Domina is a shining beacon of PC indie gaming. It very much feels like a labor of love for one guy, which it in fact is. Bignic, the developer took a basic concept but had a unique vision which translates beautifully on the screen. Between the idiosyncratic events and names, the amazing soundtrack which he composed himself, to the amazingly tuned spectacle fighting simulator he managed to create, it is an inspiration and a triumph for those who just want to go and make a weird game of their own.
There are some solid ideas that carry you fluidly through the first few hours but the more you play, the more you realize that you're being brainwashed to think that menial work is fun
While the selling point is focused on hard choices, the unrelenting grimness of the setting and need for survival makes them more obvious than difficult. Luckily all the other components (city builder, presentation, etc.) are quite good and the game is enjoyable even if it doesn't quite hit the feels as it intends.
Surviving Mars, is competent but dried up fairly quickly. The systems in place work well and it accomplishes all it wants to do effectively. It has a good natural difficulty and good variation between plays. For those who are comforted by grid lined paper, this is probably a cathartic managerial experience. I am not in that group however. Like the planet itself, the whole experience felt a bit one note and bare. To me, there needed to be something else, another angle or facet to the game to give it the life that it desperately needed.
Leviathans offers some nice new features, but does not add enough worthwhile content to Stellaris to recommend purchasing alone or to justify the price tag.
Sunless Sea is a good game and Zubmariner brings a solid amount more of that goodness into the fold… But for anyone who has played the game somewhat extensively, I would proceed with caution because for me, a lack of anything really new was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back.
FIFA 17, to me, is one of the stronger entries in the last few years from the EA Sports guys and it’s a pretty great game if you’re relatively new to proceedings
[Guards is] by no means the most in-depth or complex strategy title you’ll be able to scrounge up, but I was pleasantly surprised by the level of challenge the game manages
I felt more like I was being told a pretty boring story with sub-par pictures rather than becoming a criminal mastermind who got away with murder
Necropolis rewards those who put the effort into decoding the weirdness, and while some may not appreciate that, for those who do, it’s a game worth investing in
Total War vets will be right at home here: most everything from battles to the campaign map, for better or worse, is going to give you that Total War déja vù
The crown jewel however is that grandest of strategy… Paradox really do know how to craft an engaging and challenging yet natural narrative building engine
[XCOM 2] functions well and the tactical gameplay is still solid as ever but retains the annoyances of the old systems