Recent reviews by Vaeth

One of the best strategy games I had a pleasue of playing.
You are responsible for a large scale campaign.

You choose the ship types, You create groups, You are responsible for flight patrols, logistics, and most of all, for every naval encounter. Both those when You just hunt the enemy transports with submarines, and those when You're trying to cripple and overwhelm the Yamato BattleCruiser.

For every strategy fan
For every naval fan.

Go get it.

Mix of a Stelarris, Paradox combinations, board game.
And best of all - a full session close in one hour!
Looks like a game I will really enjoy to play!

So basically it's been three months.
There is still no ranking games of any kind. Just random battles with no meaning whatsoever.

Campaign is basically skirmish as well. There are maybe 2-3 interesting story mission during Italian campaign, but they are too easy even on highest difficulty.

Too bad, because if only with a bit of love, that could have been an amazing multiplayer experience.

Unfortunately, it's not worth the money of the full launch.

Zwróciłem.
Nie jestem w stanie zdzierżyć tego jak wygląda ta gra.

Uwielbiam jedynkę, jest fantastyczna. Jest jak świeżo poznana miłość Twojego życia, intrygująca, ciekawa, z polotem i w ogóle.

Dwójka jest jak zgorzkniała małżonka po wielu latach. Marudzi, strzela fochy, działa od niechcenia i nie masz co liczyć na wiele rzeczy które w poprzedniej części działały wyśmienicie.

I normalnie, pewnie bym gry nie zwrócił, bo widząc jak rozwinął się KSP1 może i ta gra za jakiś czas będzie interesującym punktem w mojej bibliotece.

Ale nie dam się szantażowi emocjonalnemu pod tytułem "Jak spatchujemy grę, to podniesiemy jej cenę".

Powiedziałbym, "kij wam w oko Private Division" ale tak naprawdę w tej firmie nie ma większości osób które tworzyły jedynkę, tylko po prostu jadą na marce.

I to niestety przeraźliwie widać...

Absolute garbage server policy.
Can't play with friends cause their server is full.
When I created new characters on a different server, my friend already got message that server is full and impossible to create a character.

Amazon, You are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ retarded.
Call ArenaNet and ask how the hell they solved servers 10 BLOODY YEARS AGO!!!!!!!

It's 2022 and You can't come up with anything serious?

Pathethic devs

Unfortunately, this is a lost opportunity.
Badly, drastically, simply stunning.

The game itself (I mean the tabletop rules) are so nice and interesting, that it could have been easily one of the best boardgames to pop up for 30m play a match with some random opponent, and climb the ladder of leaderboards.

Unfortunately, making this game Free to Play, based on micro transaction made it completely unplayable.

I had huge problems to even get into a match, because all maps but few first, are required to be paid by internal gold. Therefore, almost noone ever joined any of the battles, and I didn't even use the 50 gold You get at start (which should give me at least 10-15 battles!). Not to mention small issue, like playing for playing with RANDOM people. Imagine You put Your gold fee to start the game, and the opponent leaves/AFK/trolls.

Sounds amazing, right? You just paid to get trolled.

Also, the first (free) maps are very unbalanced. They are very biased (with f.e. 70% of games beeing won by Allies) and not really a fair fight.

Yes, there are some maps where average win ratio is around 50/50 but, then we are back again with the paying for every single match problem...


Such a lost opportunity...
Maybe one day Asmodee will make a new edition and they will forget this silly payment method...

This is simply stunning in scale, story-driven adventure taking place in probably the biggest and best city made in gaming yet. And remember - it's not GTA in modern future. That was an action game.

Cyberpunk is a proper RPG, with tons of dialogues, characters, and plots.
Of course, there is some action too. But this is just an addition to what this game excels:
Delivering powerful story experienced in a first person.

PS: Yeap, there are some minor technical problems, but they are understandable when looking at the scale of the game, and easily forgivable when You focus on the story.

Star Wars: Squadrons is a great multiplayer spacefighter, where the single player campaign is more like a long and expanded series of tutorial missions with plot background.

Star Wars: Squadrons is exactly the game I expected and wanted.
My absolutely favorite game 20 years ago was FreeSpace series. It still would end up quite high if I'd make an all time list. I was really sorry that for so many years we didn't get any proper space fighter game. Finally we have one.

Of course, this game is not gonna please everyone. Definitely not those looking for a single player experience. Unlike mentioned FreeSpace games, in SW:S You won't find a thrilling story which is gonna consume You for many hours. This is not the point of the campaign in SW:S.

You still have 14 quite interesting and nicely designed missions, but if You'll buy SW:S simply for the single player experience, You might be disappointed.

The only purpose of the campaign is to get You familiar with the game, flying tricks, and managing Your spacefighter. Then, throughout the missions You will experience every class of the game, and have a chance to check out few different equipment options. And this is whole purpose of this game mode. Yes, there is some simple story behind it, but it's nothing extraordinary. But as I said, this is not what SW:S is about

Star Wars: Squadrons whole design is guiding You to the multiplayer battles, which are the main core of the game. First, You'll only get access to simple dogfight where You can have first feeling how is it gonna look like in the online mode. Time to kill is relatively long - this is not Battlefront 2, where single salvo can obliterate enemy. If You didn't set up Your starfighter as a glass cannon, You should always have a chance to react, and pull one of the trick out of the sleeve. And there is quite of them available.

Strongest part of the online mode is the skill factor. There is quite a few micro-managing options during the fight. Power selection, thruster settings, shields management, additional equipment. All managed at the same time, manouvering through quite often tight asteroids or debris field. Add no indicator for leading the shot, and we're hitting some sweet gold spot between arcade and sim flying. You need to carefully observe the path of the enemy and predict what is he gonna do with his next move, which often rewards You with really satisfying kills.

Then, after few dogfight matches, You hit level 5 and unlock the Fleet Battles.
And that's where the thing start getting serious...

If You like multiplayer space combat... You'll love it.
I was waiting for a game like this for years.

PS: Mouse aim is quite annoying design. Controller or joystick is a must. Me, personally, after trying all three options, I chose XBox One controller over T.Flight HOTAS from Thrustmaster.

Another masterpiece from Paradox Interactive

The Heir is really born (as per marketing motto) and it's surely gonna be a superior ruler to it's father. The new game inherited everything what was best in CK2 and added some new layers to improve other aspects of the game. Pretty much every DLC that worked well in CK2 was implemented to the base game of CK3. If it's not here, it's because it wasn't working as intended and Paradox said they will implement it only when they'll have proper idea how to do it.

Three things that literally blew me away in comparison to CK2:

Vastly improved "Way of Life"
It is now much more complex and interesting. Not only having different approaches for some branches (like "Chivalry" in Martial tree which is something between marshall/steward/diplomat character) but also really affecting the gameplay, rather than just changing the stats or giving few events. Some ways of life unlocks interesting decisions, or make a big impact on how to rule Your realm

Massively improved military
The reworked and expanded "retinues" system is simply great. Various types of professional troops work in a 'counter' mechanic, so You need to plan what You actually decide to muster. Opposite to CK2, they are available to You straight away, even in 867 start. They just grow and grow later on. And the amount of professional soldiers, and skills of Your knights/champions are very important - as they determine the quality of Your army, which is also crucial. It's no longer a game of "bigger stack". Elite quality army of 4000 man can easily defeat 8000 low quality troops.

Genetic system
Having a heir gifted a "Quick" or "Genius" trait in CK2 was always very exciting. This time around, they're no longer just lucky shots. In CK3 they implemented set of different positive and negative traits, each with their bonuses and grade. So naturally, if You married a beautifull princess, there is a chance she will pass her beauty to her daughter. Genetically strong characters have a better chance of having strong kids. If You start to combine proper genes, they can result in a child who has even upgraded version of the trait which sometimes will make You wonder, is it really a better option to marry 'just average' daughter of Your neighbouring ruler, or bed the hale and beautifull lowborn from Your city...

And this is just my key positive surprises in the game, where there are dozens of other minor upgrades, flavours and improvements.

So I'll summarize it in Crusader Kings style.

I married one of Paradox daughters. Her name was Europa IV
Together with her, as a free gift, I also received at my court her sister - Crusade II, which I never even seen before.
She quickly blew me away. In almost no time, Crusade conquered my heart far more than her younger sister Europa, that I was striving for from Emperor Paradox.

I married Crusade as well very shortly after. Europe was still at my court, but I didn't really care that much. She was there, and everything seemed ok. But it wasn't 'that'. Crusade was the women I wanted.

Few days back, Crusade has given birth to her daughter.
Even an infant, You can clearly see that she will be even more beautifull and powerfull than my wife.
The only proper name for her was Crusade III

And she will not rule just my kingdom.
She will have all the world at her feet.


Well done Paradox, well done!

Blood Bowl is as frustrating as satisfying in the moments.

In this turn based, board game, two teams are fighting in a game of Blood Bowl, where rules are simple - You need to score the points however You find it fitting. Want to run through the enemy team? Pass the ball over them? Or simply start throwing punches until all enemy players are down on the field and unable to move?

As the game is set in the Warhammer universe, You can expect some real violence here. Your players can literally end up dead at the end of the game. And maybe Your apothecary can save one of Your injured players, but be prepare for losses.

This is one of those board games, when You need to spend some time to learn the rules, and and even a lot much more time to master the movement, attacks and tactics.

Most of all - this is pretty much Multiplayer only game. Yes, there is an option to play against AI in various single players mode, but it's not really challenging. It's nice to play few games to learn it, but then You should quickly move to Multiplayer lobbies, to learn the real violence of Blood Bowl ;)

Of course - this is also dice heavy game. You can help the dice rolls by proper planning and tactics, but If You roll few "1" in a row, You can get screwed up... Welcome to Blood Bowl!

However, if You look closely, the game gives You a nice summary of all roles of the whole game, so You can see, how much Your result was really to blame on dice rolls, or were they actually kinda fair ;)

Get ready to smack some people! Get ready to get smacked! And get ready for those bittersweet moments, when winning a game will cost You a life of Your best player...