The game is at minimum 120 hours long. I've spent 160+ hours with it. It was like a big rock that was pushing your heart all the time suddenly fallen and ceased to exist, what a relief :). So if you don't want to invest a helluva lot of time into this baby, then do make yourself a favor and don't even start it. This is a **VERY FINE** piece of RPG, laden with awesome content, great humor, and lots of very hard encounters that will require you to learn a LOT about how the mechanics work in this overcomplicated game world. Sometimes it's so nuanced, so elongated that it will literally drive you crazy :D. This is more like an RPG Strategy, than a simple RPG. There are myriads of subsystems, overconnected systems that require you to micromanage things and calculate this or that in order to bring down enemies. At first this is a great challenge, but later on you have to buff yourself to eternity in order to bring down bigger foes and it will get on your nerves sooner or later. + Good story, tho very long. + HUMOR in a game, unbelievable! Need more! + Challenging combat, A LOT! - Almost everything is solved by fighting... there are too much encounters in the game. - Make the game at max 60 hours long. Anything above that is futile. I bet my used socks that only about 5% of people finished the game. - There are a lot of aspects of the Pathfinder game that is not fit fot computer RPGs: - Spell memorizing and resting takes a LOT of time, it must be eliminated, it's an unnecessary burden and you have to save scum in order to find out what will and won't work for a given enemy, instead of just shooting the spell from your spellbook. Let's say you go to a new area and there are powerful undeads that will level drain you. Solution? Reload, relearn spells, retry, reload, relearn spells, retry. - Miss, miss, miss too many useless filler text. Show stats at the end of the fight about weps and chars. - Slapdashed ending and ACT V. - Too much loot! Very much.
Well, when the RTS genre was slowly steering away from limelight came Iron Harvest and restored its nimbus. This is really a classic top-down RTS with the usual tropes and user interface. Lacks the usual micromanagement nightmare most of the games in this genre are known for. There are a minimal set of buildings that you have to bring up and upgrade, plus the units you have to manage is also kept at a minimal level. The devs created a quite good, streamlined experience where you can concentrate on controlling a handful of awesome looking behemoths, heroes with a unique arsenal of skills and some soldiers next to them. Mechs? Like the ones from Mechwarrior? They all look the same, the weapons they sport are ridiculous looking and boring plus the sound they emit are like like muffled fa?ts in heavy wind. Oh and the explosions are usually boring too. Well, NOT THIS TIME. These are unique looking large behemoths that sport absolutely stunning looking aesthetics, with creative weaponry and good weapon sounds that command authority whenever they start their song of destruction. Everything is torn to shreds in their way, every step they make is believable, and they definitely won't make ballerina moves. There are a lot of cutscenes, which elevate the good overall atmosphere of the game plus provide some background information about the happenings. Besides some slow commando like missions, everything is top notch, so if you like mechs, a good story with some profound thoughts to chew on, then don't hesitate. A good 20+ hours of strategical destruction awaits you.
I played these games like 30 years ago have lots of fond memories and to my surprise I still remembered what I had to do in key/boss fights to succeed. In a nutshell: if you are bored with modern RPGs and want some real action, some raw down to earth role playing without walls of text then don't hold back, because these are the games that started the whole computer based RPG madness. Take your time to get familiar with the controls/shortcuts, it will take some time to get used to it. Later on it will bring you some unforgettable experiences. SSI was an absolute stellar games studio back then, so if you liked these games, go on and play their other games too. My favorites are: Curse of the Azure Bonds Secret of The Silver Blades
You are second class citizens and have to run errands for a certain individual in search for a mothership. Mainly to explore spaceship derelicts, find some half conscious subsystem onboard to interrogate about your next target and nuking all kinds of enemies on your way forward. Each area is divided into tiles but you can only see your immediate surroundings. Upon setting foot on a derelict you only see the surrounding tiles around you. Moving around reveals more and more tiles and as you delve deeper you eventually bump into npcs, areas of interests, hazards and enemies that want to suck your marrow. Moving tile by tile creates a good, a bit claustrophobic atmosphere, well supported by the oftentimes ominous background music and pleasing sound effects. DSD got a good infusion of inspiration from Darkest Dungeon, but it's a different take on the same mechanics and works quite well. You can save anytime and will not be punished when someone dies, if you get back to safety. In essence you are not wasting your time on repetition. During combat each member of your party draw a number of cards from your deck. You can partially influence the occurrence of each card by choosing skills and using specific items and their extensions. Each class has one MEGA skill, but take caution spending your skill points, especially early on, because there is no way to reroll. I only distributed them when some hard to overcome enemy repeatedly bashed my brains out on the concrete. After you get to know the system most of the fights will be routine like, but overall the combat is satisfying. Experiencing a monster getting some good haymaker from your power fist is always pleasing. Basically you need some kind of control skills, damage dealing for everyone and damage resistance/armor reducers later. I liked DSD besides its flaws. More diverse monsters, challenging fights and more boss encounters are very much needed and hopefully will be delivered in the next game. Go buy it!
I loved the original King's Bounty game back in the 90s C64 era. Somehow I missed this perfectly cut gem back in 2008. So bought it and it did not disappoint at all. It is a timeless game, an evergreen that aged well and even 12 years after release it brought around 70 hours of fun gameplay for me. There is actual humor in the game, which is very much needed in the current arid, desert like environment most of the games have to dwell in. Story is mostly told via text, but it's digestible since it's varied and brings humor into the mix. Animations and graphics are stellar, the tactical aspect is quite ok, if you have some brains and do not want to kill a dragon by five drunken peasants asking it to give you his heart. It's also devoid of repetition. You never have to rebuild your army just because you have succeeded in one of your missions (eyeballing HOMM). All in all it's a perfect tactical experience. It's like a many headed hydra, where each head provides something unique to the mix. Time to grab a horde of beholders and thousands of peasants to strike fear into the heart of your enemies!
