Fantasy General used to be a great game, and one that I was really looking forward to showing up on GOG. And to be fair, there's still a really good core mechanic in here, even if the best strategy requires only two types of units (Light Cavs and Sky Hunters) to win. The thing is, Fantasy General is really difficult to play. Twenty years of UI improvements are painfully missing here. There are no hotkeys, and the menu layout is just strange and counterintuitive. Plus, the clicks you have to make are usually on different sides of the screen -- there's a lot of unnecessary mouse movement. But the real killer is that there's no way to adjust the mouse scrolling speed, which is virtually instantaneous, given a CPU that's 20 years better than what this was designed for. And there's no way to scroll the map view manually because no hotkeys, so looking at anything besides the four corners of the map becomes a chore of clicking through several screens. I wanted to give this game a perfectly positive review. I really did. I loved it when it came out, but it desperately needs some mods to make it playable. In short, if you can handle a terrible UI, it's a truly a good old game. If you can't, give it a miss.
The obvious comparison is to SpaceChem, but Sokobond is somewhat different and much simpler. The relative simplicity is not a bad thing -- the puzzles are that great mix of maddening yet solvable that will eat up several hours of your time, and I like the interesting chemistry trivia that's your reward for completing a level. For five bucks, I highly recommend this game.
Pros: It's a great concept with the right price for its length. The voice acting is great, and I actually kind of like the music (which is rare for me). Cons: Load times are kind of irritating, especially when you're just going to a shop. But the real killer is that the combat controls just suck. Many of the combats require finesse, which the game just does not provide. Most of the time, it's something I can live with, but getting stuck on a map that's full of traps and ratmen (especially the Jack of Ratmen) is just an exercise in frustration that had me Alt-F4ing after the second time. Overall: Even with the load times, this could have been a 5/5, but the crappy controls just suck the enjoyment out of the game.
Well, gosh. It certainly *looks* like a very nice JRPG, but the dialogue trickles out at a snail's pace with no option to speed it up in any way, and in any event it's not that interesting to read unless you think the Twilight series is great literature. Also, the cutscenes are tedious and unskippable. In my opinion, this game is unplayable in its current state, and I feel like I wasted my money. Short story: if you loved Xenogears, you'll like this game. But if you prefer *playing* a game to *reading* one, I suggest you spend your money on something else.
The Last Federation's biggest problem is that it can't get out of its own way for long enough to just let you play the damn game. It's like that guy who hovers over your shoulder when you're trying to learn to use a new computer program, ready to grab the mouse out of your hand and say 'No, this is the way you do it...' when you just wish he'd leave you the hell alone for five minutes. Honestly, this is the first time I've ever wanted to punch a tutorial. There is a core of a good game in here that tries to put a cool twist on the 4x genre. But a good 4x strategy game provides a framework and then lets the player play in it, so that by the end, s/he's created a new universe. The Last Federation instead has a universe that has been rigidly designed from the outset by the developers. Its races interact in hard-coded ways. Big chunks of the tech tree don't open until hard-coded points in time, no matter how fast you research. So what would have helped here? In my opinion: Customizable races, customizable maps, a more abstract tech tree, and better starship upgrades. That would have been a game I'd play again. On the whole, the game reminds me less of MOO 2 and more of Long Live the Queen. You're navigating through a universe, not creating one. Maybe that appeals to some people, but if you're looking for a 4x game, look somewhere else.
Banished is a solid city builder with few if any bugs (which is honestly a huge achievement). The graphics are quite nice but on mid-to-older machines, the game starts to chug once the population starts getting into triple digits, and there doesn't seem to be any way around this. My main complaint with the game, aside from the slowdown, is that it's simply too easy. The first few hours can be touch-and-go, but once you've got the nucleus of the town running, the only real way to kill yourself is to overexpand so that you run out of food or firewood. But then, there's no real reason to expand beyond 200 people or so except to earn achievements. There's no pyramid that needs building. No barbarians that need conquering. There's no ... goal. In short: Neat concept. Decent execution. Pretty graphics. Good for 10 hours of fun if you like a challenge, but ultimately unsatisfying.
Gothic gets 1/5 stars from me, only because 0/5 isn't an option. The control setup was so horrifically clunky, counterintuitive, and downright unusable that I couldn't force myself past the five minute mark. This game might be the cat's pajamas when it comes to an open and immersive world, but sadly, I'll never find out for myself. The interface is simply that bad. Gothic was far and away my most disappointing purchase on GOG to date.
