The game mixes elements of Souls (stamina management), Diablo (procedurally generated loot drops), all mixed in a tiny and cute twin-stick shooter roguelike with retro feeling. The game ISN'T a bullet hell, nor it's going to task your reflexes. It's more about risk/reward and just keeping up with the best loot drops. There are basic categories of these items and besides guns, all they do is to have higher numbers. SOME items might be super-duper rare and act a little bit different from the other rarities of said item, like shooting three times in a row at random directions, but nothing crazy. The graphics are really cute (just disable camera shake as it's one of the most vomit-inducing ones I've ever seen), the music is nice, and the gameplay is fine... the thing is that the game doesn't have a very long-lasting power unless you really enjoy the shooting, which again, it's just okay. It's so easy to win runs, and there's nothing to unlock between them. Once you finish a run, you're offered to go back to the main menu, or go for a New Game +. It has multiplayer, and three difficulty levels, but I just wish there was more to it. It's addicting to manage your mech and your build, and the overall package is good, but it dries out of content really quick and while other guns are satisfying to use, there are these MOAB bombs that have a huge splash area and damage. I won the game firing beforehand and just entering rooms to pick up loot basically without ever need to heal in between levels.
I have zero knowledge about BSG other than it's a TV show from the 70s, yet I've enjoyed tons of hours of this game on Steam. It's simple, it's clean in design and mechanics, and it offers a good strategic challenge. If you've ever played Battlefleet Gothic Armada, it's pretty much it, but turn based... If you haven't, well, BSG Dreadlock is a spaceship fighting game with SIMULTANEOUS turns: The game pauses, you plan the actions everything under your command will take, hit "next turn", and enjoy watching the next 10 seconds or so of action unfold. The game is basically a naval warfare game with a space skin. Regarding graphics, it's not intensive, but it looks nice enough to be immersive. It runs really well, and a huge thing for me is that the game and UI scale perfectly to 4K. The sound effects, on the other hand... are as generic as they get. And regarding content, it has 1 campaign (5 more via DLC), skrimish and multiplayer modes, and a media viewer (cutscenes, saved replays, and screenshots). On Steam it's not unusual to see people with thousands of hours of playtime, so you can get an idea that this game is enjoyable enough to be "one of those games". I'm waiting for a sale to buy this game + all DLC now that I'm transferring to GOG, and I suggest you to give it a chance if you're remotely interested.
If you were remotely interested on trying out this game, but don't know where to start because of the tons of DLC, get this fire-and-forget solution. The bundle includes Utopia, which is the only vital DLC for Stellaris, plus three other DLC packs that offer a little bit of everything: A new playable empire (race), more stuff to find in the universe both friendly and not so friendly, technologies, ships, and even music. The base game is overwhelming enough. With all the content included in this bundle, you'll have more than enough content for months or even years. This bundle is actually great because it'll provide you a rock-solid foundation for you to understand and master the game, so you can choose better which DLCs you want to gradually add to your experience in the future. If you think it's expensive, wait for a sale. -70% off deals come and go pretty frequently, and the amount of content this bundle offers, at sale price, is a steal.
The game runs butter-smooth, even on my hardware from 2011-2016, which I'm using to play this @4K with everything on ultra. Regarding the gameplay, it's an adaptation of the minis tabletop game. People giving 1-star reviews because they assumed this was going to be Homeworld with a W40K skin should've at least read the product description before buying, let alone watching gameplay/reviews. Also, yes, the gameplay looks EXACTLY like the screenshots... you just need to use the middle mouse button to zoom in and pan the camera around. Now, the game is an RTS in a 2D plane in which you control a small fleet of ships in short, to medium-length battles. The strategy relies on optimal positioning and knowledge of each ship's weapons and skills, as well as split-second decisions regarding the ship's movement and operation. You get to upgrade the commanders of these ships and the ships themselves, and the campaign, while it won't change your life, it's super enjoyable. That being said, it's a game from Tindalos Interactive, which shows primarily on the sound quality. The voice acting and UI is good, the jankyness of its AA developer's DNA leaks into the quality. For example, voice tracks are awfully compressed both in file size, and in mastering. It sounds like they used a landline telephone to record the voices and SFX, and then used a compressor to flatten the volume differences. The sound as a whole is noisy but lacks punch, and it's almost devoid of bass or depth. In short, if you saw gameplay and thought it looked cool or fun, you should definitely get this game and the sequel as both are enjoyable spectacles. You can safely skip the DLC on this one since it's just two campaign-less factions that only work on skirmish and multiplayer modes.
The premise is super simple: You select 4 units to make up your squad, and see how many missions you're able to clear before you're sent back to the main menu via squad wipe or completion of the final fight. The music is nice and the retro look, while it's stylish at first, can quickly become a detriment to the readability. Thankfully, the dev included a bunch of options to reduce or disable these effects. Now, the game has unlockables, and while they do spice up the rate at which you kill or die, it's pretty much always the same: Some units have weaknesses to certain attacks, just like you do. The issue is that the enemy variety is super tiny, and what really changes are the equipment combos they can use against you. More than damage and other stats, your main concern while choosing what to use will be heat generation. So, once you understand the meta, the gameplay gets repetitive as you mindlessly continue clearing levels, getting trivially incremental upgrades to your equipment. The complete lack in variety of visuals also hinders the experience... It's close to just being ASCII art to let you "imagine the stuff yourself". That being said, Mainframe Defenders is a nice time-killer that doesn't cheat nor tries to do anything crazy. It's just, a very simple, cost-effective, and fun experience as long as you set your expectations in the right place. You might not spend weeks playing this game, but it sure does generate a strange itch every once in a while that only this game can scratch.
