Recent reviews by drengy

Incredibly addictive!

I've played for 4 hours, and I'm still on the tutorial. Mostly because I'm enjoying the process of optimizing every single move. This game is more of an efficiency puzzle than a hack-and-slash, and after playing I have a much better understanding for why it's so highly-rated. It makes me want to play the original tabletop version ASAP.

Twilight Struggle is widely considered to be one of the best boardgames of the last decade (it’s ranked #2 on the Board Game Geek website) and this software version absolutely does it justice. Follow the tutorial, then play a game or two and you'll find the interface to be very intuitive, allowing you to easily examine your cards, test each play option, and execute your decision quickly. Watch the video above to get a good feeling for how things work.

Multiplayer is asynchronous, allowing you to create games with various chess clock time limits from 30 minutes all the way up to 45 days, for those who want to play just one move per day. There’s a chat function in both the multiplayer lobby and each game. The friends list is not connected to Steam, but specific to your Playdek account, which is required for multiplayer and shared amongst all their games. If you’ve ever played Ascension, Agricola, or any of the other Playdek iOS games you can use the same account. Rankings use the standard ELO system.

Singleplayer is still a work in progress in the initial release: it's a challenge for less-experienced players, but not Twilight Struggle veterans. Also, expect to wait 10-20 seconds for the A.I. to take each turn. Playdek says the single player A.I. is learning from every game played, so it should get better as time goes on. Right now it's a great way to learn some strategies to improve your multiplayer play.

The game is cross-platform Mac/PC, and it'll also be cross-platform with the upcoming iOS and Android releases, so you'll be able to play other folks no matter their choice of gaming device.

Playdek has added some nice touches like audio clips of cold war era leaders and other period-appropriate sounds that help set the mood. Sound effects are easily turned off if you don't like them. You can also increase the interface speed once you know what's going on and don't need time to read the cards as they’re played.

The game interface scales well. I’ve played in on an 11” MacBook Air up to a 40” UHD desktop display and everything’s looked good.

I highly recommend Twilight Struggle for both the veteran tabletop player who’s looking for more opportunities to play, and for the newbie who wants to check out one of the best boardgames there is. I’d never played Twilight Struggle before this and now I can’t stop.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5. 5 stars as soon as the A.I. is better and faster.

Was a beta tester, now I'm a happy owner of the release.

This is a mostly faithful adaptation of the board game by Devil Pig Games. Take a look at the screenshots above and compare to the original tabletop game and you'll see that it's almost identical. It's a gateway wargame - it has many familiar wargame concepts, but it's simplified so almost anyone can quickly learn it. It's a beer-and-pretzels kinda thing, it's not meant to be a realistic simulation. The game is based on the war movie concept of WWII, not the actual historical event.

There are 3 single-player campaigns which will last at least a few hours (more if you want to get all the bonus objectives), and a skirmish mode, but IMO the real fun is multiplayer. The game is turn-based and PBEM (play-by-email) so you can keep several games going at a time and play your turns whenever you have a few minutes to spare. I've had as many as 5 simultaneous games going, taking turns in each throughout the day. A particularly fun thing is to setup the same scenario with different opponents and try radically different strategies in each game.

The boardgame has quite a few expansions, so I expect this game will be supported very well into the future. There's a map editor on the way, plus there's an iPad version coming next year which will have cross-platform play with the PC version, so the player base should remain robust for a while.

Criticisms:
- The boardgame has a card mechanic that this version is missing. The developers are planning on adding the cards in the future. But if you're looking for a perfect translation of the board game, this isn't it (yet).
- If you hate random dice rolls, this is not be the game for you. You have to been willing to accept losing a scenario because of one unlucky roll. If that sounds frustrating, you should stay away. If you play smart you can increase your chances in every fight, but there's almost always going to be a roll that goes against you at the absolute worst time.

Edit: Since I wrote this review a few days ago, the devs have already patched the game twice, fixing bugs and adding an option to reduce some of the randomness of the dice. You can turn this new option off if you want purely random dice, or leave it on to reduce bad luck streaks. I haven't tried the new mode, but it seems like a sensible compromise, especially for new players.

Bottom line - if you're new to wargames or even an old grognard, there's a lot to like about Heroes of Normandie. It's a quick, fun play with a great sense of humor and gorgeous board game design.

I've only played for 75 minutes so far, but I'm really liking it. Be warned though, this game is brutal from the very start. If you're used to a modern hold-your-hand-until-you-learn-everything-game, you may get frustrated. I'm planning on sticking with it because I love the atmospheric style and the combat reminds me of old turn-based classics like Wizardry.

Defense Grid stands above all others in the crowded tower defense genre. It's the gold standard. DG2 is poised to surpass the achievements of the original. If you have even a passing interest in tower defense, you MUST own DG and now DG2.

How good is DG2? The beta currently only has two levels, and I've already played DG2 for 38 hours.

It's free-to-play, and definitely has some pay-to-win qualities. But if you're a casual player and don't care about being L33T, it's quite fun (and free). Lots of D&D lore, especially if you've played any of the recent D&D Encounters adventures. Rules are based on 4th Edition, which is my favorite edition so far.

I've played dozens of hours before it came to Steam. Leveled a cleric to 60, and have a couple lower-level alts. I only paid once, to get the founder's pack deal when it first came out in beta. There's definitely dozens of hours of free entertainment here, no IAP necessary. Get a group of friends together and play it for fun PvE and it's totally free.