Counter Terrorist Agency
This is my revised and final review now that I’ve had a fair bit more time with it.
CTA is a game I’ve wanted for a long time, which is why it comes as such a disappointment that so little thought was put into its design. I love the idea of tracking terrorist groups, deciding how and when to strike, collecting intelligence, and ultimately trying to prevent attacks. Unfortunately, it’s let down by shallow and often unclear mechanics. The devs were active in the beginning, responding to criticism and quickly putting out an update that greatly increased the quantity of scenarios in the game, and more have been added since. However, they seem to have been silent for just over a month now, and the Steam forums have been completely dead for over a week. They claim to be working on a pair of updates that would add a sort of “free mode”, as well as a much-requested re-work of the case file system. Unfortunately, I’m not convinced these will be enough to solve the fundamental problems this game suffers from.
– Real player with 18.8 hrs in game
Overview
Counter Terrorist Agency is what the old game Covert Action would have been if the player were in a higher-up position, not every troublemaker had a name of a Spanish or Arabic origin, and relations and resources of nations were an issue. Things usually start out with suspicious behavior making the news, threats made to reporters, or just an intercepted phone call in which two people may say something suspicious, and from there, the player orders agents to go to work by having a suspect’s phone tapped and their social media accounts hacked, then waiting for more conversations in which the suspect’s role within an organization can be verified depending on the contents of the conversation. (The player may be able to guess at the role of the person they’re speaking to if that person infers they have any authority over the person the player tapped/hacked.) Once enough suspects have been identified, it’s time to stop the terrorists from acting by either arresting or killing (preferably) confirmed members. Arrested terrorists can possibly be interrogated revealing more people involved in their plot. (Interrogation can possibly even reveal a leader’s identity.)
– Real player with 9.1 hrs in game
Ancient Go
Early Access Day 1 review:
Edit: Thumbs up because it looks promising. (I’d hold off getting it until counting method issues are resolved, hopefully.)
Project seems promising. It includes basic tutorials for rules and scoring, a VS. AI mode and an Online multiplayer mode.
The AI is not particularly strong on any setting (Hard is when it starts playing slightly better moves, maximum tends to take a bit more time to play moves, but not a LOT of time.) So (at least at this stage) the AI is really meant for beginners. It would be nice to get a stronger one later down the line, but I’d rather see good multiplayer added than the focus be on AI.
– Real player with 20.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Artificial Intelligence Casual Games.
“Ancient Go” aims to be an app for total beginners to Go, which is great. Currently, outside of “Ancient Go,” the only other app out there on Steam is “Crazy Stone Deep Learning -The First Edition-,” which is $79.99. However, “Crazy Stone” is arguably meant for committed Go players, who are much stronger at the game. So, “Ancient Go” is a cheaper alternative for “Crazy Stone” that allows the Steam community to start playing Go at a cheaper price. That said, “Ancient Go” has its strengths and weaknesses.
– Real player with 20.0 hrs in game
Prominence
Prominence is more than just a game. It’s whole new sci fi arena. After you get through the game, your wondering when the movie is coming out. You have these people, and this technology, and this history, and its all woven together and introduced in the game. And it’s complete - you have relationships between people and leaders and workers and hopes and dreams, and technology failures, and work arounds, and all of it centers around a certain star, and all of that is revealed one peice at a time as you play. The art in the game is excellent artwork, and it works with background story. You have the drab look of the lower level, and the pristine look of the upper levels. The chipped yellow paint on the ladder in the elevater shaft, the natural beauty of the hydroponics lab with the large open window looking into space, the large brown CO2 tanks, and the awkard round thing that turns them on…the entire game has so much detail in the artwork - I dont know how the designers knew how to make it seem so real. All the characters have different personalities that fit their jobs so well. All of it reminds me of the way that different people worked together when I was serving on a ship in the US Navy. The girl in waste processing who is tired of getting reminded of how to do her job when someone forgets to open the valve outside of the main room. The security personell who stir their drinks with the stun batons, and break them, and the guy in the engine room who gets pissed becasue he has to fix them. There is so much stuff like that going on. And that’s just the background. The actual game plays great. Even on my 13 year old single core machine. Figuring out stuff is a challange, there is a lot of items and rooms and things to keep track of and sort through. I’ve gone back and played through many times. I write down names and notes to better understand the story, and the people. Some of the tech in it is raw, basic stuff that is fun to work with, like the terminal computer, or like the card reader / encoder. The music and sound effects are excellent. I like turning up the volume on my 200 watt / per channel system, and clicking on a locked door over and over again to here the sound effect. The locked CO2 absorbers have a really good sound too. The voices of the characters are awesome. The voices, and the way they say stuff, you can tell that the developers hired a bunch of different actors to get it right. The medic, who has to tell someone that they have a day to live due to a lethal radation dose, but seems to get excited in the next sentence when she’s explaing the technology, and that guy who is dying, OMG, you get to hear him giving updates as he runs around the ship trying to fix it, running into a hopeless situation that gets worse and worse, but he’s pushing through the pain with an inredible sense of duty…I just keep on playing the game and listening to all of these lines over and over again. I highly recommend this game.
– Real player with 130.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Artificial Intelligence Casual Games.
Prominence: an outstanding Point and Click game
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Immersive engaging story
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Graphics, breathtaking
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Atmosphere
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Play Length
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Extra Goodies
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Sounds and music
Best sci-fi game ever for me!
Can you save the human race?
What a great Point and Click game; it is fair to the player; you have all the information you need to solve the puzzles. No lunar logic was involved in the making of this game.
The devs put so much thought into making this a game for players; you do not wander from one puzzle to the next solving puzzles that have no relevance to the game.
– Real player with 53.5 hrs in game