Recent reviews by SuperJoelDude

I just barely don't recommend this game. I was looking for a game with an arcade flight combat like I played decades ago on the N64 in Rogue Squadron. Unfortunately, while there are varied missions, the combat didn't really feel like I wanted it to. It felt neither highly technical in terms of realism, nor arcade like to be more fun. Hitting ground targets was more annoying than fun, and you could barely make out the details on the targets, likely due to graphical limitations. For aerial combat, more often than not, it was simply turn around non stop to get behind your target, while they avoid that and try to do the same. Obviously that is the nature of dog fighting, but it felt like despite having large teams, the AI always targets me, so every single target I had to do that on repeat for an entire mission, fighting against the clock, which was frustrating. Even if I went back and played earlier missions with the most powerful jet in the game, I still often couldn't easily outmanouver the AI, although some of the longer range multi target missiles made some fights easier. Some missions you had a time limit to destroy a certain amount of enemy goods. Imagine doing that for 13 minutes, with a 15 minute timer, and then dying and having to start over again because of some stupid instant death. Now imagine doing that 4 times in a row. I spent 20 hours on this game, but probably half was replaying parts I didn't want to replay many times. I do think this is a good game overall, but it has so many annoying things that makes it not worth playing unless you specifically want this type of game. For a genre neutral gamer like myself, this just barely missed the mark.

I got it on sale recently for $30. Overall, I would say I rate it slightly above mediocre. There are certain parts of the game, especially the beginning 5-10 hours, where its super slow and you feel like you have no control over anything happening, with little combat. Pretty much a walking simulator. Besides the endings, I felt like I had very little impact on the story (didn't bother to see more than one ending, I would rather watch on youtube than go through more slow walking and stupid talking). There were only a few missions, including both main and side, that I actually enjoyed, the rest just felt like a boring slog. The character system was very complex to the point of me not fully understanding what I could be capable of until too late in the game for it to matter. Driving was awful, I couldn't drive for more than 30 seconds without crashing and sliding around. Gunplay was okay. Would I recommend it? Just barely, and only if you ran out of other things to play.

I honestly don't get how the reviews are so positive. It is the most linear RPG I have maybe ever played. Being linear alone doesn't mean an RPG is bad, but the way they made it linear is. Its literally been non-stop corridors everywhere with tons of unnecessary walking. Even worse are all the places they slow you down for a semi-cutscene with stupid characters I don't care about, or these weird "actions" where you have to squeeze in a tight place and therefore walk really slowly. The only open parts of the game are not even that good, which is pretty much three towns. The first town is super dull with a bunch of characterless NPCs, and the mandatory side quests are dumb as rocks and a waste of time. If they cut out all the fluff from this game, made it more streamlined with just story and action RPG elements, and not including the stupid slow walking corridor travel, it might actually be enjoyable. As is, all I can really say is the game is pretty looking, but disappointing. I played the original on the PS1 until I destroyed all the Weapons and maxed everything out. This game might capture some of the original, but overall, its just boring and a waste of time. I enjoyed FFXV much more in combat and world exploration.

It is obvious some people gave this a good rating because of nostalgia, because this game is hot garbage. I can't believe just how bad the pathfinding is. How did the original even get popular, when games like Starcraft were out at the same time? At $20 this is a ripoff. I don't care how many missions there are, because I don't want to play them with this horrible unit control. I can't successfully attack anyone because the units will run into walls and not attack, they will chase an enemy soldier for 4 minutes without landing a hit (the AI has no problem hitting you though), and they constantly rearrange the order they are in if you change directions after already ordering them to move. Don't buy this game.

This game is awesome. It wasn't perfect, but it was the first game in a while that had me hooked in until the end. It took me around 20-25 hours on my first play through, going slowly and exploring just about every nook and cranny. I did go a bit slower than I needed to in some parts though, but that was partially because of the atmosphere of the game.

Story: I didn't play the first game, but I did read the wikipedia article on it to get a basic grasp of the story, as several basic parts come up in this game, but its definitely not essential to play the first to understand what is going on. Things are repeated enough in game. The story was good, a bit cheesy in parts like the old Resident Evil games, but not even close to as bad. It was a good story overall, a mix of sci-fi and horror.

Gameplay: You really get drawn into the game. It starts off as kind of an open-world survival horror for the first 3-6 hours, and then becomes pretty on rails overall. You fight a few different types of monsters (not that many types though), using a mix of stealth and guns. Early on stealth is much more important due to ammo shortages, but as the game progressed, I found myself with more ammo than necessary. Don't force yourself to be too stingy with bullets like me! There is some psychological horror aspect to the game as much as there are monsters, but not too much.

Graphics/Sound: Pretty good.

Controls: I used an xbox 360 controller for 90% of the game, and mouse/keyboard for parts where shooting were primary. The auto aim is unfortunately kind of required using a gamepad, as I could't get the sensitivity just right.
9/10

Literally unplayable. I can't control this game with an Xbox controller or mouse and keyboard. Complete ripoff, shouldn't even be allowed un Steam.

Settlements are stupid, and more annoying than something I want to do. Resource gathering for settlements is also annoying. Controls are worse than in older Fallout games, although I am not sure why. Dialogue is bad and you barely have options. Gone is the humor from past games, very little funny content. The main story is usually not all that interesting, but this one is a bit stupid. Your baby is kidnapped. But you can take several months of in game time doing side quests while you look for him? You just come out of stasis and are immediately put in charge of the Minutemen and multiple settlements? Going back to the crafting aspects of this game, its too much, its not fun, and takes away from letting me just explore and enjoy the game. Having to lug around even more junk than in a normal game for materials is stupid. This is the first Fallout game I have used the console to give myself items, to not waste time teleporting around to get supplies. If you completely ignore the settlement building and crafting aspects as much as you can, and cheat to give yourself items when you can't avoid it, then its an okay game, but not great.

Oh, and the game has a few serious game ending glitches. I cannot proceed in the main story without restarting the game because a character, Nick Valentine, is stuck. I never installed any mods. I saw a lot of posts about this glitch coming about in different ways. If you think needing to restart after playing for 30+ hours is an acceptable product in a game that has had years to be patched, then you are full of BS.

As of the time I am writing this review, I have put over 200 hours into this game, as well as many more in the first. Now that might make you think that this is a thoroughly enjoyable game. The thing is, while there are a lot of fun parts to the game, the time played is very deceptive. You are playing so many hours because the game drags out in incredibly annoying and boring ways. Like I know I will win 100 turns from now, but that will include 20 hours of slowly fighting over territory with multiple AI opponents that seem capable of instantly rebuilding their armies and attacking you nonstop (talking about the Dune Kings), AI that ignores other factions it is at war with and right next to, just to attack me across the world when I never even trespassed on their land, and other annoying things. Of course the annoying difficulty part was more because of my playing on Legendary difficulty. You will find yourself sitting down to play a couple turns, and before you know it, 6 hours passed. It is addictive because you just want to get one more thing done.

The graphics are good, the races are somewhat different besides skins, and it has a lot of neat stuff to it. But it often feels cheap playing against the AI who will manage to perfectly micro you with magic and wear you down. It feels like the rock-papers-scissors of the older Total Wars. like Rome, are missing. I remember in Rome, you had spearmen to beat cavalry to beat swordsmen to be spearmen. You could even manually lower and raise your spears to prepare for a cavalry charge. In Warhammer II, you just get a bunch of dragons and dive head first into the front line. If you actually tried to use the small amount of micro possible, like using dragon breath, you will end up hitting your own dragons accidentally sometimes. Its just not as much about skill as in other TW games. And it also felt light on story and lore, considering its a Warhammer themed game. It depends on the race and characters you select, but it felt like just a couple short quests without much story attached to them.

Overall, it is still a good game, but I am not sure if I would recommend buying it, as you will spend way more time than you really want playing it, and it is not fun enough despite the massive amount of playtime possible.

Controls for this game are crappy and unresponsive. I don't know whats happened to fighting games lately, but it feels like they all became worse for controls. Injustice is the only fighting game that felt like it had responsive controls lately. I used a wireless XBox 360 controller to play. Everything else in this game is good, but it doesn't matter if I can't play the game the way I want to. I had an easier time activating specials on the SNES Mortal Kombats than in this game. I am sure a lot of people can get over the controls, but for me its a complete deal breaker.

The best way I can describe this game is by comparing it to Journey. It is less pretty than Journey, but has a better (or really just any) story and more unique gameplay. It is basically an adventure game in which you control two brothers at the same time using both joysticks and both trigger buttons. It can be a bit tricky controlling two guys at the same time, but the game is linear enough that it doesn't become too difficult, although you will die a few times by accidentally pressing the wrong brothers action button. It is a short game, around 3 hours. While it is a story based game, there is no actual dialog. It is basically a very linear game with simple puzzles that feel unique because of controlling both brothers at once, and it isn't long enough for the novelty to really wear off. I would never spend $15 for this game, or even $10 just because of how short it is and how little replay value it has. But if it ever goes on sale for $5, it is worth it if you like somewhat fantasy based and dark storytelling through a puzzle/adventure game.