I've only spent a few days on the game here, but already I feel like it's a vast improvement over the awesome AOW3. This outing places a lot more importance on the uniqueness of each city, rather than treating them as mere gold sources. Spamming city's is simply not a strategy, let alone not an option this time, which in my opinion is for the better. Sieges are another area where things are pretty different. Taking a city is no longer a matter of running the biggest stack over and saying "MINE". You now have to spend turns besieging the place before you can make your all-out assault. How many turns it takes- and what condition the defenders or your army are in- depend on the siege projects you spend resources on. It's one of the many new systems that deliberately slows things down compared to previous entries, and thus prevents the rushes that could occur. There also seems to be more importance placed on your line units. Faction customization is definitely a big deal. I've seen some people voice displeasure at feeling like the differences are only skin deep. My take is that the differences are more notable in the late game, the latter when your enchantments and upgrades start to really kick in. Which is to say; the true scope of your customization will be known during the course of a game, not in the first ten turns. Another big point to praise about this entry is the Narrative system. Monster encounters and dungeons are no longer just random battles; the game tries to weave stories around them, with narrative windows pitching a scene for the majority of them. Random missions and diplomatic situations likewise also get some wonderful story flair, which helps give a lot of context to your adventure. This, coupled with the faction customization options, makes AOW 4 perhaps the best entry in the series for role-players looking to make their own epic fantasy yarn. All in all; an excellent entry to the series. Definitely worth it!
Note: This review is based off of a Steam copy. It was on sale that day. Spellforce 3 is about as typical a fantasy world as they come. There's a battle between mages and theocrats, magical plagues, orcs, dwarves, elves... and yet, somehow, playing through it's campaign was the most fresh RPG adventure I've been on in ages. This is largely thanks to the scope presented by the RTS side of things. Maps are large, and the battles equally so. Unlike many other RPG's, which tease massive clashes but rarely let you jump into the thick of it (hi, Dragon Age!), this game lets you be Aragorn in Helms Deep. The RTS battles themselves are a bit chaotic, and sometimes amount to throwing mobs at each other, but in the campaign this rarely felt like a bad thing. Most of my attention was on my heroes anyhow, so I was almost glad for the lack of complications. There is, however, one caveat to that; the economy in this game is much more in-depth than most RTS titles. It's also a bit clumsy in the UI department, which makes management a little hard. That, however, is my only serious issue with it. All in all, this is a far better mix of RTS/ RPG than Warcraft or Warlords. I highly, highly recommend it.
First things first; this game is fun. It's fun, has tons of fan service, and despite some of the fairly contrived mechanics, it does a good job of putting you in the Star Wars universe, thanks to the use of sound effects right from the movies. With all that established, this is a very hard game to really stand by or defend. Before going into it, I had heard that Galactic Battlegrounds was very much like a mod of Age of Empires 2: The Age of Kings. While most reviewers mentioned this in terms of mechanics being similar, I found that this extended to the overall quality of the game. Animations are, quite frankly, poor, the sprite work in general is not nearly as refined as its inspiration, and sound runs into a lot of trouble. Overall, visual and audio execution honestly does not exceed the level of quality you'd find in a mod. A great mod, to be sure, but not a product made by Lucas Arts of all companies. The quality issue extends to a few oddly done parts of the game itself. Jedi/ Sith Knights and Masters are listed as different units, yet functionality wise are identical save for the latter's improved stats and additional ability to convert things (AOE monk!). It would have made more sense to have the Master be the last line of progression for the former, but for reasons unknown, they are split. Another oddity, this one to do with presentation, is how Carbon rock formations are labeled as Red, when in fact they are visually covered in Blue. It leads me to wonder if this wasn't some massive typo... The game also sticks to Age of Kings gameplay steps in ways that don't really fit, and go a step further in that they are almost lore-breaking. Because Age of Kings requires gold mining, over here we have "Nova Crystals, which are a form of currency". I'm a long time Star Wars fan, I grew up on all the books, many of the games, saw every single movie, and not once had I ever heard of a Tiberium like crystal being used as currency. But here we are, mining not-Tiberium and acquiring it via the use of Jedi/ Sith holocrons as tourist attractions (?!). Despite all this, the game does have at least three noteworthy ideas of its own. The addition of Power Cores requires you to spread out your base, by leaving buildings to function at roughly 25% efficiency unless they are built in the radious of a power core. Similarly, Shield Generators can also be built to give structures and mechanical units a layer of rechargeable protection. This means that when attacking an enemy base, you'll want to prioritize your targets in order to deal the most crippling blow rather than knocking out a couple of random buildings. Finally, air units add a tactical layer that, while not perfectly executed, is still fun to play with. As noted in the beginning, Galactic Battlegrounds is fun. But it's largely fun because the game it copies so directly is fun. Anything more than that, you'll only get if you're a big time Star Wars fan. AOE 2 HD is a largely superior game point by point (and quality wise), but this will make for some nice goofy fantasy exploration if nothing else.
I picked this up on an impulse, about a day before the games release (Steam had a pre-order sale going on, so I got it cheap). The 2013 Shadow Warrior game hadn't really sold me based on the demo, so I didn't really have very high expectations (particularly since I had just finished DOOM recently). Holy crap though, this game ended up being one of the best purchases I've made in a while. First things first; a lot of people are comparing this to Borderlands. While there is certainly some common ground with that series, I felt like this game was more reminiscent of Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2, with some strong DOOM 2016 DNA. The balance between melee, magic and guns, combined with the often vertical nature of the levels, brought back some fond memories of that Star Wars title. Battles in general tend to feel like... lets say, DOOM in Anime' form, with heavy doses of the aforementioned Star Wars adventure. DOOM because of the double jumping, mantling and frankly ludicrous amounts of gore and body horror. As for the anime' comparison; you'll spend most fights basically flying around the map, cannon-balling in and out of large groups of enemies while decapitating multiple foes on the way and occasional using your magical powers to blast devastating force-waves that set off every explosive within sight. Do note: while I bring up DOOM and Jedi Knight a lot here, this game is NOT as polished as either. There are occasional physics glitches, and an almost irritatingly large number of invisible walls in some places. However, there were no game breaking bugs and no crashes (well, except one odd instance where I managed to back track past a door before it shut right as a boss fight was supposed to start). My only two real nit-picks have to do with the guns and visuals. Shooting in this game is...serviceable. You'll use your guns now and then, but they aren't anywhere near as fun or mechanically smooth as the sword. As for the visuals; the game looks nice, graphically and artistically, but between the overactive bloom effects and ultra-busy environments, it can be hard to see things clearly, particularly in the cyberpunk city environments. Still, none of that does anything to put a dent in just how much -fun- this game is. Forget Borderlands, DOOM or even Shadow Warrior 2013; if you were a Jedi Knight 1 fan, buy this now (and also, if you liked any of those three too I guess!).
First off, I haven't finished the campaign yet, though I've gotten far enough that I guess its fair to put up a review. As my review for the base game suggests, I'm already a fan of Harebrained Schemes cyberpunk fantasy RPG. This expansion pack (calling DLC is fairly insulting, this is every bit an old school expansion) improves on it on almost every way possible. The writing is better, the environments more varied and less linear (though it IS still linear), and an overall better feeling of progress and change in the world. Your NPC companions in particular are worth notice; I've heard people dismiss them as typical archetypes, but I didn't feel that summary does justice. They grow with the plot, learn to forgive and have detailed histories of their own that are actually interesting. My one problem with this expansion is the fact that it still has some bugs. Certainly, most have been stomped out, but early in the game I encountered a very odd one that made me loose control of my main pc. This was, however, only a one time occurrence. I highly recommend this expansion (and the base game) to anyone looking for a good, immerse and well written RPG adventure. You'll be hard pressed to find one as good as this.
I was a little uncertain about picking this game, but finally caved in and bought it. What I found is easily one of the most fulfilling games I've played in a long time. A popular complaint with this game is that it doesn't give you branching plot arcs (in its base campaign). In fact, it doesn't even let you customize the gear of your squad mates. Honestly though, I didn't feel like either of these detracted from the experiance, as the story present is well written (barring a few typos). Be advised though; there is literally no voice acting in the base campaign, so if you don't like reading a ton in your games....best move along. The locked gear on hired squad mates also felt pretty logical; these are people who are teaming up with you on a contract basis, not dolls who you can dress up as you please. They have their own favourite weapons and tools. Combat is exceptionally well done. All abilities fit well, and I never felt like any character was useless or rendered obsolete by another class (hi Dragon Age!). The way character progression works also keeps you and your enemies from ever feeling over powered. So, clearly I loved this game. What's wrong? Bugs. This game has some serious bugs, and I don't mean the kind you shoot at. I had armor sets vanish from my stash and character, only to reappear later under no specific conditions. Best people I can recommend this game to: Icewind Dale fans, and I suppose Fallout: Tactics players.
I'll start this off with the bad parts. Icewind Dale 2 was not as awesome as Icewind 1 in a lot of ways, especially level design and environmental visual wise. Stuff looks great, and there are some more imaginative scenarios at play... but the actual visual design never left me as dazzled as Ice wind 1, and there are a couple of levels in this game that will make you want to tear your hair out in frustration... Having said that; this is STILL one hell of a ride! Gameplay is similar to Icewind 1 (and Baldurs Gate 2 by extension), but unlike its predecessors, Icewind Dale 2 uses the Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 edition rules, the same used in Neverwinter Nights 2 (albeit not as feature filled here). This makes for a party that's much more diverse and easily tweaked, and a a lot more useful skills. Likewise, the available weapon types are also expanded on. The plot is... okay. It is more fleshed out than Icewind Dale 1's story, but this is one of those games where you feel like you are forced into certain decisions that you don't agree with. It does, however, create some pretty a atmosphere, and for the first half of the game you'll really feel like you're a part of an ongoing war (especially if you have summoners in your party, which can enable you to summon up to 6 more goons for your crew, leading to epic battles of 12 vs the monsters). All in all, this is most certainly worth picking up. Its tons of fun, and does the previous infinity engine games proud.
