Ambition: A Minuet in Power
I almost fainted when I saw Ambition’s premise. A choose-your-own adventure? With political intrigue and love interests?! Taking place in the French Revolution!? It seemed perfect for me - and, oh, it was!
You play as Yvette Decaux, a woman who travels to Paris on the eve of the French Revolution to rendezvous with her fiance, a baron named Armand. But oh no! He’s missing! You have the option to try and find him, and/or abandon him for one or more of the five other love interests. Each of those love interests are part of a faction - the Crown, the Church, the Military, the Bourgeoisie, and the Revolution. To build your power, you must go to parties thrown by these factions to meet your romance options, collect gossip, and participate in a randomized and vast array of entertaining minor intrigues. The gossip you get can be sold for money (used to buy dresses, pay rent, bribe the authorities, and purchase coffee - the usual!) or bend the factions to your will. You can increase or decrease their power, or nudge the middle factions towards the Crown or Revolution.
– Real player with 146.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Diplomacy Political Games.
First and foremost: this game gets my recommendation. Its content is deep, compelling, and interesting. Despite having limited hours to do so, I wanted to keep playing. The historical perspective seems incredibly well researched and founded (though I admit I am not a good source to weigh in on historical legitimacy), the characters were diverse, and the story was compelling.
That being said, I found numerous issues. The most frustrating being that many of the randomly generated interactions kept appearing “out of order” in such a way that the story felt massively interrupted and disjointed. I’m honestly not sure if it’s some strange series of choices I made to cause this, but I kept accidentally running into one of the main characters in the game in side missions at parties in which she would act as if we had some very contemptuous history, when in reality, I had never even seen her before let alone (to my knowledge) upset her before. As I found from playing the entire game, I believe she was destined to be an adversary, but I was SO confused when I was playing. There were several other instances in which I found that interactions I had already had with characters didn’t jive with interactions I went on to have with them subsequently, and honestly, this is my biggest issue with the game.
– Real player with 48.2 hrs in game
XO
(I backed this game on Kickstarter, and helped out with alpha and beta testing…)
XO has a lovely mix of tactics and strategy within a relatively short three to five hour game run. But learning XO well enough to survive that final run will take you much longer. It’s a game to be played many times as you learn more about the ships, the factions, the enemies, weapons and circumstances. Each time you’ll learn how to survive longer, how to make better use of the ships, systems and resources you encountered, and how to better choose through the event paths in order to win faction allies as you go.
– Real player with 89.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Diplomacy Story Rich Games.
I’ll split this review to what I enjoyed and what I did not.
What I enjoyed
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You really get the feeling of trying to build together a rag-tag fleet of military and civilian ships, fleeing away from a seemingly unstoppable enemy while building up your arsenal, firepower and the capacity to support your fleet. Awesome feeling. :)
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Lots of interesting concepts, boarding, resource harvesting, different kinds of weapons to counter different enemies. Really enjoyed different weapons, upgrades, ship types, keeping civilians in cargo holds (then performing a crew transfer to abandoned/disabled ships) and the ability build up my fleet. :D
– Real player with 51.9 hrs in game
Renowned Explorers: International Society
For the TL;DR: Renowned Explorers is a shockingly-deep game about accumulating and utilizing knowledge that is shockingly-easy to get into.
Renowned Explorers: International Society is the most creative Roguelike I’ve ever played. One assembles a team of three explorers from a pool of 20 (24 with the Emperor’s Challenge expansion) and charges forth to exploit lands undiscovered by Europeans. Your goal is to amass as much wealth, reputation, and knowledge as possible, and become the most Renowned Explorer in the process.
– Real player with 430.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Diplomacy Strategy Games.
I seduced a nun, got spat on by a llama, fought Charles Darwin riding a dinosaur, and made grown men cry. 1000/10
But if you need more of a reason to buy this game, here’s the breakdown: you play as a group of explorers, traveling the world, earning status and money while doing research, collecting treasures, and all around making a nuisance of yourself. It’s a turn-based strategy game with a really interesting mechanic: moods and attitudes. Each side of the battle (you vs. them) each have one of three attitudes (friendly, devious and aggressive), and the combination of your attitude and the enemy’s creates an overall mood (ex. hostile = both parties aggressive or persuasive = you friendly and them devious). Each mood has bonuses or penalties, and there’s a rock-paper-scissors system so you know which way to shift your attitude to get the bonuses and avoid the penalties. (Friendly beats devious, devious beats aggressive, aggressive beats friendly.) You win battles with your built-in powers. There is some overlap between characters on the powers, but not a lot. There are area attacks, line attacks, and single-target attacks, and by default every character has one attack from each attitude, plus some bonus ones that fit their own personal strengths and personalities. (Yes, seduce is an attack you can actually use, and no, it’s not gender specific). It’s good for all kinds of different playstyles.
– Real player with 188.1 hrs in game
The Advisor - Episode 1: Royal Pain
My secret word is ‘Blessing’.
I knew to expect quality and a fun time. This surpassed expectations! It got me really thinking about what I know in terms of army logistics and self-sufficiency. I know, that may seem redundant these days but, in my humble opinion, striving for self-sufficiency and knowing how to work together as a group is always good idea. Growing food, purifying water, basic medicine and basic repairs on everyday objects, all that can be very useful. I still need to know more but that only means I’m excited to replay this in a few years and see how my ideas and capabilities have grown!
– Real player with 2.0 hrs in game
My Secret Word: Bard
My apparent skill as an adviser: Magnificent
Overall, I found this to be a very intriguing game. Like all other games by this developer I found myself having to face very difficult ethical questions. However, unlike the others there was also a lot of questions regarding leadership and tactics (personal interests of mine). Overall, I loved the opportunity the story provided me and the story itself. As for the main character, I find him to be painfully pragmatic somewhat in contrast to my values. However, not as much as I would like to admit. Aside from his quick leaps to pyromania I do not think Magnus is an entirely evil person. Perhaps this is due to my own propensity for witticism that endears him to me. In addition, I am sure he is smart enough to recognize benevolent leadership is better for the leader and their people as well. I like to think of it as enlightened self interest that benefits others. Along with the previously mentioned shared traits Magnus and I both have a nigh obsessive love of magic. Regarding the choice of kingdom, I find myself conflicted. I value loyalty above all else, yet know too little of this magical staff to be certain of the value. Gun to my head, I say stay with the current king. Given how well I turned things around I see no reason that the king and the Magnus can’t barter for the staff from a position of increased strength.
– Real player with 1.6 hrs in game