I'm a big fan of VP. I love the strategy aspect, and for me, no other Civ series comes close to VP. VII's hardest difficulty was too easy. The AI is only slightly better than VI, but it's still not enough to feel strategic. I don't expect the AI to get smart overnight, but the game mechanics are pretty refreshing and I think it has potential. I'd give it a solid 7/10, but I'm holding off on a full recommendation because of its incompleteness. I don't think it's worth $70+. If you're more into board games and activities like VI than strategy, it's probably better to wait for a sale in a year or two. If you're looking for strategic fun, I wouldn't recommend VII.
The city management and overall gameplay is more complex than its predecessor. I think many people enjoy watching their empire grow, similar to SimCity. The game features are more complex and there's more to learn, but it's still enjoyable and addictive. The problem is that the AIs are poor at managing their empires and are too stupid to engage in rational diplomacy. Their combat is also so pathetic that I almost feel sorry for them. Playing hard by yourself against a bunch of idiots who are dumber than barbarians somehow makes you feel like a child playing with plastic battle toys, and it's childish.
The graphics are adequate and recreate the era well enough to enjoy. The game makes various attempts to overcome the traditional narrative of a detective game. The game is friendly, so it's easy to pick up and even those unfamiliar with the genre can have fun. There are also six cases, so you get your money's worth. Now for the cons. The most problematic is that the game is too easy. Even if you're not familiar with the genre, the game is too one-dimensional and almost 99% of gamers will get through it without getting stuck. The only difficult part is the deduction process that leads to the final case. Again, after the first case, it gets easier and easier, and you'll rarely get more than one wrong. Therefore, those who are familiar with the genre will probably not enjoy the game due to its linear gameplay and easy deduction. However, the game does a good job of building up a variety of gadgets and storylines to make you feel like you're experiencing Sherlock Holmes first-hand, and it's well worth it.
The story is too juvenile to keep me interested in the game mechanics, which are quite interesting, and I quickly became bored. I felt like I was being forced to watch a teenage drama.
I don't know why the game has such a large map. For someone who hasn't played this genre of game, it's hard to see why the map is so large, because games with maps of this size have a lot of interactive things laid out on the map, but this game is just a bunch of locked houses. There's also a lack of motivation about how the game is progressing. I can see how a gamer with experience in this genre might be intrigued by this non-linear puzzle structure. I wasn't, and the feeling of walking around the map and solving puzzles simply to collect pieces of text or keys was, quite frankly, like doing the dishes.
It has the worst UI. If any simple event happens, you have to deal with it with tons of scrolling and clicking. The game mechanics are pretty sophisticated and fun.
The AI is so good that, to be honest, gamers are busier than in previous versions. This is a plus, but they haven't capitalized on it. The problem is the campaigns. The AI in the campaign is split between stupid and very good. There's no decent difficulty level, and the resource gathering and defense leaves no room for historical fun. Gamers who are good at custom games and multiplayer will have no problem with this, but for a campaign-oriented gamer like me, it's not even enjoyable, which is why I gave it a low score. I'll be putting it away to wait for a mod with campaign tweaks or a long wait for a patch.
The game lacks narration. I mean the lack of motivation to continue the game. The main character starts on a raft without any explanation. It feels like a cheap mobile game. I can't access the story until I've built an antenna and a receiver, and that's a long time, so I'm pretty much stuck with no story progression. Items are consumed too quickly from a single player perspective. Clearly, item consumption in multiplayer and single player should be different. Furthermore, easy difficulty doesn't seem to make much of a difference in item durability. When I see the same item being crafted again and again and items that require hard-to-find metals being consumed so easily, I can't bring myself to go through the pain of collecting items over and over again. It's a frustrating experience. The survival mechanics are pretty solid and crafting items is quite enjoyable. I felt like it would be fun to play solo, but it's probably much more enjoyable in multiplayer because of the tedious tasks I mentioned above.
The survival mechanics are revealed in bits and pieces, so it looks pretty challenging, but it's simplified by the lack of threats in the jungle. The main threats are small animals that you shouldn't step on and menacing large beasts that you need to kill. The art of dealing with these is not difficult and from then on the jungle becomes boring and a wayfinding game for the story. Still, the initial struggle to survive is quite enjoyable. The natives are human, but they lack intelligence and aggression. Moreover, they are weak and boring. Their tribes and scouting groups should be more numerous, more belligerent, better at setting traps, and better at dragging animals around to harass Jake. The second half of the game would have been much more tense and interesting with more natives trying to destroy the scouts and the main character's dwelling. The story is decent, but the resolution of the good ending is a bit too cheesy. This needs to be tightened up.
The game is exhausting and full of negativity. Too much micromanagement. The gameplay is different from the previous scenario, but the storm is coming and every hour is imminent. It is the characteristic of this game company that constantly exhausts gamers. It's kind of fun, but after a while, it's just annoying because I can't afford it. After completing the A New Home mission, I don't want to play the game again. I tried to go through The Arks scenario, but I have to repeat what I did in the previous mission. Micromanaging people's well-being is frankly boring and annoying. I persevered and continued, but soon got annoyed with the warning that the temperature would drop and destroy the seeds, so I couldn't play the game anymore. Nonetheless, I overcame it. But another ordeal is coming. I start to wonder why I have to endure trials harder than my life in a game. Too much to worry about and people being impatient makes me impatient. Everything must be operated manually by the leader. There is no relaxation like SimCity, and it is close to micromanaging every moment. There is no fun in collecting and managing resources and worrying about welfare.
The game is enjoyable enough to learn some game system. As time goes by, there are so many things to worry about that I get distracted. Most of them are resource management, so I'm not interested. It is historically realistic for Vikings to live by fishing, gathering, hunting, farming, and running blacksmiths, bards, and distilleries. But wasting an hour or more on this in a game is boring.
Overall, Although it is a remaster version, the game is too old to enjoy in 2021. - Remastered game, but no Rally point? Really? - Ai pathfinding is just a mess. Units move around and die easily each time. This is a very annoying experience. - Game missions are too easy or hard; did you enjoy mission of Nod 8? I gave it up, these challenges give someone fun but not me. - Story has nothing interesting. Follow orders. Kill someone. Someone dies... blah blah... provides no knowledge of the background of the game. I would have played hard as a member of Nod's brother if they provided the story, at least in text. - The speed at which resources are depleted on the map is too fast. Give me time to think about strategy, In this remastered version, resources have become very slow to regenerate. WTF? - It's very hard to build a multi-base like StarCraft. However, Harvester, the only hope, is a slow and expensive stupid unit. - AI cheats a lot even in Normal difficulty; I've never seen AI cheat in an AOE series or StarCraft, WarCraft series. At least I never felt that way at a difficulty similar to Normal.
