While the graphics are good the rest is an absolute disappointment. Clunky, non intuitive and imprecise controls makes movement and combat a real shore, specially in hyperspace where you get hurt simply by hitting the walls. It is also impossible to quick-save the game in hyperspace so its "do the whole thing all over again" every time you get thrown out. And what about enemy spawning re-spawning? What does this have to do with game's enjoyment? Nothing but frustration. I got rid of this lemon and am now playing a game that was designed for the player's enjoyment, not punishment.
This is a somewhat arcade type submarine game. There is definitely some fun to it but it is marred with numerous very annoying inconsistencies and the uselessness of the upgrade system both for the submarine and its crew in the campaign mode of the game. For example, although we where near the end of the war in the Pacific and I had already purchased all available upgrades, the sub was still fitted with steam propelled torpedoes with the same defects as the pre-war ones. The mark 18 electric torpedoes had the same speed and where detected exactly the same as the old steam propelled mark 14. As for the crew, their performance and accuracy is the same for rookies and full-fledged veterans, at least I could not see any difference. As for historical accuracy, there is none. I don’t know how many Yamato cruisers I sank from 1942 to the end when in fact only two of this type were ever built. So, unless you have low expectations and get the game at a very substantial discount, stay away from it. Pro: - It’s a submarine game. - Great fun sinking ships and shooting down planes. - Three game modes (campaign, single patrol and single mission) plus custom. - Fast travel possibility. Con: - Useless upgrade system in campaign mode. - No historical accuracy what-so-ever. - Unable to hit when using canon against armed foes unless you are in their firing range and they are actually firing at you. - Built-in weapon inaccuracy regardless of upgrades and crew experience. It’s like throwing dices every time. - The player must manually fire the AA gun and canon thus keeping you opened to attack when both ships and planes are attacking. - The enemy always know the exact position your sub was in when a torpedo was fired when a ship is hit or the torpedo is detected.
This is definitely not X-COM. The X-COM games right through X-COM 1 (X-COM 2 was not a true X-COM, more like a multi-player arena fight game) had much more diversity and were feasible in more than one way and always with some strategy. Here the progression pace is extremely slow for the player but lightening fast for his opponents. The enemy constant re-spawning in most missions makes it totally unfair. The AI always knows what you are planning (Like if your soldiers are on over-watch facing a direction, the enemy will not move or simply move into an other direction even if it makes no sense to do so). With limitless re-spawning on the AI side its easy to make winning impossible or with great loss to the player. Resources are scarce and everything is overly expensive. Stuff recuperated after a mission makes no sense. Like you were fighting aliens and you get humans' ammo or from a faction that did not at all appear in that mission. Honestly, it seems fun in the beginning but it will all be gone within a few hours. Its more than disappointment, its total crap!
I've always been a submarine sims fan and, since the Silent Hunters series there have been none to speak about. So, I was really looking forward for this game when it was announced and purchased it at full price when it finally came out. What a disappointment! It was obviously made for multiplayers. The solo campaigns are short and the missions repetitious. I did get some enjoyment out of it but mostly because it had been so long I had played a submarine sim. Pros: - Finally a submarine sim!!! - Beautiful and realistic graphics - Realistic simulation of sub models - Sometimes challenging scenarios Cons: - Short single player campaigns - Repetitive missions - AI sometimes “too smart”, detecting your sub and or torpedo while smack in its baffle. - Disappointing ending Conclusion: Go for it if you love submarine sims but don’t expect to get your full money’s worth.
This is a Book Game meaning that there's more reading involved than action. A basic knowledge of the WH40K Universe is not required but will greatly help in determining your character's choices and actions. Its not necessary to have read the all books but having played the table game or at least a few of the PC games should suffice. Expect to die often. Take notes from one try to the other about what choices worked and those that did not or had negative consequences keeping in mind that a "right choice" may turn bad depending on chance with the roll of the dices. Pro's: - Compelling story in line with the WH40K universe. - Totally re-playable with alternate branching depending on roll of the dices. - Easy combat mechanics. - Three difficulty levels (Initiate or Easy, Astartes or Normal and Veteran meaning Hard). - Difficulty level does not really impact the story, only your combat survival chances and aids. - Sense of accomplishment when you finally "beat the game". Con's: - Minimalist tutorial focused on combat but missing critical information like how to access/use inventory. - Too dependent on chance (Wheel of fate in the game) - Character's abilities are set with no improvement with experience - No way to abort the game. You must continue to the bitter end even if, because you played this scenario before, you know it will lead to failure. - Part of the game that would be challenging is totally random meaning that past experience and having taken notes or drawn a map is totally useless. - Inventory can not be accessed in combat. Likewise, weapons can not be reloaded outside of combat.
Starwolves 3 is the sequel to Starwolves 1. Starwolves 2 was so buggy that it went nowhere with the gamers and was more or less dropped by the developers that did not even bother to try to fix it. This third installment is nothing less than a scripted failure. It's supposed to be an "open world" game when in fact it's nothing but. Try to stray from the scripted route and you'll get blown up. Worse yet, there is only one way to succeed any mission even if more than one option is offered. Pick the wrong one and you'll be reloading because you got blown up regardless of the power of your mothership and fighters. And to make matter worst, the interface is buggy (Or it may have been scripted this way...) and required actions will not work when you need it. Click on "d" or the blue arrow icon to dock and... nothing happens unless the script allow you to do it. Click on "E" to escort a transport that you must protect and again it won't work because the developer has decide otherwise to artificially increase the mission's difficulty. And, of course, the same transport will do it's best to get away from you and as close as possible to the enemy to get merrily blown-up. Give orders to your fighters and they will just ignore it and get blown up. Really a scripted disaster. Stay away from this one, at any price. Starwolves one was a masterpiece compared to this one, need I say more???
Starpoint Gemini 2 is a Freelancer clone. The story is interesting, there is a huge universe to explore and you have, like in Freelancer, a good choice of career. It's overall a good game but it's unequal game-play will soon wear your patience thin. The Good: Choice of career, customisable ship and vast universe to explore. Interesting quest story but you can also choose not to follow it and do your thing: Trade, fight or smuggle. Unfamiliar but easy to get used to interface. The Bad: Bugs. Expect crashes. This is complicated by the fact that you can only save at stations forcing you to quit whatever you are doing and dock at a station rather than racking up side missions after side missions. Game-play is totally unequal and mostly unfair. You can manage to kill four enemies on your own to complete a mission just to be blown up by a single shot of suddenly appearing "impossible to kill" enemies. Missions are supposed to be evaluated by level but you can't trust it. Progression through rank is painfully slow limiting your ability to get better ships. Conclusion: Get it when it's at a discount. Lower your expectations. Play it once in a while, a few missions at a time and you'll get to enjoy the game.
Yet an other game that I bought based on raving reviews that doesn't quite cut it in my book. First of all, you would think that they would have solved the bugs before issuing the 2005 gold edition but, no, and you'd better save often and in more than one file because it will crash often and very badly. You won't be able to close the unresponding application through the usual "ctrl-alt-del" combination, you'll have to restart windows to get out of the mess and even then, sometimes, you'll find your latest saved game corrupted. As for the game itself, the graphics are OK for the period but very boxy by today's standard. The story is interesting, the game world very vast and totally explorable and there are multiple side quests that are quite feasible if, and it's a big if, you can survive long enough. Your starting character is so weak and useless with weapons that you'll be no match for anything than a harmless sheep. Gaining experience is a long and arduous process where you'll have to run around to find someone that can upgrade you in the area that you need (Yes, even strength and dexterity!). Resources are somewhat plentiful but their selling price is ridiculously low so that you can't really afford anything useful for a very long time. Even then, what's available to you will leave you ten times weaker and more exposed than your weakest foe. You'll most often have to resort to attract the attention of your foe and then run away toward a NPC (Often a single woman armed with a wood branch!) that will kill your enemy without too much effort when you, equipped with a light armor and high quality sword, will get killed often in one shot. Totally unfair and unbalanced game that, like me, you will soon quit out of sheer frustration.
After being disappointed by the first Legend of Grimrock I still bought this second installment based on the initially mostly positive reviews. In the first few chapters, I really believe they were right. The graphics were much better and the puzzles much more logical although the "move and fight as a group only" frustrating interface remained. But soon, the authors reverted to their first love of inane, clueless and totally obtuse puzzles with a "you better be quick on the keyboard or else you fail" gameplay. Your foes also get more accurate, stronger and so powerful that the only way to defeat them (And they come in multitude) is to use a glitch where they get caught somewhere on the map and can't fight you. Otherwise, a shot or two and it's "game over". A total waste unless you're ready to follow a step by step guide and use cheats to survive.
This game is misclassified as a RPG. It's mostly a puzzle game with some very few elements of role playing. The good: Nicely rendered and immersive environment. Initially captivating story. Innovative way of presenting clues. Real feeling of accomplishment when completing a level. Unobtrusive soundtrack well suited to the somber environment. On demand save game capability. The bad: Impossible to control party characters individually. Too many timed puzzles solely based on the player's ability to hit keyboard keys quickly and in a determined (physiologically unnatural) sequence. Too many location based spawning and re-spawning of foes. Limited almost predetermined character development with some levels requiring one specialization and others a completely different one and there is not enough points available to do this. Too many obtuse and pixel hunting puzzle requiring the use ****. Conclusion: If you're the puzzles and "the quickness keyboard fingers in town" type then this is definitely a game for you. For a true RPG fan, it's more "oh no, not again" over and over and over....
As a long time X-COM fan, in fact since the release of the DOS Enemy Unknown, I was looking forward to this remake. What a disappointment! I must say that it looks great and the combat management and base management are true to the original (With certain minor omissions that I consider irrelevant). Combat is very though even at normal difficulty setting. Your opponents are faster, more accurate and much better equipped than the best of your squad. However, since it's possible to save the game whenever you wish, it evens up the chances as far as I'm concerned. Where it breaks totally for me, it's the very short time you have before funding is cut and countries turn against you. It makes the game totally unfair and kills any feeling of accomplishment you may have. Events are happening outside your zone of control and without any possibility for you to intervene. Click on it, double click on it, right click on it but you'll never be able to make it a target for your fighters or send a squad to investigate. Nevertheless, you are penalized. This is made even worse because, regardless of where you put your base to start, the AI will automatically move the action outside of your action zone. Again, it's possible to try to mitigate this by saving often , reloading and hoping to get a better dice roll but it's a totally useless aggravation that brings nothing to the game. In the end though it's NOT a steam game, no DRM and the price on GoG is very acceptable. So, if you're a X-COM unconditional get it and hope for an update to better balance the odds on the world map.
A fun and addictive little game. The interface is easy and straightforward as long as the option for mouse movement is NOT selected (If it is, then placing mines and turrets at a specific location is a nightmare). The game is eminently feasible at normal even on the first try. No cheat required. The ability to save when ever you wish is a big plus. There is a lot of replay ability value as your strategy will need to change depending on the lead character you select and the robot team you select. So why nine and not ten? Well, some missions are somewhat repetitious and, once you found the right tactic, there is much less challenge. Anyway, highly recommended specially when, like me, you can get the game at a discount ($5 on GOG!).
This is one game for "found memories". Yes, then and because it was a sequel to System Shock, it was great. But today, playing it again, brings back all the drawbacks to the front. It is not a game that, by other mean than pure chance, can be won without cheating. There are less and less ammo and resources as you progress and need it more and more. There is more re-re-re-spawning than you can handle with what the game let you have. It's really an unfair game made for cheaters. If, like me, you like to win a game in normal mode with a normal chance then, unless you get it real cheap, stay away from this one. If you do play it, it will still be enjoyable until you leave the Rickenbacker. After that, quit or put up with lots of frustrations or resort to cheating.
This one is at the top of the pint and click games I ever played. Superb hand painted 2D graphics with some 3D perspective. A very compelling story with believable characters. Simple interface and reasonably identifiable quest objects. On the minus side, the puzzles, mostly reasonably challenging, are sometime simplistic and then, in two cases totally obtuse and, for sure, require the use of a walkthrough. I also found the ending somewhat disappointing. Regardless, this is one game you can't do without if you're a point and click fan.
A simple yet fun to play space trading/combat game. It's got a lot going for it: Lots of careers to pick from, exponentially augmented by a number of available factions; freedom to explore the game universe; very easy learning curve with simple, intuitive controls; reasonably achievable goals; possibility to save anytime except during the turn base combat. So, why 8 and not 10? Well, it's too easy to figure a winning strategy; I got my faction to win the war at my second try. This is not to conductive to replay unless your only goal is to try all possible careers in all existing factions basically using the same winning strategy. Secondly, success in combat is too dependent on luck for my taste. This is somewhat compensated by the ability to reload but it takes away from any sense of achievement. Regardless, for the price, it's certainly one of the best game I played in this genre.
First and foremost, this is a fun game! It's got all the best and worst features of the very best games in turn base strategy genre. By this I mean that, in most cases, you need a good strategy instead of brute force to win the mission but that, alas and once more, it is based on how the AI was programmed rather than on good solid logic. For example, you can't see an enemy plane in a cloud but it can see you and will always manage to stay in longer than you ever could and will always come out in a position to do you harm. Well... I'm sorry but although it is true that a plane in a cloud can't be seen it is also true that that plane pilot can't see either. One could say that this was done because the player can always see the AI's planes outside of clouds even if his plane is in the cloud. It would be true safe from the fact that the AI's planes always move as if it still sees it's opponent plane inside the cloud. That's where, for me, it lost a point. As for the other minus, it's related to the repetitious nature of the missions and thus the lack of re-playability value safe for the fact that there are four different countries to try, each with a different initial bonus. This does not however detracts from the originality and addictiveness of this game. If, like me, you're a fan of turn base games then, by all means, get this one.
I simply good fun top down shooter. Nothing extraordinary but nothing to cry about either. If you're looking for a good story, go for a RPG instead. It's rather though but feasible without cheating and, in my book, that's a big plus. OK, it will likely take you more than one try to complete a mission but you'll eventually figure out how to beat each level. That's one of the reasons I gave it a 9 instead of a 10: It always plays the same way so it's quite predictable. Music and graphics are very acceptable, not outstanding for sure, but for the price of the game... come on! If it's the only game you got to play then, OK, you can complain. On the other hand if, like me, it's something you play when you're tired of playing your RPG's, FPS's and SIM's then it's a good little fun challenge.
There are very few games that I played and the re-played. This is one of them. The interface is easy and manipulating the character a breeze. There are many ways to win this game, hence the interesting re-playability. There are two upgrade paths: Human and Cybernetic. However, you can mix both and thus the possibilities are exponential. Granted, winning the game is much more difficult if you stick with the Human upgrade path but the cut scene in the end is also much more interesting... The game play is well balanced and, with a little strategy, it is easy to survive all missions safe for the "boss" sections where you will probably need more than one try to succeed. From my point of view though, it only raised my interest as I got a lot of satisfaction in finally nabbing the right strategy (That will greatly vary depending on the upgrade path you have chosen as I said before). Granted the story line is not the best ever and somewhat predictable but, in this genre, it is pretty well secondary. As for not being able to look at the ceiling or the floor... why would I care? This is not like the first person shooter we've been accustomed to in the last five years or so with nothing much beside "awesome graphics". This is a game for those that are old enough to remember the Crusader series: OK the guy had a weird red costume and the background story was lame but that was true mayhem and absolute fun. Same here. Definitely a keeper.
Even at $25 this game is way overpriced. The graphics are basic at best. Piloting the ship is relatively straightforward once you figured out the key combinations and the space travel physic is quite accurate (In space that is, not when landing on a planet) but, beyond this, I have nothing good to say about this game. The game play choices are clear, either boring or nearly impossible to achieve. Too many programming shortcuts were taken in the making of this game. Safe for the player's information, nothing is saved. The same fighting mission stated number of foes will change every time after restoring a saved game. Regardless, you can never trust the information provided. The estimated number of enemy ships as nothing to do with the actual number of foes you'll be faced with. The difficulty has nothing to do with your abilities. It's always based on inaccurate information, better equipped enemy ships and large number of foes with seemingly endless supplies of missiles while yours will be expended within the first few shots. You can even get killed while docked at a station, just trying to trade or get a mission. Don't expect to be able to do the same though as you will never find your target in the same position. As far as upgrading your ship, you better be very, very, very patient. You will need about half a million credits to equip a barely acceptable fighter ship. With the ship you have to start and the type of missions you can hope to do in the beginning, you'll barely get 15,000 credits for each successful mission once you have paid for spent fuel and equipment. So just do the math... it's a long time on cleaning arrays (tantamount to washing windows), mining asteroids (Even there, you can not choose what you're mining so you'll waste even more time dumping what you did not want in the first place) and racing through ever winding ring type tracks. Fighting missions pay more but, as explained before, the odds are stacked against you and your slow poorly equipped ship. With luck though, you may end up fighting against three ships only and win the prize but, likely, other foes will materialize and blow you to pieces unless your lucky enough to make it to a jump gate and get out in a not too unfriendly solar system. The problem is that as soon as you accept to take a mission for one faction then the others will become your enemy until you accept long enough work for one of the others and then the first one will turn against you. Need I continue? The only thing I appreciated about this game was that it was easy to un-install... Good riddance!!!
