Recent reviews by SID

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ finally they added cloud saves. might actually play again

You need this to play the Mortal Empires and Immortal Empires maps in Warhammer 2 and Warhammer 3 respectively.

Some things I've noticed instantly, as compared to my hundreds of hours of Warhammer 2 and the couple of hours I have on Warhammer 3;
1. Map size being smaller benefits the game significantly. Admittedly, it does feel quite a bit more lonely and the existence of diplomacy is barely functional, but there is nevertheless a sense of safety that you can get in this game that you will never experience in the other Warhammers, at least until way further down the line.
2. Battleground size being bigger is a huge improvement and I wish that this was still the case for the current Warhammer games. The larger map makes reinforcements have to crawl across the huge landscape, which is annoying, but it also gives way more opportunity to push landscape advantage and to control your units in a more strategic fashion. This also means you actually have to utilize the run/walk mechanic, which is a nice change of pace.
3. Cavalry works. Perhaps a little too well, admittedly, as they seem to significantly outclass most ground units. That being said, there's actually a reason to have charge defense in your army, as charges are actually an important part of the game now.
4. Missiles are way weaker, and it's not really that bad. Admittedly, missiles feel way more inaccurate and there's a considerable lack of satisfaction when unloading entire rounds of ammunition into on-coming enemy forces, but it's also not really that bad. Less missile units means more strategy, in my opinion.
5. Heroes are way overpowered, but maybe that's a good thing? I definitely notice the overwhelming strength of heroes in this game moreso than WH2 and WH3, though that may be by virtue of the missiles being far weaker (and relying on your infantry is just throwing wave after wave of them into an unstoppable force, so the only way to counter heroes is with heroes). They're also a lot rarer.
6. Some aspects of the U.I. are arguably better, and I like the option to choose multiple of different heroes in the same starting location. The other games have this too, but to an extremely limited extent. I don't really care that much about it though. It just feels like each faction is more self-contained.
7. Magical items are more rare, quest battles are more casual; why did this go away? Magical items SHOULD be rare by virtue of providing a stat boost to the strongest unit types in the game, and casual quest battles teach the player how to play the game or provide a unique gameplay scenario. They can't be that hard to set up.
8. No environment, just limited conquest; this is an interesting design choice and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. On one hand, it makes playing each faction especially different because they are bound to certain cities that they can colonize. On the other hand, you cannot guarantee the stop of a resurgence of your enemy due to the fact that razed ruins can still be colonized by them, and only them.

I might add more later as I go further into the game, but it's surprising how different this feels as compared to Warhammer 2.

fun game, hopefully more content to come, can get stale but the movement and combat is miles above vermintide 2. characters are forgettable.

sticky, unresponsive controls & no ability to problemsolve creatively. difficulty is really janky and arbitrary, with some things being unreadable

it's a fun game and i had fun playing it the first time around. two of the achievements, beat wave 15 on all characters takes about 10 hours (8 hours at the fastest) and reach level 50 takes about 15 or so hours. otherwise its a fun game and interesting even if its real campy

idk, its kinda fun. sometimes its a little janky but overall not too bad. crashes sometimes. very arcadey which is fun

Very fun pls buy

Bioshock: Infinite is the third and (so far) final entry in the Bioshock series. The story follows Booker Dewitt and his escapades as a hired gun in the hyper-American airpunk city of Colombia. While the political messages in this game are confusing at times, the story itself is compelling and enjoyable.

Bioshock: Infinite -- The city of Colombia & meeting Elizabeth
GAMEPLAY 6/10 -- A decent shooter with lots of routes and options to adopt for combat. Rather than having scarce ammunition like in the former entries, Bioshock: Infinite allows the player to only hold two weapons at a time. This posits a lot of variety for gun use. The same cannot be said about the vigors, of which many are just clearly better than others.
STORY 7/10 -- I actually like the story, sort of. I think that the "both sides are bad" mentality holds the game from truly being minted as definitely good story-wise. That being said, the collectibles and whatnot (including the voxophones) paint a really interesting and unique story.
BEAUTY 8/10 -- Conceptually and visually, the Bioshock: Infinite world is fascinating and beautiful. The style is decent, though could have been executed better.
[OVERALL] 7/10 -- The game is good.
~15 HOURS TO 100% (1998 MODE WITH VOXOPHONES IS HARD)


[DLC] City in the Sky -- Arcade
GAMEPLAY 7/10 -- There are four different maps with numerous variables and 15 rounds of combat each. Each map is very unique and interesting, differentiating each other effectively, Each round of combat is designed intently. While achieving all the special conditions is rather time-consuming, I enjoyed doing it.
STORY N/A -- This is an arcade mode.
BEAUTY 5/10 -- It's an arcade mode. However, some of the scenery is unique and I like that this mode has its own special maps.
[OVERALL 5/10] -- It's fun, but I wouldn't recommend it if you didn't like the initial game's gunplay.
~12 HOURS TO 100%


[DLCs] Burial at Sea (part 1 & 2)
GAMEPLAY 8/10 -- Rapture is generally a more interesting map and I really enjoyed the different methods of approach, mostly due to the focus on stealth in part 2.
STORY 8/10 -- Caps off the story of Bioshock: Infinite and grants some insight into how the three games are all interlinked. It's also fun to be in Rapture before chaos strikes.
BEAUTY 9/10 -- Rapture is a beautiful city conceptually. The map you traverse is drastically different from Colombia, which was genuinely a little baffling to me.
[OVERALL 9/10] -- This is one of the best DLCs for a game I've ever played. The DLCs in combination is about 3/4th the size of the main campaign. Less maps & areas generally, but each map is much more elaborately designed, allowing for lots of sightseeing.
~4 HOURS TO 100%

OVERALL RATING FOR BIOSHOCK: INFINITE: 7/10

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor is a stealth-fighting game with a fairly basic concept that carries it when other aspects fail. The Captain and Warchief system is the main gameplay mechanic that keeps you coming back and is handled much better than in, for example, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey & its bounty hunters. However, having played Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, I can pretty assuredly make the statement that this game feels like a shell of its sequel -- a proof of concept, interested in seeing how actionable the gameplay loop is. With that, I recommend getting this only if you have not played Middle-Earth: Shadow of War yet. Otherwise, know you are not particularly missing out.


Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor -- Following the story of Talion;
GAMEPLAY (COMBAT) 8/10 -- Meaty and visceral, down from 9/10 because the game leans too heavily into combat abilities late-game, rather than distancing, parrying, etc.
GAMEPLAY (MOVEMENT) 6/10 -- Frustrating and buggy, but decent nonetheless -- an honest attempt at emulating the smoothness of Assassin's Creed movement
STORY 4/10 -- The only part that's intriguing is the fact that it's a Lord of the Rings game; the voice acting is rough and the characters inconsequential
BEAUTY 5/10 -- The first map is boring and grey, with the main beauty going to individual model graphics; the second map is greener but lacks substance, with large areas of scenic nothingness
SOUNDTRACK 8/10 -- Repetitive but still good, though some of Hans Zimmer's stuff is pretty obnoxious
[OVERALL] 7/10 -- I can't bring myself to give this game any lower, since I do really love it and enjoyed playing it; very short campaign, maybe 3-5 hours long
~15 HOURS TO 100%


[DLC] Lord of the Hunt -- Following the story of Talion and Torvin
GAMEPLAY 5/10 -- Reused map, but with some new mechanics relating to Uruks and wildlife
STORY 5/10 -- I like the dwarf character, and learning about his past and how he writes about Talion is sort of engaging; distinct lack of Celebrimbor's voice actor
BEAUTY 1/10 -- It's a reused map
SOUNDTRACK 4/10 -- Some new music related to wildlife, but otherwise untouched
[OVERALL 3/10] -- Recommended only for achievements
2-4 HOURS TO 100%


[DLC] The Bright Lord -- Following the story of Celebrimbor;
GAMEPLAY 7/10 -- A decent amount of new content mixed with the old, adding new mechanics and bigger focus on stealth and branding (which is when you make an Uruk fight for you)
STORY 7/10 -- Actually pretty interesting and grants much-needed depth to Celebrimbor, the elf who "saves you" from death and binds souls with you in the main game; good voice acting
BEAUTY 7/10 -- It's a re-done version of the first map, but drastically changed with tone surrounding the Uruks; definitely pretty interesting spin with a lot of work put into it
SOUNDTRACK 5/10 -- I can't say I noticed the music having been changed
[OVERALL 7/10] -- Very fun and enjoyable, though also very short
3-5 HOURS TO 100%


[DLC] Trials of War -- Timed challenges
GAMEPLAY 7/10 -- Requires you to think outside the box, streamlining your movement and time preservation
STORY N/A - Nothing new
BEAUTY N/A - Nothing new
SOUNDTRACK N/A - Nothing new
[OVERALL 7/10] -- Fun and adds a lot of necessary challenge to the game
N/A Hours to 100%

OVERALL RATING FOR MIDDLE-EARTH: SHADOW OF MORDOR: 6.5/10

My previous review was a suggestion at three hours and now I'm at almost 200 hours, as of writing this. The art in this game is beautiful and the music is really great. The 4X component of the game (as compared to the 'strategy' part) is very rapid, making it much less of a slog in middle to late game (though it definitely slows down in a turns per minute ratio, you get more done on each turn gradually). The combat is fairly simply but miles above Civilization 6. Battles are complicated and even though the A.I. aren't exactly pristine at it, there's many situations where you'll find yourself in over your head or find yourself ambushing an enemy army that thought it could get away with killing one of your scouts (using the 'reinforcement' mechanic). At the higher difficulties, there is a component of luck to whether or not your game is going to be viable, but once you get beyond the first era (not including prehistory), you'll find that strategy and dedication can resolve wonderfully for you.

Unlike Civilization, HUMANKIND relies heavily on all of its mechanics in order to nudge the player in a certain direction, and while I don't necessarily think it's perfect, it helps pace the game and make the player have to sacrifice immediate advantages for better positions (or vice versa, sacrifice potential score for immediate advantage) in the late game. Notably, the Fame system, which is overwhelmingly controversial, grants you Fame points if you accomplish a goal within the era that you are in, with a minimum of 7 stars required to move beyond your era. These are each tied to a certain playstyle; Agrarian (Population Size), Militant (Enemy Units Killed), Aesthete (Culture Produced), Merchant (Gold Produced), Diplomat (Leverage Produced), and Scientist (Technologies Discovered). This system makes it entirely pointless to rush through eras as soon as you can because you need to dedicate a lot of your time to fending off enemies, keeping your population alive and stable, making sure your faith and culture survives, and doing all of that while maintaining a exponential science and production output, which is harder than it sounds.

Faith is not entirely important but allows you large early game bonuses (that don't scale super great) and the ability to address stability issues in your cities, with the religious leader being able to build up to 5 Holy Sites that each grant 20 stability. Additionally, some cultures, tenants, and wonders can provide certain bonuses that align with faith output (i.e. one food per faith). Also, if you are practicing a faith with certain tenants, you can increase your combat strength, which is very powerful.

Culture dictates what direction your policies trend towards, with each direction representing a dichotomy of political philosophy, split into four rows. These are; internationalism v. isolationism, authority v. liberty, tradition v. science, collectivist v. individualist. Sitting in the middle of the axes grants bonus stability to all cities, but veering into extremes removes that bonus and grants different yields, such as bonus money (individualist) or bonus food output (collectivist). If your culture beats other cultures through pure influence output, you are given a grievance (a literal 'war reason'), which allows you to garner war support, War support is another currency type (relative to each other player) that dictates when a war ends, how much the winner gets, and other things. Basically, maintaining culture is important, as if you get out-cultured, your opponents will garner large amount of war score, and, in the most recent political update, can even force you to either cede your land or declare war on them (declaring an offensive war is always bad for war score, particularly if it's 'unjust'), putting you at an extreme disadvantage.

Money is money. You can buy things with it. You can also spend population to build things faster. Meat coins.

Food is the rate at which your cities grow. Citizens of your city can fill 'jobs' that makes them passively produce certain outputs. There's a job for each of the four naturally producing outputs; farmers, workers, scientists, and merchants. Typically, you always want these jobs barely full, as having overgrowth can result in famine. That's when throwing population at a random city project can be especially handy. Also, creating military units expends population, with a greater amount being used as the game goes on (i.e. high quality units = high population cost).

Science basically works the same as in Civilization -- it's a raw output that translates into generation more of everything through invention. Both the food and science production could use an overhaul, making them more interesting.

Overall, this is actually a great game, surprised as I am to say it. When I heard first impressions, it seemed like people didn't really like it because it seemed to have over-promised (or rather, people have different expectations). My brother told me that he was hoping that you could actually create your culture rather than traverse through eras, selecting existing cultures. That being said, it's actually a really well thought out game mechanic and honestly works better than that of Civilization's, in which choosing a character is basically a commitment to two or three win conditions. Legacy bonuses (bonuses you retain for the rest of the game after adopting a culture) grant so much versatility, as do the unique units and buildings that each culture gets.

The city building isn't all there and can feel a little repetitive, but that's only if you're playing on low difficulties where the A.I. aren't always riding your ass. The way city states work in this game is pretty stupid, though, and make them all feel extremely samey. While the leaders you play against aren't the most recognizable, as they are in Civilization, you do begin to figure out their personality types and play appropriately.

Overall, this is a great game and I'd recommend it to anyone who's interested. 7/10, 8/10 with Together We Rule DLC.

Update: Much like the developers of No Man's Sky who underdelivered on expectations but paved their way out, the developers of HUMANKIND still update the game to this day. It's very clear that this game is a passion project to the developers, and I still highly recommend it.