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The core mechanics of We Are The Dwarves - the actions you can take and the strategies you can employ - are wonderful, well-considered, and fully featured. There's a depth to the lore and world-building that you rarely see at this scale. But the level design is so constrictive and the difficulty so fierce that it's a constant fight to have fun.
But it's so difficult to access that depth behind the poor tutorials, terrible interface and lack of feedback. You've got to work for hours upon hours to reach anything approaching competence, and it's tough to recommend that investment to any but the most hardcore of space strategy tactical RPG simulation enthusiasts.
There are bugs in the game that make it feel frustrating and unfinished. At many points I felt like I was fighting the game simply to play it, and while there's tons of promise, the current product just doesn't feel worth the effort it takes to play.
Wait and hope for some major patches for now, but even then Armikrog still won't feel actually finished. Shame.
Clunky, frustrating and a world away from the series best efforts, Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia limps over the finish line, completing a spin-off trilogy and closing the door on a concept that simply deserved better.
"When you need it there yesterday," reads Buck Mann's catchphrase in reference to his delivery ethos. As far as Space Run: Fast and Safe Delivery as a game is concerned, part of me wonders if yesterday is really where this adventure belongs.
Space Colony is not without its charm or satisfaction, but you'll want all the idiotic colonists to die long before you reach the credits.
The potential was there for something truly special along the lines of Limbo or even perhaps ICO with your immobile brother, but there ended up not being enough reasons to care for the game or the characters within it. Nowhere Studios have an artistic eye that spoke in a unique and moving way to me at first but the technical problems voided that emotional connection and Monochroma ended up being a slog rather than a joy.
I'm sorry guys, but Hack 'N' Slash needs a bit more time in the programming oven.
Stripped down and lacking new ideas, F1 2014 definitely feels like a stopgap; the racing itself has been honed over several incarnations to the point where it's pretty damned sharp, but with the omission of classic mode and a relatively scarce list of new features, there's a sense that Codemasters are resting on their laurels here while they concentrate on the next-gen F1 title they've got in the works.
As such, it's difficult to recommend Styx: Master of Shadows to all but the most hardcore shadow skulker when the many other games that have come before it have all done the whole stealth thing that much better.
Millennia's take on the historical 4X formula is fascinating, but the wonder wears off soon due to misplaced priorities and omissions that are hard to overlook.
With so many games on the horizon, the series is threatening to mimic sports franchises on an action-adventure level; the addictive same-old repackaged and resold back to you year-on-year. Mirage might promise a fresh oasis from afar, but get closer and it's the same formula, drier and less quenching than before.
Warner Bros. attempt at getting things going again with Gotham Knights feels largely flat thanks to unwieldy movement and a world that is more "checklist" than immersive, but in small doses it can be fun, and the heroes all feel unique and work well in co-op multiplayer.
Blackmill Games' dedication to history and realism is certainly commendable, but the result is a game that will only appeal to a very select audience. That said, Isonzo is capable of producing some incredibly tense and atmospheric gameplay.
Stray is at its best when it lets you do the things you'd expect from a cat – sleeping on cozy pillows, meowing, or scratching sofas – but fails to build consistently compelling gameplay around these flavorful bits. Although it creates a believable world, I found it hard to connect with the robots you encounter across its forgotten city, making the game's admittedly grand climax feel hollow.
Terminator: Resistance Annihilation Line is a worthy addition to the base game if you enjoyed your time there but it doesn't do enough to fix its many flaws. While the story is rewarding and atmosphere creepy, there's something just a little cynical about the whole thing.
Being able to actually claim territory I had captured in a war without it creating an immediate regional coalition against me. They're all mine, so gimme, gimme, gimme!
A worthy sequel made unplayable by bad AI and the inability to have any direct impact on the people working for you.
The Unexpected Quest is by no means a bad game, as completing tasks and acquiring resources can be entertaining if you approach the title with the right mindset. Unfortunately, it's incredibly hard to justify the price-tag when you consider the game's relatively short length and repetitive elements. Casual players might get a kick out of the laid-back experience, but RTS veterans should look elsewhere for their resource-managing and quest-completing thrills.