Shinobi no Okite/The three female ninjas

Shinobi no Okite/The three female ninjas

I only found out about this game because I searched on Google for the name “Panther Software” – developers of obscure games like Space Griffon VF-9 for the original PlayStation and Metal Dungeon for the original XBox – and I found out that they released this game on Steam. I mean, I believe it’s the same Panther Software, but after playing this game, it’s hard to tell.

Shinobi no Okite is a Qix clone. It’s basically an action-puzzle game where you move your character around the screen and draw lines that will, slowly, uncover a picture. Reach the required percentage in each stage and you can advance to the next. Easy enough to understand, but hard to master. As far as I know, this is the only Qix-style game on steam with controller support, both digital and analog. Since it’s dirty cheap, I didn’t have much to lose.

Real player with 6.2 hrs in game


Read More: Best Action Singleplayer Games.


After more than seven months, nobody has posted a review for this game? Talk about unusual. In any event, I posted a video with a full overview here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6ngbt4xtck

To summarize, this game is one part history lesson, one part advertisement (on why to visit Japan) and one part mediocre “Qix” clone, and is incredibly Indie/Doujin in just about every way. If you’re not familiar with 1981’s “Qix”, the basic idea is that you move around a perimeter (most often a square or rectangle) and “draw or cut” a portion of it out to reveal an image until you’ve revealed the majority of it while utilizing power-ups and avoiding enemies / obstacles. There are subtle differences between the various Qix-esque games, but they are mostly the same at their core and most of them are better offerings than this (some examples include “Battle Qix”, “Dancing Eyes”, “Cacoma Knight”, “Gals Panic”, the Doujin “Gal Pani X”, etc.).

Real player with 4.5 hrs in game

Shinobi no Okite/The three female ninjas on Steam

Battle Cry of Freedom

Battle Cry of Freedom

Battle Cry of Freedom brings brutal real-time first and third-person combat set in the 19th Century America, presenting players with the opportunity to re-fight the American Civil War as either the Union or the Confederacy.

Incorporating a wide range of weaponry, from long range rifled muskets and devastating artillery, to various deadly close combat tools such as bayonets, knives and sabres, players will take up the fight for the North or the South trying to win the day on the bloody battlefields of America.

Fight in Massive Multiplayer Battles

Take part in massive multiplayer battles with up to 300 players simultaneously fighting each other on the same battlefield, in a completely destructible and realistic Civil War combat environment.

Commander Battles

Take control over a company of AI-controlled soldiers and lead your men to glory! Fight in huge battles with up to 800 Bots per Server. Commander Battles are the ultimate gamemode to display your tactical cunning.

Multiple Army Branches

Enlist in the Infantry

Fall in line as a regular infantryman, join the ranks of an elite sharpshooter regiment, or help relay orders as a musician as you get to explore the various roles in the army and trial your favourite units.

Serve in the Artillery

Support your team from the rear and shatter enemy resistance as a gunner. Join the Heavy Artillery and use the 100pdr Parrott Rifle to lob shells over enemy fortifications with devastating effectiveness.

Muster as a Specialist

Enlist in the Engineer Corps and support your team by constructing defenses, building pontoon bridges and supplying ammunition. Or help stitch up wounds of badly wounded teammates by becoming a Surgeon.

Large Weapon Selection

Find your own playstyle! Smoothbores, Rifles, Pistols, Swords, Axes… With more than 120 unique weapons, 70 different types of ammunition and 20 different Artillery pieces, players have plenty of options to choose from.

Charge - Bayonet!

Fix your Bayonet and call the charge. Defeat your enemies using the directional melee combat system inspired by games such as Mount&Blade: Warband, that is easy to learn but hard to master.

Realistic Projectile Physics

Battle Cry of Freedom realistically simulates real life bullet physics by modelling not only velocity and twist rate, but also takes into account factors such as humidity, temperature, air density, local gravity, wind direction and wind strength.

Advanced Artillery System

Each of the 20 Artillery Pieces will perform differently and each gun has its up- and downsides. Artillery can be loaded with a wide range of different ammunition. Percussion-fused shells, time-fused shells, solid shot, bolts, canister and case shot can all be loaded, and work as expected.

Destructible Environments

Destroy bridges, fell trees, punch holes in walls, blow up fences; in Battle Cry of Freedom, almost everything is destructible. But don’t stand under a falling tree…

Construct, Destroy, Resupply

Play as an Engineer and construct various different defences, such as chevaux de frise or sandbag walls. Place forward spawn points and help your team by supplying them with ammunition and weapons. Lead the charge and blow holes into the enemies fort with gunpowder kegs or destroy their defenses with your powerful felling axe.

Fully Customizable Uniforms

Customize your character’s uniform down to the color of the socks he is wearing! Pick from thousands of historically accurate uniform and equipment pieces, choose from different shoes, coats, hats and more. Even how you want to wear your coat is completely up to you. Wear it open, closed, under or over the leatherworks…

Present - Arms!

All animations in Battle Cry of Freedom are based on real world Historical Drill Manuals, such as Casey’s Infantry Tactics or Hardee’s Revised. In addition to the “regular” animations all being historically accurate, the game features a large selection of “role-play” animations, such as Parade - Rest, Present - Arms, Support - Arms, Trail - Arms and more.

Historical accuracy

All the gameplay is historically inspired, with changes only made when it creates a more engaging and exhilarating gameplay experience. While Battle Cry of Freedom is not a simulation game, we make no compromises to accuracy when it comes to cosmetics, such as 3D models or animations. Every stitch is precisely where it needs to be!

More than 14 Battlefields

Fight on one of the 14 beautifully hand-crafted maps, inspired by real-world places and battlefields, or play on a randomly generated map, providing a different combat environment each time.

Dynamic Time of Day and Weather

Fight on an ever-changing battlefield! Wind and lightning will break trees, rain and fog will lower visibility and heavy wind will alter ballistics. Battle Cry of Freedom features a dynamic weather, wind, season and time of day system.

Playable Musicians

Support your team by boosting their morale. In Battle Cry of Freedom, you can become a drummer, fifer or bugler, able to play historically accurate tunes; all recorded and played by award-winning musicians.

More than 50 Background music tracks

Listen to the 2nd South Carolina String Band or to classical music performances by the United States Military Bands. With a grand total of 57 background tracks available in the game, you have a wide selection to choose from, guaranteeing that you’ll never get bored.

Ingame Map Editor

Bored of the pre-included maps? No problem! Create your own maps with the easy to use, but yet very powerful Map Editor included in Battle Cry of Freedom. Custom Map files are only a few megabytes large and will be automatically downloaded from the Server in a matter of seconds, so you spend as much time playing and as little time waiting as possible!

Powerful Admin Tools

In Battle Cry of Freedom, Admins can make use of more than 120 Server settings as well as 35 easy-to-use Admin tools accessible via an ingame interface making Administration of a large server easier than ever before.

Regimental Linebattles

Participate in the community and enlist with a Regiment (Clan) to take part in massive organized battles with players re-enacting historically accurate tactics of the Civil War Era.


Read More: Best Action Simulation Games.


Battle Cry of Freedom on Steam

DYNASTY WARRIORS 7: Xtreme Legends Definitive Edition

DYNASTY WARRIORS 7: Xtreme Legends Definitive Edition

This is the best possible start for newcomers to the Dynasty Warriors franchise period.

Sure most people will say play Dynasty Warriors 8 first as it has better gameplay but if you start with 8 you will not be able to appreciate the series as much as you will if you start with this one.

Why is that? Because Dynasty Warriors 7 has a story mode that has you playing pretty much every major character in the game. This is great because those new to the series are likely going to be overwhelmed by the massive roster of character, much like in fighting games, Dynasty Warriors roster usually consists of picking the character that looks the coolest (unless you have any interest in ROT3K lore prior to playing this series). This isn’t the case with Dynasty Warriors 7 as you get to experience every single character’s perspective rather than just playing as one character over and over again. I find that this keeps the experience from being too repetitive compared with previous games in the series where you just stick to a certain character for each mission. Dynasty Warriors switches the characters up giving you new moves to use each time and no character is hard to master since the entire game is designed around pick up and play gameplay which is great.

Real player with 73.3 hrs in game


Read More: Best Action Hack and Slash Games.


Every Allied Officer ever: “Whatever you do, DO NOT PURSUE LU BU!!”

Proceeds to pursue Lu Bu

Repackaged as Xtreme Legends Definitive Edition, Koei’s number one “Ancient Chinese Genocide simulator” series returns back in time 7-8 years back to re-release 7 into Steam,

! knowingly that they kinda admit they screwed the pooch with DW9.

To make things short

Gameplay: Dynasty Warriors 7 returns back to their usual bread and butter 6-button attack combos after immediately divorcing 6’s Renbu attack system. Levelling up is non-existent and was rather replaced with a skill system (8:XL would eventually revert that).

Real player with 55.9 hrs in game

DYNASTY WARRIORS 7: Xtreme Legends Definitive Edition on Steam

Ilum

Ilum

Babylon is to be destroyed

Ilum is an open-world game that includes elements of exploration, action and city destruction. Taking place in ancient Babylon and the surrounding region, including cities like Borsippa, Sippar, Kutha and Kish, among others. The year is 539 BC, the time when the Babylonian empire feel to the Persians and its Jewish captives released from servitude after 70 years. As prophesied, Babylon is to be destroyed. Ilum accurately depicts archaeological findings and cuneiform inscriptions from buildings such as the Tower of Babel, Hanging Gardens and Nebuchadnezzar’s palaces. Voice-acted in Akkadian language in a Biblical and Babylonian mythological background.

Key Features

  • All Buildings Furnished - Every single house, building, palace, temple and ziggurat in the game contain characters, furniture and you can get inside. They are thousands!

  • All Objects Destructible - All objects in the game are independent from each other and can be destroyed for releasing points. From a small water cup on a table inside a house to the biggest temple standing in the city!

  • All characters playable - There are thousands of characters walking around the streets of the cities and inside the houses, from 20 different social classes. You can control any of them if you manage to convert them!

  • 100 quests - These are linear quests that unlocks the game progress. Reach the indicated checkpoints and accomplish the quest to be able to proceed further in the game. As you travel, you will be exploring the beautiful scenery in a 224 km2 map!

  • 20 idol gods bosses - Each character in the game has a patron idol god that you can battle with. If you destroy it, the character is then “converted” and you can play as him!

  • Learn Cuneiform Writing - Collect syllables and get the actual correspondent phonetic values exactly as they were in ancient times. If you have a good memory you can start writing in cuneiform. Its a lot of fun!

  • Ancient Music - Soundtrack includes Hurrian Hymn No. 6, the oldest playable musical score in History!

  • Change between 5 weather modes at any time - Weather modes will completely change game visuals, add special effects and affect objects look and feel. The weather modes are: Normal, Water, Air, Earth and Fire. Just have faith and you can change it!

  • Archaeologically accurate buildings - A lot of time was spent to match the actual foundations and visuals from buildings, palaces and temples, exactly as they were found in past archaeological works. When no evidence exists, an approximation was made according to existing patterns. See yourself what the ancients have seen thousands of years ago!

Ilum on Steam

Line of Sight: Vietnam

Line of Sight: Vietnam

This game was made in 2003. So the game has its age and doesn’t have any PERFECT mechanic or gameplay like today modern games.

Pros:

  • It has most common guns during the Vietnam War.

  • You have to play stealth and spam alot of those “Quick Save” button cuz enemies are stealth with you as well.

  • It contains VIETNAMESE BAD WORDS. I laughed hard when the Viets Soldiers say that " son of the b i t c h"

  • It is my childhood. I am vietnamese myself. I was naive kid who came to game shops and bought the disks twice. But that doesnt stop me from having fun.

Real player with 40.2 hrs in game

This is not your typical “guns blazing” or “shoot everything that moves” type of game. I call this a thinking man’s game. Some reviews call this game monotonous, and while I can see how that could be the case, that was not the case for me. Yes, stealth is about 75% of the game, but let’s be honest, much of Vietnam was either napalm airstrikes or stealth patrols, and you don’t fly a plane in this game, so stealth is it. Side note: I enjoy the geographical and historical background. It really makes you understand Vietnam better (both the country and the war). As for gameplay: tough. Very tough. Press “quick save” often because each step might be your last…literally. But fortunately you can always quick load your last quick save and show those commies who’s boss. Weaponry: it’s a candy store for 1960’s historical firearm enthusiasts. You’ll get the opportunity to shoot the service rifle and pistol of the time, along with everything the enemy shoots at you. Another side note: I really like the fact that you can pick up or drop any weapon you find on the field (to include everything from AK-47’s to rocket launchers and everything in between). Ballistics are also more realistic than many games I’ve played. For example: the 7.62 round from the AK-47 has more stopping power than a 5.56, and a .45 from your service pistol is great up close, but you can tell it slows with range and isn’t as effective the farther out. Kudos to the ballistics researchers on this game. Lastly, the value for the price of this game is incredible. In closing, if you like a really hard strategic first person shooter with lots of weaponry, tactics, and simple keyboard/mouse commands, this is the one. Get it today.

Real player with 12.2 hrs in game

Line of Sight: Vietnam on Steam

Museum of War

Museum of War

Сходил в музей

Real player with 0.7 hrs in game

Museum of War is a resounding achievement in world building, environment, and engaging gameplay with occasional problems throughout.

Its incredible recreation of ancient Greece is something I’ll want to go back to long after I’ve finished its main story, and its excellent systems mesh together in a way that’s hard to beat. While there are definite rough edges, Museum of War sets a new bar for slasher games and holds its own in the eternal debate over the best hack and slash games ever.

When I look back on all the fun I’ve had, all the complaints feel minor. Museum of War is beautiful, and it effortlessly ties action, stealth and hand to hand combat together into one cohesive game that, even after 0.2 hours, I want to keep playing.

Real player with 0.2 hrs in game

Museum of War on Steam

SAMURAI WARRIORS: Spirit of Sanada

SAMURAI WARRIORS: Spirit of Sanada

Finally 100% completed this game…. ugh…

If you’d asked me in the first 10 hours of playing, back then I probably would have recommended it…

… But then it started to drag on… and on… and on… and I found I wasn’t even halfway through the game yet before I’d got completely sick of it.

I’ll put it this way: It is like a Samurai Warriors game… except ONLY about the Sanada family… and with hours of text blocks and cutscenes sandwiched inbetween every battle… and like Samurai Warriors 4-II, the trigger conditions for the various tasks you have to undertake in battle are really flaky… and you often have to wait through tons of pointless dialogue and pop-ups for hundreds of kills or whatever before the game bothers to acknowledge you’re near someone it has an event for (by which time you’ll be running out of daylight). Expect to finish a lot of battles to find a few of them still locked and no clue what to do to unlock them… sometimes because you killed the guy you were supposed to kill before the game told you to kill it and it just never procced.

Real player with 82.4 hrs in game

I have played all of the Samurai Warriors games to date and am a huge fan of the Warriors games. And I have to say this is the best Samurai Warriors and possibly the best Warriors game I have played. In Spirit of the Sanada they focus specifically on the Sanada Clan making their way through the Warring States Period. This game is much more story focused than previous installments, filled with tons of dialogue, characters and events. The main story took me around 35hrs to complete so it’s not just some short spin off. The battles are very fun despite being a bit repetitive. They also have added in a day/night cycle which switches thing up a bit but makes battle time limits shorter. Furthermore, they’ve also included a stratagem system into this which can give you an advantage in a battle or make a task much easier to complete. While using them isn’t necessary, it can make life so much easier in battle because some of them get pretty rough at times if you’re not overpowered. The only downside is it takes forever to charge it up after completing objectives once before. I’m going to close by saying this, I’ve played through this series 5 times now (SW - SW4-II) and I’ve read up on the actual history featured in this series. I went into this game knowing exactly how things were going to play out and what the ultimate fate of everyone would be. But despite this I could not help tearing up. The way they executed the ending of this grand story was excellent. It left me so sad but very satisified. I just cannot praise this game enough. I highly recommend this to any Warriors fan and to anyone who is looking to get into the series.

Real player with 64.8 hrs in game

SAMURAI WARRIORS: Spirit of Sanada on Steam

Wars and Warriors: Joan of Arc

Wars and Warriors: Joan of Arc

Very old but catchy and interesting game. For the first time, I’ve played this game when I was a child, and it gave to me tons of hours of fun. Now I can remind to myself of these epic and positive moments.

What’s the game like?

I can compare it with Dynasty Warriors with an actual story set in medieval times, with an inventory system and RTS elements. In simple words, it’s like an RPG (but more or less linear) where you can select the character (not only Joan of Arc is available). The game has eight stages, and each stage has it’s own huge battleground – an entire map where you can feel yourself free to explore every corner. It’ll take about 2-3 hours to finish it. There are even some sub-quests you can get from civilians. However, the main feature of the game is fighting and castle sieges. Command all your troops via RTS mode to besiege the castle or stronghold and switch your control to Joan of Arc to fight personally. Tons of enemies will try to separate your body from your head. You can lead your battle however you want: upgrade your main characters stats and lead an entire army to victory or fight alone 1vsDozens of bastards.

Real player with 20.4 hrs in game

Jeanne d’Arc/Joan of Arc is a medieval action-RPG set during the 100 years war. You can switch to a RTS camera, but if you don’t like it, you only have to use this once to man a trebuchet and command it to attack a fortress. The main focus of the game is combat. You will speak with French citizens and do side missions, but for the most part, you will fight against the English and their allies. I quite like the combat and its many combo attacks, but some newcomers might get overwhelmed by the amount of enemies. Levelling up, increasing your stats and improving your gear and weapons is addicting and you will get very strong at the end of the game when one hero can potentially take out enemy castles on their own if you do it right. Joan of Arc is all about making good tactical decisions and be smart about it. Otherwise you make it harder for yourself. I recommend this game to players who are interested in a medieval setting with lots of fighting.

Real player with 20.0 hrs in game

Wars and Warriors: Joan of Arc on Steam

Battle Grounds III

Battle Grounds III

This might be particularly long but… Who cares.

Cons:

  • Poor graphics by today’s standards

  • Mic spam (sometimes)

  • Physics aren’t amazing

  • Community can be cancerous - like most online games to be fair.

  • Servers aren’t so populated (they are populated currently due to its Steam release but I can’t see it staying like this -

would like to be proven wrong in some aspects

Pros:

  • Community can be fantastic - events such as sieges, line battles and clan/regiment matches can be great when organised properly

Real player with 1122.5 hrs in game

I spawned in the game, everyone i see in front of me is wearing redcoat uniforms, this must be the British army, they all proceed to make a straight line with each other, one of the redcoats is at the front of the line, using his strong voice to order the redcoats to move out and follow him in a neat line formation.

We continue to move over some hills and in the distance we can see a group of 20 silhoutes standing still, all of a sudden we hear a blasting sound and one by one redcoats are falling in front of me, our commander orders the line to stop and face the silhoutes, and orders our line “Make ready…. Take Aim….. FIREEEE” and just like that we shoot off a incredible volley that is deafining, smoke all over the front of us. and again in the distance the silhoutes are coming closer, we see they are wearing blue uniforms, its the American continental army! they are charging straight toward us with their bayonets attached, our commander orders us to fire another volley, and we see the americans are dropping like flies, but continue onwards anyway.

Real player with 1031.7 hrs in game

Battle Grounds III on Steam

DYNASTY WARRIORS 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition

DYNASTY WARRIORS 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition

Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition Review

Nostalgia Goggles Factor: Very Low.

Bug Factor: Very Low.

Crash Factor: Very Low.

Replay Factor: Intrinsic.

A crowd-control, hack’n slash game based on a Chinese novel, set in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. DW8XL contains an enormous amount of content and repetitive gameplay.

As I have played and reviewed DW3 recently, I will be doing some comparisons between these two games. Like many other reviewers have pointed out, “Complete Edition” is a lie, as is evident from glancing at the DLC section and you should not be playing this game with a keyboard.

Real player with 749.3 hrs in game

-sigh- Where do I begin?

Well, I gotta start by saying, if you’re looking to get into the Warriors/Musou games, this would be the ideal title to start with. Easily the best title in the series (at least since DW5).

For those new to the series, Dynasty Warriors (a.k.a. Shin Sangoku Musō) is, basically, a hack-n'-slash based on era of the Three Kingdoms of China, and the romanticized novel of the same name. In its stages, there are thousands of enemies of various calibers to mow down. You got your peons that go down in a few hits, your commanders that are a little tougher, your generic named officers that are a threat, and other playable characters that have the same abilities you do. You have a more-or-less equal amount of allies on your side, and how they fight is determined by your side’s overall morale, which itself is determined by your performace. Each character has their own string of combinations, but I’ll get into that in the next paragraph.

Real player with 681.6 hrs in game

DYNASTY WARRIORS 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition on Steam