gate 2.
By far one of my favorite action-RPG's. Troika and Activision team up for a second dose of the World of Darkness in VtM: Bloodlines. The gameplay is primarily first person but incorporates 3rd person elements as well. The third person is useful for melee combat situations, whereas an SMG toting vampire would benefit from first person mode. Despite sounding strange, it works wonderfully. Character development is well executed, improve the basics such as strength or perception. Delve points into firearms, seduction, or computer hacking. Finally invest points in your clan's unique vampire powers. There are sufficient XP and side-quests to make for a worthwhile experience each playthrough. The story and characters are all well fleshed out and voiced dialog is well done. If you haven't played it yet but enjoy games like Deus Ex, System Shock 2, or Borderlands; it's right up your alley and you owe it to yourself to play it.
I finished the first and second episode. It's a strangely unique game, plays like a 3rd person adventure, similar to: telltale games, longest journey, life is strange, indigo prophecy etc. The designers incorporated some mini games and a lot of mouse movements/gestures. Originally this game was designed for the Xbox Kinect system so it used body movement, in this case: you're moving your mouse to recreate the gestures. The characters are just plain weird. Seriously. I suppose that's the endearing factor; you don't see many games with such an oddball character base. The story is simple, but is delivered well. The standard tale of a hero who wants to avenge his wife's murder. The delivery is well done and is similar to the movie Memento, using trinkets to warp to their origin and searching for clues. It's really confusing, half the game will be spent scratching your head. Audio delivers with voice acting of all dialog and fitting music. I wouldn't say the acting is top notch, but it's on par. Visuals are great in the comic book style they use. The game played well without any hiccups or crashes. I probably wouldn't replay this any time soon until the next season comes out. Wasn't a bad investment though for it's price. If you enjoy adventure games, you may like this. I've been gaming for over 10 years and can say the one thing about this game is: it's unique. The only game that's close to it that I've played is Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecies. If you're looking for a more "hands on" experience and like interactive stories, I'd say it's money well spent.
