Recent reviews by MasterKroket

Unplayable on my 4080.
Keeps crashing in chapter 2 on anything over Medium Settings.
Unacceptable. First game was a crashy mess too which i could finally play on my 4080 as my 2080 never managed.
Fun games but terrible stability.
You can risk it but be ready to refund. Maybe you get lucky.
I am not playing a game on medium settings it looks very bad.

I dont think i have ever written a negative review before but i have no choice.

The game in its current state is not working for me.

For reasons utterly beyond me you can NOT ZOOM IN / OUT WITHOUT THE MOUSEWHEEL.
This makes the game completely unplayable for me.
My mousewheel works fine for rotating / tilting the camera but zooming it simply does not work for me. Extremely erratic. I was trying to zoom out for five minutes.
You can control the view with WASD / rotate keys just fine so why are there no keys to zoom in / out?

I enjoyed watching some people play the game but until this is fixed i can not play the game. I lack the oversight to even properly mark the area where my lumberpeople should go to work!

This should be a very fast / quick easy fix but i have noticed other games before that overrelay on the mousewheel and while you are always allowed to remap other buttons somehow usually NOT the mousewheel. So i hope this gets fixed soon and i can play the game.
Its a shame there was a nice free window but ok.

Worthy successor to Impressions Games Series.

I really enjoyed playing the Impressions Games like Pharaoh when i was younger. It was easily my favorite game series. Sadly these games were discontinued and the entire formula disappeared. I still replay the games once every 3-4 years or so.

So i was happy to finally see a game with the same formula as those ancient games by now. While they are tough shoes to fill and the game ultimately falls a little short from being on the level of my favorite Pharoah it is definutely a great successor and an excellent game to try for those who love the genre.

The game does lack a little bit of the unique atmosphere a game like Pharoah had. For me the voice over / music / mission intro was what really got you into the various missions and that is missing in this game. Having said that they have history lessons about the relevant time period in mesopotamian history instead which is also really interesting.

The missions do lack a bit of a challenge as well after a certain time. The lack of war, unique events or even invading gods (haha) make it that if you got the city running profitably its usually just waiting for the monuments to finish (this takes rather long even at fastest speed) and expanding your city to have the necessary housing requirements. I am not sure it has great replayability like the Impressions Games do because of that. Having said that the developer is still actively developing the game as well as making more missions.

The game maintains quite a few of the old concepts of the classic games but also has a lot of modernizations, which in general work really well:

I am a big fan of the waypoint system for service providers. Its what i always thought i would have done to get rid of those pesky roadblocks and it works excellent in this game.

The caravan system is another great innovation which fits well with the setting. You control where the goods go. Very important. I think we all remember these cart pushers pushing goods all around the city in the old games!

I also really like the trade / dock system the game has. You situate a ton of warehouses next to the dock on the watershore and also add a lot of production buildings next to it. Having more than one dock in the later missions works really well. No horror scenarios here like in that old Heliopolis (?) mission i Pharaoh with the 4 islands! I often imported a good like copper in one dock area. Had the copper jewelers turn it into the finished product. The caravan then takes it to the villas to deposit it in the warehouse where the market people pick em up. Any exces jewelry the caravan people would then deposit in a warehouse near a second dock to export. In general a big fan of this system.

Then there is the custom monuments. Another great innovation. Personally i have to say that i just went with the default ones to see what they would look like but on subsequent playthroughs it can be fun to mess around with this.

I did customize the look of my beautification / aesthetics. While the amount of gardens / statues / fancy roads at your disposal is fairly low you can customize the colors giving every map a unique feel. Lots of opportunities for creativity in making beautiful cities in this one.



All in all its a great game and a worthy successor to the Impressions Games. At the moment it ultimately falls a little short but the game is made by a much smaller team and still in active development! Some great innovations / modernizations have been made and work well. I would highly recommend trying this game if you miss the old classics in this genre like me. I am curious to see what the game will look like in a couple years as well if they improve on the couple things that arent perfect yet.

I picked this one up for a hefty discount after playing Desperados III. Like that one this older game is a throwback to older games like Commandos. like Desperados III it is enjoyable with challenging gameplay and a good story and good characters.

The main flaw DIII has is also present for this game: Its too expensive. After 3-4 (?) years 40$ for a main campagin finished on normal in 24 hours by me (not the best player i dare say) is rather expensive.
So try to pick it up on sale. During the summer sale going on now or wait for another one.

Now this game is clearly a predecessor of Desperados III as it has several gameplay flaws the new game does not have (= the devs improved on it with the new game).
For example: you have to click on doors and then again on the other door / exit / high ground. Extra mouesclicks... time.... all important n this RTS.
The hooks above bushes you want to hide in were a pain as well.
Another example you cant highlight an enemy to see if other enemies are spotting him only a location. Another function added in the new game.
The 'showdown' mode in this game doesnt pause the game which makes it much harder to time things right especially. Sometimes frustratingly so.... I try to use the mode for taking down samurais (one shoots him, second is supposed to RUN behind and knife him to kill him. However my 2nd character has to be in crawl mode not to be spotted as the samuari approaches and so will not RUN but crawl to the samurai which is way too slow.... = doesnt work.
So yeah some small things they really improved on in the new one!

But that doesnt mean this isnt a fun and enjoyable game. I actually had to be fast / use the shortcuts here several times to pull quick combo kills off to get through an area...

It has a lot of replay value too with all the badges / 'extra challenges' players can go for. I yet might do a 2nd runthrough and try and get some sometime. Also a lot of missions give you 2 options to go for which again adds to the replay value of missions.

So while the actual missions (13) is rather low you can replay em a lot should you wish to.

All in all fun game but try to pick up on sale.

This game was a lot of fun! Had not really played a RTS game in years (mostly RPG / turn based strategy / Building type of guy) but after having seen a couple of Lets Plays of this one definitely wanted to give it a shot.

This one is very reminiscent of the old Commandos games i enjoyed a lot back in the day.
I really like the Wild West setting too + various other settings like New Orleans / Swamps etc.
All the maps have been beautifully created with a very cool style.
I enjoyed the story and characters a lot too. Made you care that much more about the missions.

Now the game is by now means perfect obviously... the main flaw for me? Its too darn short.
I played on the easy mode (hard enough for me at least for a first playthrough) and i managed to get through all 16 missions in 28 hours. That is rather quick for a 50 euro game to be honest...

Luckily the game does offer plenty of replay value. I dont think i am the type of guy to do a mission 10 times or more but i ll definitely try em all once or twice more.
The game has a 'badges' system (which are revealed after first playthrough) with unique challenges like 'dont kill anyone' 'dont wear a disguise' 'dont use this character's skills etc.' you can aim for in future playthroughs.
Also a lot of the later missions have two paths you can take towards your goal which by itself gives one a reason to try the mission again.
All in all i d have loved to see a lot more missions but i have no idea how hard it is to churn these out. I am definitely looking forward to seeing more future missions though!
The developers also seem to have added Baron Challenges. I THINK they ll keep adding new ones? They take place on existing maps and offer you more challenges to keep playing the game.

All in all a very enjoyable game with fun characters and challenges but a bit short.

I have no idea how crazy / impossible it is but a custom map / scenario creator mode for players would be an amazing addition i think!

Unfortunately wouldnt recommend. I have tried getting into it but i just cant.
I played DA Origins A LOT back in the day and loved it. Wasnt the biggest fan of the 2nd one set in one town (with lazy dungeons). Now i picked this up and with more environments i figured i should love it again but i cant sadly...
I havent had any crash issues whatsoever myself just cant get into the gameplay.

I remember the story from the first one which i enjoyed and i am going to guess thats the best part of the game. Surely. If you want it for the story go play it.

The Graphics are decent but then its a 2013 game. Having said that Witcher 3 is 2015 and looks a 1000x better. Difference is rather big for 2 years. But ok that doesnt really bother me.

Mostly i dont like the combat. I surely recall it being a lot better in the first one.
I feel that game was slower / more top down in battle mode as well.
Here i have no proper control over the camera in tactic mode especially when hills / height is involved.
I cant set formations so my mage is always running in front and they arent close enough for my 2nd mage to set the barrier on all 4 at the start of combat no matter what.
They are also often unresponsive in combat for whatever reason (not engaged in combat)
It feels clunky and bad and not enjoyable.
I tried to clean this Hinterlands area but not enjoying it all. Stuck with some bull not walking back but stuck in a rock. Killed by random dragon (ok higher leveled to be fair)

and i just came to the conclusion why keep trying this for 4-5 more days on the off chance i ll like it more when i can move on to the tons of other games and havent played and try those?!

So yeah its completely personal for me nothing more.

I remember enjoying Origins but it was so long ago... Maybe this form of combat isnt for me i dont know?

fully 100% the game (achievements and club challenges save the
'buy all club rewards' badge...) in 146 hours playing on Normal mode.
Enjoyed the game a lot in general, had never played an Assasins Creed game before.
Supposedly this one is very different from the earlier editions... More RPG stuff less actual stealth killing.
Since your character is so OP (at least on normal) getting caught sneaking around doesnt matter too much since you ll likely survive the fight anyhow. Also the 'other side' of the camp generally isnt even alerted somehow. Clearly the game is not without its flaws... AI tends to be really really dumb... (i often did the peekaboo! idiot comes inspecting and i sneak around a big pillar and assasinate in the back thing LOL) which is a shame.
I enjoyed the main story a lot. Was only vaguely familiar with the entire animus thing from the Movie i had seen some years ago but after a (Weird!) start you quickly get the hang of things...
One of the main characters (maybe THE) of the game is EGYPT. The game is really beautiful and the environments are really vibrant, colorful and thought out. I loved exploring the pyramids (though i have been forced to check youtube for solutions once or twice...)
There are also a lot of 'discover egypt' features which are a nice bonus.

As for the DLC... The Sinai one i found underwhelming all in all. the Pharaohs Curse one i enjoyed more but it has no 'ending' somehow? Bizarre.. I enjoyed the afterlife stuff as well. Very interesting.

Side quests were in general pretty mweh. A lot of 'dude / chick is captured go rescue' 'Go escort' 'Go fetch this artifact in a camp' type of stuff. Bit more variety / originality wouldnt have hurt....

Big RPG fan... While the Game has RPG choices in which weapons you fight with and which ability tree you focus on first (eventually you ll get all skills anyway) there is no actual choice. Not a single time in the game you can choose as a player which is a pity to me.
Only choice as a player is how you tackle quest. Rush right into a camp or sneak around basically.

All in all game not without flaws but still enjoyed it a lot and would recommend especially if its on sale some time.

I got all the other AC games (on sale...) because of it and look forward to trying at least a couple out. Not sure if i ll try Odyssy or the original one next...

Finally got to play it after buying new computer.
I thought Witcher 2 was so so.
Truly enjoying this one a lot. It may not be perfect everywhere but is darn enjoyable for sure.

City Building Classic not without flaws.

I first played this game shortly after it came out and have gone back to it several times after. Hadnt played it for many years now and decided to play it via Steam.

Wheras the atmosphere, music, and mission settings are still great looking at it now there are some glaring errors / mistakes in the game. If you can look through those though this adventure along the Nile is still worth experiencing for new players.

While the graphics are of course 20 years old the game still looks really pretty albeit in low resolution. Apparently the widescreen mod doesnt work via Steam. I also cant really run the game via Steam itself rather via the actual .exe somehow? I actually played a lot more than 19 hours. That and an annoying 'worker animations' bug are the technical issues encountered. the latter seems solved by rebooting.

As for the game. Like i said the atmosphere is legendary. The missions briefings are possibly the highlights of the game and i never skip them. Not only do they contain vital information, the story told in combination with the background music sometimes gives me goosebumps. The power of these briefings is undeniable.
The missions themselves are also carefully designed. Many missions have 'logistical problems' because you JUST cant build a bridge for example and have to circumvent the map. Missions tend to have a unique feeling and specific gameplay problems. The campaign is definitely something one should try.

Having said that the game is not without issues, most of these were actually fixed by Impressions Games for their next game Zeus. They themselves must have though things didnt work either....

Firstly there is the population aging mechanic. While this sounds impressive it actually gives massive problems in the longer missions (= the ones where you have to build monuments. Some of these literally cant be completed within 40 game years because of import limits)
To 'solve' this issue you either have to delete some houses and renew them OR keep building which makes it harder to supply a city AND to maintain a high Culture rating in the harder missions. Otherwise you can easily be 200-600 employees short and watch your city crumble cause of worker shortages...

Secondly buildings need to pass housing to get employees which means you have to either have to have em pass your housing blocks or build nasty small plots of housing. Not game breaking just ugly and annoying.
Both these issues were fixed in Zeus...

Then there is the embarking / disembarking issue with transport ships. It works clunky and bad. Also sometimes after my troops return from a mission they disembark some place where they cant return to their fort OR get back on the ship...

Another issue is the clunky combat. It just works really bad and is like an afterthought even though its vital in a lot of missions. This makes missions like Dunqul Oasis and Hermopolis extremely hard on (very) hard difficulty.... Also Enemy Chariots seem overpowered (sure enough Hyksos chariots are 260 v Egyptian ones 200 HP) and are very hard to defeat. Towers and Walls are extremely weak and destroyed without any difficulty by the enemy... What i sometimes find to work is two rows of towers / walls with your troops in the middle but a single row can be quite to very useless for their cost...

Lastly the 'Dock' situation can be an absolute nightmare. Especially in missions where there are several water trade routes. One Dock seems to work the best since after trading the ships simply line up for the next dock (!) making building more docks dubious... Its important to have all your Storage Yards next to the docks but its still very bad compared to land trading. This is yet another issue that was fixed in the next game with one trading quay per city...

If you can look past these issues this game is one should experience for its unique atmosphere, music and gameplay. Building the monuments, while time consuming, can be very gratifying. All this sets this one apart from the other Impressions Games though all those, from CIII onwards, i enjoyed greatly too!
I for one wish Impressions Games / Sierra had remained going and kept making new games following this formula after Emperor...