Recent reviews by Ninjaboy

This is a great game if you take the time to really reach the late game (and download some of the awesome mods for it - it's a little clunky before decoupling it from the frame rate).

Pros:
- Really creative late-game units based upon early 2000s Sci-Fi
- The game goes far into the future, and the late game is amazing
- The graphics are charming and very 2000s, and so is the music (though the music is bugged on modern systems at the moment. This can be remedied with Spyroviper's mod here: https://bitbucket.org/call-to-power-ii/ctp2/downloads/?tab=downloads). The color palette is quite a bit more vibrant than Civ III as well
- There is a pretty large community eager to help here: https://discord.gg/QYKvvhudbE
- Unit stacking is still present and there is a fairly interesting battle system involving ranged units attacking behind non-ranged units
- There is a pretty epic pollution system (actually impactful climate change)

Cons:
- The game takes some work before it is playable by 2023 standards (mostly handled by Spyroviper's mod above for vanilla)
- There are definitely some controversial units in this game (sl*very is a part of the early game until the Emancipation Proclamation. There is also a unit called the Eco-Te*rorist - this game was pre-9/11)
- The early game is definitely the weakest part of the entire experience
- The AI is VERY good at the game, definitely do not expect to win your first few matches
- There is no "Explore" action for units, meaning you often have to micromanage units
- Sound effects can be quite irritating at times ("Construction started", "Building complete", etc.)
- No online multiplayer in 2023 (some of us have tried LogMeIn Hamachi but could not get it working consistently on any versions on different wifi - does seem to work on LAN though!). This is a main goal of the Discord

There is a lot to love here, especially if you are into quirky 2000s era Sci-Fi. Call to Power II is a bit of a hidden gem, and I have been a massive fan since I was little. If you go in expecting a game somewhat similar to Civilization III but that extends to the far future, you will probably be pleasantly surprised. However, if you are expecting a game as smooth as the latest games, you will be sorely disappointed at the moment. Mods definitely help though and will at least unlock the frame rate and make music play again!

If you are really on-the-fence, there are play-thrus on YouTube which should really help you see how CTP2 plays!

At first, I didn't think I would really like the Truck Simulator series. However, the allure of one of the previous games in the series (the first, in fact) - Euro Truck Simulator - was far too great when it hit a $1 sale a few months back.

I gave the game a shot (again, I'm talking about *Euro* Truck Simulator here), and started in Madrid. The game was astonishingly addicting, and I loved the experience. However, it lacked polish by today's standards.

That's where American Truck Simulator comes in.

The game has much more polish than the first game in its series, and offers a host of customization and plenty of places to explore. I'm only 3 hours in as of writing this, but I've played more like 8 hours in offline mode and I can honestly say that the pleasure of exploration is something akin to that same charm that Skyrim provides. Seeing new areas of America (albeit in their scaled down version to make the game actually playable) is quite the addictive prospect, and figuring that the devs keep expanding the world I can only imagine how this will be in the future.

I found it very short, but mildly entertaining (possibly due to the few moments that are so cheesy it's funny). Definitely worth at least trying it out. However, it has some issues.

For one, optimization.

The game looks like a trash can. It's not good looking, even by indie Unity game standards, and lowering the graphics barely does anything. As someone who has worked on Unity games in the past, it's not hard to get things running much, much smoother than this. I really have to wonder what they did to make me get such low frames.....

For two, the cursor is not locked. Multi-monitor players beware.

My last huge gripe is the sheer number of invisible walls. There's like 5 and I played like 10 mins (The length of the game).

Verdun is both incredibly good and bad at the same time. The things it does well, however, outweigh the bad.

Good:
-Fear of dying leads to a very unique experience
-Gamemodes don't get old very quick
-Great for hardcore players
-Community is generally respectful and just wants to enjoy the game as well

Bad:
-Optimization is poor (To run at 50 frames on my laptop, I need to lower the graphics so far that the game looks like Battlefield 2... speaking of which, I run Project Reality Battlefield 2 at higher frames than this game even though this game looks worse on low graphics...)
-Graphics aren't the best even when turned up (Expect lots of clipping)
-Movement feels extremely clunky and poorly done, and from what I've heard, it's been getting worse in each patch

The good things far outweigh the bad, in my opinion. You'll never find another game where you fear popping your head over the trench lines so much. Gas is also horrifying - if you stand in it for about 3 seconds, you lose your vision, fall to the ground, choke for a few seconds, and if you didn't put your mask on by this time, you die slowly. That leads me to the third point - the gore (While optional) should be turned to ultra while playing this game. Seeing people squirming and writhing really hits home with the point of this game - World War 1 was hell. People get their arms shot off, people choke to death on Cyanide gas, and people get entangled in razor wire all around you. Seeing all of this will make you really feel as if you ARE this poor sap on the fronts of Douaumont Fort or Ardennes.

The shooting mechanics couldn't be better - this game is 90% one-shot-one-kill. If you are hit even once by a rifle round anywhere, you end up being part of the scenery. This just makes machine gun fire even more terrifying - and that's all the fun of Verdun! Verdun also has vehicles, however they are all non-driveable. Certain squads can, for example, call in a bomb to be dropped from a plane, however they do not drive the plane - they are simply calling in an AI, kind of similar to a killstreak in Call of Duty. Certainly this game isn't for everyone - if you want a reactive, responsive World War 1 shooter with vehicles and huge battlefields, look to Battlefield 1. However, if you want a terrifying, historically accurate, realistic, and exhilarating experience full of trench warfare, you should join me on the frontlines.

This game was basically my childhood, and is still fun and addictive. There are many, many hours of varied gameplay available and the graphics aren't even that bad for today (Just... don't expect much out of it. It's no Diablo III). It plays like a dungeon crawler should - very variably - and is NOT a walk in the park. Overall, here's what I'd say are the pros and cons.

Pros:
+Varied monsters
+Varied weapons
+Good graphics for the time period
+Large amount of content
+Difficulty scales well (Easy is actually easy, while hard is actually very hard)
+No overpowered items or spells
+A nice cartoony look
+Very, very easy to mod with a little knowledge of Javascript and Photoshop or Gimp

Cons:
-Faces look kinda messed up, limited character appearance customization
-Less than stellar translations (From what I hear... I do not speak French or Spanish fluently enough to try Fate in either)
-Occasionally annoying sounds (I'm definitely talking about the cat or dog. I'd recommend getting a fish to permanently transform them as quickly as possible)
-Point and click style can get boring
-Some... creative names can come up for bosses and for items (Like "Zulgthar's Holy Bec de Corbin of Spite" or "Og the Facesmasher").
-Lack of interesting spells (They're the pretty cut and dry "Fireball" spells, "Summon ______" spells, and "Raise defense" spells typical of this genre. The only really interesting ones are the meteor one and the one that turns enemies to your side.)
-Not for everyone. There are free trials for this game - use them. Decide if you like it or not before buying. It is dated, after all.
-No online multiplayer of any kind
-Not many in-game settings options
-A bit of a confusing fame system. (You get skill points to spend for becoming more famous)
-Some logical fallacies (Fishing in lava)

Overall, even though numerically there are more negatives, the positives far outweigh the negatives for this game. If you haven't given this classic a try, go ahead and get the demo then buy the full game if you like it. I know I did, and I know that I've sunken hundreds of thousands of hours into this immersive fantasy dungeon-crawler. (I just got it for Steam, though)