Graveyard Keeper is a really enjoyable little game that has a somewhat limited scope, but gives you a lot of freedom within those limits. The game starts with your character being involved in a car accident. The next time you open your eyes, you wake up in the outskirts of a strange medieval hamlet full of colorful characters like a cheeky talking skull, a communist donkey and many others. You find out that apparently you are the keeper of the local graveyard, and your job is to get rid of the dead bodies. Your goal is to somehow get back to your actual life, and to your beloved. In order to achieve this, you'll have to do a lot of things for a lot of people - this includes learning how to farm, decorate a church, mine and process ore, and of course deal with corpses. You can even fight monsters in a dungeon, but that really isn't where the game shines. All of this may sound very grindy and "fetch-questy" - and it is - but the game manages to make the grind fun, at least that's how I felt. There's a good amount of humor in the story, some of it may be a bit dark for some people's taste. I took my sweet time to stop and smell the corpses, and the game gave me 50 really enjoyable hours. While the replay value is very limited, I consider the game a positive surprise and the money well spent. 4/5.
Satellite Reign stays true to the concept of small-squad real time tactics with cyborgs and miniguns that the old Syndicate games were known and loved for. Fret not if you're not a minigun fan, as stealth mechanics are part of this game as well, and they're implemented and balanced pretty well if you ask me. While sneaking, blasting and hacking through the four (and-a-half) large and connected regions of a nameless cyberpunk city, your four-cyborg squad progresses and diversifies in skill, with some nice options to specialize. Research new weapons, gear and body enhancements and equip your squad to match your play style. There is even a story, but it is negligible - the only noteworthy part being the end, which I won't spoil for you here. While the game looks good, both game graphics and UI feel somewhat flimsy and could be more polished, nothing that was a major turn off though. I finished the game in close to 30 hours and had real fun doing so. The positives: + It's fun + Squad control and general feel matches the old Syndicate games - great memories + Character progression and other gameplay additions are enjoyable and well done + Good mix of sneaking, hacking puzzles and fighting - you can't just brute force your way through the city + Some nice level design + Overall cyberpunk atmosphere is achieved well The negatives: - Very little replayability value - but so much potential for fan campaigns if they opened the game up for modding (don't know if technically feasible) - The opponent corporations are pretty bland, backstory could be fleshed out a lot more - AI can be dumb sometimes - I had some stability issues / crashes while playing through, not obscenely many but enough to bother me, especially since you can't save whenever you want (not while you're trespassing / inside an enemy compound). Verdict: 3.5 of 5 stars, rounded it up to 4 because I think they put some real effort into it, hope they continue to improve it. Would probably buy DLC.
