Recent reviews by Aerofare the Deranged Daedalist

SPHESS MAHREEEEENS...!

Now I have your attention, let the review commence.

Battlefleet: Gothic Armada II is a space tactical RTS set in the latest stage of Warhammer 40'000's lore, known as The Gathering Storm. It incorporates all 12 factions from the tabletop game, namely the Imperial Navy, Adeptus Astartes, Adeptus Mechanicus, Aeldari Craftworld, Aeldari Corsairs, Drukhari, Chaos, Necrons, Tau Merchant Fleet, Tau Protector Fleet, Orks and Tyranids. You definitely don't have a lack of options!

For the rest of this, I will be focusing on the single-player and co-op as I haven't tried multiplayer yet and am frankly afraid to because I don't have the 'Know No Fear' trait like the Space Marines do.

There are three base campaigns available and a fourth one as a DLC. The three base ones are for the Imperium (here you take control of three different factions at the same time as well, the Imperial Navy, Adeptus Astartes and Adeptus Mechanicus), Necrons and Tyranids. The DLC campaign is for Chaos.

Each campaign is turn-based except for when it comes to the actual battles. In the campaign overmap, there are many things to do between many sectors and systems. A system consists of one or multiple planets that may have a plethora of upgrades - and there are multiple systems within each sector - that range from faction ones to income, fleets, crews and repairing/re-crewing ships over time. Yes, damage to ships and loss of crew is persistent between battles, so fleets have to be managed well. Players may field many fleets at once and customise it with ships of their choosing. Each fleet also has a leader, an individual with unique abilities that may be used by any ship that's been designated as the flagship. Ships themselves also gain individual experience from battles which levels up traits such as ability cooldown speed, weapon reload speed, etc.

There are multiple tonnages (classes) of ships in the game available, which are unlocked as the renown level increases through the campaign. Players start out with Escorts and Light Cruisers, but will later unlocked Cruisers, Battle Cruisers, Grand Cruisers and ultimately Battleships. Faction diversity, among many other areas, are very prominent in ship designs, abilities, strengths and weaknesses. One of my personal highest praises for this game is the phenomenally intricate details present on all ships. The developers clearly put a lot of love and effort into the transpositions of the tabletop models to their in-game counterparts, which is further solidified by footage and commentary from documentaries in the game's making.

As the campaign itself its turn-based, some of the various actions available are moving, attacking, or building structures to consolidate security in a system, or to delay an invasion. Enemy actions are determined by threat levels, which increases and may be decreased by a number of factors. If a threat level is higher, enemies will aggressively build and reinforce fleets, build defensive structures of their own and declare attacks. Invasions on systems may also occur from outside the sector on random systems within that sector.

On the note of invasions, that's one of the areas that has drawn the most complaints: enemy invasions are relentless, sometimes in spite of low threat levels. The campaigns can often feel sluggish due to playing a constant game of whack-a-mole and being hard-pressed to make progress with main missions and side missions. Annihilation missions, which unlock later on in the campaigns, can completely nullify this nuisance, as they permanently remove a faction from the campaign.

In the event that a player is inundated with the singleplayer or just want a fellow xeno adm- *heresy redacted* - by their side, say hello to co-op! When a player joins as a co-op partner, they may also move, attack with or edit the host's fleets and upgrade their systems. In actual battles themselves, the host may decide who controls which ships, and ships may even be shared between both players. Good luck with the latter, it'll be like a fleet of morally broken Orks in complete disarray.

The RTS side of the game within the battles themselves is highly strategic and tactical. There are two different game modes: Cruiser Clash, which is an all-out brawl, and Capture, where you take control of and try to hold multiple zones across the map which accumulates points in addition to points garnered from enemy ships destroyed or driven off. Ship combat itself is also filled with many, many nuances that determine how a fight will go, from everything like ship hardpoints set as priority targets (such as engines, generators, deck and weapons) to the stances, ship abilities and boarding actions. Even the placement of the vessel is pivotal, as some vessels have broadside weapons, while others have theirs on the prow.

Fans of similar games such as Stellaris, Star Wars: Empire at War, Conquest: Frontier Wars and Homeworld will likely love Armada II and get a colossal introduction to the grimdark universe of Warhammer 40'000!

I'll write a serious review at some other stage, but for now, all I'll say is...

PTSD Simulator

In a good way, because it excels at what it aimed for, and that's to stir feelings of revulsion. And most of my playtime, which isn't shown, is as a result of playing offline. I had no way to Google cute kittens at the time to soothe my distress! ;-;

Investigative reporters/journalists don't always have it even moderately easy. They are the soldiers for truth on the battlefront of deceit and cover-ups, and are occasionally sent on excursions nothing can quite prepare one for.

Players step up to the role as Miles Upshur, a very ambitious self-employed investigative journalist who follows a lead from an anonymous source to the Mount Massive Asylum, where an apparently dubious operation is being conducted by the unscrupulous Murkoff Corporation.

With the front entrance locked down and no security personnel to be found anywhere despite the presence of an unusual number of different law enforcement vehicles stationed in the front courtyard, it becomes quickly apparent that something is very askew. Still determined, Miles eventually makes his way into the building, only to stumble upon a horrific scene of mutilated and slaughtered members of one of Murkoff's own elite security teams.

And so the freefall into a hellish gore fest with a nightmarish origin commences...

An illegal experiment headed by the Murkoff Corporation, dubbed 'Project Walrider', has been carried out on almost all patients at the Asylum, further damaging their mental state and making them physically stronger. As a result, many have degenerated even further into sickeningly sadistic and monstrously cruel Variants, byproducts of a malevolent entity at the heart of the project that would break even the darkest recesses of the primal mind. Some of them also have a great love for full nudity and the dark desires that accompany it.

Outlast is first-person survival horror game which makes use of the Amnesia series' mechanic of providing the player with only a limited set of equipment and pickups to survive with, foregoing any form of fighting and instead focusing on a feeling of helplessness. Undoubtedly, despite many games in this day and age making use of similar mechanics with clear inspirations from some titles, some people would still draw a single line of comparison.

Outlast progresses with a very different premise, setting, and the utilization of some present day equipment. There is no health bar or health consumables, either. Miles can only take a set amount of hits which depends on the difficulty setting and the frequency of the attacks dealt to him. If one gets hit and evades the enemy for a brief time, the hit will be recovered from and the amount is reset. It also noticeably lacks a mental state mechanic no matter how long one spends in dark or light environments.

Along the way, details about patients and events come to light through collectible documents in set locations, as well as recordings from Miles' main equipment that one will use almost exclusively, a video camera with a night vision mode which needs batteries to function. Only night vision mode consumes battery power, however, prompting players to keep the camera rolling as often as possible to be their eyes and ears. Additional batteries can be found in many locations, though less spawn on the higher difficulty levels, and less can be kept on hand at a time.

A strong emphasis is placed on a foreboding and eerie atmosphere which is often underlined with heavy breathing and fearful swallowing from the player's character. Occasionally, it's cranked up in intensity by means of jump scares and/or nerve-racking chase scenes with one of the many deranged patients of the Asylum or one of the particularly pronounced inmates such as the hulking Billy Walker, a recurring boss enemy that stalks the player up until the end of the game.

The visuals are pretty plain and simple, with an overall settings range from irregular lighting and flat textures to finer details on security badges and bodily scars on patients and the player character.
Along with the atmosphere and plot progression, the game's strength lies in its audio, with suitable sound effects like rain and thunder, and superb voice acting through boss characters like Dr Richard Trager.

Besides the main campaign, the Outlast: Whistleblower DLC includes a side story featuring a different player character - who so happens to be the employee that sent the email tip off to Miles - and takes place in different parts of the colossal Mount Massive Asylum in the same time frame as the main campaign. The DLC story might be shorter than the main one, but it is no less impactful and contains some disturbing scenes that dwarves even some that are present in the main game.

Lastly, to add a bit of a challenge to the survival horror element, the game features an Insane mode for both the main campaign and DLC. Players can only take two hits from patients and one from any boss before they die, forcing them to restart the entire run from the very beginning. Saving and checkpoints are also disabled.

Outlast is a grotesquely beautiful horror title with very few, if any, cons to it. It's a fresh entry in a sometimes oversaturated category that provides a unique sense of dread and disturbances in a deviously well-construed way.

I think it's obvious which nomination category this game will dominate...

Just like they've been dominating behind the scenes until the world was finally made aware of the immensely entertaining mass scale destruction of what we thought to be mere farm animals, brought to you by the latest in goat simulation technology.

11/10, Lickitung ain't got nothing on goat tongues

As a big fan of the Necrons after playing them extensively for years in Dark Crusade and reading up their lore, this is one of the biggest gifts in recent gaming history.

The Necron Overlord is not only the newest addition content-wise since Retribution's release five years ago, but the hard-hitting and nigh infallible new hero in Last Stand game mode.

He can absorb enormous amounts of damage and, for the most part, recover from it in seconds. When it comes to bringing the pain to his enemies, all are left seared with the pain of humiliation when they realise the futility of engaging one whose playground is death.

The only downside to the Overlord for me at this time is the consistent unit pathing bug present throughout almost every match. When issuing an attack order, he will either stand dead still and do nothing or run around a wide area. More infrequently, when ordered to use an ability, he would only activate it much later or not at all, which cost fights for me at times.

Many people are saying that he is OP, and while I agree that he is exceptionally powerful by the standards of the other heroes, you do have to take into account his background. Additionally, if someone isn't a good or smart player, no matter how powerful the Overlord is, they can still find themselves overwhelmed by enemies.

All in all, this long awaited hero truly adds new gameplay value and is a lot of fun to play, whether it's seeing him wipe the floor with single powerful enemies or devastating entire armies.

I am very, very thankful to Relic for gracing us with the Overlord for free if claimed between March 10 and 15.

Now all that's needed is a new and suitable map for some more variety of enemies and challenges.