Saw it on sale here - surpassed my expectations! Think of it as a mix between Pirates and Starlancer/Freelancer (but playing with large ships!) Good points: Addictive gameplay - I find myself playing 'just one more mission' - bounty rewards and progression are well-paced. Ship upgrades are meaningful and 'just' the right price - you work hard for them but it feels so satisfying to go back to previously challenging areas and breeze through the enemies. Open world gameplay - you can ignore the main storyline. If you find a sudden difficulty spike too challenging there are always easier side quests to do to lvl up. They have a very handy and intuitive 'threat level' indicator which tells you if you are too underpowered for an area. Combat strategy is deep and satisfying. Unlike some other space-sims which are very 'twitchy' and require joystick to play, you don't need to be quick for this one. Instead with slower moving capital ships, you quickly learn the importance of positioning and timing when to attack and when to shield up. You can customise behaviour of weapon turrets for more strategic depth. Decent voice acting - all the NPC spoken lines are voice-acted. HUGE world map - there are 10+ star systems in the sector map, and its been taking me 5hours+ to level up enough to feel comfortable in the next more difficult system. Bad points: Gameplay does get repetitive and 'grindy' after a while. All locations look similar. Original soundtrack is not to my taste and got annoying quickly. (Thankfully there's a handy custom music function which allows you to import your own mp3/ogg files - it's even classified into ambient/combat/idle etc sections so the music is context-dependent. I managed to enjoy the game so much more after replacing the soundtrack with something more orchestral and epic - try looking for soundtracks from RPGs - music from 'Spellforce' surprisingly works well despite the different genre, other ideas would be music from Freespace 1 or 2.)
I've been a fan of the HOMM series since HOMM2. Reading through the reviews I noted that HOMM4 got a lot of criticism for changing many things from HOMM3, which is probably regarded (deservedly so) as the best one of the series (I've played HOMM2 through to HOMM5, can't comment about HOMM6). They made some pretty big changes such as having the actual heroes participate in the battlefield as a unit, and changing the combat screen to top-down isometric (both of these they changed back in HOMM5 to more like how things were in HOMM3). The inclusion of heroes as an army stack can be a little unbalancing but I didn't mind the change. The main campaigns from the original HOMM4 (pre-expansions) are all decent, though I recall a couple of them being somewhat buggy, requiring me to restart the map (triggers not working properly). The expansions feel really rushed and limited in production value. Sure there are a couple of new monsters and special hero units (eg with advanced class based on opposing magic schools such that you normally can't create them naturally), but the stories are thin, and the combat repetitive. If not for the expansions I'd have given this a higher score. Highlights of this include the stunning soundtrack (it's even better than that in HOMM3), and some beautifully created maps. The fan-base for custom-made maps/campaigns is a far cry from those you can get for HOMM3. I never got into multiplayer so I can't comment on that one either (would be surprised if there's much of a multiplayer base still left all these years later!). I still think this entry as being superior to HOMM5, and at least on par with HOMM2. Hardcore fans of the series will probably stick with the third instalment but this game is worth a look, especially if you are getting the whole series bundle.
With the original Descent:Freespace, Freespace2 forms one of the best flight-sim franchises out there. Like Descent:Freespace, you pilot individual spacecraft in huge battles, often with capital ships as either enemy targets or friendly targets to be escorted. Despite this, you still feel important in the missions as being able to disable a tactically important enemy turret or shooting down that one bomber might make the difference between passing or failing the mission. The music is gorgeous and atmospheric. THe cutscene, though a little dated, are still suitably cinematic. The voice-acting leads to a compelling story which the player becomes engrossed, following the progress of the war. Important plot events occur both between missions (ie we see them in mission briefings) but more so, during the missions. The plot feels a little less epic than FS1, but the narrative is much tighter and better handled. The only drawback is that there will unlikely be an official Freespace 3. The story feels a little unfinished as a result. There is a VERY ACTIVE fanbase of modders out there. I would highly recommend getting the game, and look for the Freespace Open download which contains many game engine tweaks, HD support, and most importantly, many high quality unofficial campaigns/mission packs (many with custom cutscenes and voice-acting) most of which you can obtain for free. (They have even ported the original Descent:Freespace onto the FS2 engine via the FS Open!)
Lets start with the good things: A huge open-world experience - could easily sink 60+hours there if you want to complete everything Tons of items/loot, and decent skills progression gives the player a real sense of progress - monsters which easily beat you at earlier levels become a pushover! A decent soundtrack (not a great one though) good variety of special skills/spells And now for the not so good points: Awful dialogue - I think the developers' first language was not English. Forsooth, methinks olde English style the developers verily tried for (yep, the dialogue often sounds like this in the game!). This made the mediocre plot even more tedious. THe voiceacting is also very flat. Boring landscape and environment - not helped by graphics that seemed dated even at its time. Compare this with TES:Morrowind and you will know what I mean . . . Really clunky combat system, especially on horseback, but even for melee. Archery system isn't bad with the auto-aim, but that's about it. . . Buggy quests that won't update properly Repetitive fetch-this-kill-that-return-for-reward quests. Under-powered magic system (except for perhaps healing), though it does seem interesting Overall I won't recommend buying this unless it's steeply discounted. This game doesn't come close to genre-defining classics like Morrowind or even the more mediocre Gothic 3, though I can tell it draws inspiration from these titles.
