Recent reviews by Ranting Monkey

A bit short but worth it if you like the Dungeons franchise. The humor is there and the game play is different enough not to feel like they're just milking what already exists.

I still prefer to be underground building my dungeons but this was a nice change of pace.

My only real complaint is the lack of more skirmish maps to take advantage of the new game mechanics. It'd be nice to have some variety there.

I love Pokemon and Ark, how could I not like this?

I'm enjoying it so far but they really shoulda called this Forest for Dummies. It takes all of the survival out of it, food and water are ridiculously easy to come by. There seems to be no good reason to build a base, just set up camp each night as needed. It's a survival game for people who don't like survival games.

It's fun for what it is but survival it's definitely not.

It's bad enough that gamers have to accept brand new games crashing and needing fixed on launch day, it's inexcusable that this game is still having frequent crashes nearly 5 months later.

Mostly fun game that was ruined for me by the mini-games.

Short Version: I played hundreds of hours of SP1 and SP2 and have been waiting for this. Given my admittedly limited game time, I cannot in good conscience recommend this game in this state. Avoid it, at least for now.

Long Version: When the best the positive steam reviews can manage is "it has potential" it should have been a red flag. Almost as much of a red flag as how quickly it went from "coming soon" to "Oct. 7 release." It does have potential but I don't buy games hoping for them to one day be worth playing.

Some of it is minor bugs like flag textures going missing. Some of it is design decisions like not being able to queue military units to be built or ridiculous taxes on commodities, less than 1% on US energy? For real?

The simple fact is, the game seems not only rushed but dumbed down from previous versions. It's got a fancy new interface with no guidance on where things are. I cannot imagine how players who haven't played previous versions are even trying to figure out what to do given the only thing resembling a tutorial are 3 Youtube videos linked on the opening splash screen.

This might pass as an early access, as a full release it's insulting.

Be aware, this is more Factorio than SimCity. That's not a bad thing if you like resource management games. It was recommended to me because I like city builders, it's just a happy accident that I like resource management games too.

It's a bit clunky (why do I have to hit esc to get off a tool?) but it's solid with an interesting twist on the genre.

It's got a steep learning curve and the tutorial isn't very helpful. It shows you how to do things but gives no real reason as to why you're doing them. There is so much thrown at you that it can still be overwhelming even if you're familiar with the genre.

I say all of this while still whole heartedly recommending it to people who like this genre. If you're not into this kind of game, it's just going to frustrate you.

My only complaint so far is that's its damned annoying to have to keep spamming the Q button.

The Sims 4 wouldn't be a bad game if it had been the third game but as a follow up to SIms 3 it's just lacking. You're too constrained compared to what 3 offered. Get The Sims 3 instead.

It's a fun game with a few minor issues.

The main story is often overshadowed by far more interesting side quests.A lot of the side quests are just the same formula repeated with new text but some of them really shine and made me wonder why the main quest wasn't more interesting. Also, some of the quests are heavily story driven. You're basically just waiting to hit to predetermined dialog option. The stories are generally good but I felt more like I was watching a game than playing it sometime, almost like an interactive cut scene.

I've run into a few bugs (1 CTD and 1 door that wouldn't open requiring me to reload a previous save) but nothing that's made me want to quit playing.

Basically, if you like GTA style games this isn't a bad entry into the genre. There's more RPG to it than GTA but any choices are just as irrelevant to the story.