Recent reviews by BigMoneyMeatSpin#MillionSpinHype

Below is kinda valid still but it's now at least playable. It's still essentially like an early access build which you can see by the fact they pushed out DLC and content release schedule for performance and bug fixing, you know, like how most early access games make a game stable before full release and subsequent content releases. That said, it's very much addicting and the foundation is a lot more than I thought we'd get on first pass given the history of Paradox games. It contains most elements of CS1 DLCs but a "lite" version of them. For me personally, I have to wait a few DLCs after PDX releases a new game because the new base game is lacking so much content compared to the predecessor (might be because it's technically CO developing?). If you can stand a large amount of bugs, glitches, nuanced garbage and performance issues because you like city builders a lot, get it. As a general recommendation it's still a no though.

I can't believe they released the game in this state, the performance is horrendous. Doesn't matter what hardware you have, you'll get stutters and to make those manageable from changing settings the game starts to look like trash. Do you have a 2k or 4k monitor to really see the detail and enjoy the games you play? lol get ♥♥♥♥♥♥, have fun in 1080p unless you feel like playing it in powerpoint presentation mode.

Just play CS1 for a month while they remove their heads from their ass and maybe it'll be fixed. It's pretty bad when the performance update they spoke of caused an entire family of GPUs to start blue screening, I personally don't have an AMD GPU at the moment but if you do, don't even bother. I think this takes the gauntlet for worst paradox launch. My excitement has been met with extreme disappointment. Like with all issues with Microsoft owned products, Billy Gates is almost certainly to blame.

TLDR; few very minor gripes but overall a fantastic tactics game that is worth the asking price.

This game is great! I was originally on the fence about it because some of the reviews described it as "battle brothers (BB) without the fantasy" which I interpreted as a realism sim with no mystery or mystique but that's definitely not the case. Very happy I made this impulse purchase. There is in fact a fair amount of fantasy, less than BB for sure but it's there. Graphics are some of the best I've seen from a smaller studio and there are a lot of unique mechanics that add depth and keep the game interesting. There's almost a dozen different professions that each member in the troupe can be assigned to (mostly) complete with mini-games to spice things up when crafting various items, upgrades, other crafting stations, collect resources, etc. Since they use the same basic resources it adds a bit of strategy to decide how to balance the resource use. Cooking system is a bit rudimentary but offering a way to get different combinations of stat bonuses and turns it from just "you need X foods tonight" into something that plays directly into the combat and exploration mechanics. It's no where near as frustrating as BB or even XCOM as far as the randomness, there is some but they're controllable (point blank arrow or gun shot with 90% hit rate doesn't miss, it's always 100% chance to hit total with non-primary targets getting a split of the percentage)

The game is fairly polished now as far as bugs go, there's a few I've noticed but all minor. There is some work to be done in explaining various mechanics and items but that could be a conscious choice from the game designers, where instead of telling mechanics you experiment and figure things out. For example, it took me 10 hours of playtime to know that pitons could allow you to scale up elevation levels, not just down. Then I forgot when I came back to play some time later and it took me another 10 hours to relearn it. The item literally says "Allows you to descend from great heights" but nothing about ascension.... so if you use a piton to get somewhere and think you're stuck, you're not the game just doesn't do well at explaining mechanics. In addition to mechanics not being explained, it's way too easy to miss some of them. There are huge portions of the game's systems that can be missed if you didn't complete specific quests, Armor layers being a prime example of this. There should be some level of guidance or a progress gate (e.g. haven't done quest in act 1, act 2 towns person hints or give you them) for things that incredibly crucial to progressing player power. It'd be different if the player was told in some fashion they should "there are rumors that $GroupX, near $OverYonder has a way to make even the worse armor become battle ready", but nope you just need to force yourself to explore if you're the kind of person that just likes to progress from Q1->Q2 with as minimal extra game play as possible

Combat is pretty good and can actually feel impactful which is impressive given turn based games generally aren't. The balance is well done and provides a feeling of accomplishment when you squeak out a victory with your whole troop intact in later battles. Abilities can't just be spammed, the party shares Valor (ability) points from a pool with most being acquired from rest that stay with you but then your companions can get battle limited points in addition to avoid chewing through permanent ones based on different things from skills such as standing next to a teammate or enemy when their turn ends which encourages more strategic placement than just "I go here, I hit thing" balancing out risk of getting hit with reward of being able to use an ability that might turn a battle.

Apart from visibility only other concern I have is replayability, with games like BB it's randomly generated so you will do the same style of missions but the scenarios will end up different along with the map you have to traverse, missions offered, etc. since missions are much more scarce in BB there's not a large selection like WT. With WT there's a story and a campaign and there is some branching but by and large I feel like each playthrough will be pretty similar, especially considering the towns, major and side quests, etc. are all the same. I would like to see an update, DLC or possibly in WT2 an option to have a random map with parameters to tune or perhaps the addition of the workshop to play through custom campaigns or scenarios.

Overall it's good and offers way more than the dollar per hour played unofficial standard many people recommend based off of. They have been very consistent with updates, even offering major ones after the early access period and have actually listened to the community instead of just using players as free QA staff.

For the people complaining that changing cultures breaks immersion, please tell me what happened to the:

• Assyrians
  
• Babylonians
  
• Ottomans
  
• Persians
  
• Incas
  
• Aztecs
  
• Romans
  
• Teutons
  
• Sumerians
  
• Hittites
  
• Caral-Supe

You get the idea. Cultures throughout history change, empires get conquered, societies get split and cultural shifts happen. The remnants of the older societies are still built into the new ones, their advancements, their language, etc. This should be more immersive, not break it. Some from the list above are still around in genetic but the empire and culture is threatened to be extinct (Assyrians are a good example of this). In any case, any given culture that you look at today only goes back so far and before that they were someone else and even the modern culture is a huge shift from what it was. Look at the maps from paradox's historical games and let me know how familiar many of those countries are (they don't exist anymore).

As far as the game goes, I like it but it could use improvements. Even after this first expansion DLC it still feels incomplete in ways and I really wish the shift wasn't towards espionage and politics as with our current game AI paradigm it never feels right. Hacking ruined endless space for me. Both of these things are too gamified and it's just lacks the intrigue and depth to make it work. That and the independent peoples, they run rampant and are a pain to deal with. Other than that the culture changes allow you to target what you need/want to build up for the next leg of the game, and helps to form a unique identity throughout. The expansion of luxury resources to hold monopoly bonuses is good. I could go on, most of the systems in this game improve the 4X genre and some changes can be made. I increasingly reach for this game over others in the genre and most of the criticisms I've seen feel odd to me.

Fantastic game, similar to StarSector but you can build a ship. There's not as many weapons or parts and the world building isn't as deep from but it also hasn't been in development for over a decade like SS. Highly recommend if you like Star Sector, Star Commander or Star Valor.

It's a 20 hour interactive movie that's got quite a bit of fun. Side quests are a mess with knowing the level enemies will be which I wasn't a fan of but overall a fantastic experience.

Short and sweet, plays on sensory impairment and environment to build an atmosphere that's unique and an experience that's memorable.

Adds a bit of variation and more layers of mechanics to the game to keep things in end game fresh. I've enjoyed it quite a bit

Surprising amount of depth for an indie arpg, fun gameplay with varying styles and a better end game than Diablo 3. 2d graphics area nice change from what's typically seen in the space.

To preface, it's buggy right now at release. I haven't crashed at all but there are a lot of stutters, it seems to be tied to specific areas because it consistently happens based on game location, not an action. If you can't stand bugs you should wait. CPU and GPU are both from 2021, it's not a hardware performance issue like I've seen suggested in the review comments.

Other than those things that I'm sure will be ironed out it's very enjoyable, it has a huge open world that you get to explore freely and it doesn't hold your hand like every major RPG that's been released in the past decade which is very welcome, like morrowind where you get general direction from NPCs but just roam around. The closest thing to a waypoint is that the shrines have a little stretch of light that points in a vague direction. Combat is fun, it feels more fluid that the majority of DS games, in the same vein as Sekiro. Story is like inverse LOTR, instead of walking to a ring and a volcano you walk ring and a tree. Some fun surprises with the open world aspects that caught me off guard. Not just a single type of dungeon, there's caves, dungeons, crypts, ruins, mines, castles, etc. and a wide range of biomes to explore that all have a different feel and bosses which really keep it refreshing. It feels more rewarding than the other DS games to me.

Looks cool, then after about 30-60m it's just empty and hollow unfortunately. Maybe it'll get fixed :/