Recent reviews by Crymson

Short but sweet. Firewatch packs a lot of emotional depth into its five or so hours of playtime, and the art style and overall ambiance are enjoyable. Prepare for some melancholy; this isn't a lighthearted story (though it's not overly dark either).

Though it's an enjoyable experience, this game packs only an afternoon's breadth of content and has nothing in the way of replayability. Buy it on sale.

One of the greatest RPGs of all time, built over the course of years by the same top-notch indie studio that brought us the Divinity: Original Sin games and polished with love in every manner possible. Very few games have ever seen such dedication to going the extra mile, and free content continues to be added well after the game blew its sales goals out of the water and won Game of the Year.

For me, the only downsides are the limited depth of the endings, act three being a bit of a grind at times, and the limitations of the D&D 5th Edition combat rules. These lower the score from Divinity 2's 10/10 to a 9.5/10.

Absolutely worth the money. Larian is the best, and this game delivers across the board.

This game is simply not my cup of tea.

I'll contextualize Pillars of Eternity by comparing it to Tyranny, a similar title released 18 months later by the same developer and an experience which I enjoyed a great deal. Both are similar in terms of production values, which is to say that they're fairly rudimentary in terms of graphics, largely lacking in voice acting, and so on. Both focus heavily upon world building and lore, a focus which necessitates a great deal of reading by the player. Again, not inherently an issue.

The games diverge sharply in terms of combat and scope.

Tyranny's combat isn't innovative (aside from the spell-building system, which is good fun), and it isn't particularly diverse, but it's solid enough. The combat in Pillars of Eternity is messy, highly tedious, barely-controlled chaos which largely consists of managing an oversized party in spamming the same course of abilities in between pauses. Whereas Tyranny's combat moves slowly enough for actual tactical depth, the combat in Pillars of Eternity moves at such a ludicrously fast pace that combat boils down to repeatedly pausing during the course of each relatively short encounter in order to ensure full action economy by repeatedly selecting abilities; the alternative is to simply automate some or all of your characters, which does alleviate this issue but does so by freeing you from actual involvement in the game's combat mechanics. Neither path is ideal.

Tyranny provides a world of impressive scope, one which it defines to the reader chiefly by text. This requires a lot of reading, but the experience is one of a good book in which the reader gets to participate and shape the story. It provides a decent set of main characters with backstories containing solid-enough depth. The way in which the world is built for the player is extensive but by no means overwhelming.

I can best compare this to the scope of Pillars of Eternity by using the analogy of ice cream. Ice cream is pretty good once in awhile or once per day, right? Sure. How about if you're forced to eat it at every meal and in quantities that give you stomach pains? It stops becoming a good thing, and that sums up the scope of Pillars of Eternity. The game builds the world by subjecting the player to an overwhelming deluge of information. This is less like reading an enjoyable tale than it is akin to memorizing a textbook. There's simply too much. The same goes for the main characters, with whom depth is sacrificed in the name of breadth. I couldn't bring myself to care all that much about any of them.

Obsidian clearly put a ton of work into the game world, but it did so in a way that isn't very enjoyable to explore. I could readily forgive this if the combat were enjoyable, but that's far fom being the case. There are many better RPGs out there. If you'd like a game that's similar to Pillars of Eternity but executes far better on every level, play Tyranny instead.

4/10.

Weak.

Attila was a relatively minor Total War release that was quickly forgotten by its developer. There's little that's special about it. The mechanics are wonky, the combat is nothing special, the graphics are arguably a step back from those of its predecessor, and the engine is a little buggy. The only redeeming characteristic is a couple of its mods, but even the enormous amount of work put into those can't fully redeem this title. It does succeed in portraying the desperation of the dark days surrounding the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the perpetually war-torn landscape of that age, but that's about all it does well.

5/10.

If you like building/survival games, look no further!

I don't typically enjoy building games (e.g. Minecraft). I generally find the process of harvesting minerals for the process of construction to be a tedious one. For whatever reason, Valheim makes it a relaxing experience for me. I've built six bases over the course of 300+ hours entirely on my own. I'll boot it up every once in awhile to build something new or just cruise around and enjoy the scenery.

It's not perfect. The process of progressing between biomes can become very repetitive at certain stages, combat mechanics are shallow and occasionally frustrating, and there are occasional times when you'll die in ways that are downright maddening. More, the game is very bare on story. Ultimately, the meat of the experience is construction, and your mileage in that category will be up to the breadth of your own imagination.

But if you enjoy games of this genre, particularly the building aspect, this game is nonetheless worth the buy.

8/10.

Rock and stone, miners!

This game is pure, unfettered, no-stress fun. It's got an endearingly positive tone and a great community, and it's supported by an attentive, principled developer. If you enjoy feel-good co-op games with good mechanics, look no further. It's worth every penny of the very reasonable full price, and it's often on sale.

9.5/10. It misses out on the full 10/10 solely because I give that rating only to the very rare games that are truly sublime experiences. That DRG doesn't qualify is no criticism.

Worth a play, but not without its warts.

Like its predecessor, Expeditions: Viking, this title does a great job of transporting one back to the period in which it's set. The ambiance is excellent, the story is solid (it definitely takes liberties with history, but not egregiously so), combat is fun, the characters are likable, and the game is overall a fulfilling experience. The studio clearly had a larger budget than it did for Viking, as the game is far more polished than that previous entry in the series. And praise is due for attention to detail and depth of content.

Where the title falls short is in its strategic elements. Far too much time is spent traipsing around the campaign map, during which players are subjected to "random" encounters that quickly become repetitive to the point of genuine tedium. The battle mechanic is shallow, boring, and similarly repetitive. Legion management is a perpetual chore with little depth to it. Everything about legions and battles starts as a novelty in the game's first act, becomes rote by the second, and is downright tedious by the first. Where the game excels on the tactical scale, it flops on the strategic layer. I understand why the developers felt that said layer should exist, but it's ultimately something that simply must be tolerated in order to advance in the game.

Is this game worth playing despite these downsides? I'd say so, particularly if you're interested in this particular era of history. Just go into it understanding that it'll drag at times. It excels in most areas, but can at times become tedious.

8/10.

Expeditions: Viking is a unique and very underrated RPG. Sure, it's not the prettiest. Sure, there's very little voice acting. Sure, the combat isn't always the greatest. But it's an enjoyable, immersive saga with a good story, emotional depth, and fantastic ambiance. Bonus points for the two entirely divergent paths in the story that one may take.

Don't expect good production values or perfect mechanics, and be prepared to give the game a bit of time to grow on you. It's worth the patience, not to mention the minimal cost.

8.5/10.

The game may not be the prettiest, and the combat may be a bit tedious, but I've played few games in which I felt my decisions were so consequential to the plot.

Highly recommended for fans who enjoy story-rich games. Less so for those who primarily enjoy combat.

Fun little game with an engaging if somewhat bare storyline. Short on content, as there's only one storyline and it varies only moderately based on how you behave. You'll need to do several playthroughs in order to see all the game has to offer; each playthrough provides points for one to spend on attributes for successive campaigns, and these will be necessary to produce a character able enough to explore the extra bits.

It took me about five full playthroughs to achieve the optimal ending. In my final spin through the game, my humble legionary rose to be acclaimed by his legion as a god of war, earn riches aplenty, and ultimately rise to Consul of the Republic.

You won't get a ton of playtime out of this title, but it's worthwhile at its low price if you enjoy games set in the Roman Era.