So I finally got Spore and I really had fun the first four days. Then I reached Space and it got grindy. Cell Stage, Tribal Stage and Civ Stage are fun, albeit simplistic. Creature Stage starts fun but gets incredibly frustrating when you have to discard beautiful creature designs for ugly parts with better stats. That multiples of the same part do not stack does not help, and that you spend the most time hunting for bones to get the parts you want (or need for survival) does not help either. Getting enough DNA points was not that difficult, there are enough species around. The Space Stage promises to be the most fun - then you look at the requirements for upgrades and cry.The Space Adventures are a mixed bag, especially if you discarded all the upgrade parts and built the creature you originally wanted before going Civ - because you will need your creature stats again. Replacing them with special attacks from new equipment again requires grinding for XP. All things considered you have beautiful ideas and editors in a mediocre game. I still do not regret buying it, mostly for the editors.
Having played both games, Torchlight II offers a bigger world and bigger story than Torchlight, with many new interesting monsters and bosses. If you liked the first game and want more, I can only recommend it. If you have not yet played the first game, start there, at the beginning of the story. So why only 4 stars? Some small but annoying gameplay changes (you can no longer upgrade the level of socketables, only the rarity, and some of your class-independent skills like Adventurer or Barter are spells now, taking up precious slots) and a generally slower pace of exploration (the environment changes slower, and you get no fresh monsters when backtracking over land). Also look up the robot sidequest before you miss parts.
The Story is good and really well told, the worlds are trippy and beautyful, the characters and dialogue are great, the dark humor is delicious and the horror elements are very well placed. I can only recommend this game. The only little problems are the movement controls (it takes a bit of practice and a bit of luck) and the puzzles in which you have to do things in a specific order (but they are comparably fair too, and that's what walktroughs are for). Some clues and parts of puzzles are also easily overlooked. All things considered I give it 95 of 100 points.
I really love Commandos 2, back then and still today, and the package is already worth buying for this game. On the other hand I hated the sniper levels and especially the hidden time limits in C3. In C2 you can take your time and, if you want, carefully take out every enemy on the map. It requires some observation of the enemy's field of view and some timing but for the most part it is in the same way challenging and relaxing as a good game of chess. In C3 you are constantly on edge due to the hidden time limits. You need to hurry and to think on your feet. Simply parking your commandos somewhere and spending the next half hour studying the map and enemy movements is next to impossible because something -will- happen in that time or shorty after and missing the opportunity will make the mission much harder or outright impossible to complete. I understand how someone can enjoy this addtional challenge. It all depends on the amount of adrenaline you like in your games.
