I hate reviewing games as, even aside from quality, dollar-to-hour enjoyment is subjective, but someone mentioned that he hadn't purchased this game due to the horrible reviews. So: I download the package, set it up while offline, it installed smoothly and ran perfectly fine. I haven't had a single issue of any sort with it in the last four weeks-(ish) and have been playing it 4-5 times a week. [specs listed below] As far as the game itself, I'm not an *avid player of survival builders like this, not like some people are, but I've put a solid amount of hours into Banished over the years, alongside similar games, from Settlers to Sim games, and I'm enjoying Patron quite a bit. I'm actually surprised it doesn't have a larger following. It's true, you can't overlook the similarities to Banished, but the atmosphere of it is different enough that it doesn't feel carbon-copied, it just has the same elements that any good survival builder would have. I also like the very intuitive UI, which is always a point of concern in these type of games, though I did add a mod that makes the UI closer to transparent, making it feel more immersive. (Mods are easily installed, just like Banished, tho there's only a handful around.) Additionally, the Mare Nostrum DLC is actually a solid addition to the game, with new professions, resources, maps, a biome, and... other stuff I can't remember; it isn't just some sort of hastily packaged crap like you see in some games. And the soundtrack is surprisingly good, a nice fit to the game, in my less-than-humble opinion. I got the game, DLC, OST, and later the Supporter Pack, all for ~$12 on sale, no regrets at all. Highly Recommended. (And since I've seen people asking—if you want to angle the camera vertically, hold down the scroll button and drag up or down instead of side to side. This doesn't seem to be mentioned anywhere; I only found it by trial 'n error.) Specs: Win10Pro 22H2 i7-3930K @~4.2GHz GTX 1070 (8GB) 32GB RAM; 8GB VRAM
I always have to grab a games artbook. Unfortunately, a byproduct of that is having thrown money at some pretty awful artbooks, from ones that are clearly haphazard cash-grabs, to many more that are just kind of mediocre, or getting by with the bare minimum. This artbook is r-e-a-l-l-y nice. I'm only about halfway through it (210MB/127pgs,) but it has a whole array of character progression sketches, the evolution of the name and logo, landscapes, paintings, environmental assets, building designs, and all with notes and small blurbs of text throughout. Basically, if you like the look of the game, or game artwork in general, this is a must-have. Seriously well-done and definitely worth the price.
The music was my biggest concern with Songs of Conquest. In these type of games, games that many people end up playing for embarrassingly huge blocks of time, the importance of music can't be overstated. And not just the quality of the pieces, or even the variety, but how well the music sits behind a game; the goal is to have it adding to what's happening in the game, but never becoming redundant by constantly being present. It's a fine line. I'm happy to say that this soundtrack does just that; I wouldn't change a single track. As of now, there's only an .mp3 version available, but it is 320kbps, none of that VBR crap, or the insulting 128kbps quality that some soundtracks suffer from (for reference, a cassette tape is approximately 160kbps,) so for all but the audio purists who are gonna dissect the audio through a pair of HS10s while analyzing it with SPL HawkEye, 320kbps should be acceptable.
... this is a Supporter Bundle. This isn't meant to be price-equivalent to an expansion, or a soundtrack, or even an artbook. This is what you buy after you purchase the base game for mad cheap (in my case, in early access,) and then find yourself playing the game for hundreds of hours, resulting in you feeling bad for paying so little for the game. What to do? That's where the Supporter Bundle comes in... ;) Alternately, if you simply appreciate the work that the Lavapotion team has done on Songs of Conquest, this is a Buy-Me-A-Coffee with a few kick-backs.
tl;dr? This isn't just another KB/HoMM3 clone and it's not capitalizing on the overused, retro pixel art fad. It's tactically solid, with interesting characters and lore, and an immersive soundtrack. Unless you absolutely hate TBS games, give Songs of Conquest a fair chance. it's aggravating trying to cite pros & cons in so few characters, so I'm just gonna name pros. Honestly, I feel obligated to pen a coherent review (at 3AM, pre-v1.0 launch,) because it’s the first game I've ever bought in early access, and that's largely due to the devs. Lavapotion actually kept GOG 100% updated alongside Steam plus, those poor bastards had to curate gamer's wild-ass wishlists on Discord, *and suffer TBS fan's fanaticla love for HoMM on *every platform. XD A few highlights I can pull off the top of my head: • The synergy of the Essence (magic) is deeper than Heroes was, with interesting tactics coming into play from the different types of magic and battlefield strategy, as well as from the troops you choose for your army, since different troops provide you with different type(s) and amounts of Essence, so you can tailor it to your play style. • Different troops have different stack caps—I LOVE this—this means no one can cheese Death Stacks, which was a *glaring loophole in Heroes since, once one player stacked high enough, the challenge was utterly gone, with the stacked army steamrolling around the map. • Melodically, the main theme is similar to Iron Maiden's "Blood Brothers," which makes it ultra-epic. • Building decisions are required. Add a Farms for more gold per round, or a Lumbermill so you can upgrade your Barracks? Or, add a Marketplace? These aren't uncommon choices in similar games but, among other decisions, having to decide if/when to raze what buildings (you have limited build sites of various sizes around settlements; the number depends on the settlement tier,) challenges you to plan farther ahead than you otherwise might in a simpler TBS. And, I'm out of spa
For those curious, the soundtrack is 34 tracks, totaling slightly over an hour and a half. Anyone that likes late-90s/early-oughts RPG soundtracks will probably enjoy this. Although there's no FLAC or .wav version, the .mp3 is 320kbps, and can be found on Bandcamp for $7.99, if you want a FLAC/.wav/etc version. The included cover art included is a confusingly small 400x400 .png, but the embedded image in the tracks (which is what will show up in a library/player, and can be extracted with certain players,) is a 1418x1418 .png, so I'm fine with that. Favorite tracks (as of now): "Whimsical Movements" and "Frantic Hollow." (Sometimes searching "Earthlock" on Bandcamp doesn't show any results; if this happens, search the company, Snowcastle Games.)
I got stuck at the very beginning of the Campaign. You're told to pick up a flamethrower and switch to it by pressing B/Tab, but when you do, and you pick it up, even once you switch to it, the tutorial doesn't read that you did. I tried the game with both controller and keyboard, after downloading it and installing it twice, once via Galaxy, and the offline installer with the same issue. The other two playable modes, Survival and Arena, are locked until you go through the Campaign, so there's no way to play them. Also, the 1080p Resolution remains at 23Hz, even after changing it to 60Hz. After looking around online, this doesn't seem to be the first input issue that people have experienced with this game. The full game is on sale right now for stupid cheap, and it may actually be a solid game overall, but it's a bad sign when a demo, the thing that's supposed to convince you to buy the game, is preventing you from testing it out. Win10Pro 22H2 i7-3930K @~4.2GHz GTX 1070 (8GB) 32GB RAM; 8GB VRAM
Since this is more of an assurance to people about the functionality of this game, not a review, I'll cook-up a two-sentence review: If you like Fallout: NV/4 in general, and can tolerate an aged game, you'll love Fallout 3. If you love the first two Fallout games... well, you're a hard bunch to please and you'll probably hate the changes in lore, which is similar to how XCOM: EU & XCOM2 moved away from some of its earlier lore. That said, this game works fine. I installed it once via Galaxy, tested it out, and uninstalled it, and then installed it with the offline installers (while offline). No issues either time, 6hrs+ in and zero crashes, glitches, or hiccups. And I didn't need Galaxy to verify/repair anything in the offline install, and didn't get any alerts asking me to connect to anything. Also? There *is controller support, at least for my XBOX gamepad. So, short of being a total asshole—maybe do some research before assuming it's a broken game, and that goes for any game. Your system may not be up-to-date enough, or not out-of-date enough, or just not "whatever" enough (or maybe something truly anomalous has occurred,) but whatever the case is, that's not the game's fault, it's a user error. The most common (PC) problems brought up are easily fixed: Update your drivers. That's the most commonly overlooked fix that I see. Everyone always thinks that they're good for life, but you do have to keep up on them. This has nearly always sorted out any crash issues I've ever had with any game. Reinstall/Repair. First, you should already have a .d3d9.dll on your PC. If you don't, install the *proper DirectX, or update the current one, if you're sure it's the correct one—*or if it's the far more common error, all you have to do is run an sfc/scannow which will usually repair the d3d9.dll file, which may just not be reading. I wouldn't recommend manually replacing the .d3d9.dll, for various reasons. Hopefully this helps someone out.
I'm just breaking into this giant-ass soundtrack, but I'm already enjoying the hell out of it it. The varied genre inspirations behind the tracks is noteworthy and keeps it fresh. Recommended. (Also, despite the lack of a FLAC version like the CrossCode EX soundtrack has, the .mp3 quality *is at 320kbps, which is suffice unless you're a true audiophile. If you are someone who needs to hear that brighter cymbal *ting* at 17.6kHz., both of the CrossCode soundtracks can be found on Bandcamp in every format you can imagine, priced the same as they are here on GOG.)
