Odintheprole
S tier combat, progression, worldbuilding, quests, & characters. Hunger, sleep, and wounding mechanics are all present without being annoying and really add to the immersion of the game. The combat is a ton of fun and my personal favorite first person melee system every made for a game. I would love to see it make a return in a fantasy RPG. The story cuts off short at the end which is immensely dissapointing but you will find plenty of enjoyment riding your horse around an authentic medieval setting that is full of good dialogue, characters, worldbuilding and so much more.
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 :(
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.
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.