Been a while since I've bothered to review. Noticed that the DEI hand holding to critique notice has been stamped right into the review system so that's abbrasive and unwelcome. First stop on the way to being told Don't say anything we don't like. Well luckily for the same people who botched Cyberpunk, The Great Rebellion rocks! Banned in Germany by the same initiatives that will eventually make CDproject Red bankrupt as they slowly cave to DEI, The great rebellion is a game that comments on this very thing. It controls like Starbound with a side of Secret Agent classic. Many games do the cut and paste platformer but none with this OST, style and flavour. What a ride. I can see why it rubs the enemies of mankind the wrong way, it is a game so contrary to that is accidentally recreates the same conditions that just hollowed out that Trashfire Concord, with one exception. It's good. Not just good but enjoyable. While lacking the polish of something as visceral and specific as Devolvers Katana Zero, TGR does that thing that most SBI type orgs perport to do, it made me realise that not all games will be infiltrated, defunded, and hollowed out by actisivm. Not all games need to survive. Not all games will be endless fests of targeted messaging. That it happens to be meme savy and presently funny is such a breath of fresh air. I can scarely believe that the Germans let this out. *Edit, Spoke too soon, Germans do like to censor and cry don't they? It's banned there now* Perhaps the winds are changing. TGR is the based spak that will ignite the real one we sorely require as every aspect of entertainment is suberted, bought out, ruined and paid for by agenda driven mass/mainstream/legacy media money. That being the kind invented by John Money of course. Who knew that Slay Queens was actually advice? Ten out of Ten because Star Systems are for sci fi. Buy it before they delist it and fight fight fight.
To begin this is from 1996. Inevitably compared to WarCraft but people forget another release that really contributed to this gem getting ignored- Command and Conquer. Everyone was focused on the Dune 2 successor when they should have been looking at what would become the basis of Blizzards entire economy. I put my name to the Gog Bring it Here petition- Insta buy. Again. The Bad >Ignored >Hard to find (and get working) >No soundtrack to DL with it. (I ripped it from my old copy) >The AI will be the reason Skynet fails to kill the human race when the machines rise. >'Guide Dang It' levels of hard Good >Some of the most involved world building to never spawn, books, movies, or 2 million sequels despite deserving the highest awards for originality from out of nowhere. >Hero Characters + Powers (war cries related to morale) >Units are recruited, upgraded and EQUIPPED >Each of the 4 races is UNIQUE. Plants/Dinosaurs/Space Sneks/ E.T. Monks >Flexible Strategy. Ideology applying itself to each. Ideologies like 'Guerrilla' Eeagra. 'Storm Trooper' ThaRoon. 'Ghandi' Shama Li Or 'Alamo' Obblinox. >Music is outstanding. >Asymmetric but linear missions with Unit import ( so upgrades DO count in the long run) >Animals/ neutral wildlife - there's an ecosystem here and you can hurt it and BE hurt by it. >Unit based tactics which unlike the missions are actually VERY flexible, Ambush beats tech, tech beats stealth, stealth beats ambush. Paper>Rock>Scissors >Loads of 'Find-ables' Such as vehicles, wandering high value warriors to recruit (might not even be your species so what your fire!) and my favorite, Bio Slag. >Stealth means you can sneak in - steal resources and bugger off. Hit and run style. Also possible to use native wildlife to harass enemies. >Voice acting is catchy and surprisingly not badly dated. (The Eaggra make adorable drippy trilling noises which serve to make them creepy cute) >Also Eaggra units start off as 'Scrubs' (lol) >Not Blizztard IP (Big plus) >FUN
Double Dragon. Final Fight. Streets of Rage. River City Ransom. Every arcade game where Chicken was the pickup for health and GO -> Was your only plot motivation. Often it was ham fisted and you honestly never cared because it was all about the pallet swapped McDojo Brothers kicking ass and taking names until the sequels ran out, or the quarters vanished. If you loved ANY of these, then you deserve this game. References so far- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Mortal Kombat. Under Siege. Jay and Silent Bob. Fight Club. Dragon the Bruce Lee story. Cobra. Rocky. Chuck Norris. These are a few of the in game references that I noticed having just started and being unable to stop, except to shout that everything so far is GREAT. It plays like Broken Sword and River City Ransom had a baby. The Combat is exhaustive and detailed, but not in your direct control. You pick a series of learned moves, in between bouts and rounds (like a coach in a UFC match). You can train at home, underground, in a gym, with a buddy, or go full street. This game I will say is probably, accidentally I might add, every Mixed Martial Arts fans wet dream (the one with blood) because the combat is like watching a match, only YOU build one of the fighters. It's got that old school Pokemon feel with a 'Bruce Lee hyphenation'. Whoever did this, loves martial arts. Mixed, street, traditional, modern, competitive, all of it. Boxers will love that combination hand fighting is in, Muai Thai will love that low kicks matter. Street types will love that there are tactics only learned the hard way. Traditionalists will love discovering the true masters. UFC fans will love that you can match them all and that it actually simulates the slow crawl to the competitive top. (fighting underground will get you injured for example) Music is fantastic, 8 bit excellence. It reminds me of Stick RPG from Newgrounds but with a sheer depth that will keep the 90s kids nodding. Affectionate parody incarnate with STRONG play.
