The good: Visually, when the bugs aren't doing crazy things, the game can be stunning. The voice acting is mostly really well done though the male lead can come off frequently flat. Some of the missions are superb - the Portal limo reference mission pick of the bunch. The bad: Interactivity is tiny to zero. There's a mall, full of arcade machines, no interaction. Unimportant NPCs have one line of dialog that the lead doesn't even respond to. The gang turfs will never change. In fact, everyone is waiting for you to do their jobs, but there's no payoff in the world. It's painfully obvious this game is so far from unfinished. You have an assassinate skill perk from water that's useful nowhere but the very final mission. Origin stories are a waste of time after the opening mission. The driving. Not only are the physics awful, they went and made a race mission out of it just to double down on how bad it is where you can also see competitors mariokart teleporting behind you rather than actually racing. The AI is painfully stupid. Companions always getting in the way/setting off alarms, enemies standing around being shot at. Cyberware gets grossly unbalanced very quickly. You can wipe an entire area in 15 seconds without even needing eye contact on someone. Some things just don't work as advertised. Gorilla arms explicitly say they help low str characters open doors of a certain level. Then don't. The racial stereotypes and one romance for each gender and orientation comes off as nothing but a checklist. Police spawning is still not fixed. Time means nothing. In a setup where the lead is panicking they have finite time to live, through the quick wait mechanic, you can literally spends months in world time (mostly to farm inventory). Makes no difference. "Time sensitive" missions sit patiently waiting for you to pick up whenever. It's so half baked - the train station, the hinted war with rogue AI that's never fulfilled, the voodoo boys setup that turns to nothing.
This game is a lot of fun for me. High points: the gameplay of comabt encourages run and gun tactics. Feels more aggressive and free flowing than Jagged Alliance 2 (a game I dearly love). Sitting in higher ground and sniping won't usually work well. This is not a clone. The card system: interesting levelling up. Sure, some cards are stronger than others, but getting poker hands can give passive bonuses that are more useful overall. Especially as you seek to negate injury effects from previous combats/map world consequences. The music and the narrator are both excellent. The overall gritty feel and dark (sometimes dark humour) of the game works well for me. Rough points: no save in missions - I'm not looking for a quick save feature here as they can be abused. However, some missions come in two stages. Seen as the map is reloaded with fresh enemies and your guys in new positions, would make sense to make a checkpoint here rather than having to redo the first stage over if an essential character gets killed. The out of mission map screen...sometimes it works very well - I'm enjoying Solomon's hunt for a cure to the madness as he scavenges research and materials to invent things as he slowly succumbs to madness himself, for example. Sometimes it works less well. The father's continual roving around for food being careful of time is perhaps realistic, but gaming wise it becomes a drag as the scenario goes on. As a note, for decisions made here to have more impact on gameplay, keep injuries on (it can also get quite funny with just how mutilated your leader can get. Plus makes you think harder about his loadout for combat) Other thoughts: people wailing on this for poor graphics should bear in mind it's a kickstarter game by a company with less than 5 titles ever made. It doesn't have AAA backing. Overall this has proved a lot of fun so far. Mistakes will likely be punished pretty hard (always stay in cover!) Hoping for expansions.
Dark Reign is an amazing RTS. Two very distinct sides with multiple tactics available for each side lends an incredible amount of replay value. Dark Reign 2 on the other-hand was well-intentioned but ultimately fell quite a long way short of doing much to improve or even equal its predecessor. The good: The music. Actually good doesn't quite do this justice. The soundtrack is downright excellent. Have a quick hunt around on youtube for a few songs and sample for yourself. The mod ability. DR2 came with a mod kit that the community took and made several good unofficial expansions and 'gameplay' videos (the only time the zoomed in camera was worth anything). The graphics. The poly count is nothing to shout about but zoomed out the energy beams, explosions and death animations are by no means shabby. The scenery is also good with a nice range from desicated deserts, to lush jungles, blizzard enduring mountains, run-down urban sprawls and the pristene shine of the buildings inside one of the domes for the rich. [Some of the] Single-player missions. Some are really well thought out and will make the player work hard to win that victory. Some of them could have been livened up a lot more but there's a nice progression. The bad: Pathfinding. It's been mentioned before and likely to be mentioned again. It's infuriating. Large groups are fodder for turrets as they run all neatly in line into range. This actually came up in DR but the units reacted quick enough for it to never be much of an issue, But in DR2 the engine just can't handle it. The 3D terrain becomes a giant obstacle course with baby-friendly bumpers on the sides of everything - buildings, cliffs, other units. A unit will work itself up to a run then stop. Turn. Perhaps turn again. Take a step. Turn again. Take a step...all while being merrily pummeled by the amused defenders. It's the game's biggest detractor for me. The camera. It's clunky. Aircraft can go out of sight if they go over a sheer cliff unless you're in the bird's eye view and then that covers any buildings or units below them. In some of the internal missions - in a sewers, Togran temple, for example - there are parts where the camera just can't seem to give a good vantage point - and you'd think with 4 angles, each with mulitple elevations that wouldn't be a problem... Unit design. Some of the units are very well executed. Some are pretty woeful and won't see any game time. Beware of explosive weapons. Friendly artillery damaging your own units is nothing new but there are several low level units that are toting rocket launchers that will keep shooting until the enemy death animation has finished (stupid or blood-thirsty?). This presents a problem if units are advancing, especially with pathfinding as it is. Units are very fond of running full pelt into a dismembering death if you don't tell them to stop moving anywhere right away. Getting them to turn round is just an exercise in frustration. So, in conclusion, I wouldn't recommend this game. It's getting three stars primarily for the music and its link to the original DR. DR2 tried to raise the bar but focused on the wrong things. It's selling point was the camera and the visuals which probably should have raised alarms bells - if the core mechanics like unit design, pathfinding and gameplay aren't being touted then it was always likely to have a rough ride. Save your money and get DR the original. Give the soundtrack a listen though. I just hope it didn't get panned hard enough for Activision to dismiss giving DR3 a go.
