I played this game back when it was playable for free in a browser years ago. Discovering that it had been turned into a "real" game with a sequel I jumped in. The game is still good and has kept part of its look but the addition of 3D element have ruined the gaming experience for me. The game is sluggish on my old desktop with integrated graphics while other games with much better 3D graphics do not. Unnecessary animations are in virtually every step of the way. Each location is a glorified menu with buttons to click but the character has to move from one button before the click registers which feels like eternity after a while. The combat screens borrowed this annoying trait from final fantasy 7 where due to animations every combat lags and takes forever making playing the game painful, particularly true and inappropriate for dead age where the player will lose a lot and will have to start again improving each subsequent run with medals. The 3D graphics and animations are not that great, in my opinion they add little to the game but turn playing the game into a mild annoyance and cause a significant waste of time. While usable the interface has flaws and could have been better thought out. expose the actions to the player upfront. for example when you get back to base the game auto removes the party members, if you go on the map it will display a warning asking if you want to go by yourself, forcing to go back to base, navigate the menu to add members before returning to the map. why offer to do it from the map screen? On a similar note when you want to improve or equip your characters you have to get out of the screen to go to another screen to check which characters has which trait. same for doing jobs at the base. A number of game mechanics are affected by similar flaws, which prevent me from getting immersed in the game story. It could have been a good game if the budget had been spent on improving the gameplay and interface instead of adding 3D
I first played Master of Orion when it was released for DOS in the early 1990's, 10 years later I found myself still going back to this game from time to time. I still play once in a while to this day. Galactic exploration, Colony development, Spaceship design, Research, Diplomacy, Spying, Space Fleet Combat are the mechanisms that make this turn based game a complete experience. Some events happen and suddenly you have to fight a giant space amoeba or search a cure for a dying star. Of course there are different ways to win (or lose) the game either you exterminate everyone else or you get elected through diplomacy. Then there is Orion and its forgotten powerful technology guarded by a very strong guardian that will annihilate most fleets in the blink of an eye. Get your hand on this early and you're set for victory, until a spy steals the tech and noy you have an enemy as strong as you confronting you. Many differents species you can play, many different playstyle you can adopt and parameters you can tweak to alter the game gives it an additional replayability. I'm not sure why but he other titles attempting to use the same recipes do not spark the same interest and fun in me and certainly not the same urge to play it again. Buying this game is a safe bet and I strongly recommend you do.
This game is a clone of the original 1994 UFO: Enemy unknown (XCOM UFO Defense in north America). It is way better than the firaxis/2k games reboot or the previous attempts to cash in on the success of the two original games. It still has room for improvements, the management interface is sometimes lacking, manual air combat is a bit complex to my taste and there are a few bugs (crashed once, discovering after starting a ground mission that one soldier has a basic rifle instead of his role gear, map sometimes has a bunch of impenetrable black tiles,...) and I'm afraid these improvements may come in form a sequel instead of fixing the current game, hopefully not. That said, this game is really enjoyable, has community support and mod support and great replayability. It is worth saying that it runs well on integrated gpu.
This game is great for kids, it is a bit repetitive in the gameplay but has a nice immersive story. My main criticism would be that some uninterruptible animations and lack of a fast forward buttons instead of interrupting the story cutscenes. Note to Arch Linux and Manjaro users, if the game fails to start with a mising driver error, you should edit start.sh and change the lib_path32 to the following: local lib_path32="/usr/lib/"
I bought this sequel because I wanted more of hotline miami which I had tons of fun playing and I have to say I'm disappointed. I did finish hotline miami 2 but it was between not fun and tedious at times. It seems to me this sequel did not get as much attention than the original one, it lacks in level design and polish (some bugs). Where the first one had me eager to die and try again, this one had me hoping I would not encounter a dubious thought level design and have to try again. Definitely skip this one and go for the first one if you do not own it already.
You play as a team of agents from a spy agency going on missions to advance the storyline. Choose between different kind of missions with their own rewards (money, keys for use in other missions, cyberimplants, equipment, programs, team member,...) but the same mechanics. Travelling to the mission takes time and advances the limited clock, close distance or the other side of the planet takes about as much time which is annoying to me. Mid to late missions are sometimes impossible because guards have armor you cannot beat because the random generator would not give you the required piece of equipment and you have to start a new game from scratch. To overcome security you have access to programs you can use and some make powerful combinations but other are of little use, if the random generator is not in a good mood you may again fall short in the later missions and have to start again, again. Money is the main resource, you use it to buy equipment, cyber augments, programs or improve your characters. You'll have to make the best of the amount you have and spending too much too early may end you up unable to buy the required piece of equipment the item generator suddenly offered you, and spending too little or too late and you may fail on the next mission and have to start again, again. Soon enough you'll get a run with the random generator on your side and end up beating the game, as this game is short, really short and the replayability is low. Unlockable characters supposedly allow for diversity and more fun, but they kinda lack balance. The randomness of the game kills the replayability. Luckily you can adjust the settings to make it last longer and more to your personal taste but the random generator is king and it will decide if you'll be able to beat the later levels or not. IMHO even if it wasn't flawed it would not belong in this price range, but it is flawed. For this price I'd recommend you get don't starve + reign of giants or the alone pack.
