Recent reviews by Captain TotalViking

This is a review of the demo.
Let me start this with the fact that I'm a big fan of Sub-Sims. I've played Dangerous Waters, Silent Hunter (3, 4 & even 5), Cold Waters, Silent Service 2 - you get the picture.
This is, in it's current state, the worst submarine game I've ever played. There are sub-sims for smartphones which are better built and more fun to play.

• The controls are awful, dialling in the measurements to the torpedo computer is like being Goldilocksed - very fiddly
  
• The map, and information on enemy targets, are what I would consider the bare minimum - red triangle on a blank map
  
• The periscope is the only method to get target information (range, target, speed, etc.) - what even is sonar, am I right?
  
• Your crew are seemingly just there to watch you run the entire submarine by yourself
  
• All the voice acting is obviously just some form of text-to-speech
  
• Enemies are basically sitting ducks, they don't detect you despite steaming steaming along at 15 knots at periscope depth with the periscope up. They don't even move, all of the enemies in the demo are at a standstill.
  
• The Tutorial is honestly terrible. A 2 minute timer to complete the tutorial before you get blown up... why!?
  
• Time acceleration is just too slow, combined with bad performance, and that it only works while your face is glued to the map screen. This means most of your time spent playing the game will be just looking at the map screen.

Combined with the fact that sometimes objects blink in and out of existence, occasionally the cook will get stuck stirring the air behind him while the meal burns, and that the missions & where they take place make no sense at all; this game feels like it's made by a bunch of amateurs, think college students making a game for their degree.

I'd really love to see the developer(s?) turn this game around, and make the Cold War Silent Hunter 5 Ubisoft never gave us, but until they do, stay away from this game, it's not worth anybody's time. I will be giving the developer(s?) feedback via their form, in hopes that it might help them turn this game around.

It's a very good, short, stealth action game with a "choices matter" story. It has a level editor, and even publishes a blog post about your play-through of the game when you complete it.
Here is mine: https://www.pentadact.com/category/conwaysblog/?K=7&U=18&C0=2&E1=1&C1=3&E2=2&C2=6&C3=3&C4=3&C5=1

tl;dr easy to control, quick to play, grand strategy with a focus on well-timed strategy and social deception.

A deceptively simple to play real-time grand(?) strategy game. The game's abstracts economic and production elements to focus is on build timings, grand strategy, and betrayal. The game controls really well, and plays fast. Generally you can complete a whole game in a few short hours. The mods can greatly expand the game, and can be installed via the steam workshop, though, it is worth noting that most mods cause the game to take longer to complete (with the exception of Omnicide's Cobalt Bombs).

A cozy game which shakes up the usual format for tycoon style games. The game focuses greatly on the process of making potions and exploring new formulae for potions. The patrons to your shop wait very patiently for you to prepare the potion they requested, and there are cameos from various character from film, games, and TV. This lends the game to a very relaxed, precise and thoughtful style of play which is perfect for a lazy Sunday evening with a warm drink in hand.

The only mechanic which is not clearly explained is the reputation system. If you supply certain clients with potions such as poisons, it can and will negatively affect your reputation, likewise, driving hard bargains does the same.

It's a short game with really fun gameplay. I finished it in under 5 hours. The enemies just challenging enough to actually manage to take you down, but not terribly intelligent otherwise. At time of writing, there are a lot of bugs, but the game has never crashed to desktop. Most bugs sort themselves out if you reload the level, but some seem to require the game to be restarted.

The weapons are satisfying, the movement controls are slick, the mod support is great, and the Action is Maximum.

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Some of the bugs I've encountered are listed below:
- The Magnum revolver gets stuck in it's reload animation, dropping the weapon causes it to disappear.
- The Magnum revolver sometimes gets stuck and wont fire (almost as if it was out of ammo, but it wasn't)
- There are plenty of areas on multiple maps where you can get to areas where you can get to areas where you can see straight through the map. Other maps have overly aggressive usage of invisible walls, not allowing you to get to areas of the map you definitely would be able to.
- The sound effect for running someone over with a motorbike compounds upon itself, making it really loud.
- A lot of corners that you would think you can shoot around you actually can't, but the AI can.
- Leaning left and right doesn't actually help at all, it just rotates the camera view 30 degrees anticlockwise and clockwise. Compared to other FPS games where it would allow you to peak from behind walls and such, this is probably not working as intended.
- The cinematic camera of your execution of the level (think like the one in SuperHot and such) is very unreliable, often showing things that didn't happen or getting stuck in a view which doesn't show anything at all.
- Using scoped weapons (like sniper rifles) during a level causes the scoping effect to be applied to the cinematic camera showing your actions after you beat the level. This is pretty minor, but it does look awful. In one case it had the scope effect aiming at my character while my character aimed it something the cinematic camera probably should be instead.
- There are a lot of occasions where enemies simply pop-into existence right in front of you (and even worse behind you). This is most noticeable when going through a door.
- There are certain areas on the 'Rooftop' level where you can fall off the map without getting a game over, causing you instead to fall forever until you quit back to main menu. This wouldn't be so bad if there was a pause menu option to restart the level.

Fun game, but I don't like that whenever I close the game it opens a web browser tab to a marketing thing for Company of Heroes 3. As if I was playing a demo for a game in 2006... in a game I've already paid for.

I do not like paying for adverts.

The game's development is dead in the water, and has been so for a long time. Perhaps it was due to the team being inexperienced, perhaps the project or project funds were managed poorly, perhaps the initial amount requested by the kickstarter wasn't nearly enough, perhaps the devs just took the money and ran with it after building a prototype sufficient enough to entice kickstarter backers. Regardless, the game isn't going to be finished, and the current prototype isn't much fun to play.

If you still have an itch for a game where you play as a dragon I have three recommendations:

• Divinity Dragon Commander - Steam store link, GOG store link[www.gog.com]
  
• The I of the Dragon - GOG store link[www.gog.com]
  
• Divinity 2 - Steam store link, GOG store link[www.gog.com]

All of which are quite good games, all at least look better than this one, and all are finished games. Hope the recommendation helps, happy gaming! :)

This is game is exceptional at what it sets out to do. Battles are quick & brutal, the (air/land)ship designer has depth, and the players seem polite and friendly. The developer is attentive to any flaws or bugs the game may have, and the community creates and publishes amazing designs.

If you aren't a confident commander, but love designing battle-vessels, then you can let the AI command your fleet. Alternatively, if you are hopeless at design, there is an impressive catalogue of ships on the steam workshop to enjoy.

This is a great game to own if you like designing landships/airships, frantic real-time battles, or both.

EDIT:
I nominated this for the labour of love award for the 2022 steam awards.

OpenTTD is a really comfy game to play for hours in singleplayer.
The mods are very nice, some adding AI to face off against in singleplayer.
Multiplayer depends greatly on the types of friends you play it with. Your experience may range from a cosy evening with friends, while sharing memes, to the most cutthroat and spiteful experience you'll ever have and laugh about for weeks after.

My only complaint is that the game meant to simulate logistics and transport doesn't take a balanced approach. It heavily encourages passenger transportation by aircraft (most profitable), while the most mechanically rich experience is found in running a smooth set of trains. Lets not even discuss the boats: all the congestion of trains, with the speed of trucks at the price of aircraft.

- It offers variety to suit anyone who plays it, but is not very balanced.
- Easy to use built-in mod support & mod manager.
- I love that it is free, open source, and with a Linux release.
- It's easy to get a multiplayer lobby together.

I usually don't like turn based tactics game, but I love Battle for Wesnoth. I usually find them lacking in meaningful strategic decisions. For me they just end up being clunky, slow, and tedious to play.

Battle for Wesnoth is not that. You only need to scratch the surface to find important decisions to be made out of the smallest of manoeuvres. For example: "do I move my unit to this tile or the next one to it? How about this one? Ooops, now the enemy was able to trap my unit", "Do I send my ghost or my dark adept at the enemy lancer? The ghost is harder to hit, but my dark adept has the fire power to potentially kill the lancer this turn." - stuff like that.
The combat doesn't follow a standard rock-paper-scissors style. Instead it's more of a rock-paper-dragon-'elephant gun', but only when the target doesn't have berserk-unless there is a full moon out.

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I'm doing a poor job of explaining it, but take my word for it. The combat mechanics are deep, and the game doesn't force trial and error on you to learn it. Each combat prompt has a button to show statistical outcomes of the combat. Each unit can be right-clicked to bring up an in-game wiki on it's strengths and weaknesses.

The true elegance of Wesnoth is that it's remarkably simple to control. You can play the entire game with only a touchscreen, should you desire to.[play.google.com]

Once you are bored with the multiplayer, the various official campaigns, and the map editor. You still have hundreds of community made mods and overhauls for Wesnoth. All accessible from the in-game main menu. Ever wanted to play Wesnoth, but as 17th century warfare strategy, click a few buttons, wait for a download, and now you can!

I've played Wesnoth for many years, and it keeps bringing me back. Fun with friends, fun on your own, and free forever. What isn't there to love about this little gem from 2003?