A spin on Darkest Dungeon genre where you're meant to actually complete the game, with a dash of Heroes of Might & Magic aesthetics, and avoidane of grind. Very fun, but I had an issue: the 'normal' difficulty level is way too easy once you have the right combos of monsters + magic items and so forth, to the point you don't have take advantage of many mechanics. The game really wants you to play the game multiple times, with the 'normal' playthrough being just to teach own team and enemy capabilities, then the difficulty level above is the when the 'real' challenge starts. But one play through is 15-20 hours, so it's not a casual spin, they really should have made 'normal' better balanced. Also, there are significant number of mechanics that simply aren't well explained, so you'll want to hit the wikis. But despite all that, I did have a lot of fun figuring out how to use the diverse sinister character types.
I briefly played Cataclysm at a friend's house when I was in high school just after it came out--and then returned to finish the game nearly 25 years later. Totally worth it! An epic sci-fi horror narrative with voice acting that's the good kind of horrifying, and basically no vanilla missions--each advances the plot and introduces a unique tactical challenge or two complete. The Beast is a terrifying foe, especially early in game, and the sense of journey from being a lowly merchant ships confronted with an impossible catastrophe and the rise of power from there is just incredible. Now admittedly, the lack of vanilla missions can also be frustrating, as each scenario involves figuring out a gimmick or two specific that game often doesn't hand-hold to explain. Have to either try and fail a few times to figure out yourself--or look up the gimmick online if you're more keen to advance story. It's a genuine tragedy that the original game files were lost making this impossible to remaster directly--though I hope the developers try too anyway. It's quite in experience full of visual spectacle despite the *very* dated graphics.
Ork Hunters features a badass Guard regiment packing beefy ork guns--fighting Orks with spears and bows. This distinction gives the familiar gameplay of Armageddon a welcome new spin. The Ork Hunter infantry are gratifyingly powerful elite warriors, mowing down the Feral Orks more easily than Space Marines kills regular Orks in the main game. However, the Ferals attack in VAST waves, and only careful placement of fire support weapons will see your troops through what feels like a Zombie-horde tower-defense type game at times. The campaign features one major choice at the end which potentially resolves a plot thread/character arc from the first game. However, I wish the unit selection would continue to evolve at least in token form. While it makes sense to restrict vehicles to just basic tanks and artillery (and frankly, the infantry are deadlier in most cases), even just a few additional weaker unit choices (on both sides) would have added a little more welcome variety.
