boredboredbored

I bought this game the day it came out and recently replayed it. Boy what a disappointment after COD4. No sense of pacing, level geograhy is a mess, constantly getting stuck against geometry, and utterly frustrating especially with the the US campaign. The story also jumps about (3 years in one hop) that leaves you feeling disconnected from the narrative. The only real highlight was the Battle of the Midway which was a little fun with decent music.

I love the stone age. I've been to the museum more times than I can count, and I always spend hours at the stone age exhibits. I reckon Farcry: Primal is the best FPS in the world. In other words: I really wanted to love this game. Now don't get me wrong, it's fun and great way to burn 10 hours or so, but without some serious expansion and ironing out of issues, it's not a fantastic game. There's no strategy for combat, it's just a blind rush of all your guys against all their guys. Building structure is infuriating as the terrain must be perfectly flat and it almost never is. Tribesmen always decided to go on marathon-long hunts in midwinter and end up dead unless you corral them like errant sheep. There's serious balance issues with domesticated animals and straw production. The camera controls are annoying and you can never get a good angle on anything. And there are UI issues with getting information on your settlement and the surrounding land. That said, if you're as keen on the stone age and ancient man as me, definitely get this game. If not...well...maybe wait for a Steam sale.

I won't reiterate what over three thousand other people have said. This is an amazing game. But I've been replaying it recently and what sticks out like a sore thumb is the terrible control of your character. He slips and slides everywhere like the floor is slicked with oil, and ladders are a near impossibility to navigate without taking damage.

If you ignore the last ten minutes of this game, it might be one of the best I've ever played. Unfortunately, the ending is a flaming trash-pile that disregards the philosophical themes of the series. Ignoring this, the combat is visceral, the characterization is detailed and believable, and atmosphere is both desperate and poignant. There's also finally a good balance between variety and focus when it comes to items and management of equipment. I give this game a cautious recommendation.

An absolute wreck ****. A thesis in itself for the justification of piracy. I still rage to this very day the hard-earned money I wasted on this. The absolute game-breaking issue? Combat. It happens every few minutes, and whoever lands the first hit wins. The character that gets hit undergoes an uninterruptable stagger, during which time if you are hit repeats. Get hit first, get hit constantly. A fully armoured tank can be wiped out by a rat if it gets hit first. This is injury added to the insult to the potential which the game offers. I saw the sprawling skill-tree begging to be explored, but never to be exploited. To hell with this game.

I wanted to like this game. I really did. It's set in my favourite historical period, it's an RPG, and it boasts realism and historical accuracy. I *really* wanted to like this game. Yet, it's riddled with bugs, which is nothing unique, but its utterly Spartan use of auto-saves and its use of an archaic and expensive save-game mechanic makes what should be a minor nuisance to a near game-breaking problem (you must drink a rare and costly potion to save your game). A weird glitch caused me suddenly float into the sky while using an alchemist bench, before plummeting to my death. My last save-point was three hours earlier. I don't know how my laptop survived being thrown out of the window. Combat is next to impossible - single combat can be fun in a challenging way - but as soon as there is a second opponent it's utterly impossible. The game uses an auto-lock-on feature, forcing you to face one attacker at time, making it nearly impossible to keep moving away from the second attacker. If there were some way to disable this "feature" combat would still be very difficult, but at least manageable. I really, really want to like this game. I'm crossing fingers and toes that they will release some desperately needed patches and re-work the save system. Until then, I'm afraid this game just isn't worth the price tag.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

The best city-building sim I've ever played, hands down, and i'm a huge fan of the genre. It's not without it's issues: there are a number of bugs, combat is poorly implemented, and there's often an issue of getting data about your city in a clear and timely manner to prevent disaster. Nonetheless this game is crazy fun; it's one of the few games where after clocking it on normal difficulty I play through again on hard, and then yet again on very hard. It isn't as lengthy as Pharaoh, but the game mechanics have been subtly tweaked and re-balanced for a more engaging and challenging game.

I have been playing this game since it first came out, but I have never finished it. Not for lack of trying; there are just so many missions and they take so long to complete that for whatever reason I lose my save files (hard drive failure etc). It's definitely one of my favourite city-building sims set in a time and place that I am fascinated with, but game-play-wise there are some tweaks that could have been implemented. For example, work places send out "walkers" to recruit workers on a regular basis. If these randomly-directed walkers fail, the work place shuts down. This limits your city design and you can't build or set roadblocks up in certain layouts. The combat also lacks any tactical flexibility and it's just a matter of spamming as many troops as possible. Despite these complaints it's still a really fun game that I play from time to time. Maybe one day I'll clock it.

I played this game to death back in high school. Absolutely loved the hard-science thematic approach. Unfortunately combat implementation is unimaginative and the two opposing sides have effectively the same units, just with different skins. There's no room for strategy or tactics, just micromanagement of your base and tank-rush tactics. It could have been so much more than it was with just a little more effort. I hope they make an Outpost 3 someday.

I am embarrassed to admit the number of hours I've sunk into this game. It scratches a nice itch for medieval simulation, even if the simulation aspects are a little superficial and the available mods don't expand on it much. Also, lacking a structured narrative can throw you a bit. Nonetheless, the mix of first person melee, real-time tactics, and strategic level micromanagement will keep you engrossed for months.

Viking Conquest manages to do right what Warband got wrong, and vice-versa. A wonderfully researched and carefully executed historical context and plot really draws you into the world; but on the flip side there is a definite lack of variety in units and equipment. I know it was for the sake of accuracy, but that doesn't mean it isn't missed. There are also some well appreciated realism features and gameplay tweaks that give VC the edge over Warband.

Sadly, a slip in quality from its predecessor (itself a mediocre yet crazy-fun action game). The designers hedged their bets with some flight-sim-ish features to the game like take off and landing, which ultimately detracted from mindless-action it should be good for.

Not the best game out there. I honestly don't know how the voice actors stifled their laughter at the inane, jingoistic dialog. But damn if this game isn't crazy amounts of fun. The plot doesn't make sense, lip-syncing doesn't exist, and there is a lack of variety in game mechanics. Despite all this, it is mindless, joyous, childish fun.

Probably my favourite game, definitely on my top 5. Bought it back in 2006 and eleven years later and I'm still playing it. Mods like Stainless Steel also inject longevity into the title. This is a true strategy game where careful planning and timing will almost always trump brute-force and tank-rush tactics. In my opinion the Total War serious went in a downward spiral after TW:M2, but what a peak it is.