This one was an unexpected delight. I fully awaited a run-of-the-mill tactical RPG campaign with a mere excuse for a story as backdrop for all the fighting, and got 40+ hours of an entertaining and surprisingly deep plot. The combat is great, though it gets plodding when there are too many critters on the map, especially of the slooooow undead kind, and has enough options and variations to keep you on your toes and reward the distinct strategies you adapt - even with the random elements other reviewers complain about - which makes some victories very satisfying. The music is great, and so is the voice acting (the German version, at least), with an absolutely fantastic delivery by your party's resident surly dwarf that genuinely made me laugh at times. Everybody else also performs to a high standard, except maybe some NPCs who sound like they had to bring in the company's janitor for some impromptu bit of voice acting. In typical Dark Eye fashion, the fantasy world this game portrays seems generic and cookie cutter, yet surprises you at a number of turns, with some shocks and interesting takes on fantasy tropes. Sadly, the ending doesn't live up to the build-up. It feels rushed, erring on the bad side of understatement, and is scant reward for the fairly developed (for a game of this kind) party relations. All in all, though, it was a game I really enjoyed.
Maybe it's because I played the previous entries so long ago, but I didn't really remember Broken Sword being so unsubtle in its approach to humor and borderline fourth wall-breaking gags. Or that it introduced semi-important characters in such haphazard fashion (Eva), giving them a cardboard cutout personality, only to flip it around in the end by way of character growth, as it were. Or it allowing itself to be so unserious that a character, which by all rights should be thinking their partner had just been killed, then promptly indulges in wisecracking while, unbeknownst to them, their very much alive partner indulges in an impromptu philosophical discussion with their shooter. These things took me out of the story, so jarring were they, along with the contrivances to get the characters from one country to the other, and the on-the-nose nostalgia, with cameos for the sake of all-too convenient cameos, which almost feel like padding in a game that, by itself, is rather on the short side. It's also a very easy game, especially for P&C veterans, with only a mean-spirited bit of semiotic lateral thinking late in the game providing any real challenge, and no real memorable puzzles to speak of. Which is fortunate, as the interface (both modern and classic versions) is terribly dated and unwieldy, especially when compared to the innovations brought about by other recent P&C titles. The plot is nothing to write home about, like someone looked up Gnosticism on Wikipedia and decided it'd make for a cool story background, came up with a disposable villain who shows up late and leaves you indifferent, and couldn't make up their mind as to how the titular characters reacted to the whole thing, alternating between an obnoxious, arch tone of secular contempt, and a sporadic newfound spiritual fervor. All in all, a disappointment. Not an unpleasant one, mind you, as it still has that Broken Sword charm, but a disappointment nonetheless.
Five years in the making, Dragon Age: Origins came out with graphics that were noticeably dated and have since aged about as well as a Ibizian menopausal party girl that doesn't use sunscreen, but pretty much every other of its components added up to a fantastic gaming experience. Its story is frequently labelled as cliché, which is true to a great extent, but its telling is what makes it greater than the sum of its cardboard cutout parts, many of which speak with accents that go from good-natured-head-shaking-worthy to downright aggravating. In true Bioware tradition, one must gather a party of excellently voiced NPCs whose backgrounds, banter and personalities often take centre stage amidst the battle against the Darkspawn, a struggle which takes the player on an epic (80 hours here) journey through a big, serviceable fantasy world on the core game alone. I say 'serviceable' because many real-world parallelisms are as subtle as a brick to the face, but the lore does have a lot of very unique takes on genre tropes, and it's deep enough for one to spend several hours just reading the codex entries sprinkled throughout the game. Combat is tactically sound, and while its slow pace might conceivably be a deterrent for nowadays' button-mashing crowd, it was just what this particular player was looking for in a party-based RPG. Tweaking the group into a well-oiled fighting machine and seeing it perform as the game went on was deeply satisfying, but I can understand that this type of micromanagement might not be for everybody. As for the music, Inon Zur definitely delivered in this game. While far from a masterpiece, the soundtrack hits all the right notes at all the right times. If you're an RPGer and missed this one, you owe it to yourself to at least try it, especially with all the bells and whistles present in the Ultimate Edition. For all the faults it does have, Dragon Age: Origins is a modern day classic and deserves all the praise it got.
Memoria improves on almost all of its predecessor's aspects, delivers a strong, original and thought-provoking story, a unity of effect that would make Edgar Allan Poe proud, and features some good puzzles, terrific characters, excellent voice acting and beautiful art. It's a bit of a shame that Geron and Nuri, the characters of the previous entry, get second billing, but their story arc gets told to a satisfactory conclusion as they serve as vehicles to tell the story of Sahja, the new protagonist. The only reason it doesn't get five stars is because of the odd graphical glitch, some dialogue which doesn't correspond to the text and some misplaced sound files that fail to take into account what has already happened (describing objects that are no longer there or have been changed, for instance). And because of what I assume is an infuriating bit of poetic license taken with the English localization in a puzzle, which forced me to use a walkthrough, as I was stumped due to being led to a wrong conclusion. That being said, Memoria is a great point&click adventure with a fantastic story, and it can get four and a half stars, for all I care. Also, game developers take note: Sahja is how you write a "strong" female character. Not an all-conquering Mary Sue who can do no wrong and can do everything on her own and better than everyone else, but a compelling, fallible character with an actual personality instead of being a gestalt of "badass" traits.
Speaking as someone whose sole experience with the franchise had been on the Apple 2 back in 1989, I came into this with no expectations whatsoever and enjoyed it very much. It is a *very* easy game, but the difficulty (or lack thereof) is not its selling point. That would be the award-winning artistic design, gorgeous environments, likeable characters, beautiful soundtrack, visually spectacular acrobatics and the gameplay's seamless flow. Superficial considerations, one might say, but that's pretty much what I expected when I got this game. The story is fine, the banter between the two main characters makes up for the otherwise empty world, and I found myself caring enough to want to know what happens after the cliffhanger ending (still waiting for that sequel, Ubisoft). Recommended, if you don't mind your endings a little on the open side.
This is a good game by a burgeoning developer. It's clumsy and stumbles in parts, but has that untethered energy of passionate people doing what they like and making the type of game they'd like to play or would always have liked to have played. And it shows. The story and setting won't win Xaviant any awards, but both are more than serviceable, especially for an action title. It's a fairly straightforward plot, but it works and won't really make you groan or roll your eyes at egregious clichés. The game's contrivances are well explained in-game and in organic fashion, which is always a plus. On the graphics front, Cryengine does its job and does not disappoint, making for a visually striking game with lush effects and visuals. It's beautiful to look at and the spell effects are great, so do crank it up as far as your computer will let you, even if it costs you some FPS. Enemies and character models also look great, which makes it more of a shame that there isn't much variety. The soundtrack is adequate, but utterly unmemorable apart from the main theme. Spell, sound and ambient effects are very nice, and, while I personally found it off-putting to have some enemies cuss at you in very American-like fashion, cadence and tone, the sound department also did their jobs quite well. And it bears mentioning just how much the narrative is aided by some rock-solid voice acting from a couple of names which will (quite literally) sound familiar. Concerning gameplay, things are more user-friendly and less arcane now after the updates, but the magic system most certainly still isn't of the pick-up-and-go type, and expects you to actually delve into it and study it to make the best of the numberless possibilities it offers, and especially to play with the controlled chaos of its random effects. Experimenting is therefore the name of the game, which might not sit too well with today's instant gratification crowd, but you will reap great rewards if you do. The game runs smoothly and has an almost flawless performance, with zero crashes and only two glitches which had me stuck for a couple of seconds before correcting themselves. Nothing that gets in the way of merciless blasting, corrupting, zapping, incinerating, freezing, phasing and controlling enemies to your heart's content. Lichdom: Battlemage is an exercise in mindless magical mayhem, a lengthy tale of revenge that can be enjoyed by hardcore and casual gamers alike (thanks to the game difficulty options and the "smart inventory" mode, which takes over the brunt of the spell management system and lets you enjoy the wreaking havoc bit). Well done.
A team-based sandbox-y superhero game, that is. The vast body of work the community has put into this game is worth the price of admission all on its own, and you're free to recreate your favourite superhero battles to your heart's content. In fact, you're much more likely to spend more time poring through the community's skins and mods, tweaking them to your satisfaction and customizing the hero files than playing the campaign itself, which is pretty good as well.
