Recent reviews by D00m

version 0.24 - MULTIPLAYER REVIEW

My first ever early access experience and already a VERY STRONG PURCHASE RECOMMENDATION. Forget the one more turn phenomena, welcome to the ONE MORE GAME ADDICTION. When you'll loose, you'll blame it on luck and want a rematch, when you'll win, you'll credit it to your skill and... grant a rematch request to improve your stats or, you know, to be nice. However, IN THE LONG RUN ONLY TRUE CHAMPIONS OF CHAOS WILL MAINTAIN HIGH WINNING RATIOS, but due to the nature of the game, even the most meager players among us, will have a chance to take them down in the true style of David vs Goliath. The game is perfectly stable, virtually bug free and already offers top notch DUEL, free for all (FFA), and TEAM experience. More content including random map generator is on the way, but the game is already worth playing in it's current state. LEAGUE is coming soon, but there are already some great TOURNAMENTS organized by the awesome community.

If you're looking for SINGLEPLAYER or CO-OP vs AI experience, you should WAITH WITH THE PURCHASE.

In Short:

PROS:
-great gameplay
-high replayability
-very good multiplayer
-easy to get into, hard to master
-low price
-frequent updates (it looks this way so far)
-good balance
-a lot of customization
-nice graphics
-beautiful music

Cons:
-relatively long games (not for the genre)
-not that many people playing multiplayer
-rather bad tutorial
-not the most challenging AI (for veterans of the genre)

This game is a steal! I bought my steam digital download version for 75PLN (about $25) and if you look online you can by it this cheap pretty much anywhere in the world. For this price you get a brand new game with 2 campaigns, each with 6 missions + 1 for alternative choices made. I would say this is easily 40 hours of gameplay, at least. Then you also have scenarios and endless possibilities with random map generator.

The game is complex, but easier to get into than the likes of Europa Universalis, Total War, or even Civilization series. At the same time it offers plenty to more seasoned TBS and 4X players. It's different than almost anything else on the market. People compare this game to HoM&M, Civ, and Total War, but while it includes elements of all these games, it's still something totally different.

If you enjoy 4X games, you should definitely try it. If you like TBSs in general you might want to give it a go. If all HoM&M titles after HoM&M 3 (and maybe 4) disappointed you, buy this game!

For anyone who likes Civ, Gal Civ, HoM&M series this should be a definitve buy. People who like Paradox games should also consider it.

The random map generator in this game is like nothing I have ever seen before. The number of options is mind blowing. You can customize the number of cities, their size, number of treasures, resource, visit structures, starting army sizes, and much more.

There's plenty of strategy involved and enough variety to keep you playing for many hours. 6 classes, 6 races, and 14 specializations to choose from means you get to try out new things almost every game.

And finally, the multiplayer. I don't know how 4X games could have existed without simultaneous turns. I used to play some with classic turns and it was a thrill, but it also dragged on way too long and I would never play with strangers for this very reason. Here you can start a small map 1 vs 1 game with smallest starting cities and medium armies and finish it in about half an hour, it that's your cup of tee. You can still play epic large map games with mutiple opponents and save your sessions, in this case too, the simultaneous turns option will vastly speed up the game. I was worried about using this over the classic turns, but it works like a charm, I use it even against the AI, there's hardly any reason not to.

Buy this game! Even if you have never played 4X games before. This is a good game for beginners too and at this price it is worth giving it a go. The support for the game is amazing, the forums are very helpful and best of all there is more content to come in the form of dlcs and expansions, which are likely to feature new playable races, new scenarios, and maybe new campaigns