Not much more to say taht hasn't been said. Great RPG, well written and really make you involved in going further. My first game I could not go past the first quest but at my second gameplay I got glued to it for 5 hours straight without stopping. Can't wait to also play the second one. The only thing that sucks is combat, but you can avoid it as much as possible.
I did play this game on the Xbox 360 when it came out, I do remember finish it and play it more and more; since I really love the games that are in that period in America. I think the best 2 games I enjoyed the most in that setting are LA Noire and Mafia 2; although they are quite different. Mafia 2 is a sequel to a famous GTA clone; which was at its time, quite well received and enjoyable, especially for the long and interesting story. This game is a well made successor of Mafia for sure. Graphics are 7 years old; but still you would mistake it for an indie title; for the outdated look, so it is still very enjoyable for sure. Audio is wonderfully made; with historical songs and the effects and vibe is right there. Actors deliver their line decently, overall good quality. The gameplay is very GTA style; although the main dish is the compelling story that will take you over a rollecoaster until the end. It is the standard mob style story; with some cheesy characters and a lot of stereotypes; but beyond that, the game is really captivating. The missions are plenty and with enough variety; and will keep you seriously engaged if you like these games. I Found myself buying this game again just to re-play the whole thing from top to bottom; I rarely do that with games (some I do not even finish for example), just to point out how much I really liked it. Of course it is not perfect; and after 8 years you see defects even more; but for what it is, I really suggest you to play it and see why this game is still among the best mob games out there. Lots of action, lots of surprises and the gun mechanics are decent; so you should enjoy this game pretty much from the get go, or you may just dislike it for its lenghty cutscenes and narrative. Sadly Mafia 3 was nowhere near this game; if you want a linear game with open world in the prohibition time setting; then this is for you.
I was very impressed by this title. After trying the Sherlock Holmes ones; I was assuming that this one will be another disappointing click adventure with nothing interesting and a lot of graphical nonsense that would distract users from the real clues (as so commonly done in modern "find the clue" games). Instead I found it being well done, clean and the graphic has a cartoon style that really fits the game. You move around using your mouse; clicking move you to a location, like the old adventures from Lucasarts or Sierra. There is no commands here, since all the actions are contextual. So you will see a dot, that give you the chance to examine or talk to someone, if you hold downt he mouse on it. Then you will notice a pair of glasses, for areas or object that you can actually inspect. This will zoom on the area and tell you what parts of the scene are viewable. Some objects can be picked and examined, so you can rotate around them to discover clues. Then there are some mini games; the first you encounter are puzzles; and if you played "the room" games; you will feel at home. Most of the time is boxes or other objects that you have to open or unravel. I found them being interesting and clever; although not that hard for me. The second type of puzzle is based on putting clues together. The more you find clues, the more data you get, and this give you the chance to complete a "thought"; which may be the time at which the victim was killed; the motive and such. You see circles at the bottom of the screen, and each of those is a statement you collected/clue you found. You drag and drop these cirlces on the main board; and if you get the right circles, then you get a confirmation screen. You can try mixing up the various circles with the clues until you make it; because the game won't penalize you for making the wrong choice. Same for the reconstruct the scene minigame. Overall a great relaxing game, that is worth even full price for me. Hope to see more.
The product is interesting; the graphic is minimalist at best, but does its job. It give character to this product. Fundamentally this is a journey with your uncle; won't win any prize for excitement, but if you look at the type of game they made, it is totally fine. The hard part is that you drive a car that really should not even exist. It breaks every few hundreds of KM; you need to buy consistently some parts and repair wheels and such; unless you find extra parts on the road; to swap. You can make some money finding items on the road and selling them; but I was not able to actually understand how are you supposed to play this game. The driving model of the car is horrible, but I blame the car; which is put together with staples. Sounds are also to the minimum; but the feeling of the rain on the top of the car, while you try to drive on a street that is pitch black; is really nice. The game has atmosphere; but sadly does not do much with it. As now, I did go through various cities; and the constant theme is to get to a city; fill the tank; fix the car, sleep and go to the next checkpoint. nothing else really happen. The car break down; if you can fix it good, otherwise you restart from the beginning. You can pick routes, but mostly they are equivalent, so not adding much more to the game. Cities are 1 block; there is nobody around; except in the motel. Feels like you are crossing a desert planet, and would not mind seeing more NPC around. As is, the game really offer an interesting approach to road trips, but the total lack of anything to do, make you wonder if you want to spend more time with it. After few hours, really you wonder when the next update with more content will land; but seems that there are no updates since months. Graphic is minimalist and nice but you would expect more; it seems a bit lazy and just a placeholder; instead of being proper "low poly" style. Try it for the novelty, but as game is non-existant.
Where to start; I won't mention the lies, that we all know, but even with these elements in it (and the developers are slowly adding to the base game, filling the lies with some implementation), this game is still bland and plain. I enjoy it for sessions here and there, but this is not the game that make me think "I can't wait to go home and go play NMS!". Probably I had this feeling with games like Skyrim or Mass Effect, to mention something fairly recent; but in general wth the selection of games nowadays, it is hard to suggest NMS. Plain and bland...some may like it; a zen experience, like someone called it. Not my thing, and not because I don't enjoy the zen experience...I play Elite dangerous going around mining mindlessly asteroids, or jumping from a system to another without any sort of idea about what to do; just to scan systems, so I can sell data...I even play stuff like Farm simulator, Bus simulator, Truck simulator; so I know the meaning of dull gameplay made to relax. This game does not even do that. The problem? The gameplay. You go to X, you look around; randomly generated stuff, cool...but what do I do? Grind. Once done, let's go explore! Jump to another system (after grinding for the hyperdrive fuel), and more grind, same assets over and over, same aliens. Now the new update added missions; but it is adding a bit of variety; to a boring mechanic. There is also a new storyline, which is interesting, and made me go back to play; but it is too little and too late; considering that once done, you are left with 300 billion worlds to grind. Procedural generation was the key to get random events and different situations; different places to see...instead it was used for the planets/animals/plants, and that's all. Great technical achievement for sure, but not from the gameplay perspective. If Hello Games people would watch just few episodes of Star Trek, they could have enough inspiration for 100M adventures on worlds far away. Instead, another planet and another resource block to grind, more animals to scan, which are a mish-mash of generic parts; same assets over and over placed at random. Welcome to No Man Sky...a game that not even 60% off is attracting people.
I did purchase this game when it was released; spent nights and days playing it, over and over. Addicted? Yes, but not because it was just the excitement of the moment, the game really shine in the longevity department. The premise is simple: build rooms to get patients in, cure them and make money. More money means more rooms and more equipment; so the progression is the ABC of game design. What make the difference is that it is not complex, UI wise; so anyone can pick it up and play; it has the "5 more minutes" effect, which glue you to get to the next level or to see how long can you go, in the same level, before move to the next. And the comical factor, is also important...this game does not take itself seriously at all! The diseases are weird and funny; death itself is something that you look at and laugh about it, although you feel sad for the poor guy. Graphic is ancient; but it won't really affect your perception of the game, you can play it today and still feel better than newer games, because the cartoonish graphic in pseudo-isometric view is bearable. The UI is something that I never liked, color wise, but it is clean and easy to use. You will find yourself building rooms, re-arranging them, moving things around often, and dealing with the shifts, since if you leave it to the AI, most likely all doctors will take a break at the same time, so you need to be smart and drag half tired people in the recreation room to recharge, so you can always have someone ready to take patients. The game has different difficulty; but what change is mostly the number of patients, so you will naturally raise the difficulty once you feel comfortable, it is not a chore to do so, but natural and organic. IF you like funny games that simulate hospital, with a pleasant graphic and a ton of funny jokes and replayability; just get this game and enjoy it for long time!
First of all, be aware that the game won't work on Windows 8/10 machines. Or to be precise, it run for 5 minutes, then it will crash. If you want to play the game; better install Xp on a virtual machine (or pull out of the museum some Celeron 400 :) ), otherwise forget about play on a recent OS. It is a shame; I spent on this game, when it was released, an incredible amount of hours, because the game is the best strategic simulator of a starship; in some ways more complex and interesting than Bridge Commander. The graphic is OK; it is an old title so you know what to expect. The graphic is blocky, but it won't hurt your eyes; the UI is a bit big, so you may want to learn the keyboard shortcuts, and hide the UI panel with the D key. Most of the graphic is made in very simple 3d with some gigantic textures in low res, it was great on a 800x600 screen, but on a HD LCD monitor, you may notice the imperfections. It run fast though. The game was optimized to run on old hardware, so you won't have issues for sure, even with an old laptop with integrated graphic. Sound is awesome; a nice musical score will accompany your adventures, and the voice acting is also good (You may expect Mr Takei to give his famous "Oh My" at any time...I must admit that I wish there was his trademark sentence in the game too). The effects are great and overall the audio department is something that did age pretty well. Gameplay is what this game does best: it is technical; you have full control on the whole ship subsystems, it takes time to recharge weapons, so it is a game of patience and strategy, to wear the opponent's shield down, while saving yours. If you want a fast game, steer away from this one. The whole point is to use the various systems to the best you can, to get that small advantage to win the battle. You are never overpowered, which is why this game is so great! It takes experience to get good at it. Many elements were used in the STO MMO game; you may want to check it out.
