This plays and feels like a Beta version of Skyrim. The story is original, the map is different and very large, and the talent tree has major changes (some are very cool and fun). One of the biggest changes for old Skyrim players is the levelling system. You now get XP from killing enemies and completing quests, and level up your skills by purchasing 'skill and crafting books' that get more expensive at skill level 25, 50, and 75. When you level up you receive 4 crafting points and 5 skill points, so you really have to plan ahead what kind of character you want to be as it's impossible to get max level in everything. Some of the voice acting needs work and the combat at higher difficulties could be balanced better (think 'glass canon' at Master), but overall I am blown away by this 'mod' that's better than a lot of 'AAA' games today. It's free, so any Skyrim fan owes it to themselves to give it a try!
Combat, skills, and equipment variety are decent to good. Everything else just drags the game down. The map is huge, but that only works against you as 75% of what you'll be doing is running back and forth. Voice acting is some of the worst I've ever seen. The story is dull and fails to make you really care about anything other than getting to the next battle. Your horse handles like a pony with mad cow disease. The ending is short and unfulfilling. There are worse games out there, but there are better ones too. Lots. If you really, really wanna give this a try, do yourself a favor and wait for a sale.
Pros: -Decent visuals -Lots of races with unique features or create your own -Lots of custom-map options -Quick load/turn time -Exploration pays off Cons: -NO tactical combat. Instead, you select a pre-battle 'card' from a short list of options that will give different bonuses to your fleet's shields, damage, etc, then watch a simulation play out. You can also just skip to the result if you don't want to watch. The battles are ok, but not super-impressive and get repetitive. Is Master of Orion 2 that difficult to imitate??? -Ground combat animation simulations look like they were made in 1985. -Tech tree is the same every time (minus exploration) and kind of dull. Weapons don't feel varied enough. -Custom race design is ok but missed an opportunity for some truly wild options that could have been fun without breaking the game. -Diplomacy is spammy and annoying. Don't want to sign my treaty? Don't want to get out of my system? Too bad! I will spam you with the same message every turn until you click 'Agree' just to get me to shut up! -Some of the UI/controls feel mashed together, resulting in leaving or entering screens unintentionally. So in summary, it's an average 4X game. Buy it on sale and you'll probably get your money's worth.
Some games make resource management fun, and some don't. This is one of the games that don't. Eventually I was glad all my people were dead. Buy on sale...maybe...if you like these types of games.
Original story with familiar themes, but the rich worldbuilding and sometimes excellent voice acting helped to keep me interested long after the mile-wide, inch-deep feel of the various world map zones had grown tedious. Character customization is fun with choices that feel like they make a real difference depending on your gameplay style. Learn to dodge and parry well and you'll rarely lose a fight. On the downside, there's not much variety in enemy types, and most fights end up feeling the same. Quests are varied, but a LOT of them inevitably boil down to, 'run here, talk to x, go there, find thing on ground.' There is a ton of dialog that thankfully you can skip through, which is nice at times. A lot of the native 'accents' sounded to me like Irish stroke victims. Overall, this is a solid buy if you get it on sale, especially for an rpg fan. 3/5
This game has most of the elements of XCom yet falls short on all of them. Out of the five mutants (six with the SOE expansion), most of their ability trees are the same skills in differing order. And most abilities are meh, so you'll find yourself using the same two mutants (in a three-man team) with unique crowd control skills throughout the entire game. The story is basic almost to the point where you forget about it, but to be fair the Seed of Evil expansion fleshes it out a bit better. The Ark (your home base for buying and upgrading gear) is bare bones to the point of wondering why they bothered. Combat is turn based with a very similar feel to XCom, with a more simplistic (and fair) RNG hit chance. Overall the game has a very grindy feel as you have to make your way from point A on the world map to Point B, clearing hostiles as you go. Buy this on sale and keep your expectations down and you'll probably have a good time.
