Court of Ashes
Full disclosure, I’m the brother to one of the Court of Ashes developers and brother-in-law to the other. That probably means my review won’t mean much to you but I still have a good reason to write it.
Over the last month I and some others have been beta-testing the game and providing detailed feedback. During my time testing I was very vocal in my comments. When something didn’t feel right I wrote it down and let them know right away. And no matter how often I or someone else brought something up did the developers ever make an excuse. When something could be better they made it better. Entire portions of the game were reworked based on the comments the developers received and the game had become so much better for it.
– Real player with 20.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Replay Value Female Protagonist Games.
I stumbled on this game in my search list. I often browse indie games for little gems. This is one of them. This is a simple game that I believe is meant to teach you something about morality and service.
After the first 10 mins of playing the game, I thought there must have been a mistake at steam to give this game away for free!
Then I read the Dev message. I enjoyed this little game and would like to give you something in return (As Artimis may have said). “You have the makings of a thriving enterprise. You need only leverage the excess material at your feet, and like the fishmonger in my story arch who is told to turn low grad cuts into broth. Transmute what you believe to be refuse into accelerant.”
– Real player with 7.7 hrs in game
Intelligence Trader
I’ve been playing this for about 4 hours and I like it so far. It definitely feels like the game is unfinished and there’s more to come, but the basic premise of the game is clear.
Pros:
Fun concept
Interesting story lines and missions
Nice graphics (I like the look of the agent photos)
Clear interface/map
Lots of potential for expansion by tying in the missions completed with the news headlines
Cons:
A little unorganized. You can’t click on an agent placed in country and get information about them. When intel comes in to sell, you have to scroll around to figure out the highest bidder. (easily remedied with an icon indicating high and low price, or maybe highlighting with certain colors to shoe high or low)
– Real player with 6.7 hrs in game
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Bought it hoping find something similar to Kremlingames products. Unfortunately realised that it’s too early to buy it. Started the game and understand nothing. Russian translation is not finished, in some places in place of words I saw just black strips… Surprise… Cannot return an agent back from a country to base. News are very interesting, but I’d like to see it in a new window. Time moves too slow. There is no explanation what is specialization of agents.
Perhaps it’s only in Russian version, didn’t play English one. Hope to see something remarkable and interesting in future)
– Real player with 5.9 hrs in game
Taxer Inc
I have a suggestion - I would advise the developers to go deeper into the late stage of the game now. And add mechanics to the Government section - right now their role in the game is minimal. I think this part can be deepened. But that’s just my opinion.. :D
– Real player with 30.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Replay Value Grand Strategy Games.
This game is very interesting. The perspective of controlling other countries with economic power instead of military power is simple and innovative.
However, I have a complaint about the NPCs' behavior.
While the player is limited in terms of revolution points, the NPCs continue to annex other countries without such limitations. Also, with each turn, the rebellion points for annexing other countries become higher, making it impossible to complete the game if you focus on internal affairs.
The only solution is to annex NPCs before they become too big, but geography often prevents that effort in Asia and Africa.
– Real player with 6.3 hrs in game
Bleeding Moons
A unique and entertaining point and click adventure game in the vein of Space Pilgrim about war, politics, love and everything in between. The game is more of an interactive novel, the puzzle part is very easy, too easy I would say, so if you are expecting to get creative about picking things and combining them in the inventory, this is not the game for you.
The game tackles adult issues such as rape and abuse, but very tastefully, which is testament to the overall excellent writing. The world is rich with characters and they all have a story, even the many NPCs will tell you their tale. The creators really took their time with every detail, including some humorous: in a city with many stray dogs, of course you will find poop on the street :) … which should have been an achievement itself.
– Real player with 35.4 hrs in game
First of all, I’m writing this review as a huge THANK YOU to the creator. I just finished the game and I’m absolutely in love with it! I spent about a good 10 hours playing through the story and because I’m that kind of guy that wants to know everything, I logged over 200 saves. I’ll be going back to my final save later this week to try something a little different. After that I’m likely to try again from the beginning to see what I might be able to change.
! I was surprised to find out I was locked out of Luna’s ending but the rest were available to me
– Real player with 13.8 hrs in game
Oversight
This game is something truly special. It’s smart and sophisticated, with fabulous yet understated art and music. The gameplay is very satisfying, and it makes me feel like an evil mastermind even when I lose! Play this game, you won’t regret it.
– Real player with 2.4 hrs in game
The Pope: Power & Sin
The Pope: Power & Sin is a game inspired by the life of Rodrigo de Borja, who served as the pope in 1492-1503, as Alexander VI. Take on the role of the Pope, strengthen the authority of the Church State, fight for spiritual and political independence from pagans and the renewal of administrative church structures. The rule of Alexander VI is a torrent of numerous scandals, excesses and signs of moral corruption in the highest authorities of the Church.
Difficult times require quick, often violent decisions. Eliminate heretics who undermine your holiness.
Unite Italy, expand territory of your power, collect taxes and obtain riches.
Politics don’t always have to be clean; you don’t have to get along with everyone. Remember that you have God on your side, so any decision can be right.
Collect information. Any place is good, Vatican corridors or even a confessional. Many want the power, they want to be in your place.
Manage subordinates and, above all, take care of the family. Give them high positions and secure their future.
There is unlimited power in your hands, you are God’s representative on Earth.
Anthropomachy
So… I was very excited when I found this game. Not only because it’s exactly the kind of game I was looking for, but also because the price was so reasonable.
I just finished my first play-through and I did really enjoy it although I do have some comments & concerns about gameplay.
I saw before purchasing that a lot of people insisted this game needed some kind of tutorial & that has been fixed, I found the tutorial to be super helpful. I do agree with another commenter though that a guided-victory tutorial (rather than a show & tell tutorial) would be much more beneficial.
– Real player with 24.6 hrs in game
I highly recommend it!
Anthropomachy is a great strategy game, and you have to conquer the world as a Greek God!
Each God has its own powers, and you can choose your own path when purchasing them: good, neutral or evil?
It’s not so easy to be a conqueror, but I thought this is the funniest part of this game, because you have to find out what you have to do to be a better God to your followers.
The experience in-game is not boring, even when you’re doing the same actions constantly, because the developers added some features such as sudden messages appearing with choices that can help you or not (making people lose faith in you or believe you are their savior), and some news that appears in red that can help you in some situations.
– Real player with 10.4 hrs in game
Crusader Kings II
If you care about the amount of gameplay you get for your money at all, this game probably rates higher than any other game. (Last I read, the average player had over 500 hours on this game.)
Crusader Kings II is a strategic game where you spend most of your time looking at a big map of Europe cut into little counties, but it is drastically different from a game like Medieval II: Total War. Whereas in those games, every nation had rigid boundaries and an entire nation was a distinct, unified entity, Crusader Kings II focuses upon the feudal system of governance, and especially its hereditary system of succession.
– Real player with 2025.1 hrs in game
Crusader Kings II is one of the most deep, fascinating and replayable strategy games I have ever played. In brief, you play as a family in the middle ages, anywhere between Mali and Mongolia, or from Bengal to Britain. You try to secure advantageous alliances and strategic marriages, and build up a small realm, either as a vassal of a greater power or striking out independently. There is no real win condition, though I love taking people who lost out historically, and helping push them to greatness.
– Real player with 1862.2 hrs in game
Europa Universalis IV
I’m a divorced woman of color. Recently, my ex got our son Larry a video game called Europa Universalis for his 14th birthday. It seemed good for him, because it takes place in the distant past and he’s always been interested in history, so it seemed like a nice enough game, no graphic violence or anything, at least until I sat down and watched him play at it. I don’t know what sorts of racists made this game, but it’s basically a colonialism and genocide justification simulator. If you want to survive, you need to have access to money and soldiers, and the most (only) reliable way to ensure you have enough is to attack and conquer your weaker neighbors. If you don’t, you can be sure someone else will eventually come attack and conquer you.
– Real player with 4558.6 hrs in game
So EU4 was a good game. Then they released the 450+ ‘bug fixes’. The entire game outside Europe has now been put back behind a new paywall unless you have the paradise DLC as it is now impossible to develop your provinces to spawn institutions as army tradition gives you impossibly high dev costs. I played one game and when I needed to dev an institution from a 1/1/1 grasslands province and starting cost is 120. That is only with 33 army tradition giving a 150% penalty. This was a custom nation and I had -20% dev cost. Good job paradox forcing everyone to buy your shittiest dlc in order to use any of the other DLC’s you have paid for. The game is now broken outside of Europe without the paradise dlc. You make me sick Paradox!
– Real player with 1819.5 hrs in game
🧠 OUT OF THE BOX
It really is a shame that this game doesn’t seem to be getting much attention. I think it is quite a hidden gem.
I really like the art style. All the character sprites just ooze personality. The only thing that bothers me a bit is that the idle animations in some cutscenes look a bit exaggerated, with some characters constantly headbanging for no reason. Less animation would have been more here. But I am willing to overlook that minor flaw because I just enjoy the style so much. Also, don’t let the cutesy look fool you. There are some really brutal scenes in this game.
– Real player with 12.1 hrs in game
It’s a good game where you play a bouncer hired by your maffia boss after being released from prison and no one else will give you a job, while all the while trying to stay on the straight and narrow and keep your bills paid. You have to check people coming into the night club for simple stuff to start with (dress code, ID, correct tickets, not under age, not drunk etc) but as things go along, you start getting extra requests and criteria to meet.
There’s a basic storyline. It doesn’t have many ways it can significantly branch from the linear storyline (so far the majority I tried don’t make a lot of difference or cause you to hit dead ends (sometimes literally.) So unless you enjoy the ticket checking side of things, replayability is limited. Checking tickets is fun and challenging for the first round, but does have threshold where it starts to lose its shine. (I kind of wish it was mixed up a bit with more variation.)
– Real player with 12.0 hrs in game