astralphoenix77

Shadowrun Returns is indeed a return, to the classic style of CRPGs, and is a game full of story-driven intrigue and interesting gameplay concepts. Sadly it fails to execute all of them very well. Combat is fairly solid but very simplisitic, with the exception of the matrix system, which adds an interesting level of depth. There are plenty of skills and abilities to choose from in both worlds, although class choice seems to not make much of a difference, oddly. The gunplay could definitely have used an aimed shot system and a bit more flavour generally, such as interesting banter and insults along the lines of the old Fallout games. As it stands, non-matrix combat basically winds up as 'take cover, then left-click on enemies to win'. The story, dialogue, descriptive text and characters are Shadowrun Returns' strongest point. The game's storyline always left me wanting to come back for more, and the world is full of colourful characters from all sorts of backgrounds. It's nice to see a bunch of supporting NPC party members who are actually tied into the main plot as well, and not random guns-for-hire. Unfortunately, this game has a couple of irritating design choices that really drag it down. The first is the lack of a manual save or quicksave feature, the game relying entirely on checkpoints that are way too few and far between, often forcing you to sit through reams of dialogue again and again, or forcing you to restart an entire area because you made a conversation choice or hack that didn't go as intended. Does it prevent save-scumming? Yes, but in the most tedious and irritating way. The second problem, and one that ties in with the first, is one I'd hoped had died with the Baldur's Gate series when it came to party-based RPGs: game over on main character death. Given the classic nature of the game I could overlook this minor irritant, but combined with the saving issue it results in you often running and hiding with your main character in any sort of challenging combat. This isn't so much out of fear of dying generally as not wanting to sit through 10-15 minutes of bloody dialogue again on restart. So the net result a great story and setting with mostly solid, if somewhat shallow gameplay, sadly brought down significantly by a major design choice mistake, in my opinion. It's fortunate the story always brings me back quickly, otherwise this is exactly the kind of game I could rage-quit after an unlucky roll or two, and then not revisit it for 18 months. And that would be a shame. Add 3 points to the rating if they ever patch in a proper save system.

One of the most beloved PC RPGs returns, but all is not nostalgically rosy, and it's not because of any lessening of the quality of the content through modern eyes, but rather the lack of value this version of the game represents. All the game does is take the (free) Tutu engine modification, slap it on, add a couple of new characters and quests, and triple the price of the game. They also managed to introduce a load of new bugs into the game that community patches had mostly fixed with the old versions. Of course, those community patches now don't work properly with this version, so it's technically inferior as well. Here in the UK, this game costs £14.99 on Steam. Alternatively, you can buy the entire Baldur's Gate series from **** collectively for £13.26 ($19.98), and apply the free Tutu mod (or BG Trilogy mod if you prefer, which does a similar thing) to get about three times the content for a lower cost. Do that instead of buying this.

Guild Wars 2 was hyped as a revolutionary breath of fresh air in the MMO genre, so what did we get? Let's take a look. Gameplay mechanics: combat was a big disappointment, with fixed weapon skills creating some of the most shallow combat mechanics I've ever seen. My Guardian deals with every enemy in the game in the same way: 4, 2, 3, 1-1-1. It gets dull after 3,000th enemy. Events and champion fights turn into a huge zergfest where the much-vaunted inter-player combo system gets lost amidst a hail of skill FX and isn't required anyway. +Power/+Precision/+Critical Damage (PPCD) items are the only thing of any importance, since you take so much damage from enemies (sometimes up to 75% of your max HP in a single hit from some standard enemies) that any pretense of boosting your defence is a joke. As a result, PPCD equipment costs 10x as much as other equipment on the trading system (which is thankfully now up). However, balance issues are to be expected on a new MMO release and so I'll give ArenaNet some leeway on this. Crafting is done better than in most MMOs, with little things like speeding up crafting of large numbers of items and the deposit all collectibles being welcome additions to a feature that can be a painful experience in other MMOs. The amount of EXP that can be gleaned from crafting, however, is in my opinion far too high and I reckon I got at least 1/3 of my levels from crafting (Lv.80 max, so 25-ish levels). Story: since this game is a true persistent-world MMO, the story takes a back seat, unlike the original Guild Wars where instancing (whatever you thought about it) did allow for an unusually good story-driven experience in PvE. Guild Wars 2 lacks the suspense and intrigue of the original story, since you know who the big bad is right from the start, and plays out largely forgettably and predictably. Discussion and cutscenes have been relegated to little conversations on a background, which is disappointing, lacking the cinematic story-driven experience of Guild Wars. My advice: do not play GW2 for the story. World PvE: The Renown Heart system and Dynamic Events were pedalled as the best thing since sliced bread by both ArenaNet's marketing division and various professional reviewers. Obviously these people had not done their research, as Warhammer Online had done this sort of public quest system back in 2008, to quite considerable success. GW2 lifted it, divided it, and gave us Renown Hearts, which are fetch/kill quests under any other name, but they work okay; and dynamic events, which can be fun but often suffer through having either too many players (zerg) or too few (impossible to complete). The Vistas and Skill Point Challenges are a nice touch, but the whole game feels very meta as a result and it ruins immersion somewhat. PvP: I have personally found PvP to be a mixed bag in this game. sPvP with teams of randomly assigned players going up against each other is quite fun and requires some degree of tactical skill. Lobbing trebuchets at your guildmates (who happened to be assigned to other team) is great fun. The WvW unfortunately is not so good at the moment as, like the major PvE events, it degenerates into a monstrous zergfest where the server with the most players (usually the French in my case) online always controls everything and everyone else gets diddly-squat. ANet needs to balance this, perhaps by limiting the number of players on each battlefield to an amount equal to that of the smallest actively represented server, but we shall see. Graphics: this game is beautiful, boasting the highest graphical fidelity I have ever seen in an MMO, and it is impressive. On the other hand, the game's engine optimisation and netcode are poor at the moment to say the least, but hopefully there will be some patches that address my 3 frames per second in a zerg against a champion boss. With regards to the art style, some people will like the new, more vibrant art style, while others (especially some fans of the original Guild Wars) will lament the move to a world that is more like WoW in both colour and feel, including the cheesiness of the NPCs. Music/SFX: The music is almost entirely ripped from the first Guild Wars, so it's a bit of a cop-out frankly. Otherwise sound effects are solid, but unspectacular. There really is not much more to say about it. Verdict: ArenaNet took everything that was great about Guild **** threw it into a fire. Instead, they made a WoW clone and stole WAR's public quest/event system as its driver. In fairness, the aspects that have been borrowed are well implemented. But there is nothing innovative about Guild Wars 2. Shallow combat and lack of high-end content mean you will probably drop this game after a couple of months. If ANet can get balance updates and new content in my opinion may improve, but right now this game is a rough diamond at best.