Abaddon: Princess of the Decay is a great blend of Japanese horror and Lovecraftian dread. The game has an 8-bit retro aesthetic that combined with the story and gameplay captures the hopelessness and inevitability typical of Japanese curse and ghost stories, where the supernatural feels omnipotent and unstoppable. Combined with Lovecraftian themes of insanity and incomprehensible forces, it delivers an experience that is unsettling and engaging. I can confidently say that while the NSFW exists in the game, it’s not the focus. Instead, it enhances the oppressive atmosphere and serves to underline the darker themes of the story. For those who are not fans of NSFW elements, don't worry, it’s inserted into the narrative in a way that feels organic and very much like 80s/90s horror movies, and not out of place. Besides, you can avoid the nsfw content by disabling the DLC. The unique gameplay, eerie visuals, and haunting soundtrack create an unforgettable horror experience. Whether you’re here for the psychological terror, the intricate story, or the retro RPG feel, this game delivers. If you love dark, atmospheric horror that lingers with you long after you’ve put it down, this is an absolute must-play.
This game is a pretty fun ride if you’re into grid-based dungeon crawlers and anime vibes. The story is over-the-top anime, mixing politics, magic, and a weird sci-fi Tokyo overrun by bad guys. You play as a group of girls called the Elemental Council, who are basically magical government officials fighting monsters while running the city. If you’ve enjoyed games like Etrian Odyssey or Mary Skelter, you can’t go wrong with this one. It’s not perfect, but the fun combat and deep customization make it worth checking out. Just prepare for some grind (it’s a Compile Heart game, after all) and anime-level craziness. However, this release removed the Ether Induction minigame, and the lack of transparency about this decision is disappointing. Due to feeling mislead, I had to take a star off the score.
Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard could have been a great game, the concept that mixes RTS with RPG is great, the graphics are nice and it has D&D creatures everywhere, but the realization stinks. Being a Hero exploring a fantasy world is nothing new in D&D but this game allowed you to control several heroes, accompanied by fellow soldiers or minions disputing Dungeon's treasure and territorial control with similar enemy Heroes, this sounds awesome and it would be if not for base protection and management. In both, my singleplayer and multiplayer experiences, bases broke immersion I was having with the game. Exploring the map and venturing through underground dungeons filled with monsters was very fun, being underground and not knowing if on the next turn of the labyrinth I'm going to find the other faction's group was even more engaging but any dungeon run I was doing would be interrupted by an attack on my base and it proved to be more of an annoyance than anything else, and most of the time the enemy faction was actually preparing an attack on my base when I was starting my dungeon run and vice versa, because that's a strategy that really works and there's little each player can do to avoid that other than sticking near to the base and being mindful of it instead of being able to enjoy the other aspects of the game. "It's an RTS moron, of coruse there's base management!" Sure, but in every other RTS I actually enjoy base building and management, in Dragonshard... Not so much, and I actually think the game could have been so much good if it didn't have this issues. This game is neither pure-RTS nor RPG, but I actually liked shard mining and gold hunting, and like I said before map exploration and dungeon run is fun so the fundamentals of the game are there and they work and there is another good RTS with a very similar concept but without base management that managed to be what Dragonshard could't and that is, Dawn of War II. While I'm not saying Dargonshard should have been just like Dawn of War II, but it could have been more fun like Dawn of War II if it was similar in what concerns bases, because everything else is pretty much there. If you don't know what I'm talking about read or watch a review of Dawn of War II to get the general idea. In the end, it's not a bad game, it just could have been so much better and one of the first of it's kind, but as it is, there's just so many better RTS games out there that are way better for the same price, and the D&D license does next to nothing for this game for it to be worth when compared to other RTS games.
Call to Power was a surprise for me, I never played it and only had experience with newer Civ games(Civ 3&4) but I bought Call to Power on impulse at a sale, I tried the game but I ran into issues with music, mouse scrolling and mouse pointer graphics that put me off, the game then remained on my digital shelf until recently. Deciding to give the game another I looked for workarounds for the issues I was experiencing, the music was easy to fix but for the mouse issues I had to install a source code project that solved it and improved the game on many other aspects. Call to Power with the Apolyton Souce code project is an awesome experience, I lost track of time while playing and often I found myself promising that I would quit after just one more turn. I actually think the game deserves a 5/5 because it is an awesome single player experience, but multiplayer(Except for hotseat) isn't working with the mod and some players look forward for MP modes so this issues deserves to be noted hence the 4/5. Without the mod, due to some design flaws the game deserves a 3/5, If Network play worked on the Apolyton Source Code Project I'd gladly give this game a 5 out of 5.
I necer played Descent, Wing Commander or Freespace or any other simulator for that matter. With this in mind I was wary of buying darkstar one because of the reviews but since it was on sale I risked it and was very surprised. Starting the game I noticed that the graphics were good, the voice acting could use some improvement but good or bad it does add to immersion. I love whenever I want to dock my ship and I need to contact the space station and receive a voiced reply. There's trading, exploring, you make allies, you make enemies and also have a criminal record. You may become a pirate or a mercenary, there's plenty to do in this game and it's fun. My only complaints are that there's no Multiplayer or some easier way to prolong the game and some of the missions can get repetitive. The game may have it's faults and it's very combat oriented but it doesn't deserve anything less than 4 stars.
