HapexIndustries

Certainly enjoyable, an excellent example of adventure gaming in first person, and a decent story but... 2 hours of gameplay? Zero replayability? That's fine too, for 5-10 bucks, but 20$ is just too much for a one time experience like this. Amnesia (or the sequel) is the same price and offers so much more, as do many other first person or adventure games. I liked this game, I really did, and I don't want to come down on it too hard, but... again, two hours of non-replayable gameplay is just not enough for the price tag. I hope the developers make more games like this; maybe they can release them cheaper using the same engine? I hope so because I will not be purchasing any of their releases at full price after this.

There are 3 things you won't expect in this game: first, how dark and interesting the story is; second, how many bugs there are; third, how quickly it ends. With occasional assistance from the in-game help system, I finished this game in under 5 hours, getting all three endings. I found it to be very well done and thoroughly enjoyable and yet way, waaaay too short for a full price purchase. If the game were twice as long I'd be giving it a 7 for STILL being kind of short. Then there are several extremely annoying bugs, the worst of which are sequences in the game where your inventory either becomes invisible or vanishes entirely. Kind of a big deal in an adventure game. As it is, I have to give the game a 5 if you pay full price, 6 if it's patched properly. If you somehow get it for 10-20 bucks, or money is no object to you, that review goes up to an 8.5.

Simply put, this is a terrible port. Lackluster visuals (basically no display options or antialiasing), sluggish performance (frames per second capped at 30 for no conceivable reason), poorly optimized code, audio popping, wonky controls, DRM (need an internet connection everytime you play), etc. The game itself is pretty good but the presentation is so poor that it doesn't matter. Patches could help, but as it is I'm giving it a six out of ten, and 2 of those points are because I like god games. I think the reviewers that gave this a 90% should be ashamed of themselves.

A perfect point-and-click adventure game, with just enough innovation to be surprisingly fresh. An interesting story, an intuitive interface, good writing, quick pace, and classic old-school visuals. This game is very reminiscent of the old late 90's game Beneath a Steal Sky (which you can get for free by joining a certain "good old games" direct download site), but without the zany humor. The puzzles are manageable, the more arcadey aspects are actually fun, and the atmosphere is awesome. I had a good time all the way to the end, which unfortunately isn't that long. Less than 10 hours, I'm guessing, maybe less than 8, but it was a great time. Get it. Now.

Let me preface by saying I haven't played the multiplayer, so I can't comment on the game's value to MP enthusiasts. That said, this game is pretty awesome. It is mostly the same Dawn of War 2 gameplay (essentially an action-rpg with tactical elements more than it is an RTS) with some cool additions. You can now build units in the field, and the game features a Starcraft 2-esque unit upgrade system. It also, unlike the previous DoW2 games, has fully playable campaigns for every race, including the new Imperial Guard. This is what totally sold me on the game and I was not disappointed. The campaigns offer the opportunity to get accustomed to the specialized units each faction offers as well as presenting a sooooomewhat interesting story. There is a huge difference in how engaging each plot line is (the Tyranid hive mind just growls commands but the Ork pirates have some dialogs that I actually laughed out loud at), but for 30 bucks you really can't go wrong. After playing through the campaigns and familiarizing myself with all the units I feel like I can play multiplayer without being totally lost. Keep in mind: this is NOT a Starcraft 2 clone. There are no resource gatherers or crystals/wood/whatever to harvest. It is much more akin to an action RPG like Diablo than it is Starcraft or even Dawn of War 1, and despite the heavy micromanagement things usually don't get too out of control as you usually only control a handful of units. The game is by no means perfect: it's a little silly and requires a pretty good system to run well on higher detail levels. Also it gets a bit repetitive by the end, but the introduction of so many new hero units (your "avatar" characters throughout the campaign) makes for a much more interesting experience than Chaos Rising expansion (which added, ahem, ONE unit for the campaign). Also, Retribution DOES NOT require the previous Dawn of War 2 games to play or enjoy and is totally stand alone. It also removed the Games for Windows requirement that the previous games had (and was almost universally hated).