I see a lot of people are dissapointed with the game, but not because its bad, but because it wasnt what they expected. So I will try to give a good description. This is kind of a platformer version of a walking simulator. You start out as this little person mourning the passing away of a loved one, then proceed to leave your home by embarking on a journey with a land ship. You need to pick up things to be able to burn them and fuel the ship so you can continue your journey. Also, you will get upgrades for the ship along the way that will help you with this. You will also have to solve some puzzles in other to pass some obstacles along the way. Not many and most are simple, so you will be fine. The main selling point of this game is not in the gameplay, but in the atmosphere. The visual art is absolutely fantastic, music is very well made and fits in great. The condition of your land vessel also changes the more you adventure. The best moments are when you are driving/sailling through certain areas and taking in the atmosphere. Some have said that there is no story here, but that is not quite true. There is a story, or to be more accurate, a contextual basis for your adventure. Its just that it is of secondary importance and told passively through the environment. There is no text or explanation, because that will take away from the main thing - enjoying the environment and the hourney. If you pay attention to the places you visit and pass, then you will be able to piece the story together for the most part. In regards to length - yes, within 3-4 hours you will probably finish it and there wont be much reason to revisit, unless you want to get a better glance of things you might have passed by too quick. The game fulfills its purpose perfectly, which is - dont think, relax and enjoy the trip. If you expect something more from it than that, then you should look for something else.
So in Tropico you play the role of leader and need to fulfill certain objectives like building the economy, imrpoving the living conditions of your citizens, defending against rebels, etc. You get to build up the island you rule, issues edicts that add buffs, have citizens targeted through specific interactions and interact with the outside world best you can to gain some leverage for yourself. You can also choose a specific ruler when starting an insland to get certain buffs, which, depending on your mission, can be quite useful. You citizens also have starts of what they are good at and what they would like to have in order to be happy. It all sounds very fun, but there are some serious issues. The bigest one is building. It is very hard to have a reliable construction rate throughout the game. The longer the game goes, the more inefficient you construction workers get. It comes to a point that if you dont look after what they are doing you wont have anything built. Building more construction shops doesnt help. Another issues is lack of information. How much certain building produce, how much they use for production, how much they export. You only get to see if they are profitable or not. While the game gives you quite a bit of information that would allow you to micromanage your citizens, you dont have a lot of options of doing so. For example, you can fire anyone from their job, but cant assign them to another. He has to decide for himself. And there is no gurantee the fired person will go into the job you want him to, even if the pay is good. With the amount of things going on on the island, you wont be able to afford babysitting individuals citizens. The ledger where you can get an overview of the things you have is also somewhat unintuitive and it can be hard finding information you want/need. I enjoyed the game for what it had, but the issues outlined make it an average experience at best.
I am amazed that a game could be rated so high, yet I find it so boring I dont want to finish it, even if its short. Visuals look neat and voice work is fine, thats about only thing I can praise the game for. Story/writing is kind of dumb/boring. You are playing as a pathetic basement dweller in his moms house that sets out on adventure to save the kingdom. I found that neither interesting nor amusing. Movement and combat are slow, almost a drag. The word puzzles mechanics are very simple and not always clear whats expected, turning into a situation of trial and error. I wasnt expecting anything spectacular and, to be honest, Im kind of surprised this game felt so boring to me, but it failed to catch any interest whatsoever and I much rather dedicate the time elsewhere.
A Slay the Spire clone, or a roguelike card dungeon crawler for those who dont know. While I do like the art and style of this game a lot more than StS, the gameplay seems to be underworked and not properly balanced.. Cards not shuffling when deck is reused, extra enemies appearing without explanation, limited ability to control the customization of yoru deck. It seems more a sign of weak level design than thoughtout gameplay mechanics. I did have fun with it and Im sure some of you might as well. But there might come a point where you realise you are losing not because you arent thinking things through, but because the developers didnt think some game mechanic choices through.
So by the look of this game you should already have an understanding what to expect, namely, an atmospheric lovecraftian horror story with good atmosphere. And in that sense, it delivers. While the graphics arent that good to be honest, the art design works well enough that you dont notice it. Sound is done pretty well, but the voice acting is kind of hit and miss, with some characters performances leaving a lot to be desired. Storywise, its almost a bit cliche at this point, but you start out as a troubled detective and must investigate a crime in an isolated town. And from there the fun starts. While its nothing new, the pacing and presentation of events is pretty good, so in that sense you get what you ask for. Gameplay is pretty baren. It boils down to picking up clues and talking to characters for the most part. There are some stealth segments throughout the game, but theyre nothing special. You also have a perk system in game, which effects how you can interact with some things, but its a bit underwhelming in terms of its effects and vague in terms of progression. Also, in the game you have a one way sanity meter, because its just goes down if you do things that "destabilise" you. But whats the point of playing such a game if you are going to avoid these events? All of this wouldnt be that big of an issue if it werent for one thing - autosaves. You dont get to save any point of progress, thre are only autosaves. Meaning, if you want somewhat of a different playthrough, you have to start from scratch. Also, if you picked a wrong decision or didnt react to something in time (like me) and it autosaved, you are stuck with that decision. And have to go along with that playthrough. I try to be forgiving to games for their faults and enjoy the things they are good at, instead of focusing on the bad stuff. But here it falls short too many times to be ignored. If you like adventures, Lovecraft, mysteries - you will probably get your moneys worth. Otherwise - skip.
I played this recently on Origin. Had it years before it came to GOG, but never got around to playing it. While it is somewhat old, it still has great atmosphere. Graphics and sound help up really, overall production values are very high here. Gameplay consists of navigating a space ship and trying to fix it in order to get away. Characters on board give you assignments and you need to carry them out. You have to collect money in order to buy upgrades, weapons, ammo, etc. and then use it to try and survive the freakshow on board. Some weapons are suited for some situations, others for other enemies. Simple, but well done and fun. Story is pretty nice, it gradually unravels throughout the course of the game. It does leave some questions, but it fulfils its purpose as a backdrop for your situation and a driving force for your motivations. Only thing I would complain here about is that its generally designed for consoles, so the controls will feel somewhat awkward for PC gamers. Its not that bad, you will get used to it, but just something you should keep in mind. Overall, its a must for most gamers, especially those who like horror elements.
Got this on EGS for free The only thing it does somewhat on par with Bioshock is the visuals. Art design is nice, even though graphics are fairly typical. But considering Bioshock age, it would be kinda pathetic if it didnt. Gameplay is very boring. Walking simulator and some puzzles, which are mostly tedious. Some running segments from enemies. You movements are clunky and slow, which almost seems theyre made to prolong the game. While the setting is intriguing. The story is underwhelming, underdeveloped and makes no sense. Im not going to spoil anything, but a lot of the stuff goes nowhere, isnt explained or makes no sense. The strong female characters dont save it either, surprise surprise. The way the characters talk doesnt suit the time period either. Im not saying they need to have the same words and accents, but I hear modern people when they talk, not ones from a bygone era. Unless you want to see some Bioshock type art and visuals, dont bother. There isnt anything here worth the trouble.
You know, there are some things I quite like about it. The map and world look quite nice and detailed. The progression system is not bad, decent amount of weapons and customization. Atmosphere is pretty good, has a unique setting. Voice acting is decent and soundtrack is nice. And I was willing to forgive the game for the bad console controls/port, clunky combat system, bugs and gafs, weird animations, amateurish/confusing/vague writing and dialogue, weird game balance. It all started out quite nice, but gotten noticeably worse towards the end of the game. That I could have gotten over. But the consistent nagging and preachiness of the game simply makes me want to murder people. This arrogant pretentious assumption that morality is defined by the political left, while the political right is the source of the worlds evils is a blatant insult. I wish games were tagged somehow that allows the identification of the leftist political propaganda bullshit. Some make excuses for it based on either a unique good story or Dark Souls like combat system. If you think that mandatory symphatising with Romanian communists in London in 1918 during an epidemic while being a blood-thirsty vampire is a standard for unique storytelling, then clearly Im out of the mainstream, because I think its absurd. There are good elements to the games storytelling, but there too many examples of weird and unnatural story-developments to complensate it. I havent played Dark Souls, but if that means that you have to constantly have prolonged fights with groups of enemies and crappy console controls over and over (with little to no reward) just to get to another story objective, well then, apparently Im not in the cool camp again. It does get easy if you devour a third of the games characters, but it still remains overall not fun. Freaking shame such a unique concept is ruined by such poor execution.
Telltales formula of interactive movies where you get to influence the develpments and presentation of predetermined stories is pretty good. The overall theme and plot of the stories is predetermined, but you do get to influence how the main characters gets to react to whats happening and how he builds relationships with other characters. Sometimes your choices dont effect much, but other times it can be quite consequential. Generally, the characters, dialogue, story developments, atmosphere are quite good. Its based of a comic, but I cant attest how well it relates to it. The graphics are simple, but the art style still looks quite good. Audio is very nice as well, voice is acting is solid. One thing I didnt like is the inability to skip/fastforward any dialogue/actions. I did encounter some bugs where some text about reactions werent displayed properly and glitch where I had to restart a chapter, but nothing gamebreaking. Game can lag out your PC if you alt tab, so optimization isnt perfect. Unlike later Telltale products, theres also no feminist, SJW or leftist pandering, so nothing is ruined by that crap. Overall, if you like narrative driven experiences, go for it. Its quite interesting experience set in an original world.
I havent played this long, but with what Ive seen I can this isnt very interesting. Its an arena progression FPS. You start in an arena, monsters spawn, you kill them, rince and repeat. You can also pick a character that gains levels and pick perks, which adds some flavour, but thats all there is to it. Weapons and enemies are alright, but nothing particularly interesting. Considering this is singleplayer only, it gets old fast. On top of that there are bugs. Falling through floors, mouse/cursor jumps, elevators letting you fall through. Basically, there is better stuff out there and unless you are super bored or a collector, skip it.
