I wouldn't say that I truly enjoy playing Slay the Spire, but it's the type of game that is easy to pick up and play when you're not in the mood for either a narrative epic or online play. This is the kind of game that I might keep installed and go back to whenever I don't really feel like playing anything else because it feels like such a low commitment to just do another run. It can also run on a potato and can be played entirely using the mouse, so if you're feeling lazy or want to keep it installed on some junky laptop to kill time while you're travelling it's a pretty good game for that. It's fine, just nothing to get excited about, imo.
2 stars seems a bit harsh, it's really more like 2.5. I'm not even sure why I bought it, I think it was mostly just to check out what the fuss was about the Nemesis system. The game gets compared to both the Arkham games and Assassin's Creed, and I'd say they're both pretty fair. If you loved both of those series you'll probably like this, too. My problem is that it's just repetitive. You visit an area, fight orc captains, kill or recruit them, then run around and grab all the collectibles. It's not terrible, but I find that it gets pretty old fairly quickly. You do this in several locations and run into so many orc captains that none of them are really memorable. I think the game would be better if there were fewer of them that were able to be turned, give them bigger roles and more personality, and maybe have your strongholds come under full-blown assaults now and then. There's some leftover triggers on the map from when the game had an online component, apparently you used to be able to assault other player's castles, but not any more. Maybe it was more interesting then. I also don't see how this game has any replayability. You do the same thing in every area, with level scaling each time you visit a new place. There's optional places that you can clear if you're somehow not sick of the formula and need more. You also get enough skill points to unlock basically every ability your character can ever perform and can switch between them at will, so there's no temptation to go back and try again with more of a focus on stealth or range or brute force because you can experience it all in one playthrough. I'm not a huge LOTR fan so can't really comment on that. It's often on sale for under $10 and there's worse ways to spend your money. I can understand how some people might like it, but I am not one of them and don't recommend it.
I actually still own the Platinum Edition box set that contains the first 3 games, but I bought it again here to try Soulstorm. This was my entry point into both squad-based RTS games as well as the Warhammer universe, and if you're new to either of those things it will make a great starting point for you, too. The base game and the Winter Assault expansion are both skippable now that online multiplayer is dead. The campaigns were ok but I think you were limited to just one or two races during each one. It's hard to remember because I never return to them. If you're here, you're here for the Dark Crusade expansion and possibly Soulstorm, although I still haven't played it. Dark Crusade is a great sandbox campaign where you have a world map carved up into territories like Risk, where each territory is owned by one of the 7 playable factions. Each faction is lead by a legendary hero who you can upgrade after completing achievements, and each faction is different enough from each other to give the game a lot of variety. Infantry units are produced not as individuals but as 4-5 man squads that move and act together. Every unit has sort of ability that you can activate during battle in addition to their auto-attack and enough health that you don't need to have incredible APM to use them right. The best units of each faction are balanced by the fact that you can only build one or two at a time, and while they're fun to play with I feel like this causes me to always end up with the same army composition. Dark Crusade has a nice mix of skirmish matches as well as unique stronghold assaults where you're fighting tooth and nail for survival as soon as the match begins. I couldn't tell you whether or not they get Warhammer right, but I've never heard any complaints about it. The graphics have aged, but I still find the combat visually pleasing, filled with explosions and tracer rounds. If you're looking for a fun single-player RTS experience I can't recommend it enough.
The Walking Dead is a setting pretty much tailor-made for a game like this. People love to speculate about what they would do to survive a zombie apocalypse, and now's there's chance. Or at least, now would be their chance if your choices actually meant anything in this game. I understand that you can't make an ongoing series like this without some points of plot convergence, otherwise the possibilities just spiral out of control they would never finish the actual game. Still, I can't help but feel like this was a missed opportunity. What could have been a game for the ages is basically reduced to more of a sleeper hit. As I said, the TWD setting is perfect for a game like this, not only because zombie survival speculation is popular but because it's very easy to essentially push the reset button at the end of each season. There was nothing stopping them from implementing meaningful choices that completely change the plot of each season but still ending up in the same place at the beginning of the next one. Even limiting each season to two significant branches mixed in with a bunch of flavor choices would have been a significant improvement. Instead what you get are choices that amount to slightly changed lines of dialog here and there. It's not just that you ultimately end up in the same place at the end, it's that even the immediate effects are often the exact same but for different reasons. For example, at one point you meet a girl who has been bit. She begs you to shoot her before she turns. If you agree, she dies and the sound of the gunshot draws the walkers. If you refuse, she grabs your gun and shoots herself. She dies, and the sound of the gunshot draws the walkers. If you can ignore that, you might have a good time. The illusion can be pretty strong and your choices can feel intense and weighty if you can suspend your disbelief. But if you're wondering whether or not you made the right call, believe me, you did. There was no way to do it differently.
This is a review of the base game only because I refuse to give Paradox another dollar until they stop with the DLC spam and go back to developing complete games. I've also never played a campaign long enough to get to the end game crisis, so make of this review what you will. The concept is nice, I wanted to play this game for a while before I actually bought it. But the actual gameplay doesn't do it for me. There's not enough interaction with other civs, especially if they're peaceful. Being able to design your own ships is nice, but combat basically just boils down to deathball mechanics. It also utilizes the war score mechanic from Europa Universalis, where after the war is over you negotiate territory in the peace deal rather than just keeping everything you've conquered. I thought the mechanic worked really well in EU, but it feels out of place here. Really the only fun I had with this game was with the race creator, where you can try to recreate classic factions from other media. Unfortunately some of the cooler stuff, like hive minds (for recreating Zerg or Borg), were witheld from the main game so that you spend more money on DLC's. And again, playing peacefully or even alongside a peaceful race is as boring is this game gets, so you really have to make everyone some sort of space Nazi if you want any kind of real interaction. I really wanted to love this game, but to be honest I regret buying it. Why shell out like $200 for the base game and all the relevant DLC's when you can just play Distant Worlds and have a much better time?
Don't buy the hype. It's a polished turd revered by weirdos who use it as a dating sim, but there's bits of it worth salvaging that would actually take inspiration from if I were put in charge of designing an RPG. Let's start with the good: The camera allows you to play from either an over-the-shoulder or isometric perspective, allowing you to choose between immersive exploration and tactical control, although the isometric perspective would be better if it weren't tied to a character. Different starting stories and location based on character's race and class is a great idea. Unlocking prestige classes through in-game decisions is pretty neat, although it kind of sucks when you want to replay with a specific build in mind but can't execute it if you haven't made the right choice in any previous playthroughs. Morrigan is one of my favorite companions ever written, and her and Alistair have great banter with each other. Now the bad: The most generic dark fantasy setting ever devised. There's only 3 base classes to choose from (warrior, rogue, mage), although they essentially have 2-3 subclasses each (archer vs daggers, two-handed vs board and sword). Enemies are also made up of those same 3 classes. You will be fighting groups of Darkspawn rogues, warriors, and mages with the same skills as you again, and again, and again. In addition to wave after wave of the same boring old enemies, the MMO combat itself is shallow and repetitive, mostly revolving around knockdowns and stun lock. Art style is terrible. The graphics themselves probably hold up pretty well, but the game is just hideous. It's very drab and brown. Even the magical dream world is just nothing but brown with goop everywhere. I could go on, but I'm out of characters. It's a boring slog, but it's the best the series has to offer. If it's on sale for super cheap (or even free on Origin) you might be able to get some enjoyment out of it, but the love affair is completely undeserved.
