Like the title says, I got the base game on giveaway (don't intend to get DLC/add-on packs), and I quite enjoyed it. When I played Darkest Dungeon, it got too difficult and stressful on the default difficulty so I quit, but Deep Sky Derelicts feels like a non-stressful version of Darkest Dungeon in space on the default difficulty. I don't like playing games that stress me out, so this game was a good fit for me. I beat the game after 17 hours with just a couple team deaths that didn't set me back much. I really enjoyed the comp I started with and stuck with it to the end. I had a bruiser, a leader, and a technician as my comp, and the bruiser felt the most important due to all the damage skills followed closely by the leader who was essential for buffing the party and debuffing/crowd-controlling enemies. The technician provided shield and defense boost support, but it felt like it could be replaced with another class. I found it difficult to consistently get the shield manipulation skill, which I found to be the most useful for the technician, and the technician didn't feel that useful against biological enemies. Does the game have good replay value? I think yes, it would be decent to play again with a different comp or to play arena mode, but with the backlog of other games I have to play, I don't think I will be playing it again for any long while. But for a single playthrough, I thoroughly enjoyed my 17 hours. Progression felt okay and the difficulty spikes (especially going from level 3 to level 4 derelicts) did not feel unmanageable. Also, the graphics/art style is appropriately good and appealing, and so is the music. If any cons worth mentioning, I'd say the game could do a better job of explaining mechanics, status effects, and tools available (I wasn't aware of the scan ability until quite a ways in). Overall, I recommend this game with a solid 4/5.
This game has been a joy to play. It took me 17 hours on and off to get to the end--I took my time--and I enjoyed it the whole time. What this game offers is a cinematic adventure where you guide the characters through a story of loss of place and separation from loved ones against the backdrop of plague in 14th century France. Yet, while danger and despair threaten to curtail the adventure to an untimely end, both the characters you first get acquainted with and those that join later find strength in one another, breathing hope and resolve that drive the story to its conclusion. Presentation is the clear strength of A Plague Tale: Innocence. The graphics are beautiful, the environments are immersive, character models and motions are well done, the voice acting is good (I played with French voices), the sound is tense and frightening, the story is sad and shocking yet hopeful, the characters are endearing (Lucas was my favorite), the chapters and segments are fairly short and don't drag, and the story flows pretty well too with decent variation in plot development and which characters are followed. The gameplay is nothing to get excited about; it's just good enough. It isn't difficult. Aiming a sling is part of gameplay, but even those who are bad at shooters should not have trouble. The puzzles are simple and shouldn't have you consulting a guide. This isn't the kind of game you get for replay value or to sink 100s of hours in. You get it for the story and characters. I only had two gripes with this game. The first was that movement often felt slow. This happened a lot during scripted dialogue and certain map sections. Also, turning the camera when using an Xbox controller often felt slow too. My other gripe was autosaves. The game autosaves at checkpoints, and sometimes this locked me out of exploring side paths where there were items. I wish the game had the option to save manually and disable autosaves. So yeah, this was my favorite in 2022.
Just finished first playthrough, 63 hours (skipped plenty too), and I'm surprised at how good it was. Honestly, with all the content there is, I'm surprised people finish in 20 hours. Played fixed/complete Patch 1.52. Graphics/Immersion Not realistic good, but among best I've played. Character models could improve, but Night City presentation is preem. Driving around Night City is a highlight. Never skipped scripted driving sequences. Drove more often than using fast travel. That said, steering took some getting used to. Radio songs added to immersion. Story/Choices Okay. Interesting, even. Felt rushed at beginning. Why am I suddenly buddies with Jackie? I felt forced to be anti-corp for the most part. Some choices feel like they matter, some don't. Great sidequests. Characters Tk, water gym ldr, VV, Hlmn and Hnk good. Vd faction interesting. Scissorhands conceited prick but bearable later. Panam annoying when trying to stealth. Rest okay. Combat Adequate. Decent variety; went from gung ho to stealth takedown to stealth hacking w/ sniping and shotgunning in between. Optimization Laptop: Ryzen 5800H, low power 90W RTX 3070 GPU. Used default settings: Ray Tracing: Ultra with DLSS quality: auto. Game benchmark showed 45 fps average, which felt smooth to me. Only substantial lag (few seconds) was during an in-game cutscene where Scissorhands punches a reporter. Version/Bugs I played version 1.52 until last day, when game updated to 1.6 (12GB update), after which played 30 min and main storyline ended. Only remember 2 minor bugs: 1) Panam walked in gun stance w/o gun to motel bar (fixed by loading); 2) Judy took a while to load neck and arms. Update 1.6 was supposed to fix save/load menu lag but introduced that problem for me instead. Credits - long multiplayer? Hideo Kojima special appearance? Kojima Productions role? Wishes Strong language off option. Conciliatory dialogue choices Verdict Not quite a favorite, but highly enjoyed, highly recommend.
Frankly, I like this better than Diablo 2, which for me has become a grindfest for known items. This first game feels more like an adventure, and not like item shopping. It has a dark atmosphere, a sense of danger, and less of a sense of the player's eventual invincibility. Not being able to run, while inconvenient, adds to the tension.
I've got to say, this is a good looking game. I'm not that far in, but I haven't had any performance issues etiher; I'm on a laptop with Ryzen 5800H paired with Nvidia 3070 90W, and no noticeable frame dips to speak of during the 1.5 hours it's taken me to see the starting town and finish the first mission (I have the in-game FPS counter off because that's the default setting (the brief moment I toggled it on in the starting menu screen, it stayed at 120 frames)). I can tell a lot of care went into making this. As I hinted at above about the graphics, the environment with the trees, grass, and buildings on the hillside look vibrant and pleasing to the eye. How the non-player characters greet you and go about their business really does give the starting town of Skalitz a small town (local village) feel. They come closer to feeling like characters who have their own business than NPCs in other games I've played. The setting has a genuine feel about it (since it is supposed to be closely based on the historical circumstances) and not the generic medieval fantasy feel you get from many other games. I got it for 70% off the other day, and I feel like I'm playing a triple A title from the quality of the game, even though I don't recognize the developer and publisher as huge names in the industry. I'm impressed and looking forward to playing further.
It's unfortunate the features that come with the Remaster that should be good are so flawed so that they cannot be properly enjoyed. I followed the advice that many below have written--about finding the W2 executable, right-clicking, and disabling the full-screen optimization. I don't know what this helped exactly--on my QHD monitor, at the intro screen, I still kept seeing white rectangles brought on by the clouds in the intro. The FHD seemed to work fine for Quick Match mode, but when I tried the other mode, the screen would turn black, and same for going into options, the screen would turn black. I realized the game might still work normally, in the original resolution it was intended for, so I went back to the W2 file, right-clicked, and checked the box for start in 640x480 resolution. That made the game work without any issues. Well, the only issue being that replay doesn't seem to work at all in-game. So it seems to me like the Remaster features that matter such as the FHD 1920x1080 only works for Quick Match, which I'm still happy to have. While it is unfortunate that it doesn't work for me for the other modes, I'm still very happy to be able to play Worms World Party--which I consider the most fully featured Worms 2 generation game--since I would definitely have gotten the game even if it wasn't remastered.
I had demo on CD & had loads fun playing sole map "Orc Attack." Now I have full game. Thanks GOG. Great game. Battles are simple--automated w/ nice animations. Lots of explosions, but also stabbing & arrows. I love hero and merc recruiting, and how heroes can die if not careful. Graphics are simple & likeable: units look appropriately menacing, & animations (e.g. assassination) are somewhat dramatic in good humorous way. There's also great quality-of-life aspect: if you've conquered most of map, remaining enemies beg for mercy, i.e. insta-win. This is welcome feature. Have you played games where to beat mission, you have to conquer last town, hero, or creature dwelling, but its on other side of map? There are cons too. Most glaring shortcoming is few shortcut keys. Moving around map, managing units and cities, & viewing reports gets tiresome using only mouse. Only keyboard shortcut I found was grouping units. Another downside is once you have sizeable empire, it takes forever to manage. Also, questing system is baffling. You choose easy, medium, or hard quests, but easy quests can require you to explore far side of map. Warlords III is not a perfect game--certainly not in this era--but at least it offers some mitigating features like surrender by the AI. Summary Pros: - nostalgia value - simple gameplay - simple, decent graphics and animations - fun sound effects (when your hero dies) - fun to raise hero by exploring ruins (which gets items, gold, mercenaries, and information) - some QoL features including production vectoring and AI auto-surrender Cons: - Sorely needs keyboard shortcuts - Game gets time consuming later on, especially in large maps - questing is iffy considering the distances it can require your hero to move In a Nutshell: I enthusiastically recommend this game based on its simple yet enjoyable gameplay with light hero progression elements, with the caveat that this is an old game that hasn't been updated with much needed shortcut keys.
