Recent reviews by ShelLuser

This is an awesome expansion!

Sure, it's "only" 16 character portraits but those 16 images are of good quality, show some really fun characters and it provides a better variety in choices. And normally for a mere 3 bucks? Sorry if this sounds harsh, but I think that the people who recommend against this have never made any artwork of their own and thus don't realize the effort that goes into it.

Not to mention... it's not as if the game is forcing you to use these. Meaning? It's actualy quite easy to add your own portraits to the game if you want to, all it takes is one console command: "ConvertPortrait".

So yah, I can definitely recommend this. While I do agree that grabbing this together with one of the available Steam packages is the best of ideas (it gets you the best for your money) I also believe that the expansion as-is is also well worth it.

Neverwinter Nights isn't just your casual (dated?) RPG game, it's also one heck of an electronic D&D gamebox that allows you to play games (obviously) but also build your own game modules. Want to play with your friends? Setting up a server is dead easy and better yet: doesn't even require a heavily juiced up computer either.

About D&D (briefly)

Dungeons & Dragons ("D&D") is essentially a game mechanic for a tabletop game which was originally developed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and later on further developed and released by the Tactical Studies Rules company; TSR in short. What makes the game of D&D so accessible is that all you need to play are the rules, a set of dice, a piece of paper to write down your character stats and of course either plenty of imagination to set up an adventure of your own or... you can also purchase existing game modules and use those to play with your friends.

In my teens I eventually got myself the so called D&D Rules Cyclopedia[en.wikipedia.org] which was a seriously expensive purchase back then, but at the same time also very much worth it because it allowed me to set up game scenarios which I played with my friends for months (basically we had a gaming evening once or twice per month).

What makes this game stand out so much for me is its incredible game design. No, I'm not talking about graphics, audio, not even the interactions with the NPC's... But the way the game itself works, it truly gives you the feel to be playing a real D&D game.

For example... you obviously need to design your own character. This consists of a character portrait, a name and then all their details such as their gender, race, and of course the stats themselves like strength, dexterity, intelligence, and so on. Basically you set up a so called character sheet; a sheet which can always be called up and looked at during your game. The way your character looks in-game isn't what's important here: it's the sheet that defines who they are.

So the cool part here is that while you're playing you can export your character (sheet) at any given time, this will save your character as-is. Thus allowing you to use that very same character (sheet) and everything on it in other campaigns ("modules") as well! Even on multiplayer servers (well, some of them). With "everything on it" I'm also referring to their inventory. Just like in a real game... the inventory is part of the character sheet afterall.

3rd person view is a lot better than you may think...

When we're talking RPG games then I cannot help but mention Skyrim, an all-time favorite of mine. As you may know that game is fully 1st person, and I kinda enjoy that mechanic more than 3rd person. I have several other 3rd person based RPG games as well and while I always had fun... it was also often a very "so so" experience for me.

Yet despite all that I had nothing but fun with this game. In fact.. I even managed to use this view to my advantage several times now as well... running away from an opponent so that my henchman would start fighting them, after which I ran around a few obstacles to get behind the enemy, after which I started a (magical) attack from behind!

So darn satisfying!

Neverwinter Nights ("NWN") is a game which uses the D&D v3 ruleset, and its default campaign plays out in the fantasy world of the Forgotten Realms[en.wikipedia.org]; a campaign setting that is used by many other D&D games as well. The official provided campaigns are:

• The Wailing Death => A cursed plague rages through the city of Neverwinter, the people are desperate to find a cure. Will you become the hero(ine) who will save the city from certain doom?
  
• Shadows of Undrentide => You'll be tasked to find 4 magical artifacts from the wilds of the Silver Marches. Magic & mystery awaits!
  
• Hordes of the Underdark => This is actually a bit of a continuation of the previous expansion: you will come across the city of Waterdeep where underneath lies the Underdark; a foul area from which the forces of darkness emerge. Can you stop them?

But wait.. there's more ;) You see, this game also provides you with the so called Aurora toolset which is essentially a level designer/editor that allows you to build your own expansions, or gaming modules if you will. While the gameplay will obviously be based on the D&D ruleset, the settings... is totally up to you. Forgotten Realms you say? That's definitely not a requirement in any way: your game, your imagination, your settings...

Trust me: it's a lot easier than it may seem at first.

Full multiplayer support too!

Can things get any better? Of course it can: the game also comes with its own (dedicated) server, which makes it really easy to set up a spare computer as a multiplayer server so that you can play together with your friends as well. Don't have a spare computer to set up your own server? Or maybe no (online) friends? No worries! There are also dozens of servers online as well.

While the game itself may be dated... it's still very much played. When I check the currently available Internet games then I see at least 100 servers in my list and some of them are even full! At the time of writing (!) there are approx. 250 players online in total (so: spread across servers). Not bad for game that's essentially over 10 years old, I'd say!

And then there's the community...

As I mentioned earlier... this game also provides its own Aurora toolset, that allows you to build your own modules and campaigns. Yah, fun fact: many players have done just that, and even better: all those modules are available for you to play as well. With the click of a mouse button you can download these scenarios and start playing.

And people have made all sorts of different games... even the 80's classic Eye of the Beholder game has been rebuild and redesigned within the game of Neverwinter nights, now that is impressive I think!

Just so we're clear... I'm not claiming that this is the perfect game or such, nah. The game definitely has its flaws. And it's also kinda dated. For example, I previously mentioned a character sheet which you could look at at any given time. Yah, if you press the 'C' button then a small window appears that shows your character sheet. While it has a titlebar, and even an 'x' button which you can click to close it this window cannot be dragged around your screen. A mechanic which is pretty normal these days.

As for the graphics themselves... yah, those are also definitely dated, and it shows!

But as I mentioned before: that's also not necessarily what this game is about. The mechanics... that is where this game shines.

Setting up your spells, then also dragging those onto a hotbar so that you can cast your spells using either the radial menu with your mouse (or numeric keypad), or... you hit one of the function keys to activate the entry on your hotbar.

You find a chest but oh uh... it's locked and you don't have the skills to unlock it. Fortunately.. your rogue henchman sees what's up and he doesn't hesitate: Hokey dokey, and the chest is suddenly open! :)

And while people also claim that the default campaigns are very "so so" I can honestly say that I'm having a blast with those right now, I'm having a really good time.

There's a very good reason why I only bought the game yesterday (= time of writing) and yet I already have an easy 10+ hours in. Two thumbs up from me!

Thanks for reading, I hope this was helpful for some of you!

So for the record: this is a re-written review, originally I didn't recommend the game but still mentioned that I never thought this game to be bad or anything. Just, well... tedious and sometimes unbalanced and annoying. But it still intruiged me enough to look deeper into it, also because I admired the atmosphere of the game from the very getgo.

So I did. And then I suddenly reminded myself that... hold up here, wait a frickin' sec: this game is still free of charge, everything I've done so far... all "because", no payment no nothing needed. I just played and had myself a good or tedious time.

Seriously: I'm having a really good time right now, but getting here... wasn't such a good experience overall. There's a reason why my original review said "Nay".

Let's dig in!


The world of Once Human got infested by an alien substance called Stardust, and it affected everything in the world. People, animals and even objects mutated into horrible creatures which only seek dominance and destruction. Bizarre creatures... ever imagined a zombie with a spotlight for a head? Sounds ridiculous? Oh, I agree... but you'll soon stop laughing when you are into this spotlight while it drains your life energy from you. Who's laughing now? ;)

Or how about a (school?) bus which has grown 4 legs and is now rampaging the area around it?

All of this is courtesy of the Rosetta corporation which unleashed this devestation.

And then... there's you. You are a so called Mayfly: one out of many "meta-humans" who has the ability to resist the stardust infection and even utilize some of its effects for your own benefit. You are the force that was once engineered to help humanity and well, who has the ability to fight back. You can go where humanity meets its limits.

Despite me originally not recommending this game I've been impressed with atmosphere and the in-game vibes from the very get-go. This game is impressive no matter if you love it or hate it. You cannot deny the seriously extensive mechanics that are involved here.

The bad....

However, this game is far from perfect. When I started playing it was a sheer combination of sheer annoyance, tediousness and admiration alike. I love the way the game world looks, behaves and allows you to do all sorts of stuff.

But at the same time... I didn't care too much about getting ready to explore an area, only for other players to rush over and kill all the baddies before I could even swing my machete. That was more annoying than fun for sure! Also because one of my tasks was to kill an x amount of baddies. This game has an issue with balancing. Because only one session later I was ready to face a boss fight. The game highly recommended me to seek help yet.. sure enough: now that I needed and wanted it.. there was no one around to join up and help out.

DUH!!

There's also the issue that some tasks will quickly seem repetitive. Go there, kill baddies, find chests, rinse & repeat.

The good

See, the real problem here is that the game doesn't quite manage to tell you that there's more to all this. Yes, you can find weapons after a major miniboss fight which you cannot use just yet. So why not just recylce the thing for parts which you then can use to build or enhance stuff of your own?

If you just follow the tutorials you'll most likely be none the wiser and end up seriously annoyed. But try to look beyond all that and... omg... the game even has roasted potatoes :)

IMO a major flaw of this game is that it doesn't quite tell you that the tutorial is only a guide: a nudge into the right direction. It doesn't really teach you the steps you need to get better, and if you blindly follow the steps it shows you... it may leave you wondering what this nonsense is all about.

Seriously: when in the main game press F6 to open the survival manual and read through it. New sections will be marked with a yellow marker. It can help you make this game experience SO much better.

When you're in an area there's usually a ton of stuff to do. However, the main storyline (shown in yellow) always gets activated and it may seem logical to take that route. Careful here, because all those side quests can be super useful as well. For example.. they may help you gain so called deviations and those cute critters can seriously make or break your gaming experience.

Imagine my surprise when I got back from a seriously tedious fight and exploration task, only to see my cute little Digby Boy dipper do its very best to whack away at an ore node twice its own size. He's not giving up! So while I was out doing "stuff" this little fellow started mining my own business ;) Seriously: I unlocked bronze crafting but only ended up with copper so far. This is where Digby stepped in: he provided me with tons of tin ore allowing me to allow my copper with tin so that I got bronze.

It's so easy to rush through things but do yourself a favor and don't do that... try to take it all in.

So... this game rewards using matching gear. Wear gear items from the same set and you'll get a nice bonus which can give you the small edge you may need. Of course this also poses a problem... See, I love the "Raid" gear set save for the helmet. The previous tier ("rusted") had a way better looking "helmet" (which was actually a cap) but if I equip the rusted part I may loose out on my bonusses. Now what?

Easy: use cosmetics! Just apply a so called "meta cap": you get to see your character wear the cap from the rusty tier while they're actually wearing gear from the raid set. Easy!

Each to their own but that's the kind of detail I wasn't expecting in a free to play MMO. Especially because many cosmetic items are locked behind a paywall.

This is by far one of the best MMO's I've played. Seriously annoying to get started with, pure tedious in the starting area, but if you persist and try to look beyond the annoyances... ... while also keeping in mind that: it's free!

Fun fact: riddle me this... I'm a die-hard Skyrim player yet I only have approx. 10 hours into 'ESO': the Skyrim MMO if you will. Meanwhile I'm now 25 hours into this game (time of writing), my current session is almost 3 hours and I'm having a really good time.

Surely they're doing something right?

Thanks for reading my review 2.0

For the first time in three years... I'm not happy....
A bit of context... I'm an overseas NFL football fan from the Netherlands. 3 years ago I grabbed myself Madden '22 and had an amazing time; it even helped me discover the NFL gamepass and I've been following the season ever since. Madden '23 and '24 followed and even though some weren't perfect I always had a good time playing and could also recommend the game to others.

This year though... not so much. There are too many problems haunting this title, and even though I got to play the game 3 days before its official release... none of the problems which I've encountered and which got confirmed (!) have been addressed, let alone fixed. Now an easy 3 weeks later.

The new presentation and overal look of the game is defintiely a step up I think. When you start the game it truly feels as if you're stepping into a "Official presentation of the National Football League...", even the music matches. And the game has 49'er vibes all over, I really love it.

The menu has been redesigned and is now shown as a column on the left side of the screen, making the game look more seriously and less, well, "arcadish". Not that there's anything wrong with that of course.

As one could expect we get all the good stuff which we came to expect... franchise mode, Ultimate Team, training options and quick play to name but a few.

And unfortunately it's here where things immediately start to fall apart. I play with a Steam controller, yet for some dumb reason Madden '25 insists that I have two controllers installed instead of one. The bizarre thing though is that this only happens within quick play, when I try to swap my controller or when I mess around in other game modes: no problem. But in quick play I now have 3 controlling devices: 2 controllers and my mouse + keyboard. It's totally insane.

Not to mention problematic because this actually prevents me from starting a game against the computer; because the game insists that the 2nd controller (which is basically the same I was already using) needs to be used to select the other team, but if I do that I'll end up controlling both teams using 1 controller. And that doesn't work out too well :P Some people claim that you need to disable "Steam input" from the game properties but that doesn't do anything for me. Instead... if I play with my Steam controller turned off and the input settings turned off then the game still insists I have a controller installed. Which I now somehow control with my keyboard?

Game refuses to complete several training drills
One of the first things I do with a new Madden game is hop into the training options in order to refresh my experience with the controls. This is especially fun because if you manage to complete several so called "drill sections" then you'll get rewarded with a few bonusses for Ultimate Team, which is a game mode I really enjoy to play with. Unfortunately the game plain out refuses to acknowledge the completion of several of these drills. Drills across several sections, which is a huge problem because only a fully completed section counts towards those UT rewards. In the first section only 1 drill is broken ("Catching mechanics"), in the second section I managed to come across four drills which wouldn't complete, not even with a perfect score!

What the heck?!!

And these mishaps surface all over the place... when I check the game settings then I get asked every so many times if I want to "Reset my settings", this would reset all my custom options to the default settings. Note: all I'm doing is click "RB" in order to move to the next settings tab. It makes absolutely no sense at all.

The gameplay itself is also seriously compromised. When I press 'a' to snap then I expect a snap to happen, not me having to wait even more seconds before something finally happens. Things like... players running from left to right (or vice versa) while I never asked them to do so and although it shouldn't happen.. this is actually delaying my play somehow. It makes no sense.

In previous games we were granted an actual glimpse into the official team playbooks... if you (re)played an official game and checked out the "coach suggestions" you would more than often see an extra marker which indicated actually used & preferred team strategies. It actually followed the general teams strategy. Oh, and for the record: this also applied to upcoming games, so it wasn't something that merely got added in later. Well, that's now apparently gone.

Another major issue for me... Madden has always been a solid combination of gameplay and presentation. The atmosphere of the game has always been superb, when you play a game and you hear the crowd and the commentators and what not... it really feels like you're actually there.

Yah, so, like... why can't you hear any of the referrees anymore? I would understand if this would sporadically happen because.. it sometimes also happens during real games; which is when the commentators really should be earning their pay. But ... in Madden '25 this is happening all the time. I've played a ton of games already and each and every time you can barely hear the referee... if the commentators are also talking you can't hear him at all anymore!

This game is broken
I'm sorry to say, but that's honestly my conclusion. If I can't even start a quick game using my Steam controller in a normal way... then how else would you call it? If the settings want to reset themselves for no reason at all, when the game refuses to acknowledge you succesfully completing challenges...

And IMO it's a darn shame, because it could have been so much better.

Thanks for reading.

Yah, I still wonder if this tool doesn't truly establish Skyrim as one of the greatest games of all time. Because although it can be tricky to get your fingers behind the mechanics it's honestly not that bad either. Though definitely not perfect: the first time I ran this tool it insisted on installing stuff into my Skyrim folder, but the result of that was my game suddenly no longer recognizing any of my downloaded Creations (I play with Skyrim AE?).

This was easy to recover from, and most importantly it also didn't affect my mods in any way, but still... that's not a good first impression!

What is this creation kit all about?
It's not just about modding, i'll tell you that. First things first: Skyrim isn't just an awesome RPG game which allows you to do pretty much anything you'd like. No, this game is also its own engine. An engine in gaming is a software environment which takes care of all commonly required functions.

For example... let's say you drop an apple onto the floor. How fast is it going to fall? When it hits the floor is it going to stay there or will it continue moving (rolling), if there are NPC's around you would they notice this happening and optionally respond to that? Those are some of the things which a game engine could handle for you. And that's just one example of course. How about books? If you pick up a book in Skyrim it'll automatically open and you can read it. That's the engine at work as well.

Why is this such a big deal you may now wonder? Easy: because if the engine handles most of the (already available) game mechanics you can instead focus on other things like contents and design. Let's say you'd like to add a new book to the game: it's time for volume 3 of the lusty Argonian maid ;) Because the engine already knows about all the available books in the game the only thing you'd have to do is add the book, then select the properties which you'd like to use (things like the cover, the sound that gets played when you open it, etc.) and then of course also add the contents. The engine can handle the rest.

So instead of writing code you're now writing contents. You don't have to be a coder perse, you need to be a designer.

And that is what the Creation Kit is all about: giving you hands on access to the so called Creation engine, which is the engine that powers Skyrim. Including access to all contents in the game, and all its DLC!

Sure, you can use this to create your own mods, but ... do you realize what I'm saying here? All contents in the game?

Not just for modding!
Have you ever wondered about the availability of a certain book? Let's say The Real Barenziah; the creation kit can tell you exactly what you'd like to know; 5 volumes in total.

Or how about quests? You often hear players having issues with a quest that doesn't properly detect progress. There are commands you can use to force progression, but you'll need the so called quest ID for that. Why not just use the editor? A very well known quest to sporadicaly bug out is "Blood on the Ice", which plays out in Windhelm. So... you could fire up the creation kit, tell it to load "Skyrim.esm" and then check out this object section: Quest => MISC => Windhelm. This will show you MS11 which is the official quest ID. You can also see that this quest has 2 parts: MS11 and MS11B.

Seriously, there's a lot which you can learn from all this.

If you want more out of Skyrim, you should consider checking this out...
As I mentioned earlier the creation kit definitely isn't perfect. But is sure is perfectly usable!

You know... there's a good reason why I'm quite enthusiastic about this tool, despite its age and specific workflow and what not. I love games which provide editing capabilities of some kind, thus allowing you to add your own contents and do your own thing, and because of that I actively sought out quite a few of them. Yah, and if you do you'll soon realize that not every game is as carefully designed as Skyrim.

See, "another RPG game" for example boasts about the fact that they not only include a level editor: no, it's the same tool which their developers used! So that must be good, right? Yah, so about that: remember my comments about separating mechanics and design? Not every game does it like that, meaning that you could sometimes actually have to start coding (using their 'awesome tools', maybe also their own (scripting) language) just to add something trivial to the game. It works, but it'll hardly be any close to userfriendly either.

The Creation kit does it a little different. Maybe not perfect, fair enough, but still very much usable and somewhat easy to get started with.

Like I said: if you want to get more out of Skyrim you should consider looking into this for yourself as well.

Thanks for reading.

I've been playing this game long before it got onto Steam, both on my phone and on my (Windows) PC. And while it may seem like 'just' an ordinary "cash grab" merge game, looks are deceiving. See, I enjoyed my main desktop game a lot, so I decided to buy into unlocking the bonus area(s). Why not spent a little money on a game you enjoy playing?

But when I discovered this game for Android I noticed that I couldn't "connect" it with my main game, so i had to start over. Not too big of a problem, but I didn't want pay again to unlock those bonus areas, so I didn't. Guess what? I had just as much fun, I wasn't nagged into purchasing anything and even though it took me a little longer I eventually got the exact same creatures and also unlocked many exotic items.

This game is not "pay to win".

The concept of this game (and merge games in general) is very simple... you can collect items and if you have 3 items of the same type then you can "merge" those together so that you'll get a new, better, item; usually this gets you an item of a higher tier. Well, if you merge 3 of those together.. you'll get to the next tier, and so on. Higher tiered items usually also grant you better bonusses.

But wait! => there's more! ;) If you merge 5 items of the same type you'll get two new items.

And if all that isn't enough this game also provides creature eggs. Yups, same deal: merge 3 eggs and you get a baby creature, merge 5 and you'll get two. And once you managed to get 3 (or 5!) baby creatures you can merge those in order to get a new, more powerful, creature.

What I really enjoy about this game is that there are actually 2 games in one ("sorta").

First there's the realm: this is the "home" area where all your creatures live, where you'll be storing your gold and minerals and it's also the main area of the game. When you start most of the realm is covered in clouds but as you get more XP you'll be able to remove the clouds and unlock new areas to use and explore. Thing about creatures: they tire and eventually will need to get some rest.

So, what to do in the mean time? Easy: exit your realm and start playing some levels. If you complete a level you'll get some rewards. If you manage to satisfy your bonus goals you'll also get some bonus items. All those items will be transported to your realm so that you can put those to good use in order to level up some more and... who knows ;)

And trust me: there's a lot of cool stuff to discover here. You just need a little patience, a good strategy (!) and a lot of merging ;)

It's free, you don't have to pay anything if you don't want to and it's pretty extensive for what it provides.

If you enjoy merge games, you're going to enjoy this too. I know I do ;)

Probably a 'must have' for most fans
This DLC basically adds what most players would expect from it: a storyline which twists and turns and basically leaves you second guessing most of what you do, it gets us a new area to discover ("Dogtown"), new upgrade paths to explore and new types of enemies to face.

Rushed story
My main problem though is that the story feels rushed and "bloated": it more than often can't carry its own weight which quickly results in broken immersity. See, there are tons of details crammed into most dialogs but most of those have hardly anything to do with the issue at hand. And if you focus on the things which do matter... then you may end up getting disappointed.

For example... the president of the NUSA has crashed in Dogtown and you have to get her out of there. Eventually you manage to find shelter, the media basically reports that she's MIA if not dead. So basically... the moment the media gets hold of her many coverups will be broken. But no, "can't do that" you're being told, because Dogtowns security is way too tight. You can't expect to "just" put her in the trunk of a car and get away with that.

So 10 minutes later... you're smuggling stolen cars out of Dogtown, smuggle civilians in the back of a car out of Dogtown and of course... easily to overlook: you also smuggle tons of hardware which you may have aquired outside of Dogtown back in. And all of a sudden this doesn't pose any problem what so ever, also because you've been given clearance.

Yet you can't tell the president that it's time to shut up: get in and we're getting out. And it makes 0 sense. Especially because it would solve a lot of issues.

It's the classic power of the plothole at work, and it'll happen more often many more times.

Incredible environment though....
The new area is an awesome place to explore, no question about it. In addition the new enemies and mechanics can be challenging but your tools can be quite powerful when used properly as well. And diving more into the relic and "making" it work for you is also intruiging.

I also appreciate the many hints and brief back stories in which V references events from the base game, it truly adds up and enhances the (awesome) expeirence. And of course... a new Fixer with new ideals and... a new batch of gigs ("side quests") to finish. It's honestly a very solid experience overall...

But as much as I enjoy this DLC in general I just do not enjoy the dozen examples of "plothole armor".

I mean, one moment you're on top of the world with all your chrome.... you can slice and dice through enemies just like that, and don't get me started on possible quickhacks. Until of course you suddenly can't and all without any solid explanation either. Then the plot deems someone a boss which can suddenly survive several of your most lethal attacks because "plothole".

Even though it may severely hurt you there's pretty much always some way to escape from a powerful enemy, even temporarily. Unless of course the plot suddenly disagrees and all of a sudden such an enemy becomes nearly invincible because "plot".

More than often you don't get real gameplay choices

And when you start noticing, these details only keep stacking up. I'm at a party and I need to keep my head straight, tread carefully. So I swing back one whiskey after another and keep repeating this for approx. 10 minutes straight. And nothing really happens to me.

I'm told to do some gambling but to NOT overdo it. Lo and behold: the game fully forces my hand and I can only follow the orders I've been given. See, with most open world games I'm used to having enough freedom so that you can easily mess things up completely, yet that kind of freedom rarely happens during this storyline and it becomes very much noticeable..

It's not necessarily bad or anything, the atmosphere is still solid and the overal plot is intruiging, no arguments. Generally speaking I'm having a great time.

But even so: it still feels much more "locked down" than the base game ever was, and I'm not too sure that this is a good thing.

So yah: mixed feelings.

I'd still recommend the DLC to fans though, that's for sure! ;)

Finally we get a chance to utilize Kane's technology of peace and try to retake what is rightfully ours. Peace through power!.

Ahem.... out of the whole (original) C&C series Tiberian Sun was and still is my all time favorite. Please note that I am not taking Red Alert nor Generals into account here. Who would have thought that a game which is now roughly 25 years old would still get me riled up today?!

What's this game about?
Command & Conquer is an RTS game: realtime strategy. You need to build your base, gain resources and then use those to build an army and crush your opponents.

In the original C&C game we got introduced to GDI: the Global Defence Initiative. A military organization if you will and their main objective is to protect the people of Earth. First from the threat of "Tiberium": an alien plant / mineral which is slowly infecting our planet, which is a major problem because this material is lethal to humans.

But second... amidst the chaos of the Tiberium infection a terrorist group known as the Brotherhood of Nod surfaced; they are led by the maniacal Kane who believes that Tiberium isn't a plague but rather a salvation. Not to mention an important source of power which can fuel his "technology of peace".

After the clash in the original game the Brotherhood of Nod is left in chaos. General Hassan has taken over command since everyone believes Kane to be dead, but little does anyone know that in fact he is under the control of GDI.

What makes it so good?
Each to their own, but this is my all time favorite. First the dark setting of it all: tiberium becomes a major issue, it even starts to affect the natural evolution of humans; which becomes apparent when "The Forgotten" surface: a group which has been infected by tiberium.

Second... I love the dark storyline. GDI pulling the strings of Nod? And then the black hand of Nod trying to regain control, only to be hindered by media outlets? Even to this day all of that is so darn true... many people still blindly believe what they read in the or "their" media outlets. But it's not just the story, also they way in which they present it.

The cutscenes have some major atmosphere. I STILL get goosebumps when I get to the "beginning" of the game: where the black hand manages to re-unite Nod, Hassan getting executed and then all of a sudden.... the big screen erupts: KANE LIVES! Yah... you cannot kill the messiah.... the acting of that man is just... outrageous for a video game. IMO. SO darn good!

Gameplay?
I don't think multiplayer will work, but I have no clue. Still... you can play a campaign either as GDI ("the good guys") or Nod, but you can also set up skirmish games. Here you don't play to work through any story but merely to crush whatever enemy is on the same map as you.

Controls may need to get used to... alt-# to quickly focus on a unit for example, no right clicking... things like that. But the maps are gorgeous, the tiberium is actually somewhat alive and better be careful where you move your soldiers to because... no matter what Kane says: that stuff is lethal! This game even introduces lava/magma fields which at that time were completely amazing to look out.

But the gameplay is simple: build a base, build a tiberium refinery and get your harvester to collect tiberium. For every load of tiberium you'll get paid, and you can then use those credits to purchase more buildings and units.

Protect your base! Build up an army and crush your opponents. And this is a classic alright... Selecting units will get them to say things, moving them out; same. And then of course there's the "AI" voice of either EVA (for GDI) or CABAL (for Nod) which will guide you through your missions.

And you know the risk of AI, right? ;) well, in the Firestorm expansion you will learn just how big of a risk it could be.

Compatibility?
They don't make 'm like they used to. I can run this game without any customization "just like that" on Windows 10, no problem.

Meanwhile another C&C game ("Generals") requires tweaking with some Windows compatibility settings, and its expansion ("Zero Hour") probably even needs patching. Yet this game, much older, just works. Newer isn't always better ;)

I can HIGHLY recommend this one. It's a classic!

Peace through power!

Of course, words like "Scud launcher", "Carpet bombing" (lmao!), "Tomahawk missile... missile.....".

This my friends is a classic reborn! And for me also on the nomination of the best game I now suck at :P I dunno what happened but apparently I didn't quite recall the strategy I used to apply because during my first mission on my Steam powered PC I got run over.

IF the game doesn't run for you: don't despair! Try enabling Windows compatibility modus for the "generals.exe" file, that should help to resolve the issue. Hop over into your games folder (use the Steam client to browse local files), then right cilck and check the properties of said exe file.

But this is a true classic... "Can I have some shoes?", no you cannot: go build that scud array for me! :P

Editorial
This DLC gives me some very mixed feelings because there are plenty of parts which plain out suck. The main story mission for example is completely unbalanced and dare I say very poorly designed as well? I mean... how else would you describe a game that happily respawns you only for you to instantly die again, simply because the mission designer didn't bother to set a "mission failed" trigger. That's just bad, especially because you cannot quickly hop into the game menu to quit yourself whenever you paused the game. Something you might want to do to stop the game from killing you ;)

Another problem is that they're obviously shoe horning stuff in here while completely ignoring anything canon. I mean.... here you are on a dangerous mission, you'd better prepare yourself, and yet there aren't any weapons on board of your rather massive capital ship? You have an armory, you'll even find some shotgun component, but any actual weapons? Naaah, who needs weapons when going on a dangerous mission! Fortunately you do get a sword which is extremely clunky to use and worst of all: quickly breaks down thus leaving you with no way to defend yourself at all. BUT you still need to hurry because your ship is gonna EXPLODE!!1

Seriously? :/

I can easily see why so many players requested a refund then and there, this is just bad.

What IS Dark Faction exactly anyway?
Dark Faction is obviously a DLC (duh!) but not one might expect: it doesn't necessarily change or enhance your base game. Instead, it provides a new scenario ("mission") for you to play in which you'll also get access to the new mechanics and items.

It basically introduces a new faction / power which infests planets and tries to take those over. The only way you can try and stop them is by adapting to their new mysterious technology which is based on symelite: an organic material from which you can build all sorts of things. I cannot help but be convinced that the Zerg (from Starcraft?) were the main inspiration for this.

Of course you also can also load an existing game and then choose to have these mechanics added to that as well, but that may not be very useful because you'll need specific components in order to get started. Components which you probably don't have just yet because you can only get raw Symelite from killing creatures from the dark faction and planets don't get infested "just like that". So much for that idea...

Like I said: this is far from perfect, but... I'm still having fun though.

Of course it helps tremendously that I know my way around the game mechanics: messing around with playfields or templates thereof (yaml files) as well as customizing the known sectors in a savegame isn't anything new to me (Visual Studio Code for the win!).

And you'll always have your system console (~) from which you can do all sorts of things as well. I mean.. sure, it's far from anything immersive but "gm ic" and "im" are all you need to get full creative access while being invulnerable. Next stop: "help df"; they even added a dedicated command to control the new dark faction features, not bad!

In conclusion...
This DLC is definitely a bit controversial because it has issues. And is far from perfect... I mean: recent updates added plenty of idle animations to the game. So now we have this organic substance and suddenly there's no idle movement at all? Sloppy!

It's also not very well balanced and I'm convinced that this is going to severely annoy a lot of players too.

But at the same time... there's plenty of fun to be found here if you know what you're doing, if you understand how the mechanics work: if you've set up dedicated servers and started to customize things, making your own scenarios and such (which honestly sounds much more difficult than it actually is!)...

This DLC is definitely not everyone's cup of tea, but I can't help but recommend it anyway. Just keep in mind that context applies: you'd best do a bit more research besides reading my review to make up your mind.