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I bought the game on sale more than a year ago and just _had_ it, for some unknown time in the future. This time came after some disappointments while trying to find something both »epic« and »not to complicated, but not to stupid either«. A month later I`m up at 300 hours. If you are looking for a gripping main story - full of fights, deep dialogs and feelings - you will not like No Man`s Sky, I guess. But if you are like me, prefering to explore gathering treasures, crafting things, making money and get better gear - not to talk about building my own house and fumble for hours with the decoration - then you will love it. No Man`s Sky for me is like »Skyrim In Space«, with millions of planets to explore, bases to build where and how you want, and - if you need a rest from peaceful building, farming and exploring - some pirates to shoot down, or sentinels to kill. Or to follow the main quest for a while. I just love it. And if you feel you are like me, a bit, maybe, you should give it a try.
Besides Holmes looking ridiculous in his "fancy" clothes and beeing called "Sherry" all the time (every time a pain to hear), there is a lot of useless, mediocre looking environment only to run through to no avail, a bunch of non-informative icons in the notes with no order in it, a clumsy "chemistry-system", uninspired answers from people who have "nothing to say" (I wish they really wouldn´t) while Holmes is locked in place and has to listen, and worst of all, there is "combat". I have played Tomb Raider, I`ve played Alpha Protocol, I`ve played the Witcher, I`ve played Deus Ex - I just don`t get it what to do to arrest someone in this game. There is a circle with a line, a get a hint what key to press, I press the key - and get hit ... and that`s it. I shot the first guy in the police training ten times to be able to try again and now I`m done with it. May be the main case is good, I don´t know. The mindmap is basically telling you what´s wrong and what`s right, so you don`t have to think there either. What did they think when they made this?! What was wrong with the controls in Crime&Punishment? Whenever the imaginary friend complains about beeing bored, I can relate from all my heart. Sadly this is much more effort than it`s worth.
I love all kind of building games. Stardew Valley looked interesting and I gave it a try. Played on PC with 1080x1920 it is _very_ "pixel", but since I decided not to stress about pixel graphics anymore I am ok with that look. Actually I find it quite charming - but that`s even the best i can say about this game. I mean ... how complicated do you want to make it to open a door or iniciate dialogue? Why do I have to _aim_ for this? The rmb never worked so I used the keyboard, but neither then standig in front of the door and pushing the button always worked. I had to move a bit or approach again until I finally was allowed into my house. Why would I like to do this? Every f* time. Other thing: What meaning do the things have I encounter on my way through the village? What about this ruined building? It´s mine, what can I do with it? How to catch fish? What about the cave where there is nothing to do and nothing to see? What kind of hut is this? - there is zero information. And more: Where can I store my stash? I can´t drop it, obviously, as it zooms back into the inventory as soon as I move the character - but what exactly happens when I give it to the crate? It disappears, yes, but where and why? How many of the 28 inhabitants do I have to listen to multiple times to find out, pushing buttons to no avail? Beeing nailed to the ground clicking away texts? Do I really have to browse the net only to find out how to do the simplest things in such a simple looking game? A soft survival game in pixel graphics - including millions of repetitions of the same thing - is ok as such, but this feels just too clumsy to be fun. May be there really _is_ a reason to be so excited about it, but in this case I didn`t find it.
Very well done "Walking Simulator" with an engaging story, good twists and an extremly satisfying ending (No. 4). Skyrim players may feel like they are in some modified Markarth, which is absolutely not the worst of ambients. All NPCs are real individuals with a convincing story to tell, and the more the player gets involved in their fate, the more engaging it gets. Go for the temple I would say, and get surprised!
Really. I don`t understand this negative attitude against the Enhanced Edition. I think, it is perfekt. Respectfully against the franchise with some slight modifications making playing more comfortable for modern times, like looting for example. Or 80 arrows instead of 40. I played it for the first time when it came out, and I`m playing it again right now. Not sure I would dare without the EE.
The classic coming together of adventurers against their will for the purpose of saving the world, and it's really cute - full of allusions to role-playing games and their players, whether it's about the addiction factor, or the methods of getting money out of the players' pockets, or the rules that can only be explained in several hours. There are also nice allusions to other franchises, and in general the story shouldn't be taken too seriously. Situations and dialogues are just cute and straightforward, partly quite funny if you get into the tone, and they say plainly: everything will be fine. The game would have deserved five out of five stars if it didn't also have a few really annoying moments that you especially don't love in a P&C game. There is the slowness in the movements, when you have to go various ways several times, which can't be avoided despite the "travel map"; also the delay when you change the character, which really shouldn't have been necessary, and last but not least: Two puzzles that steal your last nerve, one of them a reaction game that is quite inappropriate in the given setting. You'll have to repeat both puzzles several times, enduring the same dialog or delays each time, and when you've done that often enough, it unfortunately sinks the motivation tremendously. So there are "only" four stars, because apart from the aforementioned evils I really had fun with it.
I loved it. I hated it. I have no idea, how someone could finish it in 50 hours. It took me 118, and I dropped the Rune-Quest. After about 80 hours or so my only wish was to finally come to an end with it. I never played a game that made it so difficult to find your way, even if I liked the combination of isometric perspective with Jump&Run, which is in a way the mother of the orientation problem, because: you cant`t look up. You never really know, where you are, where your way could be, and the map is totally crap. There are no names and no important markings (like entrances, cities, or just differences in height), all is dull green, dull brown and dull grey. It took me literally hours in real time to find the way, always interrupted by canyons, unsurmountable industrial ruins or hordes of monsters. Never ever ago I`ve been so lost in space. Anyway, I finished the game. I loved the voice of Teriel and kind of speaking. I liked the Quests (mostly). After a while I didn`t miss a levelsystem anymore. I started my own quest for opening the complete travelling network (which, of course, took me hours, too). I wanted to see the end(s). And I saw them. The game looks and feels beautiful, for all it`s faults, and if you like RPGs and see it on sale, buy it and try it, on condition that you have a certain resistance to the frustration to never know where you are :)
It does what it is supposed to do: Make the time go away with a nice look, a standard story and not much to think about. Today it was the right game to play and I liked it.
There are a lot of games out there making you feel you´re doing something great, until you suddenly realize how dull the game is. Well. Strange Horticulture ist NOT of that sort, but I´m not really sure why I think it was so great as I think it was. I LOVED that game and played it twice in two days, the second time because I didn`t like the first ending, but mostly because I didn`t want to abandon this cozy little place with my purring cat, my customers and - of course - my plants. And when I finished it the second time I was just ... happy and calm and satisfied and the world was a better place for a little while, and that is an extremely seldom after-gaming-condition for someone like me. Maybe it´s because of the mixture. A nice story, nice characters (as tiny and cliché as they are), nice puzzles (some are very easy, most of them require a little thinking and searching, neither to hard nor to childish), the plants you have to identify and to organize (I would recommend to do this in time, some of them you need to find again later), every gameday something to do until it´s time to close the shop for the night. You never wonder what the heck the developers want you to do now. No stress about food, euquipment and fight. This can be obviously quite satisfying in times, and it is extremely well done in Strange Horticulture. I think :)
I love puzzlegames which are really just about solving riddles - no endless dialogues, no places to remember and to visit again, everything you need you find where you are. The House of Da Vinci looks really wonderful, all wood and mechanics, and the sound when something opens or changes is exciting, Thruth to be told there are some annoying moments when you have to zoom in and out and in and out and in and out to adjust the one or other thing, but it doesn`t happen to often. I really liked it - as much as part 1 - and I hope there will a third part not so far away from now. The games ends with some sort of cliffhanger, which is promising.