I have only good things to say about this game that should be at least tasted by everyone who likes clever, well-designed games, and who does not mind games that let you figure out everything on your own. Don't read about it, or you will spoil your game, jump right in and thank me later! You won't regret it! BTW yes, I am not a GOG owner of this game, because I already own it on Steam.
HEMA has a long tradition here in Czech republic and I spent about most of 90s learning, then travelling with a group around Czech castles, exhibiting both sword action and some short theatrical fun. Those days are over, I am now a fat and aging office-dweller, but the body and soul still remembers the moves and the mood. And this game brings the memories back! It's really much more of an experiment and fencing enthusiast's fan service than a well-balanced fighting game (Virtua Fighter is still the best fighting game out there, and immensely better than this game), but it's very unique and interesting. Pros - competent mocap actors, well-researched historical background, no magic, fantasy garbage and over-the top cheap heroism, it's humble, focused and well made Cons - no block button (bad design), unpredictable logic (same actions bring different results), out of sync animations with the physics engine, weird weapon interactions and wound detection (short, weak attacks sometimes chop off limbs, while cleaving opponent's head with a longsword just shakes his head a bit), bad balance among characters, spamming and button mashing works way too well. It's more enjoyable to watch than to play. Slow development, last update was 3 months ago as of this review. Overall, a must play for any HEMA enthusiast!
Simplistic game design - everything is a dice throw. Your resources are dice, you accumulate them and every event in the game has certain amount of dice throws vs your dice of the same type (resource). There are special dice that allow you to reroll. How do you get new dice? Simple, your roll dice to see how many dice you get. Ameritrash (Google it) design philosophy taken to the extreme. Some actions have consequences, but you never know which ones, so there is little planning or actual "strategy". You just throw dice and pray. Ignore the review that compares it to King of the Dragon Pass - KoDP has complex lore and sagas and actual tribe management, here, you just throw the same dice ad nauseam. Would return the game if I could.
First of all, we have to be grateful there are still people doing classic games, opposed to live services and cash cows like Anthem or Hearthstone. Seriously, guys, thank you, we appreciate your effort. Now for the game itself. First the visual side - unfortunately, it's crude to do its job. The resolution is too low, and subpixel hinting and antialiasing is not used which results in really coarse images when you often cannot distinguish gender of characters, and sometimes you don'w know what you are clicking (the fact the game does not show labels on mouseover does not help). This is not Wadjet Eye or Kingdoms pixel art, heck, it's not even Monkey Island pixel art. The audio compensates a lot, creating the atmosphere by appropriate and subtle sounds, as well as very competent soundtrack. The second problem is the writing and storytelling. There are hints for good setups, the story is moody and meandering, but it lacks Lovecrafts brilliance in using the language, his method in madeness. Lovecrafts stories are like magical chants - through repetition, odd wording and strange descriptions, ordinary people and items obtain a sinister dimension and the narrator together, slowly and carefully, build together a complicated and convoluted tower of fear. Sadly, nothing like that happens in the Last Door, the game depends heavily on jump scares that burn the accumulated buildup for mediocre effect. It's not boring nor bad, there are far worse adventure games out there, but there are also far better. Looks Charnel House trilogy as a comparison - that game IMO succeeded where the Last Door stumbles.
First of all, let me tell you that in case of Fantasy General II, I like what I see. The core seems solid - the phase-based combat system, the tactical opportunities provided by terrain and unit placement, the upgrade paths, the updated graphics, it all seems very promising. However, there are some quite glaring omissions one cannot overlook when starting playing. The first is the absolute lack of flavor texts for units. That is a HUGE missed opportunity in my opinion, since the game has no intro animation to speak of, the manual does not tell you anything about the lore and the world the game takes place in. Who are you (besides being a generic viking-ish tribe/clan?) What is the way of living of your people, what are their believes? Are they craftsmen, nomads, farmers, or ruthless pillagers and slavers? Who are their friends, and who are their enemies? The whole fantastic lore of Dark Souls is told mostly via item descriptions. Here, you are not told anything, yet the game asks you to make lore-based decisions (who to support, etc.) I have been told by the devs that there are flavor texts for units, but they are in an artbook, but you must pay extra for it. Considering the already steep price of the standard edition, that's disappointin. Speaking of content, the game feels very thin on that front. There is only one campaign featuring a single nation (FG 1 had four heroes, if I remember correctly, each fighting for different side). Other similarly priced games provide animated intros, multiple campains, encyclopedia, etc. That said, despite all my complains, the game feels good, challenging, I feel compelled to play, if only the missing parts were sufficiently fleshed out so that the buyer would have a feeling he got adequate value for his money (which is currently definitely not the case). Cutting content for standard edition buyers in an already content-light game was IMO not a smart decision.
It all began the year Richard, I mean Adam met Tracy - or Amy - depending on how you look at it. Life can be so subjective. Almost like feelings - which I am sure are familiar with. Love, memory, children, responsibility, traffic jams, free will and digitization of human psyche - as well as rhododendrons - sure hold their share of mysteries. More about them later - or not - depends how much time we will have. Anyway... where were we... yes, journalism. Would you rather write the truth and be honest, or lie all the time? Nonono, don't answer, that would be too mundane. Only think about the answer, and remember it for later, we will get to it. I think. Then there is of course Lydia, a tragic proof of the bizzare shapes difficult life can twist a suffering human soul into. Walter knew too well, and it did cost him. As did Steve. However, that's not important. The important thing is that we now have to finish the game in one week, one week, that's seven days, or 168 hours. Therefore, no more time for lengthy exposes or pondering - we cut Thomas, Levi and Rajakrishna straight out, as well as the car chase on Banghok. The revolution is suddenly here. They insist, but you refuse. A drone, a muffled talk, manipulation with the data, short chase and the robot uprising. Everything suddenly burns. You try, but fail. Life may seem futile, but you have changed - the journey has changed you. Okay we really did not have any money mor time left for a proper ending. Sorry.
The game does not allow you to redefine keys, and you are stuck with absolutely unusable scheme. If I knew that, I would not buy the game. Also, there seems to be no gameplay support in the game. Really quite mediocre in 2018.
The game comes without a manual and without any sort of documentation explaining the ingame mechanics and how the various stats influence the gameplay. I find this very sloppy and totally unacceptable, and would refund the game if it was possible. If you want to milk the nostalgia crowd, at least do it right - the original game came with a book that containted vast amount of information.
There are no day and night cycles, and the game cannot be completed. Stay away from it!
I now regret I did not try this game on Steam, I would refund it immediately. While the game's premise is interesting enough - whaling, traveling on high seas, sounds okay. However, the game is extremely thin content-wise, everything is very lazily done. There are two most important questions I ask about every game - how entertaining is the activity you spend doing most of the time, and how difficult and interesting are the decisions you have to make in the game. This game fails in both - the main gameplay loop is the embodiment of dullness. You just sail somewhere, and watch the numbers slowly change. Water decreases. Grog decreases. Food decreases. Sometimes winds blow faster, so youh travel a bit faster, and vice versa. Sometimes, a meaningless event occurs - hey, Captain, this crew member does not drink too much - you can either "gamble" - 80% chance you inherit his "positive" trait, 20% you inherit the opposite trait., or you stay away and nothing happens. Inconsequential, and dull! The crew members are rows in a database table anyway. They are represented by the same picture (all hunters are the same, for example), they have a few stats and positive and negative traits, and that's it. You cannot talk to them. You cannot get to know them. They could be robots, it would not matter. The game boasts that you can "travel around the world", but all the cities are represented with the same picture. How lame is that? Sometimes, you get a "quest" - discover a new whaling territory. So you slowly trudge there, you fight a single fish, you sail back, and that's it - you get a few dollars. Or you are going after a "pirate's treasure" - you make a few choices like "go alone" or "go with the crew", you have no information that would help you decide, and in the end the game you find an empty chest, or some coins, but it's equally uninspired and boring. The game design is really extremely uninspired - there is some underlying system of resource and crew management, but it's all so thin and uninteresting you will be hard pressed to find reasons to keep playing. This game represent the worst of traps the indie scene offers you can fall into. Avoid it like scurvy and plague.
