Well, as many others allready mentioned, it is pretty similar to final fantasy tactics or disgae in terms of mechanics. I loved these games so I figured out I might like this one as well. Turns out, it is pretty decent gameplay wise. But hey Karf, why only three stars dude? Well, this is due to the atrocious storyline. Quote from the shop page: "Experience an epic and mature story"... seriously? I still don't get it but this seems to be a red line which appears in so many modern games. It happened to cosmic heroine as well. The core mechanics are pretty decent and while I do disagree on many of the design choices for the leveling and class system, I can still get behind that. But please, pretty pretty please hire a decent witer for future games. If this is a budget problem, feel free to steal from the vast ammount of open source pen and paper adventures out there. Since you got no moral issues to copy most of the mechanics, this shouldn't be a problem as well. Even if you don't copy the free source material, at least let it write someone who runs some kind of pen and paper in his spare time or someone who is a true fan of good storywriting. I am perfectly okay with creative arguing about mechanics and stuff and I also agree that tastes differ from person to person. But the story is by far the weakest point of the whole game. The story for final fantasy tactics was pretty stupid as well, but at least they didn't promote it with words like this. I wish you the best and I am looking forward to future projects. But buyers with a heavy focus on storyline should be aware that this might not be a good choice.
To make it as short as possible: If you like the setting and the premise, you are in for a fun ride. Unfortunately, at least for me, the developper failed at one thing I expected... I loved this war of mine and till today I wasn't able to finish it. The moral choices were incredible hard and overall incredible depressing. The problem (like some review medias already mentioned) is, you don't care at all. Sure the people have names and stuff, but all the events are like "some child did...." etc. etc... Don't get me wrong, I don't think there is a problem with the developper or sth., this just seems to be a flaw by design. I won my first match on normal setting by literally being hitler, and I felt no remorse or whatsoever. People are uprising in the cold? Lets execute one random dude, this will work! Second game was even more easy as some kind of religious cult (mainly because I learned from the building mistakes I guess). This is my main issue... the events, as cool as they are, you just tend to ignore any moral thinking. After a few of them they just will become numbers you work with. The difficulty (normal seemed way to easy... but I get it that you need to adress a broad audience) could be adjusted (customizable to your wishes) so this won't be a problem. Overall it was (and is, more scenarios to go) a fun experience. Unfortunatly it fails ironically where the previous game from the developpers got its strength. Nevertheless I am looking forward for future updates.
Well, to make it short: The so called campaign is a bunch of mapcircumstainces you need to deal with. That alone would be ok but the random map generation for these missions can screw you over (example: got three times some kind of bad mission roll which literally forced me to leave due to an allready towered start, fun fact, forth time the towers were nowhere near my starting positions and I could simply avoid them in the early game, like it is intended to be). Most reviewers praise the "chillfactor"... aehm... I used to play competitive Starcraft in the past and this is pretty much the same level of stress if not even more. Why? Well, lets take a list: - you are forced to scout asap (like in other modern fast paced rts) to learn your surroundings and your enemy units - you can only queue one pig at a time (equals worker) which forces you to use your special homecoming move as soon as this one is ready or you will suffer severe ressourcelosses which will lead to instant loss (like in other modern fast paced rts...) - ecodamage is a severe neckbreaker and most of the time it is worth to suicide enemy mills with a bunch of crapunits (like in... no even worse than other modern fast paced rts...) - aggressive play is almost the only way to play... so be hapy to use squirrels and squirrels and more squirrels with some healingbirds Don't get me wrong. The game isn't bad for what it is. It's just that the reviews + the trailers create a very different impression about what to expect. For me this is on one level with "Offworld Trading Company" in terms of how fast the gameplay actually is. This unwanted feature plus the forced hardcore aggression plus the random mapcreation for campaign maps made this purchase an unpleasent surprise for me... :(
Well, the title gives it away allready. This is a hard one to rate. The developpers did an incredible job on so many levels for the game, but unfortunately they fail in other crucial (at least for me) parts. The Big Pros: - besides from the short cinematic clips which won't be for everyone (I for one found them rather funny, unfortunately for all the wrong reasons) the visuals are superb, this is oldschool at its best - the battle system with its mechanics has a fresh unique taste, unfortunately it can get a bit tidious after some time but he, which one doesn't? - the skill system with the combinations of herobind skills + item skills is a nice thing The Big Cons: - still no option to change controls after months... for real? One might say that this is no big deal but since I don't own a controller this really buggles the experience. Why you ask? Well, for starters I need to use the "Z" instead of the "Y".... sure, I can switch my keyboard settings outside of the game or use some third party tool to rebind my keys but this is not really acceptable, espacially if it is that easy to solve and still not fixed - like mentioned in the pro-part, so many skills and variations.... but unfortunately most of them are canceled out due to the mainstats of the items (higher versions of the same Item would fix this issue in no time and would allow the players more combinations) - the story, oh my... to be totally clear on this one, the 5 star review said it "isn't incredible deep".... this is an understatement if I ever heard one. Besides form the rather cliche plot there are WTF-moments characterwisewhich are just not tolerable. Won't spoiler for you but just get the hint, that more than a few times I just felt like there was 5 pages character development cut out. It really bothers me but I can't give more than three stars for this. RPGs, espacially the retro-ones, live or die by their characters and story. Still, feel free to ty it for yourself but be aware of these points.
I bought this game out of the blue without any kind of the usual research. Yes, sometimes I go crazy and do shit like this, 90% of time it will result in a waste of money. Fortunately this time, it was a real luckshot. Pro: - overall really enjoyable storyline - with 35 hours playthrough and the nightmaremode to go through again, a very decent playtime for me - refreshing turn based combat with some real challenge Cons: - a few dialoges are just too ... uergh... - some mechanics are quite rudimentery, like diplomacy, building and crafting (becaue of the whole kickstarter thing I guess?) - oh my... what an annoying fihing minigame - really too many loading screes, while the time they need is short, you are forced to click your approval to every one of them... (makes the days you want to socialise click-tastic) - still some bugs inside, encountered two skill morphs which didn't work properly (which is a shame but no game breaker) But (!) before you buy you need to be aware of a few things: - there are timelimits, while they are relatively easy to achieve (unless you wander aimlessly around) that won't be for everyone - you need to actually think in the battles, a rare phenomena nowadays (often times blocking with obstacles and turnorder is pretty relevant) - there will be a RNG, but it is as in every game... sometimes it can be really frustrating but no there is no evil masterscheme behind you missing three times in a row with an 80% to hit
Well, this game is by no means bad, neither is it the ultimate new keepergame to play. Pros: - building dungeons the old fashioned way (shame on you Kalypso!) - pretty much keeper business - passionate developper who didn't stop after release Cons: - comparably short, finished the main game + heart of gold expansion within 12 hours - the humor stuff... maybe it just didn't age very well for me but most of the times its not charming as in the original dungeon keeper but just pretty stupid... (but he, thumbs up that they didn't go for total nonstop shannanigans on pop culture.... yes looking at you Kalypso, again!... but wait, "Mandalf the...." goddamnit why is this needed, is there anyone out there who actually laughs at stuff like this?) - performance, and that brings me to the title So many overwhelmingly positive reviews here that I would like to question them... "Will run on a potato!"? Well, you sir must have a pretty impresive potato there... All who are interested in buying, do your research first please. Performance Issues are well known, bugs are not uncummon (in fact I experienced three nearly complete different "sets" of bugs on three machines, now that should be an achievement nobody wants to aim for) and some of the game mechanics are just not very smart and leads to abusive playstyles... Still a good title for a couple of hours to dungeoneering around, but oh my... these ratings are just absurd.
Well, this is a hard one. I liked dragonfall for what it was. It was fairly easy even on the hardest setting but still pretty enjoyable with it's setting, lore and storytelling. More over, it came as a present from Gog for my continued business (thanks for that!). I decided to get this one as well, but hum... I will try to give a brief explaination.... Pros: - reworked matrix; I for one really enjoyed the new system (even the "simon says" minigame was fun) - classes and traits feel more polished Cons: - story is a straight downfall from the previous entry, sadly - even in the deluxe edition has at least one missionbreaking bug which is well known all over the forums (thats a plain joke from the developper perspective...) - setting and flair just don't catch me as the previous ones .... but the overall gamekiller: It's riddiculous easy. Even on the hardest setting. Thats a real shame... I don't expect some "Ufo enemy Unknown" - turn based battlecrime but this is a joke. I used two medikits in the game and one reload (funny fact: the tutorial was the hardest part). Your whole team is just way too powerfull. I like storytelling games, I can even live with missing competition on the battlefield. But the combination of lacking story and (!) that point just makes me sad. By no means a really bad game, but dragonfall was way better.
