People still play this online today! Not sure how the gog version supports it yet. The jedi battle stages are fun/funny. You can be other "heroes" too on both good and bad side (han, boba fett etc). The sense of scale is amazing. Being a little guy running next to an AT-AT on Hoth is just so darn cool. Flying a snow speeder around and flying over troops who look like ants from your height was always my star wars gaming fantasy. This game is everything the first one was but bigger and better. AND...there are map packs for all the maps from the first battlefront for this installment made by fans. The single player mode isn't much of a story but is still fun to kill time. I love...LOVE this game. Star wars fans get it. The action isn't all that tactical although there are tactics involved. You'll mostly feel like cannon fodder in some spots. But the sense of scale and solid gameplay mechanics make this an excellent game. unlike the first game there are also space combat stages. This game has a lot to offer. Even if you play alone you will get quite a few hours before you're tired of it.
Just finished the single player story. Took me several weeks. Not sure how many hours but at least 25-30 hours and maybe lots more. But you also have multiplayer and sandbox mode. I was really surprised by all the branching paths in sp and how long it was. Some paths weren't obvious but I really felt like I was making decisions in regards to the story. Mod wouldn't run on day 1 release but as of Jan.5,2015 it runs but is still a bit buggy. I'd get a few ctds...and had one scare that my save was corrupted as every time I loaded I'd move my guy a bit and it would crash. That was near endgame too. I had to lower all my graphics settings (and my computer is only a year old). Some may need to use "large address aware" to prevent crashes so the game will utilize more ram. I wish there was in ingame options to limit parties moving around on the map. That helped a lot with crashes with other mods for me. I loved the unique locations and some of the unique battles. Ship battles were cool although a bit uneven as well as some of the unique battles in general. Some battles and quests (like taking a location a holding it for 30 days in the middle of enemy country) are hard as nails even to a veteran m&b player like myself. The map is the Brytenwalda map but much bigger in scale and forces you to use ships even more. I think this is set 200 or so years after Brytenwalda. I liked the music and some of the village layouts better in Brytenwalda but overall Viking Conquest is a bigger and better experience. especially once they get more patches out (which they will. the talesworld forum is proof of the sincere effort to make this dlc right). To new players try the Brytenwalda mod. If you're a diehard m&b fan try this out for the singleplayer experience alone. It will surprise you. Lots of good ideas from other mods all in one place. I'm glad they put this out although it could've been more polished at release. Definitely recommended!
I think the devs originally set out to create a medieval combat simulator focusing on cavalry pre black powder warfare. This is a game that once I installed many years ago has never left my hard drive. In my opinion the game itself has several brilliant ideas but lacks in areas that tie all these ideas together. That's where mods come in. The modding community was very robust and you can get dizzy looking up all the available mods in gameplay mods to new themes/skins for the game's world. My favorite two are Star Wars: Conquest and The Last Days of Middle Earth. Check the optimization thread on the last days forum to get it working right. There are some things to consider but once working right you'll likely love it as I did (and still do!). There are many other mods. Westerns, and ancient far-east themes. Historical themes researched to be relatively accurate. So many modders have done many great things with this game. It takes a good game with several great ideas and turns it into an amazing experience. The gameplay is interspersed between combat (the main focus), a large map screen where your character is a tiny dude you click around and some menu-driven gameplay for trading, shopping, quests etc. There are tournaments to join and people to impress or piss off. It's nearly impossible for the game to end but the ride is what's most fun. Mods like The Last Days are meant to end in a reasonable time. Most others just go on. It's a grind but so much fun when you find a mod you like. The combat might be my favorite. Picture yourself playing total war through the eyes of one of the foot soldiers. Although you get to gather and lead your own group this is what it feels like. I get burned out...but I can always put this game away and come back to it in between games when I just want to kill a few hours. Definitely worth your time even with Warband out since Star Wars Conquest is for original M&B only. This game is a 8/10. With mods it's 9.5/10!
It's a third person space combat sandbox. You won't be getting into freespace/independence war/xwing style dogfights. it's a real time rpg with an active pause system if you want to use it. once you've done a few upgrades on your ship you'll have your ship autofire on nearby enemies. You can upgrade a variety of things about your ship as well as plenty of ships to try out. You can hire crew that give stat boosts and buy and sell trade goods. the world is pretty big but maybe a bit busier than space should be as another reviewer said. The main store felt like it was put there as an afterthought. The meat of this game is the sandbox gameplay. The graphics are nice and there is plenty to do. There are a variety of factions you can work with or piss off. I put about 20 hours before I felt burned out but it's not exactly my type of game. I've read about some who put HUNDREDS of hours into this. That's pretty wild to me...but if you end up liking how everything comes together in this package I could see that happening. That's how I am with the mount and blade games. Starpoint Gemini 2 isn't exactly my kind of game (and I like space combat games...) but I could definitely see this game being perfect for certain kinds of gamers out there. This is a 7.5 from me with a 4 star rating because it really does have a few things going for it.
This review is mostly for fans of the original with an open mind. It seems no matter what kind of remake was made, some people are going to be nitpicky and unhappy no matter what. I replayed the original 2 days before this released. The bugs mentioned in the title refer to autosave issues. Some can break your game. The devs know this and are already patching. They have a few spots on their forum for manual saves spots for reference in case you run into any of these snags. I have NOT, but that doesn't mean you won't since several people complain about the same thing. I did have issues with freezing so I saved a lot. In the game the voices are different. Devs made an effort to deliver the same mood and tone as the original. Gabriel stood out as being most different. Not amazing nor terrible. Serviceable. The voices sounded mostly similar and around 90% of the lines are the exact same. There are small bits of new dialogue and the timeline is slightly different in minor plotpoints. Still the same story. As much as loved the original, pixel hunting was bad. In the remake you don't have this problem and you can hit spacebar to highlight hotspots on the screen. Makes the game easy though. There is an in-game hint system with zero punishment for using it. And there is a feature where you can see original designs for the screens and characters. That was a nice addition for fans. The music was very cool. The cutscenes are comic-like and are well done. Again, dialogue and actions being mostly the same. There is an incredibly well-drawn comic book that gives back story to Gabriel's ancestor and Tetulo. IMO this was obviously a love letter to the original by people who loved it just as much as you and me. We could be nitpicky but I understand why certain changes happened and they aren't all that bad. I liked the faces in the dialogue screen of the old one and some other minor things. But nothing worth bashing this remake over. Recommended for fans and newcomers alike.
Just finished both Butcher Bay and Dark Athena. The latter got lower scores but I don't know why. I thought they were both lots of fun. DA is more confrontational with not as much stealth but still very fun. I liked the environments in both. Very good sci-fi vibe. Story wasn't one to make you think but it was serviceable. The game still looks decent in 2014. I'd recommend this game to almost anyone. It does have some serious graphic violence in it though. Like some of the stealth kills are brutal. That's not for everyone but otherwise lots of fun. A slow start but it just gets more and more fun. The middle of the second campaign is not as great but has some cool platforming parts and the Dark Athena itself was lots of fun. GREAT game. Expect to get around 20 hours for both campaigns. *****
Liked how the game felt like a love letter to jrpgs of my youth. I liked the combat. "Light strategy" with isometric squares and doing special attacks along with magic helped it be more dynamic. The problem are the lame quests. You're either doing a fetch quests or guiding someone from point "a" to point "b." and when you're done with these quests you get to do the same kind of quests all over again in the next town. Once you do those...yup you guessed it... the very same kind of quests yet again in the town after that and so on until you're at the last town in the game. Equipment is character-specific so very little customization besides assigning orbs (magic and some abilities). I didn't think the characters were all that endearing. There were certainly some cheesy moments that I enjoyed but the game has way too much text... and so very little of it has to do with moving the main story forward or developing the characters in any meaningful way. There are some okay subplots and some interesting characters to meet along the way...but overall it just felt unsatisfying and I love jrpgs. Even at 40 hours you still won't know who the end boss is. The excuse is this is part 1. So i guess it's not as self contained as i was hoping it would be. Maybe my own fault for not knowing what I was getting into. This game did NOT feel generic or lazily made or anything like that. Some people like the tales series and I could never get into them. If you're really into jrpgs you might like this. I could see a game like this having a small but dedicated following. This game is solid in many ways so I give it 7.5. Thus the three star rating. 4 stars would mean an 8 from me and I feel that is too generous for this title. I wanted to like it but it's not a good game to me. These are opinion pieces. To me, it's a solid entry in a genre with plenty of better options out there. Definitely for some fans of the genre but not every fan.
The game starts off a bit slow but picks up soon enough. The story is decent as well. The animation is smooth and the graphics are very nice. The steady progression of difficulty is nice although never hard unless set on higher difficulty levels. Tough enemies will become easy once you develop proper strategies. My favorite thing about this game are the menus and the crafting system within. When you're short an item you can buy it from the menu and craft anywhere you want. You always know exactly what you need only a click or two away. Not the most logical thing but it's a 100% frustration-free crafting system. Also it's the kind of game that'll have you looking around for secrets because there are plenty. I hadn't heard of this game before coming to gog and I've got to say it's one of the best "metroidvania" style games I've played. And I own a few of the ones sold here. Probably the best offered on gog in my opinion. 15 dollars is fair. I got half off for 7.50 and that was a steal. Expect to get around 10-15 hours of one playthrough depending on how much you want to complete.
