Recent reviews by Delusional Backseater

Great game, great graphics, very tryhard Japanese players.

Really fun, over 30 hours in and it feels like I'm barely halfway there.

Now I know why RDR2 is GOTY on Steam. Beautiful countryside with unspoiled nature and calm country music.

Stunning graphics, calming soundtrack and simple yet intuitive controls. Never thought a 2D-platformer could be so good in 2021.

Minor bugs in quests and visual glitches, but so far no flying T-poses or cars falling from the sky. Story is pretty ok, love the graphics, Night City looks fantastic with RTX on! Random police missions and encounters get a bit repetitive, but this game is somewhat reminiscent of Witcher 3, with less side missions and a smaller world.

Netrunning is pretty broken even on the hardest difficulty. Why fight when you can drive your enemies to cyberpsychosis and fry their circuits with a press of a few buttons? AI doesn't feel too smart, but ramping up the difficulty kind of compensates for it.

Expected more from this game and it definitely feels like quite a bit of content was cut, but with hopefully upcoming story DLC and other updates it will provide more content and add some meat to the story.

I would definitely recommend it after the bugs are fixed, and further optimisations are made to accomodate low-to-mid level PCs. Played on 1440p with RTX Ultra settings. Experienced some frame drops (from 70 to about low 50s and sometimes mid-40s) in crowded areas with street lighting especially at night.

Also, could you please add helicopters or the ability to ride in or drive flying transports/vehicles? Night City looks so much better from up in the sky!

Overall, 7/10 beautiful setting with decent story, but bugs and a sore lack of main story prevent it from going any higher.

Used this game as study material for my university module on History. Quoted the loading screen of the ancient era of "From the first stirrings of life beneath water, to the great beasts of the Stone Age, to Man taking his first upright steps, you have come far" in my essay. Got an A+ for the module. Needless to say, rated 10/10 worth the money, educational and keeps you glued to the screen for hours on end.

5/7 good game, bad characters

Overall, not too bad of a game. Part skill, part luck based. Reminds me of something like dungeon board games ♥♥♥ steve jackson's sorcery books. But can be frustrating at times when you lose the dice roll or repeatedly die due to lack of food (because of bad luck). Other than that, some of the encounters are repetitive and it becomes more of a strategy with a dab of luck (luck can make or break your game in some missions).

Recommended!

This game was recommended to me by my friend, who enjoys Strategy games like Civilisation and XCOM. Having played both CIV 5 and CIV 6, this moulded my idea of 'Strategy' games, especially those long, drawn out games that end up occuring in these games.

However, this game should not be compared to the those above that I have mentioned as this game is not only unique, but amazing in its' own right. Being a relatively inexpensive game (compared to Civilisation, Europa Univeralis), I did not have as high of an expectation for this game as I did for other pricier games. To make this review fair, I have divided my judgement and opinions of the game into 4 main portions of assessment: Graphics, Style/Controls, General Premise (Plot/Story/Setting) and Replayability.

1. GRAPHICS

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is rendered in a 3D isometric layout which is simplistic as well as beautiful. What I found great and different from other Strategy games that I have played was the ability to rotate the camera 360 degrees. This function in some cases is necessary in certain levels as the layout of the map requires you to be able to rotate the camera to access/discover certain nooks and crannies to hide from your enemies.

Another thing which I found amazing was that given that I don't have a very high-end computer with a good graphics card, I was able to play on low/medium settings, the impact on gameplay being very minimal. The lower graphics settings did not hinder the gameplay or break the immersion established by the game. This I find a huge plus in the developer's book - That a game should be accessible to ANYONE regardless of computer hardware.

As such, I'll give this section a pass as the developers did well overall.

2. STYLE AND CONTROLS:

The style of the game is not only unique (I have not played Desperados or other similar games), so this game was my first and the art style is not only reminiscient of older games like Diablo in the third person perspective.

And might I add that it is a great addition of actual Japanese voice acting in the game? It really helps immerse yourself in the time period of the Sengoku era (which I think this game was based upon).

What I didn't really like was that every action in the game (be it attacking or moving) was accompanied by the default speech of the characters, which when you constantly switch directions or click on the map with the character a lot as he or she moves (since I have that bad habit due to playing games like Dota 2). This gets irritating when they keep repeating the same dialogue (like when you play any RTS).

Controls generally are using the mouse, with some hotkeys that arent very macro-intensive, so I would say it is a generally easy control format to learn and follow. But misclicks/changing to the wrong character can prove fatal and unforgiving, as is this game which is very reliant on stealth.

Another thing which I found unique and very interesting was how you can co-ordinate the movments/attacks of the characters using a special 'Shadow Mode' to plan in advance kills/distractions and execute them in a split second with a press of a button. This was very satisfying, especially when I executed a 5-character co-ordination kill on the enemy.

Overall, easy controls but it gets repetitive combat-wise and approach-wise, so I'm slightly mixed about this area. Still a pass for me though!

3. GENERAL PREMISE:

The game being set in feudal Japan, where Samurai, Shinobi and Warlords rule. What I really enjoyed about the game was the effort put into making the setting realistic and as historically accurate as possible, although the characters are largely fictional. But it gives a small glimpse into the intrigue and political uncertainty during this period in Japan's history.

Plot-wise, it is slightly predictable, much of it I managed to forsee due to subtle hints dropped in missions and games, apart from some surprises which made the game so much more enjoyable. The characters are quite well-developed, but they aren't really expounded on much individually, rather you see and experience the interactions between characters with interesting snippets through conversations ingame.

Overall a pass for me in this area. Not amazing, but certainly interesting that a strategy game can include such a plot and setting.

4. Replayability

The first 3 points were a big plus in general, and was what left a great impression on me as I finished the game. Apart from the game being pretty short (they should add more missions in the form of DLCs, I'll gladly pay for them), what I feel is that once you have experienced the mission once, the second playthough isn't as satisfying but rather grindy. This is because once you have familiarised with their movement/patrol/sight patterns, there really isn't much to discover or improve on anymore.

Yes, there is hardcore mode and there are achievements, but for a casual gamer like me, there really isn't any incentive to keep playing this game after my first playthrough.

As such, I feel this section is a fail for me (my own opinion) as the AI is generally very predictable and bugs in the missions although sometimes funny, breaks immersion of the game.

However, the fact that I found this game a little short and how I feel so strongly that DLCs for this game I'd glady support (The only other game I got the DLC for was Witcher 3), shows how much potential this game has for a sequel and maybe to further develop the characters in the game.

CLOSING THOUGHTS:

Tl'dr - Game is short but fun. Controls are easy but combat can get repetitive at times. Lack of replayability is also an issue for people who don't grind for achievements. Great potential for more, executed well but could be much better.

Overall Rating -
Graphics:1
Style/Controls: 0.5
Plot/Story/Setting: 1
Replayability: 0

Total rating 2.5/4 Buy this game ONLY if you enjoy strategy games and want a fresh take on such a genre.

Great game, fun to play to just relieve stress and laugh. Sometimes smurfs or tryhards tend to spoil the fun aspect of this game but its relaxing