Legends of Eisenwald
It pains me to see that such a great game only has ‘mostly positive’ reviews, whereas, in my opinion, it should have actually been ‘very/overwhelmingly’ instead of ‘mostly’. It is definitely one of my favorite games; in fact, it made my summer last year. I’ve played through it three times (including all the DLCs), twice here on Steam and once elsewhere, and I’m sure I’ll replay it at least for the fourth time.
This game is by the way the first modern RPG I’ve played, and it has also – apart from being a gorgeous experience itself – managed to draw me to the genre (I’ve always preferred playing pure adventure games and eventually strategies) and discover several other awesome games. But this one is going to remain my incomparable first love forever. :) At first I was a bit hesitant about playing it, as some reviews claimed it be too hard/confusing etc., but I cannot agree here. Once I got used to the mechanics, it was a sheer joy to play. At times, ‘Legends of Eisenwald’ can indeed be hard, especially considering your finances at the very beginning and certain fights, but I – almost utterly inexperienced in playing RPGs as I was back then – didn’t find it frustratingly tough. I think it was hard to a very reasonable degree, and I kept on feeling rewarded by the narrative through the whole game.
– Real player with 131.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Choices Matter Strategy RPG Games.
Okay.. phwoa!!… long game. Just finished it - in at around 100 hours - Final Fantasy eat your heart out. A few late nights let me tell you. I feel that this game deserves the time and effort for me to write at least something about it and how I felt about it even if to just say it was a good game. But I will do more because I felt this game really was something special and I have derived so much enjoyment from it that it is the least I could do.
I bought this game on sale for a few pennies (I can’t remember now but I think it was for under $5) and didn’t really have too high hopes for it considering its price and look but was then completely overturned in my opinion by what is essentially a really great game that in no wise is properly represented by its appearance. DON’T judge a book by its cover! Boy, don’t judge this book by its cover, it is a great game for what its worth. I think this game goes for around $20 more or less on steam and that is about the right price for this game. You won’t regret parting with that hard earned cash. If you see this game for anything less than $10 buy it straight away, don’t hesitate, you won’t regret it. You might ask if it is such a great game why is it only worth $20 dollars? Well that is what I will attempt to explain.
– Real player with 115.8 hrs in game
Colony Ship: A Post-Earth Role Playing Game
This is an Early Access review. The game contains bugs and is only feature complete for Chapter 1. I will not mention bugs in the review, because there aren’t any game-breaking ones and the ones that do exist are minor. Also, please download the combat demo before purchasing.
Background
The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic post-Earth world revolving around a multi-century trip on a colony ship. You are just one person, who lives in an area of the ship, called the Pit. You are not a hero, nor are you anyone special – yet.
– Real player with 90.4 hrs in game
UPDATE:
I now have a good handle on the combat system. Here is what I was doing wrong:
- Character spec:
Decide how you intend to play and spec accordingly. For example: my tank maxed Con and Str this prevents his from being knocked down as I took the Juggernaut feat. It is critical that you also take the Armor Feat with this kind of build. My primary weapon is a shotgun, and he feels really strong. Go all in on your chosen spec, I cannot understate this!
- Easy Target
Pay close attention to what you are wearing. If you make yourself an iron brick you will get prioritized by the enemy AI and get more holes in you than a cheese grater.
– Real player with 60.7 hrs in game
Baldur’s Gate 3
Recommended only if you are willing to accept that it is not complete and is still yet a while away from being done. Very similar to Larian’s previous two games but with just enough tweaks to make it feel fresh and closer to DnD ruleset. Some say it may as well have been called DOS3. While true, it’s also not a bad thing. Those games IMO are responsible for the resurgence of the old-school CRPG genre. Personally, this is my dream game. Huge fan of the originals and huge fans of the DOS games. Actually had the out-loud thought back in 2014…“what if Baldur’s Gate made a comeback and these Larian dudes were the ones to do it?” Wish granted. People will nitpick and complain, but I’m beyond impressed with what I’ve seen so far. The RTWP argument has been done to death and if you want to cry about it, go play Pillars of Eternity. It’s so close a copy to the old Infinity engine games that it honestly got stale and lost its nostalgia shine real fast. I would have been disappointed if a new game bearing the BG name turned out to be the same stuff I played to death 20 something years ago. The scope of what Larian is going for here is extremely ambitious and I’m 110% rooting for them to pull it off. With all of the possible dialogue options and minor little attentions to detail, its like a real tabletop in that everyone who plays will be working through the same “module” but everyone is going to experience that story differently depending on the player or groups decisions. Obviously, proper tabletop DnD cant be played solo, but just like the original Baldurs Gate games, this is/will be the best possible way for a solo player without and IRL group to play with to experience its universe.
– Real player with 198.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Choices Matter RPG Games.
This is a pretty amazing game the best DnD based game I have ever played it is very good. There is still a lot of development needed would not recommend this game if you do not have a high performance PC with an SSD they definitely still need to do some work on the performance. When the game leaves early access it will be well worth it I can assure you. For right now once you get bored of the waiting for new content check out what the modding community has done there has been some really great player content.
– Real player with 114.3 hrs in game
SaGa SCARLET GRACE: AMBITIONS™
This game is brilliant - cuts out basically all the chaff that wastes time in so many games - you get from “what’s next” to “slaying fiends” as quick as I’ve seen in a turn based RPG with this amount of quality to its storytelling (that is to say, a cultivated world that is not a roguelike).
Inventory management is fairly streamlined, mostly improving gear periodically (burdenless “loot management”) - game holds your hand through much of the learning process, try to avoid guides and go a few hours to start and learn as you go - losing is fun! and game autosaves errytime you do a thing, and you can reattempt immediately with a minor boost regardless.
– Real player with 632.9 hrs in game
Personally, I like this game. I can’t recommend it for everyone or even most of you. If you go in hoping it’ll be like a previous SaGa game, you may be disappointed. If you go in expecting a traditional-themed JRPG, you may be disappointed. If you go in thinking there’s no way you can’t die five times in the first 30 minutes, you may be disappointed, but enough of the ways you’ll be disappointed and bring dishonor to your family my dear Urpina. Onward to what I like and a little story.
The game is touch screen, mouse, keyboard-only, and gamepad friendly. The soundtrack has been wonderful.
– Real player with 208.7 hrs in game
Expeditions: Viking
STORY
Good. Is well written and very immersive. I always wanted to know what is going to happen next. I don’t know if is historically accurate but it feels so. There is at least three ways to beat up the game: gaining wealth as trader, gaining support of a powerful ally or impose the Danish law (kill, burn and pillage) which gives you replayability. The only fantastic thing is the game so you won’t fight against orcs or elves and you won’t use magic missiles and fireballs. Your choices matter and will greatly influence the way you will walk the story, the factions attitude toward you and if some joinable characters will leave or not the party.
– Real player with 158.5 hrs in game
This is probably my favorite game of all times, and I’ll definitly be honest and say I have a bias towards Vikings and the setting, that’s not why it is my favorite game of all time(though it’s a great bonus, no question!). I’ll split things into sections to make it easier to read:
Map\Travel\Exploration
The game is an isometric turnbased RPG, you travel between locations on a world map, and in\on the locations you have a local area to run around in, Like in Fallout, Wasteland, etc. Unlike Fallout there are no random encounters, but instead random events(often bad, but sometimes good), where you are given some sort of decision to handle(when sailing it could be a companion falling off the boat, or a storm closing in etc, dependant on your ship and resources depends on the effects that’ll happen and what decisions are avalible).
– Real player with 130.1 hrs in game
The Age of Decadence
–-{Graphics}—
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☐ Good
☑ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
The game portrays an aesthetic I have a massive soft spot for - Post-apocalyptic colonial Roman Empire. The environment art is well polished and beautiful, and the art style is self-consistent and immersive. I really feel like I’m somewhere in Carthage. The cities feel appropriate for their size – Maadoran feels like a dirty, bustling metropolis down on its luck. The design of the armours and weapons are all era-appropriate, with proper, real-life names (e.g. Lorica Segmentata).
– Real player with 391.5 hrs in game
In brief: AoD ditches many of the genre long established staples to focus on the roleplaying, and this it does amazingly well; there really is nothing quite like it out there. The EA version is very much playable (there are less bugs than in many releases). The combat, which has been much the focus of attention due to its difficulty, is not awesome, but it gets the job done and it is optional.
***Since for some reason Steam has decided to implement a character limit to user reviews (what’s up with that Gabe?), you can read my whole review here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/230070/discussions/0/666827315713399977/ , but below is a very long extract:
– Real player with 214.3 hrs in game
7th Deep
A simple game with some surprising depth. I t has replayability due to the number of characters you can choose ( 7) and can be combined into any team of 3 or less. There are several save slots and if you find yourself fighting monsters beyond your ability you can teleport back to a location and redo the levels for more experience. If you like this type of game I highly recommend 7th Deep, and you can’t go wrong at this price.
– Real player with 51.6 hrs in game
I have only played for a short while, but wanted to pop in and say that I am loving this game. It’s a little different than other RPGs (no blue sky in sight, nor an Inn), and I like the difference. Makes a nice change.
Anyway, I highly recommend this game for those players who want to have fun with an easier to play game.
–- — —
Additional:
After having played for quite a few hours and experimented with which characters work best, I know now which my 2 favourite characters are. The first one is mad, bad, and dangerous to know, and I love him. :)
– Real player with 45.1 hrs in game
Griftlands
Updated for Flourish & Mettle Update
My opinion of Griftlands is largely unchanged from my original review (below). The combat is tight and you’re frequently just a misplay or two away from losing a big fight, but the RPG elements get increasingly gimmicky the more you play. It’s sort of sad that choosing whether to help someone or not really depends on whether the passive bonus they give for loving or hating you is important or not. At higher prestige runs then you feel somewhat punished for taking an in-character action that ends up giving you a malus - I understand that’s a strategic trade off you have to make, but it highlights where the RPG and strategic aspects clash jarringly in Griftlands.
– Real player with 45.3 hrs in game
TL;DR: Slay the Spire meets RPG. Production values are high but card gameplay is inferior to StS. Not a game I expect to play over and over again. Passable.
–——-
Have you ever played Slay the Spire adn thought to yourself, “Man, this game could use more story”? Well, Griftlands is that game! Narrative, great writing, flavour, design, environment, Griftlands has all you’d want from a card battler rpg!
…Kind of.
I like Klei. I do! Their products, while not always for me, are usually quite innovative and interesting. So I’ve been keeping a close eye on whatever they produce. In this case, they borrowed the card battling mechanics VERY VERY heavily from Slay the Spire, and added in all the essential elements of RPGs and made it well. In these ways, the production value of Griftlands is significantly higher than Slay the Spire.
– Real player with 36.2 hrs in game
Wednesday Basketball
Live a year in a small town basketball association. Follow the stories of Fanny, Alex, Remy, Ajiba, Laura, Odile, Benjamin, Amir, Kariem and Meng as the season passes by. Some will join, some will leave. Relax and play some basketball.
Wednesday Basketball is a tactical basketball narrative game. Every week, a group of people of all age and origins decides to gather to play basketball. Every week, stories unfold, and games are played.
In this basketball club, no one is a loser, everybody is welcome to score some hoops and have some fun. But as Fanny’s last year goes by, some friendships will grow and some will break. Who will stay, who will leave, and what will happen to the club? Let’s find out.
Silmaris: Dice Kingdom
Silmaris meets the bare minimum for me to recommend it; it took me about 12 hours to beat the game, then another 5 hours to exhaust all the various outcomes, or at least as many as I cared to see. After that, in my opinion, there is little to no replayability.
It was fun and an interesting story, with plenty of choice. I love the idea of dice rolls; its a good strategy and resource management game with (lite) elements of city/kingdom-building as well as the thrill of RNG. And yes, you will die plenty of times before figuring out how to best navigate the decision-making. For me, that adds to the joy of the eventual triumph. However, once you beat the game, you’ve probably seen all the events, and for me, the game is not enjoyable enough to replay after there’s no new surprises.
– Real player with 21.8 hrs in game
I played this game for a time and for me it was enjoyable. You play a ruler in a city surrounded by five other cities. Two of them are hostile towards you at the beginning. The rest is neutral. Trying to either subjugate or befriend them is your main goal then. For this goal you have a pick out of a varity of advisors at your disposal. Additional to this politic part you can solve missions on the map, which can provide you with artifacts making your advisors stronger.
Everything works via dices you use in the game. You gain them by either letting your advisors collect more or earn them in missions.
– Real player with 16.5 hrs in game