bronzi

Artifact (classic) is an amazing game, even as it stands now (totally abandoned). Had the developers supported it properly upon release (updates, game modes, balance changes, etc) it would have been very successful, I have no doubt. All of the problems with the game were with the game/tournament modes, lack of player progression, new player experience, and lack of support/updates. The fundamental gameplay is fantastic. At the first sign of trouble they scrapped the entire game and made a new, much worse version of Artifact from the ground up. I can't believe how little confidence Valve had in their own game. Many games have recovered from bad launches--Valve didn't even try. They trusted the judgment of the internet and endless superficial criticisms of the game, rather than their own hearts which guided them to create and release the game in the first place. They turned an absolutely great, unique, and destined to be classic game into an embarrassing footnote. Such a strange and sad situation. There's so much depth to the gameplay that it's still worth playing, potentially for many hours, despite being a dead game.

I loved single player Gwent in The Witcher games, and I have a fond recollection of the beta version of Gwent, but that's a distant memory at this point. The atmosphere and artwork is fantastic, the music is great, the card animations are mindblowing. There's a good progression system, and there's always something to do. Yet despite all of that, the current Gwent cardgame itself is just not that fun. I really want to like it more than I do for all the above reasons, but it gets boring quickly.

Have you ever gone to FedEx to have something printed? You sit down at the computer, and you're required to swipe your credit card in order to log in. You're charged by the minute while you putz around in your email and Photoshop trying to print your tax forms. Playing Magic Arena feels like that. Not only is it insanely greedy--it's an incredibly boring grind. There is no risk or reward in the tournaments or gameplay. You pay to do everything and you get almost nothing for it, except rote, impersonal, consequence-less games of MTG. The UI leaves a lot to be desired, the graphics (gameboards and effects) are mediocre, the "premium" cards look 10x better in Hearthstone or Gwent, even though they've made premium cards and avatars the primary reward in Magic Arena. There's no sense of playing against real people in the game, especially in drafts, since you're competing for your card picks against AI... They made opening packs and collecting the set un-fun, by creating the "wildcard" system, which makes the process of opening packs essentially filling up a progress/experience bar. I could not care less if I open a mythic rare. If you take a break from the game you will lose all your progress. New cards are constantly added to the "legacy" format--even beyond the cards rotating out of standard--in order to prevent you from easily playing with your long-term collection. Game modes, like "Brawl"--which don't require you to have up to date cards--still require you to pay (EXTRA) just for the privilege of playing a casual Magic The Gathering game mode with cards you already own... The entire system (far more than paper MTG even), feels like it's optimized in order to PREVENT you enjoying the game at all without spending a constant stream of money. This game has the worst monetization scheme of all the digital CCGs, even Hearthstone, even Artifact. Even the old Magic Online's notorious monetization scheme (which was a literal representation of the tabletop game) was better, because despite being crazy expensive there was a real sense of risk and reward, which is what makes the gameplay exciting. Magic Arena is such a soulless, corporate, **** ****, and the business attitudes behind it are bad news for MTG in general.

Wonderful story and atmosphere and quite disturbing indeed. By the end of the game I was really frustrated by how obtuse many of the puzzles are. I had to look up the solutions a fair few times, and often the solution is just nonsensical--throwing stones at an object to move or a break it, when a stone could clearly not move or break said object, as a generic example. That sort of thing tested my patience and took me out of the game, especially near the end, but it wasn't enough to ruin the experience.

This is probably the best story I've experienced in a video game. There's conceptual depth and many "wow" moments, not only in the game itself, but in the ways that it makes you think outside of the game. The puzzles are perfect. I'm so glad to play a puzzle game (of sorts) that I didn't have to get help with once. Everything is intuitive and sensical without feeling too easy. The puzzles don't feel like gameplay systems--each one feels like a unique and interesting challenge that you have to think about in real-world terms rather than in "game" terms. The end of the story is an incredible emotional and intellectual payoff. One of the most profound game experiences I've had.

The gameplay loop is kind of fun, though it's awfully superficial and repetitive. There's too much on the map, including totally unnecessary repeatable quests. The mediocre gameplay systems might be enough to carry a great story, but the story is the worst aspect of the game. It's incomprehensible, the dialogue is generally awful, and I don't care in the slightest about what's going on. It's a shame because there is a lot of inherent mystery and adventure in the setting of ancient Egypt, but it's not taken advantage of in the slightest. It feels like a generic revenge story that could be told in any setting and in any era.

Great storytelling and dialogue, and meaningful decision-making. The game overstays it's welcome by about 20 hours, and the puzzles require a great deal of patience. I ended up using a walk-through for many of the puzzle encounters, as I couldn't be bothered to even attempt them.

This game mostly consists of exploring lifeless rooms and frantically clicking on trash cans and file cabinets in order to loot their uninteresting contents. This, I imagine, is intended to paper over the fact that most of the levels have nothing interesting in them, and there is almost nothing to do, look at, or think about for a majority of the game. I have perhaps never played a game that felt so bereft of content. It felt at times as if opening cabinets was the primary game mechanic. The potential gravitas of the world is undermined by a cloying circus-like silliness throughout. The story is nonsensical. The entire game is a promise that you will eventually understand what's going on, but there's no payoff. Despite playing with quantum probabilities and alternate realities, the story is ultimately incredibly deterministic, and neither the player nor the player character seem to have any agency or free will in the slightest. The combat is not fun. I started the game on hard, but turned it down to normal because I had no desire to spend any more time in combat than was necessary to complete the story. At about hour 3, I was already looking forward to the end, while I held out hope that the story would redeem my boredom at some point. No such luck. I am amazed to have played a game with such high production values that ultimately amount to almost nothing of value. It was a valiant effort.