Lego Lord of the Rings is a pretty standard Lego game, fun and simple. My only problem is I've run into a ton of bugs while playing so far, including the camera glitching out, characters getting launched into the sky for no reason or falling into the terrain or even spawning in the wrong spot when loading a level so that it's impossible to complete the level and you have to start over. I've even had the game crash to desktop a couple of time. I've played a number of Lego games, they've all been enjoyable, but this one has to be the buggiest one I've played.
The game is broken.
Multiplayer should be part of the base game, charging extra for it is a rip-off.
Female dwarves should have been included as part of the base game, charging extra money for them is scummy as hell.
A game that's a mix of Dungeon Keeper, Terraria, and Dwarf Fortress-- like the salespage claims-- has a ton of potential to be fun and engaging, and Craft the World has the framework for that type of game. Unfortunately, this game is brought down by a LOT of problems. The biggest being the horrible HORRIBLE dwarf & enemy AI. You're only given limited control of the dwarves that join your fortress, which isn't necessarily a bad game mechanic. There are many other games that do the "tag a task you want to be done, one of your colonists will do it automatically" thing well (ex: RimWorld). But the dwarf colonists in this game are so freakin' stupid, slow, and clumbsy, it ends up taking forever to get anything done. And don't even get me started on the combat. The whole game is just an excercise in tedium. In addition to waiting on stupid, slow-moving colonists, you have a huge techtree that takes forever to get through, clunky UI, art design that belongs in a free-to-play mobile game, and repetitive quests that are nothing more than "Progress through the tech tree". Plus, you have to pay extra for DLC to get multiplayer and WOMEN dwarves. Those things should have been included in the base game, charging for them is greedy and stupid. I wanted to like this game, I've given it many tries. But in the hours I've put into it, I *still* haven't gotten past the first level in the campaign, and the whole time I was thinking "Maybe the game will become more enjoyable after I've progressed more." But no, it never reaches anywhere close to the highs of the games that were an inspiration for this one. I regret ever spending money on this clunky cash-grab.
ARPGs have been an addiction for me ever since I played countless hours of Diablo II as a teenager, and Grim Dawn is the best game in the genre I've come across in all these years. Combat is a blast and character class customization has tons of variety and options without becoming overwhelming. It's so much fun creating a variety of characters to try out the different build options. On top of that, it's a good looking game and has a decent story. If you loved Diablo 2 and thought Diablo 3 was a dissappointment like I did, try Grim Dawn. I look forward to any future games from Crate Entertainment.
This game is just broken in a bunch of ways, I've barely gotten to play it at all. Controls don't work properly. Physics are buggy (my car flipped over two seconds into the first race despite NOTHING touching it and going over seemingly flat terrain). The graphics are underwhelming. There are so many racing games out there, I'm not going to waste my time trying to play something so broken.
I'm a fan of both FTL and Mad Max, so a game that combines elements of both sounded right up my alley. Unfortunately, this game does not live up to its potential. Everything about the game just feels slow and clunky, especially the combat. Battles pretty much just involve ordering your support vehicles around so they're in range of enemies, but they all move at a crawl and it just feels tedious. You can also buy upgrades to give your vehicles special attacks, but it's enough to actually give the fights any excitement. The premise is awesome, and there are some elements that work. Being able to roam around the map more or less freely and explore (as long as you have the fuel, of course) is nice, for instance. But as it is, it's just not very much fun to play. If they could find a way to make the combat fast and more exciting, then I'd give it a higher rating.
As my review title says, the game starts out fun, with a neat blend of Diablo-style ARPG and elements from other fantasy games like Neverwinter Nights. It's the usual get quests, kill stuff, receive gold and cool items, repeat. But soon the excitement and novelty wears off, and the game becomes just an annoying slog. What appears to be a big, open world to explore turns out to be just a few towns with huge stretches of wilderness in between, with dozens upon dozens of monsters that respawn the second you leave and reenter an area. Apparently this is to make multiplayer more interesting, but I only did single-player, and it was just a frustrating grind, constantly having to fight off enemies, even in towns. You can buy horses that are somewhat helpful at dashing past enemies if you're just trying to get from point A to B, but many enemies have abilities that can stop you in place, forcing you to deal with them and their underlings. The voice-acting for the heroes and enemies gets extremely repetitive. There's one priest enemy that for some reason sounds like a woman doing a bad Spongebob impression and has a death-wail that goes on for a good five seconds, so when you end up fighting a bunch of them, it's just like nails on a chalkboard. And there's no way to disable the enemy voices without turning off all sound effects. This game has a lot of potential, and has aged well in many ways. The graphics still look pretty nice, and there is some fun to be had. But there are just too many little annoying things dragging it down to keep it from being a great game.
I tried playing this game, but found very little enjoyable about it. The animation is pleasant, and I like the journal that keeps track of enemies you've killed (and that have killed you) as well as items and other various stuff. Other than that, I haven't enjoyed this game. It's a perma-death rogue-like, meaning when you die you start back at the beginning. Which wouldn't be a problem, except you die in only four hits (I think that number increases as the game progresses, but I never got that far). This makes the game extra challenging and repetitive, which some people see as a strength, but is a huge turn-off for me. The levels are randomly generated, but yet they are somehow boring and feel small, filled with the usual cliche RPG "monsters" like spiders, bats, snakes, and other unimaginative creatures. You collect bombs and ropes that help you navigate the levels, as well as gems and coins to let you buy more bombs and ropes. You can go out of your way to try to collect every single last bit of money, but most of the time it is too dangerous and doesn't seem worth it. If you're a hard-core gamer that likes being killed constantly, this game might appeal to you, but if you're looking for something fun and simple to pass the time, skip Spelunky.
