Recent reviews by Carl Brutananadilewski

The quick answer: If you like RoboCop this game was clearly made by people who feel the same. Hard recommend if you enjoy Robocop or 80s era movies. You may miss some relevance if you have not watched Robocop 2 (you can safely ignore every other RoboCop movie after 2). PS You should watch RoboCop. The demo for the game should be more than enough to determine if you will enjoy it- it's actually a very generous demo.

Robocop: Rogue City does not really do anything revolutionary, it doesn't necessarily innovate on the genre but it absolutely is the best RoboCop game to date. You may be thinking 'That's not a high bar' and you would be correct but, smartass, this game SETS the bar. Faithful almost to a fault, likenesses of major characters used, and even Peter Weller returning to the role as Alex Murphy.

For fans on the movie this is a no-brainer, absolutely worth it at full price. You will find yourself grinning, laughing, or at least happy with just how much the devs have done to authenticate the RoboCop world and feel. The satire is almost entirely on brand with Verhooven's style and the dystopia and 80s aesthetics are absolutely there. They do not try to modernize or streamline aesthetics- it's pulled from the movies and proudly so.

The story, while not mind-blowing, is what you would expect from RoboCop and the clear struggle between Alex Murphy and RoboCop and just where the line between them is. You are given choices are various points (from issuing a ticket or letting someone off with a warning to dialogue with the therapist that has been assign to Murphy himself) that tend to cater toward the prime directives of RoboCop. Serve the public trust, uphold the law, protect the innocent. You will find yourself at crossroads where you need to choose which of those directives you prioritize and it can influence the way people think about and respond to RoboCop himself

My first playthrough I played between altruistic choices with my own personal biases (if you litter openly I'm not going to let you off with a warning, pal. If you're drunk in public but in a secluded area as a homeless man then I really don't think you're hurting anyone- I'll warn you because you're really not causing any harm) across various types of crimes. I will say that generally choosing not to protect the innocent would be actively choosing to ignore people asking for help in my experience. Upholding the law and serving the public trust are the most called upon in your choices. I noticed in my playthrough that some graffiti had painted over with a large RIGHTEOUS ROBOCOP mural in a back alley but I cannot speak to how much of that changes if you opt to play differently. It was still a really cool discovery to see.

The shooting is solid and you will, more often than not, be using your trademark Auto-9 (you can pick up other weapons but limited ammo means you will likely be swapping back to your Auto-9) but a couple of hours in you are introduced to the PCB sytems which determines statistics and special properties for the Auto-9. You find chips of specific types (+ shaped, L shaped, | shaped, T shaped) in various orientations with a percentage bonus on them and place them in a circuit board. The goal is to route the power on the PCB to the nodes you want (bonuses in parameters like accuracy, damage, ammo capacity, reload speed, armor penetration etc) toward special nodes (a single-shot fire mode which increases the damage of your shots when used, no-reload, extra armor piercing, a chance for bullets to explore, a chance for bullets to split into pellets at close range, fully-auto firing mode, and added gore to kills but I may be forgetting a couple) but the catch is that you need to align these chips to route past nodes that will incur overall penalties.

A T-shaped junction may have a penalter to one side where you would want an L-shaped chip to make sure you route the power away from it. You cannot rotate chips, however, but they don't have to fit the junction perfectly. A | could be placed on a + for example and while it might not route to a bonus on one of those branches it will still allow the power to pass along to further nodes. The same goes for T-shaped chips in L-shaped junctions and so on. It kind of reminds me a BIT of hacking in Bioshock but it's purely for setting up the bonuses for your Auto-9. You find, roughly, six different PCBs? They general have a particular skew toward what they are good at but I found it a fun thing. As you progress (or raise the engineering skill) you will find chips of higher bonuses (or, with the latter, increase the bonus to all chip values) and if you find yourself with chips you don't need you can combine three chips to spit out a random chip with a generally higher value you than the highest value chip you put in, it can help you quickly make some beefy chips if you find yourself with ones you are not using. As the PCBs move along they tend to become more complex but that also means they confer more room for increases in weapon parameters.

Of course, there is combat itself. Shooting feels right for RoboCop and some of the kills are very satisfying or appropriate for the violence from the films. There is virtually no enemy you cannot snatch by the neck and hurl into whatever you like (I'm a fan of throwing thugs into the air and letting them fall to their death or blasting them out of the air, personally) and punching has a satisfying bloodyness to it. It's also extremely satisfying to snatch a thug right off his motorcycle as he drives past and throw him right into the buddy riding up on you and kill them both in the process (or just detonate their motorcycle by shooting it- or pick up a motorcycle and throw it at someone).

Every skill category has passive bonuses and three keystone abilities. A few of those abilities feel a bit boring or less-useful (IE punching someone instantly reloading your weapons- but it could have a use with some of the heavier weapons given their reload times). Damage, Damage Reuction, Max Health, Bonus to chip values, scanning range, XP gained from readable items in the environment and lowering requirements for skill checks all raise 5% per point in the given skill which gives them a cap of 50% (though investigation's final ability increases ALL XP gain 30%). With about 5 points in investigation I had enough skill points to generally max out three or four skills (I spread mine out a bit) if you chose to which grants replay value.

Did I mentioN NEW GAME PLUS? Hell yeah, there's a new game plus. I'm looking forward to going back through the game and getting armor and health maxed out to feel as tanky as possible on my next run in additiont o seeing how things change if I choose to be more callous in general.

I did basically everything I could in my playthrough as of the time of this writing and got 18-19 hours out of it and it was worth every penny. Really, give this game a shot. It was CLEARLY made with love and passion. Play it!

This game is filled with twice as many annoyances for every fun thing about it. The shortest way to say it is that it is just a slog to get through but it does enough right to keep you going if the story interests you. It's the most subjective recommendation I can think of. It depends entirely on your investment in the story and your patience.

I won't dig into personal feelings about where the plot goes or who shows up here or there (I will say Sephiroth doesn't need to be involved in every damn part of the game but people want to see him) but I will say that the combat feels good, there are some good expansions to it that make fighting aerial enemies and generally playing highly evasive styles more viable. The real problem comes in with the changes to the weapon upgrade system (I didn't think it needed to be changed, personally) which uses SP to buy nodes on a skill map (which you can freely remove or re-activate at your leisure- provided you're at a book store or a specific book machine dotted here and there throughout the world. I have no clue why they felt like making you have to find one of these to redistribute or respec was necessary but they did.)

SP is gained through levelling up and acquiring character manuscripts (both generally rewarding 10 SP) which isn't so bad but you must also consider your PARTY LEVEL and this is where it gets irritating for me. Party XP is gained by defeating bosses and some story events but the bulk of it comes from SIDE CONTENT. So if you find sidequests dragging on, minigames becoming unfun, you don't want to perfect the tasks for special combat encounters... You are depriving yourself of the advancement to more advanced skills. This can include abilities to use a third tier limit break or synergy skills (a good addition, but that's more in the combat section) or just useful abilities (gaining limit break when staggering an enemy, for example).

Another issue? The main menu. You hit start and your first option is your Item Transmuter (mixed feelings on this, I kind of like the idea of being able to make gear or consumables but the collecting aspects aren't great- though you can sink gil into buying ingredients from previous areas you have been). So next you have your equipment/gear/materia set-up option, next you have your space where you set skill shortcuts (they DO allow for separate shortcuts if the character is capable of fighting airborne which is pretty useful if you play a very mobile character) and set the characters in your three preset parties you can switch to fairly easily in the world (which is nice). Next you have Weapon Upgrades- what do you do here? Upgrade weapons? No. You can look at your weapon upgrades here but not much else. THEN you have your menu that actually lets you get to your items where you can use potions or the like from your inventory. Why this is not the first or second option boggles me- why the Weapon Upgrades menu is even there boggles me.

Weapon upgrades are more like a list of perks that slowly grow over time. You have three slots and as you gain weapon levels you unlock more of these- some of them are useful and some feel inconsequential. Additionally, as your weapon level goes up materia slots get added to weapons- but you don't get to choose which of them nor when. The Buster Sword just eventually grows more slots et cetera. The perks can range from '+3 MP' to '+10% limit break damage' to '+5% crit rate' ro 'bonus ATB at the start of battle' to '+200 HP' or '+20 Attack' et cetera. Some of these are clearly more advantageous than others. Almost always, for me, it came down to which weapon had the most materia slots- because there are so many types of materia that you'll probably be wanting to equip a lot of them.

Worth mentioning in the vein of good ideas- you can find earrings that function as the highest tier of a given materia which essentially frees up a materia slot and gives you the maximum benefit of that given materia. The most clear example is HP Up earrings which can give you 30% extra HP long before you've had time to get HP Up materia even to three of five ranks (I don't think I have a 5 rank one even by the end of the game). Accessories can be a bit of mixed bag, some seem extremely powerful while others I never once used. The 'Karmic Cowl' you can make with ingredients from a particular monster gives +30 attack, magic attack, defense, and spirit and later can be upgraded to provide +50 if you spend enough time with the Golden Saucer.

Furthermore, a lot of the minigames and sidequests reward character manuscripsts that provide the SP you need to unlock skills. This ends up feeling like you NEED to do side content and minigames to get the most out of your characters and of those various minigames (and I do not mean those at the gold saucer- those are all pretty much fine) precious few are entertaining enough to engage with extensively- not to mention the hard versions that unlock (and also can give you 5 SP for completing them, incentivizing you to engage with it to unlock more skills/nodes for your characters). I think about the only new minigame that I managed to get some kind of genuine fun out of was Queens Blood but only after a lot of bashing my head against it and frequent retooling my deck (this can be an appeal to some) which has it's own over-arcing narrative.

There also exists a frustrating double-standard around what you can and cannot jump off of to lower ground. Some jumps are two or three times higher than others that inexplicably will not let you jump off of them despite clear ground below. This is even more perplexing when you get 'gliding chocobos' who can glide from perches a hundred meters high but can't glide twenty feet off a plain ledge. I found myself saying 'I promise you can make that jump' to the game more times than I could count. There are numerous navigation things like this in the world that you will stub your toe on frequently. Then there are a couple of specific zones which require you to find jump pads or high points to glide from that make getting all the side things in a zone just a little more annoying than it needs to be.

There are also sequences which needless mechanics- not neat ones but just annoying. The most egregious is one where Aerith needs to absorb energy to power some specific things. You find these little energy orbs in breakable crystals or after defeating enemies. The problem is that the absorbtion range is about five or teen feet from Aerith herself. So you will have to sit through the absorb animation then walk five steps and do it again. Then you notice there was one off in a corner so you have to go run over than and absorb that one too- there's no reason the absorb range couldn't just be 'room' wide or three times larger. It actively felt like the game was doing its best to slow down my progress through the story and it isn't something you do for just thirty minutes and never see again, you'll have to do the same thing over again (the one 'neat' idea behind it is as aerith absorbs more of the energy it gives her buffs in combat but you will also quickly spend the energy on things she needs to power).

It feels, so much, like they wanted to pad and pack every little thing they could in the game to make it feel worth the price-tag and I honestly think the combat is fun enough, the character interactions and story beats are interesting enough to pay sixty dollars for it- 10 dollars more is something I'd have considered to bypass almost all the open world minigames or to just shut Chadley up because he will constantly be talking to you any time you do open-world progress. You will learn to loathe the little chime on the CHAD DEVICE (I actually do like that it's call the CHAD device) as he calls to yap at you about something which may or may not be interesting to you at all.
(More in next post)

TLDR: Yes, if you're a Majima fan or just a big Yakuza fan. Wait for a sale if you're not the biggest Majima fan or want a more reasonable price point for the content you get.

I see a lot of people talk about this game being the 'worst Yakuza game' and I honestly think they're full of ♥♥♥♥. This game has flaws (both in technical and gameplay terms) but it's honestly fun. It's doubly so if you're a Majima fan or happen to find him interesting. I've laughed out loud at this game so much, I really did enjoy it despite its shortcomings.

The good things: The writing is funny, the game is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ in some of the best ways and the customization feels wonderful after so many games where you have had to wait until beating the game to wear what you want. There's a LOT of outfit customization and I really thought that was cool. You can set custom looks for both combat styles. Ship customization is also really cool but the combat doesn't necessarily get very complex. Still, it looks nice. A lot of the game looks very nice, actually, but I am fortunate enough to run it on hardware that can max everything out.

I'm sure if you played Infinite Wealth there's a lot of added value in seeing characters return and what they're up to but I haven't gotten around to that one yet so I haven't really been able to experience that. There's a lot of side content that opens up in Chapter 2 which can be either fun or possibly just a rehash of stuff from IW. There's around 30 sub-stories (with one that has an absolutely insane follow through- the story introduces it so it's not one you'll miss).

You can buy music you can listen to from your phone as you go around which is welcome and includes some fun Sega stuff (though the DLC probably has the best music in it) that ranges from Persona 3 to Space Harrier to games I'd never even heard of. Honestly, the story is fun and if you're okay with Majima's Day Out as a concept there's no reason the story isn't fun.

The bad things: Combat is easier than I remember any game being. Standard enemies feel like they have about a third or two-thirds less health than they should. I honestly only had to heal in a fight a literal single-digit number of times and some of those were me trying to bait out heat actions. The combat is fun but it doesn't really go deep enough to make me enjoy it so much as I do with other titles. Honestly, my biggest complaint with the combat is that you have a single heat bar and there are so few of the contextual environmental heat actions in the game that could have easily been there. Building heat can be slow (though I honestly run around drunk to mitigate it) but you're probably not using a lot of heat actions outside big battles or to thin ranks of a horde of enemies to save yourself the time of slashing them down individually.

The game has points where it definitely feels like it stalls you, putting a goal post in your way if you want to advance the story (mostly money related). The ship combat can also get stale (and has a habit of being fairly crash-y compared to the rest of the game- I had to put the game into fullscreen to finish a ship battle in the final chapter of the game due to it reliably crashing every time in windowed mode) and it's obvious they're re-using a lot of things from Infinite Wealth- but if you're a Yakuza fan this isn't really going to shock you. They do whole-hog copy over a few things that feel like they could've put a little more thought into- your cooking level unlocks the last recipe at 27 but you can raise it to level 99 but it doesn't actually make cooking easier or give you anything it just goes up.

It does feel cool to raid ships but it does become formulaic after enough time. Things don't really change up much, I think my singular favorite side activity in the game is Bang Bang Baseball (Batting?), it's probably the best baseball minigame in the entire franchise as far as I'm concerned.

If I had to give it a rating I'd probably say 6/10 (if you're a Majima fanperson then it probably goes 7-8/10), the price point is honestly contentious for me. This feels more like a 40 dollar title but I want to support RGG (and the non-turnbased games that they release) so I bought it at retail price. I don't regret it but I also happen to be very invested in the series and Majima as a character so your mileage may vary. It is a bit steep considering how long the game is. I think waiting for a sale will make this feel the most worth cost-to-game ratio for most people and hopefully by then they can figure out why the ship battles tend to be a little crash-happy. They have been released fairly frequent updates, at least.

(A big up-front recommendation: Buy Fallout 2 along with 1 and look up Fallout 1 in 2, it brings Fallout 1 into Fallout 2's engine with it's QoL upgrades (especially follower management) and it's literally as easy to install as pointing a program to a single file in your Fallout 1 directory. This helps immensely with some of the dated UI.)

Back in the earl 00's I discovered Fallout and I fell in love. This game is what set my love for turn based RPGs (and CRPGs in general) into motion. I had a love of Post-Apocalyptic themes already but Fallout is such an iconic, genuine experience that I recommend it to everyone. It is my favorite game of all time in ~30 years of gaming. I still come back to Fallout routinely because there is so much in the execution that is nailed perfectly.

The most striking is Mark Morgan's music. The iconic, haunting, atmospheric music that plays a backdrop to the wasteland and adds SO much genuine character to the game on top of such iconic locations. There is a location in the game known at The Glow and without going further into it I will say it is genuinely one of the most creepy and ominous experience in gaming I have ever had. There is SUCH a feeling of horror and desolation and Mark Morgan's music makes it so much more impactful. His work is used widely in the Fallout games (even the more modern ones take some of the tracks from FO1 and 2 and use them here and there). You can also find amazing work by Mark Morgan in Wasteland 2 and Wasteland 3 (big recommends).

Fallout does suffer from a bit of clunky interface and a last-minute-addition of companions which left them almost just like generic NPCs that follow you around (you cannot trade items to them, you literally have to barter with them- or steal from them, they won't get mad) and they can sometimes just stand in a doorway and in Fallout 1 you do not have the context menu option to move them (another reason I recommend Fallout 1 in 2).

The talking heads are such a cool, distinct addition and you have so many actors who went on to become much more famous (or were even famous at the time) who play very memorable characters. The short list? Ron Perlman, Keith David, Richard Dean Anderson, Tony Shaloub, Tony Jay, CCH Pounder, and Pamela Adlon (Bobby Hill's VA in King of the Hill) among a few other notables. It's really an amazing cast and the voice acting is entirely solid throughout it all.

The game can be punishing like any classic CRPG but making use of frequent saves is always a good idea. There is just so much to the game that is iconic and memorable that it is almost beyond me to pin it all down but the game is SO good. Atop that, the game isn't painfully long (Fallout 2 suffered from some bloat) and the story sums up in such an amazing way- one of the most memorable endings to a game in history I would dare to say.

It's a landmark game, it shaped so many games to follow and you owe it to yourself to play it through. To savor the art direction and world building. Hopefully you'll gain a similar love for this title as I have or, at least, have a damn good time. At 10 dollars it is almost aliteral steal. A 10 dollar tag for a game that puts many 60 and 70 dollars to shame. Get yourself Fallout 1 in 2 (you will need to own Fallout 2 for this) and set it up and play. It is a game I cannot recommend enough.

The quick read: Narrative is great, combat is meh. Voice acting is almost perfect (the VA for your character is incredible barring two lines he repeats any time you snack on a rat...)

The core conceit of Vampyr is not unlike the whole Dark/Light side issue in the force. The path to power can be very quick if you do not care about the results of your actions. Every NPC has a 'mesmerize' level which is what allows you to lead them off for a quick (permanent) bite, your mesmerize level raises with story progression. Every NPC has 'hints' (information about them and their connections to others) and finding out more about NPCs raises their blood quality (and thus the XP you get for consuming them) but you also need to keep an eye out for people who suffer illness because someone who is ill will have their blood quality reduced (a treatment and a night of rest will have them recover easily). So when a person is ripe for the picking you will generally have all their hints unlocked and if your mesmerize level is high enough you have a massive lump of XP you can get.

But. Districts fluctuate in stability in regards to how many people are sick, if the community pillar is alive, and how many residents are alive. If you eat everyone a district swiftly deteriorates and will eventually collapse and become covered with enemies- but there's a high chance you have enough strength to handle them easily if you're eating everyone. If a district's stability drops low enough there is a high chance everyone who resides there will go missing (perhaps turned into beasts or joining vampire hunters). Adding to this, every NPC has a stash of goods that you unlock if you consume them- some of those weapons are extremely good.

If you choose to abstain (or elect to eat only a few) you make the game more difficult because your primary source of XP is treating illnesses and dialog/story events. It's a major difference in how quickly you gain power but if you like a challenge? This is the route you take.

The combat is sort of diet-souls-lite, it's not as punishing but it holds some similar elements but not nearly so tactically deep and while enemies in Souls games never really lose their strength, as your level rises you deal more damage to lower level enemies (this also means higher level enemies take less damage from you and deal more damage which, if you abstain from feeding, will objectively increase your difficulty which might be exactly what you want). The powers are interesting but some feel objectively better. Every power (save your ultimate skill and stats/feeding related abilities) branches one of two ways which alters the way the skill behaves. This can make the strongest CC ability last almost twice as long or draw blood to your reserves for example.

Weapon variety felt a little lacking to me, finding a weapon which draws blood (and upgrading it to draw even more) can keep your blood reserves high to use heals or powers as necessary and if you combine that with a weapon that deals good stun damage you can stun enemies and tear into them in combat to feed and gain a % of regen to your health over time (which can be upgraded, bite damage, blood drawn, amount healed can all be increased). Having a main hand and off hand which draw blood are extremely useful but you can also craft consumables to restore health, stamina, or blood (though you can only carry 2 of each unless you invest XP into carrying more). Guns are a little lack-luster but certainly help in harder fights where you need to back off can catch your breath.

This is a STRONG recommendation for me, I really loved the story and characters and discovering the goings-on in the various districts and making choices around what to do with narrative branches and seeing how that plays out (do you turn in a nurse for stealing from the hospital to be able to give medicine to the poor, do you demand she stop, or do you make a compromise- and how does that affect the district?)

Vampyr doesn't show the best of itself in the combat but the narrative aspects are extremely good. Uncovering interconnected story threads are very fun and while some narrative choices aren't accounted for in dialog (almost as if you did something out of order) the story experience, as a whole, is really great. The combat is what you make of it but I found my fun in clawing the hell out of people and ripping out their throats in combat. I did have a handful of crashes but that was over 40 hours total. Some T-posing on a rare occasion, and some iffyness with the occasional NPC not necessarily making eye-contact with you in conversation but I don't feel any of these make Vampyr's experience unenjoyable.

I really enjoyed this a lot, especially their take on aspects of vampire lore. There is a bit of a hamfisted romantic element that I wish you were able to opt out of but it is what it is. The story is what you're here for and I honestly think the game would be even better without the combat but DONTNOD's foray into it isn't disasterous, it could just use some work. This game is ENTIRELY worth it at full price but you can probably find it on a sale. This game is worth you time if you enjoy vampire stories or just interesting stories.

Word of warning if you're used to World of Darkness lore: 'Embrace' means 'entirely drain this person' and not 'turn them to a vampire'. I was definitely left with egg (and blood) on my face when I thought I was going to turn someone... But you can't make an omelette without eating a few people.

The short answer? We finally have a GOOD Jagged Alliance since JA2. JA3 is DESERVING of the numeral because it EARNED it. The devs clearly understand and love the JA franchise like most of us do and listened actively to community feedback. Worth your money and your time but there's a couple of trade-offs in bringing a good, modern JA game to life.

JA3 sees the return of a lot of your favorite mercs (and some worthwhile additions to the roster) and fun inter-party banter between particular mercs (Hitman, Raven, and Raider have some decent interplay though that's the only 3-person set-up I've discovered so far) and shuffling up some things with a perk system as well as giving every merc their own unique perk that can range from underwhelming to almost indispensable (looking at you, Livewire, Barry, and a few others). Mercs also have some particulars about them (some will refuse to part with a specific item from their inventory- the good news is that might be a lockpick that restores durability over time or on the other hand a teddy bear that just takes up space).

Perhaps the most contentious issue is the change (which can be easily rectified by workshop support) that you are not given a percentage chance of making a shot but rather making a judgment call based on various conditions (range, cover, elevation etc) of how much AP you want to sink into a shot and if you need to burn max AP on each shot you have to land it (workshop mods exist to both restore the percentage chance visibility or list a more information to help make you more confident in choosing to take the shot or not). The game is balanced around obfuscating the exact percentage so your experience may change if you elect to use the mod or not (I did, and I feel I didn't have a lesser time for it).

There is, in fact, a lot of mod content out there for the game to more finely tune the challenge you want in your game. Quite often it feels very much like overwatch is a smarter choice (with the ability to take perks to allow more shots, more accuracy, critical hits) but it's never a bad idea to keep someone covering your ass (though you DO need to take into account the risk of hitting allies in the cone of fire if they're not in a lower stance than you are firing from- there are mods that make overwatch fail to trigger if an ally would be shot in the process if you prefer) and many weapons can be modified to make the most out of being dedicated to overwatch in reducing AP costs and increasing accuracy as well as affecting cone of fire.

Gone is the need to carry specific types of magazines (and keep them topped off) as well as ammunition in independent inventories and while I did miss the need to consider the worth of a strategic reload or the tension that came from reloading to find you had 3 rounds in your last mag I can understand it perhaps being more of a chore for newer players. I can say it's VERY nice to have the ability to have room for more items in general (you are not restricted to items by small or large slots, you instead have an inventory with space dictated by a characters strength). Wisdom is still a very high-tier stat as it affects the gain of skill during instruction and it can make some low-WIS mercs feel stunted (I will never remove Kalyna from my main team no matter how bad her wisdom is!) and teaching is still a very valuable time investment to keep your teams sharp (or at least able to use a grenade with proficiency) or able to repair/modify gear in the field. Skill books/magazines can be found (or, rarely, purchased) to increase stats to help boost lower-WIS mercs though you would probably want to focus purely on one (and her name is Kalyna)

Militia management is significantly easier (though I thoroughly wish you could elect to arm them from your own arsenal rather than them having their own dedicated weapons and gear) and perhaps slightly less important than in JA2 but you still need to keep your militia in key locations to prevent loss of valuable resources (both income and places to repair/craft or even let your mercs have a day to unwind). Militia is also reduced in size (but enemy squads are similarly done).

Overall, the fights are in much smaller scale but they're still fun. JA2 maps were certainly very large and that was a part of the tension (but it could also be frustrating trying to find the one guy prone behind a door in the corner of the map). While JA2 had a lot of large maps there were also a lot of maps that were basically just a generic road through a forest or swamp (and there are some of those, here) so while grand scale fights are not so present you are allowed a tighter focus on ballistics and cover mechanics (including just blasting open walls or other cover or literally removing the floor from under enemies in a building (which leaves them to suffer the damage of the fall).

The world has some memorable characters (and one or two you may remember) and a lot more to do in terms of sidequests. Gun variety is appreciable though not quite as varied as JA2 (or, at least, statistically don't seem to have as much variance) and being able to craft modifications of more varied types can certainly help a lot (and turn an AR into something of a DMR or make it prime for more accurate, frequent overwatch shots). Not every weapon can be as flexible as others and there is consderation needed for how many people are utilizing the same type of ammunition but the 'shared stash' you have among your mercs for ammunition can eliminate some of the former needs to consider how much ammunition you carry as it is now, effectively, weightless.

Stealth is more viable if you want to play that way. A melee and stealth focused team can be devastating thanks to some mercs specific perks (Blood, for example, can move between two positions and hurl knives along the way at any enemy within range from his unique set of endless knives- but they can't be sharpened or weighted to affect them like regular knives). Given the smaller quarters you fight in pistols and shotguns can actually be pretty well used if you close the distance on enemies and the Grit system (effectively, temp HP) can make a melee fighter less of a liability for operating in their chosen combat style (I'd still suggest giving them some kind of firearm but decide for yourself) but I am, admittedly, someone who much prefers to out range and snipe the enemy in terms of playstyle.

A morale system is in place that can be affected by combat (with perks that can increase it's chance to increase and traits characters can have to help try to prevent the loss of morale or some with traits that have a chance to negate it) that can increase from landing impressive shots or taking out multiple enemies and other such things but can also be lowered by mercs taking heavy damage or tired from long journeys on foot.

To avoid going any longer? This feels like a worthy successor to Jagged Alliance 2 and we can all sweep the less-than-great games between them under the rug and pretend they don't exist, now. It's worth full retail price, easily AND has a demo you can try (and it seems to be rare that games keep demos available once they fully release, now). Just keep in mind this is set circa 2000 and also comes from a game that leaned into the cheesy action movie tropes already. Some characters might seem like a bit much buuuuut you can probably shut them up with a mod. The devs actively listened to the community both in development and after release and did a fantastic job implementing community suggestions.

Do you like Front Mission? Do you enjoy turn-based combat? Do you like mecha?
If you answered yes to any or all of these you can find something to enjoy in Dual Gear but there's a very big catch...

Dual Gear has not seen any activity from the developer in over a year at the time of writing this and I myself really enjoyed this a lot (even if the menus needed some improvement/clarification and translation correction) and I would have said it was worth the price if development was ongoing but the word is that the singular dev just burned out and rather than argue the ethics around leaving it for purchase where people could walk into a trap I'm just going to say it's basically a cool little demo at this point. I backed the project before it came to Steam and am extremely sad to see this died on the vine but I can't say that I don't sympathize with burnout- just that people should be aware that this hasn't seen any communication or development in over a year.

Instead, I'd heavily recommend checking out Kriegsfront Tactics ( https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/app/1561740 ) which is much more directly in line with Front Mission (the good ones, not the one without turn-based combat) and is what I was wanting out of this. It even has a demo to check out (and I heavily recommend doing so) to decide if you want to buy or wishlist it. I had a blast in the demo.

I enjoyed Dual Gear but for what you're effectively getting I can't say it's worth 20 dollars, if it's on a deep sale and you're aware it won't be getting more development then you can choose what you want to do. Any updates at this point would be a welcome surprise but it would still be a very big surprise to me.

Recommending this game comes with a few caveats but if you can get around a few design choices and bugs I'm wagering are being ironed out, it's hard not to like this. I've gone through the campaign four times and have two achievements left to go and I honestly find myself coming back to it. I DO recommend it, though. Keep in mind this is a game where you are trying to keep your presence hidden, not the front line of the ground forces. Kills aren't what you're trying to achieve (they're just a fun perk). Getting in and out quickly is the point of your actions

Pros: Great voice acting, interesting and distinct characters, wonderful narrative cutscenes told through a sketchbook, unique weapons and clothing bonuses, the absolute joy of having Killzone on a heavy with a large magazine and letting them dumpster anything that moves in their massive overwatch cone, information on operations and facts in the sixty days leading to D-Day on their rough date in the lead-up to the landings at the beaches, killing nazis, alternate outcomes for D-Day and how much you influence it, many unique maps with only a handful re-used (to my eyes) for other missions in the campaign (you will need at least two playthroughs to see all possible missions), usually no penalty for taking as many turns as you need (some missions to have objectives that need to be completed before X amount of turns pass). After your initial 4 characters you will have options to recruit 4 more from a pool of eight so that you can add a another of a particular class from a pair on offer.

Middle Ground/Player Dependent: The D-Day timer means you have roughly 30 or so missions you can undertake before you reach the final mission- some played abhor this kind of thing but I don't honestly find it that stifling as someone who generally doesn't like time limits. The ambush system can feel both arbitrary and also extremely useful (see below). XP is awarded not by kills but by objectives (so you can't farm XP) which means some missions can be completed without needed to kill a single enemy if you proceed smartly and are patient. Supplies are not overly bountiful so you do have to consider if you want to buy that shiny rifle from one of the factions or if you want to save for costs needed for training, region repairs, recruiting FFI units, retaining, aiding a particular faction, or sending someone to get their wounds taken care of. There is no perma-death for your characters but a stacking wounds penalty (to health if downed and morale if broken in combat) and effectively only one down per mission (the second down removes the character from the mission entirely and halves their XP gained from the mission).

Cons: Sometimes running into a soldier immune to stealth kills can feel like running into a brick wall (especially when they're entirely unarmored), some sub-optimal pathing that can require some step-by-step maneuvering around diagonal moves through hidden squares in order to maximize AP to distance moved, some pathing that will outright run through enemy vision in stealth (but not actually break stealth, thankfully), some skills seem objectively like must-haves which might make it hard to branch out from the more powerful builds, enemy levels and armor essentially causing grenades drop off in efficacy swiftly after a point in the campaign (and some grenade options feeling objectively worse than others), sometimes bonus objectives feel like a bit more trouble than they're worth. Some timed objectives feel like they are absolutely designed so that you will have exactly one turn before you can complete them (difficulty doesn't seem to affect these timers). Some mechanics/information I'm still not entirely sure about like obscuration (being within foliage), I could not tell you how much of a cover bonus this provides (but scouts can spec to have 50% damage reduction when in this kind of cover though not every mission will let you make use of this where other 'final' skills in their tree will be effective in every mission). It seems enemy heavy gunners have a much better version of suppressing fire that sweeps a broader area where nothing I've seen in the heavy gunner kit lets you sweep such a large range with the suppressing fire skill- this could just be part of the challenge in some encounter design.

Now I get wordy,
Some points of contention:

- The D-Day Timer: Some people really hate time limits and will absolutely not buy this because of the timer so it's best to get that out of the way because if this is a deal-breaker for you then you know now. (60 days, each mission takes 2 days with some factors depending so roughly around 30 missions you can do in that time frame)

- Ambush System: This is both useful and frustrating. I can understand the balance behind it and the ambush turn is actually very useful (especially when paired with the regional ability to do 50% bonus morale damage on the ambush turn). This effectively lets you choose when to go loud and get a free turn when you do but it can feel like the number of stealth kills you're allowed before you are forced to go loud is very limited in some missions while in a few you'll need to go out of your way to make sure you can fill the kills needed to set up the ambush turn. I kind of wish you could just initiate the ambush turn with any number of stealth kills (or even just a couple). There ARE missions with unlimited stealth kills and they feel very satisfying to skulk through.

Another wrinkle here is how you begin to run into more and more enemies who cannot be stealth killed. No matter how deep you have a scout specced into melee damage there are units flat-out impossible to stealth kill and this can be equal parts frustrating and interesting. It can force you to adapt a new strategy on the spot or it can just be annoying. I understand the balance reasons around this- some of these units make it so that you need to consider your approach but it always feels a little annoying when you can't stealth kill a grenadier in bulky armor but also can't stealth kill an officer in just a uniform. Again, this could honestly cause some missions to be entirely too easy or eliminate a need to consider your approach beyond carving a direct line with stealth kills.

An additional note: Bodies of enemies do not cause any reaction on the enemy's behalf and while this removes an element of planning when and where to shank an enemy it would also require the ability to move bodies and it's entirely possible this was something the devs wanted to do but just didn't have the resources. It requires some suspension of disbelief but it's also a video game so it comes with the territory.

- Reprisals and FFI: At a point into the campaign the enemy will begin deploying special units that move around the board and their presence increases the time a mission takes by an additional day (3 total) unless you have taken full control of the region that negates this. Reprisals are not hard to come back from but getting FFI units to temporarily disable these enemy units takes about two missions worth of time (so you may end up with someone just spending all their time doing FFI recruitment). Reprisals demolish a section of controlled areas but this damage can be repaired in the span of one mission's time if you have the supplies and a free soldier (you will always have someone to spare for that). They feel a little frustrating but it's an element of the game but I do wish the importance of FFI were more emphasized.

- Enemy Strength Ramping: It feels as if enemies rather swiftly begin stacking up armor (and making grenades begin to feel more and more lacking in the same measure) and it can just be frustrating at how much damage you can put out and how much gets mitigated. Suppression and breaking help but it still feels annoying to see how little damage some enemies can take because of a lack of armor penetration on weapons. It just feels a bit too quick.

(More in comments)

It's like a dash of Judgment in your Yakuza(/LAD) and that's not a bad thing (such as the strong enemy attacks you can interrupt and follow up with hard-hitting counters and bleeding from bladed weapons). The game is short (by comparison) if you're looking for the usual Yakuza experience but if you are invested in the story of the games, if you want some more context behind a certain character's arrival in Like A Dragon, if you are invested in Kiryu and what he has gone through in his life then this story is really, really good. The ending tore my soul apart in the best way. It really is a must for fans.

You will find a some fun references to Yakuza 2 as well as one or two Yakuza 0 callbacks and while it is easy to become overpowered in combat it does, at least, make clearing the street trash rather quick. There are some fun attacks that combine with the agent style but you will find yourself feeling familiar with the style if you've played Judgment (it is not outright copied but has the same tight feel as Yagami's tiger style). Among some incredible cameos I won't spoil, there is a Judgment character who shows up in a really great sub-story. In fact, I'd say the sub-stories in this game are almost all fantastic and worth the time.

The arena allows you to play as many different characters (including three from Judgment). The coliseum really does feel like the big showpiece of the game and it's a really is a spectacle to be introduced to. Akame, a new character, is also a fun addition to the cast.

Problems:
Your mileage may vary but I found the hostess stuff absolutely weird and uncomfortable (but if you're a fan of Kson, that might be different?), two of the four gadgets feel as if you really could just ignore them outright. While there are many options to fight as in the coliseum there is, unfortunately, no real contest between Kiryu's strength and playing as someone like Daigo, Majima, or Saejima (which, while fun, does lack the upgrades Kiryu has). While the group battles in the coliseum are really fun it does bring out a bit of a grind to level your team which might extend gameplay for some but was not quite for me. I also found the omission of some classic heat actions from Kiryu's Yakuza style to be a disappointment. Also, if you happen to be a fan of grappling attacks in combat you can expect to be frustrated as almost all enemies but the weakest will quickly break free. While the agent style does have a fun way to snatch weapons from enemies or the ground there is something lost in not being able to actually carry weapons on your person like previous titles (though you will be familiar with this if you have played the Judgment games).

Conclusion:
All in all, if you're a Yakuza fan (and have played Yakuza 0 and Yakuza 2 or Judgment) you will find a lot here to like. There are some really great moments where you finally see Kiryu losing his composure and usual cool with where his choices in life have left him and the pain it is putting him through. It's a must for following the Dragon of Dojima and his story and leads into an explanation as to why Kiryu will be found in Infinite Wealth. While it might not be worth full retail price right now, the english dub might be enough to warrant it (if you prefer not to deal with subtitles) but I don't think it will hurt to try and get this game at around 40 or so. If you love the Yakuza storyline, however, the price of admission is worth seeing the emotional ride Kiryu goes through in this title.

Quick edit: As for long-time Yakuza fans? You can FINALLY WEAR DIFFERENT OUTFITS WITHOUT HAVING TO BE IN PREMIUM ADVENTURE!

It has been a long time since I played this but I remember enjoying myself. It isn't my type of game particularly but I enjoy the sense of humor and the art style. It might be near impossible to find a game these days but as one of the first things by Pixel Constructor LLC I think it's a sign of the humor and lighthearted direction they can go. It's a cute, funny little game that I wish had gotten more players to propel it forward.

I can't say you'll find servers now but if you can, I think it's worth your time. It honestly reminds me to Worms to a degree. Not in a gameplay perspective but a kind of goofy humor sort of way? The people at Pixel constructor are all passionate and sweet folks and I'm really looking forward to seeing what else comes from the team.

It doesn't cost anything to try though I can't say how quick one might find a match these days. Good start, goofy fun in its day, left me wanting to see what else Pixel Constructor can do.