The base SWAT 4 game is great, but unfortunately it has lots of bugs, quirks and odd technical limitations. Elite Force massively improves SWAT 4 in several directions without hurting the core design of the game. AI officers are smarter, enemies are less predictable, equipment choices matter more (there are also new equipment options), there are new commands and you have a bunch more options on how to approach situations. It also fixes bugs and enables functionality that was cut from the original release. It is an excellent mod. Absolute must-have, in my opinion.
Finally got around playing the long awaited part 3. Having played the first 2 parts, this one was insta-buy. If you played the other two installments you know what to expect: point and click, hidden object horror game with puzzles. This one does not stray from the formula at all, which is fine. There are more kinds of puzzles, most with 3 distinctive levels of difficulty - and some are quite difficult. I recommend you play in an intermediate difficult (with skip available) otherwise it will just be annoying getting stuck on a puzzle for an hour when you really want to see the story! And what about the story? Well... here are the bad news: it's a convoluted mess of half-baked ideas, poorly resolved threads and plot holes you can drive a truck through. In isolation, none of the parts of the game are "bad" per se, and if you squint you can sort get what they were going for. But the picture that emerges after playing it is that they had like 50 different ideas, and instead of picking one or two good ones, they just slapped the 50 ideas together and tied it all up with a huge cop-out. That was disappointing. But is it a bad game? No! If you liked the other two games in the trilogy, by all means get this one. The game still has the same appeal: it draws you in and you really want to see what is coming up next. There are some solid scares and there is much closer contact with "her". Though imperfect and a bit disappointing, this is an easy recommendation for anyone that played the previous two games.
Having never played a trucking game, I have to say that this is a pretty decent game. The gist of this game is: you get some cargo contract, you drive to your destination, you get paid. Rinse, lather repeat. No, it isn't super exciting - mostly I just enjoy the long drives and occasional road challenges like heavy traffic or navigating tight roads with large loads. There's a very simple cb radio system that is fun to break the monotony. It's a chill game overall. The map covers parts of the USA, Canada and Mexico. The world feels appropriately large, but it is "compacted" and cities are made of just a few major streets and points of interest. There is no real "point" to the game though: it's a "sandbox" where you do what you want. There is some progression to it: you start with a single truck and a bit of money and once you get more money eventually you start buying more trucks and hiring drivers that work for you. There are a few downsides. The game feels "cheap". Graphics aren't amazing (they are serviceable). Audio is kinda bad. It crashes a bit (always save before interacting with notebook!). The game also has no tutorial and only a short manual. It is confusing for a newcomer. It lacks a the polish that you expect in modern games. The police system is also under-developed. You gain "wanted" level for doing illegal things, which is fine, but sometimes it isn't obvious what is going on - for example: driving after 6pm with your headlights off gives you wanted level but you might not notice this and you will rack up a huge amount and possibly a fine. Visibility is also terrible which you will feel while you struggle to get a good angle to be able to see what you are doing while backing up with your trailer. That said, overall, the game is a chill experience despite the flaws and I am happy with it. The price even discounted is a bit steep for what you are getting IMHO. If you are bored and want something different you can consider this game.
The men of war series are legendary for their tactical depth and epic battles. Assault Squad is no different, but it is more focused on multiplayer than its predecessor and brings a bunch of quality of life improvements over the base game, making it easier to manage the large-scale battles. In single player it offers some basic campaigns with missions that vary from capturing points in a linear fashion to a "last stand" style thing where you defend your base against waves of attackers. The "story" is paper-thin and the dialogue or terrible, but you aren't here for that - you are here to obliterate tanks :) The engine also has some improvements with graphics being slightly better and animations smoother. And Japan becomes a "proper" faction with voiced units and a campaign. One downside is lack of variety in units: because the game is MP focused all factions essentially got "gamified" - they have the same "classes" of equipment (infantry, light vehicle, tank, artillery, etc) with a couple of choices per class that fall into a normalized army list (light howitzer, heavy howitzer, self-propelled light howitzer...). They still have their own particularities and uniqueness but it feels a lot less "asymmetric" and realistic. The AI is still dumb as a brick: they send masses of troops straight into your defenses in a haphazard formation only to get massacred, eventually overwhelming you with numbers or a some big tank like a Tiger (if you let them that is). Thankfully there are SP mods that bring more interesting missions with better structure and slightly more intelligent AI that makes good use of artillery and things to give you a run for your money. Disappointingly, there are no bots in MP. You still need to convince a few friends to play. This game is still great. However I still prefer the original MoW because there are more mods and more community content for it. Strongly recommend this one but grab the original MoW too - they are usually cheap.
Brutal orchestra is essentially a turn-based, "roguelike" RPG game. A normal run has you progressing through each area in a non-linear fashion culminating with a boss fight. Beat the last boss to win. If you die, it's game over. You unlock new characters and items as you play. Standard stuff. Combat is mechanically straightforward, but gets complex and deep as you progress and new kinds of enemies begin appearing, forcing you to carefully consider your actions. Up until the last area, combat is, I think, 100% skill based (in the last area some enemies have a lot of randomness to them, so you need some luck and the right equipment). Abilities synergize in interesting ways and enemies present some dilemmas that force you to balance damage output with positioning and potential return fire. Expect to die a lot as you learn how these synergies work. But to me where the game shines is the presentation. The graphics are a very nice pixel art style with good simple animations and the music is cool - different enemies get different music (and some enemies transform causing the music to change accordingly). A great deal of care was put into the presentation and it shows. The story is also gripping. You start alone basically knowing nothing about your character or your motivations. After the brief tutorial you are let loose in the world. You are fed tidbits of story until eventually the full scope of your situation is revealed - and then the "real" game begins. You also find characters whose stories are funny, heart-breaking, infuriating - all kinds of situations. Though the game never develops characters much, what it reveals is believable and relatable The only real weaknesses of the game are: the interface is initially very confusing and overwhelming (you get used to it). And also: it ends too soon! I wanted more bosses, more enemies, more :) Kidding aside, this game is a rare gem: a rare combination of tight mechanics and amazing presentation. Strongly recommended.
In this game the developers just said "screw physics and common sense" and made a completely over-the-top insane shooter. A typical map starts like this: kick a door (door flies and kills the guy behind it), slide into the next guy (trip him, steal his weapon), shoot the next two guys, but - wait - there are two guys in the back. No biggie, wall-run to get close then dive and shoot them from behind while doing a backflip. All in slow motion. And then you move to the next room and more chaos ensues. It's nuts. The core mechanic here is: as long as you are doing stunts, you are invulnerable, and as long as you are making kills you can have slow-mo. Weapons have only one magazine (you have to steal weapons from enemies). The invulnerability and slow-mo are not get out of jail free cards as you still need to actually pull out the stunts and use ammo judiciously. There are tons of different weapons of different types and a handful of enemy types (it does not get boring). The campaign is short-ish, but there are other modes: shootout which is basically "you + X baddies in a room: fight!" and "rogue steel" which is a set of 10 levels and each level you get to pick a perk (positive or negative). The game also has an editor (have not tried it). So on top of being a fun shooter, it also has tons of different content. There are only three potential downsides - the graphics are kind strange (lots of weirdly reflective surfaces - it's hard to describe but you can't miss it), some maps are confusing and you'll wander around lost for a minute, and the music is a bit hit or miss (you can shuffle the tracks in-game). On discount it is dirt-cheap. You have no excuse not to get this!
People complain about the dice in this game but the dice aren't the problem. The developers crammed as many sources of randomness they could into the game - random damaged modules, random hazards, random events between turns, random research cards - and crammed it with hidden or unexplained mechanics that affect the game (stress, teamwork) - with the end result being a game where you are getting batted around every turn like a windsock in a hurricane. You survive likewise: flap around for a while without much control and in the last turn you dive for the escape pod. I have won a single game in easy difficulty (1 crew member survived with the ship nearly destroyed) after a 12-loss streak where I didn't even have a prayer. Afterwards I lost another 5 games in a row where I'm all confused about why the previously winning strategy didn't even survive past turn 3. There is no obvious pattern - sometimes you just get a bunch of events in a row that drain hull or health and then you can't survive the big hit that will come around turn 6. There is no variety in gameplay: every game is the same thing and develops in roughly the same way. There is no character development, no narrative, the ship layout is always the same - heck, you even start with the same destroyed module from the tutorial. There isn't even some kind of "endless" mode. You get the 10-turn normal mode and a few short premade scenarios (that are for masochists). The game is also not a "casual" game - it is actually quite stressful. I've played roguelike and bullet hell games where I'm getting slaughtered and it is still less depressing than this game. Strongly recommend that you read a guide and learn a few strategies before diving it. Cannot recommend this - certainly not at €15. There are FAR better games than this out there for that kind of price.
Sclash is a 2d fighting game with "one hit kill" mechanics. There are two modes: story and versus. The story mode is essentially a side-scrolling fighter - you walk to the right, enemies spawn, you kill them, you move some more to the right. Repeat until done. Most enemies die to a single hit (and so do you), except for bosses who have multiple lives. The story mode is incredibly short (finished it in about one hour). The story itself is forgettable. There is low replayability. Versus mode is just player vs player duels. I have not tested it a lot, but there is no AI which means that you need a friend to enjoy this mode. The game is beautiful. Backgrounds have a "hand painted" feel to them and audio strikes the right tone. Visual and audio elements integrate well into the game - for example, during boss fights the background and music change as the fight progresses (a storm breaks out, etc). Artistically the game is 5 stars. The fighting mechanics are interesting "in theory" - you can strike, parry, dodge and perform a "pommel strike" that drains stamina. Each action cost stamina and most fights boil down to draining your opponent's stamina or performing feints until they leave themselves open and striking at a decisive moment. It's a different pace from your usual "button mashing" fighting game - here it is about positioning, pacing and tactics. Unfortunately the mechanics are not fully fleshed out and combat comes out feeling stiff and wooden. Most fights can just be won by abusing the AI. Toward the end of story mode you unlock the charged attack and fights become "Charge up attack. Wait for AI to come into range. Release.". Boring. With a few tweaks it would have been amazing. So much wasted potential here. Controls are awkward, but you CAN rebind them (this was added in an update - explains the other reviews). So it is a very short and very beautiful game with poor mechanics. Soft recommend, but don't expect much value out of this game.
