A funny adventure game that focuses mostly on puzzles that aren't too difficult to go into moon logic territory, but aren't too easy - most are really rewarding. The story is good, and the jokes bring me back to the high point of adventure gaming from the past.
The atmosphere is brilliant, the voice acting top-notch. Really nice music. The puzzles are not too difficult, and do not fall into the absurd.
It's fun, but get tedious after a while. Too much focus on nostalgia and the meta element rather than on telling a compelling story. The humor is ok, but at time it seems forced.
Though not free from a couple issues (a few bugs, some minor UI quirks, and combat that I found a bit monotonous), on the whole, Baldur's Gate 3 offers a incredible, narrative-based story that has you rethinking potential replays while still playing. The story, as well as the story of your companions (well, most of them) is captivating, as is how the game reveals its world for you. Oh, and to return to the combat: apart from a handful of fights, the normal setting was ok for me, though there were some cases in which I reverted to explorer mode. If you like this type of combat, you can level it up, so the game has got you covered.
Sub-par graphics, buggy, poor voice acting, and boring gameplay. On the highest setting the game constantly keeps crashing, and when it doesn't crash, it can't get me invested enough to want to play it. The sense of humor is childish (an that's coming from someone who really likes Shadow Warrior), exasperating rather than funny. The gameplay doesn't make the situation better: enemies hit you from great distances, and goo like finding them: they might even be three pixels of a forehead peeking out from behind a wall. Weapons are uninspired, as is the action. The game is challenging, but not as a result of the AI, which is awful. Some enemies stand there, not noticing you, despite the fact that you're shooting at their buddies in the same room. The graphics glitches make the whole thing frustrating: sometimes an enemy will suddenly appear right by you, in-your-face, and the next second he's at the other corner of the room. The collectible coins make the situation worse, as the enemies can see you through them. Now, if the damage indicator only worked as it as supposed too... Some glitches make this game play like an early beta, for example when aiming through your sights you sometimes get smooth animation, at others it just skips the animation. You also have other low-budget production issues such as a gibbed enemy, who continues screaming three seconds after being blown into oblivion, but that's a non-issue in light of all the others.
I liked The Longest Journey. I loved Dreamfall. But I can't start liking this game. The story is OK, and it actually is one of th things that make me want to play. Some characters and their interations are also well-written and keep be coming back here. However, the game itself is poor. There's a lot of running involved, and although the maps aren't that big, you will find yourself running in circles looking for a specific person with very vague instructions how to find them. At times certain tasks just seem like padding out the playtime of the game. The same goes for the child intermissions - a set of frustrating tasks that seem totally pointless. Furthermore, thy rely on you having played the previous games recently, and, for example, remembering the plot outline. I played TLJ over 10 years ago - how the heck am I supposed to remember which of to characters did I meet first? All these side tasks are frustrating, repetitive and do not bring the story forward. I have nothing against interactive movies (I love Heavy Rain), but this one plays like a chore, to the point that even the story does not seem rewarding enough.
Although the Civ series has many great entries, this is the one that I believe to stand out. It offers various ways of winning the game, and within those ways, various ways of attaining your goals. This, along with the possibility of almost extreme micro-management (you can automatize these if you prefer to do so), various types of maps, random seeds means an almost unlimited replayability, which is further enhanced by the challenges the game poses: the easiest settings are extremely easy (great for beginners or people who want to experiment with various tactics), the medium ones are challenging (particularly on larger maps), while the most difficult are extremely punishing. This means that CIV IV offers both a quick, leisurely game, as well as a long and grueling campaign, depending on which you prefer. Although the later Civ games are fun, this is the one that offers most, is most meticulous and well-though through. I've been playing CIV IV on a regular basis since it originally came out. Colonization, while somewhat less polished, is a great game in its own right, with an overhauled UI to better suit the atmosphere of the game and gameplay just somewhat less addictive.
This game was released 20 years ago, and still maages to captivate. One of the best, if not the best, Pirate sim games out there.
