Bio
Just some dude who loves RPGs, Mecha, Indie and everything in between.

Score is based on how much I enjoyed the game

5 stars = Unforgettable Masterpiece
4.5 stars = Close to a Magnum Opus
4 stars = Fantastic, with minor imperfections
3.5 stars = Two thumbs up! Though YMMV
3 stars = Passable, except big red flags
2.5 stars = Situational, depends on some things which vary from person to person
2 stars = Super Meh
1.5 stars = Something in the mud
1 stars = Terrible
0.5 stars = Run away and don't look back
0 stars = At this point. I need to time-travel to stop my past self from playing the game.

Youtube link above is my channel where I try to upload videogame reviews when I have the time and walkthroughs. To help others and give a shoutout to games with my 2 cents.

If you want to chat about games you can find me at Discord - Detectivefail
or Steam
https://steamcommunity.com/id/GamerFail
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Favorite Games

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Omori
Omori
Xenogears
Xenogears
NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139...
NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139...
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions

391

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Recently Played See More

Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

Mar 22

Pathfinder: Kingmaker
Pathfinder: Kingmaker

Mar 20

Front Mission 1st: Remake
Front Mission 1st: Remake

Mar 06

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

Mar 03

Thief Gold
Thief Gold

Feb 23

Recently Reviewed See More

Out of all the WRPGs (western RPGs), I've played thus far. Pathfinder: Kingmaker(PK) is without a doubt the most complex and rich in nearly every category I long for in the genre. And to Owlcat’s credit, the Kickstarter backed CRPG almost achieved full marks. Multiplex of systems, deep mechanics, extensive kingdom-building, matched by a fascinating world-building and filled with memorable characters. A long story, featuring multiple endings. Real-time with pause combat. Dense fantasy single-player title in an isometric perspective. And yet I can’t help but find the whole experience of clearing everything possible in over 130 hours a double-edged sword. Full of sharp awesome content. Yet underneath lies a blunt edge full of troubling matters. Alexander Mishulin, Creative Director at Owlcat Games eloquently sums up the matter in an 2020 interview saying “...Huge Pathfinder system ruleset was left tricky and unclear in many ways for the new players unfamiliar with the tabletop game.”

The IP is incredibly different from what I dabbled in Baldur's Gate 1 last year. And the old Fallout titles. Feels a lot more in-depth not just in terms of pen-and-paper, but in different rules and how the mechanics are implemented by Owlcat on Paizo’s ruleset. I’ll run through the positives first before I dive into my mixed feelings. Full disclosure: I played 100 hours without mods before relying on them to end credits. I’ll denote a mod section properly later on, but if I don’t discuss it please assume I'm discussing vanilla.

Storywise I found to be a slow-burn. But ultimately an enjoyable affair. You start in a competition for the rights to become baron/baroness of the Stolen Lands. A large swath of unclaimed land with no leader. Think bandit territory except fantasied to the gills. Crypts and hidden tombs full of nocturnal creatures sinisterly lurk. Local settlements are plagued by monster attacks and the occasional banditry. Fill your wanderlust and discover ancient ruins and dungeons! Full of traps, puzzles, and of course great treasure awaits! But take care, whimsical fey beings roam here and there so beware! For better or worse, depending on your choices in dialogue you may come across interesting outcomes. Discover a key piece and be led to a hidden location out on the world map! Or used in a way to uncover another hidden check. Where the locals and monsters alike will be found in all manners of the noble to villainy spectrum. Take heart, for finding a true pure soul in such a hostile place may seem dangerous! Yet behold! Beyond the borders lie a people still living brightly and drinking merrily in taverns. Singing to their heart's content without end!

Before I sing on further, I must talk about the initial priorities after becoming Baron/Baroness. Consists of the gameplay overview without combat. A gentle reminder, to not go gallivanting off into the wilderness following the wanderlust compass. Rather, one must remember to research curses. Curses are something unexplainable and mysterious occurring within your lands. And it is up to you to research why. There are more than 13+ of these curse events that need to be resolved as you progress through the game's many acts. All of which contain a time limit to complete under “xxx’ day. Doing so is one of the key requirements to unlocking a secret ending and progressing through the main story conveniently. Refrain from doing so and the consequences will be severe. I didn’t have much issue with deadlines. Bona fide lenient as long as you prioritize what to do. A general loop emerges: Enter building management -> research curses, solve problems, assign advisors, resolve advisor concerns, construct structures in settlements, invest in building points(BP) or use them for erecting structures or helping pass a bill using BP. Finished? Good, we're not done. -> Check the journal to see any main quests. Usually, one or two pop-ups and its a number one priority to complete. -> Once finished then you're allowed to finish any sides and errands. Followed by companion quests -> If you have any days left on the clock. Explore the map, discover new dungeons, finish off random mobs trying to kill you while traveling, and unearthing loot by turning over rocks and crannies you see are all worthy endeavors. The priorities may seem daunting at first, but I assure you have ample weeks to months. In finishing any important tasks before moving on to the rest. Generally, Traveling around and researching will consume most of your precious days. However, there are certain ways to mitigate any losses later on. I’ll include some links later on for extra tips.

Plethora of classes to choose from and upgrade. More than fifteen main jobs. And several archetypes within. A barbarian, for instance, specializes in an armored hulk, mad dog, or invulnerable rager. A cleric branches off into a herald caller, ecclesitheurge, and crusader. All with their unique powers and skills offered. I stayed as a paladin and found it decent. My primary joy came from the multiple allies who joined my merry band. Swapping into a different profession if inclined, but I kept them as their base class to see how it feels to use them. At the end of the day, I concluded they’re fun to use. One serves as a tank such as my tower shield specialist while my inquisitor summons undead to serve as handy meatshields. My bard’s songs randomly stun my enemies. I and my barbarian cleaned up! Rinse and repeat and voila! Dead guys in the aftermath. Granted not all encounters will not go as smoothly as one would think. Plenty of surprises await in store for any curious adventurer.

Should be noted there are special prestige classes. Several are not selectable at the character creation. As you progress and meet certain requirements they become available as your second class. I’ll be honest with the exception of the Wildcard DLC. I was not able to use any of these prestige ones. As a result, I am unable to comment on them other than some being powerful and others meh from what I skimmed online. Overall essential in understanding classes, since comprehending their capabilities will mark triumph and despair concerning the combat portion.

I mainly used real-time with pause(RtwP) mode. For those unaware, in CRPG's this means each action your party makes is conducted at the same wavelength against the opposing enemy side. Casting spells takes seconds before casting but attacking is ongoing when not in cooldown. Trading blows until one side is gone. For those uninterested in RtwP. Owlcat implemented a turn-based(TB) method. Activatable anytime with a single press of a button. Initially, a mod early, the devs decided to add it for those not enthused in the RtwP approach. As someone who favors turn-based. I have to say the move was pretty based. But I couldn’t stand doing TB for every fight encounter. My entire playthrough would’ve easily doubled or tripled. But the inclusion of the mechanic later on after release I appreciate a great deal especially if I get tired of RtwP. Convenient when needed.

In my honest opinion, an enjoyable isometric gameplay emerges. Regarding the many systems at play. Battles are somewhat challenging relying on your crew's profession. For instance, if you improperly manage equipment, health items, and proper class understanding then you may be in for a life of hurt when confronting multiple foes in a large open area filled with scattered mobs. I struggled early on since I had zero Pathfinder exposure. Meaning I rushed into things without thinking, quick-saved like my life was about to expire. To make sure I gained a favorable outcome and spammed abilities like a madlad. Kindly erase those foolish ‘jump before thinking’ mentality and realize no one will hold your hand gently. Despite a wealth of options available to reduce difficulty which I will talk about later on. Look at my character and witness how one tab from the summary may induce information overload. What is AC? Fortitude? Reflex? Will? The difference between wisdom and intelligence. Knowledge arcana/world? lore/nature? Sounds rubbish, who needs these skills? Alignment? Bah, who cares. Well, my friend I do! A great deal since you must understand a sizable chunk to succeed. I won’t go into complete minute details, but suffice it to say each terminology is important to survive. Basic stereotypes do exist though, so no need to worry! A mage is squishy early on, but a glass cannon. Ranger and barbarian are viable builds and hybrid classes are available for those who wish to slot into a job outside of the standard ones.

Have no fear of the daunting Pathfinder homework ahead! I did only the bare minimum cause I wanted to get straight into the thick of things and still managed fairly well. Here’s a secret that has never failed me when playing any CRPG. Buffing/debuffing/summoning is honestly the bread and butter. And will undoubtedly your life easier. Without any of those above, I would not be able to win against my adversaries. Helped me so much to the point I spent over 100 hours buffing in less than a minute before engagements. In the blink of an eye. Yeah, I'm not kidding about those buffs. Crucial in starting up a massive advantage before striking any foe ahead. Summon any pets, skeletons, elementals, or animals at your side ahead of any battle so attackers will be dumb dumbs and attack them foolishly. As if they are the priority. Debuffing is equally important. Any Atlus JRPG fan should know from Megami Tensei how skills like reducing enemy power, missing an attack, freezing them, and whatever manner of debuffs to inflict. Will turn the tides in your favor. The same principle applies here. Min-maxers like myself who love adjusting little morsels of numbers are in for a real treat. Countless loot is around, as a result, I never had an issue strengthening my characters and applying any spells to their repertoire. No requirements to micromanage level-ups either. If checked in the menu. And since I started from beginning to end credits with the preference on. You are in good safe hands. An indispensable accessibility feature reduces the steep cliff into a more manageable one for newcomers to the series.

Do keep this in mind. It's inadvisable to spamming spells and abilities without a drawback. The consequence of using magical abilities means the 'charge' will be used up. Mana is unavailable. Instead, your party will have a certain amount of ‘charges’ so to speak on how many times to reuse a magick discipline. A basic 'fireball' for example may have one charge. In spite of that, within the magic system for some classes, possible to increase multiple slots. Consequently granting more amounts. Area of effect, cones, and single targets, bouncing are all attainable parameters, so watch out not to hurt your allies. Lest you need to revive them after the battle ends. After an engagement with an enemy, a non-combative status will occur for all. Any damages and spells used along with health will not return to their original condition. This means every skirmish with a mob will leave you bleeding. Continue fighting and sooner or later the effect of 'fatigue' will emerge. A debuff handicapping with horrible stats. Go further and you may become exhausted incurring further penalties. To counter a weakened state, one 'rest' is recommended, and rations to heal back to 100%. Be warned you may be ambushed by nearby hostiles. It's these little things that pile up later on when you expect a benefit there must always be a drawback in some form. Not much of an issue provided players remember to buy rations and set their PC to scavenge for rations out in the wild.

In the wilds and civilizations players will need to contend with the text and dialogue system. You will inevitably conduct a wide array of meaningful conversations. For instance, talking yields a host of options. Both are informative to educate, pushing to the next segment in a quest, moving the conversation forward with lore passages highlighting key information whenever you need, and taking a gamble in stat-oriented discourse to affect an outcome. Crucial to give context to the rich history in Pathfinder where putting the mouse cursor will describe any bolded phrase. Appropriately connecting any relevant lore with anyone. Where paragraphs on gods, nations, political figures, religion, etc. will be described when highlighted. Hearing a disgruntled futilist dwarf talk about the impending doom of the end of days from the god Grotis transforms otherwise static boring sentences into flavorful dynamic words to remember and an “Ahah!” moment arises. Stumble upon reading a book about certain dangerous religions only to learn later about a crazy cult related to said religion. You will inevitably come up with many of these examples. Nevertheless, conversations are susceptible to stats; you have to needle your way through unique text. Granting extra experience and new conversational topics to discuss with whomever you meet. Such a deeply intricate word system is only part of the whole gameplay pie to understand why I adore talking to my party to understand their backstory, relationships, and history and develop them further with their quest lines down the road.

Under these circumstances, the world-building is richly implemented and flourishes through meaningful lines as I meandered my way to talk to important NPCs whenever I traveled. Be it a villain, an unsuspecting stranger, or an upstanding citizen of the realm. All are not spared my inquisitive nature to converse! In my delight, speaking yields both favorable and unfavorable outcomes concerning a dice roll. Meet the stat check to enable the dialogue requirement, but plausible still failing the result. Meaning my goals for a peaceful resolution between two angry interracial groups could be thrown into the fire. Erupting a bloody feud betwixt two leaves me no choice but to eliminate both or take one side. Invigorating my soul and leaving me contemplative to carefully consider a circumspect approach. Take information with the grainiest of salts and don’t label everything in simple good or evil manners. Difficult to judge whether the NPC is acting in the best interest at your behest while secretly holding a dagger behind their back unknowingly to your eyes. As a result, Non-conflict encounters are unique here, where fights interrupted are an uncommon occurrence with a conversation box, hearing their plea and moving on from there. I’ve had the personal pleasure of converting evil dastards onto my side while subjecting good souls to betrayal. Interconnecting later on in a future side-mission or main narrative where your previous actions will have a consequence later on. I befuddled a group and investigated a murder or caused mayhem on the populace by lying to whomever. Offered a mysterious item I picked up just for this occasion. Bribed, persuaded, intimidated, or sought further lore knowledge. No one is spared from my decisions and I lived with the consequences of my actions.

If there is one notable strength here in PK then companions here are a breath of fresh air. Not the best, but certainly not the worst. Recruit all eleven comrades, plus two more from the Wildcards DLC. A wonderful motley crew full of contradictions and wild alignments from chaotic to lawful and those staying in the realm of neutrality. I adore my party's banter. Sharing wonderful stories and barbs anytime I rest. And their voice actors deserve only praise for going the distance. Seeing their background update during a loading screen is a small, but appreciative detail. As I progressed further in their questline. From the loveable optimistic bard who never fails to brighten the room, the tough barbarian exile who continues to thirst for a challenge, the curious explorer alchemist who underneath their arrogant exterior lies a heart of gold, the noble tower specialist who continues to make each stranger drop their jaw in awe at her beauty. The chaotic duo of eldritch scion and rogue wizard lent their bond to my group despite their horrible past. A stoic tragic ranger avenger, a dwarven futilist cleric, a goblin knife master, and others I could list but I'll save them for a surprise… Needless to say, all have a colorful history beyond simple tropes and evolve constantly throughout my journey. I won’t say any favorites since I like all of them equally, instead, I will remark my allies' goals are a must-play and some intertwine with the main story at length. Providing a nice integration into the story and commenting during side activities on their thoughts, feelings, and alignment. Your actions will favor or dislike you. Therefore, it's essential to think carefully about their beliefs, morals, and alignment to adjust your response accordingly relative to the situation. Complex and not one-sided, and not all that hard to keep with you by when the end credits rolled around. Heck, I operated a solid crew of five. With changes in the guard whenever any relative friend's objectives arrived. Some benefit from putting any relative members in a relatable matter for instance. Otherwise, serving an appropriate role in another area below.

Kingdom building surprised me a great deal. There are plenty of systems in place here to almost make me wish for a separate game to play exclusively. Heck, employing any of your companions as advisors who will approach you about a delicate matter related to any of the stats concerning your authority. Population, relation, military, culture, divine, loyalty, arcane, stability, espionage, and community. Accepting a new policy, rejecting or fashioning a unique dialogue choice conditional on the advisor’s characteristics. I was able to increase the guardsmen with more men and budget instead of leaving them to their whits. Fought espionage wars with another neighboring nation by honoring our dead spies than risking their status. Favored culture of the arts and freedom to use magic freely and threw away the bill restricting their passion. And so forth. Completing these requests and listening to my advisors leads to benefits and detriments. So take heed of your colleague's advice and choose the best course of action. In doing so you manage your domain from impending self-destruction. Be careless and your citizenry will revolt. Therefore, it is imperative for one to finish any dilemmas arising in priority rather than any opportunity points. Issues if not solved, worsen stats, so pray to RNGSUS you land on a good dice roll to resolve the conflict peacefully. Or quickload like me hehe. Opportunities are okay to ignore, but for those who decide to try them the rewards are equally as good as solving problems. Don’t worry about taking care of your vassals constantly, a timer will run on when resolved and a notification will pop up for any impending event.

An option to automate your kingdom exists, but I still suggest that folks embrace the system to get a feel of managing affairs in your nation while also investing your precious days. Pays dividends later on in the form of passives and supplementary items. The latter leads you to new objectives and random encounters providing free equipment through artisans(Specialists who join your nation, when you visit your new settlement when claiming a region), and investing in your crown pays dividends later on to grant permanent buffs like increased attack roll chances, immunity to fear, and faster movement when traveling and more. Constructing mage towers(unlockable once you level up an advisor's ranks) allows one to teleport with minimal downtime creating a genuine saver for those urgent investigations in your journal. Aside from leveling your partners in combat and dialogue, you advance their rank in their advisory role to have a better chance to resolve troubles and opportunities. Useful when RNGSUS will sway to your lucky side rather than the unlucky side.

Decent-to-quality sidequests and errands are plentiful and ultimately awesome to complete. Enhanced my experience during my adventures. Here is a small taste of what I encountered. Uncovering a dark mega villain through a long monster extermination hunt Mediated between fey beings on trees and preached to no end on civility, peace, and compromise during heated debates and mob pitchforks. Hunted weird cultics from weird satanic ones to disturbing groups with their nefarious agenda preying on helpless innocents like a pregnant woman in need delivering her baby for a price. Oh hell no. I saved her thankfully, but whether or not it was a good thing in the end leaves me still troubled. Engaged in a puzzle to resurrect a powerful, but evil ghost for sick armor and weapons. Participated in treasure hunts, fought bandits holding hostages, saved mythical creatures like dragons, and found a boy who cried wolf-like investigation whose outcome was vastly different from what I expected. Returned a Necronomicon-like book to a powerful hermit in the lands and traveled to other realms to investigate curses to reach and attain the absurdly difficult secret ending. Heck, I took advantage of alignment choices to brutally reach a good outcome. Nonetheless, I still time-traveled into alternate universes. By reloading to recruit horrible fellows into my cabinet. Yeah, I’m not proud of that at all…

Anyway, mod time. Earlier I mentioned I played vanilla for 100 hours. Once I reached that point I decided enough was enough and threw away the base content life. And subsequently enjoyed in greater detail the latter half to an insane degree with much-needed quality-of-life features. Below I’ll briefly outline some must-haves for anyone on PC.

Mod manager - Number one key ingredient for all kingmaker needs and easy to install any of the following to make your playthrough fun and eliminate the tedium.

Bag of Tricks - Solve 99% of any troubles you face. From side quests not occurring, to fixing a bug here and there. And to be fair I had very little bugs or crashes. I think outside of a handful of minor bugs my playthrough was nearly perfect. My convenient tricks were instant teleporting on the world map, instant rest + after fighting, instant auto-complete realm events, lock-picking unlimited attempts, force success/triumph on problems and opportunities, pass skill checks, and my personal favorite a romance counter which is crucial for the secret ending. Trust me. If you want the bonus act to activate I recommend it. These listed are my favorites from the mod, but there’s way more inside I never used.

Faster menu book zoom - When you launch the program, it takes a long eternity for the book which contains the standard menu options to proceed. Do yourself a favor and download them to save you extra. Adding in the command line ‘-skip intro’ from the program launcher when right-clicking the properties on Steam is beneficial too.

Buffbot - Takes less than a second to activate all the buffs you currently have. A necessary alternative than taking a minute to individually select each member and buff them to the nth degree I said previously. Use Buffbot once and be done.

Aside from the mods above. You have a wealth of selections to tune the difficulty to your liking. From the image I customized the normal settings, making encounters less of a chore and more on the easier side. Restricting to the confines of vanilla as much as possible. So I recommend tuning them to your preference.

Now then for my mixed feelings. Consider the following text as small to big red flags in varying degrees. I feel are worth noting down. I had to trim this a bit since this review is getting too long and I apologize for that.

Kingdom Building is a mixed bag. I love the aspect of erecting settlements and determining the kinds of architecture. However the ‘time-limit’ before the next act and what to do perhaps make newcomers feel pressured and quite honestly have no clue what to do. I had to frequently Google and ask my friends about priorities. Although frankly, I'm leaning towards being positive on the aspect. Sincerely cool having advisors and solving problems since you are a Baron. I found it more enjoyable than my playthrough with Ni No Kuni 2’s version. Which ultimately was all right with uninteresting sidequests. Here I kept coming back to my empire. Taking personal pleasure in being hands-on in my day-to-day. See how your settlements grow and flourish along with your subjects. It’s thrilling, satisfying, and most of all worth seeing all your efforts come to fruition. For general tips, I'll echo what before I play & walkthrough for advice. Was instrumental and made daunting tasks to fulfill become easier to manage.

However, tiredness will undoubtedly occur. I had to stop playing kingmaker constantly in 2023 due to fatigue. The sheer amount of content if you combine the DLC is a lot for anyone’s plate. Acts on average took me 20 hours give or take some change to complete considering there are a total of 8 acts. If you count the act-like DLC Varnhold and the roguelike beneath the stolen lands. You’re easily reaching 150+. This is a friendly reminder to stop and take a break in case you are feeling burned out. I played palette cleansers like indies and shifted into different genres from a CRPG in between chapters to refresh my willpower to keep going. The slow-burn narrative along with my mixed feelings on kingdom-building aspects among others leave me in doubt whether I unintentionally had resorted to sunk cost fallacy. However, I would say once you reach part 2 to part 3 then the plot beats start to heat up gradually into a snowball. Turning my interest from a “hmmm” to an “Oh now we're getting somewhere.”

I think some rules for Pathfinder in general are too restrictive and punishing. This isn’t a negative against Owlcat; rather they did a phenomenal job adapting the tabletop ruleset for the videogame audience. Paizo the company from my understanding created the IP and surrounding laws within. Here are notable head-scratchers. I am not allowed unlimited lockpicking? Once I fail an attempt it's impossible to try again. I had to resort to a mod to give me unlimited attempts. Moreover, no instant rest after skirmishes. Meaning in vanilla, if my heavily damaged party needs to rejuvenate I have to manually activate the button to heal where I am assailable randomly. And lord help my soul if I fail that encounter during the process. Thus my momentum of adventuring unimpeded is halted. Sure I soothe my comrade's health, but what happens when I run out of charges for each of my healers? Then I am incapable of reviving their vitality. Resulting in, busywork. Coupled with the majority of loading screens from entering my throne room -> kingdom management -> back to throne room -> going out to world map -> entering a new area on the map -> reverting a save if something awry occurs -> repeat. Granted not a major deal, but over the course of my long playthrough, it all adds up. As a consequence, I am forced to struggle whereas I could be enjoying. Maybe I'm spoiled by fast load speeds, but I did install this on a fast SSD. Maybe a faster M.2 drive would be better. Goodness, imagine playing this on an HDD…

Other miscellaneous stuff: Gameplay would hang. An uncommon occurrence during random battles. Perhaps an NVME is better? I played on a Samsung SSD with a decent PC that ran the highest graphics on max settings to optimal framerate. The hanging is like a split second. Usually, initializing textures and characters when starting and during loading screens to govern your principality or unpacking a file. Not something glaringly obvious since my overall experience is still positive. Nevertheless, it is something noteworthy. Moving on. Some portraits of enemies are not given a unique picture. We are faced with our characters' faces. Pretty jarring to witness as if any major enemy is well an imposter of us. Granted not all of them are like this, but the inconsistency is mildly weird to witness.

Owlcat’s version of Pathfinder gamified is an incredibly ambitious undertaking. Took me nearly a year to finish in its entirety and while I did have some annoyances from the ruleset, scattered loading times, and mixed feelings. There’s quite a bit to enjoy among the many systems within. I liked overseeing my realm. Making tough decisions based on fair policies and having an immediate effect on my subjects whether good or bad. I delved deep to understand the deep mechanics in real time and pause. Yet at the end of the day, I think the amount of gratification here despite the herculean effort the devs have encompassed with a gigantic stuff to devour is dependent on the user's experience to get down in the trenches. If I never knew about skill checks and buffing, then I would have suffered early on because of my ignorance in taking advantage of magical resistances. If I didn’t read up on how to manage my provinces better, then possibly in a bad alternate universe I would’ve game over in my 100+ hour run due to my improper handling and neglect of the state of affairs. And that is NOT a feeling I want anyone to suffer with. Considering the reports I've read online of users having the same issues of neglecting their nation. Please make sure to check 'invincible kingdom' in the options. Speaks volumes how much you have to devote yourself to bring out something worthwhile. And for me? I think this is certainly one of the greats along with Baldur’s Gate. As long as you dedicate enough energy inside and mods installed. A deep & expansive CRPG that doesn’t hold your hand, but rewards the most invested of players. Sadly I find this incredibly difficult to recommend to everyone. Except only to fans of the genre. I believe Mandaloregaming said it best "... you play this game more for the systems than for the writing." And I can’t help but agree with their statement despite him saying the line in his story section. I would say it also accounts for the whole breadth of the game itself.

Base game without mods: 7.6/10
Base game with mods: 8/10

References & Additional Material:
Interview with the creative director on Pathfinder: Kingmaker
Pathfinder: Kingmaker Classes overview and archetypes
Example of information overload from my character
Long road to secret ending - heavy endgame spoilers within
PK Difficulty Settings - Pretty extensive options to tune the combat modifiers to your preference.
Before I play & Walkthrough

Mods:
Mod Manager - Bag of Tricks - Faster Menu - Buffbot

Last year I had the pleasure of unofficially starting into the Front Mission(FM) universe via a mediocre spin-off. Fast-forward to the present and now I started and finished a proper mainline with the first installment. And to my absolute surprise and delight. Front Mission 1st remake(FM1RE) holds up very well today despite some notable concerns.

Why should I play the remake(2022) when I could start the DS or fan-translated SNES game of the same name? Well, here’s a brief overview of what you’re getting on either version. The first Western installment officially came ashore with the Nintendo 2007 DS port. Originally released in Japan on the SNES in 1995. The game featured only one campaign, the OCU. Oceania Cooperative Union. Detailing one side of a major conflict in 2090. Later remade for the PlayStation in 2003. Featuring a new campaign added. The USN. Unified Continental States. Where the 2nd details the other perspective, months before the major war. Again only released in Japan. The 2007 port includes all the above in English with new secret scenarios for both sides of the story. A handful more or less provide extra context during your ventures. The 2022 title includes everything the last upgrade had with the original music and the option for a remastered soundtrack. Basic quality of life features like instant/faster movement, instant battle, and quicker battle speed. And a save-anytime option. With multiple difficulty configurations, I could change to my leisure. With new content coming later on in 2024 in the form of multiplayer and single-player scenarios. So I figured I’d start with the current one. Previously I owned and played the DS port several times but bounced off hard, considering the second and third missions being too brutal for me. So it's a blessing, that Square outsourced the JRPG/SRPG IP to Forever Entertainment with a respectable game for newcomers and veterans piloting their own mech in the battles to come.

It is imperative to note, that starting with the OCU point of view is recommended for beginners. Veterans for USN and disclosed prominently with warnings when starting the game. I’ll touch on the harder operation later. For now, if the player starts the first operation. The premise starts with you controlling a human in a wanzer(mech) by the name of Royd Clive, a young talented lieutenant who’s been sent to numerous hot zones. Coming back alive again and again. A walking coffin man. He is approached by Glen, a sergeant who after testing him proceeds to grant him the rank of captain. Complete with a recon squad to lead under him. For soon enough he’ll have to conduct a reconnaissance operation on a certain U.C.S. facility in Larcus. Traveling there with his fiance Karen. Yeah, I kid you, not that’s her name. They proceed to investigate the facility. All goes well. Until like so many JRPGs in the past go. Things spiral outside of their control and Bam! Newspaper headlines:

June 3rd, 2090:
The Larcus Incident


The Unified Continental States(UCS) publicly accused the Oceania Cooperative Union(OCU) of sending Wanzers. On a mission to destroy U.C.S. military factories in the Larcus District of Huffman Island.

Officially, the text is given following their first mission. The rest of the headline will go off shooting fingers at one another. Rising tensions between the superpowers. Making dreams of a peaceful resolution erode entirely. What happens after tensions build like this? Well, it all comes to a boiling point and soon enough the two superpowers declare war. Huh sounds familiar in real life eh?

Thus began the Second Huffman Conflict

Don’t worry about the first battle. Those are covered in a different game. What is important to cover for you budding newbies piloting wanzers. Is how awesome it is to command a whole team of mechs against other foes trying to destroy you to kingdom come! Here’s a cool rundown of what to expect out the gate. Large squad to use in a majority of battles. At the most, I was able to deploy 11 pilots on the field. Such a staggeringly large amount to utilize speaks well to the freedom granted. Sure there are a handful of missions with smaller deployments. However, allowing us to manage a sizable troop speaks of confidence by the developers G-Craft & Square. Battling twice our number, easily replicating large-scale warfare. Nothing beats the slow hum of our engines roaring to life and clashing amidst the heated missiles and bullets galore. No copy-paste in environments. You’ll find a varied selection of biomes to traverse and fight in. Cityscapes, day, rain, night maps, jungles, sandy areas like dunes, beaches, ruined towns, rivers, snow and heck forts, and mountainous tiles are not spared either. Meaning there’s always something to look forward to when picking a mission on the point-and-click world map.

Excellent quality of life features. I mentioned them previously, but to expand on why? The difficulty options, instant battle/movement, faster battle speed, and save anytime are a godsend and should be used whenever you fancy a brisk pace or an easier time. Due to the fact battles can take a while on normal. And there's not any dialogue spoken between hostiles during their animation phase or new animation when a critical strike occurs. The remake includes two options; classic mode and modern. I chose the modern mode. Displaying freedom of the camera in every aspect. Meaning I'm not constrained to a set camera perspective while overviewing the field of battle. Resulting in better situational awareness of any hidden details I may have missed if I had chosen the other mode. It is a small pet peeve of mine in tactical games when I'm not offered the full freedom to move the camera at my own pace. A tactical map is exhibited. Picture a bird's eye view of the entire battleground much like a real-time war map. These also contain fixes and improvements to the DS port.

Earlier I classified the game as a JRPG, but to be honest, calling FM1RE an SRPG fits too. You fight on grid battles and tactfully determine what terrain you should place your units on to gain cover bonuses. Level up your pilot during skirmishes with the enemy. Earn enough experience to be granted abilities changing the tide of battle. Shoot any part of Wanzer? Well hello! VATS-like system in place. Except this game came before the Fallout series. I can shoot and if the shot hits the limb is destroyed. Right, and left arms, legs, and body are the only possible choices. Choose wisely, since each provides an additional layer to help in your fight on Huffman Island. Eliminate legs to reduce their overall movement power to traverse the land. Land body blows and if successful you can explode the whole unit to smithereens. Thereby lessening remaining oppositions within your vision. Destroy both arms and the enemy becomes a sitting duck without any capability to repair themselves. Unless there is a supply truck nearby. Supply trucks can restore ammo to long-range weapons and have the cool ability to slam bullets on unfriendlies with a weak attack. Heal when nearby for free for a small amount and exchange equipment and items when needed. Speaking of items. Man, they can help if you’re in a pinch. I love using repair packs. Think of these as the potion to high potion and various other tiers similar to Pokemon or Final Fantasy. Restoring decent to large amounts of health.

A big feature of any mech game is customization and I am glad to report you have a lot to tinker and dabble your mech. Once you finish all the tutorial missions you will be inside a town/city. Enter the shop and outfit their squad with any manner of weaponry they see fit. Some key things to note. Arm accuracy is king. Make sure to equip your party with high-accuracy arms to not miss your shots. Missing early game is a snowball to a death sentence once the enemy has more strikes than you. Then the result is you have a less likely chance of surviving. Although if you’re a cheesy dude, one could quicksave before a battle and RNG in your favor to give a slight advantage. Heh. Legs are akin to an additional decoy target. If any dum dum manages to shoot your legs and make them go boom. Well, the only penalty is a reduction in movement capability. A 6-tile with a full hp leg becomes a 3-tile shift if destroyed. So you’re not entirely a helpless fighter who can’t move. HP is self-explanatory and represents your life. But the body is your life. If an enemy destroys your main body. Well, reload the save file, and voila you’re back in action. The world is primarily set in a fictionalized Cold War world similar to real life except with mechs. You can’t revive with a phoenix down or use a handy revive. Get your fantasy out of here. Thankfully, there is no permadeath like a certain JRPG series coughs looking at an emblem on fire Nintendo likes to do. Anytime any of your pilots die in the field of battle. They simply will return in tip-top form once the next mission arrives. Sure they don’t get any experience and you do have to pay their repair costs(which is miniscule). But hey! That’s why we have the quick save and quick loading here! So abuse the system and take out the pesky RNG nature if you get a solid rocket to your metal face. Players are allowed to exploit the RNG during their ventures gambling in the arena. Think 1v1 versus a variety of foes of various expertise. Picking one with higher odds and betting an ‘x’ amount like 1000 can net you a lot of money if done correctly. One trick is to use garbage equipment to increase the payout odds in your favor. So if you bet 1000 x 8.57. One time I saw the odds were x 32! But oof I couldn’t win that payout sadly. An awesome if not vital feature to grind for money and pilot skills.

Skills like Guide and Duel allow the VATS-like targeting mechanic to activate pretty much 99% of the time during any engagement with foes. Sadly the first installment doesn’t have a lot you can procure. Your initial party including Royd will only have vacant spots. You need to level up and reach certain ‘####’ tiers in proficiencies of melee, short, long, and dodge. Here's a brief overview of what each skill does in their respective categories.

Melee:
First - attack first during engagements.
Stun - Self-explanatory. Preventing them from any action for an ‘x’ amount of turns.
Double - Can attack again. Sometimes thrice!

Short:
Duel - Arms equipped with rifles and machine guns can manually target any enemy component.
Speed - Allows more bullets to strike the enemy.
Switch - activates other armament on the other arm. Granting one more shot at the enemy.

Long:
Guide - Shoulder weapons like missiles can manually aim at any enemy limb.

Skills are tremendously useful when gained. And can drastically shift the fate of a battle. I advise checking out when they activate for each character you recruit. Some can gain them swiftly than others while a select amount can only equip three abilities compared to five. So choose wisely! I’ll drop a link below. Nevertheless, I found their inclusion during fights essential to gaining an overwhelming advantage. Duel, guide, speed, switch, and first were instrumental in turning the tide countless times. However, keep in mind they’re not universal and dependent on the category used. So a missile cannot use duel, speed, or switch and vice versa with their respective categories. Furthermore, some wanzers do not have the power to activate some of the above if one uses a mobile weapon.

Mobile weapons are a secret reward that can be found once reaching certain tiles on a handful of maps. Think of these as special mechs that can’t be upgraded the usual ways as Wanzers but boast a miniboss-like design when faced as an enemy. Imagine crab tanks, hulking wanzers without arms but big ol cannons equipped sometimes on their chest or using dual machine guns. Here’s my screenshot as an example. Honestly, I didn’t use any of these since my two-legged crew was more than enough to blast these supposedly superior mechanized machines to nothingness. Additionally one can unlock concealed missions by talking to a sequence of people or new unknown characters after or before completing a new mission. These secret operations convey extra context on either side of the story and may provide clues to the overarching narrative or breadcrumbs to one character’s past in particular. I recommend them wholeheartedly. Considering you can win a mobile wep. as a reward. I advise seeking out a walkthrough for proper instructions.

Before I forget I must talk about the music. I listened to the original OST initially. With remastered in NG+ to clean up any last-minute assignments. As a whole Yoko Shimomura & Noriko Matsueda's composition on the entire soundtrack is hauntingly jolly. A mix of techno and jazz, I initially thought their music styles would not work at all. Yet blowing past all my expectations once again! I was astounded. How their styles work in tandem. Shimomura’s techno expertise lends itself well to the futuristic tone the series starts with. Beats of Coaxial Town are sending me to nodding heaven as is her wonderful ability to switch to a different tone effortlessly. Like Field Hospital. Producing a serious yet catchy tone. Canyon Crow to my eyes encapsulates a prelude of events to come with heavy percussion on display foreshadowing the gritty war to come. Yet I cannot help but praise Matsueda’s style of jazz to complement the techno. Filled with her soul I embraced the ambient tracks in absolute pleasure. Tracks like Rise to Action blew me away. Hearing upbeat tunes on repeat and a cool rhythm loop never fails to impress me. Optical City by comparison is a nice change of pace delving into a cityscape almost a cyberpunk feel where the low passive background of woodwind instruments coalesce together with percussion offering a mesmerizing yet beautiful atmosphere permeating to my eardrums. Within Living Memory is breathtaking where minimal instruments are used and no vocals are echoed. Yet manifests a strong determination in both the foreground and background, thrusting my soul into contemplative tranquility. The passionate duos reach a powerful teamwork when endgame tracks like Fear. Culminate the true reality behind the uplifting tracks I've heard thus far. The remastered is good too, even if I’m more inclined to listen to the original OST first, yet the remastered isn’t of a diminished quality. Either option is fine to listen to. Nice to have as an option to change at any time and for what it's worth I think it is faithful when compared to the original work.

Any SRPG worth their salt WD-40 must manifest a fun combat loop. A fun combat loop to me in FM1RE is utilizing everything from how your unit composition clashes against the enemy, grid modifiers to help shield from enemy fire using cover, any underlying main/side objectives, and level design(easy/hard to traverse, any gimmicks, obstacles?) I could add more, but I simplified some basics. Combine everything topside with the player’s experience then. Outputting at the final stretch of any mission their current feelings based on whatever they experienced. To this end. The mission structure the OCU campaign launches us into is a ‘simple and safe’ fun combat loop after the initial hurdle in the beginning. I marched on countless varied terrains without being bombarded by enormous levels to tread nor filled to the brim with armies of mecha to stand against my party. No, not 300 vs. Persian size. Think of skirmishes. Eleven vs. double that number is more or less enough. Struggling against our opposing adversaries. Making use of the elevation at times to wipe foolish stuck mobs in a choke point never fails to inject a rush of immense satisfaction. Targeting with pinpoint accuracy to disable each hostile offensive capability leaving them defenseless and free from any sign of counter-attack is a fistbump moment every time I landed a deadly blow. Undertaking a protect/escort mission by slowly baiting my enemy to irrational decisions by striking my tanky ally embraces my inner keikaku greatly. Retreating is whenever my plan doesn’t work out upon first contact. Regroup and activate any items to halt or impede enemy advance and thus give your comrades a better fighting chance. Can’t say no to repair packs ya know?! Salvaging any secluded equipment during a 1v1 with a pesky opponent. Hell, I found a sweet rifle allowing me to shoot a big one nearly destroying a limb. Or heck, salvage a mobile wep! Taking my sweet time on each battlefield to read any dialogue between my members and the enemy. Delving into the horrifying effects of war on the psyche and how each soldier will try to trick my cabal into lowering their morale at times. Especially when reinforcements arrive midway or drop a plot beat. Demonstrating not only physical clashes but hurtful words against those under my command. Would be weird if my constant scuffles were silent no?

Concerning the OCU campaign. I was caught off guard by how geo-political, mortal drama and the war affect the innocents/soldiers' PTSD the plot underwent. A fantastic departure from the usual tropes I see with fantasy where we usually to some degree at the end of the day face off a [censored] b%^&@. The plot, endgame, and major antagonist were a refreshing change from those classic tropes I battled in the end. Presenting a fictionalized realistic take on border wars, ulterior motives, and backdoor shady deals you won’t see coming. Meanwhile, Royd’s journey without going into any spoilers enthralled me to the point I wanted to know the immediate aftermath causing the 2nd Huffman war, his allies whom he recruits later on and would soon as other JRPGs/SRPGs undergo after any lore bomb or revelation hits the climax reach the final map and fight to the bitter end to whatever hell awaits me before the curtain falls.

Concerning the USN campaign. I was again caught off guard by how different operations underwent, detailing the ‘enemy’ POV months before the 2nd Huffman struggle and the hidden events occurring behind the scenes. As well as controlling a new protagonist called Kevin Greenfield. Who controls a much smaller crew than Royd with his limit being up to seven. Nevertheless, they greatly differ from OCU by undertaking a more militarized focus. Back in Clive’s point of view, I conversed with relatable people in the city's bar and had a lot of downtime between activities to test the arena. Embracing the lethargic pace of sinking in the war took its toll on my army. Here take out the glacial threads. Remove the conversations in bars in favor of talking to your underlings. Bonding with them early on and seeking personal aspirations as vaguely as I can say without spoiling Greenfield's motivations for participating in the war provides an interesting parallel compared to Royd. Assignments are varied offering more tactical objectives than ever before and raising the difficulty a decent amount. You will meet new enemy types like fast-moving armored personnel carriers(APC), bigger cannons and smaller cannons, disabling prototypes, night vision, mini-bosses, protection, escort, and defeating all enemies within an ‘x’ amount of turns. All of these types emerge in greater volume. As a consequence of the small squad you have on hand. I can’t win by sheer numbers alone. Thereby, I have to make careful use of micromanaging my supplies and capability versus forces greater than my own.

Now time for my mixed feelings. Not a positive or a negative. Only notable concerns I had during my playthroughs that I think are worth noting.

First, on the technical side. I had ten crashes on my PS4 Pro. Five on a new game playthrough(NG) OCU and five on NG USN. Oddly enough. Crashing wasn’t a major pain because I reverted my past save back with barely any loss of progress. I usually have a high tolerance for game crashes. With Cyberpunk 2077 on my same console accumulating over 40+. Yet it didn’t affect my whole experience in a sizable manner. The save system was very well implemented. In a similar vein, FM1RE also didn’t impact my overall enjoyment. Only a minor portion. I did experience an uncommon amount of black screens sadly. Anytime after you finish a mission the background where you select areas to visit like the: shop, arena, hanger, command room, etc. will only have a black background. I’m not exactly sure about the cause of this. Since I have clear memories of no odd bugs like that for a long period. Pretty jarring since I like to admire the setting and having a black screen can be immersion-breaking. Still not a major issue, but one to look out for. Keep in mind you only have five save slots. Four of which you can manually overwrite whenever with the fifth being designated as an autosave. You don’t receive new slots if you decide to start the USN offensive. So if you accidentally overwrite your OCU save well… F$%! Pray you still have an earlier save just in case. Use the cloud or back up your saves via USB to help.

Second, loadouts and constant customization. I love reshaping all components in any mech game. So I'm puzzled that I reached a different outcome than the usual reworking craze. To the point I can't say I love the customization here. Early on I didn’t have trouble whatsoever changing and buying new equipment for my teammates. The tediousness comes from buying the same upgraded item ‘x’ many times repeatedly on each of my eleven units constantly. Imagine scrolling through various menus to pick a high-tier left arm. Only to repeat the process eleven times for my friends. Oh, but I'm not done. Need to upgrade the other ones like my right arm, legs, and body. Multiply those by eleven times. I’m still not done. I have to replace all my crew’s offensive capabilities. So left and right along with the shoulder to boot. Yeah, you guessed it, I'm still not done. CPU, backpacks, and items I still need to manually input. All the busy work would have been smoothly eliminated if I had load-outs. I probably spent fifteen minutes give or take some change after several missions passed to overhaul my allies. Each time. Tedious to do every time if I use the same stuff to slot each limb. Is it too much to ask for load-outs or at least a purchase button to replicate what I bought and install them for my whole squad? I don't know. I'm not a game designer. I can only offer alternatives and suggestions.

Third, wish there was more variation in mission objectives. Most of them boil down to killing everyone with rare odd ones out there being limited turns to complete and some optional side-goals of keeping allies alive, new units alive, to be rewarded the max amount of cash. Thankfully, the United side and hidden missions solve this dilemma, but for the regular OCU viewpoint. I felt it was formulaic and didn’t push the encounter design as much. Which was more experimental and pushed my mental limits further. Not a bad thing mind you. I appreciate the simple nature of directives in Clive’s story. But I think more variation in parameters could’ve elevated it further. Different enemy types, and new boss types instead of recycling mini-bosses and new encounters. A relatively decent oddball in the grand scheme of things.

Fourth, Possible information overload on what each user interface term does. Ask anyone off the bat what these terms mean. AT, DF, Hit, Weight, Power and if I hadn’t explained the short, long, melee earlier along with any other word terminology I surmise a decent amount may be confused and thus will be disinclined to persevere. Such an issue was one of the major factors I had when I played the 2007 version years ago. Look at this image(insert DS image of battle before attacking) and see if you can translate all the information displayed before determining your first command. Doesn’t help there’s no innate help button to identify and define the jargon given. Wish there was an explain button available. Still, the tutorial and in-game control guide + shopkeeper can give useful tips.

Fifth, difficult and a rough beginning. I initiated on a normal setting. And still found it somewhat challenging. Oddly mirroring the same experience I had with the previous rendition. Be that as it may. I did use some helpful links from: before I play, LegaiaRules walkthrough. Which are crucial and instrumental to grant me a better start. Tremendously received a better understanding and comprehension in regards to the mechanics and tricks. Thereby, giving me a solid push to persevere beyond meager gains through the main story content for each protagonist. I suggest grinding in the arena when necessary to help offset any hardship you may encounter or simply change the difficulty setting, for an easier time.

That’s it for my mixed feelings. Despite the minor bugs and crashes. And a gentle reminder to save constantly. The difficulty, customization, and information are the big key things to note coming in. However, I believe there is still a solid Mecha JRPG here. Enough to set an excellent foundation for newcomers to try before delving into the latter entries to reach the last mainline in the series. Where knowledge of each core game in the series is utilized to its fullest effect from the praise I’ve been seeing across the horizon. Nevertheless, I did enjoy a great deal of both campaigns. Worth experiencing in my honest opinion to get a better picture of the major war occurring. While dealing with palpable emotions. Human drama is essential in any narrative to connect with the cast be it main or side. Perhaps even villains themselves. In a 1995 Sakaguchi X Tsuchida interview with Famicom Tsuushin magazine. Translated by shmuplations. When the developers were asked about the colorful cast who pilot the wanzers they responded.

Toshiro Tsuchida(producer/writer): “That’s right. This was something that emerged from conversations with Sakaguchi, the idea that a game about robots would be ripe for a story about human drama. That was his idea, that in this game themed around war, we should try and include human drama as well.”

Hironobu Sakaguchi(supervisor): “I said, let’s not abandon or compromise on the tasteful, refined aesthetic that the G-Craft team has created, but let’s see if we can also include some human drama that would evoke the realism of war. In that sense, I think Front Mission ended up becoming a very mature, adult game.”

The realism of mecha warfare and vivid drama are intrinsically linked in FM. A gruff, gritty yet humorous at times evokes a dusty atmosphere to lighten the mature themes presented. Thus a fascinating foundational world-building sets the stage for the events to come in the later entries to follow. Royd’s walking coffin status plays a key role in shaping his development based on the tumultuous skirmishes he endures. Kevin Greenfield’s no man left behind personality provides a stark, but refreshing perspective in a militaristic point of view on the events in secret operations conducted opposite enemy lines. Both are assigned a colorful cast to bridge the narrative to each member. Their reasons for fighting, any grayish feelings buried deep within their psyche perhaps bubbling forth when any adversary taunts them, and perhaps through the fires of battles and camaraderie something deeper emerges. Bonds forged in hellfire. It is brutal, but not so much in the realm of senseless violence. But when used carefully in dozens of assignments they undergo. The threads start to align and knots converge, developing into a moderately satisfying geo-political strife against each superpower's story. Forever Entertainments' remake of FM 1st only deserves praise, despite some rough gears attached. Therefore, I hesitantly recommend the mature and realistic military plot mecha JRPG/SRPG to any folks willing to dive into an old but still fresh war spectacle. Akin to what Tsuchida likes to call “...For Front Mission, I wanted to combine the entertainment quality of a blockbuster sci-fi movie with the realism of a Vietnam war film.”

Tsuchida if I ever meet you personally, I firmly believe you succeeded on both accounts! Looking forward to trying out more in the IP!

7.8/10

References & Additional Material:
Sakaguchi x Tsuchida – 1995 Developer Interview
Examples of mobile weapon and black screens
FM1 DS guide and walkthrough by LegaiaRules - incredibly in-depth and remarkably holds up to the remake.
FM1 skills explanation
FM1 Before I play - Additional tips to know beforehand

Tell anyone what’s a fantastic gateway into the Warhammer series and you may receive a host of different answers. Since the 90’s until now in the 2020s there have been more than a haystack full of various types: FPS, 3rd person shooters, RTS, 4x grand strategy, XCOM-like, Turn-based, ARPG, sports, puzzle, MMOs, cards, auto-battler, VR, crossovers, heck there’s a new racing one coming out and I wouldn’t be surprised if a visual novel is located deep in the vast library already or will be in the future. Need I say more? Oh, wait, recently a CRPG came out. But where’s my Kojima-version?! Meh, I’ll take a Cavil one coming... oh wait- April Ahhh- what a cruel world.

Nevertheless, despite my low experience in the franchise I am here to tell you about an incredibly solid real-time strategy(RTS). Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Master Collection for the PC. Mouthful ain’t it? I’ll refer to it simply as the DoW master collection for short. A bundle containing the first dawn of war game. The first expansion, Winter Assault, contains two campaigns. And two others are called Dark Crusade and Soulstorm. I completed all the regular single-player ones with the two meta campaigns I'll play off and on since they barely have any plot. Primarily a conquer the whole system/planet type of gameplay. For now, I’ll dive into the first installment. Move onto my mixed feelings plus mods, then the final expanded content. In Dawn of War 1(DOW 1), The story begins as you control Gabriel Angelos. Captain of the Space Marines’ Blood Ravens 3rd Company among others to assist the planet Tartarus defenders from Ork invaders. Yup, you heard that right. ORK not orc or uruk-hai. Ork. Big scars, super ugly faces, and body. Hulking armors haphazardly glued together, massive sneers and frowns, sharp pointy weapons combined with menacing growls and teeth. Waaagh! Battle cries galore, but still deadly in wreaking havoc and mayhem wherever they tread. Ultimately giving off a decent main story narrative after the end credits rolled. For now, let's dive into the vast grimdark world that is Warhammer.

To imagine how different the aforementioned universe is. Conceptualize both sci-fi and fantasy elements where inside the fictional universe of the sci-fi variant lies a technologically advanced human society in constant battle against both hostile aliens and the supernatural variant. Unaugmented and augmented humans, the latter of which are bigger than us average-sized individuals. Oversized armor platings and pauldrons, 4x-8x the size of regular guns, and a fierce facial expression capable of withstanding sheer terror. Combating hostiles, without shying away from blood, ashes, skulls, and death is the norm while slapping magical powers and thrusting all of these in the unforgiving nature that is war. Where deathstar-likes exist and exterminating countless billions is commonplace. Ork warbosses killing their comrades without remorse for disobedience exudes similar energies when the imperium of man, and chaos space marines do the same. Albeit in different methods. I’ll leave the disgusting imagery in your imagination. Amongst the other supernatural and alien forces. Epic stories are told harrowing tales of humanity in the imperium triumphing against the might of corruption and whoever stands against them. For the Emperor… While I live and breathe. All is not dandy. The universe delves far into the vastness of these ideas unflinchingly. Screw good and evil. Fighting is everywhere.

For a more comparable, but different example. Think Starcraft(SC) except far more grittier in tone and visceral in tackling the onslaught of armies with little remorse. Adding spectacle in the action without gorgeous cinematics. If you have that mental picture, good. Then add more races beyond the base three in SC. Replace basic gathering resources by sending off workers to collect crystals and vespene gas(resources in SC) with acquiring requisition and power. One has you gather specific points on the map. The other is increasing by making generators. For combat. We have to train units from buildings using any of the above resources. Thankfully starting we don’t need both, usually, power is enough. Once you gain enough upgrades to your headquarters and establish more structures then you can fashion better grunts to do the leg work. In general, the game operates in two different groups. One infantry where you can send scouts, marines, jetpack dudes, medics, builders, and more potent exterminator squads once you acquire enough necessary architecture and tiers. Vehicles are on the other side. Mighty mechanized entities. Tanks, transport trucks, mobile mortars. And my personal favorite is the impressive dreadnoughts. Big hulking mechas. Oh yesssssss…. As a mecha fan. You know which I picked already heh! Aside from troop recruitment, players can also construct research centers(to impart passive bonuses and possible tech trees on their army), defensive turrets/bunkers, and various others to unlock the capability to recruit the above-mentioned groups to use in battle.

Keep in mind there is a sort of light rock-paper-scissors(RPS) to produce certain battalions. Being effective against types or multiple and vice-versa is advisable. For instance, you can highlight a mouse cursor over a soldier icon to see what they're effective against. The tooltip will say. Blah blah blah this squad is effective against certain infantry. Light armored vehicles can be super weak to heavy infantry. Dynamic companies are formed later on once the headquarters is upgraded to the max. Allowing the player to summon robust dreadnoughts or elite squads to do your bidding. I’m sure you can imagine what their weaknesses are. Here’s a hint: none. Unless you like testing their mettle against a full regiment against one sole capable hero then the odds may not be in your favor. Although, you generally don’t have to conform to the RPS formula at all. Sending out a mix-matched corps of various molds can get the job done as well. And that’s a strategy I like a lot. The non-adherence to basic tenets of predestined unit composition, allowing anyone to conjure any manner of crowd combinations to win against your foes is an awesome dopamine rush that never gets old.

And I have to say after engaging in countless skirmishes and laying waste to foolish mobs. I found the whole experience of combat to be enjoyable to the point I completed multiple campaigns after the first ended. Didn’t take a lot of hours to complete either. With the first taking nine hours and winter assault taking ten. Not much rigorous thinking is required. The mechanics are neither too complex nor too simple. Managing to hit the fine line to grasp newcomers and veterans in the RTS genre to pick up with ease. A tutorial is here as well, so newbies shouldn’t fear complex systems to learn. Different difficulty modifiers are present to shift the challenge from easy to more punishing for those in need of it. I played the game + expansions in vanilla form. And honestly, I was satisfied because the devs hit regular elements of what I was looking for in the genre. A fun loop of replacing dead soldiers with fresh blood, with non-complex mechanics to understand, without any major faults, defending my bases, completing my main and secondary objectives with challenging enemies to fight against, and the coup de grace of having every map with a hero analogous to the good old days in Warcraft III. Without any of these or tweaked in a more squad-based approach. The formula becomes different from the core formula. It is why I bounced off Company of Heroes and wasn’t too enthused by the shift in core mechanics in Dawn of War II(& chaos rising). Latter I finished, former is on hiatus. Not a negative at all for those games. I simply prefer training useful meatshields for my cause and creating defenses. Here I was able to build numerous armies, select them all, and order them to eliminate everyone in their path. Designing fortifications, and turrets, and queuing new grunts to throw into the fray. The loop became more enjoyable as new missions came in and new goals to take advantage of the war-torn battlefields littered with orbital bombardment, wire trenches, destroyed structures, and fleeing citizens. Creating an immediately grim reality than what reports would suggest.

Nevertheless, I am here to report that DoW 1 has a great mission structure. Often most mission targets will boil down to eliminating all hostiles with extreme prejudice, but when the game shakes things up with infiltration using stealth, eradicating new mob specimens, embracing guerilla warfare, investigating a new area, escorting your champion to the point far in the map deep within enemy territory. Starting with no bases and must use a limited supply of troops to establish a foothold, and defend against multiple waves. And I could go on into detail for a package totaling eleven missions. The difficulty was a natural progressive curve. Didn’t find it too challenging outside of learning my go-to formula for amassing squads and defenses quickly. Super cool going up against an uphill battle where my armies start small and I have to build fortifications, shield my dudes from enemy fire and grant a reprieve, soldiers, upgrade them then set forth in completing both my main and secondary quests. Maps for each mission are medium-sized and can take time to march your whole company, with a decent amount of variation. Tartarus is like Mars. Except filled with human colonies before the invasion. Terraformed so you will see lush forests, vegetation such as grass, and rivers with water and snow! But as the invasion occurs the atmosphere slowly bleeds out becoming harsher. A yellow-to-red tinge filter occurs. Explosions litter the once industrialized cities becoming desolate and broken beyond repair. Fires are commonplace and the once lively greenery we saw before has irrevocably become charred. Countless sandbags, barbed wire, and ruined roadways leave a haunting effect on those remaining alive to fight or flee. Try mustering morale while besotted by ash in your face, the dead comrades who tried to save you while still bogged down in enemy fire. It is harsh, unrelenting, and brutal to keep ongoing.

I'm treated to a gritty sci-fi human race struggling to defend their continent from alien hostiles. However, have faith for when all hope is lost Captain Angelos is here to help! He surprised me a great deal with how strong he exudes. Beyond his rough exterior lies a man who will do anything to protect Tartarus from imminent annihilation. And the lengths which he undergoes and struggles is a sight to witness. Stoic, grit, unbending on his ideals, and relentless fortitude to keep going in the face of overwhelming odds stacked against his combatants. Tough not to like him to be honest. The side-cast like the librarian, inquisitor, and villains are also brought up with a respectable screen time I appreciate without being another mustache twirly antics and handled relatively well. To the point, my suspension of disbelief wasn’t bombarded by an orbital strike.

Usually in RTS games, I adore how they implement commanders or leaders. Heroes as I like to call them such as Angelos, are far stronger than an average foot soldier. But he isn’t alone at all; sometimes others join his missions to combat against the armies of Orks like Isador, a librarian, a close friend to Gabriel, and has the power of psychics. Making him invaluable on the field. Casting smite. A force-like energy to push and damage enemies at a distance, weaken resolve to lower the morale of enemies and the word of the emperor. Making all allies in an area unkillable for a small amount of time. Good thing I never used that ability heh. Seems too overpowering. Inversely the enemy champions can utilize their abilities so being on the end of those isn’t pretty. So watch out, evade, and retaliate with overwhelming strength! Anyway, commanders make the constant tug-of-war between engagements with combatants interesting. Sure you can send waves of enemies en-masse by placing a rallypoint, but nothing beats attaching a dude in full space marine armor leading the charge while viscerally leaving nothing but broken morale, broken swords, guns, and more in their wake. Laying waste to all who oppose the Imperium(galactic empire of humanity). Activate their abilities to turn the tide in your favor and a cool benefit is they instantly respawn freely with no cost whatsoever should they die. So sending them feet first in the bloodiest of all skirmishes is the right way to go! Take that blood god!

Now time for my mixed feelings. Not a positive or a negative. The following text is a set of observations I had, perhaps a critique or two. A recommendation and some other tidbits I think are important to know beyond all the praise I’ve been sprouting up above.

First, when diving feet-first in any RTS game one needs to remember what pathfinding is. For those unaware, I understand this as how a unit will move across the map when instructed. Hopefully without being obstructed by comrades or by terrain obstacles. DoW1 pathfinding I think could be better. I had uncommon moments like this one in my playthrough. Sorry about the low quality. When the group pathfinding is supposed to be smooth. The gif is from Dru Erridge from game developer. He has an informative breakdown of how to approach pathfinding issues. Relative to our current topic. Should be noted, that this has been a regular occurrence since the 90s with Starcraft with the remaster being faithful to the original as you can see. Nevertheless not a big issue. Very minor actually

Second, I think the troop limit is awfully strict initially at twenty for both infantry and vehicles . For the unaware. In real-time strategy games, you cannot build infinitely to send your lackeys in mass. There’s generally a maximum to what you can build. For DoW 1. Each one can take a certain amount like two to four. Again not a big deal since they can be upgraded to have eight or more. So essentially if you have say a squad of jetpack bros taking up a three-unit cap. And you built six of them. Then you have 18/20. A unit isn’t always singular by the way. Sometimes they’ll be accompanied by two to four plus. You can also upgrade the group to give them more personnel thereby giving substantial health, new weapons, etc. In the end, after playing through the main story, I think I'm on board with the hard restriction. At first, I was a bit disgruntled since I'm used to 100 or 200 as the cap. But twenty feels balanced. Heck, there’s a faction that allows you to hold way more than twenty! So look forward to controlling a swarm of ugly creatures to send over the trenches.

Third, before starting the game. It’s important to remember the developers of Relic Entertainment haven’t updated the game in a long while since the original release back in 2004. Therefore, quality of life improvements I frequently see in modern RTS games are missing here. As a result I’m gently recommending everyone to check out the pcgamingwiki article on the aforementioned game before starting. For essential mods to install enhancing the vanilla content. Only a small list. For me I only needed skip intro videos, higher resolution models, enabling 1080p. Forcing AA by graphics drivers, V-sync. Contains bug fixes and recommended mods too! I didn’t have any bugs throughout my time in the collection and the latter I'll talk about later. Before I forget please install the camera mod to allow zooming out during gameplay. Vanilla you can’t zoom out and get a general overview of the battle. Picture your face closer to the screen. And extend your pinky touching the monitor and putting your chin on the thumb. That’s how close my experience was without camera zoom.

Fourth. I think maps could use more variation in tile design within the campaigns. Kinda got old seeing the red palette terrain in the first game. Could’ve used more interesting mission purposes like defend for ‘x’ amount of time. Tower defense, more stealth, rescue missions, time limits, etc. While the vanilla content is satisfactory, the inclusion of these suggestions would’ve changed the great mission structure into a fantastic, excellent one. Fifth, a great majority of missions. Were truly easy in my opinion. Turns out the normal difficulty is easy while the hard mode felt normal.… I didn’t know until I checked what parameters from which each tier changes. Sighs cue facepalm upon learning… A gentle reminder for veterans looking for a challenge in the genre. Enable hard difficulty. Newcomers try either mode to see which you fall in.

Hope this helps those interested in the game. Not trying to deter any folks. Most of my observations shouldn’t be taken as a negative and more as a point to know coming in.

Now onto Winter Assault(WA). The first expansion and one hell of a follow-up I like probably equal to Brood War from starcraft. A separate story from what Captain Angelos endures on Tartarus. We run through familiar, but different missions in reclaiming a winter planet called Lorn V. Shorter than DoW 1. WA has two campaigns. Order where you control the guardsman and Eldar. And Disorder where you command the horde of Ork and Chaos. Both have 6 missions with a branching split mission before the last one changing the final faction you oversee and perspective. Motives for each of the races are somewhat near the same wavelength. The guardsman's underlying purpose is to recover a powerful weapon called the Titan Dominatus. Eldar’s agenda is a bit mysterious. Halt an old enemy while secretly assisting the guardsman and who knows what else is in our sights? Both forces have an uneasy alliance to conquer the globe and direct the titan. All the races have changed since their introduction in 1. A more extensive list of changes can be read at the wikipedia page.

Honestly, I like Winter Assault's mission design the most. By improving on one of my earlier points from my mixed feelings regarding uniquely challenging assignments. I am thrilled to say Relic must’ve wanted to go wild here and holy moly they go the full nine yards. Ya know when you engage in tug of war, and you have enough strength to win in several pulls? That’s how it was playing DoW 1 on normal. Winning in three tugs. WA says no. We're in for the full ride. Blisters, warts, and full-on tugging and warring. I had repeated wins and losses in most of the main missions. And again on the same difficulty I had previously. And I can’t imagine continuing beyond the 4th mission on higher difficulties with how arduous it can be…

Anyways, objectives have expanded. One to three main assignments are gone in favor of secure areas, assault enemy bases, switch to your ally, and accomplish subsidiary goals like flanking the enemy to unlock a path for your comrade. More secondary objectives to complete, reinforce allies defending a critical position, luring an army, repairing a vital machine, and I could just go on man. It’s incredible and super gratifying witnessing the devs flex their creative muscles with better encounter design. Back then there was a predestined path you could move towards. The expansion also operates the same. Except we may need protection. Manually go brave through gunfire in the trenches. Eliminate various waves of enemies blocking a key position all while supporting our main bases. Or transport bombarded people in armored APCs to mitigate enemy fire. Take advantage of bunkers to burrow beneath the surface and re-emerge like a gopher near another bunker. Ah to be a human Diglett except harshly conducting guerilla tactics.

Narratively I don’t consider either campaign the strongest suit to offer. The last missions in the endgame are flipped with different objectives based on the faction. With the earlier ones being different and offering a unique experience. Governing the Eldar, Guardsman, Chaos, and Ork was extraordinarily entertaining and I still recommend it. Each race has unique characteristics I found to be distinct enough to tinker around. Guards don’t have a superhero, instead, they're kinda of a weaker sect of humanity with stronger-than-usual vehicles and defense capabilities and a nice tunnel network for stealth purposes. Helps a bunch transporting a group of dudes to the frontline. Eldar is sublime. They’re like Protoss from Starcraft, but are more mystical and deal in energy weaponry. They differ from humans in one crucial ability. All of their buildings can teleport to another location. For example, you can participate in hide-and-seek against an overwhelming force bearing down on your location as long as you produce a node to act as a waypoint for them to travel. Chaos is well, from my understanding. More of a darker form of humanity and their sworn enemies. Think of these guys like fanatic dudes embracing the dark side of the warp instead of the glory of the emperor and well for the blood god. Summoning demons, consorting with imps and all manner of monstrous beings to do their bidding. Their aesthetic design reeks of evil and forging any superstructure feels wretched. Builders can speed up the construction of structures at the cost of health, and most of their capabilities usually have a drawback in their skills to activate. Summoning a badass daemon for instance requires sacrificing people or guardsmen. Ork is a breath of fresh air. They massacre the 20-limit cap to oblivion and can reach over 90. Activating the Wagghhh ability strengthens others when near a warboss and while they can be a bit stiff, gaining resources in the beginning. I’ve likened them similar in some respects to Zerg rushes. Due to the sheer amount, I can train at my disposal.

Dark Crusade(DC)/Soulstorm(SS) offer different but almost the same meta-campaign. The former is reminiscent of how Total War operates intending to conquer all provinces on the sphere. Depending on the aliens you choose, you’ll be placed on certain points on the map. Tau, Chaos, Necron, Ork, Guard, and Eldar are possible choices to pick. Each has a different detachment of soldiers, structures, heroes, and advantages/disadvantages that come with utilizing them. You cannot attack and move all the time on the world map. Only one specified action. Either moving to another area or attacking. Once you finish your commands. You can end your turn and see what the other side will do on the map. Enemies can attack other foes and conquer the opposing lands. Careful though, they may attack you! If you’re nearby. Battles take place on a separate map. Tasking the player and opposing force to start from the beginning to establish a foothold and train infantry. The ultimate intent is always to defeat the enemy by eliminating every squad alive and architecture they have or at the very least destroy their headquarters and any builder. DC offers a cool incentive for replayability. As you achieve victory in battles/new territories you can gain passive bonuses like a reduction in costs for buildings/units and even wargear. Wargear makes your commander in battle stronger by strengthening their capabilities. Choose a helmet to grant true sight and reveal cloaked assassins, boots to prevent knockdown, body armor for increased HP regen, etc. I found this aspect rewarding and a nice incentive to keep going. While I didn’t finish the Total War-like mode, I think it could be profoundly addicting for those hungry for more content.

Soulstorm operates in almost the same manner as the above, except the dev’s added new factions; the Sisters of Battle to use, Blood Ravens, & Dark Eldar. Expands the meta-campaign to be system-wide. So no longer, are you essentially subjugating the planet. Instead, you need to control the whole star system. What’s stunning in both these expansions is facing off the commander in their stronghold shifts the battlefield to assume a special scenario. These come with voice text on the loading screen detailing the enemy commander’s background along with special orders of main and secondary targets. I kid you not. This single-handedly blew my freaking mind. In SS I faced off what I initially thought would be a puny guardsman, only to run between the tails behind my head in having to win every single engagement and defend my base against constant waves of enemies that would progressively become stronger as time passed. Must stop a convoy at regular ‘x’ intervals to stop them from manifesting a baneblade. Yeah, think ultra badass tank with a s%^& ton of health and massive firepower. So yeah for sure I’m gonna take great pains to stop the convoys. And if that’s not enough I have to contend with stealth punches against my troops, a biga@@ artillery that can wipe my army off the face of the map. Contend against sneaky nuclear assaults and if that’s not enough I have to deal with air types. Introduced in this standalone is the addition of air attackers for every alien. I won in the end, but I felt it was a hollow victory since It took me hours to brutally drill a win on normal difficulty. I should’ve stayed and cornered the guy while assembling enough power/requisition to reinforce my territories and establish a garrison. Instead, I Lee-roy Jenkins myself into battle without support… I didn’t finish SS’s campaign either, only taking one globe for the taking, but spent a large amount of time longer than DC’s. Nevertheless, I had to stop or else I would never see the light of day. Therefore I recommend them only if you hunger for more gameplay using different races. Offering a show, don’t tell approach without a major story to follow. Callum McCole wrote a fascinating article why meta-campaigns are fun and I largely agree with all their points.

In the end, I am here to tell y'all. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Master Collection is a brutally awesome gateway into the franchise for a real-time strategy game. Sure I had some mixed feelings but they feel largely minor and didn’t impact my overall enjoyment of the multiple plot missions on Tartarus and beyond. Gabriel’s story is only one piece, though a vital one to watch out for. His steadfast defense of the planet Tartarus is admirable against the onslaught of Orks, and unveils an incredible discipline to do what needs to be done. Let me share one quote from him later on. “Innocents die so that humanity may live. I ended their suffering, as I will end yours.” Chills man. I don’t think I will ever forget those words. And soon enough if you dive into the operations on Lorn V, be warned they aren’t for the faint of heart, mercy is thrown out the window in favor of carnage, bloodshed and cunning tactics exhibiting a grim spectacle of sci-fi war up close and personal. Yes, it doesn’t reach my favorites in the genre, but I swear its close. Perhaps, once I finish the meta campaigns here and there. I have a good feeling they will sooner or later join their ranks. Anyway, If you can buy the master collection below 7 bucks or 10. You’re in for a wealth of content to dive into with dozens of hours to devour. Besides, there's a wonderful community filled with amazing content mods you can add. Ultimate apocalypse, Unification, Strongholds, custom sets of missions, new races, new modes, and so much more. By the emperor, I am glad to be back in the series once again. Though I wonder why I have a pages upon pages of 40k reasons why you should join the Imperium of Man. At least they’re far better than those chaos dudes who preach about blood all day everyday. I mean come on “Blood for the blood god?”

I prefer Angelos’s words.

“While the enemies of the Emperor still draw breath, there can be no peace.”

8.5/10

References & Additional Material:
Long list of Warhamer games from the beginning
Example from my playthrough on pathfinding.
Example from game dev on group pathfinding
Dru Erridge article on group pathfinding
Callum McCole on RTS meta campaigns and why they’re fun.
Helpful Links for DoW: MC - Essential Improvements/Fixes/Difficulty Overview - pcgaming wiki on Dawn of War 1 + expansions -
Widescreen fix - Difficulty overview - WA changes - Player guide
Before I play DoW1 - Odd there was no section for the first game prior to this review, so I sent some tips. Hope this helps!

Cavil Warhammer Cinematic Universe - Slight tangent to above. But plugging the news since I'm so happy for Cavill for landing his dream job producing and starring in his favorite series with none other than Warhammer.