Recent reviews by overkill17

I'd recommend this as a one of the (contemporary) classic roguelike for someone to get into the subgenre. Saying this even after almost ten years and despite it being largely stagnant in terms of development (no sequel, developer news). Adding that now we're at a time when there's sooo many bigger roguelike games to choose from and roguelikes are no longer niche.

I'm reviewing it now because I surprised myself by ending picking this up and playing it again recently. Pushing several hours once more into it. I had so many other roguelikes to choose from that haven't been even tried or some that are my usual go-tos.

And of course, its quirky humour.

The bugs it has here and there that I found are bearable.

Edit: typo, add line(s)

I played this a long time ago and feel obligated to review this now.

It has a good plot, intrigue, moral dilemmas and a nice fantasy world set-up. Lore is interesting. Game mechanics is decent. I enjoyed this and recommend it despite me giving its sequel a thumbs down. You can refer to that if interested.

I review more often now ever since I read "What developers think of Steam reviews" (http://rockpapershotgun.com) and due to negativity bias.

Ironically as per what I mentioned prior, this is going to be my first negative review. So here goes. I played this way back in 2017 and wasn't into reviewing at the time.

While this sequel perfectly replicated the first game and got me playing it just as well (just look at my play hours, think I attempted two playthroughs but didn't pass it), it fell short for a few reasons. I didn't feel compelled to complete the game.

I still loved its story, intrigue and setup, this sequel didn't disappoint. The game fell short because I would say it had all the same issues (according to me) part 1 had, along with some more. All I can say is the game mechanics were the same as before, with not many good changes. I had a problem with the plot set-up as well.

To elaborate: I remember reading how the older Avadon had some mildly exploitable mechanics (something along the lines of Dexterity, ranged attacks giving more long term benefits than Strength, melee. Then this game added a new class, which, to me, felt overpowered, to begin with. I remember looking up online and seeing people boasting that they could complete the game with just that new class and no party members!

A nitpick about the plot setup. Mild spoilers ahead. We got companions again like part 1 which all seemed to have the same cliched past trauma emotional baggage with somewhere down the line, an option to side with them or not. I may have not completed the game but I know how part 1 dealt with this situation. It was the final nail in the coffin for me, it felt so repetitive. In the first game, it was good but repeating it again?

So I may have just reached midway because of the plot being interesting and whatnot. I say with regret I don't think I'll be completing this trilogy.

Update 2025: I actually managed to play it AGAIN from the start and this time complete it. However, my verdict still stands. The long gap gave me a fresh look at it. I even avoided using the "exploit" class I mentioned earlier. I played it this time on my Steam Deck which is quite a good experience if you're ready to use Custom Layouts. I moved onto to part 3 and guess what happened then? Same plot set up issue and I lost interest halfway again. XD. Here's to completing it in 2030 and checkout my review then lol.

I review more often now ever since I read "What developers think of Steam reviews" (rockpapershotgun.com) and due to negativity bias.

I'm a big fan of traditional roguelikes and have played many of the major ones. This is yet another addition to my "major-roguelike-I've managed-to-dig-into" list. My 'roguelike resume' improves and so does my street cred! Woohoo! So let's get started.

Backstory: I still remember playing the old tome (called Tales of Middle Earth), only a variant of Angband at the time. To me, it was this lore-rich and heavily tactical variant which wasn't fully complete. Yet it was awesome and playable. That was my initial push to try TOME. I did not give it much time then and it was a completely different game to the old tome. I could only give it my undivided attention a few months ago.

TLDR: The most tactical traditional roguelike I've ever played. Very accessible due to its range of difficulties. The difficulty takes time to show itself. At one point, I asked myself "If I feel it's so easy and my previous death was a stupid one, then why don't I pass it in my next run?" And Baam! I clocked my current playtime and it's reached the exact hours of another game I played the most, which is ADOM, at the time of writing. A nice coincidence.


Pros:
Extremely good tactical gameplay - The few major classes all feel unique. They can suit different playstyles. I've never seen this level of intricate mechanics before! (the last game which comes to mind would be DCSS). Each of those classes felt balanced and not too overpowered or underpowered, they all had their thrills when playing them. Some I took time and enjoyed that process of figuring out the strategy to play them myself. I either did not try enough or like the other more "niche" classes or races the game offered, quite a few were left to unlock by me. It feels some of them could do with more improvement. But hey, four major classes from the usual backgrounds (archer, warrior, mage and rogue) sold me, what more can you ask for or expect. Anything else would be a bonus.
Nice lore, plot and good writing - The story got to me even though it was slow-paced. It does not have the "reach-this-level-and-kill-the-nemesis" objective shown instantly at the beginning of most traditional RLs. The narrative only gets trajectory after decent progress (without revealing spoilers). It is a big task to get the attention of a player, especially when we're used to all these RPG story cliches and motifs. I would say it does it well. I further commend its good writing, some suspense and even humour at places.
Unlockables: A lot of classes/races can only be unlocked via progress of some kind. I never played an RL with this feature before and liked the experience. The thrill of finding out you unlocked something by making a specific choice/exploration/trying something different or thanks to sheer progress felt quite good. Also my curiosity on wondering how to unlock the remaining. Any stone left to unturn. More replayability value.
Accessibility/Ease: In general, I can say I got on board without much help and refrained from using spoilers of any kind (A personal quirk I like to appreciate in any RL). It has a high degree of difficulty ranges and permadeath is an option. It is very accessible to players new to the genre. For players used to traditional RLs, I recommend the permadeath option and the highest available difficulty (remaining are locked).

Neutral:
Difficulty - Moderate. By this I mean, per the usual classic roguelike "harsh" standards, I'll give Tales of Maj'Eyal a moderate rating. Its difficulty too takes time to gain traction and isn't outright "harsh" like most other RLs. Its "spiritual predecessor" Angband is what I compare its difficulty to, but still easier. Just like how Angband lacks any harsh events, ruthless monsters or weak classes but rather has a slow but persistent difficulty. Deaths usually occur towards mid or late game once you learn the ropes and your characters tend to last long and die less frequent. Deaths and retries are proportionally lesser so it balances out. At one point, I asked myself "If I feel it's so easy and my previous death was a stupid one, then why don't I pass it in my next run?" And Baam! I clocked my current playtime and it's reached the exact hours of another game I played the most, which is ADOM, at the time of writing. Pure coincidence indeed. I still can't pass the darn game though.
Online: This was interesting. The game optionally requires you to be online. You can still play offline and miss only some minor features. It keeps the records of your character highscores and deaths via your registered account, unlike other games. It also has an in-game log of all the players and what achievement/milestone/death they just faced. Knowing where you stand or seeing someone do some achievement you've yet to discover felt cool. All in all, this was really was a curiously fun experience

Cons:
Technical glitches: The only con I feel which deserves to be considered non-trivial. I did encounter a major bug here and there, it's a work-in-progress and it did fix itself in another release. However, I faced another issue that acted like a killjoy in this party of mine. I lost my character saved game twice, once while migrating to another PC. Steam cloud didn't do its job. Without getting into the details of the other, this experience was enough for me to list this as my only negative gaming experience.
(minor) Layout/UI: Due to its vast amounts of abilities and information, especially as you level up, it becomes hard to manage all the various windows. However, it is entirely customisable and within some time I found my preferred layout after resizing and repositioning. Minor quibble since the user has to figure this out on their own and the default layout doesn't quite cut it once the characters are mid-level and greater.
(minor) Gameplay mechanics jargon: While I did mention that I didn't need to consult online help and the game provided enough information. Later on, I couldn't find the meaning of some game terms on my own and had to look them up online. Though again, they were simple enough to understand and it just took seconds.

I remember playing the demo as a kid 15 years ago. How it was so different to the other tycoon games. I was obviously was thrilled to see it available here. It didn't disappoint and I recommend it to anybody else to liked it when it came back then. Or even to new players who like tycoon games in general and don't mind playing a classic. Ran decently well on my laptop with no obvious tech problems.

Also, as with playing any game to relive nostalgia, I quickly saw it more realistically for what it was. I found some shortcomings in its gameplay mechanics and subsequently got bored then. Either way, I enjoyed the decent amount of hours I spent on this game and am happy to say I could revisit it.

Funny observation (and critique) about it though is, after I finally played the full game as an adult, I found it offering not much new in terms of the demo XD Just more (kind of repetitive) content, almost 90% of the main game mechanics could be enjoyed in the old demo if I remember rightly.

Posting this after completing my nostalgia trip with this game. One of my favourite racing games of all time, easily.

Let's see what I like about it..

1. The AI and the distinct characters, each, as per their bio description, can easily be seen acting accordingly. Sofia, Jack and Jason are usually in the lead. Jason tends to be aggressive and Sofia is the opposite. Frank is just plain retarded. The remaining depending on their mood may be leading or will usually be in the middle. Heck, the only voice acting in the game is the individual driver's screams and I can tell they've taken some effort with even that. Each female driver character's voice is uniquely identifiable for example :P
2. The soundtrack is just great and apt for this aggressive racing game.
3. Smashing! There's no better joy than smashing their cars during a competitive race especially the ones who are close to your score. I jerk up in my chair in excitement when I'm about to intentionally collide with someone and hear the satisfying sound. Bonus if I hear them scream as they are flung out of their car.

Only downside, well, it being an old game, is it's limited multiplayer support. But that's excusable I guess! You can't play with the added AI. There's no option. Say if you wanted to play with your friend on LAN, it's just the two of you. No option to add the AI.

Aha, another classic available here where I relive my nostalgia. And relive I did.

It runs decently well. The few technical glitches I experienced at first were solved with some patience and help from the forums. Also I just enjoyed it enough that I was willing to go this far.

I played for quite some time and maybe reached 3/4 of the game till I got bored. Like all games where you play to relive nostalgia, reality kicked in and I started to see its flaws like any other game I would normally play. I began to find it a bit repetitive, story so-and-so and not that difficult enough.

Despite the above, I enjoyed the hours played and it still is quite a good amount of playtime. I'm happy to have been able to play this classic RPG and recommend it others!

"I still can play its single-player campaigns for hours on end"

Let's see. I was introduced to this game way back in 2011. One of the first turn-based games I played. I recall playing those single-player campaigns after coming back from college. Hours go by, especially in scenarios with big battles. Stories are good and lighthearted, they've made a decent stereotypical Tolkien-esque world with the usual races which I like.

Seeing it on Steam I felt like reliving the nostalgia and maybe thought playing multiplayer too would be good since maybe now more players. So as my hours played will testify, I ended up playing some previously-unfinished campaigns again and even may replay the others with higher difficulty. Thus my title blurb above. Really good replayability value. Not to mention even good downloadable campaigns still being developed if you ever finish the stock ones.

Multiplayer: There's not a lot of people playing but not less either. You can easily get a PvP 1on1 match when you host...sometimes you may need to wait a while. The community is good and helpful. The game also teaches you that probability (and rightfully so) is sometimes a *****.

New players yet to get into the game? Do the tutorial and then the recommended Heir to the Throne novice campaign. You'll get familiar with this game in no time.

I got into the Shadowrun series years ago. It was one of the game series that pulled me into this subgenre of turn-based RPG games and of course, the high-fantasy sci-fi Shadowrun world.

One thing the game series never disappoints in is its plot, of which Hong Kong is no exception. Another aspect was the depth of the NPCs personalities and story arcs. Your teammates (not there much in Returns as far as I remember, but introduced in Dragonfall) have well-written side-quest like storylines about themselves. This thoroughly improves how immersive the game is, with you, as the protagonist, getting to routinely interact and watch them open up to you about their past/aspirations. Then with developments to their story-arcs along the way with you potentially helping or influencing them to make their decisions which may give them closure. Each character is different and if not relatable, definitely likeable.

A reason why I may have thoroughly enjoyed this game more compared to the previous two, was I ended getting a game completion achievement which was marked golden (ie less than 10% of players got it)---solely thanks to my efforts and thinking. Without spoilers, I'd say the developers made a good plotline with the usual moral dilemma choices in some quests like the previous two games but also made your choices matter more. Have to be vague, lest I potentially give away spoilers.

Honourable mentioning two more things which I'm not good at appreciating that much. Its trademark cyberpunk-suited music and well-made environment visuals of the city. It feels the developers took their time making each map to give me that cyberpunk "Hong Kong" feel (as if I would know...eitherway). But yea, I liked that. Previous two games were also no exceptions.

A potentially divisive feature they introduced in this game is its new redone hacking mode having a mini-game too. I'll say I'm neutral to this, it did have some element of fun and I honestly don't even remember the previous two games hacking..which tells us a lot about them. Having said that, whenever a hacking opportunity came in, I used to be like "aww not this s*** again. Let's just get this over with" halfway through the game. The main gripes were dodging enemy patrols which sometimes just was frustratingly hard, not fun or challenging. Made my experience worse by loading saved games taking very long. Towards the end, I ended deliberately avoiding any hacking unless I had to for the main quest and even ignoring any side-bonuses or rewards..it wasn't worth the trouble.

One nitpick which remains is the series is, it's still a bit hard for a player who's not familiar with this sub-genre to get into. The game mechanics especially combat isn't explained well apart from a single page telling everything--essentially that's the only form of reference you have or you could ask/refer to online forums for help. I honestly knew well at this point so was content with just enjoying the story and ignoring any minor questions I had with combat. Sometimes I ended up just testing it via say 1. buying/choosing a weapon/character upgrade or skill 2; trying it out in the mission; 3. quickloading (explained this was a pain in the a*** in the previous para) prior to purchase/selection if it didn't work as per my understanding of the game's mechanics. Another thing potentially putting away new players will be the Shadowrun high-fantasy world which you're directly immersed into but I'd rate the devs job in introducing the world to the new player are 6/10.

So TLDR version and my overall ratings: Definitely recommended for those who played the previous games, I found it way better in fact. New players can play this directly since the three games aren't sequels to each other per se...but note last few paras on it being a little hard to get into..otherwise you should be fine. Story/Immersion (this a word?) 10/10 Gameplay 7/10, Art/Music 8/10, Accessibility 6/10.

So finally, concluded my Saga and am proud to say, it was one of the best story-driven games I played so far. What an ending. :')

I would call this game in terms of character sudden deaths, a game where the story is written by George R R Martin so you get to unintentionally choose who dies, making you feel guilty about them. But damn, after I realised I saved someone's life from R R Martin's wrathful pen?!...it can go both ways.

After finishing, I was actually happy with my choices after skimming through what could have happened/could not have happened. Despite me clenching my teeth during most of the outcomes. My choices weren't that good (why did I always pick that damn choice which was overcautious and spoils the whole caravan's mood!?), guess it's kind of my attachment to the Saga I, myself, wrote?

Was so surprised to see that so many things, besides the explicit ones, were carried forward from part one and it affected my ending without me knowing it!