Recent reviews by Weird Beard

A good fun RPG. At this point I have finished the main campaign with my wife. Cant say anything special about the plot or even the voice acting but the story makes for a solid epic story and the dialogue IS entertaining. The writing is good and we had a few laughs.

There is a crafting system that's pretty simple and we were able to make items that were useful, including healing pots.

I have two real complaints. First, is how restrictive the camera is. I get why they don't let you zoom way out etc but it's a bit too tight. This prevents you from fully appreciating some of the environments and, on occasion, getting a proper view of a combat area. Geting it to go level when fully zoomede would be cool as well for some good screenshots. :)
Second, would be how litle independence each player has in multiplay. Anything involving a cutscene (which is some vendors etc) drags everyone into it. While it can't be helped in certain cases (timelapse from rituals etc), this can slow the pacing significantly when different players are trying to sell, do inventory, turn around between quests and the like.

Where this game shines is in multiplayer. Sharing the experience with others, laughing at the dialogue or cringing/cheering with the rolls of the dice. Playing Solasta brings back memories of playing Neverwinter Nights with my wife (girlfriend at the time) on our laptops and a crossover cable. Also exciting, like NWN, is having a workshop for community content. This will give Solasta a lot of longevity.

Overall, really fun game. Play it with friends (or strangers even?)!
Thumbs up from me.

HW1 with more ships and some QOL improvements. The campaign missions seem to be a rehash-tactically- of the ones from HW1 but the context was different enough that I could live with it. The difficulty level is pretty high and it can take a few runs at a mission to work out how to get through. Resources carry over which adds an extra strategic layer as finishing a mission with too much loss can result in a pyrrhic victory. This could result in an inability to maintain a fleet to carry on with future missions and finish the campaign.

Challenging and tactical. Decades later after HW1 and now 2, there is still no equivalent to this game that I know of. Fully recommend to any RTS buff.

Bought the game and it crashed when I went to play it from the launcher. No intro, nothing but a crash message. Closed the launcher and went off to eat etc. figuring I'd try again in a bit. Came back, tried again and still the same. Well, at least I could get a refund. Nope, seems Steam thought I was playing all that time and had logged me as being 5hrs in the game. For some reason, Steam didn't get the memo that the game had stopped running. I explained the situation in my refund request since I noticed they don't refund if you've played more than 2hrs.
Refund was still refused with a generic email informing me of such.

Just a warning to any that read this and are considering a purchase.

Fun game full of action and puzzles. Have to say that the puzzles weren't too difficult as the game provides plenty of hints via the glowy bits using survival instincts but they were fun.

To me, the highlight of playing TR is the way the action sequences were handled. They are a good blend of being cinematic and requiring reflexive actions while flowing well between that and the normal open exploration play.
Was a good ride.

Amazing game. Excellent graphics, animations and beautiful, well fleshed out environments. What I love most (about the whole series) is the writing. The story lines and characters are so well done where many decisions aren't black and white. You often face tough moral dilemmas which, in turn, can have permanent long and/or short term consequences. They even allowed you to bring your save games from one game into the next sequel which have an effect on certain quests in that sequel. One more thing I enjoy about the series is it doesn't pull any punches in its subject matter. There's sex, nudity, intense moral decisions and no holds barred disturbing content. I don't feel like I'm being treated like a child (though, in some cases, there have been minor changes for NA releases. Notably in Witcher 1).
IF you are thinking of playing Withcer 3, stop thinking about it and get it. It's an awesome game. Before you do that, though, get the first and second ones and play the whole series. You won't regret it. ....unless you don't like RPGs. In which case, why are you here? ;p

EDITED REVIEW:
23/Oct 30
Picked the game up again after ~7 months and I have to say that this game has improved a lot. Signs, props, buildings are nice fluff. Most important, though, has been good improvements to the track laying tool. I am more optimistic this review over the last that this game will be worth a recommend before long. The big blocker for me is multiplayer, This game touts itself as an online game but the net code is still terrible. We've been told this is a priority so I'm looking forward to the next updates.
Things that I think this game needs to stand out and not get lost among other train games out there:
-Map editing: Able to make tunnels/cuts, maybe fill.
-Random or procedural map generator with parameters (sliders for % biome types, ruggedness ie. mountains -> prairie etc).

I can tell the devs have actually been working hard so this is an optimistic update from me,

Updated: 24 Feb @ 10:07pm
Changed my recommendation based on the following:

This game was originally about narrow gauge, wood fueled, age of steam railways. The big features were building your own network and the highly detailed models all run as a simulator.

The developer had stated that there was no intention to change any of the above but the game would be opened up to the Steam Workshop. There were also a ton of features needed to make this a complete game (understandable as it is - was, maybe, when you read this - early access), some of which include the ability to make tunnels, more construction pieces, clean up the contruction system/UI, signs, and better map features to name a few.

Instead, the dev signed with some publisher and since then we have seen:
-A major price hike. I paid C$35 and it is now C$67.
-A rebranding with a new promo video and fancier logo.
-Hype around coal fired locomotives.

I feel like I can safely say that I speak for most of the players that we'd love to see the game finished and released with actual gameplay features before getting more locos etc. My fear is that RRO slips down that slope of many games that get stuck in pre-release just pushing out more units, tanks, mechs etc.

I was prompted to change my review after seing the latest news bulletin talking about adding coal fired locos causing delays as "it requires a whole new workflow". Forget all that and finish the original game. I even bet people would pay something for an 'Age of Coal' DLC after the game was finished.

At this price point, with current gameplay, I would NOT recommend. The usual caveat applies: I will adjust my review if things improve.


ORIGINAL REVIEW:
A virtual model train set of the early narrow gauge steam. If you like trains and enjoy riding around in steam trains hauling goods on a layout of your own design then this is a game for you.

RRO is a bit clunky and finicky which can easily lead to frustration but it's still in beta. There is promise of much to come, though, so I am optimistic about getting a lot on my wish list checked off as the game develops. Hours and hours can be spent getting your layout right but patience and perseverance DO reap great rewards.

I play RRO as a way to relax and hang with some like minded friends.
This is my Bonsai tree.
...if doing Bonsai were a social activity.

Do NOT buy this game as is. They basically took the map from the main story game and turned it into a free roam MMO. This is cool and all but they really didnt have much content. The lack of content wasnt so bad especially since the game only cost $7.

The reason you shouldn't buy this game:
1. They've since raised the price heavily (and only added a bit of content along the way).
2. This one's the deal breaker. You are constantly getting dumped out of your current instance. This is a common issue, not just mine. When this happens (and it is pretty frequent), You get dumped from your posse and the quest/mission you are doing. If you are the posse leader, the mission fails for everyone. You cant rejoin a posse currently on a mission and rejoining someone else's instance is a fairly long load time. On a bad day it can take an hour just to do some simple daily objectives or task. Not a huge deal at 5 or 7$ ut a waste at the current price until they fix it.
3. Griefers. They are common. They like to snipe you as you're trying to do your thing. Not a huge deal as that can be expected from an MMO but with the network/instance drop issues, this wastes a TON of your time.

IF they can fix the seriously (and I mean very seriously) bad net code in this game and expand the map and/or content, I'd give the game a wholehearted recommendation.

PS In the time it took me to write this review, there were two session drops in our game (my wife and I).

Plenty of moral dilemmas, decent combat and a fairly well written story. Voice acting and character animation is better than the first Witcher though still not the best. I liked the combat in the first game a bit better. Being able to flip over foes to prevent being surrounded and the way the combos were handled are a few things. Ive adapted just fine though. Just finished chapter 2 as of this writing and am having a good time.

If you like 40k stuff and the idea of being a space marine pushing objectives in derelict ships while being assaulted by hordes of Tyranids then you will like Deathwing.

My biggest complaint is the lack of content. You spend most of your time running through the same maps repeatedly.

It's like an rts version of MOO2. It's missing a few things like espionage but still a fun game.