Recent reviews by Daonitre

Dragons Dogma 1 was in my top 3 games of all time, only one in it's genre. This feels like a continuation of that.
RPG elements are all here, world feels large (fast travel makes it feel small, there's lots to do between points so fast travel isn't advised anyway), personalized builds, slow progression through weapons / armors so there are multiple with similar stats (fashion gaming), boss monsters FEEL like bosses rather than damage sponges, seemingly emergent combat, excellent audio track, continuation of the best AI I've ever seen in any game (it's never perfect, but your pawn actually learns), many ways to complete most quests (play how you want).

The only bad thing: CAPCOM shoehorned in some microtransaction stuff that are effectively noob traps. it's not game breaking, "P2W", required, or the only way to get those things (most of them you'll have plenty of for free in the first hour of play) but putting noob trap sales just feels cheap. It's not pushed on us though, just a list of them in Steam and a single menu item (that i didn't even see until i noticed tanking in the reviews).

I'm here for the game, not the politics either way - it's the best RPG game release in at least 5 years.

TL;DR: Excellent throwback, bringing modern language to a worthy parody of older fantasy army management /tactics games (gameplay is basically the exact same as the Ogre Battle series).

Pros:
○ Replayable if you want to experience variations on the story (relationship building) or try different army/tech builds.
○ Most achievements actually feel like achievements. These can be obtained in under 100 hours played (guides say 60-80) but i spent 110 because i'm a masochistic perfectionist who has to play on the hardest difficulty. If you aren't me you'll probably like this even more.
○ MANY different ways to build your army, and depending on how you build early will affect who has what later on... so your experience is actually your own experience. The missions are linear, but the progress through them and the resulting army will be different every time.
○ Excellent music. I'll admit to spending probably 5 hours just listening to the music... was there a music pack? I should probably go buy that...
○ Mechanically perfect for the genre. Hits have weight, dodges feel important, and having a full squad of archers hit your heavy armor soldier line for 0 damage 20 times in 1 second is a great feeling.

Neutral:
○ The characters are obviously parody, but not silly. Standard tropes apply. Well written and the Main Character (you) get some of the funniest lines as it directly contrasts the older trope styles of the other characters. It isn't for everyone maybe, but it's well done.
○ The story is predictable. Since everyone is a trope if you've spent any amount of time in related genres you'll see what's coming long before it presents itself on screen. This isn't bad, but not necessarily good either. I do have to admit I love that the story stuck to its path and didn't "ha, gotcha" with a twist that didn't make sense as many other games and movies have begun doing recently.
○ The tactics are important, but you'll probably spend more time (re)building your army. I personally enjoy this. Managing the resources for class upgrades, selectively equipping artifacts, early on deciding whether to make a single super-powered squad or spreading the powerful characters out to make multiple 'slightly better than average' squads... lots of options.
○ "The AI is stupid". well yeah, very minor spoiler but you start off in an academy where you can assume that your character has learned all the tactics that they would throw at you. I feel this story line decision was based on the fact that the AI is simplistic (another throwback in the genre). It's not 100% structured responses but it's close enough that it's easy to figure out how to bait them into attacking things they have no chance against. I feel it's reasonable AI, and the difficulty is more based on your ability to plan multiple moves ahead (or use a lot of restarts if that's your thing).
○ bunch of other stuff I probably forgot to focus on.

Cons:
○ Nothing hidden in the map; no easter egg type stuff (as a comparison ogre battle had special item finds for searching specific squares, random popup fights which you could sometimes get them to join you a-la march of the black queen for unique units, pumpkin head and ghost specialty halloween units) ... maybe this should go in neutral but missing the opportunity was disappointing for me.
○ No multiplayer. Okay seriously that's kind of obvious for this type of title. Having multiplayer wouldn't really provide any extra benefit beyond a gimmick that would be quickly forgotten by 99% of the playerbase. You don't play longform tactics army management games to have/make friends.
○ umm... it took 20 years to get a decent Ogre Battle replacement? Seriously if the items above aren't to your liking pretend I put them here.

Overall great game. Maybe not in my top 5 of all time, but definitely up there (note i have over 700 games just on Steam as of this review). Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys tactics, strategy, and/or min-maxing / efficiency management.

unfinished abandonware

It had a lot going for it, and it was reasonably playable... but still missing the major items that are needed for replayability along with the majority of the endgame stuff. Still needs more polish to be worth more than $5. Devs didn't even bother turning the workshop on so that the community (which was great) could fix the issues.

extremely simple gameplay but randomness in the weapons makes runs very interesting. roguelike bullet hell -- but you're the hell caster taking out massive waves. each round lasts 30 minutes max so good for short span of time filler.
Multiple unit options unlockable, multiple maps, a variety of weapons and many upgrade to "ultimate forms", achievements provide in-game unlocks... frankly this is worth $5 right now, $10 if more continues to be added (and i get the impression it will). surprisingly great game for only $3 as most at this price range are extremely short lived.

Edit: It has been updated enough... for those interested in the genre it's worth $15 but still being sold at $3. I had 10 hours played when i first created this review - I'm now at 52 hours (just to keep up with the new achievements that are getting rolled out every week or 2 for new weapons and characters and such). It's highly replayable, constantly updated, and the community is pretty decent.
I can't think of anything else I've been able to spend $3 on and get 50+ hours of fun out of. 17 hours of gameplay per dollar? and expecting more updates? ... this is a steal.

Another edit (79 hours): ... still a great game to kill an hour or 2. I'm only playing when they get new achieves to keep it at 100% but totally worth a buy if not already purchased.

Note all my commentary here is regarding unmodded versions, and don’t trust my “time played” – most of my time is played in offline mode.

Like anything there are pros and cons to X3FL:
Pros:
• More x3! This is worth mentioning, it’s one of my favorite series of all time.
• Many of the best of the previous mods were included as part of the base game.
• Better management of your empire, more information regarding pretty much all aspects of how you’re doing in different areas, better graphs, etc.
• A fun new tool for finding the ‘hidden’ stuff
• New ‘agents’ mechanic to get blueprints or affect factions in various ways
• FAR better control of SETA (the fast-forward time button)

Cons:
• most of the stuff included is anti-intuitive, even for long time players of the series... be ready to go read a guide, then do a bunch of forum searching.
• Less start options… the start you get is basically the same unlike previous versions where you can have an interesting beginning.
• While each game is somewhat unique (sectors progress variably same as previous, but now there are specific areas which will randomly stay locked each new game) the first 5-10 hours is extremely linear, painfully slow, and literally no challenge at all with massive rewards that destroy any feeling of accomplishment.
• Once you start using agents, you quickly realize they are more likely to hurt than help (even with all the achievements based around them). While i can appreciate the effort to provide 'other means' of doing things, the risk and cost don't add up to the (mostly randomized) rewards. Don’t even think about using them for rep changes:
• The new reputation system… is the worst thing I’ve ever dealt with. I’ve been gaming for 30+ years and this is by far the most anti-player system I’ve seen. Go ahead and check the forums – it’s been stated that the negative rep loss is “minimal” and the highest negative hit is 30% of the gain comparison, but this can literally shut down everything you’ve worked for over weeks within a few minutes without warning. And unless you want to mod your game there’s no way to fix it. Try to be liked by everyone, even in a mostly neutral scenario? Get ready for everyone to hate you.

(rant)
I'm amazed the reputation loss hasn't been retuned after 7 months. It's the sole reason I won't play FL any more. This is not asking for "god tier rep with all" - a longer rep grind is fine. Bouncing between sectors for missions is expected. Does it seem right to do a simple mission and lose levels of rep with the rest of the galaxy? Killing something everyone hates, and just because you're in a specific sector that sectors enemies hate you? We can't even have reliable AI traders since that screws it up and makes the diplomacy go haywire (one ship can sell goods causing your ships in other locations to suddenly be in hostile territory).
If i wanted to just go out, steal a few ships, then run around dogfighting this would be great - but i'm in it for the empire building and expansion; telling me that i have to constantly be at war with half of the galaxy (or worse for some players, making it completely impossible to be peaceful) is ignorance.
(/rant)

I love the series and I’m really disappointed that the hardline “play the way we want” is being enforced here. If you want dogfighting it’s better in X3AP with the bonus pack (or even X4 if you don't mind being stuck on 1 ship type) and many other games. If you want empire building in space I’d recommend sticking with X3:AP; it’s still in my top 3 replayable games of all time.

@5 hours:
It's a very pretty game. also a very bad game so far:
started with a dead video (black screen) in the beginning... you have to press escape to move on, but it doesn't tell you that
then i got stuck trying to get the fullscreen to stay on the same monitor
then i had trouble just getting it to stay full screen
then it decided windows wanted to let me know it was selected by giving the ENTIRE THING a white filter... while i was trying to create a character
then i couldn't make the d@mn character cause the stats page was making my mouse disappear so i couldn't select the stat circle
...
i finally get into the game and it's already been 2 hours - no refund for me.
so now that i'm in the game it's a ridiculous forced tutorial that doesn't know what i'm even doing, constant cutaways to explain things i already know (since the same controller mechanics were in every similar RPG since 2001), and constant backstory references that i have no information on but the game is acting like i should know
...
it was obviously built for controller:
. the radial selections on forced "middle mouse button" are clunky
. auto-aim removed any skill factor from ranged combat
. 2 button "specials" requiring gymnastic levels of dexterity to pull off mid-combat with a keyboard.
I'm at the point now where it has given me multiple quests in very different and far directions. No matter which one i go towards it keeps giving me additional quests along the way to sideline me and further screw up the aura i'm trying to build for, while at the same time most of my actual gameplay has been just travel. Beyond the pretty scenery the open wilds feel very empty - you're looking at 1-2 minute hikes between anything be it a random chest (which never seem to be hidden so don't worry about searching around corners), group of "things you can't use yet", or small cluster of enemies (which just get mowed down at range cause the melee is brutally inefficient and dangerous with no reward)
Oh, and the whole "darkness vs light" thing? the narrator attempts to railroad you into light right at the start and it the times i've come across those options it either gave me the opposite aura i was going for, or the option to select darkness was plain stupid
The whole thing feels like a "polluting is bad" infomercial with the concept of "you can do whatever you want: be kind, bring harmony, and recycle... or be a moron (literally every other option and the NPCs constantly tell you so)"

Truly having trouble understanding the point so i keep playing hoping it gets better... once finished if i find it was suitable gameplay I'll change my review but right now I wouldn't recommend this trash (pun intended) to anyone.

@20 hours:
...still bad. there's plenty to do but the place is just empty everywhere & between. Seems like they expanded the land just to make it *feel* larger. Still not worth the pricetag. $20? definitely. $40? eh, maybe. $60? no.

At 5 hours played:

Pros
It's M&B with better graphics, more fluid controls, more realistic movements, better terrain, far better trade UI (and better overall UI), and more quests which are easier to find thanks to that enhanced UI. Now with built-in multiplayer (combat) without needing mods.

Neutrals
Uses BattleEye for Multiplayer anti-cheat which has failed the playerbase hard in the past in other games but I'm willing to give it a shot; maybe they're better now. Mods are still available for single player replayability if multi isn't your thing.

Cons?
...if you don't like sandbox games generally avoid it. If you don't like army management games there's still fun to be had but you'll miss out on 80% of the content.

At 50 hours played:
It has become very apparent there is a lot of balancing in the works. We're seeing daily updates for bug fixes and minor tweaks. They do appear to be responding to the community so that's good.
If you want the "true experience" wait. If you just want to get in and mash some stuff up or go trade-happy go for it but be aware that your experience may change as further updates roll out. What worked yesterday isn't going to necessarily work the same way today... but it seems to me they are going in the right direction.
Economy is effectively broken (in about 6 ways, they're nipping those off but it's making for weird situations and don't trust any guide you read because as mentioned the next day it's out of date). Tournaments are FAR too simple (but at least don't give the ridiculous payouts from Warband)... and the mod tools are listed as to be available "on full release" so I wouldn't expect a lot of modding for community fixes for about a year form now.
Stil a fun experience.

TL;DR:
If you liked the originals you'll love this. Pretty standard run of the same concept but slightly better in every way to make for an excellent experience overall IF this is the type of game you enjoy... I don't rate multiplayer experiences so if that's your focus please check other reviews.
It truly feels like the original game... just... overall better.

crazy, annoying, fun, frustrating, interesting, etc. ... it's a good game as long as you don't let any zombies in; but that'd be your fault.
Campaign doesn't feel polished, even after re-balances there are parts which don't seem to mesh with the difficulty rating system. Cape of Storms as the most obvious example should be at least a 4, i haven't seen a hero mission yet that warrants being rated above a 1.
Mostly I just love the feeling of a throwback to the older Starcraft / Warcraft feel (not their latest iterations) with the bonus of zombies and eternal swarms.

Do not play if:
Susceptible to motion sickness or plan to do any movement or vision related tasks for a minute or 2 afterwards. (stationary background and quickly scrolling foreground WILL screw you over IRL)
You are prone to epileptic seisures... lots of changing colors moving very quickly.
You are easily annoyed by repetitive music.
You are easily infuriated by losing... constantly, randomly, or if you think your controls didn't react when you told them to.
You are attempting to play this for the achievements (many would take far too long to bother attempting to achieve, those are only for people who cannot afford a game with more meat).
You play with a fan anywhere near you (unless you WANT to go blind from dry eyes)
You have friends over (unless you enjoy them nagging you for sucking when you are probably way better than they ever could be)

In short this is for a very small subset of players, but it's an excellent game for those few.

on the upside:
When you aren't listening to the same damn track for 25 minutes the music is really nice. Level advancement (jumps/falls) generally run with the beat (it doesn't seem to take biology into consideration though, so it'll always seem short by about a tenth of a second or maybe I'm just more finetuned than their testers)
User made maps, infinite "replayability"... if you consider memorizing different jump patterns randomization.

Generally recommended, but definitely not for everyone.

TL;DR: if you have a controller and single monitor - this is an excellent game. If you have dual monitors prepare to hate your setup. If you have no controller get something else.

Pros:
Excellent storyline (as I've seen so far)
Interesting ability/weapons systems
Beautiful music that actually fits the areas it plays
really nice graphics if you have the capabilities for it
somewhere in the Final Fantasy range of advancement (plenty of things to do but overall advancement is slow - yet you feel like you're making a difference the whole time)

"Meh" or can go either way depending on playstyle:
camera follows the player in odd positions sometimes; this gives view of some areas you might not have noticed but can get in the way of combat; it's mostly customizable though
regular "mini-game" style 2-d combat/platforming which breaks up the overall game. Good for players that need some variety... and it's reasonably well done.

Cons:
Dodge/Counter isn't always responsive and there's no information about it in game, google it to learn.
keyboard and mouse is completely unplayable (the 2-D sections will WRECK you), really have to have 360 degree motion and keyboard isn't even very responsive.
on my dual monitors the game loves to "not start correctly" and freezes the PC the second time it's started. restart PC and then start the game to avoid.
Steam Big Screen never works (will freeze the pc every time)
game doesn't know what screen sizes are. I have it set to 1920x1080 but it always appears 1024x768.
to get full screen you really have to use Alt+Enter. the in-game "fullscreen" mode is unreliable
Steam overlay is broken / doesn't work on this game
alt-tabbing freezes the game permanently (sometimes freezes the pc)
steam controller isn't properly customizable for this game

Summary:
Excellent game but literally the worst port I've ever played... and I've been playing since 1989 across many platforms (mostly pc). If you have a controller then i recommend trying it (use family share for 30 minutes) and you'll know if you like it. If you have dual screen the game itself could be worth the restart each time you want to play... its an annoyance that will affect only a small percentage of players (most people turn their computers off regularly).

note: I'm playing on a GTX-1080, game on SDD, 32G RAM, and nearly 4.2 processing speed... anyone who thinks it's my specs causing the issues doesn't know computers.