Recent reviews by jhmgrose

Now that the storm has passed, I can honestly tell you that this amazing game was well worth the nine year wait, and I encourage everyone to give this game a go. Best time I've had with an online game in years.

With the recent patches this game received, it's easier than ever to jump into the game, learn the ropes, and take your liberation to the harder difficulties.

[This review has been verified true by the Super Earth Ministry of Truth.]

After a year of development purgatory, I can say that this game is finally worth picking up and playing. If you like Left 4 Dead 2, or you've played Vermintide 2, you'll have plenty fun in this game.

This has been my most anticipated title from Steam Next Fest and it doesn't disappoint. You'd think the game would start to run out of tricks, but it keeps adding enemies to defeat with new strategies, and environmental objects to exploit to defeat them more easily. You can really get some Zorro moments out of this game if you're inspired enough.

The setting feels ripped straight out of Puss in Boots, leans deep into cheesiness, and somehow all the humour lands. The dynamic dialogue between Adalia and the Count-Duke's minions feels natural, and there are so many lines that I doubt I'll get tired of hearing them.

I haven't had any BS encounters that I couldn't eventually outsmart when I had enough time to plan my counterattack. This is even encouraged in the Tips & Tricks page for individual enemy classes and how fighting them in groups can be problematic. The game will give you a challenge on Medium difficulty, and you'll probably die more than once to boss fights, even if you can get through regular enemy encounters just fine up to that point.

Replayability is high, because there are challenges to complete, secrets to hunt for, objects to examine and get Adalia's thoughts. And they're in easily digestible chapters, so it's not like you need to start the whole game over or backtrack across an open world to get it done. With the gameplay as good as it is, I could even see myself picking it up again on occasion to have some fun in the Arena.

Loved this game from its Next Fest demo a few months back, and definitely looking forward to 100%'ing the game. Be sure to pet the chickens.

I hope this game gets updates for score attack games, because I'm still waiting for some offenders such as,

• Hero Wars "dungeon" "crawlers"
  
• Running through math pads to slam through walls of lesser numerical value than your running crew. Maybe put some calculus functions in here to make it a real head-scratcher.
  
• Idle food service minigames

This perfectly blends hardcore and arcade shooters. If this is what Early Access looks like, I'm so stoked for the full game.

Few remakes are better than the original game. This is one of them.

Having a good Triple A game this year is a low bar to jump, but FromSoft went above and beyond. It's everything we know and love from Dark Souls with some minor elements of Sekiro sprinkled in there, and it works like a charm. Its worst problem is not being nearly as replayable as other Souls games, but I still eagerly await the DLC.

And being feature complete at launch? Keep it coming.

This game has taken me roughly eight hours to finish its main story content as of launch day (2022-04-19), but you can keep playing the side missions as long as you want. Bear in mind that time is a factor in this game as characters can age and retire.

EDIT (2022-04-21): I noticed a lot of reviews saying that RNG is a detriment to this game. For those of you who want to read this review, I want to stress that the RNG in combat is not really that bad if you exploit the game's mechanics. Random crits have been and forever will be a thing just to shake things up. Accuracy/Evasion is hardly an issue, though. There are a lot of melee classes, and a lot of melee enemies. You can flank an enemy to have a guaranteed hit against them with basic attacks, and abilities are guaranteed to hit in general, even when you have a Blind status effect which reduces your Accuracy. Just be mindful that the enemy can and will flank you too. In fact, most direct attacks in the game, your characters can evade. The enemies can only dodge one attack, and it's the basic attacks.
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For those of you who like Battle Brothers and Darkest Dungeon, you'll feel right at home here. The RNG is minimal, your brainpower is the key to victory. On the game's 'intended' difficulty, Battle-Hardened, I have not suffered a single death, and only one guy falling unconscious and bleeding out, during my eight hours of play. But that did not stop the others from getting real close to death's door. Plan wisely and be sure to gear up, or you'll find your fights to be an uphill battle.

This is a fascinating world to plan your road trips around, as I found myself buying trade goods to take to towns in need to sell them at a profit, and took frequent stops along my questing trail to sell off some loot and give my people some ample rest time. The map is static and the cities and routes are identical for every playthrough, but the political landscape and the regional modifiers may make things easier or harder on your travels and when you get into town itself. Be sure to put aside some money in case times are tough when you get to town. If you're going to take part in wars, you'd better be prepared to deal with the fallout. You're running an adventuring company, so it's wise to not piss off the citizenry and the nobles too much unless you think the rewards are much better than the costs of doing so. Don't dawdle and spend all your money on phat gear, or you're going to run out of cash to pay your followers, and that in and of itself is expensive.

As for combat; if you like D&D 4E, this will feel familiar to you. Turn-based combat with charge-based abilities, and basic attacks to conserve those charges for bigger fights. Only basic attacks are subject to Accuracy and Evasion values, but every ranged attack is subject to cover where applicable. To this end, you can reliably plan your action and not worry too much about what happens if it falls through. Your positioning is key to the combat in this game.

This is closer to a "play while you have a plate of food next to you" kind of game, akin to something like Divinity, than a nail-biting tactical crawler where you're on the edge of your seat like XCOM. Just take your time to think your actions through. It does not need to be super complex and unpredictable to be engaging. Once you get into the rhythm, you'll be successful.

Good on the devs for not bowing down to the outrage mob. We need more people like them in the industry.

As for the game itself? It's the SWAT 5 we've been waiting for. There's not a single aspect I thought fell short of SWAT 4. Non-lethal is just as viable as lethal, and every gadget feels useful. If this is the offering coming out of the gate, I cannot wait for the game to continue through Early Access.

This game is having an identity crisis with what it wants to be, but I trust the devs to steady themselves moving forward. The gameplay itself is pretty repetitive, but it's actually pretty fun to play for how simplistic it is.