I loved Tyranny's first act so much that I bought Bastard's Wound to enjoy the content on the first run-through. This was a mistake. The expansion pack has three components, as others have said: a new area, a few companion quests, and random enounters. I actually rather liked both the random enounters (which are cute and add a little flavor) and the companion quests (which are well done and in at least one case involve serious character development). That said...the new area was terrible. Like, I'm going to skip it on future play-throughs terrible. I hated basically everyone in the new area. And not like in a cool, morally ambiguous way. In a "you're all assholes" sort of way. I initially chose to be peaceful and kind and whatnot and by halfway through, I just wanted to kill everyone. And the dungeon diving was the worst. The rune keys and a teleporter mechanic are abused to make an incredibly windy, hard-to-navigate dungeon that goes across 3 maps (with long loading times...), and then they have the gall to send you one 2 different quests where you have to search for things...and one of those quests involves searching for *hidden* things that manifest as a faint sparkle until you're right on top of them. They also change the rune key dynamics, vastly increasing the range at which you can both activate the glyphs and push buttons, which feels like a decision made to facilitate sloppy design. Anyway, if it's on sale for $5, consider getting it just for the "lesser" content. Don't buy this at full price.
I've historically been a little underwhelmed by Telltale games, but TftB was amazing. The writers managed to capture the insane atmosphere of the game, to create an enjoyable story, and to create a cast of amazing characters. Gameplay wasn't so bad, either! The game is about 10-15 hours long, depending on how explore-y you are. Gameplay is...okay. It's pretty standard for Telltale, though I actually liked it better than others I've played, though the "press Q quickly and repeatedly" remains in force; there's gotta be a better solution. The rare combat is surprisingly fun, especially the combo-driven Epic Final Battle. The camera remains uncontrollable and not great, even in the "open world" parts, and the movement directions are occasionally unclear, but you're not playing this game for its precision controls anyway. The story is cute, related through a framing device of the two main characters telling the story to a mysterious captor, and features a good combination of old faces and new. The atmosphere really manages to capture all of the crazy, funny, absurd, sometimes sad feeling of Borderlands. And the characters are amazing. Before righting this review, I tried to figure out which character was my favorite, and I had a lot of trouble. I think Loader Bot takes it, but every single member of the "core" cast, and a few others besides, are amazing, interesting, well-developed characters - even some of the bad guys. Anyway, if you're looking for a good story, mostly light-hearted, related through game form, look no further!
A cute little game, a sort of adventure game with RPG elements. The atmosphere is amazing, with fairly cartoony graphics being supplemented by real, often contemporary photographs, and descriptions quoted from contemporary sources. The scenes of the game are knit together by transition screens bearing passages excerpted from "Kim", the novel by Kipling. The game actually does a fair job of putting a novel into game form, which is a trick I don't think I've ever seen before. Though the setting is the real star, the characters are story are also compelling, though a couple of strands felt unfinished (or maybe I just didn't finish them?), which I suspect is a product of the game's basis on a book which sort of stops somewhat abruptly. Gameplay is the weakest element, which isn't to say that it's bad. The procedurally generated regions between major landmarks are nice, though they get pretty samey after a while; given my preference, I would have rather been able to automate certain trips, especially those to remote locations far from transportation. The inventory system, food and drink and tiredness, etc. are all pretty straightforward and well-implemented. Combat is a little clunky, but this is in no way intended to be a combat game - though I still can't ever actually take out a band of Thugs; I've tried several times. Especially in the early game, I felt constantly short of cash, which was a little annoying but I guess helped contribute to the feeling and setting of the game (if I buy this book, I won't be able to catch the train back to my quest-giver to get more money...). The game is quite replayable, though not infinitely so. In particular, the "core quest" is always the same, with little to no non-linearity. All said, I am happy to have bought this game and would heartily recommend it to anyone who wants to consume a book in game form, or just a better than average adventure game.
Stars in Shadow is a very solid space 4X game. The mechanics are solid (actually, some of them hearken back to the first Master of Orion), there's a good balance with micromanagement, and the races are all fairly distinct (there could be more of them, but it's also nice that each one really is quite distinct). The art style is also nice; yes, it's a little "cartoon-y", but I think it works, and the bright colors and simple lines are a pleasant change from the normal art style for these kinds of games - as well as being playable on almost any modern-ish computer. I didn't give the game 5 stars for two reasons: -As of late September 2017, 9 months after the game came out, I've still had crash-to-desktop bugs in about 1/5 of games I play (usually when loading the game or trying to exit, so it's not a big deal, but...9 months guy, c'mon) -The game is fairly...not bland, but...usual? There's nothing exciting about it. It's a competently made game that knows exactly what it is and does it. And that's fine, but it's worth 4 stars and not 5.
Sunless Sea is a strange game. Arguably, the game's makers intended it that way. The game is, above all, more an atmosphere than a game. The developers clearly put more emphasis on setting than on almost anything else, giving us a world that borrows heavily from Lovecraft and steampunk; a pseudo-Victoriana rich in dark corners and ineffable mysteries. The game devs did a good job of being sort of light about it, from the very introduction, where we're matter-of-factly informed that bats and stolen London and taken it underground. But the setting is surprisingly superficial, which is especially problematic considering that the gameplay model involves playing through the early game over, and over, and over. Which brings us to the gameplay which is, frankly, bad. At first blush the game looks like it's going to be a "trader" type game where you take goods from one port to the next, buying low and selling high, but that doesn't really work due to the limited number of ports, the low price differentials, and the distances involved and the cost of fuel and supplies, and the game itself even points that out. The game thus ends up being more of an adventure/exploration game, but the repetitive nature of the game (as you die and start again as your old captain's heir, an inherent part of the game) makes this inappropriate, as by your nth run-through, you'll have seen it all. And combat is boring and terrible. Add into that the too-slow movement of your ship (intentional, according to the devs, put in in order to build atmosphere), and the fact that the interesting story moments are broadly interspersed between long stretches of boring, repetitive travel between distant waypoints, and you get a game that seems interesting and deep on first glance but ends up being boring and a time sink, not unlike a poorly-made MMO.
This game is possibly the best computer game of all time. The graphics are very good despite there primitiveness, the AI is surprisingly good and can be competitive without cheating too badly, the story is compelling and the setting is amazing.
I think I may be the only person in the world who actually enjoyed Master of Orion 3. Yes, it's clunky, at times awkward, and poorly polished...but that didn't prevent lots of other games from becoming classics.
