Fallout 4 get a 4/5 if modded, but only 3/5 when not. The beset experience is found by buying the game on sale, and install sim settlements 2, as well as scrap everything and place anywhere, you end up with the AAA fallout 4 should have been. It completely overhauls the building system beyond believe, and creates its own epic story with most of the writing rivaling AAA titles and professional voice acting (with a few exceptions). It is amazing to think that what they did voluntarily was much better than the vanilla experience itself.
I find that I can only recommend this game as an introduction to and a tutorial to any of the Gloomhaven games. Everything that I learned in the game was completely transferable to the boardgame experience, and even helped on a few rules, strategies, and overall understanding of the boardgame. Also, because it is cheaper than the boardgame, it is a cheaper way to get familiar with everything before you commit to the game...and believe me, it is a commitment. As a game in and of itself, it is very faithful to the boardgame. In this case I do not see it as an advantage. It feels like an overly clunky computer game trying to emulate the boardgame experience, which it cannot. It is clunky, not because the devs did a bad job, but because they did a good job. Cards, movement, strategy, tactical combat length (easily at least a couple hours in length for one combat), the whole bit, all work, but only really well in its intended medium- a phyiscal board. Rather, I would prefer to see a gloomhaven/frosthaven, inspired RPG, perhaps in the same vein of Baldaurs gate, or some other isomentric tactical combat style rpg's. There is alot of material there that could be used for such thing.
The best way to describe Citizen Sleeper 2 is an interactive novel with rpg. Or rather, it s more of an interactive anothology, containing many stories within a single overarching one. I liked the predecessor two, but what makes this one different is its more focuses style, yet greater freedom to explore outside a single station. The first was thus able to bring man stories to a single location, while this one spreads it out. Instead of being pushed to find stabilizers, you are on the run. What I like about these games, although simple, and a very forgiving game, it also instills a sense urgency. It has a smooth flowing story, not attempting to trip you up in a web of twists most games try to do in order to be "deep". Nor does it fall into the trap of being dramatic about everything, killing everyone, just for some cheap emotional payload. Another way to describe the story is "thoughful" and level headed. It does not necessarily mean it is "deep", but it is not trite either. It touches on various motifs, somwhat like the aroma of flowers touches the nose: it is not deep but it imparts a bouque of smells.
I found little to hate in Ixion, but also very little to love. Despite its features, it was cold. Ironically, it failed to capture the "warmth" of its inspiration, the thematically cold Frostpunk. Ixion had: Sci-fi-Check Survival-Check Base Building- Check FrostPunk Elements- Check and so on. Despite having everything I like, it was more a list of checked off features. The attempt at urgency, which the story tries to convince you through dialogues and events( and a main story plot at the start which I found just silly), falls flat due to the spacing of events, laboursome resource mechanics, and the generic unity asset-like graphics and music. What makes the mechanics a chore? There are too many arbitrary systems that clutter the game's pacing. You have close to 10 resources, as opposed to Frost punks main 3. You need to store all of these and use these to make more resources, which you also have to store. With these you build things, which requires manpower and power resources. To get resources you have 3 types of ships- one that mines, one that picks up, and one that “mines” and gets events. But before you can do any of these, you need to build probes to scan the system and find events and resources. Each probe is one use only, so you have to build a new one after each use, you cannot build a bunch at once. Having done all this, ships move like racing snails… and this is super fast mode. There are more, but these are the most glaring. To me the main issues are spacing and theme. If they reduced the resources, sped things up, and either removed or reworked the probing system, the game would not have a lot of... dead space. Graphically rough-up the buildings, have parts of the ship in shreds that need work to build up, add more clutter and shanty homes. In my 3 hours+ the game's pace did not pick up, always remaining mediocre. Not worth it's full price, and might not be worth paying 10$. I am having it refunded since it is not worth my time.
Just before playing this game I played the the first one for comparison. The first one was from 1994, was quirky and unpolished, which was a feature of many of the games- big industry gaming was not there the way it is now. Jokes then were more quirky, probably because they had less people and public representitives to "smooth" them out. The world was humourous, but very dangerous, and death was around every corner, even if it was a humourous death at times. Fastforward to Beyond a Steel Sky. it is, in comparison, a very polished game. Cell-shaded graphics, fully voiced, most of which done decently, fully 3d animated characters. It is also a longer game, being closer to 20 hours than the original 7. The music was much much better than the former game. It does tip its hat to its predicessor, though, placing it in an elevator where it belonged. Animation helped individualize each plot character, even aiding in the humour, which was something difficult for the pixelled original. Despite its polish and shine, it's humour was often too smooth and not as quirky as the first. Death was nearly non-existant, which removed a sense of accomplishment and pressure. The story itself, while engaging enough, had a few plot holes and manged to unravel itself and the enitre first game rather than improving upon it- a bad habit oft found in many sequal movies and games. So in a way, it was like replaying the first, but backwards. Regardless, you save the day... again, yet somehow it does not seem as inspiring. All in all I would likely give it a 3.5/5. It was an amusing light-hearted point and click adventure-no real pressure, but in some ways does not live up to its 7 hour predecessor, even as it excels in other ways. If you are looking for a relaxing point-n-click adventure puzzle game with hints (when needed), you might find this one of interest.
I wanted to play this first before delving into the later game "Beyond the Steel Sky" for the sake of reference and comparison. As of yet I have not played the other and will do so shortly. This game is a decent little retro point and click adventure. The only issue I had with it was that I got stuck a few times- there are very little to no hints in the game, and part of the issue was having to try to think in a way intended for the game- things it assumed then that might not be assumable now. It has a nice quirky sense of humour, sometimes refreshingly blunt. Most characters are voice acted with an english accent. Only your character has an "American" accent, probably to show that he is not from around there. ALl the same, the accents made the cheesy jokes even better. One warning, while the game is mostly "PG", the moment you step into the Bio center, you will have an obvious topless display- this area is affectively your plastic surgury center. This section with the imagery seems misplaced, considering the tone of the rest of he game. The alone would make me hesitate recommending it to anyone.
