Interesting setting, and the turn-based strategy fundamentals are there. But I walked away midway though due to a combination of 1) balance issues (the mid-game Ense enemies were routinely one- or two-shotting everyone) and 2) stability (a few frustrating CTDs). A lot of potential here, but the end result is frustrating more often than fun for me.
This could have been a hidden gem of a game, and a 5-star review. It's got an interesting plot, good party management and skill selection, and the combat emphasis on moving opponents and using hazards is nice. But the game desperately needs some sort of attack-of-opportunity or zone-of-control attack. It's hard to use tank characters because enemies just run past them to hit support characters or tank flanks. And the length of some levels plus the scarcity of healing options, which might have added some grit and tension, instead means that one unlucky hit can almost guarantee your failure. It's worth a try on sale if you're a TRPG fan, and it's a bit more fun if you stumble through a few levels to understand the quirks of the game and then start over doing it right. But be prepared for some frustration.
It's a process puzzler, similar to Spacechem (and almost everything else from Zachtronics), Factorio, Rise of Industry, etc. This one has a goofy retro-futuristic robot kitchen theme. Despite being funnier and less abstract, it's still quite hard. Some parts could be explained better - I still have no idea what the AC-16 or whatever computers do - but it's fun and challenging. Definite worth it for fans of this kind of thing.
It feels a lot like GTA set in Nazi-occupied Paris: A mediocre shooter, a mediocre racing game, and a mediocre stealth game stitched together, with plenty of clunkiness and baffling AI and a nifty gimmick where districts are either in grey and red or full color depending on how much influence the Nazis still have in that sector. If that sounds like fun to you, then go nuts. If not, it's still fun, but it can wear out its welcome depending on how long you can be amused by jumping around the rooftops of Paris blowing up Nazi towers.
...and it's an odd set of parts. Thea 2 is like a 3X (not much eXpansion) rogue-lite survival RPG with crafting and text adventures. But the parts all work and are a lot of fun in how advancing in one area makes you better able to handle challenges in other areas. There's a very strong "just one more turn" vibe to it. Docked one star for lacking a bit of polish. It's stable and there's good content, with more being added, but some of the work they did post-release probably should have been ready before the full release.
Bought it as an impulse buy, because I thought it was a fun concept and one of my favorite characters from the movie "John Wick" was the sketchy cleaner crew that shows up to clean up the bodies (aka "making a dining reservation.") It's a stealth game basically cut down to its most basic elements. Move around, reach points on the map, don't get seen by the bright red vision cones. Nothing revolutionary, but it's well put together, stylish, and a fun concept.
Extremely clever and well done puzzle game, but one with a pretty brutal learning curve. You don't need to know programming languages, but need to be able to think with computer logic (breaking down a problem into steps and implementing those steps with the game's stripped-down programming language.) Once you get the hang of it, the puzzles are tricky enough to give you some satisfaction for beating them, without being so hard that you can't make headway against them. TIS-100 draws a lot of comparisons to the other recent programming puzzle game, Human Resource Machine. HRM's easier to learn and prettier, but I found it much more frustrating at times - it had easier puzzles that were only hard because the commands you had to work with were very limited. TIS gives you a lot more flexibility but requires more flexible, clever thinking to beat some of its challenges.
Clever little programming-themed puzzle game. You don't need to know programming to like it, but having to work with the game's very limited library of commands gives you a lot of appreciation for how much easier coding can be when you're not worried about the actual physical spots on the floor where you're storing data. Not a particularly long game, unless you're obsessive about optimal solutions and optional challenges, which are extremely challenging and might only appeal to the diehards.
