Recent reviews by Kylestyle

I'm not sure why my playtime is low as I have played the initial battle 3 times now. But here is my review anyway. Let me start by saying that I've played every Dynasty warriors game since DW2, been a huge fan of the series since I was about 5 years old whilst fully completing every game before 6 and I have a deep love for the series and other musou games.

Having played the demo multiple times, I can already tell this game continues the unfortunate trend of ruining the franchise further. While the game isn’t out yet, it’s clearly very close to completion, and the demo paints a good picture of what to expect. Sadly, it’s not a positive one—but there are a few redeeming elements worth mentioning.

A Nameless Nobody Instead of Unique Characters
One of the biggest disappointments is the removal of the series' defining feature: the ability to play through the campaigns of many different unique characters. This may very well still be present on release, but the focus now seems to be a nameless nobody who doesn't even talk... In past games, replayability came from seeing different perspectives, exploring unique movesets, and experiencing a variety of narratives of all the different characters and their various involvement with the romance of the three kingdoms settings. Instead, Dynasty Warriors: Origins reduces you to a nameless, voiceless nobody.

This protagonist somehow has the instant respect of every general, across every nation, despite offering nothing but nods and blank stares. The dialogue sections drag on endlessly, and no matter which response you choose in conversations, the outcome is the same. These pointless cutscenes are tedious and do nothing to add depth to the game or its story.

Visuals and Characters Shine
On a positive note, the character models and visuals are genuinely impressive. The game looks fantastic, and the character designs are well-executed, bringing a level of polish that’s hard to deny. The environments, while not as memorable as older titles, still have a certain charm that adds to the overall aesthetic.

Something i need to point out, is this game looks and feel exactly like the mobile game. I'm almost convinced its a port its that bad.

Troop Commands: A Nice Nod to the Past
Another feature worth highlighting is the introduction of troop commands. While it doesn’t bring back the original bodyguard system from Dynasty Warriors 3, it does give you control over a group of soldiers who follow you around. You can issue them attack orders, which is a nice touch and adds some semblance of strategy.

That said, this system also falls short. Instead of behaving like disciplined troops, they come across more like the over-the-top soldiers from Bladestorm than anything you’d expect in Dynasty Warriors. Most of the time, they just stand around doing nothing, easily one-shotted by enemy officers. When you give them an attack order, they suddenly spring to life, sprinting at Mach 10 and performing absurdly powerful attacks, only to return to their idle state moments later. It’s more ridiculous than immersive, and the inconsistent behavior breaks the flow of battles.

Battles: Mindless Chaos Over Tactics
The battles, once the heart of the Dynasty Warriors series, have become increasingly ridiculous. Back in Dynasty Warriors 3, 4, and 5, battles were slower-paced, more tactical, and felt alive. Generals held key zones, pushed strategically, and retreated when they were overwhelmed.

Now? Generals mindlessly charge forward into danger, only to get obliterated in seconds. The tactical nuance that once defined the series has been completely erased. Instead of a battlefield that feels like a war, it’s just a series of corridors filled with people running to their deaths.

Overbloated Combat Mechanics
Combat has lost its simplicity and elegance. Previously, you had a few combos, a block, and a musou attack. Now, there’s dodging, blockign and parrying to counter unblockable and undodgeable attacks, multiple gauges and resources, and a convoluted assortment of musou attack styles. The result is a bloated, silly combat system that feels more like a mishmash anime power trip of mechanics than a cohesive experience.

The game has lost the balance it once had. In the earlier titles, soldiers on the battlefield mattered. At level 1, a small squad of 5 men with a sergeant could actually do some damage before you took them out. Enemy generals were tough, but fair opponents who matched your power level.

In this demo, I walked into a battle, pressed one musou button, and got 100 kills in a single swing. Soldiers are nothing more than idle fodder who just stand there getting clapped, as they have been since DW6, which removes any sense of progression or challenge. Yet, seconds later, I was annihilated by an officer because they had special mechanics requiring precise blocking, dodging, or parrying? The difficulty spikes are absurd, and the mechanics just feel disconnected from what made Dynasty Warriors fun in the first place.

Final Thoughts
Dynasty Warriors: Origins seems to be another nail in the coffin for the franchise. The soul of the series—the tactical battles, the diverse characters, and the satisfying simplicity of combat—has been replaced by a bloated system and hollow gameplay.

While the visuals are stunning and the character designs show potential, the over-the-top gameplay and bloated mechanics are not what fans want. What made Dynasty Warriors so beloved was its balance of strategy, progression, and combat. We want the original style of Dynasty Warriors back, the way the games were before Dynasty Warriors 6. A style where battles were slower-paced, soldiers mattered, and a single musou swing didn’t instantly kill 100 enemies. The magic that once made Dynasty Warriors great is gone, replaced by a game that feels soulless and uninspired catering to weebs and anime fans who want a power trip rather than an actually good game. This may be the final straw for me and musou games after 20 something years of adoring this franchise.

Let me start by saying, as an absolutely huge Warhammer fan, this is my second favourite IP of all time. I've been into Warhammer for 22 years, but let me be clear—I'm not a fan of Space Marines. I'm an Aeldari player through and through. Sure, like many, I started with Space Marines, but my true calling has always been the space elves of Warhammer 40K.

That said, Space Marine 2 is fantastic—no two ways about it. Some of the negative reviews out there? Well, let's just say they're mostly from people upset about the game using Epic for its cross-platform and online services. Listen, every data broker on the planet already has your info—let's not pretend Epic Games is the first to do this. And don't get me wrong, I hate epic games, I refuse to spend money with them, but using their services so I can play with my Dad who has an Xbox? No question.

If you can look past the "horrendous" inconvenience of installing Epic Games services, which you can uninstall as its only used for cross-play, you'll find an absolutely incredible game.

I've played two campaign missions, one co-op PvE mission, and a few PvP rounds so far, and honestly? It's amazing. This game nails the feeling of a Space Marine sequel in every possible way. The visuals, art style, graphics, combat, sync kills and finishers, story, co-op missions, PvP, customisation, progression system, classes, and the atmosphere—all of it hits just right.

The campaign is extremely engaging and immersive, the Co-Op is just pure excellence with great pace and mission length and the PVP is extremely fun and engaging.

Now, my complaints? They’re minor but worth mentioning.

First, the lack of Chaos Space Marine (CSM) customisation is a bit of a disappointment. You can fully customise your loyalist marine piece by piece, but for CSM, you're limited to selecting an armour set. Even Space Marine 1 let you customise Chaos Marines fully, and Halo, especially reach from the same time as SM1 always let you customise your elites too, so there’s really no excuse for this in 2024.

Second, and this is more of a nitpick, but when you sheath your melee weapon or main weapon, it just disappears. Back in Space Marine 1, the weapon went on your belt or back. Even eternal crusade, the failed and dead money grab MMO shooter did this. Now, it vanishes like you're CJ from Grove Street putting an RPG in your pocket. For a game so detailed, it's surprising this was overlooked.

Regarding campaign length, I've heard mixed reports—some say 6-8 hours with a full co-op squad, while others say 10-12 hours solo. But honestly, Space Marine 1 was around 8 hours, and that felt satisfying enough. Of course, if you play on an easier difficulty with 2 other real dudes, you'll smash through it. *UPDATE* Took me 12-15 hours solo on the third difficulty (Intended Difficulty)

And get this: It's a AAA game with only cosmetic DLC. No day-one mechanical or feature DLC—just cosmetics. And the best part? The game works right out of the gate. No game-breaking bugs, no laggy servers, no bizarre glitches—it just works. That's a rarity these days, given how many AAA studios release broken games.

A little balancing and tweaking to the PVP is needed, The Devastator or "heavy" I guess they're called now, is way too OP, out shooting everything but can still survive in melee way too easy. Apart from that, its a relatively balanced experience for a none twitch, not hyper-balanced wannabe E-sport, which it is not.

For me, this is a solid 9/10. And I can’t even stand Space Marines...

*Update* I'm nearly 50 hours in now, mostly playing the operations mode. Sure, there is only 6 operations, and they only vary slightly each run of the same mission, but the game is so damn fun I haven't yet got bored of the fact the game only has 6 operations. It 100% needs way more, don't get me wrong. But I'm not bored yet. I still highly recommend.

*Update #2* 75 hours in, still not even close to being bored.

*Update #3* nearly 150 hours in, all classes maxed out. all achievements. Still having a blast. Even replayed the campaign twice. All i have left to do is max out the weapons i haven't used yet. Still having a blast.

*Update #4* another 100 hours later nearly and yup, this game just goes hard in every way. End of.

Project Wingman" is a fantastic experience that truly captures the spirit of classic aerial combat games. If you're a fan of Ace Combat or even the old-school Dropship games, this is a must-play. The game offers a perfect blend of thrilling dogfights, engaging missions, and a nostalgic yet fresh approach to flight combat. The controls are smooth and responsive, the visuals are stunning, and the soundtrack enhances the intense atmosphere of aerial warfare.

One of the standout features is the variety of fighter jets available, ranging from real-world designs to sci-fi prototypes armed with crazy weapons like swarm missiles and rail guns. You can experience all of this in first person, third person, or even in VR, which is actually amazing. While it’s not the most realistic flight sim out there—with liberties taken in the form of aerial fortress aircraft and an abundance of ammo—it leans more towards the arcadey side in a way that feels just right. It's a fantastic mix of realism and arcade fun.

Conquest Mode: Conquest Mode offers a thrilling and challenging experience where you face off against various bosses and ace squadrons in a territory capture game. Drawing inspiration from roguelikes and RPGs, this mode requires players to earn money not only to purchase new aircraft but also to build a mercenary army to take on increasingly difficult enemies. Each mission presents a new challenge, and the need to strategise and adapt keeps the gameplay fresh and exciting. This mode adds fantastic replayability and depth to the game, making it an incredibly fun addition that keeps you coming back for more.

Whether you're weaving through enemy fire or unleashing a barrage of missiles, every moment is exhilarating. Highly recommended for anyone who loves flight combat games!

Midway through my first game, and I can already say this: it’s good, very good. Worth every penny.

I’ll keep this short and sweet—this is essentially the original Sins, but better in almost every way. It takes everything from the first game and simply improves it. The graphics are sharper, the UI is so, so much more intuitive, and the game mechanics have been refined to remain simple but with nice depth. There are now more faction focused mechanics too with faction abilities. Ships now have a real presence in the universe, with physicality to projectiles, structures, and even planets. Your massive capital ships can block shots and missiles, which can, in turn, be intercepted by point defences. Planets have been expanded so you can build on them, and they have done away with that old weird janky planet focus mechanic which just wasn't needed.

Multiplayer also seems to be way more stable with no game breaking desyncs or corrupted multiplayer saves so far... Everything feels more streamlined, fluid, and visually stunning.

Concerns from the community:

AI Content Criticism: gAmE UsE aI sO gAmE bAd UnGaBuNgA - Some people are bothered by AI-generated content like a few UI elements and portraits. But honestly, if that’s going to stop you from buying such a fantastic entry in the series, then you’re missing out. This is just the direction the industry is moving and the world. Apart from the portraits, which you rarely see in the UI, it looks fine.

Crashes: I haven’t experienced even a single frame rate drop. This might be the most optimised game I’ve seen on day one in… well, forever.

DLC Concerns: I understand the concern about the DLC, especially with the fourth faction being locked behind a paywall and the fact there's going to be a new faction at all. While it might be frustrating if that faction ends up being overpowered and locked behind a paywall, I’m more worried about how it will fit into the existing three-way faction dynamic. That said, the last game also had key features behind paywalls, which is just the nature of modern gaming. Almost all of the best RTS games in the past 20 years added factions through DLC or expansions (See; Dawn of war, Company of heroes, Total war etc.) so I’m not overly nervous about it just yet.

The one thing I think they need to change currently, is the Minor faction influence bids. if you bid on an auction with influence, and lose, you lose all that influence? Seems really silly. If you lose a bid you don't still pay out so doesn't make sense. It means the player with the highest influence can just win every bid with ease.

Also, Where my achievements Stardock?

Overall, it’s just more Sins but improved in almost every way. I’ve been hyped for a while, and my expectations have been met. As long as they handle the DLC and the new faction right in the future, I won’t have any complaints.

Well, I finally finished the entire Shadowrun series. Shadowrun: Hong Kong does a lot of what Shadowrun: Dragonfall did after Shadowrun Returns—it improves on everything that was great before but also brings back some of the downsides. The characters are excellent, the combat is fun and the overall experience is good. Everything I liked about the first two games is here, but expanded on even further. However, they seem to have also expanded on the negatives too. That said, this third game is worth a buy and playing if you enjoyed Dragonfall and Returns, it just isn't the strongest in the series.

All the races, classes, skill trees, weapons, armor, spells, and drones have been slightly improved in some way. This means there are more viable options and ways to play, which is something Dragonfall already started to flesh out, especially compared to the more linear Returns.

Now, onto the downsides: the story and the Matrix/decker/hacking parts.

In the first two games, hacking into a network was a quirky, turn-based experience that felt like an extension of the real world. You’d navigate the network, fight off ICE, and summon executables to help you out. But in Hong Kong, they completely changed it up, mixing in stealth (which doesn’t work well since there aren’t any real stealth mechanics) and annoying mini-games with puzzles and memory challenges. In my opinion, it’s just awful.

Instead of smoothly hacking through barriers and ICE, you’re now forced to sneak past ICE or get dragged into turn-based combat, which slows you down and can mess up missions that are time-sensitive. The stealth here is basically just running around, hoping you don’t get caught, which isn’t fun at all. And the puzzles? First, you have to play memory games, entering sequences of numbers that get longer each time. It’s not fun, just frustrating. Once you get past that, there’s another puzzle where you have to match a flashing row of symbols with a full grid of symbols. Again, it’s not fun, just really annoying.

As for the story, it just wasn’t as interesting as the previous ones. Without giving away spoilers, one of my biggest gripes is that the game decides your backstory for you. No matter what race or class you choose, your character’s history is set in stone, which takes away from the whole point of these games where you’re supposed to create your own story through dialogue.

The story itself is okay, but the pacing is really off. Not much happens for most of the game; it’s a slow grind of side jobs until suddenly everything hits you at once near the end. Then you get two big missions (one filled to the brim with the terrible hacking mechanics, that you cannot avoid this time), and it’s over. Returns was linear in both gameplay and story, but it worked. Dragonfall wasn’t linear, and any class could work well with a great story. But here, your backstory is all decided, your path is linear, and while the classes are improved and the combat and classes are varied, it feels like they’ve taken away from everything else even further.

One other thing that bugged me, but honestly Isn't a big deal was the reduced pool of Shadowrunners you can hire. In Dragonfall, they cut down the big list of random Shadowrunners to focus more on the main characters, which was fine because they were varied, covered all bases of combat and mechanics and were strong. But here, it’s even smaller, and the few you can hire aren’t that interesting and aren’t as useful as the main team. The main team, are less interesting, less varied and are pretty terrible at what they specialise in. You basically have to use the main characters, and if you don’t, you miss out on a lot of dialogue and story. Plus, the hired Shadowrunners aren’t that great in combat either and cost a lot of money to hire a full team.

Overall, it’s still a great game, but definitely the weakest in the series. If they hadn’t fleshed out the classes, weapons, armor, spells, and general gameplay, I’d probably be giving this a neutral review because the story just doesn’t carry it and the matrix/hacking rework sucks, but that's all down to preference.

Shadowrun: Dragonfall significantly improves upon the shortcomings of its predecessor, Shadowrun: Returns. While I enjoyed Shadowrun: Returns, the combat felt overly simple, with a lack of skills and class differentiation, lacking the depth of the original tabletop ruleset. The story also felt too linear, with limited impact from player choices. Additionally, the game lacked some basic UI elements, such as the ability to trade items between characters during missions or allowing another character to lead the party. Which Dragonfall still has not implemented...

Dragonfall, originally intended as an expansion, offers a much richer experience, standing as a separate game. It's approximately twice as long as Returns, providing a more intricate and balanced gameplay experience. While it still doesn't fully capture the complexity of the tabletop version, it introduces more skills and a wider variety of story approaches, allowing players to tackle main and side missions in different ways.

The story in Dragonfall is as strong as in Returns, featuring a few twists and maintaining engagement throughout. However, one aspect I didn't enjoy as much was the predetermined backstory for your character. Unlike in Shadowrun: Returns, where your past was more ambiguous and served mainly to kickstart the story, Dragonfall delves deeply into your character's history. This pre-set backstory shapes much of the narrative, which can feel restrictive compared to the more open-ended character backgrounds in the previous game.

Similarly, the game assigns you a set team of characters instead of allowing you to hire from a pool of diverse runners for each mission, as in the first game. While there are still some non-main character runners, they are fewer in number and offer less variety, often being inferior to the main side characters. This approach, while enriching the game's dialogue and character interactions, limits your options for assembling a team and makes the game feel more linear again. It sacrifices some of the flexibility and choice found in the first game for the sake of more narrative content, which the game already has in abundance.

Overall, Shadowrun: Dragonfall is a marked improvement, offering a more robust and engaging experience. However, it still leaves room for growth in terms of complexity, basic UI elements, and player choice with the runners you take a long and some aspects of dialog and story choices. It's still a solid CRPG in a fantastic universe.

Easy Red 2 is an awesome sandbox indie game that feels a bit like Hell Let Loose but more on the arcade side with incredible scale at times.

It's got various single-player campaigns for the different factions/countries with epic scale battles. There's a ton of variety with different armies/countries, unit types, squad classes, weapons and vehicles, so you never get bored and can switch up your play style at any time. If you're into big, diverse battles, this game is a blast!

Just beware of the AI. Sometimes they seem to act quite intelligently, attacking objectives by advancing from cover to cover, supporting each other with cover fire and reviving and healing wounded soldiers, pushing objectives hard as they're about to be lost and even calling in support such as tanks and artillery over radio's. However, sometimes they just seem to break entirely, usually when you set the population to as big as a map allows and usually the defending team. They will sometimes just stand in a big clump out in the open and fail to shoot enemies up close or cap objectives at all.

Their aim is also very inconsistent and they seem to prioritise targeting the player. They either cant hit you point blank or can blow your head off from across the map the second you stand up, despite there being 50 targets closer to them than you etc.

Still I highly recommend for anyone looking for a game where you can jump in and have immediate fun.

Also, you can capture enemy soldiers and then commit warcrimes with POW's so that's pretty cool.

It's actually crazy how far this game has come. When it released, it was absolutely terrible. It had no content, none of the promises were fulfilled, and it was missing so much of what we were promised. The developers got a lot of hate for releasing the game when they did.

However, years later, there have been massive major content updates every few months that add so much to the game, it's wild. And it's all free!

It's now a really good game and can be really fun. It's finally multiplayer, finally runs well, and finally has so much content that you can play for hours and hours, still figuring stuff out, building, and unlocking new things and ships.

This game came out 10 years, 10 months, and 16 days ago. I've had two new PCs since then, all custom-built and high-end.

And the game still runs like absolute ♥♥♥♥. But, if you find a Zeus community, you can literally live out your best game fantasies with custom made mods, missions and maps. The mods are what make this game so great and worth ignoring the terrible performance and jankiness of the Arma 3 engine.

Whether you're running around as a Space Marine from Warhammer, an ODST from Halo, A modern military solider from recent wars in history, a World War II soldier, or even a helldiver, you can easily look past the fact that the game still runs like ass.

I'm going to recommend this, but only because there is no neutral option.

When Total War: Warhammer 2 released, it had so much new content and updates that it really did feel like a true sequel to the first game, with a vastly and dynamically expanded roster of factions, unit types, map size, mechanics, and campaign styles.

In Warhammer 3 on release, I honestly can't see what's new except for a boring campaign mode (until mortal empires released) few factions which aren't very unique despite being mainly about the actual Chaos gods, and a pretty rushed and basic campaign mode. If, like me, you have a favourite faction that was already released in the past two games or came as additional paid-for DLC, you'll feel like you're just playing Warhammer 2.

I'm a High Elf, Wood Elf, or Dark Elf enjoyer. So, apart from a few new minor features such as threatening trespassing armies and building outposts, which took them three fully-priced games to finally add, I honestly don't see what I dropped £50 on, plus probably another £50 for DLCs in Warhammer 3 alone... That's another thing. The base games are quite expensive, considering that you need to buy nearly £200 of DLC to get the full experience on top of it.

Because I'm a huge Warhammer fan, and I love Total War, I'm going to leave the review as positive, only due to there being no neutral review available. One huge notable improvement is the mortal empires turn timer. It's actually really fast now and gets over 200 factions done in around 10-15 seconds max.

If you're not interested in the new factions or don't want to take out a loan to buy all the DLC, I'd honestly stick with 2 when on sale.