Recent reviews by PLÒÓK

I like this game a lot, it's a well refined and balanced small-settlement economy and politics-manager, with ethical dilemmas and choices to make along the way. The campaigns I've played so far have proved to be really challenging, which is just what I want. If you think you like the look of it, I'd recommend it!

The choices you make set a course for your playthrough. In the first campaign for example, you have to choose between Faith (religion) and Order (law-keepers), when faced with growing unrest among your citizens. On my second attempt I actually completed the first campaign using "faith" as a social-focus, which was surprising and unfamiliar. There is some room for re-play-ability here, as I'd really like to try the law-and-order route.

I've read some rather disparaging reviews of the sequel, FrostPunk2 which apparently feels much bigger and less personal. This is a small-settlement-manager, and the sequel sounds like a city-manager, of which there are many, what I enjoy about this game is that it feels small and isolated, and your actions feel more important than just balancing an economy of resources.

tldr - You set up industrial town in an apocalyptic alternative 20th century where the world has frozen over, and you probably fail.

Enjoying this now that I've given it a second chance, quite a lot to learn.
This video made it seem at all possible, whereas before the learning curve was just too steep!

https://youtu.be/DPTTJ2OBw9w?si=yBI9-orjLQ_KQzY0

It's so broken - I love this boardgame - but the software version that has been available for the last 2 or more years is completely broken - it kicks you for "taking too long to roll the dice" when you're just waiting for someone else (who seems to be taking a suspiciously long time) to roll. Hardly any games begin, usually you'll get to the load screen for a game, and then land back in the main menu: "someone didn't connect or has a bad connection". When the games do start, someone is always missing from the go, replaced with an AI who will ask you for the exact same trade about twenty times per turn, - if you manage to get to the end of a game without it crashing or kicking you out for something you didn't do, it will be with a minimum of 2 bots instead of the 4 humans you waited in a lobby for.

Meet friends in real life with a physical copy of this game instead. Avoid this broken garbage.

(read the patch notes of the last 2 years, the community page on steam, and the discord channel, to see quite how broken and varied the problems everyone has with this game are. I don't think the current software can be rescued, it needs rebuilding from scratch, to be honest I think it should be removed from Steam in its current state)

For context I was grandmaster on the app version of this which I used to play on a tablet, (top 500 global player at one point), I've played over a 1000 games on that app, it used to be pretty good, and about 2 years ago something went very very wrong, they migrated the software, lost everyone's log-ins, stats, passwords, it was a massive clusterfluck, it's never been the same since. They've done endless patches, rollbacks, version, etc etc, it just hasn't worked since then.

Feels like a mod/mini-game DLC for oblivion - definitely not for everyone but I'm enjoying it!

Seems good so far, I'm enjoying it.

I don't hate this game, it's been quite fun, but I've sort of lost interest in it.

I've won a few games, I've unlocked lots of... stuff that I don't really understand, and I've put 160 hours into it. It is ok. But I tried playing counter strike again, and I still really enjoy (in a challenging way) how that game plays 3,000 hours later.

Maybe I'm just a bit older and don't have the time to learn a new game now, so ones I kinda know the details of are more appealing and fun for me to play and I just haven't had the time to learn more about COD MW2.

I've had a good time hanging out casually with friends in this game, but I think my biggest gripe with it overall is that sometimes you just get killed and there doesn't seem to be anything you could have done to prevent it. In CSGO I can learn from my mistakes and get better, I can figure out strategies with teammates and come up with plans that you can execute in following rounds. That kind of learning and reacting doesn't seem to be the case with Modern Warfare 2.

Fun casual game but I don't get anywhere near the same kick out of it as I do from a great game of CS:GO.

I played the free version of Battle Royale and some DMZ games. Didn't have the main (£60?!! ...really!?) game.

I've really enjoyed this game, it's got some great potential and if you like top-down strategy builder economy games, it has quite a bit going for it. It's got quite a machine building element to it, where you're essentially streamlining a machine by the architecture of your prison. It feels well maintained with regular updates and developments too.

Perfectly pitched between feeling realistic enough to maintain interest and stylised enough to stay fun, the result is a game that I am really enjoying playing! A great twist on exploratory survival-crafting-games. The economy of materials is well tuned so that the timing of making new discoveries is really enjoyable. There's a bit of work at times but it definitely doesn't feel like a grind. I've played a lot of Minecraft and 7 Days to Die, but I think most gamers will find this easy to pick up.

Only played single-player but I imagine it would be great to discover for the first time with a friend. I really thought I would just want to play the practical side of this game but I'm enjoying the flexibility of decorating my raft and making it feel homely.

PS. Lumps of Clay and piles of Sand are on the sea-bed, you can dig them up with your hook, so long as it's safe!

If you often fantasise about surviving in a Zombie Apocalypse and you've previously enjoyed the game mechanics of Minecraft, or sneaking around in Oblivion, or wished, that just once, you could tackle a horde of slow walking zombies, pacing slowly but relentlessly toward you, as you try, nervously, for headshots, glancing frantically at the HUD, showing there are only 8 bullets left in the pistol you took from a fallen survivor earlier that day, then this might well be the last game you ever purchase.

If you're thinking, I'm sure it won't be quite the zombie fantasy I have, you might well be surprised. I'm amazed at how well the worlds of George A. Romero and 28 days later have been fused. So far I've played the default setting: fast at night, slow during the day. If you want nothing but slow zombies, you can have it; you can choose fast/slow behaviour options before you start your world up. As a big fan of Romero, I was tempted to try 'always slow', but I though I'd give the default setting a go, and it's great. My routine in game involves scavenging/looting during the day, and crafting silently in my unassuming wooden shed by night. I think the zombies are getting more agressive though, or maybe I'm getting more relaxed now that I have some guns; lately, one or two have realised I'm inside and start bashing on the walls all night trying to get me.

Rather than annoying, the lack of a save-game function pushes the gameplay stakes way up, you have to commit to every decision and I frequently find myself making choices that other games have NEVER managed to make me take. The construction system is detailed and challenging, without being detrimental to the realism or gameplay; you really feel like you've earned everything you make/loot/find. I keep feeling like I'm discovering something, or learning about the objects that I depend on in game, they're not just throw-away trash, despite piles of trash being where some of the most crucial elements you need, will be found.

I get the feeling that there are a few bugs to be ironed out, although it has been a stable experience for me so far and feels like a very-nearly-complete product. I think that the sound needs tweaking, the recordings of nearby zombies are played very loudly and have been recorded very close to the microphone which doesn't quite relate to their distance from you, as such the zombies often seem closer than they actually are, but this certainly hasn't got anywhere near breaking the game for me and should be easy enough to fix. The sound design generally however, deserves credit, the ambient sounds and sound effects could be easily overlooked, but this wouldn't be the great game that it is, if they didn't work as well as they do.

I highly recommend this game.


TLDR: I'm yet to discover anything that ruins my (very extensive) zombie apocalypse fantasy.... "Minecraft+28 Days Later+George A. Romero - The Game" has arrived.

Time of writing: Alpha 9 has just been released.
Notes: I haven't played Multiplayer, previous versions, or DayZ.