it's just another amplitude 4x where it looks good on paper but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. every mechanic in this game is halfbaked and conveys the idea that amplitude just wanted to waste your time. keep in mind this is coming from someone who plays paradox grand strategy games... if I say a game is tedious and tests my patience, then by all means it will bore you to sleep if you are not accustomed to the genre. honestly what's the point of playing this compared to stellaris? both are 4x and in space. both will have you invest countless hours staring at your monitor. but playing this game feels like undergoing surgery without anesthetics or deciding to ride a horse in a world where you could have anesthetics and where you could choose a plane. in the end you'll reach your destination nonetheless but why would anyone with a functional frontal lobe opt for the inferior options? you could argue that stellaris is too complex ( which it isn't ) or that you are tired of stellaris. I'd highly suggest you try something else because this game is meant for the absolute most casual players out there. people who come home from their 9to5, tired and looking for a pastime until they go to bed. if you are looking for something that will bore you enough to put you to sleep then by all means get this game. it's more potent than swallowing a melatonin pill. I can assure you that you will sleep soundly. I for example slept like a child today and after playing this game, I'm tired again haha. with that said it's another amplitude game. from endless legend to humankind, their games are incredibly dull and bland. I got this on sale and this is the last time I support these devs.
I think it's a decent game however the controls are abysmal. getting troops into position you want, is akin to herding cats across the street. there is also an issue in which troops randomly refuse to accept your attack order. I'm not talking about skirmishers. just regular infantry that refuses to go into position or attack the enemy I designated for them. as such flanking maneuvers become difficult to pull off but despite my grievances I still believe it's a decent game. I remember buying this ages ago for a few quid and I'm not disappointed.
as title already suggests this game has incredibly inconsistent physics. sometimes you just run through solid steal like a hot knife through butter but most of the time, plastic chairs will upend your car haha. for literally no reason except the devs randomly decided this object should have some weight and resistance and others shouldn't. but that isn't the only "bugbear" that will turn an above average arcade racer into a test of patience and luck: - rubberbanding is also inconsistent - boost does absolutely nothing - car handling is atrocious at times - very few tracks. a lot of them get reused overall it doesn't really bother me considering I paid 1.98 for both the first and second game in this franchise but nonetheless, they are not enjoyable enough to warrant a purchase
most who grew up during the early 2000s know what money-grubbing soulless cash sinks arcades were but having no experience, no standards and through sheer peer pressure, we still couldn't manage to turn away from it because there was nothing better available atm. with that out of the way, I don't think you should waste your money or time on this game unless you belong to the vocal crowd that believe beating generic game - that is difficult for the sake of being difficult - then look no further. you can waste your time and earn your stars and stripes for your imaginary epaulettes right here, to brag about in online forums and social media. in the end it's baffling to me how anyone can recommend this game. it's old, tired formula that has been refined over the years to offer us better value and engagement for our hard earned cash, yet for some reason it seems that every influencer and "professional" reviewer on the planet are praising this as an immaculate throwback to old times. first of all, those times were not great. people are looking at it with rose tinted glasses and second of all, these games were created by people whose sole purpose was, to create an unnecessary difficult game in order to ensure more coins are sunk in the arcade. but now let's talk about the game. it's not good. in fact it's some of the clunkiest, jankiest titles I have tried in the last year. of course jank alone is not holding me back to like a game. gothic 2 is hella janky but the overall game is fun because the devs noticed that giving players, choice is a good thing. now these pretentious indie devs thought years of refinement and progress are meaningless because they know better... could you imagine this kind of mentality in medicine? oh yes senior consultant, I may just be an intern but I know my appendectomies. I just cut the patient open from one hip to the next with my scalpel and that's it... why bother to use those fancy tools with tiny cameras...
that led me to quit this game prematurely before reaching the end. I don't think tyranny is as great as people claim in reviews and I try to elaborate on that. the first issue I got is the writing which seriously lacks in quality. don't get me wrong, the premise is decent but the writing which is supposed to keep the player interested until the finish-line, is rather tacky to say the least. words are randomly picked and dispersed like a chef haphazardly acting for an instagram shot. prose range from mediocre to bad and this is crucial to any rpg that heavily relies on text to compensate for lack of visual fidelity and budget. but as I have come to learn, obsidian didn't have the time, nor the budget, so I guess that's a paltry excuse for the bad writing? furthermore I didn't like the fact that you are considered a surrogate of a powerful adjudicator yet for some odd reason that has me scratching the back of my head, you also are treated like the lowest runt in the command chain. you will in fact waste your precious time fighting mobs, some interesting bosses and running errands like a thrall, rather than overseeing and meting out justice like the right hand of a central figure. which brings me to combat. nothing extraordinary has been done here. it feels lackluster, lame and uninspired. which honestly begs the question, why the devs forced so much of it, on the player. but I'm not too interested to deal any longer with this game and as such I will give it a 2/5. subpar and should be avoided if you consider there are superior options on the market for far cheaper.
if you ever played system shock and fell in love with that game, then this will end up being the worst spiritual successor, a fan could imagine ( they initially tried to name this game system shock ). 1/5 because the sound design is spot on but it's the rest of the game - that even for 2008 standard - sucks.
look before I start completey destroying this game, know that I had a basic idea of what I was getting. namely a generic open world but good destruction physics right? here is a list of things I absolutely detest about this game in no particular order: - jetpack: you can only use one ability. why can't I sprint and fly at the same time? - fast travel is locked behind an upgrade later in the game.... - enemies are bullet sponges - enemies just spawn out of nowhere and swarm you. think cyberpunk police but worse. - all the cool vehicles and weapons are locked behind walls of monotonous grind. - the control system is cool but getting control down is honestly insanely mindnumbing. - sidequests consists of you doing menial tasks like in mmorpgs but without any benefits. - higher fps makes the game crash :0 - ugly as hell graphics despite it being reMArsTerED - completely barren landscape. - insanely boring world. - terrible AI. - way too many bugs. this is the reason why I keep playing old school games and have completely given up on 99% of modern releases because in reality the devs didn't want to make a good game. they wanted to create a filler that would justify the 60€ tag for investors.
wtf lol? cdpr was this really necessary? did you really need 8 years to create this? I honestly am baffled at the ridiculous quality of this game and ask myself what have they been doing this entire time? did you guys drop everything you had on the night city aspect and the graphic fidelity? I mean this game is atmospheric and gorgeous but what the hell guys haha? enough of that here is pro and con list to keep this short. Pros: - story is fine although predictable - sidequests are suprisingly good. never expected this level of quality. -night city is atmospheric and beautiful. Cons: -there is a slew of bugs making the game unenjoyable from clipping npcs, to performance issues. -night city feels dead. the whole world feels like scenery. if you are here for next gen open worlds... well you migh be disappointed -keanu reeves... guys there are so many talented VAs out there. why choose the drab voice of this of one? he is the only one in the scene that just doesn't cut it. -RPG elements that serve as scenery.... hey I can open up this door maybe it's only unlockable because of my set of skills? No you can literally go find the other path and never bother investing in that skill. -gameplay reminds me of a bad version of fallout 4. -stealth is a joke and not a particularly good one. -driving needs some overhaul. overall this reminds me of the disappointing fallout 3 release. sure it has it's name but it's not an rpg anymore. it's a streamlined action/adventure where you are forced on a certain path and your decisions serve to further give you that illusion of a choice. hey atleast the story is not as bad as I had imagined and the sidequest are suprisingly good. however is it worth 5 stars? no
Such a fantastic game, so refreshing in so many different ways and one thing that blew me away is the Idea the devs took and build this game upon: City block game! there is no giant map here, you can't visit that mountain you see miles away but there is no need to. this is a small game filled to the brim with detail and meaningful content. there are no placeholders. everything was meant to be accessible for the player to interact with. this is what warren specter dreamed of and what some modern games like deus ex human revolution and mankind divided managed to pull off but both of those games was done by a huge studio with funded by a big publisher. this on the other hand was made by a small indie studio and I can't for the sake of being objective give them any unnecessary critique, however I will not give it 5 stars because I like them to improve in many aspects like music and overall optimization. the writting, the overall gameplay, rpg mechanics are great. especially the fantastic artstyle is like watching a picture creature with gouache and watercolor. amazing work guys, you made two games that I thoroughly enjoyed, I wish you the best. god speed
