Beat Cop has a good story, great retro graphics and awesome puns - if you know the 80s pop culture. However, I couldn't take playing it for longer than 30 minutes. The reason? Constant stress as a game-concept. You don't have the time to enjoy the graphics and the atmosphere (unlike e.g. in the Police Quest series). You're constantly under stress to fulfill an ever growing list of daily tasks within a certain time limit. Which eventually leads to you running from one corner on the street to the other. Faster, faster! I felt reminded of a certain cheap Facebook game where you serve tables in a restaurant. Click, click, click, - faster!!! - click, click, click. I wasn't able to enjoy Beat Cop at all and I feel very sorry for spending the money on this game. It is definitely NOT A COP SIMULATOR as stated by another reviewer (something the makers indicate themselves in the intro). If you're looking for that, go for Sierra's Police Quest series here on GOG. Developers, please give this game a "relaxed" mode for people like us who simply want to enjoy the story / atmosphere.
This is like Hearts of Iron II and then it is not. Many things have been changed and / or profoundly enhanced. If you liked the original HOI2, you'll love this one. Especially with the ever popular "Kaiserreich" Mod, that let's you play an incredible "What if the German Reich won WW1" scenario. My favorite of the whole HOI-series - and I've played them all!
This is like the ultimate version of Europa Universalis 2. Made years after the official EU2 release, it contains lots of bug-fixes and improvements over the original. Mods like AGCEEP were integrated and altogether deliver a fantastic historical strategy experience. The learning curve is somewhat steep, but the game-play is very rewarding. I literally spent months on this one, trying out almost every single nation, learning about their history through the event chains and trying to influence the course of history. Recommended if you love classic strategy games!
So since everybody is cheering the gameplay here (and indeed, well deserved) I thought I should send out a word of warning about the less admirable aspect aka the technical side. There is no windowed mode. Believe it or not. It's like in the old DOS days. Alt-Tab out of the game won't let me return to full screen anymore either. Devs recommend to disable the windows key (!) before playing in order to avoid accidentally returning to windows. If you're using a 4:3 display, there is only one resolution available. Max resolution for 16:9 is 1080p, so good luck with your new 2560x1440 display. Loading times, especially on start-up, can take up to a few minutes depending on your computer. Unfortunately, all those issues haven't been addressed since the release or are dismissed by the devs, so no hope for a patch here, which is sad. Sang-Froid would deserve better.
... well, you might end up disappointed. As with the Europa Universalis series, in its third imstallment Paradox took a step away from historical authenticity towards randomness. There are considerable less events than in EU 2 and the overall game feels much more like Risk-on-steroids. I remember buying the game when it came fresh out and uninstalling it after two days of unsuccessful flirting. I was disappointed. Lots of things have happened since then - the extra downloadable contents (DLC) added lots of the long awaited features and lots of bugs have been fixed. I don't recommend this game in its "vanilla" state, unless you love the Risk-like gameplay. For some historical flavour (or flavour at all!) get the DLC and try out some of the awesome mods available. (just to give you an idea - there is a really good World War 1 scenario out there ... along many others). These mods are what makes Hearts of Iron III really shine and entertain you for month to come!
Gemini Rue has a great storyline, awesome retro-style graphics, fantastic sounds. Yet there is one thing to mention - if you're more of a relaxed adventure gamer, this might not be your game. It mixes classic adventure gameplay with fast-paced action scences. Very often you have only a few seconds to do the right thing - otherwise your character will die. And YOU WILL DIE a lot in this game. Now there is a solid auto-save function in place, however, it will often require you to replay the last 10-20 seconds over and over again if you can't figure out what to do. That can be VERY frustrating and indeed, if it just wouldn't be such a great game, I wouldn't force me to go through these action scences. (albeit somebody else might feel the shooting sequences etc. add to the thrill ...)
