I waited a good while for the release of this game on GoG. I'm glad that they finally released it, but it's just not my cup of tea. I like a good Trek game, but this is just an old-school RTS game with Star Trek paint. I've done several of the Federation campaign missions, but I am just not inspired enough to continue. Maybe there are mods that spruce things up a bit, but I don't know. Anyhow, I am still waiting for someone to finally create some good Star Trek games.
I'm a big fan of the W40K universe, especially since playing the excellent Dawn of War video game back 2005. So I was interested in the concept behind Deathwing, though all of the poor reviews warned me off from buying it. When it was on sale for less than $10, I took the plunge. Well, I can say that the game looks good. But that's about all of its merits. The gameplay is plodding, repetitious, and tedious. Unlike W40K: Space Marine, none of the characters are interesting, and the pitched battles with Tyranids from room to room gets old fast. I wouldn't recommend this game even at a low price. There are much better W40K games out there, even of the FPS variety.
I've been playing Warhammer 40K games since the legendary and superb Dawn of War came out in 2004. Anyone who follows the genre knows that there are more misses than hits when it comes to the quality of W40K games. Battlesector, however, is pretty good. Its campaign is long and well structured, and the gameplay (from the turn-based rules and animations to the voice acting and music) hits the mark. Winning a battle is accompanied by a feeling of achievement, especially when you are able to keep alive veterans of past battles (who level up between missions). The shortcomings of Battlesector are worth mentioning but in no way major. There are only two races in the game, and you can only play the campaign as the Space Marines. Thus, after the campaign ends, there is really nothing else to do but play around with the 2 races in skirmish or online. And yeah, that will get boring fast. The developers did just release a free "Planetary Supremacy" mode that adds a meta-map, strategic layer to the game, but this is going to need more refinement, along with the addition of more races (at this time, a Necron DLC is available and a Sisters of Battle DLC is on the way). Overall, Battlesector is definitely with a try for any fan of the W40K universe. I haven't played it since finishing the campaign and do not intend to play it again until Planetary Supremacy gets more content and improvements. But I'm going to keep an eye on it. Next to Gladius, it is one of the best W40K games that has come out in recent years.
I love the idea behind this game: an infinitely iterating universe in which you choose your own path and make your own story. But in my 10-15 hours of gameplay, I found the game tedious, boring, and empty. In fact, I almost quit in the first 20 minutes when just keeping my guy alive was a challenge. Anyhow, there are some interesting elements involving crafting, construction, and exploration. But it all just merges into a single, long grind for slightly better materials and stuff with which to survive. I assume that if you stick with the game long enough, you might come across some NPCs or settlements somewhere, but until then, the loneliness of the game and the need to run between shelters and collect stuff all the time just ruined it for me. If you can get the game at a steep discount (like $10-15), then go for it if you want to try it out (the game really needs a demo). I didn't encounter any noticeable bugs in the version that I played, though I really did not explore more than 2 planets. However, be warned that the game is very slowly paced and will require a degree of commitment, time, and patience that I do not think that most people have to devote to a video game.
I have greatly enjoyed AoW: Shadow Magic and AoW3. I thought that Planetfall would be more of the same gaming goodness, just set in a sci-fi universe. Planetfall is a decent game, but just doesn't really come alive like the earlier games. Maybe the DLC adds more content and interesting gameplay, so maybe I will revisit this game in the future. Or maybe for me the gameplay only works in a fantasy setting. Anyhow, if you liked the earlier AoW games, don't expect Planetfall to be the same kind of game in sci-fi clothing. There was something missing in Planetfall that I can't quite put my finger on in terms of, well, wonderment, though it by no means is a bad game.
Star Trek: Bridge Commander (STBC) is a very dated games and feels like such, but for the price it is worth a try for any Star Trek fan. The graphics are passable, the music and voice acting are fine, and the game mechanics mostly work. However, do be prepared to do much of the piloting of the ship and all of the fighting, which is a shame since it breaks the immersion of being a starship captain commanding a competent crew. The game consists of a campaign and skirmish mode. The campaign is long and includes eight chapters with multiple parts (missions). The missions themselves are a mixed bag. There are some good ones, bad ones, easy ones, frustrating ones, and plenty of confusing ones. I would recommend playing the campaign on easy difficulty during the first playthrough. Since you cannot manually save the game at any point and the autosave kicks in very infrequently, you will end up replaying missions from the beginning in many instances. There are some decent walkthrough guides and cheat codes available to help you get past some of the frustration, but I have to dock the game 1 star for not having a save feature. After getting through the campaign, you can do some skirmish scenarios with ships from various factions but that's about it. The combat itself can be engaging, and I found that the keyboard and mouse work well enough. The UI is also pretty easy to get used to. I do not play online and would be surprised if there is much of a multiplayer community at this late date. I would, however, suggest trying out some mods. Most of the ones that I tried were buggy and unstable. While crash-prone, the Kobayashi Maru mod seems to be about the best available and offers a nice graphical overhaul of the game (though the Galaxy Maps 2.0 campaign was unfortunately crashy and would not let me save my progress after awhile). Overall, for $10, I can recommend STBC. However, be ready for a bit of frustration during the campaign and not much to do after it's over. 3.5/5
If you have played Darkest Dungeon (DD), then Iratus should be quite familiar. It's almost a carbon copy, except you play as the bad guys. It has a few new concepts, like crafting, but otherwise there is nothing original here. The story, such as it is, is not compelling or interesting, and none of the characters stand out. This game is generally easier than DD, which means it also lacks DD's tension and excitement. DD isn't perfect by any means; it's grindy, poorly paced, and extremely repetitive. However, with a little modding, DD can be transformed into a very good game. I don't see that potential with Iratus. It's paced better and a bit less grindy, but its shallow and bland. You can customize your monsters, equip them, and rename them, but ultimately they are just undead creatures made of body parts from the last fight. I played this for about 4 hours and then quit once I reached an unwinnable fight. Unlike DD where you can lose a fight and then go grind out some new characters and equipment and come back to fight another day, you can't go backward in Iratus. If you come across a tough fight, that's it. You can't go around it or come back to fight another day after leveling up your team. You're done. Iratus might be worth a try for anyone who wants to play a DD clone without the tension, great narration, and, yes, the grind. However, it's an inferior game overall, so get it at a deep discount--or just stick with DD (and mods) and wait for DD2.
I'm a fan of the W40K universe, and this game looked promising. I actually liked the tutorial and the beginning of the Imperial Guard campaign. But things bogged down quickly, and the game lost my interest after several hours. First, the good stuff. The game looks great and has good music, solid voice acting, and an appropriate W40K feel. The micromanagement of ships was not as bad as I thought, though the UI is not all that intuitive. Okay, that's about all of the good stuff. Now, the bad. There are a number of systems at work that just aren't explained well, such as how and when to upgrade worlds, leaders, and ships. The deal-breaker for me that made me uninstall the game was the wild difficulty spikes after I conquered the first system (Cadia) and moved to the next. Even on easy difficulty, enemies had much more ship strength in key sectors to the point that you were trapped between two opposing sides and nowhere to move. The whack-a-move strategic point race during fights also took away from the fun of gameplay. Once you get tired of the campaigns, there is no skirmish or instant-action mode that you can play against the AI, although the game has like 10 different races. It is a criminal omission by the developers, and a blunder concerning the game's long-term appeal. If you don't mind trying to figure out all of the unexplained stuff in the game and constantly reloading saves, this might be worth a try for $5-$10 tops. Otherwise, give this a hard pass. P.S. I had some difficulty at first getting the game to load, but it finally did. The Easy Anti Cheat thing may or may not have been the problem.
