I would prefer Games Workshop to just drop their prices instead of creating unnecessary steps. Also included wallpapers are just cheap ad posters. No reasonable person will put those as their background.
Gameplay 10/10 Combat: it's all lovely unintentional murder of your own units with dragon-breath. Outside of Combat: an attempt to keep up birth rate high enough to supplement losses from dragon-breath. UI: discover shortcuts after 10 years of experience with the game. Visual 8/10 Fidelity: not too far from pixel-art. Art direction: You will never mistake it for anything else. Sound 10/10 Music: only battle theme will drive you crazy after couple hundred hours. Speech: silence is golden as they say. Effects: everything is fine until Crusaders move to correct the heathens. Environment: you will never think about it. Writing 5/10 Setting: when reading wiki you will question whether you've played the same game. Main Plot: I think it's some kind of plasticine figures battle royale. Other 10/10 Performance: runs on eyestrain. Fun: Download 'Horn's of the Abyss' which comes with HD mod. Play for just one hour. Then don't be surprised whe you come out of your room to find people surprised you are still alive. Value: Best 2$ ever spent. In Summary I don't think this game needs a summary.
Writing 6/10 Setting: Middle Earth! Hell yeah! Main Plot: Simple, functional, crap ending. Side Activities: Gotta catch em all! Characters: Colorful, though shallow... unless: Nemezis system: You die once by pure chance and then this one green son of a %$#@ can't stop bragging about killing you. Lock in. Visual 10/10 Fidelity: All you need from 2014 title. Art direction: At times can keep you glued to the monitor. Animation: I wish I moved so smoothly. Locations: I want more! Sound 8/10 Music: Outside of main menu I forget it's there which might be good. Speech: Don't know what these guys are selling, but I'm buying! Environment etc: Nothing really stands out. Gameplay 10/10 Combat: what newer Assassin's Creed games try and fail to top. Outside of Combat: hippity hoppity with no fall damage...'itty. UI: spend 20 minutes setting keybindings only to forget which overlap :X Other 7/10 Performance: An outstanding optimization. On laptop with 1660ti, fully detailed fans don't even ramp up. FoV is nauseatingly narrow. No way to permanently increase it through settings. I highly recommend picking FlawlessWidescreen from official website. No New Game Plus ;| In summary: After playing it I finally understand why I didn't exactly enjoy Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Instead of narrowing your playstyle through points in character sheet and equipment Shadow of Mordor actually wants you to constantly adapt to changing circumstances and use every tool at your disposal. By the end you really feel like skilled demigod moving through your persinalized power fantasy. If you need a really good cheeseburger, this is top tier. It's pure unadulterated joy to play. A one time ride. It might get too easy by the end (and have really poorly conceived plot ending) yet the fun and memorable moments will stick with you for a long time.
I remember speding dozens of hour on this one, exploring every nook and cranny. It's somehow authentic experience or at least used to be. Most people have said their part so the only think I can add are the issues with sound. On old Win XP it was stellar. Most modern games can't even dream of getting this good 3d sound processing. I still believe it to be crucial for stealth game like this one. Nowadays though with Thief there is no way to get necessary Creative EAX to work properly on modern systems. Believe me, I tried. Well, maybe you can do some trickery but are you willing to invest days just for troubleshooting it? Still I will remember this game for what it was. One of the most immersive experiences I ever had in video games.
At least after HoMM IV xD It's a classic by now and Tribes of the East version brings some fantastic features. Although it was painful to find out my old game discs physically broke. Still bying the game on sale nn GoG is great by now. Especially becaouse of modding scene. I highly suggest trying HoMM 5.5 on ModDB with it. It brings some awesome QoL, visual, gameplay changes, features and really brings HoMM5 to modern standards.
With stress piling up lately I was surprised how much relief I found in this small. work in progress title. It needs a lot more work of course like gathering progression, visit to a city or whatever devs come up with. I'll surely be there to enjoy it at my own pace. For now you can experience cozy ride on solid basics.
I expected some twist on the formula, not a fully fledged game. It blew my expectations. Wonderfull voice acting and characters. Beautiful, authentic world. Absolutely nailed down level design. Great story. Spot on music. This is how you make a nostalgic game. It's an oldschool title, yet new. It's slightly improved in some systems, but it's still lovely Gothic. I feel like I owe at lest a Beer Crate to the makers.
I don't remember when I played it for the first time. Tried it in total of 5 times I think, but never finished it. Usually I ended up bored out of my mind inside Wizima, but that one time I got to that village based near the lake or something like that. I don't remember it anymore since it's rather forgettable. The combat can't decide if it wants to be action based or tactic based. It's tab targeted, unintuitive little creature dressed as action thingy. Visually the game is... servicable and kinda amazing when you consider it's the same engine that Neverwinter Nights used. Sadly it lacks any distinct visual design, and animations can be creepy as hell. Music is kinda meh, lacks any kick to wake you up, and makes the air go stale. The plot and importance of choices are good, the dialog is decent but the pasing ruins it all. It's just different shades of slow. Sometimes it puts you to sleep, other times pushes you right into coma and you wake up years later to write a review. ... Now where did I leave my teeth and cane?
I'm not a big fan of card games. Never sticked with any for longer than a week or so Was Gwent special in this regard? Not really. It was a good experience but not exceptional enough to change my mind on the genre. It has it's ups and downs, especially with randomized card packs which are the bane of all Card Games in my opinion. I liked the decent variety of tactics within "factions" and big leaps in approach between them. Basing my Nilfgard deck around reusing card skills by showing my hand was so fun and unexpected. Sadly the most boring tactic of decking yourslf with strong basic stats was the way to go around the time I played. Also getting useful cards for your quirky fun deck to escape the monotony was really tough and too much rng based for my taste. It was fun while it lasted, but it didn't stay that way for me. Not my type at the end of the day. If you enjoy card games though, I would highly recommend trying it.
I approached this one in 2018, holding myself back so long because of numerous opinions. I expected the game to be bad and prepared all the advised mods beforehand but... I never knew it was THIS bad. Mods can't fix fundamental design flaws. Empty, flat open world being huge for the sake of being huge. Bland, inconsequential writing for characters. Even decent graphic quality is ruined by one of the ugliest visual designs I've seen in a long time. And why does my 1660ti have issues? What's with this floaty ragdoll-like character movement? How can the combat be worse than it was in first two games? Animations might feel better if I can get my hands on some acid... but I prefer bleach for my eyes. ... Oh yeah, the music is awesome, best listened on youtube. So after careful consideration, I'm never touching this abomination ever again. I deny it's existance. ...inner peace.
