Odintheprole
2015
This game could have been so much more if given to a different studio. But Avalanche really did do a good job of making a formulaic open world action 'rpg' that fans of Mad Max could appreciate. I got it for $5 and found it to be totally worth the money!
This is a great title for what it is with a fair asking price. While not being as deep as some might have expected or wanted the surface level mechanics of the game create a believable and fun Starship Troopers experience. The Voice Acting is perfectly cheesy and over the top as is expected and for the most part the game hits all the right highs that one would expect.
Unfortunately this experience is also hindered by a laundry list of bugs and features that seem half baked at best. The most notable of which being larger enemy types (Tank bugs mainly) have AI that struggles to navigate even open areas on the map. This leads to awkward scenarios where a Tank Bug is unable to attack your troops and just stands still waiting to be killed.
Unfortunately this experience is also hindered by a laundry list of bugs and features that seem half baked at best. The most notable of which being larger enemy types (Tank bugs mainly) have AI that struggles to navigate even open areas on the map. This leads to awkward scenarios where a Tank Bug is unable to attack your troops and just stands still waiting to be killed.
This game ruins one of my favorite characters in the dishonored franchise. That is all.
2008
Only way I could get this game running was to play it on Steam Deck but oh man this is a masterpiece. Absolutely amazing game.
2017
Robot Dinosaurs, Interesting Story, Pretty Good Gameplay
2012
A perfect game in all regards IMO. This game singlehandedly got me to fall in love with Immersive Sim's all the while creating one of the coolest game universes to explore the lore of.
2021
This review contains spoilers
I finished this game in one sitting which I have to say wasn't that hard and I should have given myself a breather. However, in terms of time loop games this game I would say is one of the best. The outer wilds is the only game with this gimmick that really does it better IMO but this game is an easy 10/10.
You really have to go into it blind much like the Outer Wilds but just know that this is an experience like few others. Take your time and relish the world this team created and get ready for some very intriguing moments paired with absolute jaw dropping scenes.
Unfortunately it is not all sunshine and rainbows and although I am putting this game on the same pedastal as firewatch, the outer wilds, and other indie 10/10s I have to voice some negatives that I really felt weren't the best.
1. It isn't really a mystery game despite how hard it tries to sell itself as one. There is not much player agency in the discoveries/puzzle solving. Considering how easy this game will be for anybody with half a brain at a certain point it really feels like firewatch more than the outer wilds where the player is put into a story that is not their own to make and discover but rather a more linear streamlined experience. While the game never fell flat for me and I was constantly hooked it is still worth noting that it would have been made so much better if the game didn't hold your hand with skyrim level quests of go here, collect this, go there, acquire this, give to npc.
2. The "backround choices" at the beginning of the game really shouldn't be there IMO. I think that the only purpose for all of the other choices except archaeologist are for achievement hunting as you are going to miss out on 40% of the games content if you don't take the archaeologist.
3. Finally the endings. My god the endings were absolutely not special at all. Not that I don't apprecieate the linear story to the possible endings you can get but there is again no player agency here. You quite literally can only do the endings in the order they are given. Ending 2 cannot physically happen before ending 1, ending 3 cannot physically happen before discovering ending 2, and ending 4 stands entirely on its own.
You really have to go into it blind much like the Outer Wilds but just know that this is an experience like few others. Take your time and relish the world this team created and get ready for some very intriguing moments paired with absolute jaw dropping scenes.
Unfortunately it is not all sunshine and rainbows and although I am putting this game on the same pedastal as firewatch, the outer wilds, and other indie 10/10s I have to voice some negatives that I really felt weren't the best.
1. It isn't really a mystery game despite how hard it tries to sell itself as one. There is not much player agency in the discoveries/puzzle solving. Considering how easy this game will be for anybody with half a brain at a certain point it really feels like firewatch more than the outer wilds where the player is put into a story that is not their own to make and discover but rather a more linear streamlined experience. While the game never fell flat for me and I was constantly hooked it is still worth noting that it would have been made so much better if the game didn't hold your hand with skyrim level quests of go here, collect this, go there, acquire this, give to npc.
2. The "backround choices" at the beginning of the game really shouldn't be there IMO. I think that the only purpose for all of the other choices except archaeologist are for achievement hunting as you are going to miss out on 40% of the games content if you don't take the archaeologist.
3. Finally the endings. My god the endings were absolutely not special at all. Not that I don't apprecieate the linear story to the possible endings you can get but there is again no player agency here. You quite literally can only do the endings in the order they are given. Ending 2 cannot physically happen before ending 1, ending 3 cannot physically happen before discovering ending 2, and ending 4 stands entirely on its own.
2021
Go buy literally any other time loop/ground hog day style game. Prey Mooncrash was a better game than this. It really fails to be an immersive sim and also fails to be a compelling action game.
I don't see what there is to enjoy about this game. The aesthetic that the cutscenes seem to be going for is entirely the opposite of the aesthetic the game hits. The guns sound like pea shooters (except the minigun) and the open world mechanics are super clunky. I genuinely wish a different company would have made this game. It could have been so much more.
2016
I understand that this is a game well loved by everybody but it just didn't click with me. It was truly a slog to play through the 12 hours that I did where I would play an hour or two once every month or so until I finally realized I am never going to enjoy the game.
Movement feels floaty. Guns aren't really satisfying. Enemy types are REALLY boring despite being so varied. The first 2 or so hours rocked until I realized the entire game was going to just be Enter room -> clear room -> kill boss (or miniboss) on repeat forever
Movement feels floaty. Guns aren't really satisfying. Enemy types are REALLY boring despite being so varied. The first 2 or so hours rocked until I realized the entire game was going to just be Enter room -> clear room -> kill boss (or miniboss) on repeat forever
2022
Genuinely amazing. Very addictive gameplay very fun power scaling. Albeit some balancing issues make some guns feel like pea shooters and others feel like a Browning 50 caliber
Quick Edit: I was very negative in the original review but I want to reinforce the good parts of the game really fast. The Fleet battles are fun and interesting (up until you get titan) where positioning of your ship relative to enemies really matters. In addition the grind up to a point is actually enjoyable because the core gameplay loop is relatively enjoyable. Flying around doing repetetive missions and killing the same sets of enemies is fun purely because the combat and ship variety are what carry the game.
Welp. I finally purchased this game. I would give it a Meh. To sum it up this game has a decent single player campaign that is definetly worth 8 - 10 bucks but past that there is really no reason to keep playing. The "4x" elements are insanely barebones and the game is rife with issues from high levels of micromanagment to broken fleet ai.
You will spend most of your time enjoying the grind to get to the Dreadnaught ships or the TITAN ships but in all honesty the Titan was the least satisfying ship to fly. It felt like it was a poor community made mod and did not feel satisfying when I unlocked it. It is so broken as a ship that you won't even be able to hear your light weapons firing because the ship is too large for the camera to be close enough for the sounds to actually be processed. In addition all of the other ships in the game have actual turret mounts that give you an idea of the firing arcs of your turrets but the Titan just doesn't. It is just flat textures with bullets and missiles appearing out of nowhere. The upside of this is that the ship is so powerful that it doesn't matter if you cannot figure out what is going on because you will hardly ever have your shields penetrated. Essentially the last 5 or so hours of the storyline I was just cruising around in this massive ship just melting any foes that got in my way.
Unfortunately the game is mechanically barebones and really doesn't make for an enjoyable strategy game. I recommend playing this as an RPG first and foremost and then expand your territories in between missions for fun little fights that you can enjoy doing before you get to the point of being OP.
I don't really see myself returning to this title ever for the freeroam modes, to purchase the DLC or for the post campaign "conquer the map" scenario. The grind just is too much for that. Every planet you conquer has a massive fleet battle that you have to participate in where the AI factions bring in roughly 100k worth of fleet power to counter your conquering while you are stuck with a measly 40k for most of the game due to the crazy low fleet capacity. You are only allowed to have about 35k max fleet cap without conquering stations which would be fine if the stations actually gave you more than just 2k fleet capacity. For reference the mainline cruisers are about 2.3k fleet capacity so what ends up happening is you just hit a softcap for fleet cap where you can only field 2 24k fleets while all the other AI factions on the map seemingly have an unlimited number of fleet cap so they will have 3-4 15k patrol stacks that are just a headache to kill more than anything else. The grind is there for the grinds sake.
Welp. I finally purchased this game. I would give it a Meh. To sum it up this game has a decent single player campaign that is definetly worth 8 - 10 bucks but past that there is really no reason to keep playing. The "4x" elements are insanely barebones and the game is rife with issues from high levels of micromanagment to broken fleet ai.
You will spend most of your time enjoying the grind to get to the Dreadnaught ships or the TITAN ships but in all honesty the Titan was the least satisfying ship to fly. It felt like it was a poor community made mod and did not feel satisfying when I unlocked it. It is so broken as a ship that you won't even be able to hear your light weapons firing because the ship is too large for the camera to be close enough for the sounds to actually be processed. In addition all of the other ships in the game have actual turret mounts that give you an idea of the firing arcs of your turrets but the Titan just doesn't. It is just flat textures with bullets and missiles appearing out of nowhere. The upside of this is that the ship is so powerful that it doesn't matter if you cannot figure out what is going on because you will hardly ever have your shields penetrated. Essentially the last 5 or so hours of the storyline I was just cruising around in this massive ship just melting any foes that got in my way.
Unfortunately the game is mechanically barebones and really doesn't make for an enjoyable strategy game. I recommend playing this as an RPG first and foremost and then expand your territories in between missions for fun little fights that you can enjoy doing before you get to the point of being OP.
I don't really see myself returning to this title ever for the freeroam modes, to purchase the DLC or for the post campaign "conquer the map" scenario. The grind just is too much for that. Every planet you conquer has a massive fleet battle that you have to participate in where the AI factions bring in roughly 100k worth of fleet power to counter your conquering while you are stuck with a measly 40k for most of the game due to the crazy low fleet capacity. You are only allowed to have about 35k max fleet cap without conquering stations which would be fine if the stations actually gave you more than just 2k fleet capacity. For reference the mainline cruisers are about 2.3k fleet capacity so what ends up happening is you just hit a softcap for fleet cap where you can only field 2 24k fleets while all the other AI factions on the map seemingly have an unlimited number of fleet cap so they will have 3-4 15k patrol stacks that are just a headache to kill more than anything else. The grind is there for the grinds sake.
2011
ooga booga Che Guevara is coming for you el presidente
My personal favorite Tycoon game ever made. You take control of a dictator in a newly liberated/colonized/invaded (whatever you are RPing as) island and are tasked with taking an incredibly poor and run down town into a prosperous and wealthy nation state in the carribean.
All the while you are tasked with juggling foreign relations, faction relations at home, and managing everything from wages to the cost of living of your citizens.
I think that every Tropico game after this one fails to capture the charm this game has and it is very clearly the best game in the series. Unfortunately that means that we will likely never see improvements directly on this games systems.
A few things I would have liked to see expanded on/fixed
- More difficult political relations. As long as your econ is going well you can easily make 80% relations or higher with every faction.
- More in depth supply chain managment or trade managment. The current weakest part of this game is how simple the economy is to manage. You just plop down buildings and everything is handled for you which by ittself is great for simplicity but it also makes it incredibly easy to just fall into the Meta on each new character you create where you just min max rum/cigars/etc.
- Finally... More random story events. I would love for there to be cases where the UN would come 'observe' elections and stage a coup if you are too socialist. Or for the KGB to attempt to assassinate you if you become too capitalist. There was so much potential for future titles to really dive into the political simulation but instead we got T5 and T6 :(
My personal favorite Tycoon game ever made. You take control of a dictator in a newly liberated/colonized/invaded (whatever you are RPing as) island and are tasked with taking an incredibly poor and run down town into a prosperous and wealthy nation state in the carribean.
All the while you are tasked with juggling foreign relations, faction relations at home, and managing everything from wages to the cost of living of your citizens.
I think that every Tropico game after this one fails to capture the charm this game has and it is very clearly the best game in the series. Unfortunately that means that we will likely never see improvements directly on this games systems.
A few things I would have liked to see expanded on/fixed
- More difficult political relations. As long as your econ is going well you can easily make 80% relations or higher with every faction.
- More in depth supply chain managment or trade managment. The current weakest part of this game is how simple the economy is to manage. You just plop down buildings and everything is handled for you which by ittself is great for simplicity but it also makes it incredibly easy to just fall into the Meta on each new character you create where you just min max rum/cigars/etc.
- Finally... More random story events. I would love for there to be cases where the UN would come 'observe' elections and stage a coup if you are too socialist. Or for the KGB to attempt to assassinate you if you become too capitalist. There was so much potential for future titles to really dive into the political simulation but instead we got T5 and T6 :(
2019
This game is a "mid" RPG but somehow it stands head and shoulders above many RPG's in existance. It is also kind of a dumpsterfire. The game is just kind of soulless and fails to deliver in almost all areas outside of the dialogue and it really makes the experience just awful. There are no compelling themes in the game, enemies, loot, and levelling are trivial at best and downright boring at worst.
It really feels like the games industry has lost so many good writers that we are now at a point where even games that are made by people who literally created my favorite game of all time fail to pull anything worthy out of their work. It is genuinely depressing.
It really feels like the games industry has lost so many good writers that we are now at a point where even games that are made by people who literally created my favorite game of all time fail to pull anything worthy out of their work. It is genuinely depressing.
2019
Just, yes. A little rough around the edges but this is the perfect blend between open world and linear shooter. Exploration is very rewarding to the point that it is almost required. Shooting feels ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ awesome compared to the other games. When a gun jams because of dirt and you have to re chamber a bullet it feels great. Everything is just great.
Note: If you are not playing this game on Ranger Hardcore with Minimal HUD then you are not getting the True Metro experience. I am not trying to gatekeep here I am being totally objective. The game is just a bland standard FPS on normal difficulties and is far too easy to really stand out from the crowd.
Note: If you are not playing this game on Ranger Hardcore with Minimal HUD then you are not getting the True Metro experience. I am not trying to gatekeep here I am being totally objective. The game is just a bland standard FPS on normal difficulties and is far too easy to really stand out from the crowd.