checkmarkchevron-down linuxmacwindows ribbon-lvl-1 ribbon-lvl-1 ribbon-lvl-2 ribbon-lvl-2 ribbon-lvl-3 ribbon-lvl-3 sliders users-plus
Send a message
Invite to friendsFriend invite pending...
This user has reviewed 9 games. Awesome! You can edit your reviews directly on game pages.
UFO: Aftermath

A good game in its own right

Humour me for a second here. I want you to stop thinking about that *other* game. You know the one; the one we all love so much that we'd buy it flowers and marry it if we could. Because, if you ignore that *other* game, then there's actually quite a lot to like about UFO: Aftermath. The UFO series works because it unashamedly clones a winning formula. It's copies the first two X-COM games so closely that I'm surprised lawyers weren't involved. For us gamers, this is good. This is a game that lets you save the world by shooting aliens in the face. It'll suck up hours and hours and hours of your time. You'll care about the fate of your little shooty-men. You'll debate long and hard about your strategy. That sounds like fun, doesn't it? There are also a few improvements over X-COM. The squad commands are much more fluid, meaning that ground encounters no longer take hours to play. And the graphics may lack a certain VGA-charm, but they get the job done and create a nice visual style. So, why only three stars? Well, I took one off because of balancing problems. Last time I saved this particular planet, a few missions had huge difficulty spikes which just seemed unfair. In addition, things get a bit random when your squad enters a UFO - those aliens are either all spread out or sitting in a corner having coffee. Another star comes off because, quite simply, it's so similar to X-COM that I felt I'd seen it all before. I finished the game, but I was a little bored by the end. So, if this is your first encounter with the alien menace, add a star on. It's a good game in its own right. And if you're a seasoned planet-saver, there's still plenty to like. Just don't expect to feel the same 'wow' that you did back in 1993.

5 gamers found this review helpful
Tropico Reloaded

Strategy on a knife-edge

Tropico hates you and wants you to lose. Not my words, but those of PCzone in a recent review of Tropico 3. But, in the case of Tropico 1, they are so, so true. Even if you wrote them in 50-foot high letters and illuminated them with twinkly lights they couldn't be more true. It's all due to balance. Tropico is a political game with all the trappings of an economic simulator. And it's here where the balance thing comes in. In Tropico, to succeed, you have to do stuff. Quite a lot of stuff. But the inhabitants of your island are picky, and --everything-- you do will annoy some of them. It's dead easy to set up a glorious communist state, but the capitalists will get angry and vote you out. Are you a pacifist? The watch out for the military. And don't even think about annoying the revolutionaries! It's strategy on a knife edge. Tropico 1 comes with loads of scenarios, even before you add in sandbox mode or start thinking about the Paradise Island expansion. Some are easy, most are hard. But in all of them need you to run a successful economy, keep everybody happy, and think about a little extra on the side for your Swiss Bank Account. Add in some great music and tons of detail about your Tropicans(which you can ignore if you want to) and you have an involving, entertaining - and sometimes even tense - strategy classic. The Paradise Island expansion adds in a few more buildings and loads more scenarios - trust me, you'll never finish them all - and patches the game. The patch was a big deal back in the day, as the original release was just too punishing. Now, it's just about possible to build an airport on your island if you plan for it. Before the patch, you could forget it. Incidentally, my retail copy of Tropico will only run from the expansion disk, so if you're after trouble free-gaming, I'd say the GOG version is the one to go for. Which just leaves Tropico 2: Pirate Cove. Replace Tropicans with Pirates, remove the politics and what do you have? A scenario-based economy builder. It's good, but lacks the superb balance and nail-biting elections of the original. I've not got a bad word to say about it, but I prefer the cut and thrust of political life. Tropico 1 for me. So, Tropico hates you and wants you to lose. And my Tropicans are an ungrateful rabble. But I love them all the same.

183 gamers found this review helpful
Mobile Forces

I'll buy it if you do!

Rating this game is rather tricky, as its success depends on you. Yes you, soldier! Because it’s multiplayer to its very core. And multiplayer needs, you know, multiple players. And that’s where you come in. But why should you? Let’s start with the basics. The game’s built round a highly modded UT99 engine so, while the textures and geometry are distinctly last-decade, the physics and gunplay are sound enough. The levels are a tad basic by today’s standards, but they get the job done. The four different vehicles work well, too. They’re not overpowered, and they bounce around in an vaguely arcadey sort of way – if you’ve ever handled a Warthog, you’ll be right at home here – but they change the pace of the gameplay and encourage teamwork. And there are eight different game modes to keep you busy. I have to admit that I sank dozens of hours into this game back in the day. But after the demise of the master server, I moved on to bigger and better things. And the simple fact is that there are bigger, better and free-er things out there. Firing it up again this evening it reminded me of a lo-tech TF2 with a nod to Counter-Strike and DIPRIP Warm-Up. That’s not a bad thing; all of those games are fun, and so is Mobile Forces. But at one time, this was special; now it’s just OK. Which is where you come in. The single player mode is fine, if a little sterile. To make it really fun, we need a full server. I haven’t bought the GOG version yet, but it’d be worth an extra star-and-a-half if the community gets behind it. So, what do you say? I’ll buy it if you do.

80 gamers found this review helpful
Commandos Ammo Pack

A classic!

Persistence is the word. If you buy this game, your little electronic men will die. Many times. And you'll reload. And they'll all die. Again and again. That's what this game's about. If that sounds like your idea of Hell, then stay away. This war IS Hell. It's like a baffling puzzle that you solve, one teensy-tiny step at a time. With your finger on the Save key. But when everything comes together it feels great. Better than great. It's like you beat the developer at their own game. Their own beautifully drawn, nicely animated and highly atmospheric game, I should add. So, it's frustrating. That's what this game's about. All you need to do is persist.

376 gamers found this review helpful
Imperial Glory

Imperial Glory: 96% War

It's interesting to see a previous reviewer saying that if you have Empire:TW, you needn't trouble yourself with IG. I agree totally. Well said, that man. But, while Imperial Glory looks, feels and plays like a Total War game, it's a subtly different beast. It was released just after Rome: Total War, so hardly anyone played it. And that's a shame, because the game has a ton of neat features. First off: the campaign map is simply gorgeous. It might sound like a minor point, but it conjours up a rich atmosphere: think of generals sitting in leather chairs, poring over campaign maps in a dusty study. Since you see this screen a lot, this matters. And it feels just right. The gameplay has some nice innovations, too. The strategic game has a reasonable research tree and some wonderful diplomatic options, while the RTS phase introduced naval battles years before Creative Assembly got it right. So far, so Empire. Where the game differs is that it's much easier. As a merely average gamer, I found that the initial tactical map decisions were agonisingly tense, and that the whole campaign was perched on a knife edge. This was a Good Thing. The tension lasted until for about two-thirds of the game, when things became a bit of a mopping-up exercise. There are also restrictions on the number of troops that can be stacked in a territory, RTS battles that are slightly-too-easy, and naval battles that are hard as nails. These things are Not So Good. Put simply, the AI just doesn't have the ruthless edge that the TW games exhibit; your bad decisions are rarely punished, and the game is much less hardcore as a result. So, if Empire is Total War, IG is probably only about 96% War. It's a great game, nontheless. If you don't have Empire, or you just fancy a historical wargame which is beautiful, accessible and playable, I'd urge you to give it a go.

216 gamers found this review helpful
Ground Control 2: Operation Exodus Special Edition

Not an orc in sight

It's easy to forget just how revolutionary the GC series was. Playing through GC2 again, I was struck by just how mainstream it is. Everything's here: polished presentation, great graphics, gameplay inspired more by online skirmishes than C&C-style base attrition, a full 3D camera, story-driven campaign, relentless action. Even by today's standards, it's hard to fault; maybe the camera is a little less responsive than I'd like, but I'm nit-picking here. It's a superb game. Perhaps the greatest recommendation is that the gameplay 'innovations' that made Dawn of War and Company of Heroes so addictive appeared in GC2 first. But there's not an orc in sight, and for that I'm truly grateful.

66 gamers found this review helpful
Lords of the Realm: Royal Edition

One for retro strategists

Fellow GOG devotee, I sympathise with your plight. $5.99 may not be a lot of money, but it ‘s certainly more then -no- money, and you may be wondering if this epic slice of medieval tomfoolery is worth your hard-earned USD. If so, I sympathise, I really do; I’m wondering the same thing, and I’m someone who played this game to death all those years ago. So, let’s review the pros and cons together. Some pros: the kingdom management bit is great fun, and reminiscent of ye olde dayes of classic strategy on Amiga and Atari. The AI opponents may be a bit one-dimensional, but they’re aggressive enough to keep you on your toes, and the real-world map offers many different tactical opportunities. But where there are pros, there are also cons. When the LOTR2 was released, the main competition came from Civ2 and C&C, and it has to be said that the gameplay doesn’t match up to those classic titles. In particular, the RTS sections are underdeveloped; a few basic strategies will see you though most situations with barely a furrow in your tactical brow, the pathfinding isn’t great, and the battlefield AI is basic at best. Of course, if you’re intending to play against real-life humans, then you should ignore everything I’ve said and buy the game immediately. If not, it’s a close call; it’s not an enduring classic, but it’s certainly very good. On balance, I’m going to take a punt and relive those classic moments from a decade ago; after all, $5.99 seems a small price to pay when the fate of a kingdom lies in the balance. If you like similar retro games such as Mega-lo-mania and Defender of the Crown, then maybe you should too.

29 gamers found this review helpful
Republic: The Revolution
This game is no longer available in our store
Republic: The Revolution

Worthy but dull?

It’s a boardgame at heart, right? Surely, if you strip out the baffling interface and superfluous 3D engine, you’ll be left with a hardcore strategy game that’ll eat up the hours. Surely? Well, yes and no. Yes, because the setting is novel and it’s always fun to play a game that taxes the grey matter. But mainly no. No, because the game mechanics are simple and repetitive. No, because it’s a game that disguises itself as something much more complicated than it actually is. No because, in the end, it’s a bit dull. I really wanted to like this game, but I got bored before I finished it. So it gets three stars for being out there as a concept, but it’d take the most beardy of strategists to extract any lasting fun from this ambitious but fatally flawed game.

30 gamers found this review helpful
Judge Dredd: Dredd vs Death

Something for the weekend?

There's a lot to like about Dredd vs. Death. Just one look at the screenies should convince you that we're talking ancient tech here, but the dated visuals hide a smooth and capable engine. The environments are suitably Dredd-y, and the level design is varied enough to keep attention levels high for the duration of the campaign. The gameplay's pretty good, too; Dredd's regenerating shield means that you can always soak up a few bullets no matter how precarious your health gets. As old-school shooters go, it's a solid, entertaining title. There are a few quibbles: it's pretty short, and Mega City just seems so ....empty. Luckily, this is more than made up for by the Arcade mode, which adds some much-needed time to to the gameplay. Shooting zombies with shotguns? Works for me. And we're talking the old-fashioned, shuffling zombies here. Brilliant. So, it's not a laster and not much of a looker. But if you have a few hours free at the weekend and you fancy some undemanding shooty fun, you could do a lot worse than to check it out.

119 gamers found this review helpful