This is an interesting blend of RTS and city-building, defending against hordes of hungry zomies... not quite literally billions, but it feels close to it sometimes. There are some shortincomings though: - clunky save system, you can only save "copies" of your campaign under a new name, and only from the map betwen missions (even though it autosaves during missions) - game is very "swingy", you let one zomie through to infect your buildings and you're basically dead, if you don't let them through then it's mostly easy except when hordes show up - balance isn't the greatest; the missions difficulty ramps up VERY fast and it can easily become impossible if you don't manage your economy well On the plus side: - pause at any time, so no pressure to become an RTS god at your macro and micro (which you would otherwise have to in order to win, pretty much) - Adjust the difficulty at any time between missions, if it's too hard you can turn it down, for a challenge, turn it up and have even bigger hordes. Doesn't affect progression other than "score points" - Graphics and steampunk aesthetic look pretty cool, tech tree is interesting (though could benefit from being more linear so you don't have to skip half the techs to get to the good ones, if the game was balanced for it) - Apparently the survival mode is also fun if you're into that sort of thing
Agree with the other reviews - this is a lot of fun, but not very long and not a lot of replay value (though maybe come back to it in 3-5 years when you've forgotten the mission layouts?). Although there is customizable "evolutions" of bonuses and new abilities for your units, I didn't find they made a big enough difference to gameplay to be worth replaying levels with different loadouts. On the plus side, you can switch them around for free, so no downside if you want to play around with them. It's not very hard; entirely possible to beat the game with no units lost if you do a little saving and loading. Or you can live with your mistakes and spawn a few extra units to compensate, and still win the mission. I quite enjoyed the "tic-tac-toe" of strategy - stalker to backstab the armored unit, then have a shooter lurking to take out the exploding unit that hears the death and investigates, and so on. The humour is nice, and adds to the fun of what could otherwise be a little too dark - aliens bursting out of toilet cubicles, "motivation robots" that beat underperforming employees to death, that kind of thing, all played for laughs. All in all, a worthwhile buy if it's in your price range - maybe on a sale, if you aren't loaded, since it's only 6-8 hours of gameplay, and that's if you take your time.
Smooth and immersive cyberpunk gameplay with a retro feel. The graphics are well-done, looking like a high-quality production from the 90s, and not just the lazy "slap some pixel art on it" you see in some modern "retro" games. Lots of sidequests makes it feel like the city is full of real people, and the story overall was interesting enough - somewhat predictable but with a few interesting twists. Part of me wished that it was longer (it all takes place in about ~10 areas of one single city, apart from a few special missions that take you to other locations then back again), but mainly that's because I enjoyed it so much. It's taken me just over 21 hours to complete, having done all of the possible sidequests as far as I can tell, and that's a pretty decent amount of content for a relatively cheap game. Overall, I do think the length was about right; enough to max one particular set of skills, but not enough to max all of them (which I find leads to a feeling of "nothing more to achieve" when it happens). I would recommend it if you like platformers and RPGs
So I wrote a comprehensive, witty review, but I couldn't post it because it was way too long. Oops. So here's the summary: - I finished the game; the negative reviews are accurate but a little harsh IMO. - Story is predictable, MC kinda dumb (what did you THINK Jade's origin was?) but not so bad it put me off the game - Decent backstory in collectable lore items (tho a bit cliche), they put some thought into it - Good performance, no crashes, some glitches like characters teleporting across the map when toggling ambush mode, or sneak mode disabling after a stealth kill and triggering enemy vision - Controls are fully remappable, a game that did it right for once *-surprised pikachu-* - Linear main quest, side quests for weapons/upgrades, no "moral choices" - nothing like Fallout etc, but good for a completionist gamer with limited time - Unbalanced combat: too many enemies to take head-on in most areas, stealth is mandatory (and fun), but some areas have enemies too tough to stealth-kill in one round which is a jarring contrast to everywhere else - Lack of feasible variations to stealth strategy makes it less interesting (eg, no silent miasma powers) - More unbalance: robots can be EMP'd giving ~3 rounds to stealth kill them, all other enemies can only be disabled by noisy abilities - Lategame: teleport power + "no AP cost" chip + Jade + collector shotgun = unbalanced 1-round TKO - Unexciting skill trees, some good skills but many are "meh" - Elvis and Diggs are mandatory in your party, only one swappable slot and Jade is just too good at "BOOM HEADSHOT" so I rarely ever used any other party comp - Only a few things worth buying with plastic, get better stuff for free from sidequests - Consumables don't appear to restock in shops (don't waste em) - Weapon and skill loadout fully swappable outside combat (but a couple of a scripted ambush points without warning to swap your equips) Verdict: worth buying on discount if you like the genre and seek entertainment
It's a beautiful game with intriguing setting and engaging music and sound. I wanted to like it. But... no, it's NOT ok to release a game with unplayable and unconfigurable keyboard controls, and I have to say, the keyboard controls in this one are absolutely F*****ED. Someone has pointed out that it's because the author is French, which is fine and all, but THE REST OF THE WORLD EXISTS, regardless of if you're French or American. If you're going to the trouble of releasing it on a platform like GOG, then you can go to the trouble of making the controls configurable, and no, "gamepad recommended" is NOT an excuse. Q to move left, D to move right, ok I get it. But really... arrow keys to bounce/walljump, but only if you press 'J' first to active it? REALLY??! No.... just no. Now, I'm giving 3 stars, rather than 2, because... it's free. If you have more time than money, and happy to work around the input bugs (or you're just one of those strange people who likes to use a gamepad on a PC instead of just buying a console...) then by all means, you'll probably love it. But I can't give 4-5 stars to something with such little effort put in to make it usable by a wide audience.
I played this on Epic (it was a giveaway a while back) and love it. The card battles are simple enough to pick up and it's possible to make some ungodly broken combos if you get the right cards and items against the right enemies - very fun. At the same time, it does very well in selling the feeling of the culture and superstitions of the setting, without it getting in the way of the story. The game also does well in making the player feel like they are making real choices in the life of your character, and your decisions will affect how the story ultimately ends. I would highly recommend it, and I plan to buy it on GOG when it goes on sale (yes I am cheap, sorry not sorry).
So, this is mainly a game about finding out what went wrong by reading notes, viewing holograms and listening to audio recordings, and fixing it (at least partly) by solving puzzles and doing a little bit of platforming and zero-G navigation. The puzzles are quite varied, so it doesn't get boring, and most of them are not that hard, with a couple of notable exceptions. The story is decently interesting; although this is yet another of those "humanity destroyed the earth in their greed/carelessness/laziness/whatever" tropes, I give them a pass as it's maintly used for setting the scene and explaining why you have to be there (as well as a bit of motivation for some of the character story you discover). Voice-acting is decent, no complaints in that regard. Overall gameplay time is probably about 6 hours if you don't rush, and not including any time to go back and complete achievements or find collectibles you missed. Finally, I do unfortunatly have to penalize them by one star for failure to configure the keyboard controls. There's a screen right there in the options for it, but apparently they decided they didn't want to let you actually CHANGE the settings on that page - no! Bad devs! (Cue some messing around in Windows settings to set up a QWERTY keyboard layout so that I can actually play.) Overall, 4/5.
This is one of my favourite games, as I've kept coming back to it over the last 20 years since I first played it in high school. Personally, I greatly enjoy the pausable real-time tactical combat, allowing me to stop the action and plan my next move when a previously hidden enemy is suddenly revealed, or even teleport out of the way (once you've discovered it). On the other hand, you can also play in turn-based mode, similar to the original XCOM, if that's your style. The vehicle-based combat above the city adds a new element as well, giving you the choice of cautious sniping or a full assault with explosive ordnance -- at the risk of wasting all your budget paying for repairs after you level a city block. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in this style of game. And even if you're not sure -- wait til it's on sale and spend a few bucks to give it a try.
