Recent reviews by Syl-Man

It really is just a better, more powerful version of RPG Maker XP - which I used before getting this - and I've had a lot of fun messing around with the tools it provides.

Definitely recommend any one of the RPG Maker series if you're feeling creative.

My how far this game has fallen.

I've been into this game since pretty damn near the beginning. Back then it was a sense of adventure to rank up through the tiers and levels, both of which were very hard to increase - so the challenge was there. That sense of "Yeah, I built that" when you finally make that perfect bot was also brilliant.

Those days are long since past.

The tiering system is gone entirely, and it is SO EASY to level up, that when I started the game after it was first changed. I jumped from 55 to 100 instantly, and I heard you could jump from even further back than that. The game's menus are SO CLUNKY now and they're hard to navigate... I still don't know what many of my button mappings actually do on the menu, but they do something. The colouring system was a neat idea - though it's just a consolation prize for losing the tiering system - but you have to be premium to actually have creativity with the colours, which is just... marvelous. Oh, no more tech points? There goes the fun in unlocking things too.

The Community Robot Factory, while well-intended, is just a plagiarism facility at worst, and at best utterly annihilates that thrill of finally completing a robot which you built yourself. Also, HOW MUCH ARE THESE WEAPONS?! TEN MILLION RP FOR A SINGLE TOP-POWER WEAPON? GET STUFFED I AIN'T PAYIN' THAT I ONLY GET LIKE 50-100K PER BATTLE!!!

Medic bots have been rendered obsolete, as has any form of stategy in the game and the building, by the auto heal feature. If you do actually take damage, you can hide behind a corner, and get all your health back. What a load of ♥♥♥♥. And the pilot seat was removed, so no need to worry about protecting the weak spot now.

I really miss the old boss battle/megabot challenge. Couple of strong bots against a full team of weak ones. That was actually really fun and it was balanced too. Guess they decided it gave the veteran players too much enjoyment, and they didn't want noobs rage-quitting after one of these fights, so it's gone now.

Worst of all, the game crashes a LOT more than it used to, which really pisses me off, as if you're in the middle of a battle, SEE YA NO REWARD FOR YOU WE JUST WANNA WASTE YOUR TIME BYE! I swear the amount of times I heard "A PLAYER HAS DISCONNECTED" in one match was frightening, just before I crashed myself.

I remember the days when I used to enjoy this game, but now it's both too complex and too simple at once. Complex, in the sense that all those CUBE VARIATIONS; inner slope, edge slope, what? WHAT ARE THESE FOR?

At least they refunded all those new garage payments I made so now I have thousands upon thousands of free GC. So there's that at least.

UPDATE TIME:

So, they changed the mechanics again, by changing prices so they are a bit cheaper. Fine, that's alright, it's a good start. What isn't so good is that they lowered the maximum reward whilst raising the minimum one, so now you earn roughly the same amount of RP whether you're complete crap or absolutely amazing. To quote, "Our intent was to help boost the RP income of below-average skilled players so they felt they could make progress regardless, and to lower the bonus obtained for doing exceptionally well to something far more reasonable."

So now what? Now there is ZERO incentive to actually put effort in to get good at the game, because you still get a decent amount of RP just for participation. This just downright insults those who have taken the time to learn and master the game by restricting the value of their skill, and patronizes the weak and makes it so that they don't have to actually master the game at all. Add this factor to the appalling matchmaking and you get a complete and utter mess of a competitive game.

... If you do exceptionally well at something, you expect to be rewarded for it. If you're bad, you're deprived of that reward so you have incentive to get better so you will EARN that reward. But no, everyone gets similar amounts now. It's as if the devs wanted to be modern-day Robin Hoods, or those feminists trying to sort out the mythical "wage-gap" that no-one can prove exists. There's a better way to fix the progression issue; stop making everything so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ expensive. Even with these price drops, most of the top-tier weapons are seven million or so anyway - so what's the point of all this?

Well, at least they tried. They killed off all of their veterans with this change, but they tried. I know some of you will call this "nitpicking" but when you see how much of a stupid concept this all is...

UPDATE AGAIN:

Ok. They reverted the reward changes. I take back all that I said before. Good to see that the devs are actually listening to the community for once. Let's see where the future takes the game now. They still have a bit to fix.

Fun game, very addicting. But if you're a "play for the sake of playing" kind of person - i.e. you play for fun, not to win - then you're better off only playing with friends or bots.

This game doesn't feel like Minecraft at all in my opinion. I'd say it's more like Starbound, whether it's in the greater variety of enemies, the crafting system, or the unbelievably awesome atmosphere it creates with the well placed music and sound cues. The difficulty curve is just sublime, in particular - it'll never force you into an area you're not ready for, and new enemies are just the right level of toughness for each layer.

The only thing I find "wrong" with it is the movement, but only the momentum issues with stopping and starting, and the fact that you just tumble down a cliff even when you're not holding a movement key, but honestly, these actually just add to the realistic quality of the game.

All in all, it's just brilliant, and I find myself always turning to it when I get bored of TF2 or PAYDAY 2 for a while.

It's a good thing the game has the capacity for 100+ save files, 'cause I save every time a choice comes up...

I kind of forgot that the sonic remakes and newer sonic 2D games were made for psychics. I mean, with that speed and the stupid zoomed in camera, you can barely see where you're going half the time. That's not mentioning that bloody chameleon enemy that gives you half a second's warning, or that the enemies are sometimes placed in really cheap places.

But I realise that this game is more about memorising everything along that path that you have to take to beat the level, perfecting the tactics as you go. So when you finally beat that level or boss, you know you've done your job well.

Really, the game is not perfect, but this test of reflexes and memory is still worth it.

Overall, this is a pretty good game. Well plotted storyline, decent graphics (well, for 2006), brilliant soundtrack and easy to learn controls. Obviously, as this is a non-stand-alone explansion that basically adds another act to the original 4 with more content, you do have to get the original Titan Quest to get it, but it is worth it. Will you save the ancient world from a great, mythological evil? Or just charge into groups of various monsters and beat them to a pulp? Your choice.