I'm surprised by how much I liked this. There is delightful attention to detail for those that loved the original(s) and I think the design is pretty fantastic, particularly the monster models. I sometimes stopped just to watch the gleam of my torch move back and forth on the metal on the doors as I waved it back and forth or to enjoy the secret door animations. Things are very smooth although sometimes. Only slightly clunky thing is a few design choices. You may not like this if you are looking for gameplay quality control improvements like saves and such although it does have a robust menu to choose implementations from the various early versions. It felt like playing Wizardry 1 again with a much better interface and graphics amd I very much enjoyed the trip down memory lane. Strong recommend to Wizardry 1 fans or people who like old school brutal RNG games. There are a few bugs that pop up, though, so be prepared.
Big Picture: Xenonauts is basically a reskinned original X-com with adjusted mechanics to emphasize real world tactical combat. You lose a chunk of the original creepy ambience and research pathways (and with it some common ways people tackle the original X-com). You gain higher res and bigger maps. The TL;DR is that you may enjoy this if you want X-com with a twist or you are a new player that enjoys old school hard core mechanics that are intuitively playable. If you are an Iron Man person, you are likely to have to be the type that enjoys punishment, especially old school unfair RNG. More Details: My level of enjoyment with this game was a roller coaster. The initial parts were fun but I missed the atmosphere of X-com. Then the difficulty jumped and since I had played efficiently I wasn't sure I'd finish because I was suddenly getting my butt kicked. But then came the best part of the game, thankfully, which was gaining technology and skill. It had that "just one more turn ... oops it's dawn" kinda feel the old games had like Civ or HoMM. That lasted a while until the enjoyment slowly waned to a somewhat meh feeling-ed grind that I rode into the end game. End game is overly long and economy issues further suck out the joy. Most things work fine but let me whine a moment about that last stage. I grew up in the uncivilized world of the early PC games where they could be merciless and I kinda like it. But Xenonauts leans a bit too hard into that and the difficulty spikes tend to drift heavily into rigged mechanics rather than enemy strategy you can counter. Aliens know exactly where you are whether they should or not. Line of sight difference is colossal BS. They see muucchh farther than you, mostly. Combine that with grenades and 1 shot kill aliens and you get killed even playing well. You cannot counter psychic attacks. Now consider that you are very dependent on slowly leveled up characters. This is a bad combo. Light recommendation.
There are a lot of titles to love in the SSI catalogue but Pool is not just my favorite but one of my favorite rpg's ever. It's legacy suffers, unfortunately, from it missing quality of life mechanics that were added to subsequent SSI Dnd titles that are hard to live without once you've been exposed to. However, the game design in this is nothing short of incredible and far far ahead of its time. This is a true sandbox adventure - and may be the first one of it's kind. You can go pretty much anywhere from the start. But it's even better than that because the lay out of the layers of difficulty and placement of areas aren't just your typical "that sounds cool - i'll throw it here" video game rpg design. They make logical sense based on what is happening behind the scenes in the game. Not only that, but there are competing factions with the big bad that impact his progress. This complexity of the story is not one you may pick up on in a first run of it or even 2 or 3 after, but if you pay attention, you will be amazed at the richness of the story. Even small details are added like a file you find on a powerful priest that gives a reason why resurrections aren't free, just in case you were wondering. But it's not just the story that is tight, the exploration and advancement couldn't be designed better. The game guides you gently in the path to take and you will find each fight is perfectly balanced for challenge at every step - if you know the system. It's not easy, for sure, and if you don't know 1st or 2nd edition Adnd then you may get frustrated but trust me, if you know the system, all of the fights are fair and winnable. Iron man no reload runs with character having non-optimal stats are completley viable. This game beautifully shows off just how good and fun the Adnd 1st/2nd edition system was. Can't recommend it enough if you have the patience to learn the system. If only the later SSI titles were designed as tightly as this!
I find Solasta pleasantly utilitarian. It's focused on showcasing the Dnd 5e rule set as polished as possible with a strong eye toward facilitating future user made content ala Neverwinter Nights or old school Unlimited Adventures. Considering the popularity of 5e, that seems a good idea to me. And it delivers, particularly through combat. I've never found 5e combat so easy to understand as here and I find the UI masterfully designed. You'll have fun fighting things in this game and you'll know you are playing dnd while doing it. There are sacrifices for that, though, at this point. Character models are rough. There isn't a ton to do that doesn't involve combat. Storyline is solid, but undetailed. The game sorta feels like a movie set where at the right angle it looks like everything that makes a detailed world is in place but if you change your stance you can see the shallowness of the façade, challenging your immersion. No doubt, a lot of the polish of many RPG video games you've played isn't there. But, after acknowledging that, I have to say that it kinda works for Solasta. This lack of details makes it feel much to me like playing a tabletop campaign with friends. The DM usually only has so many details to give and provides enough to make it look like a functioning world, making it up while going along. Solasta gives me that same feeling, which has charm. As a video game, Solasta is lacking compared to the best, but as a tabletop game that showcases dnd, it feels right. And I gotta admit I don't miss the mindless padding of innumerous fetch quests, talking to a million NPC's to not miss a quest, and a bunch of mindless running around. Solasta is a combat heavy but at least it gets to the point. A strong 4 for me. Notes: glad to have a different campaign setting than Forgotten Realms - been doing that for 40 years and it's time for something new; designing 4 PC's is great fun; user created content is gonna be huge for this game.
I'm a bit surprised at how well this game is reviewed here. Nostalgia, I guess. Good: The truth is that Arcanum really does have a lot to offer. Foremost, it is set in a unique, fantasy leaning steampunk world that sure is a lot of fun to inhabit. It feels enjoyably expansive to the point where you could do little plot wise and just enjoy being an insignificant member of the world and be happy. Rather than let you do everything, Arcanum skillfully limits you so that each character that you create feels extremely different than the last. There are a lot of ways to explore this world whether you are a brawler, gun toter, thief, technologist, mage, or dozens of different nuanced twists on those types of things. If you like to play creative characters that really feel like the world is embracing the archetype you've created, you'll like these things. Bad: This is why it's hard to understand why Arcanum goes so wrong. With such attention to creating a wonderful sandbox world, it is baffling that the plot elements and major character goals are so unyielding. Clearly, the developers had an axe to grind about conventional fantasy tropes, which starts out feeling refreshing. The plots don't go as you expect. Often, you are forced into moral choices that Arcanum forces you to live with. This is somewhat interesting .. until EVERYTHING you do is forced into that same situation over and over again. What's worse is that you could probably easily come up with compromises or other solutions to these plot lines but that is never an option. I mean that word "never". Constantly you are in a situation where you could improve your characters gear or talents or finish a quest only to find that your sole option to do so requires you to be a tool. Why allow so much freedom only to never provide alternate ways to achieve character goals that are morally acceptable to whatever character you make? I gave up about 50 hours in realizing I wasn't having fun anymore.
