Gangster Empire: Vendetta
IN A WORD: MAYBE
IN SHORT:
WHAT TO EXPECT: Crime enterprise simulator. Mature themes. Low budget production. Basic graphics and audio. Simplistic, limited gameplay. Good range of random dynamic events provide core strategy depth. Minimal supplemental gameplay mechanics. Very repetitive. Clicker like tempo. Played on fixed-resolution window. No settings apart from muting audio. Singleplayer only.
ACHIEVEMENTS: NONE.
STATUS: COMPLETE. A FEW BUGS. ONE CTD.
– Real player with 13.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Management 2D Games.
Overview
If anyone seeks out REXCurse for an opinion about a gang-themed game (especially a gang-themed game involving management) you know ol' Il Pallino is on the job. With no sort of backstory and a mostly casual experience, Gangster Empire: Vendetta doesn’t have anything in the way of a “vendetta” against anyone or anything. Instead, there’s just turn-based strategy gaming in which the player controls a gang with a maximum of eight people and looks to complete the game by either satisfying requirements for money or reputation. Crimes involve petty theft, violent assaults, hacking, drug dealing, long-term schemes (which can be either violent or non-violent), and good old fashioned legitimate businesses. Sometimes the player may be asked to assign gang members to complete various tasks for outside bosses who provide large amounts of money upon completion and an increase in reputation the player can either hoard in hopes of reaching their overall goal or spend on attacking a rival crime boss who occasionally schemes against the main character’s gang.
– Real player with 8.8 hrs in game
City Game Studio: a tycoon about game dev
City Game Studio
I joined the open beta for City Game Studio a little while ago. Ever since I have seen it grow substantially. The game has been improved so much in a short amount of time and I can only see it getting better and better from here on out. The developer is very active and takes all the feedback and criticism he gets very seriously. Many of my own suggestions have already made it into the game and whenever an issue arises he is quick to fix it.
The game takes place in a city where you can rent, buy and even build your own studios and exhibitor centers. When your company is doing good you obviously want to expand and get even larger teams working on even bigger titles. The result of that can be very satisfying.
– Real player with 198.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Management Game Development Games.
Overview
First off, on advice from this author’s attorney Frankie “Fine Print” Lymann, copycat games are not a crime. (See Data East USA v. Epyx for proof that copycats do not constitute copyright infringement.) Remember Game Dev Tycoon? Take the awesomeness of the aforementioned game, add interior decorating, an outside world where buildings can be rented, bought, and even constructed, and then add in some nice new ideas (along with a bad idea) and you have City Game Studio. In case the reader doesn’t know, the game is a management sim in which the player starts a game company starting in the year of the player’s choosing, and goes from rags to riches through developing and publishing video games.
– Real player with 43.6 hrs in game
Mortal Glory
Mortal Glory is a fantastically fun little game where you manage a team of gladiators in a fantasy setting, competing to achieve the glory of victory and appease the Emperor and masses alike. The gameplay follows a simple but addicting structure:
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Hiring gladiators
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Equip/upgrade your team with items, skills, and training
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Go forth into glorious battle
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Encounter a random town event which may aid or debilitate you for the following match
Within this structure, the player focuses on economic/team management and battle strategy used in other turn-based tactics games. A lot of the fun comes from making decisions about who to hire and what to buy with your limited resources. Perhaps you focus on beefing up one gladiator that can take on multiple foes and then save money to hire stronger allies. Maybe you are able to buy a fantastic item that offsets a cheap gladiator’s weaknesses. Before entering the arena, you can also see the stats of the foe you’re about to face, so you can plan accordingly. As your team develops, you may have different members specialize into classic roles, (tank, mage, etc.) or create hybrids to deal with multiple situations.
– Real player with 94.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Management Old School Games.
Mortal Glory has meaningful tactics with a gentle learning curve. What it lacks is tedium. These fights go fast, and when you’re not caving in skulls, you’ve got a bit of light shopping to set yourself up for success. No deep intricacies here. Just kill and keep moving.
If you find Mortal Glory too easy, you can make use of its challenge toggles along with the additional Glory ranks (think Slay the Spire Ascension). Alternatively, there’s a Relaxed difficulty for an easier time, though I don’t know how easy that actually is. Tactical vets should have no trouble starting with Normal after a gander at the small tutorial.
– Real player with 61.8 hrs in game
My Very Own Lair
What if you discovered true artificial intelligence? What would you do? In My Very Own Lair, we do what every Bond villain would. We build our very own lair!
Start in an old mansion in the UK, then pick a place between an island in the Indian Ocean, a lake in the US and a mountain in the Andes. The end goal is to make it to Mars!
Your lair is composed of multiple rooms that you can build or destroy. Each room has unique abilities that will help you achieve your goals.
In order to build your lair, you will have to manage multiple resources, the main one being “Brains”. “Brains” represents the power of your Artificial Intelligence, it lets you research technologies to unlock new rooms and control the robots working on your rooms. You will also have to manage your psychology, money, energy and different materials.
But careful, the World is there to stop you. The World is represented by a deck of cards. It starts the game with a base deck in Story Mode or with a deck you made in Arcade Mode. Every time a room is finished being built, 1-3 cards are added to the World deck. The World will then draw a card every day (game time).
They are three main types of cards:
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Direct: the card effect is applied directly when drawn;
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Choose One: 2-3 propositions are given to you;
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Minigames: a minigame is launched when drawn!
My Very Own Lair has more than 12 minigames for you to enjoy!
By unlocking technologies in the technology tree, you will find various ways to make it to Mars. Once you will be there, a last challenge awaits you!
Orbi Universo
It’s Democracy meets Civilization.
Still a work-in-progress, and from a part-time indie dev, but what you see here shows promise.
If you’re a Civ/Paradox/Democracy fan, it’s an easy recommendation.
If you’re not too sure about it, grab it on sale, or wait until they finish all the ages that make the core gameplay.
Pros:
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Less intimidating upfront than Democracy, you start from humble begginings.
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You can start at any place in the globe
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Many different paths to take your civilization through
– Real player with 81.2 hrs in game
This game is unique. Maybe not much replayability, but there definitely is some. In the bronze age I had a shining civilization, the entire Iron Age was a time of unparalleled ascension, but I quickly over expanded and then the disruption caused by the immense amount of minorities quickly destroyed my stability. I kept undermining the power of the clergy in order to stop them from toppling my republic, which caused the number of heathens and heretics to rise to such a point as to ruin my stability even further. There was this entire collapse scenario very reminiscent of the fall of the Roman Republic, culminating in a coup d’etat by the military which led to a quickly fragmenting military dictatorship that saw a snowball of decline that just kept rolling and rolling.
– Real player with 36.9 hrs in game
Buildings Have Feelings Too!
Video Review: https://youtu.be/dc5HAgXdCHQ
4.5/10
Overall
I Like the charm of the game it has personality and that’s why I really want to give this game full run through to find the best in this game. But I can’t finish it the game-play loop is so tiring and tedious. The graphics and the dialogue you have with each building are nice and oddly strange that you start to sympathies with a high rise. I don’t want to say this game is terrible I’m sure a group of people will love this game, but I feel like it’s a small group. With all its issues most will only play about 2 hours of the game and be bored, but look at the game-play and take my words with a grain of salt if it seems like something you might have fun with and 15.99 is the price right now seems good to you then don’t be shy and pick it up.
– Real player with 8.7 hrs in game
These buildings might have feelings easily swayed and broken like humans do, but they certainly also have some serious control and UI issues, tend to overcomplicate things, are prone to sudden outbursts of poorly worded explanations and get lost in their thoughts often.
On the surface, it’s a quaint, charming 2D city builder with anthropomorphic buildings and a rundown, old hotel as the main protagonist. But, take a shovel to it and it turns into a somewhat obtuse and fiddly puzzle game of micromanaging buildings and trying to satisfy their wants and needs in the form of upgrade requirements and appeal increases. A city builder in the traditional sense this really ain’t.
– Real player with 7.5 hrs in game
Coffee Noir - Business Detective Game
The idea was good, the delivery is kind of disappointing.
The music and artwork are the strongest points of the production. It looks very pleasant and it’s nice to have in the background.
Gameplay is problematic. Tasks are easy (I played on normal), negotiations not always make sense, but it’s not bad. The worse were the clues, the whole detective system is quite bad. A lot of text and updates that are repetitive. The clues supposed to have the logic in connecting them, but it took me a while to understand, that some clues are going to be obviously connected to stuff that we already knew. I didn’t feel like it’s a challenge, more like a blind guess.
– Real player with 30.4 hrs in game
Coffee Noir doesn’t try to be anything more than what it is - a neo noir game with supporting business sim mechanics. No pointless time-wasting side activities to be found here. The story is at the front and center of everything. Moreover, the game’s fully voiced from start to finish, making for a more immersive experience. The game might not have much to offer in terms of replay value. But if you’re willing, you can walk away having learned a thing or two about the art of negotiating.
– Real player with 25.8 hrs in game
Hot Plates
I’ve looked a long time for a good cooking game. I finally thought I found it when I discovered Overcooked. But I soon realised OC is primarily based on a good ‘fun with friends’ coop title. Which is fine n dandy dandy n fine but missin certain aspects I wanted to play in a cooking game.
The description on the Store page of HP convinced me that some (not all) of my desired missin aspects were fulfilled. So I purchased this ridiculously cheap title.
ATM HP is buggy. Graphical glitches here n there, equipment appearin, disappearin & lackin optimisation. But in sayin that its very playable.
– Real player with 120.9 hrs in game
For me the controls took some getting used to and sometimes I still struggle to target exactly what I want. After the first few days it can get pretty hard to keep up with orders and you will run out of supplies a lot. I recently restarted my cafe so I haven’t gotten really far in the game yet and I’m hoping there’s upgrades that make things easier in the future. I am enjoying it so far but it’s not as casual as I expected a cooking game to be mostly because of the controls. At $5 it’s certainly worth a try if you enjoy cooking/restaurant management games.
– Real player with 20.9 hrs in game
Lazy Sweet Tycoon
I enjoy a lot of clicker games, and I did enjoy this one as well at first, but the game has a few achievements that are way too grindy to keep enjoying the game. After completing all the other achievements I have the following achievements left:
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clicking 100k energized trees left (I only got around 10k while getting the other achievements with active play)
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Start/complete 100 jobs, most of them take 1 to 2h in real life which means you have to log in every 1/2h to start a new job if you want to get through this one as fast as possible.
– Real player with 99.5 hrs in game
Really fun game, it is not as indepth as other clickers but I like the chill environment and themes
Cross play is cool as well, I was a fan of the mobile game so I liked being able to bring my progress over
Runs pretty well on my computer too :)
– Real player with 41.1 hrs in game
Fantasy Blacksmith
Original Review before bug fixes (Scroll down to see edited notes):
Now…where to begin. Well, first question that may be asked, is this game fun? Short answer yes, long answer no with a but. This game does something rather unique that hasn’t been done before (as far as I know), it allows you to play as a sword smith in a fantasy world where your goal isn’t to slay the big bad overlord or to plunder deep dungeons so that you may retire on a pile of “phat loot”, but to become the “best” blacksmith (sword smith as you only make swords) in the land. You can design your swords from various parts, choose which materials to use and then forge them into mighty swords from myth and legend. Sounds cool, is cool, BUT and it is a big but and I cannot lie…
– Real player with 50.9 hrs in game
Last Edited: 3/19/2019 for Patch 1.0.3 (see bottom of review for updates)
A game with quite a bit of potential despite getting delayed multiple times with no notice at all to the customers waiting (including release day, coming out over 5 hours late without any word) but if you are not a fan of Early Access games with a lot of bugs I would suggest waiting until a lot more work is done on this.
Current issues I have encountered:
Physics are more of a suggestion than a law in the world of Fantasy Blacksmith. The first thing that happened after I started playing was picking up the Thermometer, testing the current temp of the bronze ingot in the forge, “placing” them next to me, and getting catapulted across the room.
– Real player with 40.2 hrs in game