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 Open World Post-apocalyptic Games.
Kim
Backed on Kickstarter and now a review two things i rarely do. Unless i feel something is special which Kim most certainly is in my opinion.
First off i have never read the book but i have now purchased and it’s on my reading list.
Kim is like a geography, history and survival game all rolled into one.
The first thing that appealed to me was that the gameplay reminded me of one of my favorite ever games Burntime a post apocalyptic scavenging game ( hint for your next game pleeeease devolpers this game design is perfect for it).
– Real player with 43.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Open World CRPG Games.
Normally I don’t do reviews on the games I play, but when it comes to Kim I really felt that I should do one because of two things.
- First is obviosuly the merit to the game itself. It is really enjoyable, unique and probably one of the best indie games i have come across. Once you start a playthrough, you just immerse yourself in the character, the beautiful settings and the writing it offers. The music is lovely, so the deluxe edition is reccommended.
Gameplay wise, having to weigh in the pros and cons of actions as well as taking into account of the limited time and resources available to the character in the playthrough is the strongest element of the game. Basically, you have to make smart choices to score high but at the same time you also get to choose the high road or the low road in making decisions and that will put your own morality to the test, which I really like to see in all kinds of games.
– Real player with 19.1 hrs in game
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.
Read More: Best Open World Survival Games.
Battle for Esturia
I’m really mixed on this one, I hate to say. Personally, I love the look/feel/style, but there’s a few things that hold it back for my personal tastes.
First off, I can’t stand the “all your units go” and “all the enemies go” style of “tactical” game. It’s just a bunch of back and forth dogpiling and removes the potential for so many mechanics.
I also was surprised to see only 6 or so classes, each of which only has 5 or so skills. The game doesn’t have any controller support, which isn’t a big deal (but would flow nicely for the style of the game), and is weirdly lacking in full screen.. alt-enter doesn’t work either, you just get the options of “small window” and “big window.”
– Real player with 15.2 hrs in game
An 80’s style, retro RPG which seems to be influenced mainly by Ultima games, maybe with a sprinkle of Zelda as well in terms of dungeons (usually has a boss blocked by a special key). It is a party based RPG with turn based battles that take place directly on the map. Like most Ultima’s, you start with one character and all others are found during game play and are set classes. The game is open world, although the world is smaller than most RPG’s. Unlike Ultima, the dungeons are also the same 2d, looking straight down view. The controls are very simple, point and click for movement or using skills, etc with no keyboard needed (never tried controller so not sure if it supports that).
– Real player with 12.7 hrs in game
Kingdom of Heroes
An RPG game that grows by defeating monsters to level up and making a variety of items.
As this is a defense RPG game, monsters invades through the door of the dimensions to destroy Archangel where is in the center of town every two hours.
If Archangel is destroyed, you’ll lose the game, so you’ll have to defend it.
To stop monsters that are getting stronger over time, you should grow seven heroes and guards quickly
Field
You can hunt monsters on the field to level up and take various items accordingly.
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
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
Fate in the Darkness
As planned this is an RPG-sandbox in board game style, with a gothic fantasy atmosphere.
А living own life world, which you can interact through the game character, attended events, tasks and game deck.
The goal of this project is to port board game.
In this time the gameplay is a journey through the main game location.
This demonstrates the work I have done, from scratch.
The game is raw.
Core aspects such as: generation of game characters, map-pocessing algorythm, most part of AI logic and e.t.c. are mostly done. But still in need of optimization and content. Also there is a dungeon map-generator, but it’s unfinished and not integrated.
**Graphics will be changed and balance will be updated. Plenty of dialogs, events, tasks, items and objects are gonna be added.
Have in plans to add co-op up to 4 players and map-creation tools.**
Since it’s my pesonal project - I can change/add/delete any part of it if I see fit.
Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/FiDsteam
Hero Generations: ReGen
It is a cute game and addictive time-waster. The graphics are charming and everyone can come up with a different strategy for dealing with the end game. Endless (and forced) replay value. There are a variety of ways to earn gold or fame, and to build up towns. It auto-saves after every turn and allows several different lands to explore. While buildings do wear down, they can be easily rebuilt or repaired, or given a building that auto-repairs them for a time, although there is an irritating cap on how much ‘health’ a building can have. There are even teleporters that can be built to get from one land to another quickly!
– Real player with 56.4 hrs in game
A cute little, simplistic 4X game. I really like the risk/reward system where each space you move consumes a year of your hero’s life. The older your hero is, the fewer trait cards can be inherited by the next generation; if you push your hero too far, he/she will die of old age, and it’s game over.
You can build up towns, receiving bonuses for building all of one type. Building types will also influence the kind of traits mates will have in a given town–and of course, you’re looking for the best traits to pass down. The idea being you will improve each generation, which culminates in an hero who will have the best chances of defeating the big baddie, who appears after 15 generations.
– Real player with 20.2 hrs in game
NovaMundi: The Spear of Chaquén
I love the game. It is very refreshing to find a game in a new world and based on a new-old mythology and set up. This is not a medieval fantasy or your generic story. This is about real events, with some changes in order to improve gameplay and storytelling but in such a way that is interesting. Of course, because it is in early access it has a lot to improve and tweak but I recommend to give it a chance and help the developer to develop…
Now, gameplay wise you have a party and you need to explore the (huge) map to finish missions. There are towns with markets where buy supplies and hire party members. At least for now and for me, the game can be hard. But there is a lot to learn that scratch that final part.
– Real player with 8.6 hrs in game
I’ll update my review as needed, but so far…
The game has huge potential. There are a few bugs, but it just released in early access, so give it a minute. Other than the bugs, I really like some of the game concepts.
The map is pretty big. I’m in day 35 or so and have only explored maybe 1/3 of it. Combat can be optimized, but it’s still pretty rewarding to watch 40 dudes just melt to your warband.
Excited to see what the coming months bring.
– Real player with 4.5 hrs in game
Vagrus - The Riven Realms
Genuinely good. Multiple ways to play through, interesting conceits and brutal treatment of mistakes. A player really gets the feeling that their choices matter to their future and no decision is taken lightly, whether in the scripted events or even in just where to go. Great game to replay using different builds and goals, which adds longevity. A really good strong start form the devs, they should be proud of their product. I hope they continue to build and improve.
– Real player with 496.7 hrs in game
Vagrus is for particular tastes. Do you want an open world trade-simulation oriented RPG with a lot of content, almost all of which is delivered through text? Are you ok with playing a character that never appears in the game except through choices and effects you make on your trade caravan, your companions, and the factions you fight or ally with? Are you ok with these choices changing the course of the overall story only in a limited way, so the bulk of your player effect is in how you choose to advance your caravan and companions and not how you destroy an enemy or change the world? Most of the big moments in the game are finding out about something that is going on, but being unable to completely stop it. Sometimes you can’t effect it at all. But, you learn, and in almost every way in Vagrus, knowledge is power. The user interface is wonky, the gameplay is deep but takes a long time to get your head around, and currently the Internet will not answer all of your many questions about how the world works. You’ll need to figure quite a bit out for yourself. Does that sound fun? give Vagrus a try.
– Real player with 286.4 hrs in game