Beyond the Frontier has the skeleton of a good space sim - stations, trading, and combat. But none of these are really fleshed out enough to overcome to excruciatingly slow pace of the game. There's perhaps 5 hours of gameplay here, padded out with 30 hours of flying back and forth. X-Tension adds a lot to the formula, such as capturing mechanics and allowing you to own a fleet of ships and pilot any of them, larger map, etc. Unfortunately it is still plagued by the same excessively slow pace, especially at the start. It may pick up later, but with no storyline or other overall goal other than "make money," I really didn't feel any desire to sink the time in.
Frostpunk is a city building game that imposes harsh conditions and strict time limits. This gives it almost a puzzle sort of feel, very unlike the pure sandbox style of others of its genre. For players like me that find the sandbox style directionless, pointless, and boring, this works out very well. I found it very fun to figure out ways to satisfy the needs of the colony and prepare for coming disasters while keeping everyone happy enough to not get thrown out. However, the city building mechanics are somewhat simplified to accomodate this different direction. While it works very well in the context of a first playthrough, it does limit the long-term appeal. Given the time pressures, there are only a few "correct" ways to play the game. Once you've cleared all the scenarios and fully explored the Faith and Order laws, there is very little reason to come back. This is not a game you're likely to sink hundreds of hours into, but it is still well worth the asking price.
I didn't much care for the original Torchlight, but the sequel was said to be much improved so I was still looking forward to trying it out. Sadly my opinion remains the same, for mostly the same reasons. It has to be said, though, that there is very little I can point to and say was done poorly. It just doesn't suit my tastes. Graphics are very much like the original, or World of Warcraft. Cartoony, simple models and bright colors. Not a fan myself. There's no rule that says ARPGs have to be dark and gritty, but I much prefer them that way. Sound good. Narrator annoying. Caveman speak save space. The story progression and environments are almost too similar to D2. The hero of the first game has gone bad. You must chase him through the area surrounding the location of the first game, then a desert, then a swampy forest, and finally on to the final confrontation in Hell (a mine here, but close enough, right?). These may not be the top priority in ARPGs, but the devs could have at least put more effort in than this. Compared to TL1's bog-standard fighter, archer, and mage, TL2's classes are much more unique. That's a good thing, even though I have yet to find a class/skill combination I actually enjoy. The skills that have interested me so far have been grossly underpowered compared to the boring ones, but YMMV. That leaves the general gameplay, which is what I believe is most important, yet find most lacking here. For the most part, everything is as you'd expect from this type of game, aside from two main things I have to call out. First is that many of the enemies are super tanky. Combat feels boring and unimpactful when everything takes forever to kill. Second is that I usually don't really feel that I'm in full control of my character. Rather it feels like I'm giving commands to someone that usually follows orders, but is under no obligation to, and gets to decide how to accomplish them even when they do.
