I was hyped about some Mech combat but BATTLETECH destroyed that pretty fast. This is an overall ok game but with one major flaw – the tactical aspect of combat is very limited; in many cases you’ll just end up exchanging blows with your opponents, and you can’t do much about it. And can someone explain to me how enemy bases keep their turret controls in very vulnerable places? Rating: 50t of hot meh. https://pixelloot.com
“The Devil's Daughter” has the core mechanics, which I liked, from “Crimes and Punishments”. You can watch somebody closely and make observations. And you can use clues to make deductions and reach conclusions. You can still draw the wrong conclusions which will lead to solving “a case” wrong. To make everything better, everything makes sense if you use logic and really think about it. So, at its core, the game is solid and fun. Unfortunately, the developers insisted keeping stupid mini puzzles all over the game that, with a few exceptions, only make it more tedious without real contributions. The difficulty settings don’t make the game harder, just force more busy work. Fortunately, a low setting even gives you the option of skipping those useless puzzles. Rating: I recommend the “Waterboarding” DLC! https://pixelloot.com
Dishonored 2 is everything you wanted if you enjoyed the first one and want more of it. Unfortunately, I got bored pretty fast as I wasn’t willing to go through the gameplay loop of “resolving stealth puzzles” to be spoon fed story lines. And when I say, “stealth puzzles”, I mean just that. At its root, every map, is a sequence of locations (puzzles) that you can traverse (resolve) by using stealth or “cheat/skip” using firepower and triggering alarms. The story is OK, and it comes with a twist at the beginning of the game when you are forced to choose the character with which you will play the game. Both characters coming with different abilities and a slightly different gameplay style. Rating: Ninja Sorceress https://pixelloot.com
XCOM2 is what XCOM should have been from the start. No more aliens appearing out of nowhere with no warning, and you have a few more options on how to approach situations even from the start of the campaign. There is even more room for maneuver. Unfortunately, like all Firaxis titles, it is full of gamey mechanics, for example: you have to do research so you can remove weapon mods without destroying them. It is very cool that the weapons have mods and everything, but anything that could be turned into a game mechanic, to make the game look more complex, got turned into a mechanic. In addition, it’s a bit silly that not all soldiers have handguns. XCOM2 the campaign is funneled through the story so it may appear that you don’t have as much agency as you expected. Don’t worry though, the game is full with options and there is plenty to do. The main DLC adds even more and overall the game feels complete and satisfying. Like all XCOM titles, the game is at its best when played in Ironman mode (no “scum saving”). But there are so many game mechanics and things that you could greatly benefit from knowing in advance, not to mention the occasion bug, that pure Ironman might be very time consuming. So maybe a solution to this might be a self-imposed Ironman where you can only load saved games when you encounter new game mechanics. Rating: High ground *Editors' Pick* https://pixelloot.com
Thronebreaker is trying to tell a story with (the Gwent) card game mechanics and it’s doing a pretty good job. The beginning is really slow and annoying because you are continuously interrupted by the tutorial. But then the game keeps you from being bored by having more than one type of fight. There are “battles” with your constructed deck, battles with pre-set decks, and puzzles. What Thronebreaker tries, is a bit innovative, and I think they didn’t want to scare the players away by making the game too difficult, so at the very least the puzzles are a bit too easy. You can add to your “army” new units, upgrade existing ones, or find artifacts. You have some agency where to go and who to fight. It’s even possible to miss recruiting some characters or units due to the choices you make during conversations. Overall it’s a good game and you really don’t need to have any previous experience with card games. Good sound track, good story, and great lore. Also, if you buy it on GOG you’ll get some nice bonuses in Gwent. Rating: Praise be to the great sun! https://pixelloot.com
Winning requires your 1 to 3 characters surviving in each zone (6 in total) while figuring out how to get to the next. Distrust is pretty fast paced and you’ll be on the move constantly, so this is not the kind of game where you try to survive around a point that you build up (like a camp or base). A lot of its difficulty seems forced, like there is a RNG element that doesn’t make a lot of sense. Also, characters develop illnesses too easily, and scarcity seems contrived. I don’t know if this is a bug but I remember that I couldn’t warm up a room because a window was broken on the other side of the building. Rating: Sub-Zero wins! Recommendation: I didn’t finished the game because I didn’t enjoy the game-play loop, but overall it’s a decent game that will give you a challenge. http://pixelloot.com
The game starts in the most awesome way, with the option of having a 12 minutes video to get you up the speed with the story. Your character has a ton of abilities so you can approach a situation in more than one way, cool! The levels are also designed so that you have multiple options, also cool. But unfortunately, how everything is put together results in having some very easy to surpass obstacles. Even if you play without killing anybody, this game is really easy. It also has micro-transactions, which means achievements are worthless, because you can buy your way in an even easier game. And with any game with micro-transactions I’m going to strongly suspect that it has a higher grind than necessary to encourage these purchases. This type of game is exactly my jam, so I was very surprised that I didn’t really like it. Clearly some talented people worked on it (it has some beautiful graphics), but there were enough bad parts to keep me from really enjoying it. The story is exaggerated, the level design was bad (nonsensical layout, lack of assets, etc.), and there was a lack of real consequences for your actions. This game has been out for more than a year but it’s still buggy and has an obvious lack of polish. Rating: Please add to your disappointment with only $4.99! Recommendation: I never would've expected not to recommend it, but here we are. http://pixelloot.com
I have to admit that at first I was impressed with the game. It does a lot of things right: it has a nice resource system where you store up a wide variety of materials, rich technology tree, cool spaceship customization, etc. It even has espionage (take that Stellaris). It has mercenaries implemented in a fun way. The game even looks pretty, so what went wrong? Well, the game is unpolished and unbalanced, not to mention the AI is pretty meh. Extra research points don't carry over to the next tech. Technology trading can be very frustrating because you don't want to take a technology that make you unable to research other variants of it which you would've preferred instead. In a single war, you can conquer and assimilate countless planets without much objection from the existing population. The ideology system, which is strongly related to the morality system, doesn’t make all that much sense and seems quite imbalanced. Slowdown late game even on powerful machines. And there is more but I'll stop here. This game doesn't require much more to be a really good game but since the game is "gold" I doubt that we will see much improvement in the future if at all. Rating: This game is a can of wormholes. Recommendation: You can probably find something else you like more. https://pixelloot.com
You play as an 18 year old photography senior who discovers she can rewind time. I really liked seeing the world through the perspective of the main character and for me it was the best part of the game. You can make some decisions here and there but they rarely hold any real weight. This is not the kind of game where you get stuck, it's much more like a linear story that you are a part of. The player can't save for whatever reason and checkpoints are too far apart, especially seeing how you can't skip as much stuff (dialogue) as you might want even though you have a "skip" button. Rating: (cool+2*meh+"why can't I skip this???")/4 Recommendation: If you're into visual novels and don't mind time travel mumbo jumbo, it's a cool game.
The stunning ambience tries to keep the wool over your eyes about how shallow the rest of the game really is. Pros: the world and the art work are beautiful. Cons: very basic combat. Rating: One time travel to buy the game at a discount instead. Recommendation: it is an idea to set the difficulty to minimum and enjoy it more as a visual novel. https://pixelloot.com
