I have the game on Steam and have put in hundreds of hours. The game is, okay, but disappointing. I love sci-fi and grand strategy games, so this seemed like a no brainer. Unfortunately the execution of the game is lacking. The first few games are tremendously fun, as you haven't seen the universe before and you don't know whats coming. After a few games, you realize that you've seen everything the game has to offer. You get the same events, the same anomalies. Sure, you get different neighbors, but they all feel pretty much the same unless you get unlucky. The tech is the same, the gameplay loop is the same. It gets old fast. It doesn't help that the starts are randomized, meaning unlike in EU4 where you can choose to play a tough nation, every start feels pretty much the same. You can mess around with sliders, but the start of the game will usually feel pretty similar. The only way to really have fun is to role play, but unlike Crusader Kings the roleplay options are limited. It's designed to be a strategy game, not a roleplaying game. Of course, it doesn't help that the devs have changed course multiple times over development and made radical changes to the game. EU4 has had a similar number of DLCs but the core game feels the same, not so here. They have added things to try and address these issues. New events, starting legacies, space faring entities, Unfortunately, most of these are locked behind DLC or you only get very basic options without DLC. Besides, it's a band-aid. It just pushes back the time it takes to realize the game is a mile wide and an inch deep. By no measure is it a terrible game. I get the itch to come back to it every couple of years. Then a play a game and remember why I stopped playing in the first place. It's not bad, just disappointing.
I bought the original STALKER games years ago and enjoyed them. I saw an enhanced edition was in the works and thought that was cool and I might buy it when it came out. Well I was in for quite a surprise today when I saw an extra 3 games in my library. I discovered that GSC had given out free copies to people who owned the original. I didn't know that they panned to do that, and am deeply impressed. In today's world of micro-transactions, DLC, and other nickel and diming a company that doesn't rake you for every cent is a breath of fresh air. I would have gladly paid for the enhanced edition, and getting it for free just makes me respect GSC so much more. I think companies that are pro-consumer should be supported. So great job! As for the enhanced edition itself, I haven't gotten a chance to play too much of it yet, but so far it seems pretty good and pretty faithful. It certainly runs and looks better. As other's have mentioned they substituted the Russian dub for a Ukrainian one, which given everything is understandable. If that's a deal breaker for you, I'm sure a mod will come out that adds that dub back in. All in all, I'm impressed. I look forward to sinking in the time to enjoy this masterpiece once again.
I bought the original STALKER games years ago and enjoyed them. I saw an enhanced edition was in the works and thought that was cool and I might buy it when it came out. Well I was in for quite a surprise today when I saw an extra 3 games in my library. I discovered that GSC had given out free copies to people who owned the original. I didn't know that they panned to do that, and am deeply impressed. In today's world of micro-transactions, DLC, and other nickel and diming a company that doesn't rake you for every cent is a breath of fresh air. I would have gladly paid for the enhanced edition, and getting it for free just makes me respect GSC so much more. I think companies that are pro-consumer should be supported. So great job! As for the enhanced edition itself, I haven't gotten a chance to play too much of it yet, but so far it seems pretty good and pretty faithful. It certainly runs and looks better. As other's have mentioned they substituted a Russian dub for a Ukrainian one, which given everything is understandable. If that's a deal breaker for you, I'm sure a mod will come out that adds that dub back in. All in all, I'm impressed. I look forward to sinking in the time to enjoy this masterpiece once again.
I really wish I could give this game 2.5 stars. 2 makes it sound like it's a bad game, but it's not. The potential is there to be a modern take on the Silent Hunter series. My escape from a convoy attack I foolishly launced in shallow waters was thrilling. The game could be a lot of fun. The problem is that it's not there yet. There is much to like about the game and I'm sure I'll keep playing it. But the game fights you every step of the way. And not in a, wow this is hard, kind of way; instead in a wow this is buggy kind of way. The game is very buggy. I can't say everything I've experianced is a bug, I'm sure there are interciacies in the combat that I haven't learned yet. But there are numorous instances of obvious bugs. Here's a few: -If you rely on the atuopilot to guide you into port there is a high chance the autopilot will smash you into a wall, injuring ship and crew. -3 of my crew just dissapeared after starting to search a cargo ship. Trying again resulted in my game crashing. -I have had multiple times where a ship is sunk, I mean, it's below water, but the game doesn't say it's sunk. Pumping more shells into it doesn't do anything. -The UI dissapeared and I was stuck looking longingly into my commander's eyes with no way to go back. And the bugs aren't the worst of it, the worst of it is fighting with the UI. You don't even notice a good UI, everything is clear and obvious. This is not that. I'm constantly struggiling to figure out how to do what I want to do. How do I check how many torps I have in storage? Go into the sub room, right click the torp tubes and select check storage. Want to zoom out on the binos? You have to click the small button, scrolling makes you leave the station. I would go on, but I'm hitting the word limit. Oh, not the games fault but the devs might not be moving all the content to GOG. The first DLC isn't on GOG, we'll see about the second. Also, of course, no workshop. TLDR: good ideas, needs more work.
Project Zomboid is a very ambitious game. The developers have a passion for the game and clearly care greatly about it. It has the framework of a good game. But it just isn't a good game. I hate the fact that I hate the game. Why is PZ a bad game? Fundamentally, the game is boring. Even people who love the game will tell you once you learn to play it gets easy and you need to bump up the difficulty to have fun. The gameplay loop is pretty much, try to make a safe base early on, scavenge and skill up, and then fortify. At some point you'll die and start from scratch. You end up spending more time organizing your loot than actually looting. Past a certain point there is nothing new to find. The excitement of the game comes from dealing with zombies. But the game punishes you for fighting zombies and due to the numbers on normal, hiding/running from them is hard. The combat is terrible, truly awful. You will die countless times to missing a swing because you can't judge distance in the isometric view. The best weapon in the game is a fence; really, a fence is a better weapon then a pistol. Not because it does damage but because zombies trip on it. It is a rougelike, when you die your game is over. Just game over, no redos. And that's fine in a game like FTL which is 2 hours. You can easily sink 20+ hours into a run in PZ only to miss a swing and die. Leaving you with nothing. PZ is a timesink. You spend hours doing menial repetitive tasks, only to die due to bad luck or a mistake and all that time is gone. No sense of pride or accomplishment. Only frustration. Let me give you an example, I had a run that was really successful. I had sunk probably close to 20 hours into it. Then my character just died. Why? The game didn't say. Later I learned it was because he had eaten burnt food, which in this game is deadly despite not being labeled as dangerous. All that time, wasted. For a death most people would say was BS. The game is a literal waste of time.
The positive, the game actually works, just install and hit play. There is a warning but the game runs fine. In my 50 hours of play I had one crash. If you want the game, GOG is the way to go. Now the bad. Pretty much everything else. I never got into the Fallout games when they released but heard great things about 3 and New Vegas. I decided to give New Vegas a try a while back and loved it. Given that many people think FO3 was comparable or better than FNV I figured playing FO3 was a no brainer. Wrong It is a terrible RPG and a poor game. The gameplay is clunky, the story is boring, the characters paper thin, the choices non existent. There is nothing in this game that holds my interest. I can't even bring myself to finish the game. There are no interesting groups, you have generic evil guys who are evil because they are evil, and good guys who are insufferable because the game wants you to like them. It is so bad that I want to side with the bad guys because the good guys are so annoying. This gets into the next problem, I have no choice, I cannot side with the bad guys, I must side with the good guys. There are no real decisions I can make, only superficial and/or black and white ones. Do I help the nice town, or help the evil people nuke the town. Give free water to the city or poison it so millions die? There is no nuance, just be a good guy or super evil. They also have a minimal impact of the story. Even nuking a town causes no real change in the story. You aren't even locked out of a long quest chain a character in the town gives you! Sure it has stats and quests. But no decisions or ability to influence the world. So, bad gameplay, bad story, bad RPG, bad combat, bad characters, bad everything. There is nothing to recommend this game, maybe it was good when it released, but it is terribe today. TLDR: 1 star for the actual game, +1 because the game runs. Unless you have nostalgia from playing the game years ago, give it a pass.
