NOTE: I'm a very hard reviewer, consider 3 stars a good game that I wouldn't play again. And 5 stars a good game that I will play once and again. I only review games after I finish them at least once. I do this because more than money, our time is very valuable! Fallout is the classic game that I didn't get when I was a child, because I didn't understand english. Now that it's translated (and my english is much better) I replayed again. This game is a very cool experience because you can play in different ways, with quests that suit your character. I didn't try all the combinations but I think it's possible. The story is nice and the interface is too. Now, why wouldn't I replay it a third time? Well, while the interface is well done, it's a bit aged, and from time to time there is some small glitch. And while the game can be played with a wide variety of characters, brute force is much easier. The management of your companion is poor and frustating some times (they go between 8 bandits just because one of them is running away!), and some quests are impossible to complete (checked with its wiki). Anyway, I feel proud of playing twice to this game, with two different experiences, and I recommend it, even with the mentioned flaws.
I won't extend too much because this is a free game. But it's much better than other paid games I've played. You start with a silly pixeled picture and a silly game, but once you start playing it the first couple of hours you start to see its magic. I'm a very hard reviewer and barely I rate more than 3 stars - your time is valuable! I only review after I finish the game.
NOTE: I'm a very hard reviewer. The games are usually cheap, and your time is more valuable than the money you spend in them. 3 stars from me is a good game, one more of them. 5 stars is a game which absolutely legendary. This is the first game I rate with 5 stars in GOG. I only rate games after I finish them at least once. In FTL you have under you control a ship with its crew, you must travel towards the galaxy to deliver a message. However, while you travel, while of different events can happens. You will take new weapons, new defenses, new crew members and subsystem. Every choice you do matters. Maybe you should purchase some fuel, or such nice weapon? Maybe you should focus on having a good reactor or base your strategy over your auxiliar bateries? There are a lot of different approach and strategies you can do, all of them fun and changelling. It's normal in your first hours of gameplay you see a silly game based on luck. However once you start to invest around 20-30h you will learn how to do better combos or strategies, and still you will believe you need too much luck. When you have hundreds of hours you will realize that luck have very little impact on this game, where (almost) everything is really well balanced. I purchased it originally in another online shop a couple of years ago, which provides me a Steam Key. Since then, I've played around 1000 hours to this game, and it still fresh each time I play it. And the best part is that I've only played vanilla! There are lots of Mods you can use to renew your game. There isn't any spectacular graphics or music, this is a game focused on the game play and the replay value. You will be impressed how much FTL can enjoy you with only a bunch of static screens. You will experience anger, happiness, satisfaction, and lots of emotions. Each gameplay is different. Don't miss this game. It's absolutely epic.
NOTE: I'm an hard reviewer. I only review the game after I finish it at least once, and give 3 stars to a 'good' game but that I wouldn't play again. 5 stars is absolutely epic. Why? Because there are too many games to "lose" your time but only a pack of them does really worth your time. CGK is a decent action/humor game for its time. I have very good moments with it, specially early. In the lasts stages it becomes very repetitive. The history is pretty simple and easy to follow and the controls are ok. It only supports automatic saving, but it wasn't a problem for me. I had a lot of technical problems (graphics + mouse sensibitily problems) until I installed the unofficial patch 1.5, and still I had few bugs, but I least I could play it. The most annoying is, in Windows 8.1, once you go in, you cannot control the game at all. You need to Ctrl+Alt+Del, then Esc, and then clicking fast on the CGK program, in the Window's task bar. Again, while fun, I wouldn't play this game unless I were really bored, and just in the case I wouldn't completed it.
Thanks to GOG for allowing us to edit reviews. I used to rate this game as mediocre, but after playing it a lot, I've come to realize it's an amazing game—both the first and second installments. The key was reading the manual in-depth, which made everything make so much more sense. You can play with several races, not all of them equally capable, but it's a lot of fun trying to exploit your strengths and cover your weaknesses. Both games are about the same thing: designing your own ships and dominating a galaxy with different factions, but they do it in different ways. Both have adjustable difficulty and plenty of game options that add to the replayability. The game runs perfectly; I don't think it has ever crashed on me. Some people say that Master of Orion 2 has too much micromanagement. I don't think that's true, especially if you use the "Colonies" tab. I would even say that Master of Orion 1 is worse in that regard when you have multiple fleets moving around. I learned to appreciate this game when I tried others like Stellaris or Endless Space. I liked Master of Orion much more because it's simpler, but at the same time, it has much more creative mechanics. I'm referring to the technology tree—they aren't just simple modifiers; there's a lot of tech that can completely turn the game around and make you play in a different way. If you dedicate a little time to it, you're going to love it.
Note: I'm a hard reviewer. Games that usually people rate with 5 starts I rate with 3. Expeditions: Conquistador (EC) is a game that has some technical problems but its charming as hell. Technically the graphics are good, but I think they are not optimized, because they use too much of your CPU power. The music is one of the strong points of this game, it's really lovely and if you allow immerse yourself in the game experience it will motivate you to save that character or to defend that position. You will feel. EC has two campaign, with multiple choices and with some replay value. I only played once, but I tested some choices saving before doing it. The story is very well done, and again, it's and important immersive element. Why not 5 stars? Because, the game isn't as long as I expected for the price. The early mentioned technical stuff. There is some materials / skills / classes that aren't as useful as others (bad balance). You only need to explore the map to win the game.
NOTE: I'm a very picky and hard reviewer, barely a game has more than three stars for me. I only review after I finish the game (or I try as hard as possible). Summary: -The Good: different languages, normal save/load unlike LBA1 -The Bad: CONTROL! While LBA2 has a much better UI than LBA1, I do not recomend for new users like me that never played it in the past, or if you want to finish it. A game is for having good moments. This game, however, is highly frustating due to its control. It's highly unplayable. It's easier maneuver a yach in a bucket that move Twinsen. His turning is really slow! And still, if you're hit once your attack is canceled, and there is an animation that shows how hard you're hit, while this animation is playing the enemy can hit again you for free while you cannot do nothing: you die. When you're solving puzzles you have to travel long distances, that's ok. But enemy always respawn, and this joined with the difficult control, and the 1 hit = massive frustation, do this game highly undesirable. I played tons of hours to this game, however I leaved it because I was highly bored and frustated with its mechanics.
NOTE: I'm a very hard reviewer and barely I give a game more than 3 stars. Also, I only review them after I complete it. Summary: The good: Graphics, Control, History, Inmersion, Balanced. The bad: Stability, Replay Value. If I had to define this game in two words, they would be Charming and Original. The charactes are very good planed, the half of them have a background history. It has a lot of scenarios that really impact you, you wouldn't expect them in a game like this, and they do this game everything except boring. The controls are good, I played with a Xbox One gamepad, but the keyboard seems perfectly fine. It's long enough to keep you adicted a lot of days, but not too long to bore you. Also, it depends how hard you look for items. One thing that I liked was that if you dont look for these items or you're short of tries, the game will be more difficult, but not imposible at all. Now, why not five stars? Because, the history is very good, but not epic to let you wishing play again... and there is no difficulty settings to help it. I don't see myself playing it again never, it hasn't any replay value. Also, it crash frecuently at the load/save moments. I highly encourage you to save frecuently in different slots, because if the game is saved while its saving, the file will be corrupted and the game will crash everytime it tries to load it. It can happens with the autosave too. I would recomend this game, but remember, save frecuently!
