Star Dynasties
Infinite potential, incredible progress.
I started playing this game during the indiecade demo mid-2020, and the evolution this game has been through in just one year is massive.
Pros:
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Dev very responsive to Player Feedback
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Lots of Character Drama
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Interesting Events (Expeditions specially)
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Interesting Systems (Secrets, Justice, Gatherings, Favors and Negotiation)
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Powerful Modding Tool (Seriously, one could create a full DLC-worthy experience with it)
– Real player with 996.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Choices Matter RPG Games.
Addendum
Have changed review to - Would recommend.*
Only about a third of my gamer friends are big head enough to truly enjoy this game, but I know they will enjoy it immensely. I can see this one sinking hundreds if not thousands of hours into, and I’m already hopeful they go series with it.
I have a great deal of hope, if only because of how quickly the developers are acting on feedback and making solid changes. Meaningful save files now exist. There’s still a lot going on, so I’m not yet done with this review, but the nature and flow of the game are starting to make more sense.
– Real player with 122.9 hrs in game
Crusader Kings III
This game is an amazing sandbox with plenty of depth, but it lacks difficulty. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had such a good run with my first character that I don’t even want to play my second one. Unlike CK2 where you would spend so many hours to create an empire; CK3 feels like a speedrunning game some of the time, and doesn’t always live up to its predecessor. Most of the time I can create an empire with my first Ruler. I 100% find it harder to roleplay in this game compared to CK2. This can be decently fixed with the massive modding community for CK3. If you are looking for a more roleplay-sensitive experience I would recommend mods like Succession Expanded, Minor Titles, MND Balance, Medieval Arts, CoA Designer, Sinews of War, Additional start dates, and cultures, Ethnicities & Portraits Expanded, and Community Flavor Pack. Other than the difficulty. I love playing this game, I already have 545 hours in it.
– Real player with 580.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Choices Matter RPG Games.
I have no idea where to start this review 🙂
Did I like it oh yes, yes i did. Will I continue to play it after 210 hrs , yes, yes I will. After 210 hrs I have finally managed to playtrough a campaign twice.
All right with that said this is the only game from Paradox i have really played. Even if i have played a little bit of european universalis 4.
I really like all the options this game gives. In which nations to play as. In how you want to play it. Do you want to try to conquer alot of stuff. Or do you simply want to build your nations. Do you want to get more land by wars or do you want to try to get it more peacefully.
– Real player with 296.4 hrs in game
Oraiah
This is a really Great game. All i can say is great music great atmosphere, VERY immersive, and its fun. Waking up today i didnt know Id become Tobias Turdschitz of my very own Turdschitz kingdom, Will update more after i get more time in game.
Totally tubuler.
Update- im addicted
The interface is very intuitive i only studied the tutorial 5 minutes and i knew how to play the game. I love the fact that theres lots of decision making, and u feel like your far away in kingdoms fighting for your people. The bardic music is really nice and this is a good game to play while listening to talk radio if u want to turn it off. Its very addicting and i woulda payed more for this game, how far it will go i dont know, but i know within 1 hour of playing i got completely addicted . If youre thinking about buying it, just get it, you wont be disappointed for the price.
– Real player with 9.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Choices Matter Building Games.
Really cool in the first 15 minutes but then you realize just how “varied” it really is. You’ll get the same 10 or so events constantly over and over with no differences whatsoever, the resource system is very lacking and so is the military and building sections. Diplomacy system and law systems are nearly non-existent.
Even if you have no troops, you’ll still get events where it says you lose soldiers and the like.
Good start but bad execution given this is the final project.
English translation is terrible.
– Real player with 0.6 hrs in game
The Ancients
Earth in prehistoric times. The continents are shifting, the last ice age is coming. Fierce predators roam the land.
KEY FEATURES
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Survive in harsh conditions of prehistoric earth and wild creatures of virgin nature.
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Research and craft new tools according to your geographical needs.
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Protect your tribe from wild animals, cold winters, drought, make them feel safe.
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Discover the language and build an identity for your tribe so your people will be a whole.
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Create root religious ideas and combine them to create your own religion.
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Observe every change of your tribe. (Further reading tribe scene below)
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Build your own culture, make your tribe patriarchal or matriarchal, polygamic or monogamous, etc.
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Shape your tribe policies, authoritarian or free people, brutal or peaceful, equal or hierarchical. Each decision will help you deal with difficulties in its own way.
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Migrate different nodes on earth, to even the most impossible areas and try to survive there, you will be native to where you stay in the end.
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Meet the prehistoric animals, and be prey to them or make them your prey.
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Witness the historical development of humanity or create your own history.
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Try to make the best decisions in various events caused by internal or external sources.
From being starving hunter-gatherers, you will develop a great tribe with many options on prehistoric technology to great cultural breakthroughs. Your goal is to survive and thrive in real-world-inspired locations and migrate to new lands.
CULTURE TREE
The culture tree is where you discover religion, policies, and human interactions inside and outside of your tribe, the main purpose of the culture segment is to allow the player to shape the cultural development of the people. We worked on it to make it as real as real tribe’s decisions.You decide the roots of the culture of your community and what they are like when they advanced to settled life.
RESEARCH TREE
The research tree aims to help the player overcome the obstacles of the game by inventing new tools materials and crafting options. Research Tree is composed of six different categories inspired by historically correct ancient technologies. Our research tree consists six different categories, and six consecutive historic periods. You can become better in any category than others, like historic tribes.
TRIBE SCENE
The Tribe Scene gives you a close-up look at your tribe’s development. You can see the results of your tribe development on this screen. In addition to visuals, tribesmen and tribe states can be observed here. You can check if your tribe members are fed, feeling safe, and bound to the tribe socially. Otherwise, they may fight, steal or leave the tribe. Being a tribe doesn’t mean traveling and eating together, you have to live together and survive as a community.
MIGRATION MAP
While surviving against the wild, relentless nature of the last ice age; travel the vast landscape of the ancient earth. The ancient earth was geographically different than the earth we know today. The world was not like today at the last ice age, do you want to try to walk to America from Asia? Do you know Britain and japan weren’t islands at all…
Discover the ancient earth with your tribe.
HEXAGONAL MAP AND TACTICS
In the game, the player controls different clans of a tribe. These clans may gather food, hunt animals, make camp, or later in the game improve campsite with basic structures like tents and fences against wild animals. Our maps consist of hexagon tiles which is very useful for planning tactics for your clans.
The Island: King’s Order
The island is a combination of an RTS game and an RPG game where you play as an army commander and as a hero of your choice.
You will have to build the base, expand your army and defend the settlement at all costs.
Fight the nearby monsters in the name of King Actus,
And kill any monster that crosses your path.
But be careful with each passing day the monsters get stronger and more vicious.
Select your hero
Build the base
Manage your resources
Conquer new lands
Waiting For The Raven
Well, it’s still an early-access game, so don’t expect it to work all the way through -
but I thought it was an interesting approach, and it was nice to try something different.
Douglas Adams, alas, predicted this sorry state of affairs:
“In other words - and this is the rock-solid principle on which the whole of the Corporation’s Galaxywide success is founded - their fundamental design flaws are completely hidden by their superficial design flaws.”
And if they were actually from another planet, you could overlook the developers poor grasp of human languages, as well.
– Real player with 59.9 hrs in game
The game still needs more polishing. The first spymater session is enough satisfying and the storytelling is quite reliable. There are a bunch of spark ideas during the first session gameplay including some right in time visual effect, some good cypher solving games and some well hidden bonus. The problems of first session could only be some buggy UI display and the strategy management part. I spent like 5 to 6 hours to totally break through the first session and to find out how naive the management part actually is. Beside the 10000 gold bonus and some other hidden bonus, I can just use some wine barrels, a 10 stealthy big boy and a 10 charming miss to burn all the houses to the ground without any real punishment. And the game is just like lying down there suffering from my giant gold dick-play. I mean, you guys did a lot of great work in designing the dialogues and storytelling and visual effects and different strategy dealing with different situations. But why the actual management part is so disappointing. The balance of some punishment events and the credit bonuses is totally a mess. That’s not cool at all.
– Real player with 7.5 hrs in game
Road Builder
I felt like the concept of a road building game where you’re limited to a square grid was a good idea. So to get to the puzzle stage, you’ll have to start building the roads up to the intersections-points, which becomes tedious because you have to click so many times to swap between different straights and curves. Once you figure out where roads have to cross, you have to guess your way around the extremely limited intersections. Intersections has “ghost”-tiles that are very hard to figure out how they work. It’s a guess-work which is made difficult because of the limited feedback on pathfinding. Essentially you have to connect all points, then hit play, see a binary “it works” or “it doesn’t work”. With the update you can at least see for each endpoints, but just hovering on an entry/exit should really show the path the cars will take to the opposite.
– Real player with 7.2 hrs in game
It’s really lovely game with a good concept and cute graphics.
I thinks it’s definitely worth the price (includes a lot of level, an editor, and Workshop support).
However, some of the puzzles are hard and the games is sometimes a little click- and mouse heavy.
– Real player with 4.6 hrs in game
Thrive: Heavy Lies The Crown
Thrive: Heavy Lies the Crown is a Medieval Fantasy city builder that forces you to make dire decisions that ensure the survival of your kingdom and the people you lead.
Volition is a valuable tool in your inventory as you build your city, shape the land and fortify it as you see fit. Burdened by the weight of your decisions, a seemingly trivial choice can shape your legacy and determine if you’re a soulless tyrant or a fair and just monarch.
Will your kingdom merely survive, or do you have the resilience and dedication to make it THRIVE?
#### Features
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Struggle with real-time decision making that leads to real-time consequences
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Uncover the true nature of the mysterious Waelgrim
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Survive the harsh realities of medieval life, both natural and manmade
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Advance the development of your kingdom through an in-depth tech tree
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Discover your benevolent or tyrannical nature
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Traverse an unknown land to gain new resources and allies
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Explore this land alone or with up to four friends
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Experience a day-night cycle that affects your citizens’ behaviors
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Defend your growing kingdom by waging epic battles
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Receive modding support to play your way
#### Benevolence & Tyranny
The path by which you rule, be it benevolent or tyrannical, is determined entirely by the decisions you make. Thrive’s narrative-driven event system presents dynamic, nuanced options that often make the best choice unclear. Compassion and communion with nature can empower you, but rapid growth and progression could catapult your dominion. One must always remember that a hero to some is a villain to others. What will be your legacy?
#### A Vast Land
Establish your presence in a large-scale 4X land, rich in possibility and potential conflict, with up to four friends. Compete for resources and develop relationships with numerous AI villages and kingdoms, strengthening your foothold in this new territory’s active economy. Develop outposts and small villages to gain increased resources while helping to extend the reaches of trade. As your kingdom grows, will you develop a legacy of fear or friendship?
#### Survival
To survive is to take heed of what you can control, and weather what you cannot. Direct your kingdom’s future through effective planning, advancement and a detailed tech tree. Success is rewarded with new options to empower or enforce the nature of your rule. Countless variables, from weather to Waelgrim, add increased pressure to your reign. Endure these unpredictable forces and prove you truly have what it takes to thrive.
#### Waging War
Thrive’s real-time combat is reflected in the costs of war. Choices are realistic and impactful: soldiers’ deaths affect morale, ammunition needs resupply, armour and weapons require repairs, and troops experience fatigue. Engage in siegecraft, both as an inflictor and receiver, to show you can persevere against any form of adversary. Approach all conflict with a clear strategy, lest you long for a bitter reminder of failure’s high cost.
Pax Nova
To be honest, this game really didn’t cross my radar until a couple of weeks ago when I saw an article on it and the combined planetary + space layers made me think of Emperor of the Fading Suns. It was on sale for launch and I picked it up. I was a bit soured to the experience initially due to bugs and some UI problems but it seemed like the devs were working on patches so I held off reviewing it. Since there’s been an update I figured I’d go ahead with the review.
Since I posted this review, there’s be a ton of tweaks, bug fixes, and content pushed out by the devs so I’m updating the review to reflect the current state. While there are still some bugs present, the devs have crushed so many of the major ones that I’ve moved the entry to the “Meh” section
– Real player with 265.1 hrs in game
I’ve been sitting on that review for a longer while, but I feel like with latest updates I can finally recommend it, just not for everyone.
You know that sentence, “wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle”? Well, Pax Nova is like that. Just not in the negative way, in my opinion. It’s a casual, simple Empire Builder/4X, that lets you just sit back and relax, something to occupy part of your brain not with a challenge, but heightened activity. Basically a sudoku of strategy games.
Each playthrough there will be multiple planets to explore, each with own map of different size, different strategic resources and with one of few different tilesets (though devs managed to utilize lighting to make two planets with single tileset to look quite different), and above that is vast space, enough for your starships to take turns of travel, despite systems touching elbows with each other. All of those have enviromental dangers, resource nodes for mining and anomalies to explore, all the stuff you expect from a game like that.
– Real player with 111.8 hrs in game
Secret Government
I really want to like this game, and in a lot of respects I do. I actually wish Steam had a middle option between the binary of recommend: yes/no, and the last thing I want to see is the devs give up on this due to negative feedback. However, I’m sure most people would be disappointed by the game in its current state, so “no” it is.
It’s a great concept and it has a lot of promise, but the game is incredibly game breakingly buggy and there are some very obvious gaps where development just never caught up to what was planned. The developers have stated their intentions to keep working on the game, and I really hope I can rewrite this review into a recommendation at some point. Outside of the issues, what the devs were going for is very apparent, and I would love to see it more fleshed out. There is one circumstance in which I would recommend this game that I will include at the bottom of the review.
– Real player with 90.4 hrs in game
Let me level with you: this is a thinking person’s game. Though its aesthetics reminds one of the Europa Universalis games, if you lack the patience to tackle your goals in a subtle, clandestine way, you will suffer. Unlike the EU games, you cannot simply go up to a ruler and order them to go to war with another country, nor can you simply go to the citizens and order them to support your newly created political party. In fact, it is best if neither are aware of your existence at all as they will crush you if their Awareness of your Brotherhood is high enough and it doesn’t necessarily have to reach 100 first for them to start weakening your Brotherhood.
– Real player with 54.4 hrs in game