grillonbleu

WotR is a rich and expansive CRPG. The story somehow feels both classic and fresh. Unfortunately, the developers (Owlcat) once again tacked a tedious mini-game on top of a perfectly sound experience. It’s some Heroes of Might & Magic pastiche this time. Moreover, some puzzles are ridiculously obtuse. I’ve had to give up a few times after an hour or so of fumbling about and just search for the solution on the web. The game is very long as well. Too long. I’m 160 hours in and I didn’t finish the main story yet. The Pathfinder game system and the companions are really engaging, but I’m so fed up with the tedious army thing at this point.

Explore dungeons, build your character, fish, tame monsters, craft stuff. Very chill, no nonsense, doesn't take itself seriously. I'm enjoying relaxing to this after a long day.

Explore dungeons, build your character, fish, tame monsters, craft stuff. Very chill, no nonsense, doesn't take itself seriously. I'm enjoying relaxing to this after a long day.

Undeserving of such high praise in my humble opinion. The game may have been ahead of its time when it released and it’s clearly riding on a lot of nostalgia from some folks’ who enjoyed it in their youth. Unfortunately it’s aging poorly. The game was made during these awkward years when 3D was in its infancy and a huge step down from the masterful 2D that preceded it. What kills it though is the bugs, the jank, the lack of balance and the brutal difficulty resulting from not following the exact build and the exact path which doesn’t result in death every other minute. A title valuable mainly for the video game historian and those reminiscing on their young years spent playing the game.

Such a hard game to rate. It's a large, generous CRPG and the premise is refreshing. It's fun to both explore and govern. There's charm too in the characters even though so many of them are either Chaotic Neutral or Evil nut jobs. Unfortunately the execution slowly falls apart as the scenario progresses. Kingdom management is obtuse and flawed. Some quests are broken. Issues are well known and remain unfixed. Meaningful choices are often made with little to no info on the outcomes. Too much playtime is spent picking up loot junk. I could go on. It's all the more disappointing because of the potential it shows. I feel like rating it higher and lower at the same time.

A dense, tough as nails game. I was surprised as this is the sort of difficulty I’ve come to expect from indie studios, rather than the established ones. It is rather short and linear as recent Metroidvania goes, which is fine considering how intense the game is.

Solasta is an RPG based on the Dungeons & Dragons rule set. This makes the turn based battles feel solid for being based on something mature. That is all the good I have to say about this game. The storyline is horribly delivered by scenes full of lousy writing, ugly models, clunky animation and bad voice acting. The random encounters are also horribly balanced. I’ve been pitted against a *band* of Remorhaz while travelling between two low level destinations… in a game where there is no such thing as fleeing combat. I refuse to give Tactical Adventures lax for "not being AAA". The RPGs I’ve been the most engrossed by in recent years were from small teams. Moreover, the studio has chopped up the game into a plethora of DLCs in a bid to sell us their work at a price it doesn’t deserve, which doesn’t exactly fit with the trope of the passionate indie dev. Not recommended.

Dwarf Fortress is a seminal work. Fair warning: at the time of writing this, it still is affected by numerous bugs, some lingering in the code base since many years. And the UI feels insufficient. And despite the graphics overhaul that come with the Steam version, it still doesn’t look like much. But despite all this, Dwarf Fortress is undeniably a 10 for the breadth and the wealth and the depth it offers. There is so much to learn, so much to do, so many details. It’s fascinating.