Recent reviews by Aurelizian

Solid three hours for one run. might play one more, looking at roughly 5 to 6 hours of content. Its neat and its cheap. Fully recommend.

If you are interested in this game because of the RTS aspect,
the Stealth, and partisan Gameplay... please go somewhere else.
If you are interested in a Fresh Story from a different perspective,
in Character Drama and Choices, especially considering Knowledge About how the War turns out:
by all means grab on SALE

RTS
The RTS part is a Trainwreck.
Even the most Veteran Legionaries refuse to shoot more than one Bullet a Minute and Miss 90% of their Shots.
A good Ambush with 5+ Legionaries still can get your guys wounded because they cant hit the broad Side of a Barn.
Setting up a Machine Gunner takes a Long time and they are not nearly as effective as a Sniper / Bushwookie.
Snipers and Grenadiers are the only 2 Combat Roles you truely Need or want in this game, as any Injurie will Need to be healed off over time which can spiral out of Control really fast.
Considering your Supplies and time are finite, it quickly turns into slowly creeping through every map with a Sniper and a Grenadier to slowly scout and clear the entire map before looting and Clearing the Mission.

Most Missions turn out to be you either stealthing 100% of it with 2 to 3 People OR pressing the "restart Mission" Button since you couldnt have possibly known that it turns into a base defence section halfway through and didnt bring MGs. The amount of "oh and now this happens" is ludacrous, especially on enemy spawns and hostiles, who are OUT OF MAP MIND YOU, seeing and charging you. Enemies spawn on unknown triggers at places that make 0 sense. At one point I had a whole Village locked down and Vision over it all using Scout Towers and the Scouting ability with 3 Snipers and YET there was a full Squad of 5 + Attack Dogs that spawned dead center in my Vision. Just appeared, instantly detects me.

This is where Save Scumming comes into play. You save all the time, just so something like THAT doesnt happen but it does. Enemies suddenly stopping and instantly turning around? cool. Enemies spawning ontop of your soldiers? cool. "quick" load (approx. 10 to 20s) and setup MG. Thanks.

Honestly, The RTS Gameplay feels unfun, unrewarding and unimpressive. After 6 Hours I am already dreading more of them. They are tedious and are mainly there to give the Illusion of deeper Mechanics. I would call it forgetable, but I am save scumming so much because of the broken Stealth, that I just have to call it bad.

STEALTH
Stealth is horrendous. There is no Stealth, just Line of Sight.
Yes, Footsteps Kind of sometimes make sounds but Riflemen get silent Footsteps, so just have your guys sidespec into Riflemen and be silent while Running.
Stealthmode is the ONLY mode you are supposed to run, because if you dont put your Guys in Silent Mode, they will just start blasting the semi-second they percieve a Living being on screen. When Silent Mode is ON however, they will not shoot back, not do anything but Melee.
Melee has a cooldown. You will see your guy just sit there and eat bullets to the face because "my knife still Needs 2 seconds to recharge boss".
Shots and Grendes are barely audible to enemies. Well mainly the Sniping Ability seems to never attract Attention though no Silencer was used. Grenades sometimes attract People but most of the time the game goes by the following rule: "if it doesnt happen in the Vision cone, it never happened".

Alright, the bad stuff out of the way.. now to something good:

TRAIN
It is oh so very fun to drive around with the Train, deciding when to stop, how Long to stop and who to send where.
You Need to manage Shifts, Crafting, Upgrading and who to send out on what Mission.
Traits of your Characters influence Outcomes and Decisions and Overall ist just a good time.
You Need to think About what Ressources to trade when and where, how much you Need and what to upgrade before you hit the Brick Wall that is Siberia.
You are Always being Hunted by the red army and Standing still for too Long gets you spotted and killed.
There is Always this sense of "Ive got to Keep moving, Ive got to upgrade, to get to the next step of the journey, get out"
You truely feel immersed in the inner thoughts of your Soldiers.

LEGION
The Legionnaries are not as Deep as Jagged Alliance Mercenaries but Deep enough to have them all be an individual. They have Morals, Principles, hopes, dreams and ways to interact with each other and the common People you will meet throughout your journey. Some you will hate, some you will love, some you will Forget and some will fall on the Way out. But no one is truely useless. Bad fighter? Train Duty! Bad Workhorse? Fight Duty! Not good at either? Hop in the Artillery Wagon for Fire support or the Machine gun. The legionnaries and their Involvement in the Little stories are what keeps you engaged what keeps you motivated.

Everytime I end the game ist during an RTS Mission because I truely hate them in this game.
Everytime I am in love with this game it is during the Overworld Phase and during Story Cutscenes.

I cannot recommend this at full Price just yet, but on SALE it is a decent Little fun Adventure.
Save often.

Abandonware

I hate to say this but I dont think I like ZEPHON very much.

I loved Gladius, even completed 99% of achievements on it with multiple hundred hours of playtime.
Zephon sounded like a dream: a non Games Workshop IP with total Freedom and Focus on Storytelling? yes please!
And it DOES have some parts I enjoy! I like the Units and I love the little Events and diplomacy between factions.

I dislike the end-scenario with walkers being spammed somewhere around.
But the thing I dislike the most have to be the "Faction Leaders" as they dont lead a faction. Its just minor changes to gameplay but everyone can build aynthing at any time willy nilly which makes every round feel completely the same. Dont get me wrong, there is fun to be had here but the "fluid" faction system is uninteresting and blurrs the rounds together. Id rather there were distinct factions instead of one singular roster. Thats the main Reason I have not booted it up since release.

This made Trial of Allegiance look GOOD.
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ these Countries are a hot HOT Mess that take forever to get into the game with.
East India Company is fun and OP I give you that.
Iraq gets destroyed by the British 9 Times out of 10 before you even researched Machining Tools.
Afghanistan is almost too accurate to reallife as in its stuck in a permanent State of Civil War.
Most Paths lack any meaningfull depth and are riddled with 70 Days nothing Burger Focuses.
It is promising but undercooked at all Fronts. Few Advisors or Companies, Fewer content.
The Pack revolves around the Sabbadad Pact ultimately which needs you to be at PEACE with your Neighbors to get the Benefits. Please play as Iran and actually have a Game with honoring the Sabbadad Pact. Or Afghanistan.

You literally got the capacity to make all of these actual content through experimental Facilities. Paradox would you kindly shove it? only reason I got it is because of the Götterdämmerung Pass. I like these models and find them interesting but 7€? ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ actual games out there making actual game content of about 10 hours for LESS MONEY than 10 or whatever the ♥♥♥♥ models I will use ONCE and see ONCE because I accidentally zoomed in..

Feels like ass to use.
Cant even cut audio properly.
Customizing the experience to ones liking is atrocious, cant even enlarge just audio tracks to see the cuts better.
Everything washes and muddles together in the preview and you cant even STOP you can only PAUSE, meaning hitting that important milisecond of sound is neigh impossible.
If you want Windows Movie Maker Level of Editing its alright. If you plan to do ANYTHING beyond drag and drop just leave and wait for a humble bundle sale for Sony Vegas where you get the full access for 15€

I dunno. Lost interest after about 10 hours. Quests like "stand in market till the guy moves" are not fun either.

Fighting is solid but mindless flailing and is very much flashy to a point that it gets a tad unfun.
Feels great to make a cyclops drop on its belly with an explosive charge in its kneecaps but at the same time, just hitting him does the same. Once you realise its all spamming attacks it cant really bounce back all too much.

You run a ton, you talk a ton, you backtrack a ton but you dont feel like you progress all too much and every Person in this game has less personality and soul than your actual pawns.

Its pretty. Its mindless. Its a Power Fantasy. The whole Dragon steals your Heart stuff still doesnt make sense but hey, its a video game. I would recommend it for a 10er.

Very Strong Start.

Looks better, runs better and plays better than the First Game. It has a more cinematic feel to it and pulls you in nicely through more or less believable interactions.

I still hate the Retterschnaps saving though so Im gonna mod that on out as I simply dont enjoy backtracking because I died.

What I dislike:
- I dont know why its an option to romance Capon. It doesnt seem right. I am glad its optional but man nowadays you just cant have people bond with each other and not want to ♥♥♥♥ each other.
- Henry suddenly likes cumans. ok? They literally slaughtered my whole family but sure I love em now.
- Same as the wandering ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that are never nice, only pricks and are known for stealing horses and selling them. But Henry is such a progressive lad, he doesnt care.
- Henry cares way too little about anything. He has literally 0 feels or Contributions to any Dialogue besides "Yeah I saw that in the previous game"
- drawing a sword takes hours
- You constantly lose reputation with everyone for the smallest things. Might as well not talk at all. Just complimenting can earn you that red face in the top corner.

This Nemesis Pack pits the Dutch against the Germans making you hope for something new and fresh being granted to you on both sides and for one side this is partially true.

43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division
Are cookie cutter and frankly just boring.

• Recon Tab: Decent with a lot of Snipers
  
• Infantry: Polish, British and Dutch Infantry. Aside from a Different Flag, they are what you are used to. Just your standard British Infantry with a couple Piats Brens and Lee Enfields.
  
• Tank: Stuarts, Shermans and Fireflys. Cookie Cutter.
  
• Support: Empty. 6 Cards of 2" Mortars and 2 HMG thats IT.
  
• AT: The average amount of uses of the word Pounder describes my Call of Duty Username at the age of 14
  
• AA: Literally just 40mm Bofors.
  
• Artillery: only 1 card of sexton, other than tha just more Pounding with 25 Pounders
  
• Air: Couple American Fighter Bombers with Big Payloads and lots of MGs. Highlight of the Entire Division might be the Dutch Mitchell 2 rocking 12x 113Kg Bombs but.. thats just a Mitchel.

If you truely get a Kick out of the smallest Details on Vehicles being from your contry or seeing your countries Flag in the game than this might be worth it for some Dutch Ultra Nationalists. There is little to non fresh content in this Division and it feels so cookie cutter and dry that I had to double check I was selecting the right Division. If you are an Allies Player there is little to no fun with this Division. The Air Power is done better in different Divisions, Tanks are more fun in the guards armored, Infantry plays way nicer in the 6th Airborne or 15th Scottish Infantry and There are no Fun Support Units like the Crocodile or AVRE. This is a mid Division that doesnt suck but its not exiting or fun in any capacity.

Kampfgruppe Walther
.. might be the only reason this is worth any money.

• Recon Tab: Just Infantry Recon and little at that. You are Blind.
  
• Infantry: 1 Card for a wide Variety of Troops making this aggravating to Micro. Its like Korück but for Infantry, though the Infantry is mostly Nice in Walther. be Prepared for 15 different Units that do 20 different things. do Bring your leaders in Drilling SDKFzs though to maximise Bullets in the Sky.
  
• Tank: A stug and a trillion Panthers. Its not interesting but gets the job done.
  
• Support: Couple raider MGs, solid Flame Car and assualt gun SDKFz. Nothing special but fine.
  
• AT: Though it has your typical pak 40 it also features more Jagdpanzer 4 and even a Jagdpanther, making the AT tab more of a "DLC Tab" for the Tank Tab. Running a mobile Anti Tank Flotilla might be the way to play this deck.
  
• AA: The Fokus of the Division clearly is on the Drilling. You got 6 Slots in AA and you got 5x SDKFZ 251/21 D and 1x SDKFZ 11 Drilling. There is so much Drilling the Air is going to Recieve. Who cares about the Flak 88 or the Flakvierling this Deck has when you got more Drilling to do than your neighbour at 11pm on a sunday night.
  
• Artillery: Continues the Trend of "I got lots of things, but only one of each." 1 Card of Wurfrahmen, 1 Card of Nebelwerfer, 1 Card of Mortar 120mm, 1 card of Mortar 81mm .... you get the point.
  
• Air: Focker Wulf 190 D9 is in this so its instantly the best Deck ever. Yeah there is a Jet Engine Recon Plane thats 700kmh fast but my Fw 190 D9 does 670 with MGs. In terms of Cas there are just rocket planes and Fighter Bombers, no heavy stuff.

Overall the Kampfgruppe Walther is the only thing this DLC has not been refunded. It is the only Reason to even sniff into the DLCs direction. Drillings are fun and semi-ok-ish at shooting down planes but they saturate the sky with so much gun fire its just beautiful. I dig the Jet Plane Recon though I am not happy that I HAVE to use it due to the low amount of low HP Recon units. What I dislike about the Division is the Amount of Random Stuff you get. 1 card of basically anything in the game makes your Call in Tab look like a nightmare and if you have trouble picking the right squad for the right time you might be in trouble.

In the end I am sorry to the Dutch. You are good people and maybe one day you get something in the gaming space that makes the world know you for more than just Pot in Amsterdam. I like vla if that helps. and Hagelslaag, good stuff.

Oh yeah, dont pay more than 2€.

Edit: Refunded. I keep these 5€ in my pocket till Gates of Hell drops the British DLC.