Is it perfect? Not at all. The AI is a bit dumb (still dangerous, though), the map levels are often linear (though not always), and you'll feel like you're throwing spit wads at the Terminator units for half the campaign (though really, I would argue that this helps to preserve the 'unstoppable killing machines' trope of the first film). But now, we're on to the good aspects of the game: The devs absolutely 'nailed' the 80's VHS post-apocalypse atmosphere depicted briefly at the beginning of Terminator 1. The bleak, grayish lighting, the well-implemented film grain effect, and the absolutely 'perfect' soundtrack make for what is, unqeustionably, the most faithful depiction of the dark world of Terminator to date. The difficulty is highly customizable, even in-game. Anything from HUD disabling/limiting to enemy and character health display disabling and navigation marker removal is free for the player to tweak at their whim. This is a welcome change from the AAA insistence on wresting any and all control from the player's hands, and I hope to see it more often from middle-market and indie developers. The storyline completely ignores everything that happens after T2, and as one of the remaining Terminator fans, I couldn't be happier. This alone was reason enough for me to have bought this game on Steam (wish I had known about GOG sooner, but I digress), but the fan-service (which is actually good and fitting here, and not lame) made the experience even better. If you're a fan of the series, the plot twists probably won't come as much of a surprise to you, but are still a nice wink and nod to classic Terminator. All in all, I would rate this game as a solid 8.5.10 After enduring an onslaught of increasingly bad works of fan-fiction that dared to call themselves 'Terminator films', I can finally say that 'Jugdement Day' has the sequel it deseerves. Buy it or face termination!
You know how Morrowind's fans view Oblivion and Skyrim as low points in the series? That's how we remaining Daggerfall fans view Morrowind, lol. Friendly jabs at fellow fans aside: Morrowind 'is' a good, solid RPG. It features an engaging plot, good characterization, and a decent, but sadly watered down (in comparison to Daggerfall's) character creation and levelling system. The one sin that this game committed that I will never forgive, however, is Bethesda's insistence on preventing the player from ever experiencing 80% of the land of Morrowind itself. Instead, you are relegated to two islands (Vvardenfel and Solstheim), and Mournhold, the capitol of Morrowind, The latter two added in the expansion packs. Those of us who came from Daggerfall back then were disheartened at this, and still are to this day. But I digress. Morrowind is considered a classic for a reason, and in this new RPG-starved gaming environment (no, Skykiddies: your shallow, vapid, hollow shell of an open-world hack n slash is not, nor could ever possibly be, a Role Playing Game), real gaming experiences that allow you to fully immerse yourself in a fantastical world are as rare as ancient Falmer artifacts (yeah: 'one') shoved into a ham-fisted, 11th hour DLC.
There is a single term that can sum this entire, overly-priced DLC up: artificial difficulty. As I mentioned in my main-game Frostpunk review, this scenario sucks the fun out of the formula, and replaces it with unnecessary tediousness. Gone is the balance: now, you have to rush at breakneck speed in order to build entirely new building chains, just so you can manufacture ridiculous new components needed to get your generator up and running: and your generator will always be ruined, and require a stupid amount of time to repair with said new components, which brings us to the next, unnecessary element of the aforementioned artificial difficulty: toxic gas. That's right: a previously non-existent toxic gas now now threatens your workers lives and health 'while' they are busy restoring the generator at an excruciatingly-slow pace, all while the temperature drops, and drops, taking away too many workers needed to gather the basic resources needed to survive. This is not fun: this is painful, and in a 'very' forced, artificial way. To top it off, your workers now complain about the most petty and stupid of things, whereas previously, their grievances were founded in legitimate, life-threatening concerns. And worse: they'll go on strike for said petty reasons now: In the middle of a deadly global winter. With no apparent survival-instinct. Like over-grown, petulant children: they would rather suffer and die, than do what I tell them (While this could easily say quite a bit about the writing team for this DLC, I digress.). Why and/or how anyone could find enjoyment in this is beyond me, but this is most definitely 'not' the Frostpunk I've enjoyed since the game's release. It feels like they were testing out a future game's mechanics within an existing game... and charging people to play the beta. No thank you, 11 bit.
This would get a 5/5 if not for two, glaring negatives: 1. 11 bit promised from the very beginning that all of Frostpunk's DLC's (God, I miss expansion packs) would be free... and then proceeded to go back on their word. 2. The Last Autumn sucks the fun out of the formula, and adds tediousness and linearity of gameplay in its place (on pain of guaranteed failure if you 'dare' to deviate from the 'correct', prescribed stratagem). The base game is harsh and unforgiving: you'll have to plan out your strategy before you make any decisions, and the only effective way you can do that is by trial and error. It's great limited resource-management in a cruelly-unforgiving environment that forces you to prioritize your peoples' actions... with the potential for success or abysmal failure, though often, said failure won't be evident until later on in the game. A word of warning: there is no happy ending in the main campaigns. Well: not 'truly' happy, but not even bitter sweet: just... depressing. I honestly had to uninstall it for that very reason, but I would still recommend it... just not with The Last Autumn included.
