Recent reviews by VGT

While being primary civ player, other games in that genre pass by me, because I never have time for them. Recent events in that area convinced me to look for other experiences and definitely not regretting it for now.

Not sure if constantly mentioning competitor’s game in a review will be useful, but that is mostly what my perspective here is. I do not like what I saw with newest civ release, but previous title already fulfilled its lifespan, and I was hungry for something fresh, so I started looking around.

If you are civ fan and are interested in this game, here’s my thoughts.

- It is different. But in a different way than newest release of competitor. Core 4X ideas that I like are still there. It is just a lot of stuff added on top of it.

- Game being mix of Civ and Crusader Kings is true. And it works quite nicely. It is mostly civ with a sprinkle of CK. Great for mainly 4X fan that never had enough time to play CK even though he liked it. Probably a bit less interesting for mainly CK fan as here I think it’s not that deep

- Game feels a lot more time/energy consuming. There is a lot to do each turn, a lot to keep track of. Sometimes it feels like draining energy to hard and I turn off the game, but 30 minutes passes and I start it back again for next session. On the other hand, it is less turns for single playthrough so it might balance itself out when it comes to total playthrough time.

- AI feels competent. And this is happening in a world where players often are turning blind eye for 4X 1-UPT AI by saying it is not possible to make it good. Coming from civ I was surprised how often I was losing units against weaker AI turn after turn.

While I do not know yet if this love at first sight is going to last and will reach 1k+ hours like my main 4X titles, but for now I am hopeful and will keep this title in my “lost love alternatives” active rotation.

Really enjoyed it. Quite simple but very addictive story, many great looking environments (I was sitting on every bench I encountered just to take a look at beautiful view).

But biggest and most surprising element of the game for me was, how controller is used to tell the story. It's hard to explain without spoiling the game for you, so I won't even try it. You have to trust me on that ;)
To fully experience this game it is important to play it yourself. Don't try to watch "let's play" of it. You won't experience it the way you should. Just make sure no one will disturb you, start playing it and enjoy it. :)

One thing I would suggest to consider before buying it, is how much you're willing to pay for it. It's between 2.5 and 3 hours of gameplay, so best way is to decide, how much 2-3 hours of having fun is worth for you. If you're willing to pay full price - great. If you prefer to pay a little less, that's OK too. Just wait for discount in that case and get it then.

Long story short: interesting concept, but poor implementation.

If you looking for pure puzzles, like I did – it might become annoying, that you have to also fight with enemies. And using ball for this seems to be only option.

Also puzzles itself are not as fun, as I expected. They seem a bit un-logical. For example place ball on button, to fill room with water, so You can reach other button, that will remove water and open desired door. Solving puzzles is not rewarding in this game. So far 1.5 level and there is no story into it.

Maybe Portal games were just too good with implementing story driven puzzles, therefore it’s hard to catch-up for other developers. ;)