Shadows Behind the Throne 2
Remember “That Which Sleeps” the kickstarter game that promised that you could play as Cthulhu and corrupt the world and a million other things, but then the dev took the money and ran and never delivered.
Implausibly Shadows is not only the game that was promised, but it delivers. The graphics are a little off and the interface is a little confusing, but goddamn is it fun to corrupt and dismantle several civilizations until eternal winter falls upon the land. There is a lot of room to grow, and here is hoping it keeps growing.
– Real player with 119.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Grand Strategy Horror Games.
Great game. It’s a bit like Ruinarch, if you’ve ever played that, except on a strategic level. Lots of variety in the ways you can take down a kingdom. Very replayable and it’s right up my alley.
That said, it’s EXTREMELY rough. As EA as you can get while still being playable.
- Kind of a crap, poorly thought out UI. For example, saves are placed in alphabetical order instead of chronological order where your most recent one is at the top. You might have 7 autosaves, and the one you’re looking to load is save number 3, halfway down the screen and you have to look at the time to know that’s the one you want. I called my manual save aaa, so it will be at the top of the list. That’s a small thing, but there are a lot of poorly designed UI functions like that and it impacts the level of information you get from the game.
– Real player with 39.5 hrs in game
Unending War: Grand-Strategy Chess
Game inconsistently gets stuck as the computer doesn’t take it’s turn in the chess battles. There is no way to then proceed, other than killing the program from the task manager. I’m hoping the dev gets back to me about this in my discussion thread, because the game is a neat twist on chess that I enjoyed playing more than the AI apparently did.
– Real player with 3.0 hrs in game
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Awesome new look at chess with a “grand campaign” map. The chess board itself is tactical in nature as different tiles yield bonuses to units. Definitely worth a look for chess fans.
– Real player with 1.2 hrs in game
Goblins of Elderstone
My first review, finally, wow!
→ Right now i would give this game a Neutral rating, but that is not possible, and also i see great potential in this game, so i recommend it if you want to support the game and the developers. Don’t buy it yet if you’re not very patient and you don’t want to serve, literally, as a crash test dummie. ;-)
Played this game for roughly 6h, i had like 10 or more crashes. Many while i was simply trying to save → Game-Progress lost. It’s always the Unreal4-Engine that is crashing and asking you to send in a report. So the Inbox should be pretty packed by now. ^_^
– Real player with 21.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Grand Strategy City Builder Games.
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The Short of it: Currently Early Access, but bursting with possibilities and originality. Building, resource management, raiding, diplomacy, trading, defending - all done by your own customized horde of goblins!
Reminds me of: If you liked Banished, Stone Hearth, or Rimworld, you’ll probably like Goblins of Elderstone. Goblins of Elderstone brings a unique and chaotic twist to the city-building genre - it’s a Goblin Tribe Simulator! Nurture your tiny clan as it grows to stand against the other races and even the gods. Rule over the chaos and feed the growing goblin war machine by raiding dungeons and villages.
– Real player with 9.7 hrs in game
Shadows of Forbidden Gods
TLDR - Great, unique Lovecraftian turn-based grand strategy game.
The player takes on the mantle of one of multiple eldritch gods with different play styles, bent on bringing their particular brand of apocalypse. The first unlocked god is the most simple - She Who Will Feast, a giant snake that focuses on corrupting heroes and rulers through “enshadowing” them. She starts weak, without a real worldly presence, before awakening, destroying civilised lands and ultimately eating the world. Other gods include Iastur, the Laughing King who focuses on spreading madness to all, Vinerva a god representing nature’s bounties but with a serious catch, Mammon (unreleased at time of writing) who offers great material wealth for the small price of eating people and Ophanim (unreleased at the time of writing) who offers mankind salvation from the aforementioned enshadowment but at the cost of their autonomy.
– Real player with 23.7 hrs in game
My plan to destroy the world was foiled but its okay because I can change the chosen one’s name to Ligma Balls as a final act of primordial malice
– Real player with 19.7 hrs in game
Arcane Sorcery
This game feels like a cross between Master of Magic and Medieval Total War (the first one that is). Gameplay wise, it feels like Master of Magic with the magic spells, and the isometric battle system, but the campaign maps feel more like the original Medieval Total War. As one of the other reviews described, it has an early 90’s feel to the graphics (and for once that phrase does not mean ‘pixel art’, which is a rarity). The 4x nature of the game is more 4x-lite, specifically with lite aspects on the diplomacy and exploring aspects of 4x. There’s three different maps, but it would be nice if there was random map generation, though that would probably require a different map style I think. It has flaws, but it’s an inexpensive game as well.
– Real player with 32.0 hrs in game
A game that strongly resembles strategy games of yesteryear, that actually does not pretend to be anything else. Its pretty straight forward, without much tactical depth or need for strategic thinking. Still its an enjoyable game, even if only for a couple of runs, its still worth playing. If you are a hardcore 4x or strategy player, I would strongly suggest you stay clear, for you will be disappointed as the game lacks in both areas. Its perfect for the casual strategist, looking for a fun run.
– Real player with 26.7 hrs in game
Visiting a celebrity
ITS SOOOO FUN AND GOOD YES!
– Real player with 1.4 hrs in game
No point to this game. At all. You just click on the screen leveling up your money to buy so called perks which themselves are unending it looks like in how far you can level them each up. but you don’t get anything for this. not really. there are some odd little mini games, but there is no story going on, or point to the game. I bought it because it was ultra cheap and I was curious. All you do is click on a mode of transport and sometimes you can travel and the background changes. you don’t ask anything, you don’t do anything. It’s literally just click the middle of the screen, nine billion times until you realize there is no point and stop.
– Real player with 0.5 hrs in game
Dominions 5 - Warriors of the Faith
I bought Dom 5 just yesterday and started 2 games, 1 random map game and 1 game on the cradle map, which is still one of the best maps in the game( you can download it from the map subforum).
I consider myself a veteran dominions player, having played a lot of single player and multiplayer in Dom 2 and Dom 3 very succesfully.
Dom4 I never played in MP but I did play some really long lasting SP games on the glory of gods map using Mods to strengthen the AI at the highest difficulty setting.
I think dom5 is definitely worth the money, it feels much better polished than Dom4 and also better balanced …which is a pretty big achievement from the devs considering this game is only out for some days now.
– Real player with 3199.4 hrs in game
I’ve had quite mixed reactions to this game but it may definitely be appealing to some people.
Pros
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Very varied and different factions that aren’t cookie-cutter copies of each other, there is a lot of mythical lore. Exploring different options will take quite a lot of time.
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Multitude of viable and strong strategic options, battles can be decided by huge buffed armies / massive magical evocations/superheroes geared with magic items/ reanimating huge swaths of undead/ …
For a fantasy-themed 4x there truly are a lot of things to do.
– Real player with 336.1 hrs in game
Dominions 3: The Awakening
I own Dominions 3 and 4. Started playing Dominions 3, few monts later Dom 4 came out - moved to it.
Now I’m playing Dominions 3 and enormousely enjoying it. Less spells, less magical items than in Dom 4 - somehow even more fun.
Why I like Dominions:
1. Very interesting fantasy setting (not just elfes and other copies of Tolkien imagination) with Valkiries, armoured gorillas, ghouls, giants, chariots, eagle-men, bat-men, spider riders, raptor riders, fiery salamanders, armoured or undead elephants, giant ants, tiny dragonflies, barechested warriors, tritons with amber armour, hydras, halfblind cyclopes, nagas, twoheaded giants, liches, krakens, dragons, mechanical dragons, trolls, tengu, ghosts, lamias, jaguars, werejaguars, powerfull but insane gods, mages of various kinds,assasins, shark knights, Vikings with glamour, Aztects with flying ability and many, many more…
– Real player with 360.6 hrs in game
BLUF: This game’s pretty awesome, if you can get past the ancient graphics and focus on the creative/imaginative aspects.
I loved the game. Yes, it is complex, but I think the complexities are actually exagerated. It’s basically raise armies, research spells, invade provinces, collect gold, etc. But somehow I find it 20x more engrossing than any other “4x” game (which I don’t think it quite is). There are little quirks, like that it is turn-based, but then all the movement happens at once for everyone, seasons affect gold income, but they also affect how many mushrooms grow in the forest for your witches to collect, and it’s all these quirks and the plethora of races to play that make the game world feel alive. I love how you are slowly introduced to the lore; it never feels like a chore to read it to get into the game, you just pick up some of it as your priests randomly summon some ultra-powerful seraphim that then randomly gets itself killed by wandering around the map.
– Real player with 159.4 hrs in game
Lost Angel
the plot is a bit far-fetched and the acting isn’t perfect (especially when they fall down), but overall an entertaining game with many branches and choices that change the course of events
– Real player with 3.8 hrs in game
I love FMV games, I almost bought and played every full-motion video game on steam. To my disappointment, Lost Angel didn’t meet my expectation, especially with the topic of the game itself. When you read the game information about the main character, a youtube influencer getting involved in a dangerous conspiracy, you’d think it will be an exciting story, but once they mentioned the Covid-19 virus, it all went down and started to become a cheap story- not that it wasn’t from the beginning due to the mediocre acting.
– Real player with 3.7 hrs in game
Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension
I’ve played several thousand hours of this game, and dominions 3. The only other game i’ve played anywhere near as much is tabletop rpgs. But i’m biased, old hand, fan, etc. This guy isn’t. Here’s what he had to say on the Steam forum.
@Stephen:
Earlier tonight, one of the most epic occurences I have ever seen in a video game occured. Seeing that as a sign of a good game and also worth telling about, I decided to post here for your reading pleasure. Since it is only due to a confusing chain of events that this occured, I’m going to tell the full story from start to finish. Enjoy.
– Real player with 595.5 hrs in game
Dear friends, I know that many would have you believe that the Pale Ones are extinct, save for the occasional emergence of an Earth Reader or the primitive Pale Ones that are sometimes encountered in remote regions. I am here to set the ancient records straight.
Long have I labored in service to the Ancients, dead and forgotten though they may be to most of the civilized world. Only after extensive research and tireless experimentation had I uncovered a ray of hope in the sea of Agarthan darkness.
– Real player with 333.1 hrs in game