Recent reviews by Dave

Do I recommend the game ?
Hard to say...
Short answer, yes, if you can adapt quickly to weirdness of the game. And if you like story driven game full of mystery, drama and romance.

Story was nice, it has all parts that it needed to have, and complex enough that you have to think what will happen next.

But what was strange, was the conversations themselves.
I only tried English voices, so this is review only for English version.


1. Way of speech was strange: Dialogs frequently had breaks on weird places for uncomfortable lenght of time. In some cultures, it might be normal - to have long pauses, but in English speaking world (USA, GB, Australia, South Africa...) , I cannot fit it anywhere... the way they were talking was just weird :D ...
It felt like I was there with them in recording studio, and they are doing first take.
After I got used to it ... it was ok... but it took few hours...

2. Speech didn't match the lips : this was not all the time, and if it would be off just little bit, I could give it a pass... but in some scenarios, actors were speaking few more words or a sentence and there were silence - no recording the that line. That was hard to get around, because in those instances I was thinking that something is with my headphones or game lost sound. They should have tested it better... or the actors should have more chances than 1 to do the recordings :D.

So if you could adjust to some strange quirks of the game, then yes, it was good story game with drama, romance and action.

Sometimes it seemed like the choices that I made for the characters did not matter... but sometimes they do. But that is maybe in a real life also, not everything we do is significant, so I will give it a pass for this one :).

Casual story adventure with some puzzle solving. For me, the puzzles were trivial in most places, but if you are not used to puzzle games or you are not skilled gamer (for example a child) it still could provide some challenge. Fortunately, you can skip hard puzzles as you wish and story is not blocked for you.

If you want to give a try stress-free game with nice graphics and calm sometimes sad story. The Last Campfire if game for you :)

It's a nice game. But I think I was not the target demographic. I think it was meant for younger players. There were only few types of enemies, which were reskinned for each biome. Yes, all bosses were different for each biome, but that is not enough variety in the span of 19 hours that I have played this game. In short: I was bored when I finished 50% of the game because I already had a feeling that the game will be repetitive and the same biome story line will repeat 4 times ... which was the case... . Nice game ... but maybe for kids... it has only fantasy violence. So if a kid can watch Tom & Jerry already, they can play this game :)

Nice rogue lite game. Unfortunately it can become too repetitive pretty quickly... So I needed to take some breaks between runs to be able to beat it, because it became boring really fast.
Last part of the game is especially boring : Yes, they added "mutators", but basically nothing new is added after you "beat the game". Mutators are like ... zombies are faster... or you have less health ...etc... in short ... lame :D

But till it gets boring it is nice game if you know what kind of game to expect. You are on the clock, collecting loot for yourself or/and your future self. This aspect of the game is nice, game let's you decide how much you want to prioritize this current run or how much you want to help other Volunteers after you. You feel close to death in several scenarios. And I don't mean fights necessary. For example : There are hidden stashes around the map, which are essentially chests of items. When I am browsing thro' the items, if it would be real life, I would say to myself : "Damn, someone has to die to put this in here... and I will be next...". Since you cannot escape death, in instances like that you can feel Grip Reaper sharpening their scythe. Or that might be just me ... Maybe what helped me here was also that I took some break after each run, so I kinda forgets what I put where :D, then it is little bit more authentic probably :D

Great game.

Light survival : If standard survival games are too much for you, but you still want to play survival game, this could be a good pick.

Sometimes lacks depth : Some mechanics like crafting and boat upgrading may seems too simple for some people, but if you don't go into it expecting AAA title, then you will be fine. I actually don't mind it to be simple.

Generally, expect more indie game vibe than something bigger.

Why this game has such a positive score is the fact that it delivers what it promises.

You are space pioneer (engineer) and you are building factories on foreign planet.
The game is mix of base building, automation, open world sandbox with exploration and some combat (if you don't want to fight at all, you can change behavior of all creatures to "passive" in options).

I am writing this review after 300+ hours in the game and it was great so far :). I played only Early Access version so far. But from I have seen I will probably replay it after some time when full version with all bug fixes will be out :).

If you played any other factory building games and you enjoyed them, I think you will enjoy this one also :).

One thing I haven't tried yet is multiplayer... I will come back to this game with a friend (if I find any to be interested enough in this genre as I am) and then I will update you about multiplayer.

Single-player experience - 9/10

Pretty nice game :)
I feel that, target demographic was little bit yonger gamers, but still.
Even I had fun with this game :). If the game is too difficult for you, just don't finish bonus things and you will be ok. I played it with Steam Controller and it worked good enough. I had to get used to the way I was aiming the web (relative aiming from spider itself), but after I got used to it it was ok.

There is nothing bad I can say about this game. For some it could be too easy, not a real chalange, but It was chill game for me at least and the game is not acting as some AAA title.
What you see is what you get, which is "platformer" with different way to transport around then in other types of games in this genre.

Ok... maybe 1 disadvantage. If I would fly too fast, I had troubles to know where am I flying, but game is not punishing at all, and if you fall to dangerous place, you will just respawn somewhere at the same screen.

If you watch few videos of the game, you will see what you will get, simple game with simple story.

Nice prologue / demo of the real game that is probably still in development.
If the rest of the game will be like this, it will be nice game :)

Good game :)

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☑ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
Notes:
Graphics were ok. Nothing super realistic, but good enough for what it needs to be. Explosions looked like explosions, gun fire looked like gunfire. Sometimes some visual bugs could make game look ugly from time to time, but most of the time it was limited within one scene, and after loading everything was fine again.
---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
Notes :
If you know X-Com, you know what you are going to get.
If you don't - Your main way of playing is on battlefield with your limited sides squad (4-6 people) and you want to finish 1 mission and retreat to base. Chess-like Turn-based tactical action, but with solders and sci-fi aliens. If you like turn based games you will like this one.
It is not too complicated, and at the same time not too primitive to be boring.
---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
Notes:
Audio was OK. Music could be little bit better, but generally audio did what it could.
One think that surprised me little bit, is that every solder has nationality, and they are LOT of them. But you will find out very quickly, that "nationality" here, just means a "flag of the nation where they were born" and nothing else. I wanted to hear a lot of languages in the battlefield, then I would feel more like I work with international team. But everyone seems to be learning English in future Except ADVENT they speak their alien language only :D
---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☑ Grandma
Notes :
Since it is turn based you don't need to have reflexes of 20-year-old. And you can set difficulty low enough that for teens it won't be too frustrating. But I can imagine that War-Of-The-Chosen DLC could be overwhelming for someone for whom this is the first X-Com game.
If you are new here, maybe play it without War-of-the-chosen first. and second time with the DLC.
BUT if you planning to play it only once, it would be shame to skip War-of-the-Chosen content. So set difficulty 1 level less with the DLC on.
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☑ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
Note:
When the game was new it would require strong machine. Now days it is not that demanding if you put it on low settings. But you need gaming PC. For this, check other reviews for exact values. I had RTX 2080 NVIDIA Graphics card and it was good enough.
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☑ Significant brain usage
☑ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
Notes :
Depends on set difficulty and if you have War-of-the-Chosen DLC. This DLC will increase difficulty.
---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☑ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
Notes:
At beginning you feels pressured, so you don't grind that much. After a while if you feel less pressure you can do it little bit. But if you grind too much game becomes too easy. At the end I was thinking about choosing higher difficulty, but I was not sure if the game will handle it well so I rather finished with set difficulty at beginning.
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☑ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life
Notes(I tried to write it without spoilers, but if you want to be surprised just skip this section):
You have only campaign, no multiplayer. So they did a story for the game. It is OK story, I don't want to spoil it too much, but nothing very big happened that would make me say "wow that was awesome". Maybe I played too many games in my life already and I am used to standard process how story is created. IDK. But it was OK, "Not great, not terrible" :)
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☐ Average
☑ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
(It took me around 100-110 hours - did almost everything I could. But it can be bitten within 60 hours)
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☐ Worth the price
☑ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
Notes:
I don't buy expensive games, I bought it in the bundle. Set your metric here as you want. I played it 110 hours, and I had fun. How much that should cost ? That is up to you. But I would buy it with some discount.
---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☑ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
Notes:
Most of the bugs I've got was visual bugs. Enemies moved to different places {or they were moved by some effect} but game presented me different position than they really were. Most often this bug appeared on buildings, so if there were multiple floors present.
Workaround for this bug - I used my melee fighter and he showed me, where he will attack before the attack is executed, so by that I could figure out what position the enemy holds in reality.
It was not that often, but when it happened it was little bit annoying. I played this game in 2023. I would not expect bug like this in title like this...
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☑ 8
☐ 9
☐ 10
Notes:
Hard to say. It was definitely good game that I'm glad that I've played. In this genre of games one of the best I have played. So if this is your type of game, You need to play this XCOM and also the previous one ( [/b] XCOM: Enemy Unknown [/b] ). But start with the Enemy Unknown , because this is in the future, and sometimes they refereed events from the Enemy Unknown. And by playing that game you would have enough experience to play X COM 2 with War of the Chosen DLCs also :)