Reviews by João Costa

Prison Architect - Perfect Storm
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Has great ideas BUT poor tutorial.

This DLC is a great option to increase the challenge of your prison. Not only will you have to take a lot of new things into account such as pipes freezing during winter but also new tools/mechanics to deal with problems.
Personally the main issue of the DLC is the lack of a tutorial or information check.
For example if your cleaning isn't too god you can get rats. You can call the pest control to eliminate them. What the game doesn't tell you is that you can have traps to capture the skaven. But for the traps to work you need to get a staff training going on.

You see that is the major problem of this DLC. every new cool mechanic has a small text explaining half of what it has, it puts the player on the spot to learn them.

by João Costa, Portugal - Sep 15th 2022

Stellaris: Overlord
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Subjugate the galaxy

Stellaris overlord heavily changes vassals in stellaris. This expansion makes it fun to have vassals and not just an afterthought. the ability to negotiate the contract you have with vassals as well as the ability to steal disgruntled vassals from other empires makes for fun dynamic.
This also makes that being a vassal isn't game over and instead are able to growth under the wing of your overlord whom you can help or maybe get a better contract with a powerful neighboring empire
It also brings a mercenary system, 5 new origins, new megastructures, etc.

by João Costa, Portugal - May 20th 2022

Hearts of Iron IV: No Step Back
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Excellent review if you want to play in USSR sphere

This DLC expands the USSR, the small baltics and Poland national focus. It is great if you enjoy those countries.
Alongside this it adds train artillery and a tank designer. IMO these additions are all rather fun; although the train artilelry with only be possible to build as a major.
IMO tank designer is great for small countries as you can make 2 designs, with one heavy armor/tank destroyer while a small nimble one to stop enemy infantry.

I highly recommend this DLC if you want to further expand HOI IV

by João Costa, Portugal - May 8th 2022

Hearts of Iron IV: Eastern Front Planes Pack
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A good cosmetic DLC

This DLC brings quite a few new airplane models for several countries. Having USSR and the Nazis with new planes make for a much more interesting eastern front.
The new hypothetic models are well done too and fit right in.
I am only giving it 3 stars because of 2 reasons:
1) i feel like Nazi germany and the USSR should have been free to the base game
2) I think the price for a few airplane models is a bit too expensive. Specially when you consider that you will barely see the models in game.

IMO this is a good DLC if you want more planes to look at but otherwise feel free to skip it

by João Costa, Portugal - Apr 17th 2022

Stellaris: Aquatics Species Pack
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Aquatic cuties join the Galaxy!

I highly recomend this DLC. Without spoilering too much i enjoyed:
- the portraits are gorgeous! the 3D models are beautiful!
- the new origin ands its events are worth the price of admission
- the new colossos and aquatic events are fun

This DLC feels closer to a minor content pack that a cosmetic pack. Yes the cosmetics are a big part however combined with the new content it makes for a 1 or 2 novel campaigns.

by João Costa, Portugal - Apr 17th 2022

Jurassic World Evolution 2 - Deluxe Edition
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See gameplay before buying!

I'm very divided on this game.
First of all i want to say to have caution before buying it. Despite being a sequel it barely improves on the same game and just adds slightly new content

contentewise the game has a "campaign" which is a tutorial with a story. THe meat is at challenges and chaos theory. completing challenges adds new maps to sandbox. Chaos theory is basically a map with slight sotry narritona nd objectives that follow the movies story.

managementwise the game is harder than the first but makes little sense. and msot of teh time is just you waiting for money to tick up. And if you waste all the money a tonce and get a storm it can be a gameover in an instant.

There are a lot of dinos; including flying and swimmers; that said flyers and swimmers are very simple with little to no interaction and very few animations.

In short i can't recommend the game because it lacks content and management is poor. I'd only recommend this game to those that tolerate the poor mechanics and really enjoy watching jurassic park dinos.

by João Costa, Portugal - Nov 21st 2021

Surviving Mars: Below and Beyond
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Worth buying if you want to expand the mid game.

Personally i really like this DLC because it makes the mid game less monotonous. Usually the mid game is basically just expanding what you already built in the early game; until you have enough resources and tech to terraform.

This DLC adds underground mars in a special map. The transition is made in certain points on the map so it isn't accessible at the start. The underground has several precious resources that you can bring to the surface to help. It has different threats than usual. This DLC also requires to use rovers a lot which IMO is a plus because they are barely used in the normal map.

If you like surviving mars i think this DLC will add enough content for a new run.
If you didn't like surviving mars i don't think this DLC will change your opinion

by João Costa, Portugal - Nov 7th 2021

Stellaris: Nemesis
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Expands the end game in interesting ways

This DLC has 3 fun mechanics at its core
1) you are able to become a "crisis" . The cool part is navigating the thin line between having the whole galaxy wipe you out to slowly grow. It is fun to slowly become a galatic threat and seeing the galaxy reacting to that
2) You can be a protector of the galaxy, similar to how turians were the military of the council.
3) Once you are the protector of the galaxy yo ucan usurp the powers and form a new galatic empire, similar to how Palpatine star wars rouse to power.

Alongside the mechanics above you also get spying and a new ship model set.

All in all it is a very cool DLC that expands the end game to stop it becoming stale.

by João Costa, Portugal - Oct 16th 2021

Surviving Mars: Mars Lifestyle Radio
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Good music

A few new music tracks for the game. I'd recommend you listen to the samples to see if they are your cup of tea.

by João Costa, Portugal - Sep 18th 2021

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus - Digital Deluxe Edition
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One of the best singleplayer shooters

Wolfenstein 2 continues to show that Machinegames knows how to do shooters impeccably.
It has an engaging storyline, gameplay with varied difficulties, great animations and awesome set pieces.

I highly recommend it if you are looking for a singleplayer shooter< this is one of the best

by João Costa, Portugal - Aug 22nd 2021

Planet Zoo: South America Pack 
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Expensive DLC

This DLC adds a few animals, 1 new challenge and quite a bit of new decorative items. IMO without a sale it is a bit too expensive for what it contains unless your favorite animal is here or you enjoy your creative side and want more items for a artic themed zoo.

by João Costa, Portugal - Aug 19th 2021

HUMANKIND™ Digital Deluxe Edition
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A good 4X game!

IF you like 4X chances are you will enjoy this game.
if you want a CIV Clone this isn't it and you should give it pass.

The strenght of this title is twofold. Has a big map and the military is interlined with the economy part of the empire. This means that unlike CIV by focusing on military you lose acess to some economic power (because each unit requires pop; although you can get the pop back if you disband the unit).

The weakness of the game is faith and polutions , both of which feel very underwhelming and "useless"

Knowing that amplitude usually supports their games I think with 1 or 2 expansions this game can really shine.

by João Costa, Portugal - Aug 19th 2021

Planet Zoo: Arctic Pack
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Interesting but expensive DLC

This DLC adds a few animals, 1 new challenge and quite a bit of new decorative items. IMO without a sale it is a bit too expensive for what it contains unless your favorite animal is here or you enjoy your creative side and want more items for a artic themed zoo.

by João Costa, Portugal - Aug 3rd 2021

Total War™: WARHAMMER® II - The Silence &amp; The Fury
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Excellent DLC for Beastman and Lizardmen fans!

As with any wh2 DLC the DLC is not obligatory. Note that the AI has access to the DLC so you only need to buy the DLC if you are playing as lizardmen or beastman.

And holy stuff is this DLC amazing.
From the lziardmen you get the sneaky sniper oxyotl, strong melee chamelon skins that have explosive javelins, the flying support mosnter coatl and the troglodon spinosaurus dino; which has a hero spellcaster variation.

On the beastman man side you have the mighty unstopable Bull of khorne, taurox! The hidious mosnhter jabberslyth, the big 4 armed minautaur the ghorgon. NAd yo ustill get some cheap chariots.

It is an amazing DLC.

by João Costa, Portugal - Jul 25th 2021

Freedom Fighters
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An old shooter game with AI teammates

The game is about freeing USA from occupation. Storywise it is very bland.
The gameplay is a usual shooter, the cool part is that you can recruit AI teamates that help you.
This game needed a sequel to fresh out and improve the gameplay. What is here is average but there was and is a a lot for potential for an innovative really good game

by João Costa, Portugal - Jun 25th 2021

Hearts of Iron IV: Eastern Front Music Pack
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New musics for the game

I don't really have much to say. It is a few new musics to HOI IV. I'd recomend you give youtube/spotify a jump and hear them before buying.
I like them.

by João Costa, Portugal - Jun 25th 2021

Planet Zoo Deluxe Edition
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A good Zoo creator.

The graphics and animals animations are super good.
The best feature is how deep the creation systems are. You can create some pretty amazing Zoos.
Management wise it does it job. It is relatively simple but when combine with the above can easily give dozens if not hundreds of hours as you expand and tinker with your park.

My only 2 complains is that the creation is not very intutitive and that breeding can get out of hand really quickly and soon be a bother to control in big Zoos.

by João Costa, Portugal - May 7th 2021

Bayonetta
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An excellent action game.

This is an excellent action game. if you want a fast and epic action game you will enjoy this.

A warning!! the main char is heavily sexualized and the theme/actions heavily objectifies women. If that bothers you then this is not the game for you.

by João Costa, Portugal - May 7th 2021

Monster Train - The Last Divinity
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Expands the base game very well

This DLC adds a new race, a new difficulty mechanic and a special boss.
If you like the base game and want more content this is completely worth the full price!

by João Costa, Portugal - Apr 5th 2021

Space Crew: Legendary Edition
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An interesting management title

You manage a spaceship and go on missions. You move the crew around to the several stations. It is good game but can soemtimes feel very unfair.

For those that played the previous game bomber crew; IMO bomber crew is a better game. While the mission variety is much smaller in the bomber crew game I think it captures the stress much better than in this space game.

by João Costa, Portugal - Apr 5th 2021

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