King Arthur - The Role-playing Wargame
Reminiscent of Total War, King Arthur - The Role-playing Wargame does in fact include elements found role-playing games. Throughout your conquest of Brittania you will assemble a round table of various meta-human warriors with incredible ability referred to simply as ‘knights.’ These knights will represent you on missions of diplomacy, lead your armies into battle, govern your fiefdoms and even partake on text-based adventures called ‘quests’ in which the statistics of the knight, your choices and a little bit of luck will determine the outcome, potentially granting the player great rewards and even aditional knights.
– Real player with 197.2 hrs in game
I really like this game, although I need to admit I am a fan of just about most things related to King Arthur. I’ve been playing the game a lot recently, and am currently on my third time going through it (Played it on Easy and then Normal, and now on Hard). Before I go on though, let me explain that when I play a game with as many options or adventure/story arcs that this game has to offer, I will milk it for all it’s worth, and play the living H**L out of it, exhausting my options completely. That being said, I’ve found a lot of enjoyment in this game, particularly since it revolves around King Arthur.
– Real player with 168.5 hrs in game
X-COM: Apocalypse
More than 20 years after it’s release, I can still quite confidently say, without hyperbole, that this is still one of the best games ever made. And I don’t even mean just one of my favourite games, but literally one of the best games in history. The hours I have on this are just the steam version, which is a tiny fraction of what I played back when I was on windows 98/2000 as a kid.
This game is systems upon systems upon systems. All of them working in the background, and in perfect harmony with each other. Everything you do in this game has far reaching consequences that are not necessarily simple or obvious. A decision to use serious explosives when defending a building owned by another company for example, may lead to you pissing that company off, which can change any further missions you do in their territory, can cause services to become unavailable to you, and may even result in inter-corporation wars in both the strategy and battle layers, spontaneously and unexpectedly starting up or beginning with clear hostile actions. While you can put money into deals to improve relations with some companies, others will not be your friends no matter what you do.
– Real player with 141.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Real-Time with Pause Sci-fi Games.
XCom Apocalypse is my favorite of all XCom titles, old and new. And - no, not because of nostalgia.
While I’m certainly cherish the challenge of the first two XCom games, and enjoying the tactical shootouts of the newer ones… By the terms of complexity of the gameplay, Apocalypse still has no rival. Well, maybe the first Banner Saga has something common in terms of complexity - but it’s another setting and totally another scale of events.
If you’re still wandering, what I’m talking about - it’s all of the game economics, your actions and their consequences. Yeah, the things I hate in the new XCom games for their inaptitude.
– Real player with 130.1 hrs in game
Jagged Alliance - Back in Action
After logging many hours on this game in the last two years, I finally decided to write a review. My taste in PC games mostly includes the strategy (especially turn based and pausable RTS) genre. I’m a fan of the X-Com Games, The Total War Series, Close Combat, etc. I played all of the Jagged Alliance Games and enjoyed them all. In my opinion, JABIA is a good game if you like this type of game; a game that requires a lot of management (inventory, strategy, assembling teams, et.). I found the planning and execution of my plans in this game a lot of fun. There are a few rough edges. They could have included a way to look at items ordered after you ordered them, as in the old JA Games. As it is now, you place the order and you have to remember what you ordered until it arrives and the only place it can arrive is at the Drassen Airport, requiring a lot of ‘mule’ trips by your mercs who will spend much of their time running back and forth for supplies and using newly hired mercs as mules when they come in. The end result of this is that I found myself spending much of my time organizing logistics for reenforcement and resupply. If, like me, you enjoy this in a game, then you won’t mind it and may even have fun with it. If this kind of micro-management isn’t to your taste, skip this game.
– Real player with 2302.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Real-Time with Pause Simulation Games.
This review is for the Windows version. The MAC/Linux version is unplayable at this point.
I am a fan of JA2 and i was quite disappointed when JABIA was released. It was unfinished and overpriced on release. But things have changed. Most of the game’s problems can be fixed by using mods and the price of the game has decreased considerably. I played the modded Windows version for 220 hours and really enjoyed it. I can only recommend this game.
The story/scheme of the game is very similar to JA2: You are hired to liberate a small 3rd world country and can only afford to send in a few wannabe mercenaries. You start to liberate/loot remote locations in order to get your hands on more money and better weapons while you recruit NPCs and improve their skills.
– Real player with 904.5 hrs in game
UFO: Afterlight
If you’re looking for a decent Xcom-esque game, then Afterlight certainly fits the bill. Although the innovations are outweighed by a number of annoyances this just means that it’s not as good as one of the most beloved strategy series, no real shame in that. It is the third in the UFO series after Aftershock and Aftermath and focuses on a human colony on Mars attempting to fend off alien encroachments. So lets see how it stacks up in various categories important to squad based tactics.
Squad Personality: B. While it lacks the customization of Xcom (if you loved this, change the rating to a D), I found the hardcoded team had enough personality to carry me through. Uta (aka BattleGranny) was a highlight but the others were distinct enough without being (for the most part) grating. This is furthered by some people having dual roles, so your scientist/soldier could be medic and your engineer/soldier could be driver/bomb disposal. Nowhere near Jagged Alliance goodness of course and unfortunately voice acting in the base was at times painful and repetitive. Sadly, the aliens you can get onto your team have limited usefulness due to their slow speed so a bit of potential variety is lost there.
– Real player with 60.6 hrs in game
Summary:
An hardcore gamer-oriented and enjoyable game for those who appreciated UFO-like games and don’t pay too much attention to graphics.
Research, characters design, story-telling, and ressource management are nice. RPG aspects are average.
Interface, tactical aspects, game balance, and graphics are desappointing (not completely bad though).
Gameplay:
- The focus is put on ressource management and research. There is a wide range of technologies to discover, and as other people already mentionned, you don’t have a ‘technological tree’ to guide you but I think it’s part of the roleplay and not a problem at all.
– Real player with 55.3 hrs in game
Drakensang: The River of Time
It started really well and I really began to enjoy this game, then the awful combat system kicked in during critical times, which can be a real pain. Though I like the pause and ensuing tactical planning elements, it does not always work. For example, I could be hit by ranged weapons and despite having high level ranged combat, I could not fire back despite pause, select targeting, etc. I could set the attack up and… waited… and… waited… Nothing happened, all the while I was getting hit until my party was decimated by three low level dwarfs with crossbows. No matter what I did or where I stood I could not fire back, yet they were in clear line of sight and within range. Whether or not I was being a numpty, I don’t know - it just seemed to spoil what is a good game from being a great game.
– Real player with 80.8 hrs in game
Like Drakensang the Dark Eye, this is a totally underrated RPG imo, and almost all the bad reviews refer to it being “unplayable” on newer versions of Windows, although it only takes a few min online to find a fix. I have Win 10 and I typed -windowed and -novideo in the Steam preferences (rightclick on the game in Steam Library and select Properties - Set launch options) and it didn’t crash a single time, which is more than one can say for a lot of older games by non-defunct companies, so so much for that. The -novideo did actually disappear later, so idk if it did anything; so as is clear I have no real idea what I’m doing but still managed to get the game to run with next to no effort. There are few loading screens in spite of large areas and the loading times are fast, unlike some other games I could mention where I end up going online all the time as I get bored waiting.
– Real player with 77.2 hrs in game
Secret Government
I really want to like this game, and in a lot of respects I do. I actually wish Steam had a middle option between the binary of recommend: yes/no, and the last thing I want to see is the devs give up on this due to negative feedback. However, I’m sure most people would be disappointed by the game in its current state, so “no” it is.
It’s a great concept and it has a lot of promise, but the game is incredibly game breakingly buggy and there are some very obvious gaps where development just never caught up to what was planned. The developers have stated their intentions to keep working on the game, and I really hope I can rewrite this review into a recommendation at some point. Outside of the issues, what the devs were going for is very apparent, and I would love to see it more fleshed out. There is one circumstance in which I would recommend this game that I will include at the bottom of the review.
– Real player with 90.4 hrs in game
Let me level with you: this is a thinking person’s game. Though its aesthetics reminds one of the Europa Universalis games, if you lack the patience to tackle your goals in a subtle, clandestine way, you will suffer. Unlike the EU games, you cannot simply go up to a ruler and order them to go to war with another country, nor can you simply go to the citizens and order them to support your newly created political party. In fact, it is best if neither are aware of your existence at all as they will crush you if their Awareness of your Brotherhood is high enough and it doesn’t necessarily have to reach 100 first for them to start weakening your Brotherhood.
– Real player with 54.4 hrs in game
Attack at Dawn: North Africa
Attack at Dawn: North Africa is a strategy game set in WW2 North African theatre. In the game you take command of battalions, brigades, divisions and air wings. The game begins with the German troops probing into the Libyan region of Cyrenaica, and finishes either with the total defeat of German-Italian Panzer Armee, or with the British loss of Egypt and their retreat across the Suez Canal.
FAST AND INTENSIVE GAMEPLAY
The game can be played in a Real-Time, or Turn-Based (WeGo) mode. That reflects the speed and chaos of the desert mobile warfare. Combine this with the fog of war, and the experience of being in command vehicle of a Panzer Corps comes to life. The game will immerse you in one of the most intensive and nerve-wrecking experiences of the Second World War.
POLISHED INTERFACE
Game map and the units have been designed to be uncluttered, informative and easy to understand. You can choose how will your units look like: as top-view models or unit counters. With the ability to zoom out and see the entire battlefield with a glance, you will have the best possible situational awareness.
HISTORICAL
The game features campaigns and scenarios - both historical and hypothetical. They have been designed after an in-depth research of the historical orders of battle and battle histories. Special attention was given to the composition of the armies, combat values of individual units and overall authenticity of each scenario. Check out our series of maps and historical articles that were created based on our research: https://www.attackatdawn.com/news/categories/blog
LARGE MAP
The game features a large map, covering a distance of almost 2000 kilometres and you can use the Scenario Editor provided within the game to create your own scenarios anywhere on this large battleground. Starting at the bay of Sirte in Libya and spreading to Suez Canal in Egypt, the terrain varies between sea, desert, mountains, wadis, ports… There is one long asphalt road “Via Balbia” spanning the whole length of the map, and a handful of well-known desert tracks leading towards the deep Sahara.
Drakensang
A party based RPG with great potential but quite unfinished and unpolished. Some people compare it to DA:O, NWN, BG, etc…(that being the reason I bought it) but that’s a big overstatement.
The bad:
1. The story/main quest - linear, blurry and uninteresting - does little to motivate the player to save the world.
2. The side quests are scarce, petty, uncomplicated and unrewarding.
3. The companions are plain, stereotyped and boring. They have no personal quests (except one), don’t develop with the progress in the game, rarely have something to say about quests/environment. Puppets with no personality, no conflicts, no banters, no life. The majority of them can be recruited too late in the game, so, for the first half, you will probably be stuck with the barking amazon and the cliché dwarf.
– Real player with 178.9 hrs in game
Ah, so this is where Dragon age origins stole all their ideas.. Of course that most likely isnt true. Judging by the release dates, the guys and gals over at Bioware were almost certainly unaware of the osbcure German title Drakensang, even tho Drakensang did come out first.
After beating Drakensang and enjoying it greatly, I couldnt help but notice similarities. Four member party- check. Pause and play tactical combat- check. Mages have magical skills and fighters get erm, fightery skills. Your archers stand back and sling arrows, you’ll need a rogue to open locks, disable traps and even smooth talk out of a situation or two. Its all done well, and made with obvious care, so if your into that sort of thing, your gonna like this.
– Real player with 138.8 hrs in game
The Last Federation
How do I explain this? Bullet Hell meets Civilizations in Space?
You have 8 races, all with very identifiably anatomies ranging from small furry barn-owls to Metroid style Chozo-esque utopian robots to a planet of robots who act like Bender from Futurama to a warlike crab? people (what the hell is a Burlust). The main game mode has you trying to make a unified Federation to stop genocides like the one that happened to your awesome 4 headed dragon race. You can research technology on you rown or with other races to improve your relations with them, help build structures on planets that can either strengthen defenses, help production/livelihood, or just make a bunch of TV channels that help different races learn that they’re not supposed to hate everyone.
– Real player with 114.6 hrs in game
There is a lot to say about The last federation that already has been said by people better at this kind of stuff than me, but another voice in the ether never hurt nobody :)
Right of the bat it should be said that the general concept is a twist on the old grand strategy formula of “unify the world to win” but excecuted in such a way that your character aren’t a contestant among others as much as the one that decided that an ensured galactic peace is something to work for. As such your job is to first create the federation, and then persuade the eight races of the galaxy to join it.
– Real player with 40.5 hrs in game
Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel
Let’s start this review off by saying that this game has a very mixed reputation, and for a very good reason.
Fallout Tactics isn’t like its forefathers Fallout 1 and Fallout 2. Fallout Tactics is a strategy game, and unlike its forefathers, has no speech skill, no major RPG elements, and more straightforward, action based gameplay. It has a very unique story, and is so far the only Fallout game that has its setting in the Midwestern United States.
Fallout Tactics has voiceacted dialog, unlike Fallout 1 and 2. Fallout Tactics also offers four difficulty settings, Easy, Normal, Hard, and Insane. Easy is about what you would expect, easy, it makes the game very very easy and significantly more easygoing. Normal isn’t much different, but it too offers a more story and action based game than the two harder difficulties. Hard is a minor step up from Normal, forcing you to play more adaptively, and sparringly with your supplies, as vendors either don’t restock, or you have to complete a mission for them to, making supplies very restricted if you waste them. Insane is exactly what you would expect, insane. It’s borderline impossibly hard if you play with Tough Guy Mode turned on, which I will touch on in a second. Insane mode drops your accuracy by a flat 20%, halves your average damage, curbs your chance to get criticals to extremely low, doubles enemy damage, resistence, accuracy, and worst of all, the enemy will get critical hits with frightening frequency. Strategy is everything on Insane. Your supplies become even more limited, and you will die many many many times, which makes Tough Guy even more bitter.
– Real player with 723.6 hrs in game
Short review
A good strategy title that allows us to reconnect with the universe of Fallout while discovering a different type of gameplay. Amateurs and neophytes alike should enjoy it despite the high level of difficulty.
Long review
So here we are, back in the nuclear winter of the world of Fallout. The devastating war that took place plunges us into the ruins of Chicago, in which the survivors of this apocalypse organize themselves to survive the hordes of looters, animals that have become wild or even mutants. A new category of warrior was therefore formed to defend the few remains of a humanity lost in this post-nuclear world: The Brotherhood of Steel. You will play as one of these knights of a new era and try to complete the many missions that await you, which will require you to use cunning as well as force. Exit the outright role-playing game as offered by the other titles in the series, Fallout Tactics is aptly named and invites us to immerse ourselves in turn-based tactical strategy.
– Real player with 255.9 hrs in game