Recent reviews by Agamemnicon

I had resolved to wait until more time had passed after launch (and until the workshop was up and running) before I purchased this game. But then I saw some nice screenshots of cities people had built, and I caved. As someone who has spent thousands of hours in CS1 and can easily while away an entire day in my 'sandbox' building cities, I just couldn't resist. I should have. Here's why:

1) No integration of key mod functionality that developers SHOULD have known players would want in CSII. examples: Moveit, Traffic Manager, Intersection Marking, Anarchy, prop placement etc . I started a city and I was mind-boggled that I would have to bulldoze trees the "old" way, instead of having a tool that would allow mass selection and deletion of things like trees, roads, etc. Not having something like Moveit is like.. cutting down a forest with a handsaw when chainsaws and bulldozers are readily available.

2) A shocking lack of assets in some areas:

• No elevated train stations (rail or subway). Seriously. As of right now, before any extra DLCs or mods change this, your passenger stations are confined to ground or underground. Your aspirations of creating a city with an EL will have to wait. On this topic imo, they also missed the opportunity to combine subway and passenger/cargo rail properly into one transport type that simply transitions between elevated/ground/underground stations. The artificial distinction between passenger rail and subways (which are both heavy rail in most cities) is foolish. They could have made a separate "light rail" network.
  
• 18 trees total.
  
• No quays, canals, or water management related networks.

3) No mods or workshop on release. The developers themselves admit that CS1's longevity was due in no small part to the community of modders and asset creators and the players who enjoyed them. Why is the workshop not available on DAY ONE (even if there's little-to-nothing available yet)? Furthermore on the workshop note, it's gonna be through Paradox, and *probably* require you to use their launcher. So much for the command line that lets you skip this ridiculous and superfluous step when you want to play your game.

Additional personal gripe: Placing the cargo harbor is -somehow- EVEN MORE ANNOYING than in CS1.

I have the same feeling of letdown as I did after about 20 hours of Diablo 4 (but it only took one hour of CS2). A sequel to a long-lived game that should have improved on the predecessor in every single way, but nevertheless lacks features players had come to expect from the genre. An incomplete product, that will only become playable after weeks and months, when workshop assets are plentiful, and even worse, after monetization DLCs add things we should have already.

I recommend the game, especially on sale, even though I'd rate it about 6/10 when compared to the Arkham game series.

Objections I had:
1) There is a LOT of batmobile action. IMO, way too much. I didn't mind the combat too much, and I actually really enjoyed the puzzle aspects that incorporated the toolkits of both Batman and the batmobile, but I absolutely hated most of the "racing" aspects. First of all, I don't enjoy racing games at all, so I kind of resented how integral this was to game progression. Also.. see #2

2) Along with #1, I feel that PC controls were badly assigned and designed. The batmobile was particularly bad. Worse than most games I've played that have vehicle control. It never felt smooth. I was just constantly running into/through buildings and crap on the street (causing thousands in property damage lol). For this reason, along with personal preference, I never used the Batmobile unless the game forced me to (ie, I much more enjoyed gliding through the air around the city). The original key maps for many combos were super awkward as well and required re-mapping.

3) There are just too many tools, combos, keyboard combinations etc. I respect that they tried to raise the bar, but I think previous installments, especially Arkham City really nailed the right balance of simplicity and strategy when it comes to Batman's hand-to-hand combat. I swear there were combat moves I unlocked that I never ever used because it was simpler to just beat them with my fists. Also, who came up with the idea of using the middle mouse button inside a combo? Super awkward to "make it happen"! Also, it was annoying that 80% of the time, enemies would just dodge your grappling hook, which made my favorite move obsolete. Seriously, these buffoons can side-step something that fast?

Anyway, play it for the story and good graphics that hold up extremely well in 2023.

I initiated a return request for this DLC. Why?
- Gaudy, loud, ugly decals and patterns on many assets. CO has a real problem making things look realistic with their vanilla assets (content creators saved this game, in other words). I might have kept this if they had toned down the "art" or at least made it optional.
- The functionality of pedestrian areas can already be replicated for free with mods (Traffic Manager in particular) *without* having to take up several city blocks with the service buildings this DLC requires.
- Pedestrian roads look nice, but keep in mind that every single network and asset adds to your computer's RAM burden. I just didn't think the assets in this DLC were worth it.

I can't recommend this game enough. One of the few games for which I'd say "Buy it on sale, sure, but it's more than worth the full price!"
You can spend hours upon hours upon hours just riding around and exploring this beautifully rendered, rich world. The visuals are gorgeous, the voice-acting is stellar, the gameplay is fun and engaging.. This is one of the best video games in history.

Let's get the Pre-Sequel out of the way. I enjoyed it well enough. Hey, more Borderlands is better than no Borderlands, amiright?

Now, to the Claptastic Voyage: Have TPS already? Buy this for sure. Don't have TPS yet? Lemme tell you that buying the base game in order to play this DLC *is totally worth it*. Put them on your wishlist. Buy them on sale.

The levels, the story, the humor, the cleverness of the world (here's a small hint about just one element I thought was funny: pop-up ads) are top-notch. If you're a fan of MC Escher's artwork, you will LOVE one of the levels. I had this dopey open-mouth grin on my face the whole time. My wife was like "who is this nerdy kid I married? I thought he was a 44-year old adult". Pure enjoyment.

The story is still better than Borderlands 3, and that says a lot about BL3's story. I personally enjoyed the low-grav dynamic.. jumping high in the air and trying for headshots before I land, stuff like that. I will say that some misandric overtones lowered my enjoyment of the game. We are asked to cheer on NPCs who assert that "being an a$$hole" is a good enough reason to kill men. A side quest begins as a seemingly benign request from a man to help find his lost love, but of course we can't have heteronormative chivalry in the 21st century, so he turns out to be a possessive suicidal lunatic. I know you will say "This is Borderlands, what do you expect!?" but I'd assert that if the shoe was on the other foot - if all the many male characters in this game who fall under overused "patriarchy" tropes were characters that disparaged womanhood instead - we'd have an uproar on our hands.

Would be great except the controls are garbage. Try driving with the mouse, even on lowest sensitivity. It's ridiculous. Try using a STEAM Controller on a game sold by STEAM and find out it's wholly incompatible. Sorry, I asked for a refund on this one. Too bad.

I dunno, maybe I just don't "get it". Units are super tiny and hard to select and control. At least for the first three missions (as far as I got before boredom hit the tipping point), it doesn't seem to particularly matter what you build, as long as you can hit air and ground. The units lack personality, flavor, and purpose. After playing the C&C series as well as all the Starcraft and Warcraft games, maybe I've been spoiled by better rts games, or maybe it's just not for me. Glad I only paid $5 for it and the sequel (which I'll try eventually I suppose)

Wow. Granted it won't provide you with days on end of gaming entertainment, BUT it is a fantastic puzzle game with beautifully designed artwork and great ambiance. I was thoroughly engrossed.

So turns out this hack-n-slash is more predicated on hitting the space bar and pre-planning your hacking and slashing, then watching it happen, than actually hacking-and-slashing.

I didn't like that. I didn't like the cartoony-composed-of-ovals bad guys (the main character and the environment look great, why so low-res with the baddies?)

I'm requesting a refund.