Recent reviews by Dragon

I really enjoyed this game. I'm not normally so hot on these survival/crafting games, which is why I'm really happy that they included a pre-generated world and a proper story. I like how diverse the world feels, and how properly dangerous it can feel at times. I didn't really get a huge sense of horror like a lot of people say, but there were definitely tense moments, especially deep down with things attacking my submarine. Most of the tense moments were when I was stuck in a cave with rapidly dwindling oxygen.

I did have to consult the wiki quite a few times, but I almost take that for granted when it comes to these sorts of games.

As ever I would love to see a native Linux build of this game.

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD

The ending was by and large pretty good, but I feel like it seriously suffered from the inclusion of the final crafting recipe. In my mind, you shouldn't have needed to go back and find a bunch of things to craft one final special item, but this is a relatively minor nitpick.

Okay, so I would have to give this game a solid 6.5/10. It was a really enjoyable experience, but there were a few big things that stop it from being stellar.

I absolutely loved the visuals. The psychedelic space aesthetic is just awe-inspiring at times. The overall art direction is absolutely fantastic.

The music is alright. I really like most of it, but the "shred" mechanic just lacks any sort of subtlety, and turns everything into a mindless guitar solo with no coherent melody. I understand the limitations of having to be able to shred anywhere at anytime and how that might affect things creatively, but I would much rather have the player fade in and out of a well thought-out melody or lead line rather than the shredding. The only other complaint I have about the music is that it's a little bland, with nothing particularly interesting happening.

The main problem I have with this game is the gameplay, or lack thereof. There are a few Simon Says sequences dotted about, which don't feel particularly musical, and feel challenging in the wrong way. I don't feel like this game would work if it was incredibly challenging, so I understand the reluctance to include a lot of gameplay, but some sort of minigame that feels somewhat musical would be appreciated. I'm picturing dodging notes on a fretboard, or something else to that effect. I also felt that the minigames broke the flow of the music too easily. This is a game that lives and dies on the rising and falling spectacle, so stopping in the middle of a climactic moment because you missed a note only to start again a second before breaks that apart. I know gameplay has to have failure conditions, but I would prefer something that either keeps things rising, or resets to the start to begin building up again.

A lot of these nitpicks might be because I'm a guitarist myself, and I feel like this could've been a game specifically directed at me, but all of these things just put me slightly off.

So overall I enjoyed the experience, but I feel like it's overshadowed by what it could've been.

This game really succeeds at making you feel like a badass ace pilot. I've not played any other games in the series, so I went into it completely unfamiliar with the world or plot, but the gameplay just felt so cool. I was so hooked that I decided to play through every mission on every difficulty.

Don't expect anything remotely realistic, but expect plenty of fun.

NOTE: This review applies to the full version of the game with all DLC>

This isn't so much as a strategy game as THE strategy game.
Foreign policy? Yes.
Military strategy? In buckets.
Bribery and backstabbing? Of course.
Long term planning and strategy? Plenty.

I've sunk many hours into this game, and honestly there's nothing quite like it. If you are into strategy, tactics, history, warfare, chess, or anything similar, you need to play this game.

This is an addictive game. You will spend hours optimising your factory, only to tear it down and rebuild it. Your life will fall apart, your family will abandon you, your spouse will leave you, all because you just can't stop playing factorio.

10/10, would recommend to anyone.