Outer Worlds is like an ancient chimera or Frankenstein's monster. It very obviously combines elements of Mass Effect, Bioshock, Deus Ex, Fallout New Vegas, Borderlands and Vampire: The Masquerade. Taking inspiration from so many titles results in a game that tries too many things at once, not expanding enough on any of them. It has multiple factions, but the reputation system does not lead to anything truly major aside from ending slides. Companions are generic and have absurdly short quest lines and some almost no character development. The player has access to multiple skills, but raising them never really felt like a difference other than being able to pass dialogue skill checks and access better loot easier. There's a lot of different guns and armor to collect and tinker with, but it does not feel rewarding and truly game changing. Almost everything is based on a solid idea, but not using the potential. The story is a classic without any major plot twists or giving evil characters interesting alternatives, but the combination of serious moments (bonus points for the ship's snarky AI) with corny humor works for the game and makes it a lot more enjoyable. There are truly spectacular moments and memorable scenes - too bad they are buried behind absolute basic fetch quests. It's also too short. I finished every single quest and explored locations left and right in just about 33 hours, jsut when I was getting into the story... Presentation is nice, with unique atmosphere to the planets, creatures, evil corporations and crazy color palette. The game runs flawlessly, is a visual gem in terms of style and has a soundtrack that you can fall in love with. All things considered, I still had fun, but I'm happy I bought it on a sale - for a full price I'd be disappointed.
Panzer Corps 2 brings the Panzer General series sequel into modern gameplay standards without sacrificing the soul of the original classic made by SSI back in the day. It uses the old proven mechanics, but adds a lot more than just new graphics. Encirclement and cutting off enemies from supply is now a more important thing than taking a turn to refuel units. Planes operate from bases within a specific range, more powerful units take more slots in the army, it is possible to capture equipment and use it to your own gains and individual commander traits for a campaign bring the replay value up significantly. The base game offers the German campaign as did the Panzer General classic, with different starting points to choose from and multiple branching historic and fictional paths, so that another play through is an entirely different experience than the previous one. DLC already bring new fronts to the table and add tons of new content and expand on mechanics further. There are some flaws, but I consider them quite minor and irrelevant looking at the game overall. The sounds could have been better and have more "punch", the game can be quite challenging to run on absolute top settings even on really good machines (but it looks amazing even in medium or high) and in the base campaigns the objectives are very basic, mostly limited to capturing or holding objectives in specific number of turns or reaching a point by a specific time period. For military history fans there are some tiny bits of naming issues with specific units or models, but they are actively being addressed with various updates, so it is good the developer add fixes to existing content along with releasing DLC. I have now reached 400h in this game (after 2 DLC, the base game with several campaigns it was about 160) and that's all just in single player! The game also comes with an editor that allows to create missions and campaigns, but it is arguably not as easy to use as it could have been.
