I've been playing the Dungeon Keeper games since the first one came out, and over the years, no matter how many times I'd played them, I always ended up coming back for more eventually. Now, it's War for the Overworld that I go to. The core gameplay is true to DK2 so old veterans will already know what they're doing, but with enough cool new stuff added on that it doesn't feel old and boring. I particularly appreciate how this game gives the options of micromanaging more things without requiring it, so, for example, if you want a door built right away you can pick up the crates and do it yourself, or cast a spell if your foundry is short on parts and you don't want to wait for more to be built, or set down a whole bunch of traps and doors and have your Cultists perform an evil ritual to finish them all at once.
If you got this game for free during the last Big Fall Sale like I did, stop reading this and go install it! This is a very well-made shooter that rewards you for playing smart, exploring carefully, and conserving resources. The ship is creepy, what with it's flickering lights, warnings written on the walls in blood, strange machinery working, and of course the sounds of enemies you can't see echoing down the corridors. The lean buttons are very useful because you never know what is around the corner, but you can be sure it probably isn't good! There are audio logs all over the ship that tell the story of what happened there through the perspective of several of the crew members, some of them contain important information to progress through the game but every single one is worth listening to and mostly well voice-acted. I do have a couple of small criticisms, though. Other than Standard Weapons, the other three weapon classes have more crappy weapons than good ones, and a first-time player wouldn't know that until they invested multiple ranks into those weapon skills to equip them and find out, but the other three classes do have at least one good weapon each so it's not a total waste. My other, similar, criticism is that some of the Tech skills also aren't worthwhile to make a major investment in. Repair can be entirely replaced by the auto-repair items you find scattered around as long as you Maintain your weapons before they break, and unless you want to use the Exotic weapons you can beat the game without putting a single point into Research because the game gives you an implant that will handle that for you. I think the best way I can summarize this game is that it's the game Bioshock copied but never quite lived up to. I got bored with Bioshock about halfway through, I didn't find anything boring here. Oh, in case you were wondering, the very best game I ever got for free was Baldur's Gate 2, and it might be getting demoted after more plays of SS2.
