Recent reviews by Liberi Fatali

I have played it for a few hours (maybe only one hour tbh) and here are my honest thoughts:

- It is not X-COM: First of all, ya, it is not X-COM. It has nothing to do with X-COM gameplay. So if you are a X-COM fan and hoping to have a similar experience with Marvel's Midnight Suns (MMS), you are on the wrong path. Do your research. Read some neutral reviews. I repeat: This is not X-COM.

- This game has some nostalgic feelings. It feels like those games from 90s. Namely; Gabriel's Knight (ya!), Tekken's Nina Williams in Death by Degrees, Zanzarah, Freedom Force (definitely), some The Witcher III random forest lurking, and Senran Kagura. I'll explain why below.

- This game seems to have two major parts: Missions and between-Missions. Basically, after and before each mission, you are free to travel an old mansion called "Abbey". It is a kind of woody place, trees over here and there and some JRPG-style fun activities such as pool and boxing around. Because well, playing missions in chain would be boring. Yeah. IT would be boring.

- Boring missions is the key here. Since it is not a game such as X-COM, where movements and tacticts matter, this is a card-based game with 3D graphics. But it is not a card game neither. It is somewhere "between". In missions, which are actually kind of "cage fights" that you cannot move much around and all heroes are restricted to a small area, a cage, all you do is playing your cards from your deck, those are random cards that appear, and KO'ing your enemies. That is all. I guess AI controlled enemies also have a deck of their own. I hope. Otherwise that'd be cheating.

- Okay, since you are restricted to your cards and some hero abilities, which you can also spend to throw some rocks and tables to the enemies, there is not much action in that game. There are cutscenes and spell-scenes and hero-attack scenes with some cool animations... repeating animations. You will watch that whip whipping in the air again... and again... and then again... and again...

- If you like JRPG games, you'll like this: Enemy recruitments. Ya, each mission, after you kill a bunch of enemies, more will flow in. It is just, you know, it does not matter where and how, or why, but they'd keep coming for 3 or 4 turns. Mostly footsoldiers. So you would not be able to defeat the boss in a few minutes. Kill the footsoldiers first! Hit the boss with the remaining card. More footsoliders will run in. Kill them, again. And again... and.. you know.. again.

- Enemy units levels up with you. Ya. Levelling up would mostly bring you some cooler extra attack animations. Because, once you get stronger, the enemy would be too. I know this mechanic is used in many RPG games but still... c'mon... why'd I level up if I would not be able "stronger than my enemy"??

- The issue above points to the lack of creativity. Sorry but that is the case. Instead of coding a balanced fight system in which the player would not abuse by levelling up, the devs here -and in many other games alike- automatically level up the enemy units as well: Ta~ da~! "We have balance". Do we?

- Cosmetics... I hate in game currencies and this game has its own. I bought the legendary edition -so I can write this review with "full" first hour experience --excuses!---, well, it seems you buy clothings and armor, and hero suits, such stuff. Why? Because the devs (again) predict that playing missions in a chain is "boring". It is "boring". The story is boring. Cliche. We all know our heroes will defeat the evil. And with the hope of a sequel, there'd be an open end. I haven't played it to the end (I doubt if I'd) so that is not a spoil. That is my prediction. Whatever.. So, devs try to distract the player with accessories, clothings, walking around to find random paintings, artifacts, and chests..

- Chests... Ya. Chests... Abbey is centuries old. People constantly live in there. There are people living in there! And there are "locked" chests around. In random rooms. In the garden. Behind a rock. Next to the pool... No one cared about them all those years... I mean.. for centuries! And guess what? We can't open them either. We need... keys... keys... oh... it is so...

- You know what, this game lacks random crates. It has chests, random walking thing, hidden treasures, doors with a crack (so we can crack it later when we level up to access new parts of the garden), it has characters talking random useless stuff when you point them and press E, it has barrels... but no crates! No random crates around to fill the space.

- Customization.. is limited.. as usual. 4 faces, two "body types" (not genders, lol), some hair, three-to-four type of suits. And Pjs. Pjs are important. Yet our character sleeps with boots on. Ah, and she slept for three centuries, yet she did not even take a shower. Yikes.

- Actually, it is not she.. nor he. It is: They. You are, they. It's confusing. The Caretaker says "They are not ready" and I wonder who are them? Appears, it's me. I am not ready. Oh, wait. Not me. We. We are not ready... they think we are not readysss...our precioussss.... they want to fool usss.... they did not want to pay for extra dialogue recordingsssss....

- Okay. Honestly, I thought I'd be able to spawn some random customized heroes, and level them up with cool stuff, since the trail had a bunch of mixed heroes jumping around... it seems those customized ones belong to the enemy-side. We had Iron Man. And Doctor Strange.. And other classics.

- I am a big fan of Final Fantasy VIII. Really. It is my top game. And I curse Square Enix guys for not making a remake. Yet, I disliked, really disliked the final bosses of FFVIII. The spam of the same witch again and again... remember that? You'd defeat one witch, and the same witch would come with her clone. You'd defeat them... and three more would arrive... THAT IS WHAT THIS GAME IS ABOUT. Ya.

- I am sure there'd be thousands, maybe millions of fans of this game. And I read some "big" game critics praise it as the "best hero game ever".. But believe me, it is not. It is an average game. A game you'd play for a few months after work. And then next year, you'd notice it in your library and you'd wonder "oh the midnight thing? should i delete it? or give it a shot?" You'd play it.. for a few minutes... and you'd think.. "okay... let's delete it."

Well, I'd still recommend it anyway. At the end, it is not stuck in beta, right?.... right?

It is a great game. Great and unique. It gave a mixed sense of King of Dragon Pass, Six Ages, Rouge State and CK2... It also feels like Papers! and The Westport Independent... I just can not explain how fun this game is. It is mostly text-based and story-driven with choices, but it does not lack graphics as well. Oh, the story, it is well written and quite intriguing. I am just amazed, so it is really hard to write a review right now. Great game. BUY IT.

After playing it for hours and as a tycoon-games fan, I think this review would be usefull for both the players and the developer(s).

A good, well-balanced Computer Business tycoon game. It's main focus is computer parts and models, rather than Sims-style city building, which is what many Comp-tycoon players look for.

There are several pros and cons of this game and it is still in alpha-stage; which I hope will result in a batter, near flawless game.

Pros: Vast range of computer parts from memory units to mother boards. Rather than popping computer products, in this game you built your own computer to sell on the market. That way, there are endless possibilities from selling high-end computers to Celeron-type low-end ones; and maintaining classic Home Computer series. During the game, you'd have many available components to choose from. I named my graphic cards as Burnout 100, 109, 330 etc. Quite fun.

Cons & Suggestions:

- There are near 200 countries and this game have them all in. You need to click 200x2 times to sell in those - and find each country one by one. Instead, a "regional" approach would be easier and better for focusing (eg: North America, Central America, Western Europe etc).

- Building is -IMO- unnecessary. Especially the 3D building screen. It could have been done with a basic but useful in game opening-menu. There really is no need to go to a different screen each time to build something. And you cannot see what you did build unless you visit the countries one by one. A simple list with countries and what we built on and which levels they are would be quite simple, playable and easier to track. Really, no need for 3D.

- Home Computers are everywhere. Everywhere. Whenever I want to copy a computer design or a component (CPU etc), it will be forced into being designed for home computers. But NO, I only want to design it for PCs or Laptops. But the game won't allow it. The game adds home computer compatibility into EVERY design and concept. That is, annoying. And if it cannot add home computers into a desgin -such as some laptop parts-, they it won't let you copy that design: Because it is not compatible with home computers thus the game cannot create a copy.

- There are no market targets (customer groups). Instead, there are "preferences" such as prestigue and easy-of-use. NO. This is not how it works. It is not fun. There should be customer groups such as "Gamers, Casual Gamers, Home Users, Developers, Companies" etc. That would make sense.

- CEO death? Seriously??? Why? What is the fun in dying at 1995 because "you are sick". This is a tycoon game. Players should not be bothered with that kind of side managements. The game is fun because it is about computer developing. If I wanted to play a character that can die if not taken care, I'd play Sims 4.

- You cannot delete your saved games. If you save too much, that you'd have a huge list of saves.

- This is another issue: Why do we have to produce all the parts by ourselves? I know this one needs a lot of coding, so I can understand why it's lacking. But still, if we were to be able to use 3rd party parts, such as CPUs from other manufactureres, OR were to be able to sell our parts to other compter producers, that'd be nice.

- Statistics are useless. All you need to take care is that if you're making a profit or not -and buy demand-. Statistics are useless because they don't show much info and what they show is not much helpful.

Summary: A unique game with a great potantial. But need improvements.

We all know how did all those game dev tycoon/story/madness/race/sh-t things started. A Japanese company decided to translate their dated PC game into ios/android and ta da, they became hits. Especially the game-dev ones.

And many gamers all around the world thought "oh I could do better than this!". And those with some coding skills, started to code their own game dev copies. Actually, clones.

99% percent of those, not surprisingly, became lame clones with some "awesome" ideas integrated into the original Japanese game. Without minding the balance of course. Some added some detailed statics, some added more consoles, som put some kinky stuff in, none cared about the AI nor the game universe. Huh.

Now, this summary-review is about a game of the 1% percent. Yay! Those guys really did a good job at copying the origibal Japanese idea, they added their own stuff in, especially more detailed staff skills, and kept the balance.

I can say, it's a decent game, doesn't give you the feeling of playing a lame copy because you've already beaten the original game several times.

Positives: Better staff skills, good graphics, balanced game play, various consoles and game types, competitive sale system.

Negatives: Lack of statistics, poor ai, other corporations doesn't exist actually. They're just timed statistics.

Summary: It worths.

Good idea. Good enviroment. Good potential.

Bad gameplay.

First of all, it's mosty about trading. Buying some stuff for cheap and selling high. It does not matter what you buy, trading goods (even illegal weapons) have no use except for selling. Names or types of the goods that you carry are not important. You just buy it from a planet's shop owner and sell to another. Actually, all the planets are the same: same shop and the same salesman. The whole universe, except for the planet icons on the map, all the same. Same dock, same station, same shop, same armory.

The campaign and the story is also not complex nor dedicated. It's just some elements from the sandbox mode.

So, what you do in this game universe are, also limited:

- Buy some goods and sale them.
- Carry some passangers to another planet.
- Shoot some bad guys and their ships down. (Totally random. The ships and their captains always change. eg, if you're after -let's say- smuggler Xenopod, each time you catch his ship, or her, it's a different ship with a different guy/girl claiming to be Xenopod..

Combat scenes are a bit entertaining, but since it has no purpose at all but earning some money and loot, gets boring.

There are alien races. And religions. But it only has a meaning for your crew's internal relations -love or hate-. That's it.

There are no states, no unions, no factions, nothing at all.

Summary: It's a universe full of random ships flying by with random missons on dozens of clone -same- planets.

Should buy it: No, not yet. Wait to see if they improve it. Or the price fells down.. like $1 or $2..

I've no idea why I paid for this game. It was a bundle or discount probably.

First of all, the story is, well, lame. Don't know what's going on. And it doesn't matter at all. It is barely a 'game'. Not even a game. Just pictures and conversations passing by. All the player has is a mouse icon, that you can move around. That's really all of it, all the action. Your mouse pointer. The rest is, just clicking for the next coversation. Nothing to choose, no alternatives. Countless and endless dialogues, 99% boring stuff.

It's a novel. A real novel. One path.

Summary: Those are not the droids you're looking for.