If you played any HoMM, this game will be immediately familiar. Things that are better than HoMM: * the game plays faster, battles are real time where you mostly control spells * all of pointless micromanagement removed, armies can be any size, no more dummy 1stack units * hero progression is under player control instead of random * adventure map spells are balanced via cooldowns * more of everything: factions, adventure map buildings, units, spells, etc * great map generation with a ton of options Things that are worse: * There's no story, the game has only skirmish, skirmish scenarios don't have plot either * There's no online multiplayer (but can be emulated by sharing hotseat online)
Good stuff: * pleasant graphics * pleasant music * decent ui * building a city is comfy Bad stuff: * while most bugs have been resolved by the time of version 1.40, some still remain, for example the ui might bug out (buttons not working, some keys not working) and you'll need to restart the game to fix it * impressions-style city builders are somewhat repetitive and this one is no exception * lack of polish in places, for example sandbox maps don't have real names, just sandbox
Just like PA1 the game is a series of puzzles losely related to a detective plot. Just like PA1 the game ends relatively vaguely, with some things explained and some not. The puzzles are mostly relatively easy, with optional ones being slightly harder and sometimes requiring knowledge outside of the game. There's also one agility puzzle you can just fail without consequences. Overall I had fun while playing both, but the ending was really underwhelming.
Frostpunk but with class struggle instead of deadly temperatures. Compared to frostpunk the game has several disadvantages: * the graphics are less pretty, but still readable * there are no drama-filled scenarios, there's just the base scenario * has performance issues - can start freezing in the late game, when it does a restart is recommended The gameplay is very similar to frostpunk, with even the techtree having a very similar structure. The in-game threats are based on conspiring citizens and random events. There are 3 internal factions: nobles, capitalists and workers. The trick is to balance their interests and eliminate the troublemakers. Overall I had fun with it.
The "story" in epistory is 3 narrated sentences repeated over and over: "She was here", "She encountered an obstacle", "She was strong and overcame the obstacle". The gameplay consists mostly of killing the same couple enemies over and over the entire game. There's very little variation and the enemies just go to you in a straight line. It's really boring even on hardest difficulty. The puzzles are ok, although a little annoying due to the odd controls. I don't get why people think the visuals in this game are great, they are ok for an indie game, but nothing interesting. Overall, I do not recommend this, play Textorcist or The typing of the dead, those are way more exciting games.
Go to options and change movement controls to shift+esdf instead of wsad, otherwise switching between moving and typing will be incredibly frustrating.
Good: - missions 1,3,6,7 are star-trek like - you get to test yourself as kirk solving a (simplified) space mystery - writing is good and funny at places, without being obnoxious - voice acting done by TOS crew - really good - fair adventure for the most part (which wasn't that common at the time) - I don't recall reaching a state that I couldn't recover - references to plot in TOS Bad: - game breaks it's own rules when it comes to the "adventure" part (use action usually doesn't require selecting a crewmember and just works, except in a few places where it doesn't and it's not obvious what's wrong) - story lines are not missions 2,4,5 are not really start-trek - there's no mystery, just padding - some of the puzzles/required actions are unreasonable - guidebook is necessary - no way to access previous dialogue - if you miss something you need to a load previous save - no autosave between missions - you have to save before the end of previous mission or after the briefing of the next mission - no main menu - mission 4 - bad/no story, bad puzzles, buggy (character sleeps in one screen while being awake in another) Summary: only for star trek fans
