I remember some time in the mid-90s I found a demo of this game on some disc or another. After a few hours of learning the ropes I thought that this may be worth a try, but never really followed up on that thought until I saw the game on sale on GOG. Unfortunately, this is one of those games that has some nice features, but what you would mostly notice is not what it has, but what it does not when compared to similar games of the same era. I liked the land combat system, as an attempt to get beyond the usual combat of these kind of games, but why, oh why did they not bother with doing anything with the naval combat, which makes no sense whatsoever. I enjoy the colony management part and the way that special resources have areas of 'influence' which impact your production, but why did the designers not have a ledger/advisors system, such as in the Civ games of the same period to make management easier. Being able to name landmarks is a nice touch, but it does not trump the fact that diplomacy system is dull and pointless, while diplomacy with the Indians is non-existent. I could go on, as for every nice feature there are two or three which are missing or badly implemented. Having sank 70+ hours into it I have genuinely tried to like this game, but I don't think I can manage that. Which is disappointing as there are good ideas here, just not enough for a complete game. But at least it was cheap, so what can I do but shrug and get back to Colonization for this particular theme.
Really not sure, if this would be appropriate for people not familiar with the game already. After all, the graphics have moved on enormously during that time, the plot is light and the controls pretty basic compared with what you are able to do nowadays. But for me... come on,I still remember playing this and Doom 2 in the mid-nineties instead of spending time on my homework! A perfect, nostalgic distraction from reality to switch off your brain, grab the rocket launcher and hunt down that Cyberdemon one more time :D
Having played a few point and click advetures in my life I must say that Fran Bow does not break any new ground technically. The approach is the same, look around on the screen, see what you can talk to/interract with and don't forget your inventory. If stuck, hover with your mouse on the screen, see if you missed anything, visit all the places you can and talk to everyone multiple times, try combining things etc. So far, nothing out of the ordinary. But point and click adventures stand and fall by the story and atmosphere they generate and here Fran Bow excells. A very good horror aesthetic with a both nice (as in 'cute') and disturbing story at the same time. The take on the horror is pretty original, I cannot really spot any direct influences with the possible exception of Tim Burton. The characters are memorable, good and evil and the story takes you to both fun and disturbing places, sometimes even within the same screen. So, why not a 5? I guess I will withhold one star because I feel the game is a little too short (would have liked another chapter to flesh out the state of various realities), that some puzzles require guessing as to the techniques needed to solve them (like the impromtu chemistry lesson which suddenly requires dragging and not putting items in your inventory) and that the ending is a bit too light on explanations and 'closure' (although it does leave plenty of room for sequel). Nonetheless, if you like point and click adventures and are not put off by horror elements, definitely consider this!
Pirates is not really a game as much as it is a series of mini-games - basic turn-based battles when assaulting a city, numberpad key hitting in sword fights, timing your moves to the music when romancing a governer's daughter, a simple economic simulator when moving goods around etc. It never becomes very complicated and is actually quite repetitive. So why 4 stars? Simple because it is a LOT of fun. You have great freedom in moving around the Carribean and the tasks you take on are really up to you. You do not have to complete all the missions to get the maximum score, you are not locked into any linear path at any point and your games can be vastly different, purely because you do not need to follow any strategy whatsoever. It is simply FUN. Don't get this if you want some deep strategy, elaborate plot or complicated number-crunching economics simulator. But you want to switch off your brain and glide around cartooney Carribean doing whatever comes into your mind, well, definitely give this a go. P.S. Using Windows 10, never had any issues getting it to work
This is easily the most frustrating game I have reviewed so far. What shall I focus on? The poor outdated interface, the frequent crashes? The endless spam of messages about kids growing up, lovers breaking up, personalities developing, education etc while nothing much happens? Or the sense of achievement that you get when you finally carve out a kingdom from a simple backward county? The stories that develop out of the game, with treacherous sons, unfaithful wives and murder galore to rival Game of Thrones with ease? You start the game with some land and a family of aristocrats trying to protect and develop that land. Doing badly and your family has no land titles left? Then it is game over. You are succesful and manage to grab some more counties from the families that are less fortunate? Great, give them to your sons, brothers, and cousins. Spread the seed, make sure your bloodline is successful, make sure everyone in the family is married (sometimes this game seems like a glorified dating app, I swear) and there are plenty of children to take over once the current generations dies off. And, believe it or not, this is pretty much it. All in all, this game is a poor cousin to its illustrious succesor (if you can stomach Paradox's pricing strategy and pay 200 EUR for the full game of CK2) and seems well out of date. So, do I recommend it? Well, probably not, as this is definitely not a game for everyone and the chances are you will get either frustrated or bored even if you are a fan of RTSes. So, do I say that you should not buy it? No to that also, how could I say that if I have already sank 500+ hours of my time in it? It seems that this game is as frustrating to review as it is to play. But despite that, I am still doing it :)
