Excellent Combat Mechanics, Functional Graphics and Sound Average Game Length on a Medium Map vs 3 Opponents - 4-5 hours Warhammer 40k Gladius is one of the best paced strategy 4Xs I have played in a long time. Base building allows each structure you place to build separately from your main city unlike Civilization games that you might recognize this game's graphics from. This allows the game to escalate to bigger combats much faster but not so much so that losing units is not an issue. Units have a simple one movement, one action/attack per turn. This action can be saved to shoot enemies who move into range. This makes planning your movement and attack choices important. Some units have free actions that allow you to break these rules. Some scouts have the ability to move into a dangerous area with a damage reduction buff and then move back out again, thus allowing your army to move in or retreat to better terrain. Research allows you to unlock additional upgrades for existing units, making even beginning units relevant throughout the game. Nothing becomes obsolete and that is a game design rarity. Cover/Armor system is what really makes this game's combat not seem dull. Each faction has different amounts of armor but all of them still benefit greatly from cover. This allows you to take different kinds of risks with each unit. Some units can afford to stand out in the open and soak up fire while your more vulnerable units use forests and Imperial ruins to reduce incoming ranged damage. However, all units lose most of their cover protection against melee attackers or flame-throwers. Deciding how to move your units so they can both attack and be safe from retaliation is perhaps the most critical part of this game. Making these decisions is easy due to the tooltips displaying what damage reduction percentage you will gain from the terrain. Overall, Warhammer Gladius hits the ground running each game. You build up a big sprawling base that you can use as a fortress if you get attacked and try to turn the game around. The units all have unique rolls that stay relevant throughout the game. Research progresses these units to be more adaptable to different situations and unlocks new toys of course. There is two victory conditions - conquest and lore - allow you to play offensively or defensively to win. Also, the games four factions will keep you playing with a lot of variety for many hours. For strategy fans and Warhammer fans alike, this game is worth your money.
I was one of the initial few who bought Z from GOG and had a plethora of problems. Luckiily the developers patched it and, by using only a single monitor, the game works great... SO! The original Z game in its glory is here and to quote the Bots "Ready to Rock". The game is a challenging RTS that makes use of the most important element in RTS's as its resource " Time". It takes time to build defenses and troops. You can decrease this time by controlling more territory. There is some luck factors to combat such as troops sniping out vehicle drivers or your troops getting a lucky hit with an explosive that kills a bunched up squad. But this adds to the excitement and makes you plan accordingly. So, thank you GOG and TickTock for bringing this great port to us.
This game successfully combines game mechanics and deep positive and negative emotions, without any ugly artifice that reminds you that you are playing a game. Game Mechanics- By Day You have a group of randomized characters trying to survive a war raging in the very city they live in. The game is point and click in a real time interface. Characters have their own wants (cigarrettes, coffee) and their own strengths(bartering or running fast). You get needs fulfilled by crafting( everything from catching rodents to building water filters for your rain-catchers to boarding up your home) and managing individual needs by day ( characters will need to manage different night/day sleep cycles and treat their wounds/hunger/sadness) By Night At Night, you send out up to one person who can try to trade, scavenge, or steal the supplies at different locations. Some people will want to help you or trade with you, others will be torturing innocents, all of them will be very protective and vigilant over their meager belongings. This game allows you to be a true cold blooded monster if you want. You can lure people into ambushes by making noise and then hiding, axing them in the back when they come to investigate. This has some consequences on your character as a human being... A New Story of Triumph People will come to you for help such as helping them survive the snipers by day. You can obtain medicines and other items that sickly people need. This helps each of your characters morale. And all of your characters will talk about these events, giving each of them cohesion...however... A Long String of Suffering If you steal out of need, if you kill people, if your friends/room mates all die, the characters will talk about those things, become depressed, or even have mental breakdowns... At the end of the game, you get to see a long list of your triumphs and sufferings..and the conclusions of each character..dead or alive....it is awesome...
**Includes opinion from Day 1 to current patched version** I really wanted to like Halfway, I really did. The game has amazing pixel art and a great soundtrack - my favorite since Dustforce's! However, let me bullet point why I feel Halfway is just a "Halfway" done game. 1- The storyline starts off with a cool half-life type premise. Aliens invading from another dimension. And it happens when the ship jumps, its a cool concept. But the game does not tell you anything for 5 hours of play about why this is happening. For me this was just too much investment to learn so little. 2- Combat starts off neat with each character you control having a passive ability and a unique ability to them. The way you increase your power is by equipping better weapons and using stims to increase stats permanently. The problem is that there is a serious lack of variety in weapons...the only thing different between the guns is their range and damage output. This gets boring very quickly as you find out that sniper rifles are the best in every situation due to their long range, ultra high damage, and mid-range magazine. There is no real reason to equip any other gun you get. The game trivializes its own item choices and hampers you with a very small inventory system so that you do not want to keep any other guns around. 3- Repetition of design. There is very little character interaction, story developments, and interesting combat challenges that make the levels fun. I had fun for the first two hours as I learned the game. My last three hours have been boring and repetitious. Combat is not very interesting as there is not a lot of elements to engage you to move your troops around. You basically shoot until you hit, not needing to get to better cover or use a weapon at the right time. This made me cry as a tactical gamer.
I played MagicMaker back in it's alpha and it was great then. Very happy to see that it made it to GOG, you can tell the developer loves this game a lot. This game focuses on spellbuilding, that's what makes the game cool and very buyable. While this is concept is not new in games today or even in the past, the execution and the levels this game takes spells to is what should make you buy the game. Spell creation is spectacular and you don't feel limited. For example, in skyrim or even oblivion/morrowind, a ranged fireball is a ranged fireball. But in this game, you can make your fireballs bounce, split into more fireballs, and then seek out enemies. So why care about making spells? Because this game is a tactical platformer. You need spells to solve problems like enemies who can quickly hurt you in melee but who are around a corner. Or massive hordes of enemies that avoid single shot spells that are good against high health bosses. Or just simple navigation of teleporting/flying around an environment that will kill you if you stand on it. The game is short and sweet, the story is very humorous and lighthearted. Expect harry potter type humor for sure. I had fun just building spells and testing them out on enemies for hours, trying to build solutions to the problems the game's enemies/environment threw at me. Enjoy and build a nuke for me!
I have played Rogue Trooper three times through, mostly on the hardest difficulty. The game is fantastic for its attitude, action, and great choices of weaponry. -Attitude- As your fellow comrades die, you get the ability to put their "minds-chips" into different pieces of equipment. This allows amazingly fun ( and funny!) abilities. For example, your rifle's personality comes from "Gunner", who is younger, gung-ho, and always wants to fight You can use him to become a sentry turret to cover your back while you sneak around. All the while, he will be shouting while he kills any enemies. Great fun. -Action- The animation, control of movement, stealth, and camera make this game's action very addictive yet simple. Stealth is very well done and simple. Dont get into the facing of enemies and use distraction techniques like holograms from your helmet or whistles to mislead enemies. -Weaponry- This was my biggest draw to the game personally. Each weapon is very useful and each one has its niche, leading to excellent tactical decisions. You upgrade each weapon by collecting "scavenged materials" from each kill you make. Stealth kills earn you more. The grenades are super effective and easy to use with an "arc-model". The only cons to the game are the silly story and inconsistent characters. You are basically out to get revenge for being sold out. But hey, its an action game, not an RPG.
