Recent reviews by McSniffles

Really great game from the Mechanicus devs. There honestly aren't that many story-driven colony managers that have a beginning, middle, and end. The mechanics are solid; if you like colony management it'll be right up your ally, the only thing they dont really emphasize is that you REALLY don't wanna waste space to keep things easy. I played about 10 hours then just restarted because i knew I could do much better.
The 2nd run though to be honest was pretty easy. I might in the future try the harder difficulty and see how it goes, but the base game on "normal" is pretty easy to get through. There's SO MANY resources in every sector to keep everything going; No chance of running out of ice, iron, or or carbon. Once you have your recycling set up to produce stuff as well it gets even easier to meet demands.
The only thing they don't really inform you is that by the time you get to the final chapter, there's a time limit in it, but its not really displayed. You kind of just have to infer it and you can lose quite a bit of hours if you're not ready for it. It seems like an upcoming update is reworking how chapter 5 works though so I'm excited to see where it leads because that was the only downside here.

TL:DR:
Great colony manager with interesting story and fun flavor text (via science vessel exploration).

The story is actually really well done, the only thing its missing is some stronger mention about how you really need to be grabbing as much supply as you can every turn that you can.

Fantastic reformulation of team-based battle royale. The combat is very tense since you're using 1800s weapons which require significant time between shots and long reloads. The mechanics surrounding your health, bleed, poison, and fire play perfectly together. The PvE layer acting as the bait to drawing you closer to the PvP action, whether in your favor or not. The setting/art/music is also incredible along with constant evolution of the gameplay from dev support. It's a must play if you're even remotely interested in the pvp shooter genre.

This review based on several hours of campaign and including beta/stress tests about 50 hours of MMR-based matchmaking.
AoE4 is an excellent starting point for this installment in the franchise. It's got a solid foundation of RTS mechanics and a nice balance between macro and micro. It's best to come into the game without comparing it to any other game. It's really its own thing despite the similar appearance to others in the franchise. I think every AoE game is unique in its own way and can just stand on its own. Again, don't start thinking about how it has or doesn't have something from AoE2 or AoE3, just go in fresh and experience the game.

If you're an RTS veteran: you'll quickly be able to adapt, however, do note that the civs are fairly unique and is not just a few stat differences. I highly recommend using the learn tab to see the tech tree and unique mechanics and just testing build orders against the AI.

If you're newish to the genre or don't do pvp: The game campaign is FANTASTIC. The art of war gets you up to speed of how to really play the game efficiently. The single player campaign has you go through history as a few various factions as a narrator essentially treats your gameplay as documentary footage; its done really well. If you're experienced however, the AI skirmishes are a piece of cake even on hardest. HOWEVER, do note that the devs have mentioned that there is a machine learning AI spectating player matches which we might see after some time. It should act the way players do and offer a really good challenge.

Overall, as I stated before, this is a fantastic foundation. With some quality of life improvements such as fully-custom bindings, global queues, and some general polish and balance passing, With the success it's had on launch, I'm guessing we'll be getting support for a long time coming. I can see this taking up all my time for the foreseeable future.

The soundtrack alone for this is worth $20. With that being said it's also a fantastic turn based party tactics game. Tons of items, stats, classes, abilities to tune any run to be unique. The world is randomized so you do get new battles each time you go through.

What a fantastic game. Its completely unique to anything else I've played. About 90% of my playtime is actually spent in the strategic portion, just planning movements, managing fuel, and using aircraft-carriers and ballistic missiles. Only about 10% of the time is spent in the 2D realtime fights which can be really tense and are extremely fun to look at.
Everyone mentioning that the game has a steep learning curve is correct, but I will tell you that once it clicks (after a few vids and a couple steam guides and reading the manual that comes with the game) its extremely rewarding to just nail everything. It has great atmosphere, music, writing for a game this niche in its gameplay. Everything is sort of based off of 60s or 70s soviet avionics except its set in a dune-like world with a lot of nuclear tensions. It honestly helps knowing things in air combat such as ELINT and RWR, though the manual gives you enough of an idea.
I beat the game for the first time on my 4th run of it, with all vanilla ships. After that I took some time to craft my own ships (my own interceptor, carrier/tanker, AA-defense/radar ships) in the shipyard and immediately beat the game again. Like I said, once it clicks, it just all makes sense and functions really well. I would say it took me about 20-30 hours of failing to get it right though and really learn all the behaviors and mechanics. So if you aren't enthralled by the world enough to keep trying, it might not be for you. There is a small rouge-lite element to it in that every time you play it gives you a bonus based on your performance that is converted to extra starting cash for your next run. So the more you keep trying technically the easier it gets. After my current 70ish hours, I'm going to try the new Hard mode.

BIIIIIIIIIIIIIRDS

Honestly a really solid game. just needs some bugfixes regarding multiplayer game syncing and getting your friends in together.

This is one of the most feature-filled games that's ever blessed mankind. I'm not comparing it to anything else because its a unique experience. The scale of the game is almost infinite in terms of what your responsibilities and strategies are.
You first start worrying about money and getting some troops together, then start worrying about influence, then you start worrying about saving a faction you chose to side with, then you start worrying about getting fiefs, then you start worrying about helping take over enemy nation land, then you worry about taking over the entire world. It just keeps climbing and this is all still in early access.
You start out with a few goons hunting down looters chucking rocks at you, to leading 1000 man armies comprised of a dozen clans in sieges against nations capital cities. There's an appreciable amount of depth to each mechanic as the game stands already, I can't wait for what other features and expansions come over the years.
If you're a fan of multiplayer, the new captains mode multiplayer is super cool. It's a 6v6 where you work out a composition with your team and you lead a small group 10-20 AI each against the enemies. Positioning and tactics goes a long way and its a mode that focuses more on that than individual pvp fighting mechanics.

Having played a decent amount of survival games. I can safely say this is one of the best and most well executed survival games out there. Its got such great atmosphere and planning ahead really pays off. I play on the harder difficulties so I'm always thinking about what I want to get out of the next day. The fact that you get to keep an in-game notebook of notes should tell you how important forethought is. Sometimes you dont realize you messed up until the consequences show themselves hours of gameplay later.

Work to transition to living off of sustainable food and clothing sources as quickly as you can and try think about how much reward you get for investing into each day. Always make a goal for each day and enjoy the atmosphere.
Don't turn your back on the wolves.

The most immersive and authentic WWII flight (and now tank!) sim since the old IL2 1946 days I think. The graphics are great, the dynamic campaigns are really good, the VR is fantastic. The dev's are constantly adding content and patches. I think its super fair to ask for $60 for a new region and 6+ planes whenever they have an expansion. With the amount of work that goes into each plane its I think more than fair.
Just keep in mind if you're looking for a study-sim this isn't it. The startup procedure and shutdown procedure is done via a single button. They physical items are manipulated in the correct order and you can see it visibly in the cockpit, but it IS an automated process. The game is more about the flight than screwing around with an interactive cockpit.
The aircraft selection is HUGE at the time of this review. I'm thinking its over 40 unique aircraft that honestly feel like a different game each time you try one. Especially jumping between classes of planes.
You do have to make an IL2 account but it syncs up on first launch with steam so you dont have to constantly log in. Your IL2 account is honestly a good tool on their main site on il2sturmovik.com to purchase early access expansions before they come to steam. I also believe the devs get a bigger cut of the money if you buy directly from them.

Overall a 9/10 game for me. Really impressed.