The game is to me like a crossover between Fallout, Borderlands and some Mass Effect. The music and playstyle from Fallout, the humor, some enemies and some weapons are more Borderlands style and the dialogue options as well as the general setting remind me of Mass Effect. Is is a better Fallout? No, the world does not really touch me like the FO universe. The RPG elements are a bit dumbed down and I don´t really like the hacking / lockpicking system. Is it a better borderland? No, the gunplay is just not that exiting, the weapon modification system is not that interesting (but, sadly quite important on higher difficulty levels). Is it a better Mass Effect? Also no. But, is it still a good game for ppl who like Fallout, with all it´s flaws and bad design decisions? Yes.
HZD is a game that offers really nice graphics and a superb soundtrack. Bought the soundtrack on vinyl even before I got the game. The background of the world is only partially believeable. Future, but with ppl living in fear of technical stuff .. ok, and in a kind of tribal "cave men" society... but then they talk and act quite modern and use tech where it fits them.... it doesn´t feel 100% consistent. But the screenplay.. the interaction between the heroine and the NPCs.. is downright absurd. I don´t mind a female heroine. I don´t mind matriarchy as it is depicted there. But I do mind the all male warriors called "braves" talking to the heroine as if they are unable to even tie their shoes. Ridiculously weak guys and hard boiled women everywhere. It´s absurd and I don´t like that, for it makes no sense. The other thing that keeps me from giving this game a 5 stars rating is the fact that you are constantly forced to gather materials and hunt weak machines to get resources. That said - it´s a good game, but maybe too "modern" for my taste in terms of screenplay.
This game just got another add-on in late 2021.. reason enough to play it again. and what can i say, it is STILL one of the better hack & slash games out there. the good: + graphics ! which is weird for a game almost 15 years old, but more recent updates added some newer effects etc + soundtrack really adds flavour to the setting ++ character developement! so many class combinations possible, it´s stunning the bad: - no autoloot. you really have to click on the items you want to pick up - small inventory, forcing you to townport and sell quite often - technical problems, the engine suffers from "hiccups" sometimes, even on modern high end systems
the game is the most modern looking "sid meyers" railroad game by far. and they really wanted this game to appeal to newcomers to this genre. comic look, less options.. i mostly play the holiday scenario map once a year.. but the core gameplay is essentially the same throughout the game, no matter what map you play. you need to be fast, or you lose the best transport opportunities to the cpu opponent. imho, the gameplay is TOO fast, making it really stressful to outmaneuver the cpu. a thing i don´t like in a game when i play this on "easy" settings. For ppl having problems with stability, there are some good guides out there (one is even linked here in the forums). If you follow that, copy some data, install smri, the game should run fine. at least it does on my win10 64 machine.
I´ve played through the campaign and had 30 hours of fun. Mostly. Downsides were: - bugs remain; e.g. couldn´t achieve a mission goal (build building XY) which i already had until i built another one - not everything feels balanced, some weapons are just bad while some are (too good); same for enemies - base building tends to get overly complicated once pipelines need to be built - gets a bit repetetive after a while - the jump from tech 1 til you get wind generators tech 2 is too large imho. they use up a LOT of space; same for solar panels plus energy storages. too much space! - once you get your home base self sufficient, there is nothing else to do but wait until the storages fill up... but the big plusses are: - combat feels like Diablo in space, some enemies are imho clearly inspired by Diablo - base building and general design reminds me of Total Annihilation - graphics are superb, with raytracing etc - soundtrack is good - the mixing of base building, combar, suit modification, resource management is well done So, not a perfect game, but VERY good genre mix.
This game is SO relaxing. The soundtrack is awesome, the pixel graphics are superbly done, and, while it´s essentially a sandbox game, it still has some sidequests that will appeal to oldschool gamers, because you definitely need pen&paper to keep track of all the things some of the inhabitants like most, for example.
This game tries to build on the old (and golden!) FG1. The music and the art style are imho mostly on point. But where it falls short: - no flavour text - some seemingly random "encounters" with text and decision making try to add flavour, but it doesn´t really work for me - some scripted events are just unfair; reload, try again... - some maps / starting points on a map seem to be generated randomly, some will make the map next to impossible to complete without heavy losses, some make the map too easy But for me, the biggest mistakes were made in unit and mission design. 1) Unit design: "Clutching" a unit, attacking with several units from different sides,.. has next to no no effect in mid to late game. The units´abilities far outweigh any bonus you would receive by any clutch bonus. The bonus you get from some abilities are e.g. +50% damage against certain units, which is .. a lot. 2) mission design: In a game where most units have a movement of ~3 hexes, it is a bad decision to force the player through maps full of rivers and swamps, which hinder your movement extremely, up to a point where you can only move one hex. In a game that absolutely rewards speed and fast mission completion, this is a.. weird design decision. Later in the game, there are abilities / artifacts, that help you move in a swamp, but until then, the game is a chore, not fun.
I really like the old "Battle Isle" titles, I played them all and finished all including the addons - except bi3, which also suffered from bad design in late game. I also like Panzer General and Fantasy General very much. But BW: Kronos... I took part in kickstarting this game, because it looked very promising. When it came out, I tried to play it, but did not like it. Waited for some time when it was fully patched, and tried again. I still think it´s mediocre. Why? - difficulty is high from the beginning. I know it´s "old school", but even battle isle 1 managed to have a better learning curve - you can get "reinforcements", but you then lose "big boy" achievement. I really don´t like being called "little boy" just because I was unable to forsee the ONLY possible solution for a level at round one, when in round 4 a scripted event starts. Also, unforseeable scripted events that FORCE you to save/reload every turn are.. well.. not a good design choice? - "i hate escort missions" one comment in game says.. well.. we agree on that one. - a LOT of helpful info did not make it into the game interface. Movement range? Retaliations left? Why do I have to search for ammo and stuff in the small side menu? BI3´s interface was clunky, but overall it was better than this imho. - the "story" is a mess. sorry, but please do not implement a nonsense-story and annoy players with pop-up dialogue about it several times a mission. I absolutely agree with simda´s review on all further points. It does feel like a fanmade game, not a professional one from a studio that did a game like "the dwarves" soon after.. Better graphics do not make a better strategy game. Sorry, King Art.
This game was - and still is - a unique experience. It is dark, brutal and medium paced where the newer diablos (and it´s clones) are colorful and fast. The soundtrack is.. well.. this DEFINES sounds and music of a dark themed hack´n´slay. There are few game soundtracks that I still remember after a few years. This is one. But there are - of course - some issues regarding comfort. Just 4 keybindings (f5-f8), no highlighting or even autocollecting things the enemies left for you.. The graphics tend to be a bit annoying with the old lighting system. No auto-attack; you have to click those enemies to death quite literaly. Yes yes, all true, but this is STILL worth playing and very rewarding.
