Rising Star 2
Overview
Let it be known that the developer specifically sought an opinion for Rising Star 2 from someone who enjoys simulation games and is a fan of Rock and/or Heavy Metal. Thankfully ReviewExperts has such an admin in ol' Il Pallino! There hasn’t been many games involving band management in the history of video games, but Rising Star 2 has something imperceptible that many great management sims lack. As expected, the player leads a band by designing the face and body of a musician, and once in game, recruits other band members, buys musical equipment, writes songs, and when enough material is had, the player goes about entering their band in “battle of the bands” competitions and finding gigs in dive bars as a supporting act. With enough popularity, the band can retain a manager who can perform a number of tasks, but the most important in the short term being to find gigs at larger venues, which increases band exposure, leading to more fans and more opportunities to sell merchandise. (Only managers can book shows at theaters and stadiums.) With enough grinding and traveling from city to city starting at the bottom, the player’s band can one day become mega-stars headlining in sold out stadiums.
– Real player with 324.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Management Open World Games.
EDIT on 7/8/2021 after 2 likes
Originally, I wrote a review after about 50 hours. In a nutshell, I wrote that it would be a good manager if not for two major mistakes and a gameplay, that unnecessarily makes it too much of a timesink. Since I was ready to give up, I gave it a thumbs down.
Well, I didn’t give up and here we are, 60 hours or so later. I still think, that a single manual save spot in a game like this is unacceptable. I still think, that it is a cardinal design flaw, that the player cannot choose, which effects equipment is used. And I still think that the (in-game) daily routine could be handled better. However, what I came to realize is that the progression of one’s band gets faster, once one hits the mid-game. In fact, I very much appreciate it that there is a noticeable step in between game phases. One has to re-think and re-design strategies. This came as unexpectedly as the original realization that the game has a strong strategic element to begin with.
– Real player with 192.0 hrs in game
HeatWave
HeatWave is a sandbox survival strategy game set in 2080 in Alaska affected by climate change.
Global warming has led humanity to the brink of collapse, caused unprecedented migration and stir up internal conflicts. Therefore, the US government has decided to abandon the cut off territories in Alaska and focus on saving the mainland.
The Russian government supported by China decides to take advantage of the US situation. To expand into more hospitable places to live, they launch an invasion of Alaska, which was once a Russian colony.
As a result of oppression and hostile colonization, the people of Alaska form Guerrilla groups to repel the invaders.
The underground Americans are the underdogs in a fight for their land and freedom.
GAME FEATURES
Run your own Guerrilla faction.
Form your team and set internal laws and adapt rules to the changing environment.
Set up base deep in the forests of Alaska, build new structures to make your people self-reliant.
Use and upgrade your bushcraft skills.
Survive in the wilderness with limited resources.
Help your people meet basic survival needs. Set up camps, obtain energy resources, provide shelter against the cold and rain. Hunt for food, collect wild plants or plunder local communities to prevent starvation.
Craft items- make tools, medicines and weapons from collected scrap and plundered materials.
Explore the world.
Visit settlements. Talk with their inhabitants, recruit, trade, or complete quests to increase relations with them.
Explore vast expanses of Alaska and dive into a non-linear story.
Make difficult decisions and fight your own path to independence.
Partisan tactics
Stay in the shadow, avoid being discovered.
Move your base if necessary and implement a hit and run strategy.
Punish collaborators, constantly fight and harass the invaders.
Set up traps, sabotage their supply lines and incite the people of Alaska against them.
Diplomacy
Shape your own politics, handle diplomatic relations with other factions and settlements.
Perform tasks for the local population and compete with other guerrilla groups.
When strong enough, start the revolution and take on the invaders to drive them away.
Finally, choose your own path to independence - continue in the name of the United States, or create your new independent country…
Read More: Best Management Post-apocalyptic Games.
MHL
You just received a call from your uncle.
Apparently, he won a small defunct hockey team in a poker game
He knows you don’t have much going on, and offers to let you run the team.
If you can win the Marcotte cup at the end of the season, the team is yours!
Otherwise, you go to jail
Seizing the opportunity, you head downtown to register your team…
In MHL, you will build a roster from hundreds of randomly generated players, each with their own skills and weaknesses against 5 other distinct owners.
Read More: Best Management Indie Games.
Arcadia: The Crystal Wars
Arcadia: The Crystal Wars is an open-world, squad-based fusion of role playing and strategy, combining traditional RPG elements such as character skills, talents, quests, dungeons, and raids with strategic base-building, farming, and crafting. Explore the world of Arcadia in non-linear fashion as a single character, or recruit up to 20 characters and dive into the rich storyline while taking an active part in shaping the outcome of the Crystal Wars.
Features:
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Dive into the Quest Driven Story
Arcadia also offers a rich story that you can dive into at any time. The unique, hand written quests will take you from city to city, meeting unique characters, exploring dungeons and raids to retrieve artifacts, and helping to guide the outcome of the Crystal Wars as you see fit. Will you fight alongside Tech Commander Kyber, to rid the world of the Crystal’s corruption? Or will you seek out the Etir, to understand the Crystal at its' source? The choices you make will decide the fate of Arcadia.
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Explore an Open World
Looking for a non-linear experience? Then Arcadia is your sandbox. Just because the factions are engaged in the Crystal War, does not mean that you have to. Would you rather be a lone adventurer, seeking the challenges of dungeons and raids? Or a trader, developing trade routes and settlements and only using combat as a means to defend yourself? You have the freedom to make up your own story.
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Unlock Powerful Magic or Advanced Technology
As you explore Arcadia, you will undoubtedly encounter the power of the Crystal. Using special techniques, the power of the Crystal can either be consumed directly by your characters to unlock powerful magic or be harnessed and used as a power source to power advanced technology. Whichever you choose, your characters will gain new abilities as well as physically change. The more power they acquire, the greater the physical transformation.
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Character Customization
Each character within your faction has a set of skills related to Combat, Crafting, and Labor. It’s up to you how to train them and what talents they acquire. Do you want a solder, capable of wielding heavy armor into battle during war but also able to craft the finest armor in the game? Or how about a farmer, wearing light armor yet when combat calls wields the most power magic to heal your allies and decimate your enemies? The choice is yours
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Unique Character Races
Arcadia offers four unique character races that you can create and recruit into your faction. While each race has strengths and weaknesses in terms of starting skill level and rate of experience gain, the ultimate path of each character you control is completely up to you. Has a powerful Rhingar, who has trained with one handed weapons and shields to defend her allies, offered to join your faction but you need a armorsmith? So be it, recruit her and take advantage of her racial bonus in Armor Crafting, while also being capable of defending your settlements from attack.
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Develop Settlements
Whether you control one character or twenty, you’ll want to consider developing settlements to fuel your adventures. Perhaps you only need a single base camp, with a place to rest and to cook food? Or maybe you are ready to take an active role in the Crystal Wars and want multiple strategic base locations where you have farms to feed your troops and forges to craft armor and weapons.
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Explore Dungeons and Raids
It’s been said that great riches and power can be found in the most difficult of locations. Arcadia is no exception. Take up to five of your characters as you dive into one of five dungeons, each with unique enemy types and scripted boss fights or brave it all and take up to 10 of your characters to fight in one of five raids.
Jey’s Empire
Great game! Very complex, tons of weird ways to get from A to B, and very funny under the very serious veneer. I saved America from the Red Menace by making a child cry. The only Steam achievement I’ve ever been proud of!
– Real player with 75.5 hrs in game
The dev is a really cool dude, I’ve helped him out with a few projects. The Discord server is also good and I’d recommend his other games like Cold War 2, Cauldrons of War - Barbarossa, and Cat Fu MI.
– Real player with 25.1 hrs in game
Blacksmith Legends
Blacksmith Legends is a RPG management strategy game. You inherit a small workshop from your parents with a dream to become a real legend in your profession. With all your family fortune you set out to: Craft the best items you ever imagined; Build and customize your workshop; Hire other professionals to tinker with your recipes; Create opportunities for greater riches by completing various quests that can get you on a darker (mischievous) or lighter (righteous) path on your way to become the best blacksmith in the Kingdom!
Customize your recipes for each worker to find a way to become a legend.
Manage 3 different hand-crafted professions: Blacksmith, Smelter, Alchemist. Their cooperation will be required to achieve best items.
Precious materials are hard to come by! Be prepared to face epic creatures or savage bandits.
Craft legendary/set items or loot them from powerful bosses! Equip them on your heroes. Serve or dethrone your King!
Esports History
Esports History is an esports adventure-tycoon with RPG elements, where the player chooses the path to success and the genre in which he will fight for the title of the best. Will you be first exploiting your incredible micro-control or tactical skills in strategies? Or will you always go for the head with superior AIM in shooters?
Manage your resources and time
Work to earn money for training. Should you go to school or make some extra money? Every decision you make will affect the end result.
Create a unique character
The flexible upgrade system allows you to create a unique character that will have all the strong points you want.
Prove you are the best
Defeat unique bosses in tournaments to build up your reputation and develop relationships with the community.
A large number of Easter eggs
Events in the game start in 1996 and as the game progresses, new games are released, the character grows and the whole world moves towards our time. Each stage of development contains a large number of artifacts referring back to this era.
-Unique stress system.
-Mini-games referring to the real games
-In-depth character development system
-Bosses with unique mechanics
-Reputation System
-Build Your Own PC System
-Time-management which does not allow you to relax
-3rd party quests
The Monster Breeder
This is a turn-based fantasy strategy game with RPG elements. The game has two main layers: the first is the monster breeding, the second is the tactical turn-based arena combat.
Main Features
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Create Monsters
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Tactical Arena Combat
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Large variety of tournaments
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Warrior training
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Forging
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Alchemy
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Base upgrading
Players can purchase eggs and juvenile creatures from local hunters. The next step is to set up a magical treatment to enhance the creatures’ strength, agility, and other attributes. Nearly all these traits can be manipulated with magic scrolls, potions, blood infusions and runestones, although overuse of magic and potions can cause severe illness, infertility, shorter lifespan, or even death.
Natural species are weak and perform poorly in the arena, but all have at least one valuable ability. There are three classes of creature available: insect, reptile and carnivora. Players can only crossbreed species within the same class, and the best offspring can then be selected for magic treatments to improve their combat performance. Only eggs and juvenile creatures can be treated. Adult monsters earn experience fighting in the arena and learn new skills when leveling up, but these skills are not inheritable.
There are multiple options for players to house their monsters in the various chambers and cellars of the Old Keep, or they can build a small hut or kennel in the courtyard and upgrade it. Depending on their temperature tolerance, some creatures can live in a flooded dungeon cellar while some others need a warm environment to remain healthy. Only healthy creatures can fight and earn money for their masters.
Combat in the arena is tough but not always deadly. Beginners can participate in non-lethal tournaments without the risk of losing a character or monster. Lethal combat pays much better, but this is a game with permadeath, so be aware!
How much risk are you willing to take? Which tournament are you going to enter? Only you decide. Players get money if they take part in a tournament, but only the winners receive the glory and extra rewards.
Warriors, archers and sorcerers can be hired to fight side-by-side with monsters in the arena. Players can personalize their training and equip them with weapons that match their skills and strength, although to be overburdened with armor comes with serious penalties in combat.
Characters earn experience in the arena and gain new skills when leveling up, and older warriors can be valuable trainers depending on their intelligence and trainer skills. Some hired characters may refuse to participate in lethal tournaments, but slaves can also be trained for combat.
Players need to hire a blacksmith and alchemist to be able to craft items like weapons, armor or potions. Every craftsman has unique skills and traits affecting their products’ quality, their rate of work, and the amount of material they use.
Various types of equipment can be purchased to enhance productivity: recipe books, alembics and extractors are all useful accessories of the alchemist’s lab, while weapon and armor molds, alloy smelters and special forges are exceedingly beneficial to the blacksmith. Apprentices can be hired to improve productivity and players can employ them as blacksmiths or alchemists when they graduate.
Players can construct or upgrade various types of buildings, allowing them to keep more monsters, incubate more eggs, create more weapons and potions, or increase storage capacity and the size of their living quarters.
Some buildings have unique features: Hatchling’s Cabin provides the possibility of using runestones and magic fields to modify juvenile creatures’ traits, while the Alchemist’s Shack and Blacksmith’s Hut provide more places to hire craftsmen and also give an efficiency bonus. The Old Keep is the default building at the beginning of the game. It has multiple chambers and cellars, all of which can be assigned to any purpose.
Brocula
Brocula is a pixel art indie game created by a solo developer. The game is about a vampire named Brocula who has been asleep for 500 years and is woken up when a car crashes into his castle.
You play the role of Brocula whose money is useless in current times and his castle is crumbling. Roam around the town, talk to people, work to get money, gain skills, repair castle, cook food to gain stats, unlock new skills, make a reputation, farm lands, sell stuff, etc.
With over 40 hours of relaxing gameplay and an interactive storyline about creating relationships with unknown people, enjoy the beautifully crafted pixel art and fall in love with this vampire whose name is Brocula.
Enjoy the petting system in the game and gain their trust.
It is not a Role Playing Game without the fishing mechanics.
Cultist Simulator
I’m a writer, and I fell in love with Alexis Kennedy’s imagery and lore. I was never into videogames, but the storytelling and atmosphere really spoke to me. I recommend it to dreamers and problem-solvers alike.
– Real player with 1273.0 hrs in game
This game has to be the single most difficult game I’ve ever played, I wont lie.
Like it’s one thing if a game is hard as balls, but this game physically hurts to play.
It’s not even a matter of frustration or anything like that.
All I have to do is look at the game board, and then my head starts to pound.
No game I have ever played before has had me slam my head down on my desk after winning because winning means I don’t have to torture myself anymore …until my brain decides that starting a new run is a good idea, that is.
– Real player with 90.7 hrs in game