As most of us I spend the majority of my Settler Time with Settlers 2 and 3. Going back to Settler 2 in the Anniversary Edition shows some weaknesses which did not pass the stand of time. The street build system is too rigid. The control of your Soldiers is non-existent -> you simple are not allowed to control them. They are standing bravely in a line and there is a 1on1 until the queue is gone. Even worse - only in the immediate area of Attack the soldiers will involve themselves in the fight. If you have soldiers somewhere else then you are out of luck. The appraoch is always the same - no varieties. Settlers 5 handles things differently. The voice acting is sub-optimal - I agree. But the campaign is really motivating. The heros are a breeth of fresh air (taken some ideas from WC3). The unit handling wonderful. You can control canons and work your way forward. You are always in control. The reaction time, the precision is how it should suppose to be. As a Settler Game, Settlers 5 is a bad one. As the focus is cleary on RTS not on building a logistical good chain. In comparison - to others who claimed Age of Empires to be so much better - (in online Age of Empires 2 surely is), Settlers 5 shines with a motivating campaign, whereas other RTS usually have the boring "destroy the base, your enemy is a unkown template character etc.) And as I believe a good game also has good music I would like to post the following link to the ost of the final campaign mission. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmLXLgRErGs&list=PLNsjU2KzDFzveMnxYWdtflaKjpQvj3fak&index=16 The final mission is a wintery one were the heros need to conquer a castle on a hill. As a Settler game the game would get 2 out of 5 stars. As a RTS Game 4 out of 5. But as I see that so many people are raging because there pie was not as the wanted it to be, I take the liberty to give 5 out of 5.
If developers decide that you can not save freely then at least give us the possebility to fast forward instead fo boringly looking onto your base production. And make sure that controls are fine and the combat works. How often I had to repeat because my scavanger just did not want hide in a hidden corner after I killed a guard. Or a guard shoot me even though I was on a different floor. This so frustrating especially since I love frostpunk very much (which is from the same developers). As as I value my time very highly this game gets one star. As it just doesn't work proberly.
I don't get it? What does the people see in this game? I have played all Classic RPGs, also from the same company (BGI+II, Kotor I, Jade Empire, Nwn I) - the Black Isle Classics /Obsidian (PS:T, IWD I+II, Kotor II, NWN II, Alpha Procotol, Fallout I+II), the Troika ones (Arcanum, Tempel of Elemental Evil, Vampires Bloodlines (also Redemption even though from another company) and the Larians ones as well (Divine Divinty, Beyond Divinity, Divinity II). The story is cliche and the story is boring as fucking hell and gives you a shopping list (find 4 supporters scattered in the world). The dialogues are uninteresting, there is no atmosphere in the taverns. The quests are standard procedure, the fighting ratio is very high. The combat system is boring as well. Even the compagnions are not interesting. I guess if this would be my first party CPRG then I would find them more appealing, but the artificial nature (party gifts to improve the influcence) destroys much. I basically could get to 90 % at the first party camp night by just buying gifts. How is that believable? Bar Morrigan and Alistair the compagnions are also uninteresting in itself. And Morrigan and Alistair only look more interesting because the other party member suck so much. I tried many times to get into the game. But after 15 minutes my mind thinks about something else and I end up doing something in parallel. And that is totally someting new for me. But I don't wan't to be just negative: The origins are great and you actually have the alternatives to do something "bad" and the NPCs react somewhat to your character. But even that is often destroyed e.G. when you realise you can skill Wynne as a Bloodmage....yeah the story is not that important ... I guess? All in all Dragon Age Origin is just a mild and unoriginal repetion of the old classics, just worse. I can recommend to everyone who enjoyed it to try it out. You should have a blast because they are better in almost every depature.
Siege of Avalon is unique. A real role playing game were you are stuck in a besieged Castle. You connect to people. You can feel the danger. You are on tool in the defensive. You will lose friends. I can only highly recommend it - but you have to know that this is a game were you have to read. No voice actors. But that diminish the fun not at all. A small pearl out there. I can still remember these times when I couldn't wait to continue. Were my dreams continued to play. Nice time:)
Well this is a weird one. The beginning was gread compared to Shadowrun Returns. You have a personality and party NPCs with their own agenda and character. You have you own homebase and the starting quest are very motivating. But after a while the fascade will break down. Your NPCs are shallow (with one acception) you can't build a real connection to them. The quest are getting long and tedious. I was playing on hard. And believe me if you have a 75% chance to hit your enemy,...then you are wondering why just 2 of 6 attemps will succeed. This drags on, the quest are just filled with facless enemies and at the end you encounter a gaming breaking bug (ATEX level) Just with using cheats I could continue one only do discover that your choices doesn't matter at all. You get a random text - thats it. After the second Shawdowrun game I am not interested in more of the same (Hong kong)
Witcher 2 is easily one of the most addictive games I have ever played. Witcher 1 was completely lackluster. Most of the conversations were only the result of one possible answer, but here you have the choice. Also the character portraits and the story are great... absolutely great. And this comes from a guy who has "Planescape Torment" and "Arcanum" in his heart. The combat system is challenging (played dark-mode, whereas "easy" is just button-mashing), but has some flaws - sometimes you get hit when you shouldn't get hit due to the distance to your foe and also Geralt's reaction time is questionable. Unfortunately, the developers implemented QTE, which should not be used in any roleplaying game, and the fact that Geralt can't jump is also a little disappointment. Potion-brewing, inventory management, shopping, all of them are not very convincing, but only a side show. What stays in my mind are the numerous memorable scenes (flute/assassassin attacks/"file eye removal", just to name a few), the characters and the motivating story and the surprises in it. Side quests like the three sisters are grandiose. And not to forget the breathing and living world. Graphically speaking - though certainly not the most important criteria for a good game - this game looks great for its time and is still is top notch today. Also the characterportraits in the menu, the monster and location descriptions show you how serious the developers were about this game. After witcher 1, which was only mediocre, this is a pearl. witcher 3 raises the question: Can it keep up with the good storytelling and dramaturgy? An open world always has its price. Every open world game I played had a shallow story at the end. Games like Skyrim are hollow... I can't wait to find out how witcher 3 will be.
I got this game for free. Sorry but this is a waste of time. The game itself is very old. But it issn't any good. There is no explanation what I'm doing there. It it just a lot of levels with enemy, secrets and a bad overview which has the consequences that you are stuck most of the time. The graphics are hurting my eyes.
