Spectre_ship
2021
three main problems:
- everyone is named "Gaius Julius Ususus" and has the same portrait, so it's impossible to tell anybody apart, making the constant popups about court intrigue incomprehensible
- speed 5 runs so fast the game's unplayable but speed 4 is painfully slow
- the way barbarians spawn means you can get sacked in the first decade by a huge landless army twice your size and can't do shit about it, like ck2 adventurers on steroids
other than that it's still real rough and the mechanics &c. have basically zero documentation online. would not recommend
- everyone is named "Gaius Julius Ususus" and has the same portrait, so it's impossible to tell anybody apart, making the constant popups about court intrigue incomprehensible
- speed 5 runs so fast the game's unplayable but speed 4 is painfully slow
- the way barbarians spawn means you can get sacked in the first decade by a huge landless army twice your size and can't do shit about it, like ck2 adventurers on steroids
other than that it's still real rough and the mechanics &c. have basically zero documentation online. would not recommend
2022
Really cute game. The card gameplay was very satisfying and does an excellent job making you feel like you're learning and mastering a card trick. The story is kind of a popcorn read, but it's enjoyably written and very charming. The soundtrack and art direction were really excellent as well. I wish it was a little longer and maybe that it committed more in its story, but I also feel like it was a decent length so as not to overstay its welcome.
My main complaint is that some of the late game card tricks are frustratingly fiddly, namely the false riffle shuffle and the tricks involving rifling through the deck looking for specific cards.
Overall a very enjoyable little game.
My main complaint is that some of the late game card tricks are frustratingly fiddly, namely the false riffle shuffle and the tricks involving rifling through the deck looking for specific cards.
Overall a very enjoyable little game.
2013
2019
As far as roguelikes/lites go this one is really fun--I haven't beaten it many times but I have unlocked all the characters.
I like to compare "neo-roguelikes" to the genre's classics--what ideas can be traced from stuff like Angband to this? The inspiration I think Streets of Rogue really latches on to is the ability of the player to think laterally. Though there's a fairly small pool of different missions to complete and NPCs to interact with, the many different systems in the game--status effects, relations, alertness, combat stats--make devising solutions to problems and coming up with plans and strategies really enjoyable. Gameplay tactics like getting free healing items as a vampire--having your own blood put into bags, then topping off your HP via random back-alley NPCs--are a delight to come up with and manage, and feel like some of the classic outside-the-box tactics of classic roguelikes, like wielding cockatrice corpses as weapons to petrify opponents in NetHack.
I like to compare "neo-roguelikes" to the genre's classics--what ideas can be traced from stuff like Angband to this? The inspiration I think Streets of Rogue really latches on to is the ability of the player to think laterally. Though there's a fairly small pool of different missions to complete and NPCs to interact with, the many different systems in the game--status effects, relations, alertness, combat stats--make devising solutions to problems and coming up with plans and strategies really enjoyable. Gameplay tactics like getting free healing items as a vampire--having your own blood put into bags, then topping off your HP via random back-alley NPCs--are a delight to come up with and manage, and feel like some of the classic outside-the-box tactics of classic roguelikes, like wielding cockatrice corpses as weapons to petrify opponents in NetHack.
2023
This is really fun. Great game about running around very fast and walloping enemies--the movement feels wonderful once you get it down, though it's a little tricky to start.
I like the soundtrack quite a lot, has a lot going on and a bunch of different styles. An important thing this game gets right is that when, at the end of levels, you have to backtrack and escape them, the music is overridden by the escape theme, and the theme is really good and you don't get sick of it or miss the original level theme that much--a lot of games botch that, I think. The artstyle is a delight as well; I wanna say it's somewhere between a handful of 90s-early 2000s cartoons and the weird Czech episodes of Tom and Jerry? Doing it's own thing also though.
It's maybe a little too maximalist for me personally? I had to play it in 1-2 hour intervals because there's just so much going on it would wear me down a little, but I enjoyed it a lot all the same.
I like the soundtrack quite a lot, has a lot going on and a bunch of different styles. An important thing this game gets right is that when, at the end of levels, you have to backtrack and escape them, the music is overridden by the escape theme, and the theme is really good and you don't get sick of it or miss the original level theme that much--a lot of games botch that, I think. The artstyle is a delight as well; I wanna say it's somewhere between a handful of 90s-early 2000s cartoons and the weird Czech episodes of Tom and Jerry? Doing it's own thing also though.
It's maybe a little too maximalist for me personally? I had to play it in 1-2 hour intervals because there's just so much going on it would wear me down a little, but I enjoyed it a lot all the same.
2004
It's fine. The actual gameplay is a mediocre change to a game that already has just, like, OK shooting; almost every enemy just rushes you down but dies to one head shot, so most of the shooting is just backing away while cycling through different guns so you don't run out of ammo. It's playable but the DLC is long enough that it starts to wear out its welcome.
However, it gets a lot of charm points by simple virtue of building off the main game, with missions that riff on main-game missions and giving the end of the world a certain texture by having it be an open world you already know from the main game. It's honestly pretty funny; the writers evidently identified that West Dickens is the only one of the New Austin goobers from the main game that's actually funny, and accordingly gave him a ton of well-deserved screen time. The soundtrack is also excellent.
However, it gets a lot of charm points by simple virtue of building off the main game, with missions that riff on main-game missions and giving the end of the world a certain texture by having it be an open world you already know from the main game. It's honestly pretty funny; the writers evidently identified that West Dickens is the only one of the New Austin goobers from the main game that's actually funny, and accordingly gave him a ton of well-deserved screen time. The soundtrack is also excellent.
2017