I've been playing this game quite a lot since I bought it and it is quite addictive. There are camera bugs, there are AI pathing bugs (a lot), there are bugs in placing of building, when moving around the World loading is easily triggered and awkward and so on. None of this matters! The game is seriously entertaining with really a lot of playing hours (days, weeks, months?) worth of game. It has a BIG playing area (really stupidly large) with several wholly different zones, enganging gameplay (addictive even) plus tons of things to do and places to discover. This was clearly a project with an overambitious scope, mixing open-world exploration RPG (ish) with RTS (ish) and it succeeded, even if there are quite a few "quirks" (which are nowhere near bad enough to significantly detract from the experience). There is quite a lot of game play area (did I mention how big it is yet?!), lots of game mechanics, research mechanics, skill mechanics, resources, building, group-fights and so on, and these mechanics neatly dovetail with each other so that to do some you need to do others - for example, to do research beyond a certain point you need to explore the more dangerous parts of the game area for "research books", which in turn means you need to improve the fighting skills of some characters to survive in those places and the crafting skills of others to provide them with good enough gear. If you, like me, are the kind of gamer that fits the "Explorer" profile, you should get this game: it really packs tons of things to explore, from the game play area, to game mechanics, skill trees (in crafting and fighting, including a whole separate fighting mechanic of Martial Arts), research tree, buildings, unique bosses, faction politics and so on. Yes, is has several silly bugs, but this a grand game project that succeds in spite of them and well worth it to get.
ATOM is a proper RPG, with plenty to do and see, without falling into the trap of endless courier missions and the like as seen in some AAA titles. The graphics are good without being AAA first person and the playing space is comfortably large (I'm now maybe 30 hours in and barely entered the 2nd map area (there are at least 3, maybe more). The story is very interesting, spiced with unexpected details and funny moments, all linking nicelly within the game (for example, rumours might actually mention something unbelievable which later on does pop-up in game ... or they might just be made up stories or distorted storylines from pre-apocalypse films). Furthermore, the story links well (or at least it seems, in my eyes as non-Russian) with the real Russia of the 1980s and before and a certain way in which the World was seen back then and there, making it even more intriguing as it is a different spin to the post apocalyptic stories one often sees in cinema. At the price it sells, this game is very good value. Downsides: - No guidance whatsoever on builds, so you might just end up in post apocalyptic Russia with a character that doesn't do the most needed things right but does all the less important ones well. - It's way too easy to "go outside the reservation" by ignoring the main storyline and end up spending a significant portion of the game frustrated because of having delayed doing main mission elements that are supposed to give you the necessary weapons and resources to survive the rest more easilly. Because of this, the game might at first feel unfairly hard, if you're unlucky enough to go into it with an inappropriate build or put on hold a needed mission, either of which can easilly happen as there is zero upfront indication of what is important and what is not. That said, it is good fun, trully interesting and very much worth the buy.
I've been playing this series for ages, having got the last two some years ago as part of a bundle with a new graphics card. Recently, I got the whole X series again from GOG on a promo, to get DRM-free, up to date versions. Sadly, X3-Reunion seems to be bundled with the eXtend pack, which amongst other things includes the seriously doubtful decision of removing the suit repair laser, thus making some of the game start alternatives near impossible. Also, it seems to still have an tendency to crash every 45 minutes or so. I would highly recommend the X3 series (which will draw you in and provide countless hours of exploration, building, trading and fighting fun), just not X3 - Reunion: skip it and get X3 -Terran Conflict.
Been playing this since it came to GOG, where I bought it on the first day. Started in Easy mode, got killed twice and restarted, eventually started figuring out the mechanics of the game, by which time it became more of a case of settling down for a quiet farming life, huge stores of long-duration food and dealing with the odd zombie popping up once in a while (since I had cleared most zombies around my base). It was all starting to feel a bit meeuwh ... So I started a game in Survival mode, which the game description says it's how it's supposed to be played. Now I'm scared most of the time, constantly looking behind myself when outside and fearing a zombie invasion of my base, with several close calls within 2 game days, grabbing anything I can get my hands on since there are far fewer supplies and weapons to be found in houses and really working my brain on planning how to safely explore further to find the proper weapons and tools I need as well as preparing for upcoming major game events. I love it! I strongly suggest people start in Easy Mode to get to grips with the way the game works and then move on to Survival when they're ready for the proper Zombie Apocalypse experience. It's amazing how, for a simple looking isomeric view game, it's hugely immersive, even in Easy Mode. I'm surprise it's still in development given that it has quite a lot of depth and quite a lot of map to explore and I haven't spotted any major bugs yet. Apparently the developers have some big ideas they want to implement before they feel the game is finished. Recommended!
Ironclad has beautiful visual design and a very interesting story which mostly holds together well. It is however very linear: - You have one set of missions which you need to run, one after the other one. They all consist on having your units move from the left side of the screen to the right one whilst trying to stop the enemy which is going the other way around. The missions are always the same and run in a specific order that goes along with the story. - Before a mission you choose a set of cards (which must contain 20 cards, though multiple of the same are possible) and then during the mission they come out randomly, with up to 5 available at any moment. You can used any available cards, as long as you have enough Action Points for that card. Action Points drip in slowly with time, with some things (such as capturing a specific square with a soldier) accelerating this a bit. That's basically it. Better cards come from completing missions, using a unit card more than X times (which gives you a card with an upgraded version) and completing mission specific challenges. Once you've progressed enough you have quite a number of cards and many of them are a must. This leads to the problem of being on a mission and failing because of things like the random card chooser going through 10 cycles without bring out a required card to solve a specific situation since there is so much variance in a deck (to solve the many situations that might occur). Another problem is not having used the right unit cards enough times before a certain mission so that you lack upgraded units to match the enemy's better units. You can go back and rerun old missions to try and unlock more cards, by which point the game just feels artificially grindy. The game feels a lot like constantly forcing things on you purely to keep on going, without enough rewards for effort. Maybe worth it when on promotion for the beautiful artwork, but not as replayable & entertaining as other GOG games.
Banished is a very well executed mix of city simulator, management and survival game. You start in a world generated from a random seed, with 4 families with some starting resources. It's early spring and your first task is to have them prepare for and survive their first winter. You can define tasks - like resource collection, building or working in an activity like fishing - but can't control any individual directly: they go around trying to balance they tasks they have with fullfilling their needs (such as food and warmth) which they do at home where they keep a stock of food and heating materials. As simple as it sounds, this comes with an incredible amount of complexity, were choices in building positioning and non-renewable resource collection affect several variables. After the initial first winter, the games keeps forcing the player to engage and interact: balancing the production/collaction of all the needed things (food, fuel, source materials, medicine and efficiency boosting tools) given the available manpower and terrain. There is seemingly no stable state, with population growth and disasters often pushing a game out of balance. Replayability is good, with random world generation and different modes for terrain, climate and starting resources. All in all, a great game, about as entertaining as Minecraft and Don't Starve.
I've been a gamer for more than 20 years now, and of late have been more and more underwelmed with the dumbed-down, me-too clone nature of most modern games. So I got "Don't Starve" on a promo, expecting it to be a little thing with simple graphics but "hey, it's on promo so let's give it a try and support an indie developer". What a great surprise: - It's huge: every time you play a new world gets generated; the developers keep adding new content (for free!); everytime you think you figured out The Trick (to beat the game) it throws you a surprise; it has layer after layer of objectives and goals and suprises and ways to use items and things to beat in this game. - The graphics are just right: simple yet highly satisfying, with the right look mixed in with the right music to create a self-mocking, creepy and dark-humour-filled atmosphere. - The game manages to get the right balance between challange, frustration and reward, pulling you back in again and again to give it another try. It's basic mechanics might look simple at first glance and yet there are A LOT of unexpected ways to use items and tools which open up whole new venues to try and beat the game (only to be surprised yet again when the game world takes an unexpected turn) Don't Starve is quite a breath of fresh air in the stale world of gaming, more so with a group of developers that actually care for their customers and just keep improving and growing the game for free, a rare thing nowadays.
