I had to finish this game once I got started. It was fun, odd, funny, and a little irreverant. The base game's playthrough is pretty quick and putting in one or two hours a day after work is enough to enjoy it. Once I finished it, I put it away. Once through is enough. It was completely polished when I played through in 2022, so do not worry about the lower star reviews that complain of bugs and incomplete gamplay; if it is on sale, get it. You might not love it, but you won't regret it either.
This game is entertaining for a little. It is almost a carbon copy of other city builders. It is enthralling for the first few turns where starvation lurks in every shadow and your people are dying one moment and flourishing the next, only to be struck back down by a sandstorm or radiated rain. Once you understand the mechanics and get a good enough infrastructure, it's boring. Also, our future is apparently populated by whiny idiots. The intro is HORRIBLE with an angry child yelling at her "ancestors" (us) for ruining the Earth with nuclear... not war but power plants! The "community" in the game continues to moan because they want things now that require you to research those things but need to go on excursions to find the science to do the research, which is randomly generated. Needless to say, you will not complete the "mission" in time and your people will get sad, refuse to work because they are sad, then "task" you with stockpiling all the things they would have had if they had been working. On easy difficulty, this is just annoying. On medium, it will end you game and they will all die sad, pathetic, emo deaths. Overall, you are safe to give this game a pass.
The combat of the game is pretty good but the VAST, LIFELESS world is painful to navigate and covered in mist that occasionally makes it hard to know if you are level, ascending, or descending. The quests are basically the same over and over again; you just fly in a different direction each time. The flight and combat are pretty enjoyable, but I cannot get through the slog of the rest of the game.
This game has a lot of flaws. Some of them are not bugs but features. Combat is difficult... or it is extremely easy. The well stocked, well rested bandits in their lair fall by the dozen to your bow, but the pair of desperate bandits in the wild that are half starved will survive your traps, ambush, and make you burn all your pathetic abilities and still beat you down. My biggest complaint is that you get stronger though your gear. Wander and train and study all you want, you never get more HP or devastating skills, but that sword over there will make you legendary. As a retired Soldier, I can honestly state that the person behind the weapon matters a lot more than the weapon itself. I find the lack of character development sad (there are abilities, but they do not live up to their name of "breakthrough" abilities. Also, you need to pay someone to teach you new things - there is no exp). I do not understand why I can swing a sword every day but never get better at it. Does my character have some sort of wasting disease? This style might appeal to some, but I found it to be overly disappointing.
This game has carefully hand crafted art - the characters are beautiful or ugly and never in between. The music is great, the sound effects are striking... but the game does not play! You can play most of the tutorials (one is broken) and the game crashes when loading the first mission. The multiplayer does not work as you get a "failed to connect" message when you try to make an on-line account. It's sad, because it looks like A LOT of time went into making this game, just judging by the tutorial and survival missions.
The story of this game is somewhat interesting, parsing out how a botched attack became a possibility, became a botched super-soldier drug. That said, it is delivered in LONG, boring print that you put together from different research notes, diaries, and letters. The combat is horrible and really makes me feel like I'm playing Alone In The Dark, especially the clunky melee. The "puzzles" are not really and I ended up using a walk-through that said "in the note on such and such table..." but the notes that give hints were not there. The Greek puzzle in the first chapter is craziness - translating the answer to a question asked in English and input with a keyboard that only has Greek on it. Did you get the right answer? Well, according to the paintings outside, I got the right hero... did I spell it correctly or am I off track entirely? It's mostly just frustrating. You don't have to kill things, so you can run past them. If you DO try to kill everything, there is not enough ammo. Also, things get up and attack you, when they decide to, but if you double-tap the skulls of zombies while they are napping, they do not take damage; they are just gruesome decoration until you have advanced the quest enough. It's pretty cringy.
This game is not perfect, but I had more fun with it than any other RPG I have played in a long time, and, as I get older, I have more appreciation for historical contexts and realism. Aside from there not being any magic (herbal remedies and bandages are a little "gamey," but the injuries you can get would be game breaking without them), combat is based on your real-time reactions. If an enemy swings at your left shoulder, you need to move your blade (mouse) to your left shoulder to parry. Attacking when there is an opening is the same. The story is great, almost believable, and well told. You are not some foretold beast come to fulfill a prophecy. You are the son of a blacksmith, and the son of a blacksmith you remain (though you get caught up in some military and political intrigue). There are bugs. Lots of bugs. I am not a big immersion fan and play on the lowest (fastest) quality settings, but sometimes you get happy that you are about to ambush a small group of peasants and shoot one in the face, only to have him and his friends render plate mail and fine weapons when they get closer (arrows to the head are a one-shot kill without a helmet on). Some minor quests are broken and cannot be finished, but they do not effect much; I am not a competionist, but if you are... sorry. Overall, I got this game on sale and it was worth every penny. I don't love everything about it, but it is truly well made.
Very short game that will keep you up for a few nights. It is a lot of fun for a shooter, but not too much to rave about. Pros: - Extremely enjoyable atmosphere from the visuals and music to the amusing opinions of your team. - Not too much repitition. It always feels like you are getting somewhere and doing something new. - Small but versatile weapons choices that are all useful in certain situations (though I am a stickler for that stock GI Rifle). - Controls are acceptable (sometimes they are a pain) and weapons are very accurate (short bursts = headshots). Cons: - Short game, although I might not have liked it if they tried to drag it out. This one is a question of taste. - Third person view. Trying to use your shotgun in close quarters when you are staring at Rogue's blue butt is agrevating. It does not always get in the way, but when it does, it REALLY does. - Context dependant controls. Want to jump on that ledge? You only can if you are standing in the EXACT spot the programers made for jumping up to climb. You have the perfect headshot lined up? Well, Rogue is "stuck" to cover stratching his blue balls. Overall, it is a fun game, and worth it on sale for under $10.
Pros: - The graphics and voice acting are great. In the different points of view, the music and look make it feel very real. The strategic map looks like a Risk-ish board game; the tactical mode is a little like the first Command and Conquer, but you can tell what the units are based on the unique look of each unit. - The selling points for me: you get to be a dragon! (I loved the dragon-knight of Ego-Draconis) and multiplayer gaming. - You can focus your research to tailor your units or dragon (they share a research pool) to your gameplay. Cons: - The combat is boring. It becomes extremely repetitive after a few battles. Multiplayer does not even make it much more interesting. - The units all have "strong against" and "weak against" characteristics, making it a rock, paper, scissors game of numbers. Magic helps a little for this, but not overwhelmingly. - The overall effects of diplomacy are pretty minimal, and the problems the diplomats fight over are reminiscent of a high-school student body. You can change your favor with a population for an unholy price, however... - The dragon form is impossible to control. The dragon simply does not respond to your attempts to drive it, and it is too fragile to not be nimble. If you DO get it to respond for a few seconds, it is devastatingly powerful, but it acts like your commands to the dragon are going to it across a 2,400 baud modem. There is nothing about this game that makes it shine. It leans heavily on the laurels of its namesake.
This game had so much promise, especially from the reviews here. As a disabled veteran who met the enemy in the same areas depicted here, I was pretty pumped. But this... is not what I was hoping for. It's gamey... even for a game. The manual stated that you men are highly trained, and, therefore, will not engage unless ordered to. Apparently, that means even if they are in a fire position and the enemy literally strolls in front of them while you are commanding another squad or buddy team. I say poor programming, here. Also, it is gamey in that you need to click, then click again, then click again in a radial menu to get your guys to do things. This works in Neverwinter Nights because you can pause while giving orders... but not here. So, while you are clicking through an endless radial menu to get your men to do things any Trooper with a brain would do, someone is almost guaranteed to die. I am all for a brutal and fast paced game, but this game makes "fog of war" into an all-powerful-entity and the controls, paired with the (lack of) AI, just plain suck. I've done the things in this game in real life, and this does not simulate reality by even a close margin.
