Age of Wonders: Planetfall
This game is easily one of the best newer strategy games (i.e. 4X style game) currently available for single player in my opinion, period. I’ve had a lot of time to try several of these sorts of games that are considered the top games in the category lately. Civ, Total War games, Stellaris, Endless Legend, the list goes on, but I always come back to this one.
NOTE: Many of the reviews for this game were from when the game was released, since then they did a massive update that re-balanced the game and overhauled several mechanics. A lot of the comments in negative reviews were from a year+ ago using the old mechanics. This game is being actively improved / patched as of Oct 2020 from what I’ve seen and they’re still releasing an expansion.
– Real player with 1901.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best 4X Strategy Games.
As the game is now, I do not recommend it.
I played the entire series extensively, over 4.000 hours over all titles of the series, for me personally, they changed things that were good about the game, and kept things that were bad about it.
City Siege
The first thing that is really noticeable and changes the dynamic of sieges entirely, they removed gates from city walls, those were replaced by militias and defensive towers, however these militias don’t have mods, and you can’t aim the towers, so any other troop that attacks the city will be stronger.
– Real player with 1383.1 hrs in game
Leylines
I am surprised this game has not gained enough attention as I will have to spread the word out about this game.
Here is what I like about this game:
It has a very interesting Hero System meaning as you gain experience points you can spend experience points to improve a number of skills along with improving your main stats of your Hero like health, defense, attack, resist and moving around on the world map. It has at least 20-30 skills you can spend your experience on .
Other 4x games when you gain a level you get some increases based on that new level but in this game you spend your experience as you see fit so there really are no levels in this game so I think it is actually a better system.
– Real player with 10.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best 4X Turn-Based Tactics Games.
Game lagging every 2-3 second. Playing is impossible.
– Real player with 8.7 hrs in game
Sorcerer King: Rivals
After finishing game on insane difficulty I finally feel ready to write a review. In short, I think Sorcerer King Rivals is an amazing game. One of the best games I have ever played in fact. Having said that, I doubt it will appeal to people looking for a deep strategy game. Because this game is not that deep and not particularly hard, except, maybe for a highest difficulty. Also, I think it is important to mention, that I barely played FE:LH and did not like it at all so if you are looking for a similar experience, you may not like SC:Rivals. SC:Rivals is more like Eador: Masters of a broken world. So, as always, keep your expectations in check) Now, let’s talk about what is good, not so good, and pretty bad in this game
– Real player with 87.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best 4X Tactical RPG Games.
A great game. It’s fairly small in scope for a 4x, but I think this has allowed the developers to focus on producing a polished product. Sorcerer King: Rivals has lots of scripted story and events, which makes it different to other 4x games which rely soley on the quality of the AI players to pose a challenge. As Sorcerer King relies on heavily scripted events, don’t expect great AI. On the plus side, Sorceror King tells a great story with writing that is often hilarious.
You will see reviews complaining about lack of replayability, but I think if you want 300hours out of the game you need to look at the Civilization series or Galactic Civilizations 3. I’ve played Sorceror King for a total 65 hours. I will agree however, that the strategic map AI is extremely passive. It generally does not initiate combat and will wait for you to attack it. This means its not really much of a threat and this does effect replayability.
– Real player with 65.1 hrs in game
fullybroKEN - A Unique Mix of 4X / Post-Apocalypse / RPG / Roguelike
Overall I think the game has tons of potential, but I think that it still needs some time to iron out some of the flaws it currently has.But as it is early access I am hopeful the flaws will be fixed.
Overall
+interesting challenging gameplay
+roguelike elements that improve the game general post-apocalyptic/survival feel
+replayable
+interesting use of match-3 mechanics
+potential to be a great game
+innovative gameplay
-not quite there
-emergent narrative is still lacking(but as I understood the developer is working on it)
– Real player with 3.9 hrs in game
Fast paced and fun, a bit too challenging sometimes(maybe the dev can balance it better?). I didn’t had much chance to play and the game is in need of some bug fixes polish and as I understood content additions, but I do hope that during the early access the game will become only better.
– Real player with 0.8 hrs in game
Askara
Askara is a rogue-like turn-based tactics game, you choose how long each run takes, from a half an hour, to a few days if you want to! Multiple layers of mechanics mesh together to ensure that every run will be unique. It is easy to pick up, but will take years to master.
Game features
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Procedurally generated worlds, every playthrough will have a unique map
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Death is not the end, part of your experience carries over to the next run, you will unlock perks as you play enabling new strategies
Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander (LIGHTSPEED EDITION)
Halcyon 6: Lightspeed Edition is a turn-based combat space simulation R.P.G. both developed and published by Massive Damage, Inc. After a devastating attack by a relentless unknown alien species decimates the New Terran Federation, you are immediately put in command of the starbase Halcyon 6. It’s up to you to rebuild the Federation, make lasting alliances with alien species, gather vital resources and prepare to stop the impending alien invasion that has it’s sights set on Earth. Halcyon 6: Lightspeed Edition includes a number of additional content, optimizations and new updates to the original award winning title, Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander, that vastly improves the overall gameplay experience of the first title. Prepare to take your seat in the commander’s chair for this thrilling spacefaring adventure.
– Real player with 39.3 hrs in game
I was expecting some revival of MOO2.
I started my first game at “Commander level”, expecting to take a quick and severe defeat, but learn enough for an enjoyable second round.
For the first 8 hours, it was fun: build your ships, evolve your captains, oh! there is a tech tree, great! And those aliens, are they friendly or not? Pirates, space travellers, threats, offers.. Excellent!
After 8 hours, I started to realize that:
1/ I did not made any strategic decision, I just clicked randomly on the various “evolution trees”, I did not experience a single defeat.
– Real player with 24.4 hrs in game
Click and Relax
Just no
– Real player with 0.1 hrs in game
Well… it’s something.
The game only has 5 “game modes” which consist of something non-sensical and boring, there isn’t really anything “relaxing” or satisfying about them. The music cannot be adjusted and is pretty loud. Honestly it just feels like a school project from 2005 done by two students that just served to be presented infront of a class and then forgotten. Definetly not worth the money, I got it from a steam gift
– Real player with 0.1 hrs in game
Scythe: Digital Edition
I’m a pretty experienced player on the board game, so I know what I’m talking about: this game follow the rules quite well, except for a few mistakes (mill that create meeples WTF?!)
the board is exactly the same as the real game, and even if I felt a bit lost cause there is no infos about your mat type except at the very beginning of the game or somewhere I never found quite easily, it would be nice to have the name of the combo ( example : rusviet patriotic ) all the time, to me this can be quite important as there is some combos that are very OP (Rusviet industrial is already banned wich follow the rules of Jamey Steigmaier, crimea patriotic should follow) but those combos should remain open if you play a non ranked game or with one of your friends )
– Real player with 91.2 hrs in game
Bought this game during steam sale.
I love the board version. Was pretty excited to test the digital version as well. Here is my review and why its pretty meh.
TLDR: good gameplay, terrible netcode/online games. Don’t bother buying the DLC (Invaders from afar) since factions are really bad and you will end playing them a lot more than people without the DLC. A bit expensive for the experience. Worth it for the $8 I paid during the sale.
1. Gameplay 7/10
Its pretty much the same as the board game. Works very well. It can be a bit troublesome at first to get a grisp on how to make a turn, read the boardstate etc but after around 30 games it feels really natural.
– Real player with 60.4 hrs in game
Drox Operative 2
Drox Operative 2 is an Action-RPG on top of a background of AI-controlled 4X sectors.
You can influence, beg, threaten and bribe endless races into situations, trades and treaties more beneficial for your guild (and most importantly yourself) but never have to worry about actually running things as you tend to your own business as the captain of your own ship.
A game loop (or “Sector”) consist of completing quests, killing monsters, hunting, destroying or rescuing various targets while exploring your sector which is made up of many solar systems. Said solar systems are joined together by jump gates and wormholes. Sectors make up galaxies whose main elements persist between your adventures. Your galaxies can be visited by any of your characters. Winning a sector consist of reaching one of many win conditions; a new sector is then created to your specifications, such as size.
– Real player with 416.6 hrs in game
- TL;DR: As with every Soldak game review i posted before i would strongly advice anyone reading this to at least give the demo a try. Soldak titles lack the triple-a quality graphics other titles have, but this is entirely offset by offering great gameplay experience.
Soldak Entertainment is a bit of an anomaly in my game collection.
I have been buying Soldak games for nearly a decade now, and during that time i purchased virtually every game and expansion pack made. What makes these games anomalous is that each and every single one of them ended up in my “100+ hours played” list. And to add some context to this: Less than 10% of the 600 or so games in library meet that criteria. That of course isn’t exactly an objective metric that clearly proves the quality of these games, but if nothing else it should at least hint they are fun for some people.
– Real player with 187.8 hrs in game
HUMANKIND™
Loosing progress at the Dia de los Muertos Event??
I build a city with more than 300 population for nothing?
You are Not worth of my time and my money anymore!!
Mark my words. Look at the playtime at writing this review (213hours) … not a minute more, not a cent more for the many future DLCs.
DLCs that are necessary (but not paid once), as clearly the game is MISSING stuff to be enjoyed, to be recommended.
There are still games out there, You buy at release day, You play, You enjoy …. And You don’t feel fooled. Humankind is NOT one of them.
– Real player with 213.0 hrs in game
This is now my favorite Civ-like 4x game.
9/10
Cons:
-Its tutorialization GUI and tooltips leave something to be desired. For example, the fact that Fog environment (tile modifier) on the ocean stops line of sight units from being able to fire through. Some things you have to just learn on your own. I wish they could update this for as much as possible.
-This might just be a flavor thing, but the way the game is set up, you can transition to entirely different cultures as you enter a new era. You can go from Assyrian to Swedish within a campaign, without ever having dominated or assimilated any different culture-groups. Sometimes, I wish this had been handled differently, like you could only transition into culture-groups you had somehow been culturally involved with by neighbors or assimilation/domination. But gameplay wise it is still very fun as it is. Just hampers the immersion slightly.
– Real player with 155.4 hrs in game