Recent reviews by Kornstalx

This game is crazy fun. It's like Left 4 Dead meets Starship Troopers, draped in a bit of Minecraft. It will also scare the bajeezus out of you at times in the dark. The audio is top notch, and the enviroment is randomly generated. Probably my favorite game of the year.

This game WILL crash at the worst possible time. Usually always right after you defeat a big quest boss, all the loot drops on the ground, then BOOM you're looking at your desktop. After the 3rd time of this happening to me (random spots, usually after a boss fight) I uninstalled.

No other games crash on my system like this one.

This is one of the best roguelike games I have ever played. I picked it up on a whim and thought it'd sit in my backlog like so many others, but before I knew it I've got 24 hours invested. And it took all 24 of those hours just to beat the game for the first time -- on easy.

I normally never buy into Early Access games, but I am so absolutely glad I did on this one. The procedural world generation every time you play makes every game different, even after you've beat it the first time. I freaking love where the devs are going with this one, and I hope it gets the accolades it deserves one day. It really is one of my favorite games of 2017.

It's been almost one year since the last patch, and yet there are glaring Turn Zero bugs still present. What makes it so bad is these bugs (like Yalta not affecting Suez Crisis) are simple ones, not complex AI issues. And their presence makes it completely invalid to play Turn Zero in certain ways.

Shame!

I have almost 300 hours in this game. I have modded it extensively, and written how-tos on customizing some of its internal systems.

The developers have lost sight and the game is slowly becoming full of bloat. There are times when they should stop adding new content, and *fixing* things that are broken instead. There have been silly audio bugs in this game for 6 months that could have been remedied in a hotfix. There have been at least FOUR major patches since these crept in, and they still haven't been addressed.

This loss of attention to detail, shoveled in with the feature-creep, unfortunately drove me here to leave a big NO-GO on recommending this one. Yes, 300 hours was worth the money I paid for it, easily. But I would take it all back if I could also give back the sour taste this game currently leaves in my mouth.

I have no clue why this game got such mediocre reviews. I picked it up just for kicks during the 48 hours "for free" blitz last week and figured it'd just sit in my backlog forever. I fired it up to see how true it felt to the original Dungeon Keeper (a classic from my teenage years), and before I knew it, I was hooked.

I've played the entire single-player campaign, which is unheard of in my gaming habits. I normally only want stuff for multiplayer. This game is very well polished and the production values are incredible. You can tell the developers put their hearts and souls into the "feel" of the game.

Roughly 20 hours in, and I'm finally ready for some skirmish and multiplayer. Pretty damned unexpected from a game that was basically given away.

After taking a year off on the game I decided to come back, and I'm afraid that I was so taken aback by the ridiculous changes made by the devs since my original review, that I can't recommend this game anymore.

The almost perfect atmosphere of this game has been ruined by unnecessary minor changes (namely, giving an awful voice set to the King). It is so absolutely jarring between turns, I can't even play the game anymore without being distracted.

I believe Armello has become a poster child of when you should just leave a game alone and stop tinkering with it. There is plenty of community feedback out there complaining about these changes, but the devs refuse to relent. It's sad, because I can't enjoy the game anymore.

Edited 9/29/18 to reflect current state of the game:

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It has been over two years and the Turn Zero expansion is still completely bug-ridden, and likely abandoned. To make matters worse they released the first update since 2017 this week and it broke core functionality, like the music changing with the DEFCON levels. I don't understand how something so paramount to the tension of the game can slip by simple Q&A.

It started as a great game but I can't recommend it anymore based on the fact that it essentially (especially Turn Zero) is unfinished. And the once-a-year patches seem to break more than they fix, then you have to wait 6+ months for another patch. Stay away, or you'll likely find a game you really enjoy but get frustrated at what it becomes.

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Excellent translation of the boardgame. The AI could use a little work, but otherwise I have found no bugs. If you're like me and own the boardgame but have no one to play it with, the digital version is a godsend. PlayDek is pretty good about updating their titles as they do on mobile. I'm sure the AI will get some updates.

Don't get me wrong, the AI is definitely not a pushover, and you can always adjust it before playing with a slight handicap (just like you'd do if teaching someone to play the physical version).

I can't wait until they officially port this to Android, it's one of my favorite games!

I've put 100s of hours into Talisman between the Steam and tablet versions, and I love it. That said, I bought Horus Heresy not expecting too much but have been floored at just how little it really is.

Make no mistake, Horus Heresy is nothing more than a re-skinned Talisman. The engine is blatently identical. While the animated backgrounds and board graphics are definitely a step up, I can't help but feel like I'm playing a Talisman *mod* rather than another game entirely. If anything, playing Horus Heresy simply makes me want to go back and play more Talisman.

Another thing bothering me is the potential for expansions. Whereas Talisman has plenty of Board-n-Box expansions to digitally recreate, Horus Heresy is an in-house creation from Nomad, so there is no canon to really go off of when adding content. This is only made worse when you realize...

... The content they create is going to milked even worse to players, since there are no physical expanions to recreate as in the original Talisman. Without something physically to copy, there is no real place to begin and end. No "finish line" for the DLC product. It's all up to them, and the example is already set with the two garbage DLCs they have released already on Day 1. It's a few extra cards and classes that could have been easily included in the base game.

Not doing so is a gesture of bad faith.

I will never, ever forgive a company for releasing Day #1 DLC. It only shows they they were willing to hold back content that could have been (and arguably, should have been) packaged in base game. They are deliberately short-selling the main product to nickle and dime you about it, on the same shelf. If they had waited at least a few months or so that would be one thing, but *same day* DLC is inexcusable. I don't understand how a company can do this and not feel completely covered in shame.