This game is thus far very impressive, it's a very challenging but rewarding city builder with an interesting thematic setting and a variety of challenges and choices that impact how your civilization progresses. I love this game, I really do. However the lack of a Free Play option of any kind is a significant drawback. I can understand the developers wanting me to play through the campaign first, I respect that, but what's the point in forcing me to stop playing as soon as I survive the campaign? That's just disappointing. Players always start a new game, and carry on to new challenges, no one ever says "One More Turn" forever but to have no option to keep playing forces us to stop playing before we're ready. I seriously hope the Devs add some kind of Extended Play mode to the game, allowing us to continue after we complete a campaign scenario. That said... Graphics are amazing The Sound is amazing The Gameplay is challenging and rewarding while you're allowed to play The Variety of Choices you can make and Strategies you can employ adds Replay Value PERFORMANCE wise the game has problems if you build too many buildings, which may be why it lacks a freeplay mode. I'd give it a perfect 5 out of 5 if it had Freeplay and better Performance.
Dungeons 2 let players move at their own pace and finish maps at their leisure while enjoying an entertaining game that in many ways felt like an actual spiritual successor to Dungeon Keeper 2. While Dungeons 3 addresses some of the complains people had about Dungeons 2, it also rushed players along during Campaign Missions and the Skirmish Mode isn't nearly as fun. This game takes a step forward and two backwards. The potential for a true successor to Dungeon Keeper is here, but it isn't met.
Though lacking the Converted Heroes and First Person Possession, Dungeons 2 recaptures the feel of playing Dungeon Keeper 2 quite nicely. You are allowed to progress at your own pace, methodically carving out dungeons as you desire, filling corridors with traps and improving your minions. You but creatures instead of them arriving on their own, and there are fewer initial creatures to work with, but as you upgrade your Throne Room they can all be trained into variations, so four creature types becomes twelve and all variations are useful. The Overworld Map works a like a Real Time Strategy game, similar to Warcraft 3 only all of the production takes place in the Underground. The Campaign is comical, well paced (as in it lets you move at your own pace, as any Dungeon Keeper successor should) and full of Easter Eggs and references. There are a few missions with special conditions, which are entirely optional, that add challenge and replay value without twisting the players arm with an arbitrary game over state. Dungeons 3 should have stuck to the formula, it was a winner.
-1 point because people have been asking the Devs to add Local Multiplayer to Don't Starve for years. Even worse, a modder made a clumsily controlled keyboard mod showing that it's possible, the devs could do it (and do it right) they just won't. The game itself is an interesting little survival game all about running around a huge island, or sailing about a world with a series of smaller islands, gathering berries pig poop and chopping trees trying to survive a world full of monsters, being in the dark too long can kill you, summer heat can kill you, winter cold can kill you, and running out of food because you've grown accustomed to foraging in a world with nothing left to forage can kill you. Survival is a real challenge. In Don't Starve Together, you get randomly plopped down somewhere on the map with other people who will inevitably try to kill you or take your stuff, and if you get plopped down during winter you may as well just leave the game because you'll freeze before you find a rock to make an axe to chop down trees to build an emergency fire with, god forbid anyone ever just use fallen limbs like a normal person. If you're like me, and quickly realize you absolutely hate anonymous strangers on the internet who try to light you on fire and destroy your fort for lulz, you'll want to play Reign of Giants or Ship Wrecked. Enjoy the feeling of complete isolation while anyone who's in the room with you complains about being bored, because as I said at the start, you aren't allowed to play with friends. Even in Don't Starve Together, oh you can try to play with friends, but you'll be plopped down clear on the other side of the map, leagues away from warmth, during a snowstorm.
Startopia is a space station management sim in which you facilitate various alien races, guide the economy, and create biome habitats. It comes recommended by many popular curators such as TotalBiscuit and runs well on modern systems.
A true spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate, PoE has a great story, epic music, several towns, and recruitable companions that grow and reveal things as you travel and more. The only real downside is that the Party AI is near non-existent and brain dead.
Best played with a controller, this game is the true spiritual successor to Wind Waker. It's an excellent port of a game too cool for the iOS to handle it's awesomosity. As you play you gain levels and unlock various achievements with in game benefits. As long as you have a controller and like Zelda you can't go wrong with this.
Shelter 2 has a large open world in which you set out to find food for your cubs. If cubs become too hungry they may get left behind, and suddenly you notice one is missing. I love this game, and I'm glad it's come to GoG.
Shelter is a game that starts as a stylish badger survival sim in which you feed and protect your young, as you look for food and shelter and worry about various predators. The open forest is full of varied unique environments and fairly interactive.
