It was my first text-based RPG. I liked it a lot. Don't expect a big adventure with great stakes. You are just a roadwarden who tries to figure out a wild land. The fun comes from slowly understanding the relationship between the inhabitants of the peninsula, and in some ways impact them (and you can impact them quite a lot, almost too much in my humble opinion!). There is a time-limit, which forces you to focus on some objectives. While it is frustrating and leave a somewhat bitter taste at the end of the adventure, this bitterness fits the theme perfectly: you're not this world's savior, you won't have the time to be everyone's friends, solve everyone's problem. It's tough, but made the adventure feel more real, and the choices more meaningful, i.e it definitely enhanced the experience for me. The writing is solid, solid enough for me to care for those characters that are never shown, and with whom I only interacted with text. The soundtrack is eerie and fitting.... all in all, the atmosphere is great and the story -while having no big twists- delivers on being down-to-earth and believable. I was really emotionally committed to the fate of the peninsula by the end of the adventure, and was really sad to leave it. I'm not sure about replayability: on one hand, I genuinely want to explore other choices and see their consequences. On the other hand, this would imply a lot of repetition, and going through the same texts... So all in all, an amazing experience. I wholeheartedly recommend it, though you must have understood from my review that it will not fit everyone's expectation. Just try out the demo and you'll know if the game is for you or not.
A demo which properly allows to test the game and check if you like it or not. And I did like it :)
The demo is cute and somewhat relaxing. The -intended- lack of context makes the experience shallow though.
A great game that pushes you to the limits. I'd say it's superior to the 1st one in almost every way. I would still recommend to start with Ennemy Unknown though, because it will give you the basic skills to compete in this one. Also, the narrative of the first XCOM is really cool. For me, it gave me a more natural feeling of progression. BUt once you're done with EU, go for this, you won't regret it :)
Crazy sound design and graphics, beautiful story... From start to end, I felt connected to Sennua and loved to suffer on her side ;o The little frustrations (like the world of the illusions...) do not weight much in comparison. And the game's "final boss" will remain in my hallmark of the greatest video-game moments. What a blast.
I've not been taken away by the gameplay. It's OK, a bit repetitive, never really exciting, never furstrating either. The final boss was cool though. The story is also average. This supernatural plot with the church as arch-ennemy is really cliché, and the ending is not satisfactory. Seriously, I would have prefered for a more "historical" perspective on the plague, but well... Now, from an "artistic" point of view, the game blew me away. The animation (of the characters and the rats), the atmosphere, the music, give it a unique feel and identity. The characters also grew on me and I really cared about them, no matter how cringy "The inquisition" may be. Overall, a very good experience.
The game promises you to live the punic/macedonian wars through th POV of a pre-marian legionary.... and it does just that! I really liked the writing, empathetic and suttle, which make you care about your character and your manipule, while not falling into clichés. The developper clearly knows his history and there are tons of details that make history geeks like me happy :-) The story is engaging, even (more?) if you know the end. The replay value is also OK - it took me 6 tries to finish the game. My first 3 tries felt unique, and the last 3, while feeling a bit more repetitive, still had many unseen encounters/events that kept my interest up. Overall, the game is transparent and honest when it comes to its mechanics, i.e. I did not feel cheated by the RNG. Yeah, I did not like to fail 80% chance attack/recover. However, when I was dying, it was usually because I -knowingly- took a risky fight. Sad, but fair enough. The game is far for perfect: There are also many small things which can be improved (graphics are uninspiring, the soundtrack is repetitive, a more detailed "death screen" would be cool. Also, some functions - like the soft spot- remain a mystery to me...). I n terms of game mechanics there is nothing revolutionary. My main criticism would be that the second part of the game (macedonian war) is not as tense as the punic war. I ended up with 4,000 denari, and nothing to do with them, and never felt threathened in the battles by the phallanges. A bit anti-climatic. Still, I gladly give 5 stars because the game fullfils its contract. It's fun from beginning to end, clean (I never met a bug) and has put me in the caligula of a legionary for 10 hours. And honestly, it's great to have a game that takes the risk of going for such POV and historical setting. I commend the Virtus of the developper, and would be on board if he'd made a "Civil War" extension pack :-) May we all go to war under Caesar/Pompey's banner next time!
