The game launches only about half the time on Windows 11 and I can't get it to play windowed mode at all. The resolution is so low it looks terrible full screen on a 24 in monitor. I really want to like this, but until I find a way to make the game stable I can't recommend. This seems to be something changed with Windows 11. I have read a bunch of older threads getting it to work on 8 and 10.
It doesn't have the depth of Master of Orion or other space sims, but I didn't mind that when building planets and researching tech. However the combat is atrocious. It doesn't make any logical sense. Building your ships works out ok, the designer and tech seems to make sense, but once your in combat it doesn't seem to matter what weapons you have. All the combat appears the same, my ships die just as quickly with stronger armor, and my better weapons seem to have no effect. If this was fixed it would be a decent casual space sim.
This game transcends ARPG genre and is a fantastic game period. -Story is well written. The small parts of voice acting are well done. There's enough meaningful dialogue choice to mix it up. The notes they put in the game that you read provide a lot of context and backstory that you will find very interesting, but not overwhelming like elder scrolls, etc. -Gameplay is stellar, everything is well balanced. There's a mix of combat options so you can pick whatever style suites you. It's not twitchy, but also not just hack n slash right click button mashing without thought either. -The theme of the game is amazing, like apocalyptic victorian era. I can't tell if I'm in steampunk, lovecraft, game of thrones or indiana jones and I love it all. -Class trees and the stat and loot system are what really set this game apart. You have near infinite customization. Want a wizard who has a giant axe and chops people to death? You got it. How about a rogue type that shoots fireballs at range? No problem! If you can dream it you can pretty much make it. There's even a class that throws shields that return to him, hello captain america! -Tons of stuff to do. If you rush straight through the main story you can finish this game and expacs in like 12 hours, but with all the side quests and exploration it's going to be more like 50 and that's without trying the harder difficulties or farming for the best gear. This game can easily provide hundreds of hours of fun. If I were to nitpick, some find this game hard to approach due to the complexity of the stats and how they all work off each other. Also normal mode is not challenging. But I think that's the point, normal mode is there so you can learn the game and how it functions without dying constantly. It seems intentional. Graphics are functional but don't really impress. But this game is all about fun, not looking pretty, and it doesn't look dated, just not as nice. Music is great but repetitive as there aren't many tracks.
I'm late to the party on this game, but it holds up and is amazing. It has classic hack n slash feel but the story is also very compelling. The mechanics seem daunting at first, but it's not that had to figure out if you read a beginner's guide, and it's not necessary to min/max on normal difficulties and finish the game. After you finish, you get the option of doing it all over on harder difficulties. I think what I love most about this game is the flexibility. You pick from 8 base class specializations, but you get to choose two of them to master, so that's a total of 36 combos. And even within that, talents vary so much you can build and play a character in completely different ways. Like choosing an arcanist (mage type) does not lock you into only spell casting, you can still wield guns or crossbows or two handed giant maces, it all just depends if you have the stats for it, but since you can build however you like you can make that happen. It makes the game really fun to explore. I had about 80 hours played before I even finished the base game campaign because I kept experimenting with different characters. Another great aspect is this game rewards you for exploring. Ok on the downside, maps in this game are static, so once you explored a place on one character it's the same on your next one. But for a first play through, which will last a while, it's so exciting to find new nooks and crannies to discover secret lore or loot. That's probably my second favorite aspect. The third best feature imo, is there are a lot of quality of life features like bank sharing accross characters, that fact that you can craft items directly from your bank without having to move mats to your inventory, and a teleport system where you can return to home base at any time with no cooldown. It means no grindy monotonous travelling. In all I think it's very accessibly to casuals as well as satisfying hard core types. I highly recommend the expansions for more great features.
This game plays a lot like SNES JRPG titles of old like Final Fantasy but in a space setting. The combat is turn based with each ship class having different abilities you can level up that combo with other class abilities. And there are heals and buffs as well. You spend some time resource gathering and building up your base and researching tech to progress to certain story milestone missions and events. That's essentially the whole game in a nut shell. It doesn't have a ton of replay value to me, but the art is cool and the mechanics work well enough, even if it's not a deep strategy title. The only thing I really hated about it was the ground combat. It's incredibly lackluster and also difficult, as you'll likely not want to devote a lot of resources to it. Overall a good fun game.
This game is nothing like ftl at all. The both have quests. That's about where the similarities end. I won't go through comparing every feature of ftl because this isn't a comparison, but rather an honest review of convoy on its own merits. It's a much different game and can stand on it's own. In convoy your ship crashes on an unknown planet. You then run around in an MCV with some escort vehicles looking for four crucial parts to fix your ship and leave. The planet has four warring factions. The game is a rogue like rpg, the map is procedurally generated each time. There's an overworld jrpg style where you drive around and randomly encounter enemies on your way to do quests. Quests have some dialogue with some choices of responses that lead to different things. Sometimes it's combat, other times you talk your way out of stuff, it's also random sometimes. While one option like having a drink at a bar might turn out fine during one play through, if you encounter this next time you may end up poisoned. There are also shops scattered throughout. You burn fuel driving around so you have to refuel and repair combat damage at these shops in addition to finding new weapons and stuff. Combat is really cool, it's real time with you moving your escort vehicles around a grid to get in range of enemies. Some weapons use line of sight so you can block dmg to your MCV. Some weapons have special uses too. Enemies are somewhat varied depending on the faction. It's not super strategic though, really just focus fire the right guys. All this is really well done but the downside is lack of content. You can beat a playthrough in about 90 minutes, less if you skip side quests, and by the time you are on your third you will notice a lot of quests repeating. There aren't many vehicles or weapons to get either. If someone made a content mod or there was a new version I would gladly give this four stars, but I only got about 5 hours of enjoyment out of this title before hanging it up.
Well I thought this game would be kind of like Bastion. It has a similar cell shaded/hand draw look to it, similar gameplay of isometric action, and even the moves your character can do are kind of similar like attacking and rolling dodge. Both have great sound tracks too. But that's where the similarities end as Jotun is horrible from a gameplay perspective. It only took me about 5 minutes to realize it, as I was walking for 5 minutes without encountering a single enemy or thing to do. Literally walking around trying to figure out what this game was about besides pretty visual backgrounds and pleasant music. Unfortunately that's about all there is to it. The controls are so sluggish you will die a bunch until you brute force your way through some boss fights. The couple fights I did were pretty dull scripts, a boss that blatantly telegraphs their attacks so you can dodge. It's just not fun. And while the atmosphere is outstanding, there's hardly any story to keep me playing for that.
