Well, at the beginning it looks really good: you have some not bad story with promising development, nice atmosphere, and very polished artwork. Also, exploration is very like Darkest Dungeon with extra side quests, whats also add some value. Unfortunatelly, its all overshadowed by some major flaws that ruins whole effort in my opinion: Your companions are just an disposable assets, they dont any level up and if they die or get discarded ... well, there a bunch of other nameless assets to choose. Only way to improve their performance is to equip them with items (everyone has exacly one slot), and upgrading such requires a bunch of prematurely finished expediotions to get enough parts. That may be insuffient tho, since your brave warrior may be whacked durung single fight by hailstorm of crit strikes and multi-target hits, so your time is effectively wasted. Apparently damage dealing capacity is primary mean to progress. Every character can defend, do basic strike and use 2 additional abilities, that are as generic as possible. Theres no synergy between any of them nor any scaling up or down in effectiveness (some propably has, but I dont see any difference). Its just do damage, do more damage or do some minor buff/debuff. Its very convinient tho, because there no tooltips and popups with explanations or reminders outside character submenu. Everything here seems totally random. Crits, evades, hits or misses, those just happens. Debuff are irrrestiable, since there no resistance. During encounters, you just choose someone with no idea, if they skills are increasing chance to success or not at all. Armor or damage dedution is only effect of buffing. To wrap this up, think of Vambrace: Cold Soul as bland copy of Darkest Dungeon with nicely hand-drawn graphics. It might be quite late to rant over 5-years old game (6 even!), but thats a bright example, that even the cuttest, straight from wallpaper protagonist wont save game with poorly designed mechanics.
KC:D is a mix of greatness and failures, so you'll be rage quitting and coming back pretty often. The game is set in medieval Czech Republic, portraying real-life places, events, characters and customs. Attention to details is clearly noticable here, as creators tried to recreate the true look of that era, what looks not only great, but also very vivid. Hovewer, because of that, the main plotline quickly become more like educational tour to show various aspects of living in that times rather than a full fledged story on their own. Yes, those segments are still a good content, but they lacks some really memorable moments. In addition, creatore made some compromise and made some more "modern" additions like locks in every existing chest and door or very polite and well-speaking peasantry. Side quests quality vary from ok-ish quests-chains with their own story to "filling" like abundant hunting tasks. Developing character is Oblivion-like, as the more you use certain ability, the higher proficiency in it you'll have and thats important, as your ability to eg. persuade or threten someone may make things easier or harder. Unfortunately, character development goes pretty ordinary and lacks something building up story, like moral system, what could fit the setting pretty well. Fighting is hard to rate. From one hand, its far more realistic and tactical than in typical RPGs and require some time to get used to it. From the other hand, its full of absurds like every looter in ragged shirt is master fencer, who easly blocks straight strike from steel mace with knife... unless you lock aim on other guy and hit him "accidentaly", then he take all damage without reaction. Money has not a real use, since you can't invest them, most of good armors and arms can be looted or stolen and most commodities are fairly cheap. Only exception is horse, as riding on stolen mount will get you troubles everywhere you go. To sum up: a very solid game, but quite dull on long run.
XIII is game basing on comic book, telling story of man with amnesia and titular tattoo, who tries to reveal truth both about his past and apparently connected eith him sinister conspiracy. Story is solid and addictive at first glance, although far-fetch, when you think about it, with quite expectable final plot twist. For plus, main character is narrated by David Duchovny. As easly noticable, game tries to imitate comic book with both graphics and additional effects, like literal depiction of various noises or showing effects in extra frames, what is really nice and if you like such details, you would be satisfied, even if today sometime it feels like cheaply made Unity game. What didnt work out is overall FPS mechanics. Aiming is messed up and enemies are not only numerous (the flood of helis is really annoying) and often hidden, but also quite deadly, so you either endure (thats the correct word) long enough to save progress or return to starting point, since checkpoints are pretty scarsly located. Boss fights are paticularly annoying, as they force you to do silly tricks to actually pass them, since every boss just run one or two paths all the time, but can waste you in no time. I got this one for free, but I would recommend it to get with huge discount. An iron will is required to finish it.
Biing is kind of ... satirical "Tycoon" game, where you manage clinic by hiring staff, handling supplies and expanding your enterprise by new services. In reality, game is micromanagenent hell, where you must personally click and check everything thats going on here, because no automation is present. The more rooms you have, the more clicking is waiting for you. It goes "well" with fact, that interface isnt very intuitive and you need some trials and error to actually understand, how to correctly do theretically easy tasks, like managing staff. Hand drawn artwork goes with oldschool, lightly erotic style what is ok, but no exceptional. Humor is ... debatable. Few staffers descriptions are a bit funny, tho. I've notice our German friends have a very fond memories about this production, but I barely see anything interesting here. Sorry folks.
Codename Outbreak is sometimes called "proto-Stalker", although those games have not much in common. Probably backpack management is the bigest similarity. Here you play as kind of spec-ops operator, doing various tasks against people infected by extraterrestrial parasite and later, more mature version of those ant-like aliens. You aren't doing stuff alone tho, because you have AI-controled companion, of which you can take control in any moment, especially when it carry weaponor item you need (or it stuck in weird place). Good thing is every mission is unique: you have to break into chemical plant and disarm explosives or find hidden military base and set up airstrike marker or infiltrate reaserch center in order to rescue survived scientist, what makes game interesting for longer while. Also, you have to plan your loadout for every mission - better suit, more powerful weapon, extra medkits and more ammo weigh a lot, so you have to choose. Yes, weapon - every firearm in basicly a multitasking tool - sniper rifle, assaault rifle, shotgun, minelayer and rocket launcher in one. Weird design, but it works somehow. In addition, you need extra space for collecting various intel items, because maps are mostly free to explore. Thanks to that, your missions can be "more successful", so you gain more medals and few points more for charateristics. For less bright side... Graphics and effects were already mediocre when it cames out. Levels are often composed from the same assets, so sometimes you feel weirdly familiar with some places. Also you AI-controlled companion isnt the best shooter nor the best pathfinder. Luckily, you AI-controlled enemies (who aren't also very diverse) arent much better and tend to e.g. kill themself with grenade launcher. Overall, its 4 stars game. It has has some technical deficiencies, but shows creativity and serious dedication from dev team to make someting interesting and standing out from other productions.
Thats not bad point adventure point and click game with pleasent to eye (but not outstanding) graphics. What is bad, that game itself is mostly fetch quests collection, so you'll go forth and back a lot. Sometimes you learn new skills, so you can go forth and back again to make use of it. Each action you make also depletes your quite low stamina and you need to rest often, so ... you guess it. It would be much better if it has some ... idk ... more tactical approach to some aspects or more diverse mechanics, but that just my grumble. If you like doing task without any hassle, explore land and pick up mushrooms, its cool game. Otherwise, it might get boring after a while.
Elex is a type of game that makes excellent impression at first glance, but the further you go, the less appealing it become. At start, you got blasted with vast and open post industrial (or post apocaliptic, depending, what part of map you visit) world, that can be explored on foot or by jetpack, quite engaging main plot, factions with different lore and viewpoints, important choises to make and so on. It's like typical Gothic game, but with enhanced story, better graphics and pretty well made blend of fantasy, sci-fi and modern references. NPCs have quite a lot of line to tell and even main character moves without typical Piranha's stiffness. What could go wrong? After initial part of game, you get into endless string of standard "go there-do thing-come for reward" quests. Sometimes you get some more complex, but also not really memorable task, which sometimes goes so silly, that you hardly believe what you just saw. One taskgiver need you to bring master tactican to lead nearly impossible to success massive siege. You bring him master tactician, who order ... frontal assault. No stratagems, no tactics, just human wave running straight into enemy line. Job well done. Main story goes fine until halfway, then dev team simingly ran out of time, because the quality goes down in shocking pace. From tight net of seemingly inscrutable intriques to ... well, heap of wet cardboard. It was very disappointing. Exploration is ok, however you'll keep finding either some basic stuff or unique items, that you won't use unless buffing yourself over the charts. Character progresssion in as painfully generic as it could be. Figthing is less lifeless than in previous Piranha's productions, but it quickly come obvious, that way to success is through repeating certain actions rather than adapting anything new. To sums up: Is Elex worth to try? Yes, but overall it goes as mediocre as possible, so waiting for discount is advisable.
Game still offers some fine features like great looking African landscape (especially with mods) than can be also burned down in spectacular way, freedom in approaching tasks (use silenced weapons, sniper rifles, automatic weapons of various types, mines, flamethrower or even goddamit mortar), companion system that add (some) depth into gameplay and story, that will question your point of view over your actions. Now lets talk about problems this game has and if they are really that problematic: - Outposts - yes, outposts fully repopulate themself when you move like 50 meters away. Even modders cant fix this. Also, you get so much resources, that raiding them is pointless apart from personal satisfaction of another 100%. But since its open world game you can simply evade them. - Lifeless scenery - yea, you'll see some wildlife, but you would expect much more after this setting. Lack of roaming civilians seems to be devs decitions to avoid unnecessary controverses. - Malaria - it is annoying, but also shows you, that even most feared mercenary is mortal human, prone to some commom disease - Boring side activities - perhaps only attacing weapon conwoys is worth doing but it mostly depends on you - its quite a sandbox game and some initiative is welcome. - Simplistic mission design - most of time you'll tasked to destroy another piece of already scarce infrastructure, furher pushing country into oblivion and optionally, to silence anyone who oppose. Those missions arent the most creative, but again, it up to your apporach. - Poorly made fights - enemies can be spoongy, especially in second part of game and weapons sometimes seems underpowered but I dont find this as issue. To sums up - if you're looking for more sandbox-like game, where you're creating some immersive background for yourself, then you find the right spot. If you want closely narrated story with interesting characters, you might look something else (like FC4), as this one might be disappointing
Folks says its XCOM-like game, but in fact, it isn't. Sure, you are head of secret, govermental agency, but that where similarities ends. Sigma Theory is about politics, spies and conspiracy, so you more like leading CIA operation rather than full scale war. Your main work is to oversee researching of advanced technologies, that will give your nation edge over the rest of world. To do this, you will recrut scientists (in various ways), do some diplomatic matters, interrogate captured spies and send agents to achieve any of this. There's a lot of great mechanincs, like every agent has characteristics, that makes them more or less suitable for certain action or scientists and diplomats may be more likely to work in your favor if you gather some intels about them first. Sometimes you'll need to move someone from hostile country and exfiltration happens, what is cool and gives kinda 007's vibes. But as a game mostly about politics, every failure here is very pricey. Some of them are simply unavoidable and push you into quagmire, so you have to have plan B (or even C). But actually it adds some tension and weight to every decision you make. The bad thing is game itself barely explain you how different perks or mechanics works, so you'll probably fail twice or thrice before get the idea, what to do. Also, the pace is very high, so doing fancy thing isn't an option and casual mode isnt available. Technically its mostly ok, with some minor annoying features like flood of popups, occasinaly glitching interface and blocks of generic text, one for every event of certain category (unfortunately it isnt Jagged Alliance tier of personalizing content, dispite attempts). Overall its a great game in rather rarely touched genre, when you may feel like guy from 3-Letter-Agency, who command some secret operation on foreign grounds, trying to both please superioirs and avoid political disaster. It has some problems but I have fun plaing it, so 4 stars.
I own Steam version, but let me write my rewiev here: TLDR in title. The rewiev: If I rate mechanics alone, it would be 5 stars. Parkour system is extremly well made, you can smoothly traverse through streets, roofs and any obstacle you meet in quite spectacular way. Combat system is also top-notch: each type of weapon (which could be upgraded) deals certain, clearly visible effects, you can take down zombies with various close combat moves or use enviroment for extra effectiveness. The nights in game brings also some extra nasty monsters, but running away is both profitable and somehow satisfying. Also, visuals are sometimes stunning, with great amount of details and effects. Then why only 3 stars? First, tone of game is very unbalanced. While main plot is kept in serious, grim fashion, the other activities are often silly or even goofy. The moment when one of main characters dies in dramatic way and then you decided to escort dude whos making cure for lycanthropy leave you with question: Should I care for anything that happens here or not really? Secondly, many events occurs only because main plotline must be pushed to next point or because developers wanted to add some shock value (and they did it clumsily). The former is mostly visible in bizzare behavior of some characters. I know there aren't military nor they're prepared for situation the faced, but some common sense should be common. In opening, protagonist in landing in city on parachute, in parachutist suit and no one even bother why he came to closed zone crowded with deadly zombies. Such situations will happen pretty often, what will produce, what else, many dramatic turns of action. The latter is just crude effects to inform players, how hard protagonist is struggling right now or how tearful certain scene should be, like being infected brings downsides only in strictly specified moments. I guess its enough. If you dont mind above mentioned things then game is great, really. Thanks for reading.
