The one thing that can kill your tactical turn-based strategy game is bad RNG. The enemies feel like they never miss, and it feels like your abilities never proc as often as they should. So when I have a 1% chance efffect happen three times in one fight but my sniper with 45% crit only scores 1 critical hit, I question why I would bother wasting more of my time playing? Enemies are spongy, supplies are limited, and reinforcements/back-line enemies that summon more enemies are prevalent. New spawns pop-in on top of or behind you so you're suddenly flanked. Heaps of missing QOL features like basic item comparison or fast scroll/zoom. Honestly, I got this one discounted and I still feel like I paid too much. It is a shame, because the story is engaging (but also slow, this game is so, so slow), the voice acting is fantastic for a budget title, it runs well enough, graphics and art design are aligned, etc. There are a ton of positives to say, but the forced stealth sections take place in real-time and you have to try and juggle each part memeber individually while all the enemies move in unison. Wait until the devs make a few QOL update passes/upgrade to the RNG before you waste your time and money.
Torchlight deserves it's status as a fun, lighter take on the Action RPG dungeon crawler. Is it perfect? No, nothing is. Is it fun and inexpensive? Absolutely. Honestly, I find it does some things better than Diablo. Like you get a dog (or cat) companion that will go sell your loot for you which honestly is what moved Torchlight from 3 to 4 Stars. Absolutely worth your time and money, shame there's no multiplayer though.
'Nuff said.
Seriously. I need someone to explain this to me. They took DOOM and made a BIBLE game out of it. Repeat that sentence in your head. As for the game itself? I'm not sure what to say really, this is an actual Doom clone and a piece of video game history. It's DOOM but PG and Biblical, which brings me joy. Whenever I want to give a friend a funny or gag gift, I always get them Super 3D Noah's Ark.
Okay so in my review for Shadowrun Hong I mistakenly pegged Hong Kong as the middle child, it isn't. Dragonfall is. So. Let's talk about Dragonfall. Dragonfall takes everything from Shadowrun and improves it, adjusts it, and stands out on its own. Yes the RNG is bullcrap somtimes, welcome to Shadowrun: everything is bad forever. But what really makes Dragonfall standout is the cast. Your runners aren't randoms or regulars you hire, you have a full cast of weirdos to call family. All of them great backstories and side content to fully flesh them out. Like a game where your choices actually matter? Well mostly. There's some light community building and improvement you can do in the hub but the real choices all revolve around your Runners. You can pet the dog.
Seeing Shadowrun get a new, competent, great game is like seeing Tony Hawk come out of retirement and pull off a sick 900 while jumping a flaming canyon to Superman by Goldfinger. Great character customization, lots of depth to builds and RPG mechanics, finance management, with side content to flesh everything out. A lot of work went into making the setting feel like Shadowrun should feel. Things are dark and blinding at the same time, oppressively capitalist and liberating. Story is good but lags behind Hong Kong and Dragonfall in my opinion. Actually that sums up Shadowrun Returns pretty well; stands on its own feet and great in its own right, but overshadowed by the follow-ups. Shadowrun Returns jogged so Dragonfall could run and Hong Kong could sprint. Yet I still go back and replay Shadowrun Returns, it is by no means obsolete because Dragonfall and Hong Kong are better.
More of the Shadowrun you love, but also All New, All Different. Hong Kong does a lot of work to distinguish itself from Shadowrun Returns and really comes into its own immediately. Visuals are an easy 10/10, great combination of stunning art style and quality work. Mechanics are more of what you love but juuuust different enough to keep it from being boring. Characters are AWESOME. Unlike Shadowrun Returns, you have a dedicated team of Runners. With a couple of optional ones if you work for it. I love all of them. Story is...so unbelievably good. I actually like it more than Returns or Dragonfall. Meaningful choices? Feels like you're always making a decision that's going to either bite you in the butt later or pay dividends...or let's be real this is Shadowrun it is going to be mostly bad and kinda okay'ish lol Easy recommendation.
So at $40 CAD for the Deluxe Edition, this might be one of the best commercially available overhaul mods you can buy. Having extensively played Battle Chasers: Nightwar, coming into Ruined King was like going from Baldur's Gate to Baldur's Gate II, from Doom to Doom II, from Diablo to Diablo II, etc. Do you like fun, innovative, bright, colourful JRPGs with interesting and impactful mechanics? Do you like the League lore/characters/world but hate playing League? Do you like excellent voice acting and rich, vibrant worlds that feel alive? Do you like minimum jank? Do you like flexible character builds that you can adjust whenever you like out of combat? Look, Ruined King isn't perfect, but for this price-point? You cannot beat the value for quality. As for downsides, there are a handful of difficulty spikes that can be rough to deal with. My advice is don't grind and overlevel, especially early on, because the world and encounters scale with you. I fell into that trap and until I had a full party under my belt I was essentially walled off from some overworld areas. Look this game has Braum and a great fishing mini-game, what more do you want?
Hitman Codename 47 is not the game it initially appears to be. This is an immersive puzzle solving game, with not super great controls. I went in expecting a game similar to Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, do not make my mistake. I had a lot of frustration and early quit moments until someone else pointed out the game is less about assassination than it about navigating mission using the fairly restrictive options. With a new perspective, I started to really enjoy how Hitman sets you up with a target and challenges you to find ways around the obstacles it throws at you.
Brigador deserves a better fate than this. Brigador is a game that should have joined the ranks other gaming masterpieces like Baldur's Gate, Diablo, WoW Classic, etc. Unfortunately, it committed two of most grievous development sins: Poor Controls and Terrible Onboarding. Examples? Very literal tank controls (there's a better control scheme but it isn't well labelled and isn't much better), and the game's extremely interesting and detailed story is told in a Soulslike fashion: through in-game item descriptions or is otherwise locked behind an in-game paywall. That's right, want to learn about a historical event? Gotta buy that Wiki article. Brigador would benefit tremendously from a campaign and interface overhaul. That's the bad, and if you can push past it there's so much gold waiting for you. So much. The game is Capitalistic to the extreme; pilots, weapons, mechs, etc are all purchasable. Everything is customizable, if you can afford it. Play styles vary wildly. Bigger, heavier mechs offer more armor, HP, and onboard weapons but they can be slow and clunky and extremely noisy. Oh yeah, Brigador has a robust stealth system with a novel approach: don't make noise. Weapons and mechs generate certain amounts of noise, including the weapon's impact. So if you're far enough away that the initial shot isn't louder than the impact, hostiles will investigate the impact site rather than you. Hint: Mechs that Hover don't have audible footsteps. Also everything is destructible. Flatten the whole map if you want, but make sure your enemies are standing next to that fuel tank first. Or just light up the pipeline that leads to it. This game is worth the effort to get into it, and the pilot biographies alone are worth the price.
