This is one of the examples of indie gaming done right. What an odd little gem. Clearly, if you are into graphics, move one, even though it is wildly creative with its colorful text based graphics. If you are interested in a verrryy quircky, laugh out loud little kingdom sim, this is well worth your money. It is very low brow, a bit of Montey Python sprinkled in throughout, and for a text based game the writing can be a bit bare bones at times, but is still effective. It has a bit of crusader kings, as you are running your little kingdom, interact with visitors and surrounding kingdoms and indepentant bandit groups and such, expanding your empire, enjoying all the riches that come with it. But there is definitely a large dose of chaos thrown in as well. You can go to your arena and watch\wager on bets, or you can get a force together and just invade the arena and burn it all down. Suddent catastrophic endings are around many a corner. The adventuring is nice, as your run into all sorts of situations, illustrated with colorful little text drawings, and can basically act in any way you see fit at any given moment, laughing as it all burns down if you choose. If you like toung in cheek humor, quirky indie developers, text game nostalgia, and\or rather clever little kingdom games, absolutely check this thing out. The developer is very active and communicative, the game is very moderately priced, and it is the type of thing you can have a blast with just putting an hour or two into, yet clearly deep enough to suck you in for a longer haul. Enjoy.
Strategic Command is the war game series that brings joy to my heart. The system is simple, but always has enough angles to keep you engaged, and generally takes multiple play throughs to wrap your mind around. It's a great way to dip your toe in the genre, and most agree that even when you move to a more difficult series, you will still come back and buy each and every Strategic Command game. This one is no different, we get to throw down in North America now.. joy! But.. Blast! This is the most sandbox heavy entry of the entire series, no doubt. It is also the most abstact, and perhaps the very first where it doesn't always feel like you are fighting the war at hand. When we think of the the civil war we think lines of men at key battles, which take months to prepare for, with swift climactic endings. This plays much more like a WW2 game taking place on a civil war map. And yet again they are putting way too much emphasis sea battles, which was the biggest problem in their WW1 game (one of my favorite games of all time). To look back on the American Civil War or WW1 and say that about 15-25 percent of the events should be hex based sea battles is ridiculous. I get it, blockades decide the outcome of wars.. but find a way to abstract it away from the hex warfare. And please... add one more visual level to the map.. aside from up close.. 5% less up close... and then the world map. These are basic things that hardcore fans speak with every release. We love your games! This game continues to grow, and is very fun to tinker with. The added decisions are helping with immersion, no question. If you want a fun sandbox strategy American Civil War game, or love the SC series, buy this and enjoy. Just a bit frustrating to see the same problems pop up yet again.
The original release of Icewind Dale and Riven are my favorite games of all time. This one comes in close behind. Put 140 hours in the playthrough.
If you play war board games, this will be one of the best deals you could imagine. Along with the rest of the Gary Grigsby catologue. If you don't, you probably wont understand what you are dealing with here. If you only like little games for children and the main stream, you will probably troll this game without even playing it because of the price. This is one of the great wargames of all times on any platform. Go check the reviews and game time on Steam, then buy it over here. Children beware.
I love this game, it has gotten me into Axis & Allies like never before... and it's trash. The online play is quite solid, but there is no way in hell I am going to let Beamdog put the word "Online" at the end of the title to excuse the worst AI I have ever seen in a strategy game by far and it's not even close. Beamdog... the fellas that have been cashing in on other peoples games for some years now. Funny, if you go to steam, this game is in development... here, its "finished". I would give this game 5 stars quickly if they did the work to elevate this product from Money Grab, to..... Game. Just stop beamdog... stop... everything you touch dies, regardless of some nice profits. Write a proper AI, bring in another senario or two, put some love into it and boom - 5 stars. I only put 3 because I know yall ain't gonna do any of this. Please.. prove me wrong. Or better yet, make a game of your own some day.
This game is a blast, great level design, insane comical action (feels like your in some 80's action movie), fast paced fun. It just oozes early 2000's. Absolutely, you need to jump through a hoop to get it running, which is unfortunate - but very much worth it! Google SoFPlus, unpack the mod into the game folder - even go a step farther and Copy/paste the SoF.exe into a new file, rename it MOHAA.exe.... sounds a bit annoying, but it really only takes a few mins then tadaaa!! SoF action packed extravaganza
Do not listen to people blabbing about this game being over 200 dollars. If you actually buy all of the content, you have just purchased about 13 different games with well over a thousand hours at least. .... pick the theater of war that interests you most, buy that DLC. You will have a blast. And if months from now you want to try a diffent one, go for it, it will be worth the money. Yes! There is over 200 dollars worth of DLC, but this could have been OOB 1: Pacific, OOB 2: War in the East, OOB 3: Africa Corp, OOB 4... etc. Each one has a huge amount of content. The base game here starts with the war in the Pacific which is a great experience. If that doesn't interest you, you can find the base game for free elsewhere and choose a DLC of your choice to get things going. As far as gameplay goes - this is a wonderful experience here. The Panzer series is epic, but there is no doubt that it is a puzzle game, not a true strategy game. Strategic Command is epic... but there is no doubt that the only campaigns available are absolutely massive! Order of Battle truly threads that needle. You get some supply chains and fleshed out tactics, but it still keeps things from the hardcore (Gary Grigsby anyone?). If you love SC but want smaller maps, or a slower, more open ended pace than Panzer Corps - this is the game. I will say, planes feel quite unrealistic at times, they can just exist over entire fleets without much trouble, apparently circling around endlessly having their way. It can be dealt with, but it just does'nt feel realistic. The Ai... is a bit questionable at times, will definitely let you off the hook. But all in all this is a great experience here - cheers!
At long last a new entry into this fantastic genre. It's actually a remake, though most will have missed it when it first came out, and even if you haven't it is well worth a look as it has been remastered exellently. The graphics are crisp, the music is well suited, and all the great puzzles are still in tact, awaiting your prying mind. Absolutely!!! If you can't handle not having a little icon telling you where to go... yea... beat it... If you can't take notes for yourself - beat it. If your hand needs to be held walking down the street.. beat it. The AAA money grabs awaits you. If you want to try to unlock the secrets of an ancient world, and are willing to put some real time and effort to achieve it - welcome my friend.
Sokal creates an outstanding atmosphere and story in this little adventure puzzler, but the dev team clearly lacked anyone with any skill in puzzle building. What makes games like Myst so wonderful is that you get to explore distant worlds, finding stange objects and try to figure out what makes them tick and what their purpose is. Amerzone has the first part down, but completely lacks any serious puzzles. You find some wonderful area, excited to explore it, then realize there is absolutely nothing there except for some random item you pick up, plunk it on the only other thing in the area that can be interacted with and tadaaa, next chapter. There are entire rooms and areas that have literally no purpose and nothing to interact with. The fact that these rooms and areas are so beautiful and strange makes it more frustrating that they are empty. With a good puzzle developer this game could have been a 20 hour masterpiece, instead of a 6 or 7 hour jaunt through the park. If you love the genre, dive right in and enjoy a weekend playthrough. If you are curious about the genre this could be a good jump off point as it is so easy and short. Regardless, prepare yourself for some unrealized potential.
I had always thought I beat System Shock 2 back when it came out, apparently I had only played through the demo. My goodness what an insane rabbit hole this thing goes down! It's impressive as it isn't wildly atmospheric, but things get so damn sideways that it really started putting chills down my spine and leaving me completely spent by the end! If your gonna play on hard difficulty, do a little research into your character build, as this thing gets absolutely brutal at the end if you don't have your character built right. Highly recommend this to anyone who doesn't need cutting edge graphics and atmosphere, as this game puts most modern games to shame.
