XCOM: Enemy Unknown
“VIGILO CONFIDO YOU ALIEN FU**ERS-”
-Cpt. Heavy McHeavyface, before launching a rocket at a Berserker.
! The rocket misses, killing a VIP plus the rest of his team near the evac point in the process.
TL:DR:
XCOM: Enemy Unknown is an intense game, almost nerve-wracking at times, but generally rewarding as you plan and fight your way through droves of alien invaders with a variety of classes, equipment and abilities. You might find yourself save-scumming (reloading saves for better results), but that happens to the best of us. The game will push you to take risks and deal with consequences, both in long-term strategy with base, crew and international management, and in short-term with tactical combat. While lacking in a few aspects such as a deeper plot, and leaves some optimization work to be desired, Enemy Unknown will get your tactical thinking at full throttle for a steady incursion of (sometimes brutal) enemy forces.
– Real player with 365.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Base Building Tactical Games.
JUST TO CLEAR THINGS UP
This review is for XCOM ENEMY UNKNOWN (INCLUDING ALL DLC) ONLY.
XCOM Enemy Unknown has an expansion pack called XCOM Enemy Within . I’m not going to include that in the review because I’m planning to write a separate review for it. This review will only be about the BASE GAME + ALL DLC.
Also, I have not played the original XCOM games (shame on me, I know) so I won’t be making any comparisons to those.
– Real player with 329.1 hrs in game
Creeper World 3: Arc Eternal
Creeper World is technically a tower defence game, but unlike any other you’ve played before.
In a normal tower defence game (and even abnormal awesome ones like Defender’s Quest ) you’ll have enemies coming towards a point or object you’re defending and you’re tasked with fending them off by placing towers either along a pre-defined path or by creating that path using walls or the towers themselves (this is known as ‘mazing’).
– Real player with 126.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Base Building Tower Defense Games.
At the Time of Writing
Game: Creeper World III
Price: $16.99*
Genre: Tower Defence/Strategy
Time Played: 2 hours
Personal Enjoyment Rating: ☺☺☺☺☺ (out of 5)
Links I Found Helpful**
Game maker (Knuckle Cracker) website has demo downloads. http://knucklecracker.com/common/demo.php
A Youtube review by quill18http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlJ5FmjL_7g
– Real player with 78.1 hrs in game
Terminal squad: Swarmites
I’ve never played games of this genre. This is amazing! The levels are slowly becoming more difficult, which does not allow me to relax and even more draws me into the game. This game deserves more
– Real player with 3.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Base Building RTS Games.
I like old-style games, so I decided to buy this game, as it reminded me of the games of my childhood, well, let’s start with the pros of the game:
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You need to think through your steps to be successful in this game
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Intuitive interface, looks good
Disadvantages of the game:
I don’t really like the graphics, I think it looks too old, I’ve seen a few old-style games, but they used the new game development technologies, they looked very good and enticing
– Real player with 3.3 hrs in game
Shop Titans
I come from a similar game called “Shop Heroes” run by a different developer.
This is a shop simulation game, and if you’re into this genre of games, I found this to be the best option currently in this genre.
Here’s some points I came across while playing the game that made me choose this game and quit Shop Heroes:
F2P vs P2W balance: The game can be played entirely F2P, end game content like the Haunted Castle dungeons can be cleared with heroes equipped with cheap, easily obtainable gear. There’s no strict paywall behind any of the content, and paying real money just makes you get to the end game faster and complete things faster. You also don’t need crazy gear or gold to clear any of the end game content.
– Real player with 2677.2 hrs in game
As a player who has been playing and paying for over a year since Mar 2020. (F2p first 3 months and a monthly subscriber over 14th months now)
Summary (6/10): The game system itself should be an enjoyable long-term craft-like game. You will need a year to reach high level receipts if you are not a hardcore player. but not suggested to casual f2p players.
Pros :
1. Unique craft game and enjoyable system, easy to start.
2. Build your own Hero team to do quest is fun.
3. Graphic: All 3D and Cute design
– Real player with 1287.4 hrs in game
Little Shop of Junk
Your little underground bunker-turned-shop is about to be stormed by an army of customers eager to get their hands on unusual merchandise.
With a single pull of a lever you can supply enough pieces of metal, rubber and explosives to satisfy their heart’s desires and more. War might have gone out of style, but recycling is back in - and you have all kinds of gear lying around, ready to be reused as entertainment and garden decoration. Listen closely to every little masked guy and put out the goods they order.
While rapid shopkeeping is the key making any money, it’s the business decisions that will have the most impact. Figure out how to best design the shop layout, stay on top of organizing the stockroom and acquire advanced equipment to really spice things up.
Unlock all kinds of different things to sell. Some of them might be difficult to handle or just downright dangerous but hey, you absolutely CAN pawn off an explosive barrel as a coffee table if your sales pitch is convincing enough.
Spend your hard earned money to buy new rooms, furniture and upgrades. You will need the extra space to keep things organized once all the wares come flooding in.
Create wonders of makeshift engineering by combining useless junk into amazing contraptions. Rockets with magnets duct-taped all over are worth pretty penny somehow. You might want to figure out how to store those safely before starting mass production, though. Or don’t, what’s the worst that could happen? Flying super magnets, that’s what.
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Frantic, physics-based shopkeeping.
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Unusual take on the post-apocalypse, where the old conflict has lost all meaning and the ubiquitous military gear keeps getting repurposed in the most creative ways possible.
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Management gameplay that changes during different times of day and special events. Make decisions that will impact incoming orders and profits. Discounting dynamites during the rush hour sure is profitable, but also twice as risky.
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Dozens of items with silly mechanics that make them explode, fly around and just cause a lot of chaos most of the time. Expect big rewards for selling the most volatile wares, though!
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Big machines that allow you to invent funny item combinations, radioactive smoothies and fashionable gas masks.
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Purchasable furniture and decorations to make the shop your own. Build the best layout for keeping things organized, or just stick conveyor belts everywhere and go for the speed build!
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Leisure mode with no time limit for players who just want to tend the store and stack boxes in peace.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1218780/Little_Shop_of_Junk/
Company of Heroes - Legacy Edition
Company of heroes is a masterful example of how Detail and polish on even the smallest of elements can marry Gameplay and theme to create something that truly deserves a place among the greatest games of all time.
Company of Heroes is a Real time strategy game with a WW2 era finish, and my god this finish is pristine. The game’s basic gameplay elements (both single player and multiplayer) are unique and offer true decision making and deliberation on your part to be successful; positioning of weapons teams and the will to only fight when you have something to gain is most important of all. Holding territory and maneuvering into a position of power is the game of war, not pointless bloodshed.
– Real player with 209.2 hrs in game
I remember having played this game for the first time when it was released. Being a fan of RTS games, especially the ones released by Relic, there was no way I was going to let this one go. It wouldn’t be an understatement to say I was literally hooked from the word go. No RTS before or since has been on the same level as this.
The single player campaign was just brilliant. If I had to point out a weakness, the only one I can come up with is that it’s a bit short. I just couldn’t have enough of it. But it’s not a perfect world. Relic’s competitors can maybe come up with a 20 mission campaign with mediocre results, but this one gave you 13 that were nothing short of brilliant. They were varied in terms of gameplay, offering multiple methods to achieve the objectives.
– Real player with 80.3 hrs in game
Windmill Kings
It’s great concept unfortunatly there are a couple flaws that make this game a no for me. The positive are: great graphics, nice music, funny story. Requirements are low and the game runs well 1v1 on the same keyboard and single player on the touchscreen also works (tested on surface pro)
Now the bad: First is the duration. Campaign on normal takes less than an hour. I had a lot of fun working my way up in the campaign but after that you can only play replay the same thing or the Dark world which is brutally hard compare to the normal difficulty. There no replayability unless you do multiplayer. Playing against the computer becomes easy as soon as you realize that the AI is in fact the same pattern of enemy coming your way. I would say you should wait for a sale 1/2 price it will give you a couple hours of gameplay perfect for a short flight.
– Real player with 5.7 hrs in game
Another great game by Bigosaur - with their typical art style and sound style. Great cartoon-like graphics with challenging gameplay. This is a 2D strategy game with kings, medieval knights, giants, archers, healers etc. Story mode is cool, as is the skirmish mode that has different scales of battle. PvP is also available. Definitely recommended!
– Real player with 2.1 hrs in game
X-COM: UFO Defense
Super game! One of the true classics, and - according to me - one of the best games still in modern times!
Note: A patch openxcom.org fixes pretty much all of the bad usability issues in the original game. This is probably a must-have if you are going to enjoy the game today.
This game is super for people who likes strategy and management. Unlike the later series of X-Com (partly but mainly after Apocalypse (game #3)), the features of the game has been overly simplified to make the game suit a much wider audience. This game, however, is the real deal… superb for those who like a good challenge and the management involved.
– Real player with 177.6 hrs in game
There are games that are good. There are games that make you addicted. Then there is XCOM…
It’s the end of the 20th century. In response to growing alien threat, few governments decide to fund and XCOM organisation, solely dedicated to neutralising forementioned threat. Player becomes Commander of the force.
Game consists of two levels. On the Geoscape, you manage bases, research (come on, all this sweet loot left by deceased gray cabbage. I know you want it.), manufacture and more. Starting with single base (preferably western europe, you have radar coverage over whole Europe, part of Russia and Northen Afrcia), few soldiers and fighters equipped with conventional terrestial weapons. It is sufficient for the first few weeks, but after recovering UFOs and aliens, both dead and in custody, you will get better equipment: Laser weapons with unlimited ammo, powerful plasma-based armament, durable armors, UFO-looking fighters or even possibility to make your soldiers use their Psionical abilities against aliens. But to get this, you need to get some UFOs down. Send an Interceptor, and use his persuasive rockets to make aliens crash. Then, Tactical level starts.
– Real player with 154.3 hrs in game
Gnomoria
You can literally play for 2000 hours (yes 2000) hours of this game, over a year and a half, and not get bored of it. It’s that good. You can create limitless amounts of new kingdoms with each new game, set difficulties, peaceful or not, metal/gem/coal resource abundance etc. There is much more than meets the eye of simple gfx and sound. After a while you figure out that if you want to build a stone temple, you have to dig a hole down and get stone, turn it into stone blocks (with workshops for each type of thing) and craft the blocks and tell the gnomes where to build. It’s total freedom but with that comes the complexity of running your own little kingdom. Are you up to the challenge? It’s like simcity or warcraft meets minecraft. For those that don’t like FPS games or need a break from them, this is a great break. Actually… it is more like a black hole from which you won’t want to escape. It is that fun. Oh, and development is constant. No fears as with some in-development games… the dev is at the ready and giving many new features on a consistent basis. Don’t starve, die of thirst, or get killed by bears, or anything that spawns below level -7 (that is where monsters can spawn, at level -8 and below). Monsters also spawn on the surface but they are usually wild animals only. Occasionally, depending on difficulty you get goblin raids (not too rough at first, again depends on your settings), but after a while they can get pretty tough. You will have to grow your own food, or forage from the naturally occuring fruit trees, or clip and plant some more of your own to make sure you always have plenty of spare food.
– Real player with 2886.4 hrs in game
Difficult review. The game’s definitely a mixed bag, with some fairly serious and annoying issues, but at the same a time, a lot of them are quite easy to resolve and I’ve somehow played hundreds of hours so … it did something right?
While not one of the many early access scams like “Towns”, “Timber and Stone” or “Spacebase DF-9”, Gnomoria’s 1.0 release was definitely disappointing.
The game was released feature complete, however it lacks polish and some of the leftover bugs are potentially gamebreaking. (although the 2 most common ones have a very simple solution, more later)
– Real player with 542.8 hrs in game
Realm Grinder
I should probably begin by saying I have a weakness for idle games. The allure of always progressing and the goal of that next unlockable is appealing to me. I can’t describe properly why that’s the case. I’ve played many idle games. Clicker heroes, adventure capitalist, soda dungeon, the cookie game, time clickers and more.
Realm Grinder is the best by an absolute mile.
Does it do anything different to the other games listed? Not really, no. You’re still clicking on things to make things happen until you reach a point of allowing the game to be self sufficient and left alone until you want to update it and get bigger numbers. What Realm Grinder does differently to the other games is include a gigantic amount of depth. You’re not simply trying to reach the biggest possible numbers. Instead you are trying to reach goal after goal after goal. And everytime you think you’ve reached the limit, the game adds even more goals.
– Real player with 7647.8 hrs in game
TLDR: If you like clickers that are more strategic and have lots of complexities to them, this is one for you. If you just like to click and not think about it, maybe give it a pass.
I decided to play this game after reading a negative feedback comment because it accurately described the game. I like my idle clickers that have times when you need to be active and other times when you can just leave it alone for a while. This does describe Realm Grinder.
You start the game with the basics and as you move on more dimensions of the game come into play. Each of these new additions adds to the complexity and forces you to be more strategic with your game play. Now, you can do this all on your own and figure it out by trial and error, or you can read the forums on Kongregate or the website http://musicfamily.org/realm/ which is entirely devoted to the game. There’s a plethora of information out there about all the different stages of the game, what to do when, and how to do it most effectively.
– Real player with 5861.1 hrs in game