Recent reviews by Cryomancer

at last, a better gaming deal than the orange box

they call it UFO 50 because it will abduct you and you will play it for 50+ hours

Mostly positives: Solid game. Has weird elements* that seem likely to have been forced in by the publisher, but I didn't research that. Beyond that though it's entertaining. Surprisingly deep-ish (for a videogame anyway) conversations between you and your party, and each other. Lots of words but many of them are nice to see in a game for a change. The missions themselves are a nice little puzzle box of seeing how far you can push each turn to maximize your resource spends. New Game Plus seems like it has been changed with patches a few times, as when i did it I had options I actually wanted instead of the info I was finding online about it. Mileage may vary there. You can feel that it's the same engine as XCOM 2 but plays much differently. More unique of a game than you would expect, overall.

Semi Negatives: Probably don't play through twice in a row like I did though, sort of was wearing out it's welcome but that's my own doing. Not a whole lot of enemy variety, but they do synergize in interesting / challenging ways. If you aren't into comic book stuff you will probably get less out of the game, but I wouldn't say it's a total requirement either. Some stuff might be briefly confusing but NPCs have optional explanations for most of it. Story felt mildly repetitive or disjointed at times, feels like I missed an important cutscene or something, maybe I did?

*Weird Stuff elaborated: denuvo, 2k launcher, buyable currencies (that seem only to exist to buy outfits you can get as DLC instead? why bother?), overly large amount of different resources, DLC, and the fact that everyone can only drink sodas presumably to keep a T rating. They also want you to link an account to a thing to get another skin. Denuvo you're stuck with. The launcher you can buypass. Don't buy the currencies, get the season pass if you want all the stuff. DLC itself is solid enough, you fight Draculas. DLC characters are incorporated pretty well into the game itself, they get dialog every round and new skins and all that. They play a bit different too. Storm seems strong but only in certain situations, some cards are straight up useless on some maps. But that's not unique to her either I suppose. Venom and Morb add pretty good optional base upgrades and do a fair bit of multi hit moves. Deadpool has perhaps the best upgrade since it lets you get more moves. The soda stuff is at least minor / missable and when it is mentioned it's being poked at in jest.

A very fun Gamecube Japan Exclusive finally available in English and on PC. Hell yeah. Lots of various different modes to drill ♥♥♥♥, enjoyable.

Great game. All the fun of a classic castlevania without dying to stairs 20 times. Takes the stuff that worked in those games and improves upon the platforming in so many ways. Also the rare lewd game that is actually, you know, a game. This whole franchise is good stuff, check out the other titles for similarly quality game experiences.

If you like Postal 2, this is very similar thus far. Hopefully new stuff will keep rolling in regularly until full game is achieved. Enjoyable.

Pretty rad game. If you like the genre, this is a quality entry in it.

Keeps getting better. This has been a hell of a year for this game.

edit: I said that at "only" 900 hours played and i'm well past that now and it's still very true.

2022 update: my initial review continues to be true every year
2023 update: still great, still gets better regularly

If you liked the previous XCOM at all, get this. It rules.

If you like comedy mods, REALLY get this, it REALLY rules.