gentlegiant03

I had some doubts about Spacebase DF-9 while playing the Alpha. I would start it up, explore the new additions to the game only to realize I was eventually only expanding my population, then quit. After a couple of patches it became obvious the evolution of this game could not be compared with Dwarf Fortress as it was originally pitched in Amnesia Fortnight. I would prefer to not let my score be swayed by the recent news this would be rocketed forward and released as a complete title. If I'm able to look past that and still objectively view at the game and decide whether it's still worth even a mediocre score - I would still rate it a 3 at best. What has been presented here is a little more than a demo's worth of gameplay for FAR too much price-tag. I feel my opinion is only validated by the actions of Double Fine - anyone who already purchased this game received Hack 'n' Slash for free and vice versa. Fine, I get it, this isn't news. And the notion that they've hurt the business model of alpha access games has already been stated. Ultimately, then, I can only affirm that notion and hope to prevent others from wasting their money. The current price tag of $20 is simply egregious.

I had been watching the development with the backer posts and my excitement was nearly palpable. Upon release I fired it up as quick as I could and felt engulfed in a spectacularly detailed game. The level of detail spent on this game feels so rare (which is likely a result of publisher deadlines), the voice acting, the environment, the art... I was sad to have completed it so quickly. I won't pine about how 'syntax guessing' adventure games are no more, Broken Age won't revive that style for you. Say what you will but this game received far more exposure to a wider demographic as a result, and I'm okay with that. My major gripe comes down to puzzles... Broken Age never gave me an "Aha!" moment. In the documentary Schafer even stated, in some fashion, that you need those moments in adventure games. You could argue that the aforementioned 'demographic reach' was the reason for this as well, but learning curves exist in most every video game. I'm hopeful that Act 2 cranks up in difficulty to reward at least one moment of Eureka!. In the end - you owe it to yourself to pick this game up. It's an adventure game for a modern time when you can feel a developer pour hard work, time, and love of their craft into every tiny detail.

I really enjoy most simulators, as ridiculous sounding as they may be. Naturally I thought that taking a chainsaw and ripping down a forest could be fun and maybe **** too. That's where I was horribly mistaken they've taken all of the fun out of the game. First, you can't even START your chainsaw unless you're around a tagged tree. I'm okay with that in real life you can't just randomly start cutting trees down, I'm sure that's illegal. But not all is lost, I can still make some gnarly cuts and fell trees... Nope, when you start the chainsaw up the game makes all the cuts for you. I don't even get to make my own notch cuts? In all honesty that's as far as I got, the computer made 4 cuts and the tree hit the ground, exploding into branches. But not before I discovered you can ramp off stacks of logs to get some wicked air. And, almost as an homage to Quake, you can strafe run to get places faster than a car could take you (likely because when you start the car the game would drive there for you). I commend that instead of making the same crap over and over again the company is trying new ideas but execution is not their strong suit. Highly passable, even for some quick laughs.

As far as rogue-likes go this one is pretty great. While it looks repetitive the different character builds, items, and runes add a great variety. Roguelikes have become a bit more popular and with that they're also easier for most players to pick up and most play-throughs are shorter. Having said that this is not easy but it's still great to sit down and play a couple runs and not have to invest an hour into it without having to give up. It should be said that if platforming isn't your thing then the game should probably be passed on, it's responsible for the core mechanic. Also, later on the upgrades do slow down as they get more expensive but the idea is that by switching up different classes and traits you can go into each run with a goal in mind (taking a boss or finding plans/runes). All in all the game is quite enjoyable, it's a great mesh between a platformer and a roguelike.

There's not much more to be said about this since both critics and users have panned this so badly. However, since I moronically gave Hammerpoint my money I think stopping others from doing so is the only retribution I have. This game could be fixed by only ONE feature and that's private servers (that you don't have to pay for/host yourself). I think I was under the impression I COULD do private servers when I bought it (had I only known). The game is wrought with so many hackers and bugs it's a vicious cycle trying to spawn, gather, (server-hop if threatened), run to safe zone. What happened to no 'pay-to-win' microtransactions? Buying rare backpacks and ammo in the store certainly seems like a big help in 'winning'. I honestly can't even waste any more time on going into further details about why this game is so horrible. If I can get one person considering this game to not buy it I've done my job. Seriously, stop, go buy DayZ or support the ArmA developers and get the original mod.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

It's tough to write anything negative about a game that you pay absolutely nothing for and provides as much content as Path of Exile has. The artwork is gorgeous for the environments, gear, and enemies, and the grittiness contributes greatly to it. The 1000+ options in the skill tree makes for many unique builds (although not all are truly viable depending on the league/difficulty). It's difficult to believe this is done by such a small studio who's only income is cosmetic items and player funding. Without diving too deep into an item by item review suffice to say that this is a must play for any hack'n'slash fan. The most scathingly negative critique I can provide is that network glitches/lags can be lethal. This has a (majorly) negative impact on Hardcore characters, which are relegated to the Default league. My other knock is that rebuilding your character's skill tree is extremely costly, you must used hard earned in game currency to do so. This is done intentionally by the developers but if you are new the game your mistakes early are costly later.

It's definitely a deviation from the DIRT series, which used to honor Colin McRae pretty well. Hopefully they return to a regular rally based game. There's no manual transmission option, no speedometer, just a health and refilling turbo bar in a cheesy looking tire image. The damage mechanics aren't too bad but get repetitive after a while. The cars don't feel like they have any actual variations besides models. Races themselves, especially demolition, feel like they're a crap shoot for points, the gymkhana inspired mode is perhaps the best. Overall it's quite passable.