Recent reviews by Blastinus

This game's an odd one. It starts with loads of depth, exploration, quests, characters, etc... The mid-game continues that quite well with new areas and dangers to face. And then the ending hits and you bounce from place to place rapidly making the occasional decision and the game just... ends.

It's kinda unsatisfying, but it was a fun journey along the way. What I was hoping for was that the game would continue on the planet surface for another 5-10 hours. I guess if they make a sequel, that's where we'll end up.

Made me laugh amidst flashbacks to band class. 5 stars.

This game was... a mixed bag. On the one hand, it feels like combat has been (mostly) improved and I didn't really feel that bored with it until the end game where I was cleaning quests off the list. On the other, I felt little connection with the culture of Haven and it was extremely difficult to ever really want to support them. Despite that, the ending wasn't so good because I didn't put Haven first.

The premise is that you're a royal in an empire that abuses the weak and extorts money for the bloated ineffective nobles. You can do a great job helping the people and cleaning disputes and still end up made fun of in court because you didn't support the corruption all around you. Realistic, maybe? Doesn't make for a satisfying end, though.

On the combat side, the game has one glaring issue compared to previous Spiderweb combat systems... nothing is more important than speed. All these runes, augments, fancy gear, and the optimum build is to stack speed. What's the use of having an armored tank that moves once every two enemy turns? That's not often enough to get aggro or do any real damage. For slightly less armor, you can move 3-4 times per enemy turn and utterly annihilate everything in your path. It just feels like there's no real choice when it comes to builds. You build a variety of damage and then stack speed. That's it.

Empire management is similarly one-note. By the end game, you can build every important building for every fort in the game. There's a tiny choice to be made in fort specification, but the benefits you get from that are pretty minimal.

So, first time beating the game? Pretty fun, but got boring. I don't see myself playing through again, because I'd end up doing 99% the same thing with different story choices to get a different text wall in the conclusion.

Geneforge has been the best series from Spiderweb by far, if just because you have 3-4 ways of playing through the games. Replay value actually existed in Geneforge, and definitely does not exist here. Play once, have fun, wait for the finale. Hopefully the choices in the finale prove to be more satisfying.

This game is hit or miss. I had enough fun to get good enough to win every time, but I don't think I'll be going back for much more.

Best Part:
The combat is a significant upgrade over the old Civilization method of a single unit per hex. You build armies which can then be deployed in specific formations during combat. Depending on your tactics, you can lose an easy fight or win a hard fight through superior positioning and a better army composition. Sieges are a bit lackluster, as anything can just walk through any segment of a city's walls that don't have a defender present. That said, I'll take it over having to fire artillery at a city for 20 turns and then capturing it with a single attack like in Civ.

Worst Part:
The way you win wars makes no sense at all. You can cripple a civilization, kill all its armies, and then be forced to accept a partial set of territories you just wrecked. The "Forced Surrender" mechanic means you can't properly annihilate your opposition without at least a few consecutive wars. There really should be an option to refuse their surrender and keep going in addition to a full surrender of all territories if you've managed to capture an entire empire's territory.

There's also the annoying aspect of someone declaring war on you, and you then being forced to surrender right as you turn the tide and start pushing them back. (You take a gigantic point penalty for each captured city every turn)

As a final note, it'd be nice if it didn't crash every time I quit to windows. It just reinforces the rough edges when you have to force quit it.

This game was a grind. After a certain point, you basically do the same pattern of attacks and skills over and over until your enemies die. That wouldn't be too bad, but the later parts of the game have a lot of damage sponges and fights drag for a long long time.

I mean, I had fun and I beat the game, but the lack of build customization and limited skill tree meant that all your characters have no flavor at all. They all basically filled the same roles.

For contrast, Geneforge's main character varieties led to greatly different playstyles. You had a bruiser you built like a tank and bashed up close, a magician that relied on devastating spells and kept its distance, and a creature master that built a giant army of monsters. Here, you have four characters that all cast healing spells and vary only in whether they hit with a physical or a magic weapon, at least by the end game.

The passive bonuses for the skill trees were stupidly unbalanced. Would you like more evasion or a tiny boost in health? Would you like more attack rounds or a tiny boost to magic power? There's no reason at all to not have every character use the support tree and stack speed augments in every piece of armor.

It's conflicting. I liked the setting and writing, but the fights just bored me by the end game. It was a slog with regular breaks for a bit more plot. I still recommend it because I had fun, but I don't think this is a game of the year.

I was brought in to test the game for Early Access (full disclosure), but it's been a blast to play. I'm sure it'll only get better from here.

It's fun with friends. By yourself, it can get brutal in free play as you face six-year-olds on mobile devices combined with middle-aged men who dive on anyone who types anything.

Wasteland 2, even on the second or third playthrough, feels much longer and more fleshed out. Wasteland 3 leaves you wanting more. The game has one primary story that begins and ends without any real twists or story expansions. There are three bad guys you gotta kill or capture. You kill or capture them, the end game happens, the game is over. It still lasted me around 25 hours, but I was hoping for more.

Here's my thoughts on how to lengthen the experience and make it feel more fleshed out:
1. Add better management controls and impact for how you handle your Ranger Citadel
2. Create some macro mechanics for allocating troops, hiring guards, world map fights between NPCs, etc., so it doesn't just feel like you show up and kill entire factions in a day
3. Add an additional campaign after the final fight that's focused on fixing the main city and making the local areas safer. Maybe with an additional deadly faction that tries to take over in the middle of the chaos?
4. Give the player a real reason to do anything but focus on two companions the entire game

Upgrades over Wasteland 2:
* No water management
* Better interface
* Better quest management
* Slightly more interesting world map
* Extremely satisfying gameplay
* Fights turned into music videos

Downsides:
* Fewer factions to interact with
* Diplomacy was relatively unimportant
* Extremely short end-game

Overall, you should play it. I'd recommend waiting for a discount down to $40 or less, though.

An excellent city simulation with a unique theme and entertaining gameplay. I replayed the base game four times before I got bored and the expansions and additional content are equally engaging.

This is an adventure game where everything is determined by your specific brand of insanity. I haven't beaten it yet. I'm only in the first area. Still, I've played for almost ten hours at this point and I'm still enjoying myself.

If you like reading books and you like offbeat story-telling, this is definitely a game for you.