Recent reviews by Aurelius

Very well-made on release and worth the full price. As a bonus, the game dev is already planning to add bonus content for the DLC, from community feedback. This is the sort of thing that I wish I saw more of in the gaming industry.

For unrecorded millennia, humankind has toiled and struggled. Coming from hunter-gatherer societies, we have built great civilizations with the rise of agriculture. Throughout our time on this planet we have always pondered and searched for purpose: Are we just some grand cosmic mistake, or does our existence have meaning?

We have endured countless tragedies: the burning of the Great Library of Alexandria, the Bubonic Plague, and two world wars. Looking back, we have to ask: Was everything really worth it? After having played this game, I think I finally know the truth. Yes, everything was worth it.

Playing through the other two Dark Souls games including their DLC, has really given me a better perspective on Dark Souls 2. When I first played DS2, I had fairly mixed feelings about it. Looking back, DS2 was an amazing game and I plan on playing through it many more times to come. I think it's important to review this game as a Dark Souls game, and would highly recommend playing the other games in the series. Here are some general thoughts compared to the rest of the series:

-The level design in DS2 is spectacular. Many of the areas are breathtakingly gorgeous, large, and well-detailed. Playing through the various areas is memorable and interesting.
-The overall enemy placement is iffy. That can be said about all the games in the series. Some areas have too many enemies, others not enough.
-Gradually reducing max health due to hollowing was an interesting concept that worked well in lore, but made the game play a lot more stressful.
-To compensate you're given a lot of healing consumables, and I think my problem was I didn't use them enough on my first playthrough.
-As a result DS2 had a very mini-game feel to it. And honestly, I enjoyed that aspect a lot.
-There were also a lot of bosses, only some were challenging, and many were not memorable. That sort of added to the mini-game feeling. A common criticism of DS2 is that it felt different compared to the other games in the series, and I think this is a major reason why. In my opinion, DS2 is a game about beating levels, and less about the next huge boss fight.

Overall, I really enjoyed DS2, and I think that its uniqueness paired with its strengths gives it a worthy place as the second game in the souls series.

Rimworld is one of those special games, where you start out by treating everyone like human beings. You care about your colonists. Even the raiders are granted merciful deaths or recruited. Then there comes a time when you're so tired of babysitting your colonists who throw a temper tantrum, because they refuse to eat at a table, or maybe their room was dirty.

Eventually you get sick of the constant raiders who throw their corpses at your high walls, for the slightest chance of victory. The next thing you know you're downloading mods for mass graves, forced labor, poison gas, and ways of commiting war crimes. You start butchering dead raiders to feed to your animals, and turn their skins into hats that you can sell.

Rimworld is one of those special games that causes you to pause for a second and ask "Have I gone too far?" And for all of my hours spent in Rimworld, I think I can finally answer that question: No, those were all acceptable losses in the name of air conditioning, luxorious bedrooms, and lavish meals.

Unfortunately I cannot recommend this DLC in its current state. Adding China is a really cool idea that's poorly implemented. China does not exist on the physical map, and it's impossible to interact with the Emperor in any way other way that's not an option added by the DLC. Ultimately, the Emperor feels more like a placeholder, who will exist for so many years, before being replaced by another placeholder.

My biggest complaint is about how levies and the Western Protectorate are handled. China's levies scale to your own, meaning you can get some absurd scenarios where China spawns 200,000 troops if you attack a small holding under their protection. Worse yet: Expansionist China. In my most recent ironman game, China managed to subjugate the Byzantine Empire and a united AI India with over 120,000 levies. It does not seem that China suffers from the same penalties as the players or the other AI, so they can just march 100,000 death stacks across the map with minimal deaths. Honestly, this DLC plays more like a poorly balanced mod, than professional content.

I certainly wouldn't recommend using this DLC in an ironman playthrough, as it feels way too unpredictable and unbalanced. Perhaps it could work in a fun modded game, but even then it still suffers from the above problems.

I thoroughly enjoyed Tyranny. Not because I got some kind of sick amusement doing immoral things (and there are a lot you can do!). Really, it was the immersion and storytelling that won my heart.

Tyranny presented the lore in a way that was engaging, believable, and affected the characters. The desicions that you made truly seemed to influence the sway of the story. I was entralled by all of the opportunities for scheming: pledging loyalty, betraying loyalties, lying, manipulating, the list goes on. Tyranny allows you to play whatever type of character that you desire: hero, villain, anti-hero, loyalist, rebel. The storytelling of Tyranny is its exceptional and defining feature.

While the game is comparable to titles like Pillars of Eternity and Baldur's Gate, Tyranny really is its own game. If I had to make a comparison, I'd say that the game is much shorter, the playable world is smaller, and the combat felt questionably balanced. All of that said, I do not think that Tyranny is a worse game, but earns an equal place on my favorites list.

Marvelous! This is one of those exceptional games that comes around every so often. Really, it's more of a visual novel. I won't say much to avoid spoilers, but I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the literature club, and I hope the same for you!

(Do take the warnings seriously though.)

Terraria is just one of those games that you keep coming back to. Since its initial release the developers have added an absurd amount of free content and world expansions. Unlike many other titles, this is one of those games that you can buy, enjoy, and not have to worry about having to pay for DLC since all content thus far has been added to the base game. Overall, an amazing and expansive exploration/sandbox game that I cannot recommend enough.

This game plays more like an MMO than an Elder Scrolls game. That said, I enjoy this game as an MMO. Why play this game over another MMO then? I personally like the Elder Scrolls theme, which I can relate to. Furthermore, this game has a lot of great features.

Pros:
-Leveling is fairly well-paced. It's not so slow that it's tedious, but you won't run out of things to do any time soon.
-Quests are generally a good length. There are a few longer quests in each area, but those are typically part of the individual story lines.
-PvE (Player vs. Environment) is extremely balanced. I would rate most of the dungeons and bosses as challenging for a single player, but still possible. There are some areas and boss that almost require a group, but thankfully that falls under another of this game's strengths...
-Cooperative play. It's fairly easy to play with your friends, or find other players working toward the same goal.
-PvP (Player vs. Player) is one of the most well-implimented parts of the game. Player combat often relies on cooperation, tactics, or simply out leveling your opponents. The PvP scene is fufilling for all levels, with certain goals and objectives that reset on a timed basis.
-Classes and combat styles are fairly balanced. From my experience, all of the classes seem capable of exelling at both PvE and PvP.
-Microtransactions have been handled decently. I would normally include them as a con, but the vast majority of the content (aside from specific pets and costumes) can be easily obtained just by playing the game over time. Any non-cosmetic things are relatively minor, and not game defining (like horse speed, which can be obtained by playing the game).

Cons:
-The game has an Elder Scrolls title, but it doesn't feel like an Elder Scrolls game. This didn't bother me so much, but it's definitely a con.
-A lot of quests can feel relatively bland. That said, there's not a lot of terrible or boring quests, and there's also some really good ones that stand out more as a result.
-Some game mechanics feel a bit clunky. For example, most enemies will only detect you if you pass within a certain range. There's a lot of little things that feel weird and immersion breaking, but in the end it's an MMO. Just know that you will be reminded of that on a fairly regular basis.

TLDR; Great customization, some nice tweaks inspired by Long War. Peformance could be better and will hopefully be fixed soon. Possible black screen error and fix that worked for me below.

As I am writing this review I have played through the tutorial and experimented with the character customization. From my personal experience I can say that XCOM2 has for the most part not only met but exceeded many of my expectations. Content-wise this game is worth the full price tag. For character customization and immersion this game is spectacular. At first the vast number of selections is almost overwhelming in comparison to XCOM: Enemy Unknown/Within. As for game play mechanics there have been a number of improvements such as the ability to unequip unused armor and items for all soldiers with the easy click of a button. The AI is certainly a force to be reckoned with, working toward an opposing goal and playing strategically. I am thrilled that the developers took the time to listen to their fan base and include a number of elements from the Long War Mod, which I have played and enjoyed.

Now for the not so good. All things considered, I would not write a negative review for this game based upon solely the performance issues. However, this is not to say that the performance issues are not to be overlooked. The frame rate is far from spectacular, and I receive minor-moderate lag on both parts of missions and the home base screen. Graphics and performance-wise this game does not feel optimized to its fullest potential. However, I would still recommend this title, even in its current state. Does the latency and performance need to be patched? Yes, I believe it does. However, I am placing my full faith in the developers to release patches in the months to come to eliminate many of these issues.

Lastly, one serious issue and a solution (hopefully this will be fixed soon). When played there is a chance that you will receive a black screen with music. This will make the game unplayable. However, there is an easy way around this. When click on game properties in your library, you can select 'launch preferences'. Here add "-windowed" (without the quotes), and your game will start in windowed mode. This should eliminate the black screen and allow you to play (at least it did for me). You can then press alt+enter to resume full screen mode.

I hope this review helped, and best of luck to you, Commander!