Recent reviews by zadiel

Game of the year, easy.

Hurt my thumb :(

Play blind. Pick wretch. Exquisite.

return to monke

Chimera Squad is a fun little XCOM spin-off game, easily worth the $10 preorder price, but it was clearly released before it was ready. There are a multitude of bugs, including frequent crashes to desktop; I've searched but have yet to find any sort of developer statement or update. I hope the game will be patched, but I can't recommend spending $20 on this while it's barely functional. To give you an idea of how unstable the game is, after finishing my first playthrough I started over to experience the other characters and finish more of the achievements, and after a few hours I decided it wasn't worth trying to play more until the game is updated.

My only non-technical complaints about the game are its replayability, which for me will probably only entail 1-2 more playthroughs to farm achievements, and some of the voice acting. Specifically, the repeatable voice lines in combat should be limited to only playing occasionally, or even a hard limit (of one). I don't need to hear the same corny line multiple times in a single encounter (or hell even across one mission).

The highest praise I can give Path of Exile is it picks up where Diablo II left off, with deeper mechanics in the same flavor, and a much wider variety of gameplay, including an endgame so deep it makes the campaign seem like a tutorial for the true game (which it basically is!). The upcoming PoE2 will add a totally new campaign and fix a lot of longstanding issues, perhaps elevating PoE in the same way that D2 elevated the original Diablo.

The primary problem with Path of Exile is that it's hard to get into. I initially tried playing back in version 2.1.0, and I didn't even finish act one. I came back in 3.0.0, and I knew it was something special before I had even finished that same act. It just kind of clicked for me and I saw the possibilities.

And it's actually, truly free. I'd suggest you play through all the acts, and if you enjoy yourself by the end of it maybe throw GGG a few dollars if you decide to continue playing into the endgame.

Sorcerer King is the first game I've played since Master of Magic to capture its, uh, magic. There are differences, to be sure, but I feel the additions, like a material-based crafting system for items, much more than the absent features, like more playable races.

Sorcerer King is inspired by MoM, but it's not trying to clone it (*cough* Worlds of Magic *cough*). There are minor factions you can ally with or declare war on, but you always have one ultimate opponent: the Sorcerer King. This neatly solves the problem in MoM of needing to wipe out each opponent in turn: once you defeat the SK, the game is won. There is also a Spell of Mastery–like win condition for at least some of the sovereigns.

There are still some bugs in 1.0, but nothing too horrible. It only crashed on me about three times in 45 hours of gameplay, which isn't bad for this type of game.

I hope SK continues to improve; I've already seen talk of adding additional races, which would be a nice touch if done well.

I've only just started playing this but so far it's amazing. Clearly the best NES game released for PC in 2014.