This is a revamp of Blades of the Shogun with different characters and a new settings and storyline. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but in terms of a "new" game, there's not much to see. I do miss the non-mature rating of Shogun compared to the profanity laced Desperados, but playing without headphones on solved that issue for the most part. Significant dialog is displayed as subtitles, so one is never in the dark about what to do next. How to progress through each episode is left up to you and that is where the diverse set of skills each character has leaves the game advancement open to your interpretation. Strategy also plays a major role in solving each puzzle. The story that flashes back and forth also adds to the interest of keeping the player entertained. Great way to spend several days of your time :-)
To say this game is weird would be an understatement, but it's true to its weirdness and easy to navigate. Challenging at times, but not overly so that one gets frustrated. If you're looking for a game that you can play for 20 minutes at a time before playing again the next day, this would be for you. If you're planning on playing it all in one go, then you'll play for less than a day and may be disappointed. While some of the game was centered around bodily functions (think "Forbidden Zone"), it was not too gross to be considered offensive (unlike the aforementioned movie ;-)
I normally wait until I have completely finished playing a game before writing a review, but with BattleTech, that might take some time. The game world is huge. One can create custom 'Mechs and Lances (group of 'Mechs) to go on Skirmishes and fight head to head against other players online. Then there is the Campaign version which I've just started playing. That interweaves a story arc through various planned skirmishes and requires more time to invest in building, planning and surviving in the BattleTech universe.
Universally, the main complaint I've seen about (and have with) the game is the lack of any kind of help system or decent tutorial. The game has a very high learning curve. A manual for the beta version of the game can be found here...
The UI elements are numerous and complex until you read about how to use and take advantage of them. Watching a lot of videos and reading many Steam articles has gotten me to the point that I actually understand what is going on during a battle and how to best use the information to my advantage. Playing a number of Skirmish battles before tackling the Campaign mode is also beneficial. Campaign mode has some questionable language in the dialog, so if "religious exclamations" bother you as they do me, be forewarned.
OK, but is it fun to play? Yes, once you have an idea of what to expect, the game is quite fun. This is not XCOM with mech warriors though. Gameplay is completely different, so investing the time to learn about the game is necessary. All in all, this is a vast game with many, many elements that could occupy one's spare time for years to come. Well worth the investment of money and time.
Can't say that I enjoyed this game. How to perform the tasks required are kind of a hit and miss. Documentation could be much better. The training missions could be a whole lot better. Navigation needs to be performed several times during a mission, even if you haven't initially reached the target. The plane breaks down for seemingly no reason. Piloting the plane is limited to raising and lowering the landing gear. Game play is more focused on managing the people in the plane and their individual tasks than on what the mission actually is. Graphics tend to blow out when objects move too close to the front of the screen (Z axis is less).
I too could not get the game to select a conversation option nor could I select a menu option within the game to save. Looks like it would be fun to play. Too bad.
Took me awhile to figure out the whole game within a game concept, but the real fun is getting through the different scenes intact. Loads of fun and great replay value.
I normally only write reviews for games I've played all the way through, but I'm not sure I'll make it with this one. Game play is somewhat repetitive, level up points cannot be allocated as one would wish (your steambots are assigned predetermined traits), the variety of weapons and utilities is limited and winning some levels, since they are randomly generated, is based more on luck than skill. The way in which some of the weapons fire is quite different from one another and it's frustrating to have to decide what weapons to keep and which to discard (storage is limited in the beginning) before having full knowledge. A tutorial would have been much appreciated to get a feel for the game before launching into combat, especially since one's purchasing power is reduced everytime a mission is aborted or failed except at the easiest setting. Fun for a little while, but not very addictive or engaging.
One of the most enjoyable games I've played in a long time. The artwork reminds one of a Japanese ink-wash painting. Truly beautiful landscapes. Audio work from the voices to the waves crashing along the rocks is first-rate. Game play is definitely challenging at the Normal level. For the price and the number of hours you will be involved in this adventure, it is well worth the investment.
Skyhill is a rudimentary RPG set in a hotel where one has to survive 100 floors to escape to the street below. In regards to the plot, given the hints throughout the game, the twist at the end wasn't a big surprise. Since the type of objects placed on the various floors are randomized, one could either have a relatively easy or hard time of it, with no fault (or skill) of their own. Still, this was a fun way to pass some time, but I doubt I'll be playing it again. There is some profanity in the game, which is disappointing considering it wasn't necessary.
Kudos to game designers on this one. The animation on all the scenes was very well done. Interacting with the wrong object didn't generate the same tired response, but was actually unique to the object attempted. Also to the game's credit, it was pretty obvious what object works with each intended scene. Hidden objects were pieces of objects needed in the game, not just random objects one would find in a junk room. The story was well thought out with assorted mini-stories within the game. Well worth the price of admission.
I agree with others in that the game provides insight to a culture that few people know much about. A culture, I imagine, that is dying off due to modernization. The provided video clips are fascinating and left me wanting to know more about the people. The videos are locked intially and allow play once one progresses in the game. I must not have hit all the plot points though because two of the videos remain locked after completeing the game. I imagine it's possible to go back and play a chapter of the game again in an attempt to unlock the video, but it's not easily discernable which chapters release which videos. In regards to the game, I enjoyed the game play initially, but as the game progresses (and gets harder), I found the location of the controls to be cumbersome. The Q key (which switches between characters) is located next to the Tab key which plays a video. All are near the WSAD movement keys and the Left Shift key which is also needed. Given the critical timing of some of the puzzles, hitting the wrong key at a crucial moment over and over again got to be a bit maddening. After the fox transforms, I found controlling his character's movement unnatural and that added to my frustration. Overall, that left me wanting to just get the thing over with rather than enjoying the ending.
As a platform game, this is one of the best I've played. Very logical and just challenging enough without being overly frustrating (although there are some puzzles that come very close). The game saves itself along the way and does so after every major hurdle, so you are not having to replay large sections of the game over and over. Again, because of some degree of difficulty, your character(s) may die repeatedly trying to get through portions of the game and those you do replay. There is no skip function.
The atmosphere/plot of the game is interesting and the sound effects and visuals really lend to the game. There are a few places where it was difficult to determine depth and what looks like a platform to jump onto is actually behind your character and you will end up jumping onto nothing. This is a minor complaint though and may not appear this way to all players.
While I don't want to give away the ending, I will tell you it is rather sad and somewhat disappointing given the hours one spends avoiding bad guys and otherwise working out difficult puzzles.
This definitely a different kind of hidden object game. There are two women that present "spells" for you and your goal is to locate the letters that form the spells in the different areas of the house. The house is the same for each spell so one ends up searching the same areas repeatedly for the letters. The letters are cleverly hidden and I found myself asking for help more often than usual. There are multiple side tasks that keeps one busy between and during the search that are pertinent to the storyline. Some of which pertain to the kind of path you will follow: that of light or darkness. I followed light, but I'm curious how the game would end if I had chosen otherwise.
There are enough creepy things that jump out at you to warrant playing the game with a light on! From the beginning, you get the sense that the game is more about setting a mood than solving puzzles. Although there are enough of those as well. I will admit to chuckling a little bit when the title "The Emptiness" was spoken at the end of the opening video. It's bit melodramatic to an otherwise interesting introduction. The audio of the actors has no relation to their lips moving so it's a bit like watching a badly dubbed foreign film. Those are minor technical issues though and don't really affect gameplay. The only irritating moment for me was when the game asked for a glass to be filled with water. There are glasses and sources of water in multiple locations, but the game wanted a specific glass filled with water from a specific place. Lapses of logic like that and the repetitive nature of the location are the only criticisms of an otherwise great game.
As hidden object games go, this one has a good storyline that drives the logic of why things are located in illogical places and what motivates the main character to keep going. That unfortunately doesn't last throughout the entire game and toward the end, one is just going from one room to another (back and forth) as pieces to solving puzzles are found in the opposite room.
Most of the time, the game's text and obvious logic will help one get thorugh the game, but there are many times when logic is thrown out the window and it's not obvious what the next move should be. If anyone can tell me what the authors had in mind in order to solve the diode puzzle, please let me know. There is a great video walkthrough here: http://www.gamewinners.com/Cheats/index.php/More:The_Fog:_Video_Walkthrough. However, the person who made the walkthrough accidentally hit the Skip button on the diode puzzle herself, so no luck there.
The bug that got me was when a helmet was repaired and then taken from a foot locker. That foot locker also contained a piece of a later puzzle. However, once the helmet puzzle was solved, the game considered the foot locker no longer active and wouldn't allow me to look into it again. Because the game autosaves, my only choice would have been to start over from the beginning and I honestly didn't like the game that much to play it again. I did watch the walkthrough though and I would agree that the game ends a little too abruptly and not in very satisfactory manner to answer all the questions raised during the story.
Overall not great, but started off better than most. If it weren't for the bug, I'd probably be rating this game a 3 out of 5.
This game is rather vague in its purpose and difficult to understand in the gameplay. Things seem to kill off your character frequently and you are forced to restart at the beginning of the level, not where you left off forcing you to play sections over and over again. You have to wonder about a game that rewards your "first death" as an achievement. Not sure what I paid, but it was too much.
To start, I will say the puzzles are rather simple and gameplay length is somewhat short. Having said that, the visuals, music and gameplay style (that of a popup book) are the things that really set this game apart. Having written software I know how difficult and time consuming it can be. From the short list of updates on Steam, it is apparent that the development team cares about their product and supports it. Overall, a good game worth the price of admission.
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