First off, I recommend to switch off the flashing effects in the settings before starting the game. I found the combat a lot less irritating this way. The game takes place on a randomized map containing cities with different bonuses. Some cities allow you to buy special items, get faster repairs, reinforce your fleet with additional ships, buy cheaper fuel, or loot long-range (nuclear) missiles. The goal is to keep your flagship safe, capture the city of Khiva, and then hold it against a merciless counterattack. Enemy fleets are everywhere and will do their best to annihilate your fleet before you ever make it to Khiva. Fleets consist of different airships. Some ships are small, fast attack ships which can evade enemy fire. Other ships are huge, slow, but protected by armour. Some ships are completely useless in a direct fight but may be great long-range scouts. Other ships can launch missiles or fighters. The key is to use each unit according to its strengths. Most of the gameplay takes place on the map screen. You will order your fleet to move from city to city. Run out of fuel or get surrounded by enemies and you are screwed. You can also split up your forces, hunt down transports, confuse enemy strike groups by creating distractions, or attack them head on if you are crazy enough. Combat takes place on a 2D screen and requires only the use of your keyboard and mouse. It is brutal but very satisfying. The more you play the game, the more neat little tricks you will learn to survive. And there is so much more: random story events, ship upgrades, decrypting radio messages, hiring allies in a fun dialogue mini game, using radar or infrared systems to track down other ships etc. The storyline is amazing, too. The closer you get to Khiva, the more unprecedented disasters will happen in the game world. Perhaps you can become its saviour. More likely than not, you will die trying. But you will want to come back and try again because this game is just brilliant.
As an avid fan of point-and-click adventures, I decided to pick up this game on sale and played through it over the course of a few days. I never played this game when it came out in the 90s, so I can review it without any kind of nostalgia and overall I would recommend it. The biggest strengths of the game are the story and atmosphere. The plot is very interesting and made me want to keep playing even when I got stuck. The lovely atmosphere of the game is created by its memorable music and the writing (banter between Gabriel and his friends, street musicians, the sound of Gabriel pouring himself some coffee, other characters' comments on Gabriel's personality... the game is full of these cool little details and they added a lot to the fun I had playing through it.). The gameplay is decent, with a few notable exceptions. Most of the puzzles made sense to me after giving them some thought, and the day-by-day structure of the game always gave me a feeling of making progress when I had done everything I needed to complete an in-game day. However, I ended up disliking two puzzles: 1. At one point, Gabriel has to write a coded message to progress the plot. As far as I could tell, the content of this message is almost impossible to figure out without using a walkthrough, and even then you may not understand why Gabriel has to write down this particular message at this specific point in the story. 2. Close to the end there is a section where Gabriel has to dodge some enemies while running through a certain area, and that was no fun at all. The problem is not the general idea of introducing an action sequence like this, but its execution: The slow point-and-click controls make it very difficult to avoid dying in this part and I had to retry it more often than I would have liked to. Nevertheless, this is a five-star game to me because of the low price and great fun I had with it. Strongly recommended, but be ready to use a walkthrough if needed.
1) Download and install XCOM 2 and the War of the Chosen expansion. 2) Go to XCOM 2 -> XCom2-WarOfTheChosen -> XComGame and add a new folder there. Call it "Mods". 3) Download the mods you wish to use (e.g. via Steam Workshop Downloader or Nexus) and put their folders into the "Mods" folder you have created. 4) Go to XCOM 2 -> XCom2-WarOfTheChosen -> XComGame -> Config and open "DefaultModOptions" with a text editor. 5) For each mod you wish to use, add a line that looks like this: ActivateMods="MODNAME" The name of the mod can always be found in the mod folder. For example, if the file is called "EvacAll_WOTC.XComMod", you need to write "ActivateMods=EvacAll_WOTC" (without the quotation marks). 6) Save the changed DefaultModOptions file and start the game. 7) If you wish to disable a mod, delete or change its line in the DefaultModOptions file. Just an amazing squad-based strategy game. Very addictive, especially with mods. I can't recommend it enough.
1) Download and install XCOM 2. 2) Go to XCOM 2 -> XComGame and add a new folder there. Call it "Mods". 3) Download the mods you wish to use (e.g. via Steam Workshop Downloader or Nexus) and put their folders into the "Mods" folder you have created. 4) Go to XCOM 2 -> XComGame -> Config and open "DefaultModOptions" with a text editor. 5) For each mod you wish to use, add a line that looks like this: ActivateMods="MODNAME" The name of the mod can always be found in the mod folder. For example, if the file is called "EvacAll.XComMod", you need to write "ActivateMods=EvacAll" (without the quotation marks). 6) Save the changed DefaultModOptions file and start the game. 7) If you wish to disable a mod, delete or change its line in the DefaultModOptions file. This also works with the (strongly recommended) War of the Chosen expansion. Just an amazing squad-based strategy game. Very addictive, especially with mods. I can't recommend it enough.
This is what I love about A Legionary's Life: - The writing really makes you think and feel the way a Roman legionary might have at the time of the Second Punic War. For anyone interested in Roman history or well-written RPGs, this is a gem. - The gameplay is great. It consists of camp sections, fights and random events. Very often you have to make choices which may have an impact on your reputation, give you certain rewards or put you into dangerous situations. During the camp sections you can train up your legionary's skills and stats, boost your morale or improve your reputation with certain activities, or you can buy better equipment. The turn-based combat is very well designed and rewards a tactical approach. If you fight cautiously, you will be able to hold the line even against superior forces. If you fight recklessly, you will die very quickly. The choices and random events give the game a lot of replay value. There is also a cool foraging minigame. - The game offers a true RPG experience. Your legionary simply won't be good at everything. Depending on his stats and skills, certain actions will be very likely to fail. There is also a morality system which allows you to roleplay either a ruthless or a virtuous legionary. This adds even more replay value. These are the things you may not like about the game (none of which bother me): - Due to the combat rolls, stat checks and random events there is a lot of RNG in the game. To me, this is a plus, but if you dislike RNG in video games, it may turn you off. - A lot of the game is entirely text-based and there is no voice acting. If you hate reading long texts (even if they are well-written), this may bother you. - Permadeath makes the game very intense, but each time you die, you will have to start over. - It's a small budget indie game. If you expect cinematic graphics or a huge variety of music, you will be disappointed. There is a free demo available online. Play it first if you are still unsure.
Other reviewers have said the most important things already, so I'll try to keep this short. To start off on a positive note: Disco Elysium one of the most radical and fun RPGs I've ever played. The way your character traits influence the whole playing experience is amazing and gives the game lots of replay value. The writing is fantastic and kept me thinking about the cases I had to solve in the game even after switching off my computer. I do not regret buying the game for the full price (though I usually shy away from paying 40 bucks for a single video game) and feel absolutely compelled to give it a 5-star rating. However, I would still like the developers to address some technical issues and gameplay weaknesses with a few patches. I encountered situations in the game where I couldn't use an item after equipping it. At one point the game even froze after a very long dialogue, which I annoyingly had to repeat after going back to my last savegame. Gameplay wise, there were a few situations in which making progress on the main case seemed to depend on a skill check related to a single skill. If your character hasn't specialized in said skill, you may still be able to progress (with save scumming, if all else fails), but it would be better to patch in a couple of alternative role-playing options to avoid a possible feeling of frustration. Nones of these issues were gamebreaking in my case, but the developers should fix them nevertheless. Once this is done, I will gladly call Disco Elysium a perfect RPG experience.
If you like the first two games, there is a good chance you will love this one. A word of advice before I get into further detail: Playing this game does not make much sense if you have not played BS 1 & 2. Playing BS 3 on its own will confuse you more than anything. The best way to start the game is to import a save from BS 2 because then the game will keep track of the choices you made, the characters you got (not yet) killed and the items you collected. Just like BS 1+2, this game is a mixture of well-written, atmospheric storytelling and exciting turn-based combat. The visual and musical presentation is beautiful and most of the choices you make do matter. There is more combat in this game than in BS 1 & 2, which does, however, fit the setting. While there is a certain danger that the battles may become repetitive, I certainly enjoyed every single one of them. Due to the fact that almost every character you can control and almost every enemy you have to fight has different special abilities, strengths and weaknesses, each battle is a tactical challenge of its own. I think that the combat system used in all three games is excellent because it forces you to think tactically: Which heroes do I send into battle? How do I position them on the battlefield? Is it better to attack the enemy right next to me or to use a special ability to support a hero who is going to take a hit next turn? Another thing which gives this game a lot of replay value is choice and consequence: Not only can you experiment a lot with the choices you can make in this game, but depending on your choices in BS 1 & 2 some situations will play out differently. Characters you saved from death earlier on may sacrifice themselves to give you an advantage, or simply die when you screw up. And screw up you will. At times, this game made me feel miserable because of the deaths caused by my choices. But when I finally beat it after roughly 10 hours, I was already sure I would play it again.
