CaptainChaos

Amazing lore. Beautiful landscaping. Incredibly well optimized even for older machines; recently I played a 4x game from a beloved franchise I cut my teeth on in my early gaming years, and literally had 15FPS drops on nearly static screens, ugh. This modern game runs reasonably well on my older machine.

Summary: Great concept, but that's about it. A retrogame that isn't particularly well executed, has graphics about 15 years out of date, and isn't nearly as good as I thought it would be, but pleasant enough if you like the Fallout in Space idea. Very uneven writing. Very disappointing for Obsidian. It's ok. Barely. But not great, or even good. Cons: 1. Graphics are AWFUL. I have no idea what people are talking about when they say it's a beautiful game. The artwork is nice but this is graphically on par with KOTOR or maybe Fallout 3. It's so bad it's beyond distracting. And I like retrogames like Wasteland 2 but it doesn't work as well in a FPS. 2. Writing is very uneven. Some things are very funny, others are painful to read through, especially a lot of the "relationship" quests. 3. Crashes frequently. Hard crashes, that require full restart. 4. On Hard, I had unlimited money, just didn't feel that challenging overall. 5. 30 Hours in, still disappointed with all the corporate intrigue. Maybe it gets better but not very exciting so far. Also, missions themselves are usually very simple and boring. 6. Monsters respawn too quickly making walking through the same areas unnecessarily annoying. There's no reason to respawn them at all. 7. Companions always run into your line of fire. Awful AI. 8. Interface is far wonkier than it should be. I'm looking at armor at one character, switch to another, and instead of seeing their armor, it goes back to the default inventory screen, sigh. 9. Some of the stat options are confusing. They hit you with a lot of info early without going into it. And then you realize that enhanced stats (like from a character boost) do not trigger special stat bonuses (i.e. you actually need a hard number in the stat to get the bonus like seeing what's in a container from lockpicking, before you add in bonuses from armor etc.). Pros: 1. Fallout in space. AWESOME concept. Would have loved for this game to be well made. 2. Sometimes the writing is very funny. 3. Surprisingly fluid gun play, with occasionally good voice acting. 4. Cute companion interplay. 5. Quick load times. ***

Okay, final review. I went back and forth because a lot of the issues, even months later including a patch that actually broke my game (really?) made me rate the game a zero for a bit. But, now it's totally playable and I finished and I have perspective. Overall, with all fixes, it was a very good game, awesome colorful gfx, fun combat, excellent voice acting; some really good story lines (folks who love gray choices will LOVE these). I also really like the music, some of the folksy versions of the 70s music is cute. Finally, multiple Quick Save slots is EXACTLY what a PC game should have but rarely does any longer. It's a bit different than WL2, somewhat simpler, "dumbed down" for the masses, but on HARD difficulty it was still challenging in part. You can steam roll a lot and then suddenly be surprised how enemies will meat grind you; definitely keeps you on your toes. If you get sloppy in some parts, you will be obliterated no matter how much armor you think you have. On normal, I suspect you will just snooze your way through combat especially if you have any talent tactically at all. WL2 also was more "desperate" and Colorado reflects a somewhat more abundant economy (if you have the money). At the end of the game I had hundreds of rounds of everything and about 100 medkits of each kind, etc. Anyway, it's a very entertaining dark story and I had fun all the way to the end. I would play WL4 , but the rollout was so bad I might wait 6-12 months. I waited 3 and that still wasn't enough. It's a talented team but the product was rushed or they didn't care and either way it left a bad taste in my mouth for a franchise I was beginning to love. I hope they learn and improve, because the final product was worth it.

If you miss the old Baldurs Gate, I find this game to be substantially the same more or less, in many ways except for the "city management." Great very old school mechanics, wonderful rich lore, decent writing, very little voice acting but it's excellent. I am only in Chapter 1 but apparently have 120 hours (on hard difficulty) so no complaints at all really. Combat sometimes is both too hard and way too easy on Normal, so I'm not sure what to say. I suspect when I'm in areas I belong with the correct party, pausing every 2 seconds and well rested, it goes to the way easier side. When I'm not (I went too far into the keep for my level but I didn't know that) it was difficult even untenable. I wish there was some way to gauge this or maybe I just haven't figured it out. The resting system is very old school, and I thought I would really miss that, but I have to say, all it does is force me to go all the way home instead. They fix this with camping supplies which are ... cheap or expensive depending on how you spend your coin on other things, but you can only carry a limited supply I don't understand the point of that. I think better would be to significantly (1) increase the price of camping supplies (2) take the limit off (3) making resting elsewhere more risky to go back or something or expensive. Despite all this blah blah it's really not a big deal. Doesn't detract from the game that much, and for 1980s, 1990s fans, may enhance it. The Keep ... is ... interesting but I find certain aspects frustrating. I have absolutely no idea how much security I need, or how many if anyone I should hire - they are expensive. Some are very expensive. I prefer the party combat and rpg side, but I don't mind some of the activities and story around the keep. Some people might be very turned off by it though. It does act as a huge money sink though for now. (SAVE GAME ORDER) DEVELOPERS: THE ONLY REAL CRITICISM I HAVE, is that the top save game in the list is frequently NOT the most current. You have to painstakingly look through your manual saves, quick saves and auto saves to determine which has the correct time stamp. WHAT? Please fix this. It's awful, and inexcusable 30 years into this. Done Well: Combat speed and steal controls. Hot keyed properly you can go in and out of that with ease, managing the whole party or individuals very nicely. So far, I totally recommend, particularly for those Jonsing for an old school BG adventure, but keep the comments above in mind.

If you like Skyrim, Fallout 3, NV, 4, and Thundarr the Barbarian, this is the game you waited your whole life to play. I just bought it not more than 2 weeks ago tops, and already have 72 hours in it. I have not even SCRATCHED the surface. NOT EVEN CLOSE (so I can't review the whole game only what I have seen - still that's a LOT of time). I should say this is 2020 and many bad reviews were 2017 pre-patch. I have no had NO serious ISSUES so far, just a few gfx glitches rarely. What I Love: (1) the faction/background CONCEPT is AMAZING. Sword & sorcery, Mad Max Crocodile Dundee gunpower weapons, and psionic guards with laser rifles. WHOLLY CRAP. I have never been so happy in my whole life. Add in a truly diverse and epic map with desert, arctic, temperate, etc. Many many many different monsters as well, although they tend to have similarish attacks. Still, I KEEP finding new ones! (2) I LIVE for games where I can explore every nook and cranny, look behind every rock, and find a new surprise; this is it. If you played Gothic or Risen you know (3) the CHALLENGE. It's friggin impossible for multiple levels especially since the leveling system is a bit hard to get the hang of (stats do nothing except enable you to use better stuff which you need to train to use as well as afford or find); then everything is too easy, until - oops, you were wrong, it's hard again. If you're like me and play Skyrim on Master, you know what I'm talking about - very satisfying level progression (4) jet pack is incredibly fun (5) so far stories and missions are decent; surprising follow-up sometimes if you go back and see what happened after the quest was "finished." (6) voice acting is superb. the sound effects and music are some of the best. I love the eerie spooky woods in the valley. (7) graphics is decent in parts, especially the lighting, and some terrain is breathtaking. Sense of humor in many places, like a well placed skeleton. The Bad: Not a lot. (a) gfx while absolutely decent feel 2009 or 2010, pre-Skyrim level. Don't even compare it to Witcher 3 or you won't play (b) crafting system is uneven. Some things are very good (potions), others like golds mithing seem useless unless I'm missing something (c) sometimes I have money and skill points I can't really spend b/c there's nothing I can do with them and stats alone don't do anything for you. Maybe that will change later in the game. (d) can only join one faction so I dk if it's worth replaying the whole game to do another faction. I mean I replay Skyim every 3-5 years so maybe. (e) game / weapon balance is a bit uneven at times. At first, you are totally helpless. I like a challenge but it's a bit ridiculous. Then, certain weapons give you a stun-lock ability which can make you invincible except in some situations, which sorta takes the fun outta it. I know you could not use the weapon, but that seems cheap that I need to police myself. It's not even a clever exploit. It's use a certain classes of weapons, period. They are expensive though (ammo) so I suppose that's the balance? That said, I have been killed a few times even still. I'm a glass cannon actually. (f) not sure I like the melee system but the ranged system is fine. Enjoy :)

I loved XCOM1 and I wanted to love this game also. I do in many ways but there are WAY too many FRUSTRATING things about this game that wants to make me uninstall it every few hours. You should know that in my first full playthrough of XCOM I barely cheated (maybe reloaded a misplaced grenade shot I didn't understand where it was going), and playing on normal difficulty I almost won (I lost the last battle). I LOVED the challenge and difficulty and brutality. I find much of this game is just nonsensical a lot. random and just frustrating. For example 1. The ingame instructions are fair to miserable. Half the time I have no idea how to use certain weapons, or abilities or who has them, nor do I understand much of the UI. 2. Unlike AOW Planetfall which tells you the percentage chance to hit something BEFORE you move to a tile this does not. I had to search REDDIT to even know that there was a tiny target thingy over enemy units that is displayed when you mouse over a potential tile to which you might consider moving, so that at least you know if you can even "see" the unit to shoot at it (you still don't know if your to-hit is 10% or 100% until after you move, although before you shoot). 3. I'm stuck on one mission b/c one of the characters you find has an important weapon to use on the last encounter - only they don't warn of you that and I used it already. Thanks guys! Good thing I don't trust any game and have 100 saves. I feel sorry for anyone else playing iron man mode or who doesn't save every other turn. EDIT: I had to go back about 20 moves and reload that save and now I'm passed it. Ugh. In all fairness though, turns out you can use the environment to help you but I didn't know that (like exploding generators - but I found out by accident). 4. There's just a lot of ways to screw up the game for not understanding it and it is a very challenging and unforgiving game. I like challenges, but I can't tell you how many times on a timed mission I couldn't even figure out where to go or how to complete the objective when I got there forcing me to reload 100 times. 5. Finally the overwatch / combat system is very very poorly implemented. Most missions you start off in concealment which is great. But then you engage, only YOUR FIRST UNIT and those units that were in overwatch basically get to attack (and those overwatch attacks only work if the enemy moves, not if they fire). That might have been an XCOM 1 thing also I don't remember, but then they should have fixed it. Every other "normal" system in the world would give your whole team a round of surprise attacks, but you have to set them all up in overwatch to do that. That also means you spend 3x as long as moving on the map b/c EVERYONE ELSE has to do overwatch FIRST (DO IT FIRST!!) b/c if your other team member stumbles on enemies when it moves, it blows it for everyone and anyone not in overwatch LOSES THEIR TURN essentially while the aliens go. STUPID. Really STUPID. Sorry. On the plus side, it is XCOM with way better graphics, so if you enjoyed the original and the frustrations don't make you pull your hair out, the rest of the game is quite fun and addictive. SAVE SAVE SAVE. Or you will put your hand through your monitor. You might still. I like this game. I want to love it. But ARG.

This game goes to "11" Ok, I now have way over 100 hours in this game and I can do a better review, than the one I did 60 gaming hours ago. It doesn't just go to "11." It may be one of my favorite Top 10 ten games of all time. Pros: Gorgeous Graphics, Extremely Varied Tactical Gameplay, Hilarious and Rich Lore. Strategic Layer looks simple but turns out after 230 hours of gameplay I finally conclude it is anything but. Anyone who says this doesn't play in a complex manner or plays like everything else, or does what everyone else has done, just hasn't played it very long. I'm playing the campaign, and every time, EVERY TIME, it's different. Around the 50 hour mark I too thought, hey, maybe there isn't more to this after all - but no, I realize now, I just didn't understand how subtle and complex the mechanics are. The Faction, Secret Tech and modding mix is nearly infinite it seems. I have had games where I played straight up napalming starship troopers, and others where I began to do so well, b/c my Amazons befriended intelligent plants and between the two I had crazy regenerative powers that were off the charts. Not only that, but you often have to adjust your unit mix and tactics against whom you are fighting. Plus of course spells (i.e. Operations) affect everything, and terrain can play a part. I couldn't figure out why this game got such lukewarm reviews from many. I admit the Critic and Player metascores are very similar and they are good but not great. My 30 years of gaming experience tells me this is USUALLY a valid marker of how good the game is. However, I also realize part of the issue from people here is that they played Civ or Gal Civ or something and think it's supposed to be a clone. It isn't. AOW is a time honored franchise going back 20-30 years. They do it their own way. For those AOW players who wanted EXACTLY the same thing as AOWIII but SciFi, you are going to be disappointed if you are too rigid. However, this game *IS* very familiar in mechanics to any AOWIII player, BUT, there are many differences. Once you get used to them, I find it just fine. It is a diff game. I will say the game just came out, there have been many bugs, most of which are fixed very quickly by the Devs who read all the posts on steam as far as I can tell. They are very responsive to questions, and feedback, and move to correct bugs immediately. Also, there will be several rounds of balancing, and eventually more DLC content I'm sure. If you prefer to wait a year for the value pack I can't blame you, but you're missing out now, and also the ability to contribute. The Devs read all the suggestions and crazy ideas and yes even constructive criticisms. I honestly cannot recommend this game enough, but hey maybe it's just me. Some of these choices are just that personal. I doubt you really will get a true flavor of the potential and beauty of this game before the 50 hour mark though :) Happy Gaming!

I really wanted to like this game. I want to give it a 7. But I can't. I actually really enjoyed Rage 1, quite a bit. This game feels very different for reasons I can't explain. 1. The game crashes frequently, ESPECIALLY when you delete saved games which ironically happens when I'm trying to free up a slot to save my progress before the game crashes. This wasn't a one time thing. It's about 50% of the time. 2. Speaking of saving, there are only 12 saved slots and you often reappear in odd locations without your car. Really in 2019? 1990s checkpoints calling PCMR. Bethesda, you are both my most hated and loved company (like MS). And of course it crashes when you do that, so you lose progress potentially. 3. The game also never seems to count the arks, chests or notepads correctly. I pick it up but still somehow it doesn't count, which is an OCD nightmare. 4. As for other bugs, I constantly have to reconfigure my two guns of choice (you can switch back and forth which is nice) b/c it inexplicably resets for no reason, especially when loading / continuing. 5. The challenge is WAY off. I After many hours of trial and error, I have to agree with another poster. Nightmare is probably the best setting. You def can take a few hits but you can't slug it out with anyone. In other words you don't have to be perfect, but you are not bulletproof at all. Think Batman Arkham Asylum. 5a. The other thing about Nightmare and the other poster said this, FINALLY, you have reason to collect things b/c you might run through quite a few grenades and health infusions and w/o upgrades to crafting, you might be surprised how quickly you deplete your surplus. Previously, I was always maxed out and never had to use anything. 6. Oh, this may sound weird, but just TOO MANY abilities and things. I like variety and it's good everyone can use what they enjoy, but Rage 1 seemed simpler and streamlined and I enjoyed immensely - challenging and fun. There's just too much for me to keep track of and use, YMMV. On the plus side, the graphics are VERY nice and the scenery is nothing short of amazing. The drivign is fun, and gameplay is good but uneven, and the crashes and other weird glitches just make it hard to reward that sloppy design. Also, some areas such as mutant nests are actually cut and paste. I dk why they did that since bandit locations always seem very different even if they share similarities. There's a really good game under here, but you have to dig to find it.

I'm 70 hours in and I have no idea how far into the game I am, but I'm ready to rate it. I could criticize that there was WAY too much reading in the beginning, that the combat seems to often reset to FAST mode which is the exact opposite that it should, that I often got lost in objective or place to go, which was annoying, and that there was WAY too many talents and abilities to ponder (I do love choice but that was ... overwhelming for no real purpose). However, the writing, graphics, story, and overall fun was enough to just give it a just do. If there is a Tyranny 2 hopefully they can simplify some things without dumbing it down like Dragon Age 2. Once the spell casters got some levels, I was surprised that how four of them could basically take down anything without too much of an issue. I found the combat characters to take far longer to actually put things down. Once your Lore hits 100, you have 4 AOE spells constantly mopping up mob after mob. Once you get closer to 150 Lore your spells just rock the house. It's so much fun and gorgeously rendered. BTW, although it took awhile for me to understand, I so heart the spell system creation. It's so much fun to experiment with crushing anxiety area of effect spells or how many variations of flame this or that you can have. Bonus: Adding fire to my frost spell. That's just icing on the cake.

For an "indy" game I could believe how incredibly gorgeous the graphics were. Totally intuitive controls - except, I wish I could swap gear and party members more easily. To get limited gear you have to "unload" one character, swap them out and then load the other. That said, very good system. Good plot. Amazing voice acting. Slightly short, but great start. If they keep it up, I can't wait for a sequel. Corny but HILARIOUS. Suggestion: Zoom please :)

Edit: I raised my score from 6 to 5 b/c as much as I complain, I can't stop playing this game. Also, I figured out how to reduce teleporting zombies. Someone posted that if you press the space bar while they are moving across the entire screen to ambush you, it enters combat mode. You have to do this within about 6-10 squares of you to work, but that fixes my main issue. Still, this needs one patch for a 7 and could have been a 9 or 10 with just a bit more work. Like other reviewers here, I WANT to love this game, but there's a lot of frustration here that leaves me as annoyed as entertained. The game is sort of fun and I'm still giving it a chance. I'm so intrigued with the political side and that combat is a means to a goal not the goal. However, I have serious concerns about what I have seen in the first 30 hours. #1 Gripe: Teleporting Zombies: I understand that they revamped the combat system so you can't sneak up and kill everything; zombies have "eyes in the back of their head" detection. Ok whatever. To get around this I shot them in the back from 15 squares away, which is legit - the trade off is causing noise which is bad. Very bad, but since I can't sneak up with melee I engage them a distance and force them to run to me. But that's the tactical trade off, noise for position. However, the zombies just teleport to your location, no matter how far away you are. So, you can't position by distance. As one hilarious player said the very safest part in the game is literally in FRONT of the zombies b/c they chase you normally and don't hyperspace to you. This really breaks combat sometimes as using a gun near a mob of zombies gives the mob infinite free turns until they reach you. Reload. Only solution. Gripe #2: Close to #1 is no configure keys for PC? I can't change the keyboard keys. In 2015? You guys worked for Black Isle or whatever. That's basically treason to your base. What were you thinking? Gripe #3: The interface appears needlessly clunky. (a) Do I really need to put a gun in my inventory screen, unload it there to get the ammo, then move the ammo to my item slot and THEN go to the player screen to reload it my current same gun? Seriously? (b) also, I would like to select characters directly from the screen, not the portrait; my game feels like a tennis match with me constantly redirecting my eyes; I don't get - these guys nailed it for Black Isle games, why change? Gripe #3a: The text size is unbelievably small for the spreadsheet like tallies. I have LASIK and still have trouble reading it. Gripe #4 Action Points. Their system stinks. XCom let's you Overwatch if it's your turn. Other games, permit you to "wait" or at least save some of your AP if you don't use them. Gripe #5 No Cover: Is it so much to ask in a firefight you have cover mechanics? I realize the graphics are from the 1980s but Wasteland2 did a PHENOMENAL job with cover. Guys, you go back how many decades in the field? Boo. Minor Kvetch: I love how zombies create other zombies on the map, but could you give us a turn or two? It's a bit *too* intense and seems unfair to come RIGHT back to life. Maybe that's just me. I could go on, but you get the point. I like the atmosphere and the inside jokes, and the game has heart in other ways. I know they tried to fix the combat but in the end I feel they just got bored and called it a wrap. This game was a patch away from true decency and 4-6 months away from greatness. Just sad :( I give it a 5 though (mixed) as opposed to a 4, b/c despite the issues I love the environment and so far I'm curious and engaged. This is a more complicated than a rough diamond. Some patch choices and design omissions are almost too much to bear. Maybe they will be too much to bear in a few more hours. I dk.

So, my feelings on this game are so mixed. I want to give it a 10, but I also want to give it an 8. So I gave it a 9. It's best summarized this way: it's just SO MUCH FUN usually. Like Fallout, the Environment is the true star (at least so far, I'm 40 hours in) and the gameplay is just ok, but feels super fun. It just IS Mad Max. Good: Accomplishments: I love the screens when you dismantle enemy camps and do other objectives; I LOVE when a designer adds that extra zing to acknowledge what you have done. Atmosphere 10. Bonus: NAILS Mad Max. Fighting: 8. Fights are visceral and more nuanced that critics give it, but not that hard usually and a bit simpler than batman. Car battles are very exciting, again directly out of the movie. Fun Factor: Generally 10. It plays better than it is really is. If that makes sense. The game is really a solid 7 or 8 but "feels" like a 10 a lot of the time. Graphics: 10. I dk what engine this is, but it's gorgeous photorealistic eye candy on par with Frostbite and Lithtech. Level Design: 8. Each place feels very different even though there are obvious similarities. I never felt like they just carbon copied each location. Some of them really stunned me even after hours and hours of play. If after you dispatch the baddies you just love taking in the sights from a rusty walkway towering above the mountains overlooking a forlorn desert at nightfall, or the eerie survival horror of going down a ladder into a dark dungeon, it's good stuff. Never gets boring. Except for one criticism: it's great there are certain things that need to be crowbarred or stomped or exploded open, but there's rarely any mystery or strategy to it. Speech: Again, beautiful finished touches. Chumbucket never seems to run out of new things to say. Don't get me wrong. He repeats himself a lot. But just when I thought I heard it all, he says something new. Samething with the strongholds and Griffa. Haven't run out of new compliments or insults or insights. Amazing. I LOVE the developers put that level of care into it. *** Ok now the bad: Car: Some people claim the upgraded magnum opus is amazing. I've got 40 hours into the game and even the crappiest buggy can still outrun me no problem with fairly upgraded v6 stuff, when I'm driving perfectly on asphalt. Something's off here, but maybe I just need to figure it out. Confusing mechanics: It took me awhile to get certain concepts like how to listen to the dog barking (it makes diff noises) or watch for clues in the environment that something's there. Same thing with using the harpoon; I could highlight enemy tires but then not doing anything b/c the harpoon wasn't good enough but no warning. Constant Enemies: I don't understand how some people said there are no enemies to fight. Every 2 seconds, I'm just trying to explore or take care of an objective, I get overrun but highly armored annoying baddies. Don't get me wrong. Sometimes the random encounters are fun, but not every 2 minutes. By mid game it's just super annoying IMHO. Gameplay: Ok, critics bash the game for its rinse repeat nature. I liked it. Because relics tell the story of the Fall and other events, it made scavenging worthwhile. I mean, it's basically Fallout in MM. That said, there are few things that could use improvement: (1) a penalty for dying? other than pride? (2) once you build strongholds, scrap and ammo accumulates to the point there's no point scavenging anything except for relics; the fact that strongholds give you bonuses is awesome but also ultimately detracts from the horror survival aspect (3) more realism (see below) (4) you can use fast travel to escape certain death; they might want to restrict it (yeah yeah I know, I can always restrict it myself, still...) (5) combat is very good, but not quite all the way there yet. Map: UGH! The water markers constantly disappear off it unless you're near. I can't tell you how annoying this is. You need water as a med kit and they hide it from you. Even after you discover it. But not always. It's random. OCD: Critics nailed it that sometimes trying to loot each location is an OCD nightmare. Most times its really fun to explore every nook and cranny but sometimes I HAD to go to the internet to find it. Realism: Yeah um right. Ok, I get it. You're Mad Max, but you can drive off a cliff and suffer no damage. You can also get run over a car a few times. Head on. I mean, if they animated you dodging aside at the last minute or something maybe. Storms: The big storm was a great idea that in truth is a terrible idea. You get like 10 seconds warning, and then it's often impossible to find cover in time. Your car is safe but it's not. You can't heal in your car. And then enemies, immune to the storm themselves, often find and attack you in the middle of it. (silver lining) I found you can fast travel at will and avoid it. ***

Truly amazing. Just like F3 and FNV but better. Each area feels different, and the verticality of downtown Boston is amazing. Everything is connected at level and above, giving you seemingly unending paths to take and watch your back from. Power Armor is balanced by having VATS drain it significantly, and personally I love the new Perk System (its seems cleaner to me than the old Skills system). Sure, it could have been ported better and that makes me angry, but the reality is, mods will fix that and the game is just awesome. About 250 hours and only have seen maybe 60% of the map.

This game is virtually perfect. At first I was kinda disappointed but with the recent patches, and with continued game play where I failed to realize the dept of this game, I am more than impressed; I am in awe. The reasons are (1) depth (2) love (3) flexibility (4) the best UI I ever have seen. (1) Depth: There are so many bazillion ways that units interact, you would need a super computer to keep track. You have race, class, spells, active terrain, items, hero upgrades and experience. So my Evangelist could be totally different from yours; that doesn't even cover the terrain changes you can make to the map or strategy you can follow to win (2) love: they could have shipped the game without all the really nice touches - the way the dragon breathes fire out of its mouth while resting on the map; the reflective water that if you zoom into it, cascades around the rocks foaming, the highly customized sound effects so that when a Eldritch Horror dies it THUMPS to the ground, etc. etc. These designers cared. (3) flexibility: you can play it like fantasy Civ. but if you're like me miss AOW1, you can recreate that experience!! At first I didn't think you could and was very disappointed, but if you turn off city building, and start with few cities you can further customize the map anyway you want. I played with my vision of an old empire in decay (like the Romans) with few roads, few cities, and many ruins to explore. This means cities are few and far between but there are many places to explore and pillage. (4) finally the UI is flawless. One unit could have like 20 buffs and de-buffs - i kid you not. but click it and first of all you can find out what those buffs are and the reason you have them; then over of an enemy and the computer will tell you EVERYTHING. Positive attack factors in green, negative attack factors in red, and your range of damage FOR EACH ATTACK type. WOW. I could go on. And of course there are some flaws, but really nothing worth mentioning. If you like the original AOW or fantasy turn based, this game is a must. I didn't like it first, but now I realize how wrong I was.

This 2006 game is still SO MUCH fun. The graphics are a bit retro but are so colorful the space battles still stand up BEAUTIFULLY! And all the sounds are completely licensed from Lucas Arts. I haven't seen such a balance between abilities and weaknesses of different factions (Empire, Rebels, Zann Consortium (criminal syndicate), since Star Craft. And both land and space battles require complex balancing of mixed forces. Generally, with few exceptions, you can't just build imperial star destroyers and expect to take on swarms on rebel fighters or proton frigates, they will surprisingly eat you alive without proper escorts. To say nothing of strategically managing the planetary map (balancing what kind of buildings you build on your planets). And the AI is quite good, both tactically and strategically. The only drag is the sometimes brutally repetitive nature of some of the attacks. Pro Tip: If you use auto-resolve, often times you will lose seemingly hopeless battles (or win some easy ones with ridiculous loses). BUT, if you begin the tactical combat and then use the Fast Forward button, and sit back and watch, you may very well win, and win with no or few losses. It takes 2-3 minutes but it's worth it (Advanced Pro Tip: If you do this, I think you still manually need to fire the planet based weapons, so un-FF and then fire, and re-FF). Example, being rusty at this game, as the all powerful Empire, I laughingly got my rear end kicked all the way back to Coruscant, was invaded, and almost lost the game, but was forced to think of inventive new strategies to claw my way back up, using a combination of land based hypervelocity cannons to secure my local space, and researching powerful new techs, which also opened up new "hero units" such as Captain Piett (with a suped up star destroyer) and Darth Vader (with an Executer Class Super Star **** Command Ship), which turned the tide. I highly recommend this game for anyone who wants the ultimate RTS Star Wars experience done really well, even if the graphics (particularly the land battles) are a bit dated.

I have withdrawn my support from this game. I have over 400 hours in this game. I have had many wonderful communications with the developers, and I rarely have seen such customer support or heart. The game is beautiful and despite its "repetitiveness" I can't stop playing. It is beautiful and challenging in a way I almost never see in other similar games, even the Civ series. However, I cannot finish the campaign properly because my Shard just freezes and crashes. Over and over again, it has been one thing or another. And, finally, I have reached my limit. This game has had more bugs than any other game I ever have played COMBINED. Given my penchant for Bethesda games, that says a lot. It saddens me very deeply to write this. I know the devs, will say, no wait, send us your save game, we will try and fix it, but it's too late. I'm sick and tired of this. I have enough frustration in my life without constantly fighting this game and acting as a Beta Tester. I do appreciate their help and their personal support. For that I will be forever grateful. But for now, I am too tired in the real world to deal with needless issues in this virtual one. In six months, perhaps I will give the game another try, but for now I must recommend people stay away from this radioactive rubble. Sorry.

I really want to like this game. But many aspects are frustrating. I spend a lot of time looking for merchants, b/c I haven't memorized their location in each town, and unlike SWOTOR, they aren't all grouped in the same place. There is no easy map of the towns. You can only see a little bit at a time, and you can't scroll the map, either. Worst of all, quests send you to a place, then you have to go all the way back, then complete the quest, and then many of them send you right back to the original place for the second part. Really? I spent a lot of time just traveling not fun traveling, just busy work traveling. And worse, you need to feed your mounts or gas up your vehicles while doing all this repetitive craziness. Finally the gfx just disappoint utterly. They are very low resolution. Also, this is common to all MMOs, but I wish the re-spawn rate was just a little slower, so I could explore a bit more, before having to fight off the same opponents, in the same area. On the plus side, the mix of real action and rpg elements, appeals greatly to me and no one does it, so huge kudos there. The only other benefit is its free. Also, until Fallout 4 comes out, we are stuck with this. If you want your Fallout fix, this will do for now. If they would fix some of these annoying quirks, it could be more fun, and I would rate it a 7. If they improved the gfx, I would give it an 8.

I have about 40 hours into this game and so far, I would say it's a 10. I dk the reason so many people disliked it, other than all I can say is that I have been an avid PC gamer my whole life, but shied away from MMOs, except Anarchy Online which I never could really get into. They just weren't my thing. However, this combination of story driven/MMO really bridged the gap for me. I can play alone or with others at any time, it's great. The graphics are retro but clean crisp, the stories are really fun, and the Star Wars atmospheres are just amazing, both in creativity and in breadth (politically as well as environmentally). And it's free, so if you're not sure, try it out. If you like it, try buying a few Cartel Coins to get a couple of unlocks and you will become a Preferred Player which is better anyway and not that expensive.

It took me awhile to get into this game. The first two missions were meh and I hate the Unreal graphics engine - the gfx look about 10 years old in some ways. However, the game really picks up afterwards. The plot was very interesting and it was all around a good stealth shooter.

Ok, I'm now well in the middle of this game and this game is very much a successor to Risen, with all of its same characteristics. Very open environments; the islands are so lush and winding, that without a seachart (and sometimes even with it) I become hopelessly lost again and again - in a good way! The graphics in town are not so good, but on the islands are beautiful and the character sheet is extremely pleasing to the eye. The Save system is surprisingly very PC friendly, the way all games SHOULD be but never are - holding several quick save positions and allowing you to name your own save files; it's also extremely stable permitting Alt-Tabbing galore to quickly check email without exiting game and hasn't crashed yet. I LOVE the slow xp system that also forces you to accumulate gold to level up skills - it makes the game very very challenging. Finally, the combat is love/hate. It is VERY complicated beyond belief. Once you get the hang of it, it gets a lot more fun; I think you have patience you will come to enjoy it immensely. And Skyrim could learn something from the good and varied voice acting here. So far, VERY fun.

I really wanted to give this game a low score - it so clearly a bad port from consoles, where I cannot even configure the number pad separately from anything else - I mean it so aggravating, it's aggrifying (horrifyingly aggravating). That said, the is addictively fun. It is an very linear FPS with a bare but serviceable story, but everything clicked - for meat least: simple but fun racing, a good shoot em up, the beautiful scenery, the story, and the building weapons, even the minigames were both original and fun and that never happens. The FPS elements are awesomely butter smooth - I have never seen AI so good at evading you while coming toward the player AND the most amazing thing I ever have seen - actual acknowledgement of where they got shot. If you shoot an opponent in the side, he will grab his side; if you shoot him in the leg, he will limp. Also, they acknowledge your weapons and take evasive action accordingly ("watch out he is has a wingstick!"). I had a lot of fun customizing and building weapons; it's sort of up to you - do you prefer to build robots to walk alongside you, or just buy lots of armor and shoot it out. They have a stealth system but it's very very primitive at best, but you can try it. Finally, even though the game is not very hard per se (even Hard was very easy but hard on your ammo), they do keep uping the challenge level as you go, with enemies having more armor, or using creative tactics. At first, I though ho-hum they will just keep reusing the same space with the same boring enemies - they do reusue a lot of space, but it's done creatively and also there are some stunning surprises like Dead City or the Jackal bandits which was nothing short of AMAZING. So, I'll give it an 8, even though arguably it is really a 7.

This game was excellent. Amazing art work, fun game play, excellent save points. Good story for the most part, sometimes really excellent depending on choices. Yah the ending was a tad confusing at best, but it's no excuse to rate the game that poorly otherwise. I could have done with less exposition; sometimes I felt like I was watching TV at times rather than playing the game, but otherwise everything you could have wanted in a ME game. And the multiplayer gimmick was annoying but unnecessary - I achieved full War Assets even with only a 50% War Readiness rating. Overall, I would say ME2 was my favorite, but this was a worthy successor.

Ok, after 110 hours I am prepared to change my review from an 8 to a 10. I gave it an 8 originally because (1) I was cheesed off that Bethesda still largely blew off the PC community with its interface design and limit for 2GB for memory (2) and also there were a number of things that really should have been better since Oblivion, and some were and others not so much. All that said, look - Bethy makes its games totally open source and supports PC people mucking around, so of course, the modding community fixed everything, Bethy is trying harder to make good in some ways for PC users after the fact, and finally - look, I spent 110 hours in the game, and it's not perfect but it STILL SURPRISES me, which I thought impossible. It could always be better and it should be slightly better, but maybe there is no way to make a game this big, that responsive to so many diff players. I mean, I've only finished 20% of the game, so what's that going to be? 1,000 hours? and 3 years from now, I will play it as a diff character with 100 mods. If that's not a 10 what is? Thanks Bethy.

After FINALLY finished this game after about 50+ hours (I explore everything - twice when you revisit locations; amazing what you missed or can access with new augs!!), it's still a 10, like a rated it after 6 hours of play. Sure the inventory control is sticky (why?) and many NPCs have the shakes (um why?) but it is true to the original - nonlinear play (um, this isn't a sandbox like Oblivion tho) should you cloak and zip passed the cameras, or evade the guards, or walk around the roof and float down if you have the right aug to get to your objective, etc. It is very PC friendly (with one exception below), allowing you to save almost anywhere at any time and good remapping of key ability. It has COMMON SENSE - thank you for not making us RE-FIGHT the last boss to see all the endings. Sheesh I hate that. My only real criticisms are (1) I had trouble mass delete saved games; i.e. i couldn't go into the directory and delete 80 games at once, b/c it would still think they were there - very frustrating and (2) it should let you have more than 100 saves. Finally, sometimes it felt a bit too easy even on the very hardest difficulty (3) I tried very hard to get a pacifist rating but i guess i blew it somewhere without knowing it - sigh; would have been nice to know where so I could re-load... (4) and finally, I felt like maybe there should be more enemies if you get caught or something. I played non-lethal all the way (so I thought; maybe i screwed up the beginning scene) and sneaked passed everyone or took them out quietly. But you could play through WAY faster just popping everyone in the head.MINOR BUT NECESSARY SPOILER (below): XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXWait out the credits for secret scene.

This is the ultimate D&D experience and successor to Baldurs Gate; the game IMHO is flawless. The element that impressed me the most is the LOVE and disproportionate time that went into the design of this game, which includes the artwork, conversations and choice trees along the plot. Even the monster battle tactics and animations were varied, rich and awesome. The designers did not simply place cookie cutter dungeon walls that all look the same here and there, or cheap out on voice acting. No, the did the exact opposite. Every room looks lovingly designed to be slightly different. In a warehouse? Each room, has a different seemingly real world appearance that is different from one another. Ditto with the Dwarven caverns, and human castles, etc. Each character has a distinct personality. Does the thief use a different sword animation when she backstabs? you bet! And it looks pointy and deadly! Does the golem rock the ground simply by walking alongside you? Yes, nice touch. When a spider overwhelms your character and feasts on your prone body does it look disgusting and horrifying. Yup. Characters have different conversations with each other depending on who is in your party AND what you have accomplished in the plot and your choices. Your choices have a real impact on your game. You can even KILL some of the people that would have joined your party otherwise. It is truly mind boggling how many different plot twists there are depending on your started with (hence the origins) and what you do, and how you choose to do it. And, I know many of you are not big fans of cinematic sequences here, but the acting is really good - one scene, in a human castle, potentially was brutally heart wrenching, depending on how you chose to solve the issue. Others here, no doubt covered the controls, the plot, etc. I liked it all, honestly, But the real point is that at a time when designers push products out the door that all look the same and bang for the buck, you KNOW they spent far far more time than they had to, to make a good game here.

This game is completely laggy. I have an I7-920 integrated quad core at 2.67 ghz,9GB RAM, with an Nvidia GTX260 with 896MB RAM. It doesn't even make much sense because I lowered the settings from Very High textures to High, but that only slightly improved performance. Same with shadows. My rig is only 2 years old and should not have this kind of issue with a 2010 game. I have no trouble running other games yet this one is choppy as anything. Otherwise, the gameplay reminds me of one of my favorite games of all time, AVP2. However, it's hard to play much since I'm often getting pauses and maybe 25 FPS.

10 for graphics. 10 for storyline. I don't play zombies but that was absolutely hilarious the way you did it so 9. 10 for game play. 5 for bugs THAT FORCED ENTIRE RESTART OF LEVELS! 8 for relatively decent checkpoint placement but not perfect. 10+10+8+10+5+7=8 overall. Look, I dk about the MP, but if it weren't for the bugs, the single player was absolutely nothing less than amazing, so I dk what's with the Haters here. What more could you want from SP??

Maybe the score should be 10/6 for outdoor vs. indoor play only b/c my computer could do cartwheels outside with a 100 enemies and have no FPS lag whereas indoors it stuttered like crazy despite the specs of my super computer - how counter intuitive is that?? If/when they patch it properly probably a true score would be 9. Anyway, what can I say? more Fallout 3 but improved with Hardcore mode (the only way to play) and a Western theme. Despite my frustrations inside, love it. Also wish creatures would not respawn all the time (even mods didn't seem to stop it). Oh and get the RACE mod and the song packs - Bethesda's radio was a cute idea (again) but they need the 1-200 extra songs modders put in for them.

There's a part of me that wants to score this lower because when will game designers learn to make checkpoints AFTER the speeches. It's frustrating to hear the same speech 100x when trying to pass a difficult scene - is this just meant to make you feel the pain of war more?!?! That said overall good game. I notice there are no friendly fire deaths with this which takes some of the challenge away but on the other hand i probably would have broken something out of frustration, so good call...

I base this rating on pure fun value. This is hands down the best combat system ever in any RPG anywhere; it is extraordinarily challenging without being gimmicky. No matter how strong you are, if you get lazy, a pack of wolves will eat you b/c they will use good AI and surround you so that one distracts you while another eats you. Progress is slow but steady and you can design the character you want. With perseverance, luck and skill, you *might* beat something relatively much stronger than you and then reap your xp and treasure rewards out of proportion to your level which is my favorite thing about well designed RPGs as they reward courage and creativity. But mostly likely you will be reloading a lot! (as you should). And don't even think about the toughest creatures until you are truly advanced. The graphics while a bit dated but beautiful render cilnky skeletons and icky giant moths; even the wolves have menacing yellow eyes and sping tingling growls. And the real star is the gorgeous FarCry-esque seascapes, with hidden paths and easter eggs everywhere. Even after 25 hours I still was surprised to suddenly realize an area I knew really well, actually bent back across the mountain to something else I knew... speaking of which, the map design is brilliant. There are shortcuts all over but you won't be able to use them until you are powerful enough to be where you should be because the monsters guarding them are either very tough or numerous - so it's not gimmicky at all, just well thought out and immersive. Honestly, I should rate this game a 9 b/c the combat was a bit tricky in the beginning and the quest system definitely needs a lot more help in figuring out, both of which sent me to the walkthroughs more than once. But if you don't mind doing that once in a while this game is a 10. Otherwise, it's still a 9.