This game is amazing and it makes me want to throw my computer through a window until my reflexes and judgement skills get better. I was told this was a really great game for years but avoided it because the aesthetic didn't vibe with me at the time. Totally missed out, it's a must play if you would enjoy a gritty neon-flashy 80's kill-fest arcade experience.
It's charming and frustrating, but this game has me hooked. If you enjoy stuff like the Beholder series, Papers Please, and other commentaries on dystopian politics, then you'll probably love this one. This game has a wild, cartoonish, and frankly absurd sense of humor - sometimes the jokes land really well, sometimes they're cringy. But when it's more serious, the story is incredibly engaging, and when it's not then you're scrambling to keep your perfect broadcast score up during a politician's drunken rant. Definitely not for everyone, but certainly worth the time to try it out. High recommend.
It's a simple, fast game about a totalitarian state that's slowly cracking down on the media and you run the last free newspaper in the country. Generally speaking if you liked Papers, Please then you're likely going to enjoy this but it is woefully bite-sized (although that being said it was a small indie team so it's absolutely worth supporting). That being said I think there's a grand opportunity for replay value because of how short-lived the experience is. It's mostly a game of reactions and shifting opinions. You, as the editor, get to decide what stories run and what knowledge gets out to the media and that will ultimately decide how the public at large views not only your paper but potentially the incoming regime. It's full of tough decisions and your journalist team actually has both moral stances on what's going on around them as well as a healthy dose of fear about what will happen if they write certain articles. In one playthrough I actually had two of them 'disappear' for writing inflammatory articles and it legitimately changed how the other writers reacted to being given certain stories. I wouldn't say it's for everyone but if you find value in examining the importance of media consumption then you'll love it. It's got opinions and it's meant to make you think. Highly recommend it!
So the game is basically Papers Please but with a slightly more serious tone, weirdly, with less Soviet Bloc vibes and more modern day USA and a less focused day-to-day task. I can't say that I think it's better than Papers, Please but I can say that I enjoyed both equally for different reasons. If you enjoy the idea of social commentary and getting to feel like a real internet sleuth then you're probably going to love this game. I personally really enjoyed it. You are tasked with running the new government-funded surveillance system, dubbed Orwell - which is only slightly on the nose in the same way that a steel beam to the forehead is only slightly inconvenient. The Orwell computer system allows you to run deep searches on various characters throughout the game and dig into their activities - all while you're being hounded by your superiors to accomplish certain tasks. If you think that combing through details is not fun then you're probably not going to have a great time. As the game progresses you get access to more and more information and ways to extract information concerning your designated targets so you'll have to pay attention as you go along. Not really a zone-out experience, you'll be hunting for details through people's internet search histories and phone calls and making judgments on how to proceed with those people. Overall I played this with my spouse and we had a great time. It's definitely not for everyone, but it's fun if you like playing detective for a few hours.
I really want to love this game. I really really want to love this game. If you've never played Gangsters or Empire of Sin but you like the idea of running a criminal syndicate then you'll probably enjoy at least part of this. Kalypso made Tropico as well and you can kind of see the similarities in the execution (if I recall there's actually a few funny references to the ever-present llama joke in that series). So it's got a neat sense of humor and doesn't take itself too seriously. It starts off pretty fresh and you can slowly take over neighborhoods by buying/invading certain areas and converting them into illegal ventures while attempting to accomplish certain objectives and special random events. This is the bulk of the game and I'll be honest it's not as fun as it could be. It's repetitive and can occasionally be frustrating but it's not awful. Then there are the special strategy turn-based missions that you can accomplish. And I personally hated them. There's a lot of great turn-based strategy games out there and this is on the low end of the excitement. You can't really customize a lot of your load-out and it's really easy to lose just because you didn't bring the right characters (or even worse, they're on a cool-down and you can't take them.) The combat is clunky and borderline feels rigged. I had a feeling of dread whenever more cops of rival gangsters began filling up the turn-order at the top of the screen. I really wish there was a true sandbox crime game out there set in the 20's - but I don't think this is a good example or step in the right direction. If that's what you're looking for then you'll probably enjoy this title initially. I can't promise you'll finish the game, though.
This is, in my opinion, one of the most underrated top-down turn-based RPGs. I've wanted to play Shadowrun on the tabletop for a long time but this is a *fantastic* substitute, and actually an excellent primer set for those of you who want to run the shadows on the table as well. I wish that this series was overall better known. I recommend playing them in order, if only because they progressively get better and better - in all aspects. The amount of dialogue can sometimes be a little overwhelming, but if you enjoy cyberpunk and fantasy then you'll love this unique and splendidly made series. My only real gripe is the karma leveling system. If you're not familiar you'll probably put points into skills you won't need, at least initially but it's overall easy to get the hang of. Shadowrun Returns sets you up in Seattle, the last bastion of the United States (now UCAS) on the West Coast - and it is a hellhole. You slowly uncover a conspiracy as you are tasked with completing a task for your now deceased comrade. The mechanics are a bit wonky and the story is pretty basic but it's a good start and introduces a lot of the basic lore. Shadowrun: Dragonfall tosses you back into the action in Germany, which has become an anarchist free-state. What starts off with a simple smash-and-grab mission spirals into a crisis of intrigue and mystery as you race against time to uncover what's coming... and to escape what's hunting you. Introduces a hub 'base' and area full of colorful characters and smoother mechanics. Shadowrun: Hong Kong is, hands down, the best of the three. Set in Hong Kong, which is an economic free zone now. You are framed and hunted by the police and forced into becoming a Shadowrunner and the game sets you up with a wide host of amazing missions and character arcs that are all worth exploring. Every single mission is unique, the graphics are highly upgraded, and the story is a finely woven tapestry that your decisions do influence over time.
Okay, so I generally dislike leaving negative reviews. So I'll give you the reasons why I ENJOY this game first. It's a callback, point-blank, unabashedly to Warcraft 2. The art-style, the units, the everything. It's a love letter to old titles that I really loved playing as a kid. If you enjoy those then you'll enjoy this. It has a sense of humor and it's quirky. Plus I love the aesthetic. It's a simple RTS but it's got charm. That being said. This game is wildly unbalanced. I had to put it down after the first three campaign missions out of frustration, which is something I don't really do. Mission three has you going up against a vast array of 'Chaos' forces (with a small cadre of humans showing up to try and wreck you). And it is... borderline impossible as far as I can tell. I played this on 'normal' difficulty, and the ONLY GOLD MINE I HAD ran dry before I could actually challenge the enemy camps. And throughout the mission the enemy is hurling an ungodly amount of units at you and they will wreck your normal units with ease. I had all of the available unit upgrades purchased and they were basically wet toilet paper against the enemy. My immediate inclination was that I wasn't grasping a concept of the strategy I was supposed to be using, but by the third try I think the enemy units are just... better. And the lack of back-up gold mines, which I could not find because I couldn't explore without letting my base get wrecked wound up with me being unable to even train new units anyway. Which means you have to be VERY careful where you spend your resources because when that mine is gone, it's over. The writing and voice acting is also very mediocre, but I'd give it a pass because it feels like it was made with a lot of love. I really didn't enjoy it but you might have better luck. If you enjoy older RTS titles it's at least worth a shot and it's, as far as I can tell, free here and on Steam so it's not like you're going to be wasting money.
