On one side Frostpunk 2 is less emotional than the predecessor and on the other side it lacks the complexity/joy of a complex city simulator. What remains is a well-made game for a weekend that reflects on the problems every society has with extremists on one or another side. People with more philosophical mindset may enjoy such experience more.
The game is surprisingly enjoyable and well made for a small developer. The characters are loveable, combat is challenging, the stealth concept is well implemented and it fells good. The story could be more deep but it is not bad. Best above all is the exploration concept of a forbidden zone like in the Stalker movie. My only critique point is that the game could be more complex like the Xcom franchise. Otherwise I was not bored during my 21h playthrough on hardest difficulty.
I did expect a good story from the Witcher universe, but I was still surprised by the length and constant quality not found in many games, especially not at this price point. Another strengths are interesting characters and decision making that make actually sense. The gameplay itself is innovative and well designed. I liked the ester egg with hearthstone. On hard difficulty the game has nearly 50h, when you are as bad as I with logic puzzles.
When the enemy seeks to break our spirit, meet his blasphemy with flame! -Aphorisms 82 In 41 millennium the humanity is surrounded only by horrifying enemies in an endless battle for survival. The Adeptus Mechanicus has a crucial part in this battle as keepers, worshipers and manufacturers of old human technology or at least of what remains of it. Therefore, the highest priority is to secure undiscovered technology (in archeological terms) for this organization. Basically Mechanicus can be described as Xcom light with short expeditions instead of single maps. Some game mechanics are different and are quite innovative. For example at the start of a expedition the team needs to collect cognition points to be capable to use most of its weapons and tolls. Additionally, the Warhammer 40k story is in general very interesting with many books and this game tries at least to do it right, especially the language and dark humor that the tech priests are using is really cool. I think Warhammer fans will appreciate that. Another strong point is the excellent music that enhances the atmosphere of the game dramatically. The total play time on normal difficulty is 15-20 h providing a small challenge in the last quarter of the game. In general, Mechanicus is a good game that does everything right without a larger budged. My only critic point would be the weak tutorial, but it should not be difficult to find out by yourself how the game really works. I give Mechanicus 4 stars because there is still some room for improvement in comparison to the Xcom series which gives more high quality playtime.
