It's a peculiar game: Isometric, small in size, not much in terms of replayability as you literally have ONE case to solve and there's just one solution to it. HOWEVER, the way it's all done makes it a masterpiece. The story is complex. There are great NPCs, with excellent dialogues and great voice acting. The whole vibe of Revachol is one of a kind, and it's unforgettable. The game is rich in social commentaries and political points of view served in an excellent way that is amusing, sometimes dark, but never boring or clumsy. The NPC partner we get is actually pretty helpful and feels like a real character, not just another NPC that we need to take care of. The music and the whole imaginarium is rich and unforgettable. This game is a very rare case of a gaming gem that truly stole my heart. I can't recommend it enough. And if you aren't convinced... hey, tell me, in how many games can you actually discuss the matters with your reptilian brain? How often are you after a cryptid? And how many good things have been already taken away by the Pale? Go. Play it. Enjoy the experience.
Let me start with the good stuff. YES, it is a nice city/colony builder with Dwarves. If it sounds appealing - good. The graphic design is nice. Not next gen, but it's solid and pleasant. The basic idea is simple to follow, same goes with the tech tree, sorts of buildings, jobs and so on. It can be really nice when you play it without going hardcore - a click here and there, a bit of focus on diffing ever deeper and it's all OK. So why the three stars? What are the issues? First off, the game is unbalanced - usually it's VERY easy to play, but depending on the seed and your settings it can be almost impossible. In no small part due to your dwarfs being brain dead. Suicidal rush towards enemy nest because there is something that the colony could need? No problem! Dwarfs being unconcious and dying while the rest does not give a damn about it and there's nothing you can do? Sure. Also: The soundtrack is nice, but it would be nicer if it contained more than one track. The colony gets more and more difficult to manage overtime as there are issues with scaling and tasks tuning. Too much micromanagement that often seems not to work, anyway. VERY IMPORTANT: the devs declared the game abandoned so while it had potential and with some fixes here and there could be pretty cool it's not going to reach that state. Not today, not tomorrow, never. All in all, you can buy it for some clicks and fun when it's discounted, but that's it. A game that could have been something MUCH better.
I`m a pretty big fan of all submarine related games, historical, fantasy, tactical, you just name it. Therefore I was looking forward to this one - less realistic, but also with promising story and audiovisuals and finally a nice departure from usual sub genre - no WWII or Cold War, no actual conflict but instead set in a strange post apocalyptic world. This could be great, but it isn`t. Why, do you ask? First of all, it`s a real bugluvion. I`ve never seen that many bugs, that frequent and NOT fixed in a released title. Well, at least some of them are amusing like the chance to just keep selling your items over and over again, draining the merchants of their cash. However, quite a few of them can be game breaking. Say, you need to sail into a tight labirynth to save a mate and the only way to find the objective is by following a path of buoys? No problem - they`re not visible. They should be, but they just aren`t so have fun. Also, UI and controls are rather flawed - they seem to work, but following your quests as well as navigating and findins objectives can be pretty difficult. There`s also this issue that the map is often giving you a rough idea, but do not rely too much on actually finding your objective by following it. The UI makes a fighting also an extra challenge as, especially at first it`s quite confusing. Lastly, there was a potential for a great story and interesting characters, something you can get regardless of bugs, UI or limited budget. Unfortunately, the characters are rather simple, there isn`t much interaction between them and most of the have just a few lines to share. Could be great, but isn`t. To wrap it up: nice potential, nice music and audiovisuals, great melange of 3D and 2D executed very well - but all that is buried under a deep sediment of bugs, half cooked ideas, half working solutions and lack of that special something. It stands out in my eyes as a beautiful failure.
