Recent reviews by Economancer

X-Com, but somewhat simplified/streamlined? And given an Aliens skin? Yes, ma'am!


Edit:
I want to add that, with the trend in Alien and Aliens games, I'm starting to feel decent about this franchise again. Alien: Isolation is an unparalleled masterpiece, and Aliens: Fireteams Elite is a pretty decent Killing Floor / Left 4 Dead type game in the vein of Aliens. Dark Descent approaches what the 2007-2008 press about Colonial Marines promised - SWAT 3 / SWAT 4 squad-based strategy and tactics. Other than Sierra/Monolith AvP and AvP2, I cannot think of another time we've had multiple decent-let-alone-good Alien/Aliens games in a single 10-year period... Yes, that's a low bar, but... that's where we're at currently.

House Party is a chaos engine. It's Goat Simulator, but set as a college party populated by all of the worst people you ever met. Finding the interactions to cause maximum mayhem is absolutely the best part of House Party.

Overall, the reviews seem to split along the lines of people like myself who love the mayhem, and people who want the smut. It's definitely going more towards the mayhem side with each update and the celebrity appearances. That does leave earlier, less mayhem oriented folks ever-more displeased, hence the reviews stating it used to be better or that it suffers from false advertising... The devs are trying to balance between very different player groups. That's bound to cause animosity.

Edit 3 (2023-FEB-25):
I've had no further issues, now with about 2x more time in-game free of problems than the early 3-4 hours plagued by problems. I cannot identify why it's more stable and saves have stopped corrupting, but with those problems no longer impacting my experience: I adore this game. I've changed my review for negative to positive, because the crashes and save corruption were all I had as negatives before. Just beware before purchasing that your mileage may vary. If you're not unlucky with save game corruption and general crashing, it's a great game.


Edit 2:
I've had more luck with playing through, when all else fails restarting wholly, but treating this like Morrowind with 4+ separate save files spread an hour or more apart keeps loss to corruption or other deadends limited maybe in a practical manner fixes the problems? Eh. When the save system works, the game is great. If the code decides you are unworthy to play this game.... Sorry.

Edit 1:
I saw a review that stated this game continuously attempts to start Steam VR, despite having no VR mode itself. Can confirm that such happens on game start, pretty much every time.


Original Review (SEP2022):
I enjoy everything about this game, and particularly for the sale price, I would be extremely happy with everything about it. Still, while I do not want to pursue a refund, had I less recorded time, I would do so.

As other reviews indicate, it is buggy. In my experience, once out of the pier / first mystery / tutorial area, the game simply will not load a save; it locks up requiring restarting my computer or outright crashes where CTRL+ALT+DEL+end process is sufficient to try re-opening and loading again from yet another save file... I've had an hour of "game" time of my 3 recorded hours at the time of this review just trying to get my saves to load... The only other game I've had such a bad time with, with respect to loading saves, is Deponia, which I understand is notorious for simply not being functional...

For people who like Lovecraftian or investigation themes, this game is great. For people with low tolerance for bugs, avoid no matter the temptation.

I have, simply put, a profound disappointment with this game. This could easily be among my all-time-favorites, where like Alien: Isolation I talk(annoy/harass) everyone I know into getting it... but I can't even continue from my earlier-today-save-file.

A great game if you like Left for Dead, Killing Floor, and the like. More enjoyable with friends; almost impossible to find other players currently via matchmaking. There's little to encourage replaying after you've completed the story, unfortunately. The levels all have a degree of randomization each play through, but it's very small and certain configurations are disproportionately common.

It could use more levels, more randomization or variation for existing levels, and additional horde mode levels.

Overall, if you enjoy the genre, have friends who do, and can pick this up for $20 or less, definitely give it a try. With the playerbase gone, I cannot endorse paying more than $20 unless gaming buddies also have it or buy it at the same time, and y'all play together.

A wonderful, well-written and acted point-and-click adventure. I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys the genre.

Get this when it's on sale, with a bunch of the DLC included, for $5. Don't buy it otherwise. If intending to play the single player campaigns, get the fan patches that fix bugs and enemy AI issues.

The $5 w/ DLC purchase is great - if you can also get friends to buy then - for fun multiplayer wave-survival skirmishes and asymmetric multiplayer somewhat similar to Monolith-Sierra's AvP2. This would have been an excellent LAN party game, if it had come out back when LAN parties were still a thing.

By far the best and most comfortable controller I have ever used. I was earnestly upset when I learned these were discontinued. Hopefully Valve brings them back, or releases a new version.

Now getting on in age, I always come back to this game, time and again. The story is purposefully vague, adding to intrigue, the levels beautifully designed, and the mechanics near revolutionary when introduced. Awesome game.

If you have to read a review to figure out why you should buy Skyrim, there's something wrong with you.

I recieved this free some months back. Never spend money on this. Never.