Recent reviews by Kitteygru

First off Children of a Dead Earth is not an ordinary rts or turn based tactics.
It's a simulation game first and foremost that simulates what real world space combat would be like as well as possible.

Still interested? Well then read on.

That means it has a heady learning curve though the game does teach you the basics through it's campaign.

It's not a game without flaws however.
It suffers from a difficult to control interface though that comes with the territory. Another drawback is the final approach in a battle after all manuevers are done have a level of randomness that can be frustrating.

A nitpick I feel is the graphics and presentation are rather ugly and simplistic. A lot could be improved in presentation especially.

A surprise is that the story is actually well written.
It builds up this sense of something terrible is about to happen and you're just caught up in this unfolding tragedy between superpowers, much like the buildup to the great war.
The soundtrack helps to enhance this atmosphere.

But for all it's flaws the game accomplishes something no other game has been brave enough to even try - Simulating space combat.

For anyone curious about what war in space would really be like and with the patience to learn there simply is no other game like it.

tl;dr This game is an absolute masterpiece.

It keeps throwing constant hard tactical challenges at you every turn. You'll never feel as clever as when you get yourself out of what you thought was a no win situation!

Great presentation, a fantastic soundtrack and good gameplay. The only weak spot is a somewhat simple story but it serves enough to get you immersed in the scale and consequences of your task and what failure means.

A great satire of 90s and 80s saturday morning cartoons and dystopian action movies that has it's tongue firmly in cheek.
Great buy for the price with solid gameplay that doesn't outstay it's welcome.

There are enough units to form a functioning faction here but missing any units that even mention the four chaos god leaves the chaos faction lacking flavor.

Simply put it's boring. Not even sorcerers belonging to the three gods that allow magic is available. No marks of khorne, slaanesh, tzeentch or nurgle.
At least they could have given us reskins of the current units and some particle effects to show dedication to any one god but we didn't even get that.

Here's hoping that CA will come back to give the Chaos faction some much needed character.

The adaptation of Warhammer we always wanted.
Excellent game with many varied factions that has kept me entertained for hours.
It is the first total war game where I really have to play completely different depending on who im playing as, both in strategic map and tactical.

The only big criticism I can level at it has to do with the dlc which is somewhat lacking and/or overpriced. (Chaos being just undivided makes them fairly boring).
Complaints about dlc belong on the dlc page though.

Pros :

* Contains new building pieces , traps and other stuff as advertised

Cons :

* What is there is really pathetic. Hardly anything is new. Most is just recycled stuff that has already been made available in mods. In fact mods have added more of the stuff that was ingame to begin with. It boggles the mind why they didn't include more stuff.

* The capturing of creatures is really lazily done. All you do is put down a powered cave Inside your settlement. After a while a creature spawn. No going out to capture them in the wasteland or anything. They just magically appear in your cage. There's no controlling them either beyond putting up a rod that keeps them docile.
Very dissappointing.

- Bonus nitpicking : On top of that we get absurdities that dilute the atmosphere like capturing for gunners and raiders with a cage marked 'free bullet's. Fun for a joke but it's really bizzare to capture human creatures like they're animals. Doubly so since your character in all quests in the base game only has the option to be a shiny paladin and now they're sending involuntary slaves into bloodsports for fun? Makes the lack of an evil or morally grey option in every quest even more keenly felt.

After the rather fun Automatron DLC that added a lot of new stuff this DLC has been really underwhelming.
Might be worth 1,99 euro but hardly 4,99.

tl;dr This is Fallout 4s Horse Armor DLC. And overpriced compared to that one too.

Although the game has improved on pretty much every aspect from prior games it has stripped away the most important part : Roleplaying.

The dialogue choices are so limited there's now way to play your own character.
The problem isn't with the dialogue wheel itself but the limited nature of choices. Mass Effect handled this way better. Here your choices are essentially boiling down to tone rather than actual choices. You're already set as a paladin of the wasteland, the only player choices is how sarcastic you choose to be about it.

Worst is that each npc usually only gives at most three choices and often less than that for dialogue. There is no way to find out about the world, about characters, about what is going on by talking except for longer cutscene talks.

tl;dr : Great Open World game. But it's no longer an rpg.

After more than a year of update the game still suffers from eating up a ton of HDD space with every update. It can range from 10 to even 50 gb reported by some players on top of the base game size.
It's a minor thing that renders the game unplayable for me due to constanly having to juggle HDD space to keep it playable.

Quite simply one of the most enjoyable FPS I've played.

Pros:

* Solid gunplay that succesfully mixes both old school fps design and newer fps.

Prefer to hug cover and pepper the enemies from afar? You can do that, but beware cover erodes and you aren't invulnerable behind your chest high walls.

Prefer the stealthy approach, knifing enemies from behind or taking them out with a well aimed suppressed pistol? That works too.

Or do you want to go in guns blazing, laughing as you mow down your enemies while dual wielding automatic shotguns, turning nazi stormtroopers into a cloud of red and exploding guts? You can do that too.

* Great level design. Many modern FPS suffer from really linear level designs with little room for changes in tactics or flanking. Although the game is linear it isn't a corridor shooter like many other modern fps. Replaying old sections are still enjoyable and I find no matter how many times I die on the same section I never get mad at the game.
It is simply a joy to play.

Add to that all of the awesome Nazi architecture. It might not be a place you'd want to live but the monolithic architecture make for good setpieces.

* Good pacing between frenetic action and more atmospheric sections.

* Fun and varied enemies that require changes in tactics and different approaches.

* Well written story that somehow manages to mesh both the wackier fantastic science nazis with the real horrors of nazi doctrine without cheapening either. In a way it reminds me of how Quentin Tarantino mixes both horror and dark comedy.

It doesn't merely lazily throw nazis and tell you 'these are bad because nazis.'
The game actually shows their poisonous ideology for what it is.

Characters are well written and surprisingly the game actually manages to make you care about them.

*Nazi moonbase

Cons:

* Sometimes levels get overly grey.
It is duly compensated for by good level design and locations. Besides this is the third reich we are talking about, they aren't known for their love of colors and diversity.

* Uses checkpoints, no manual saves. An irritation with modern shooters, checkpoints are usually plentiful enough though and I never found myself in an unwinnable battle.

* That one underwater level. Although atmospheric replaying it wasn't very satisfying.
Why are underwater levels always a bore?

* Cheap explanation for the whole nazi superscience. Probably the only weakpoint of the games writing. It isn't enough to ruin the experience though or overly effect it.

All in all none of this is enough to ruin my enjoyment of the game.

tl;dr:

This is some of the most fun I've had with a shooter in ages.
That it reminds me of Half Life 2 is definitely not a bad thing!

Solid 10/10

A masterfully crafted game. Great style, good gameplay, excellent music, and an engaging story. Increadibly well polished. This is an example of what an indie title should be.