I don't write many reviews nowadays as I want to hit the right note, and I often fail. This game gives me precisely this feeling, and this is why I felt I needed to write this review. This game consists of two parts: a space exploration and trade game like Elite, and an RPG. This combination can be potent, but it doesn't work in this game. Let's get the role-play element out of the way first, as it is the weakest part. The story's lead, Juno, is on a quest to find out who killed her husband). The crucial question is: Why should I care? And the answer for this game is: I don't. I don't know the husband, so I cannot relate to him. This isn't helped by Juno, a jaded, cynical person, showing zero emotion towards her deceased husband or anything else. Contrast this with a game like Venetica, in which Scarlett's companion is killed, and she goes on the same quest as Juno. While we don't know her partner, the game introduces us to emotional scenes, and Scarlett is just a much nicer person than Juno and is emotionally affected. The idea was that Juno was a kind of Han Solo character, but they forgot that Han Solo is a side character that only functions as a counterpoint to Luke and Lea. In other words, the RPG part is uninteresting, and I lost interest. The other part is the space exploration and trading game, and this is half-baked. Pivotal to space exploration and trading is finding new places that offer new sights and opportunities. There is nothing in this game. If they had tied the story and space element together and made Juno likable, I am sure the game would have been better. As it stands, the game is okay for a while, but it is also a missed opportunity.
I feel underwhelmed by Thronebreaker, a game that feels as a gard-came packaged as a role-play game and presented as a graphic novel. The story is praised for being well written, but it is riddled with nonsense made worse by the incessant betrayals. The art of writing a good story is not to attribute inhuman behavior to people, but to make them fail because they are human. Take count Caldwell. When faced by a perceived unbeatable enemy he chooses to submit. Instead of making him a person who has to make an unwelcoming decision, he is painted as a traitorous selfserving coward who is fat and lives in luxury. But why not make more of the dark side of Meve? When she liberates her own country she might cause the utter ruin that Caldwell tries to prevent. But no, at the end it is written that the much more powerful force that is about to fall upon her army poofs out of existence. She didn't even need to have the magic ring drop into the volcano. The writers butcher all of this because they have to provide the audience a story in which the good are good and the bad are bad and invasions are prevented by miracles. As a card-game the game doesn't excel. Your deck consists of only two smaller decks that you can expand upon and nothing more.You do get sets from other decks, but you cannot add to these or change them. As a role-play game the game is weak. Your character, queen Meve is a given. Options are often offered in a black and white manner.You have to make an uninformed decision on the spot and hope for the best. It is all a shot in the dark based on little information with no ability to find out more and with an arbitrary outcome. The weakest aspect of the game is the warfare-element. Warfare is about making tough choices because you have limited resource.s The only choice you get to make is what cards you bring to the table in a battle. There is no strategy in this game. Thronebreaker is a good investment if you can get it for bargain. Perhaps 10 euros?
Make Baldurs gate and learn from it. Then make Baldurs gate two and learn from it, Then proceed to make one of the best role play games of all times. It is called Torment. What makes Torment so good? It is the haunting, beautiful and sad storyline. It is the characters, unique every way. It is the setting. One of the strangest worlds every dreamed up, planescape where people from different realities meet to great a cross over world full of wonders. It is the character development system that lets you shape you own character, lets you play to become what you like most. You do not have to choose any character class before hand. You just play as you like. You become what you like most. And all of this, and much more, makes it still one of the best games every made.
If there is any game that deserves a sequel, VTM - Bloodlines is one. The strongest feature to me is it immersive nature. Vampires are the real puppet masters of the world, pulling the strings of humanity. But there is a catch: they have to hide themselves from the kine, as humans are called. The world thus has a deep irony, for while vampires look down on the mere mortals they manipulate and feed upon, they are also depended on them and at the same in fear of them. For the 'cattle' has the numbers and daylight on their side. Vampires are by nature solitary hunters, but even they know a kind of society. And that society is split in factions who can be openly hostile to each other. Even among the vampires there are those who pull the strings and those who dance to other peoples tune. This is a world of conspiracies, backstabbing and double dealing. No one can be trusted and everyone has a hidden agenda of some kind. You are introduced as a fledgling vampire and outcast. Outcast for your birth is not authorized. You are however spared a second death and have to earn you place by becoming an errand boy/girl for the Prince of the town. And it is up to you how to play it out. Are you going a loyal follower or do you join up with the free-spirited anarchs or do you play your own game? Lucky for you don't have to make a final decision until the end. The game shows this world with great quests and a good supportive music score. When you make your way through the sewers in the second half of the game, you will hear this haunting music with as Asian quality, foreshadowing the next part of the game. The game does have flaws. Into the second half of the game it gets combat heavy. Also some vampire types are overpowered. And it has its fair share of bugs. Still as it is, with the patch, and possibly with the community patch made by wasp, it is a truly a great experience. Play as a twisted Malkavian for some truly weird dialog. Or as monstrous Nosferatu. Your choice.
