Recent reviews by Berthordin

I am a CIV series veteran. I started my adventure with CIV III and spent thousands of hours with every later instance of the game. My most favorite editions were probably IV and VI. With this background, let's set up facts about CIV VII straight:


The game does feel incomplete, rough around the edges and flat out rushed. The state of play, the integration of mechanics, balancing issues are all there and could've probably been avoided by giving the dev team a few more months to hammer it out and expanding the playtesting base.

The critique of the UI, while valid, seems to be blown out of the proportions. I do not feel that most of the casual player base will miss out of the information and relations lacking here and there as - from my experience - most of them did not use it, or rely on them to optimize anyway. And most of the QOL issues should be fixed swiftly within few patches tops.

The bigger problem to me is the new Ages system. Due to the number of changing mechanics, victory conditions, independent civ bonuses etc. CIV VII as of now does not deliver a single, coherent civilization development experience What we get are essentially 3 separate, loosely connected games all with their own separate mechanics and victory conditions that - which is probably the gravest sin - only moderately relate to and scale off of each other. The worst part of this new system is the time limit that hard-ends every Age, with no way to preserve Your actions onto the next Age.

Examples of this include (but are not limited to): disbanding and relocating Your military and navy units back into Your cities (even if last Age ended in the middle of the war!), resetting diplomatic relations and trade routes, phasing out independent cities and spawning new ones in different locations, changing tech and civics trees to the ones matching current era.


Why, despite all this (and many other, smaller flaws) I think CIV VII is still a solid 4x game worth recommending to most players

First, we should remember about the goals that the devs set to themselves communicated to us during the developement stage, based on the data gathered from the past instances of the game: #1 problem to be addressed was the fact that overwhelming majority of players did not finish their games either in CIV VI or V.

The new Ages system solves this core issue and major (yet probably unseen to the most dedicated player base) flaw perfectly. Every Age can now be completed almost in one sitting. And with the not yet implemented but promised functionality to set separate victory conditions to every age, this should never bring before seen customization potential to the game.

Introduction of Commanders - a single powerful Great People type unit influencing their respective type of units - is IMO the single, the greatest change to unit & combat mechanics in the history of the series. There is an amazing depth and possibility of implementing different strategies already, and with further tweaks and balancing patches, I would not be surprised if this ends up as one of the most beloved mechanics in the game.

The new City Growth System also delivers on its promise to make city development and specialization a meaningful, strategic choice. The removal of workers to me seemed like one of the most controversial decisions, but the new system is just better, and will get even better with the QOL improvements to UI, because right now this is the part of the game that suffers the most from the poor presentation of important in game information.

All the individual Ages mechanics are an improvement over their past iterations, be it early exploration with several new scouting options, new religion and archeology systems, several new economic mechanics related to trade and resources (the best to me was including the treasure fleet mechanic known from CIV VI pirates scenario as the main mechanics of the Exploration Age). The biggest problem right now is, again, lack of integration between them and abrupt removal of some or even all of them during the transition between the Ages.


By all means YES , especially if You're a new or a casual player of the series. Most of the criticism flying out there comes from the series veterans and is built on their prior assumptions about the game. If You are free from that baggage, You should not notice most of the supposed "flaws".

The devs had already presented a roadmap adressing most pressing criticism, starting with the UI tweeks, so if You want to be extra safe wait until next 2-3 patches drop. Nevertheless the state of the game as it is right now absolutely justifies getting and playing it.

What we have here is a gem. Still unpolished and rough around the edges, but a gem nevertheless

But now I am a lord, my dear, with a pitcher full of beer! ~Henry

Works great, optimization is the best I have seen in years, first "bug" I've encountered only after +30h of playtime.

The writing of the game is superb, every decision, character, main or side quest and/or activity feels grounded, meaningful and above all is enjoyable.

The only minor problem might be balance issues. Start of the game is extremely punishing, while after some time, especially when perks scalling off of each other come on-line everything (fighting, stealth, earning gold etc.) becomes trivial.

All in all it is one of the most complete, customer-respecting and enjoyable game relseases in years. You should be playing it right now!

Pros:
- Most realistic recreation of medieval Europe in virtual media
- God Tier writing with open ended main and side quests
- Deeply rewarding core and supplementary mechanics
- Almost perfect optimization, should run great even on lower spec rigs
- You own a dog
- You can feed the dog
- You can pet the dog
- You can feed Your enemies to the dog
- And later go on a penitential pilgrimage to cleanse Your soul and preserve a spot in heavens.

Cons:
- If You expect lots of fighting: just don't
- Archery and crossbow shooting is daunting
- Balance feels off: extremely hard early game, with difficulty falling off steeply after leveling Henry up
- In game economy makes no sense, and merchant stock/gold respawn times are way to low - gold farming is so easy that it can almost happen accidentally

„All those street brawls. It’s amazing I lived as long as I did.” ~Ronan

MURDERED: Soul Suspect is a new game made by Airtight Games, known from their other, warmly acclaimed production: Quantum Conundrum. This time, instead of a puzzle-adventure game devs made sure to provide us with a polished action-adventure suspense story backed with a supernatural mystery. Although professional reviewers are mostly critical about this game, I’ll try to convince You that it’s actually worth both its price and Your attention.

The Game starts on a high note, with our protagonist – reformed cop Ronan - falling to his death after brutal fight with a mysterious murderer haunting the streets of modern day Salem. Soon he comes to his senses, only to discover that death itself was just a beginning. We end up being trapped on earth, but in a new ghostly form, with our mind set on a one simple goal: to complete our unfinished business, and finally move on to the other side.

Unfortunately for Ronan, this unfinished business involves solving this one last case, which ultimately led him to his own demise by the hand of a dreadful Bell Killer. Luckily our hero is a fast learner, and easily adapts to the new state he’s woken up to. On our quest to hunt down the killer we’ll be using Ronans wits and experience gained as a police detective to find new leads, connect evidences and even access past memories imprinted into the ghost-realms fabric.

The game consists of two different gameplay modes – first being a free roam explorations, during which we use our ability to pass through objects, summon or cast away solid fragments of the past Salem, and later even teleport to pass beautifully designed locations while finding as much collectibles as we can, and second being much slower ‘investigation mode.’

The investigations are the most iconic moments of the game, and thanks to their presence many players felt obliged to describe Soul Suspect as “L.A. Noirish”. I’d argue with this opinion, because although in both games we progress through solving some cases the feeling of those is definitely different. In Soul Suspect we conduct our investigations with appropriate supernatural twist by correctly influencing possessed people, linking uncovered evidences or even accessing past memories lingering in the ghostly Salem. In turn Soul Suspects system feels much more simple, and dynamic in comparison to L.A. Noires ‘adjust and question’ model.

Leaving gameplay behind, the strongest point of the game is definitely its scenario. With perfectly written characters and interesting plot twists, Ronans crusade against Bell Killer will be a memorable experience appealing to every gamer. The locations inspired by some of the Salems most iconic buildings are recreated in a great detail, and greatly contributes to the games spooky atmosphere. The whole experience is polished by believable voice overs and sounds, with only minor flaw being games music which felt somehow nonexistent.

The only serious drawback of the game, is the large amount of collectibles, that makes even ‘Alan Wake’ blush in shame. It’s actually hard to move more than 5 ft without stumbling upon some new note, item or a graffiti flooding us with new information either related to our investigation or the Ronans past. All those stories are pretty well written, but the sheer number of those papers seriously affects immersion preventing us from fully diving into the games world.

Murdered: Soul Suspect is definitely worth getting and trying especially for its captivating story. The game is definitely a must have for every supernatural events enthusiast, shining brightly in comparison with other productions picking up this subject. And if after reading the above review You're still unconvinced, I'd like to tell You that in this game You can possess a cat, and fool around in its body!

Pros:
- Agitating suspense story with supernatural twist.
- Smooth controls with both mouse/keyboard and x-box controler.
- Lots of witty puzzles and logic investigations.
- Interesting ghost-powers affecting gameplay.
- Clever world design with parts of the past Salem overlying its modern streets.
- Really spooky side stories to unlock.
- Can possess a cat!

Cons:
- Game’s a bit short, with full play through taking about 8-9 hours.
- A high number of collectibles seriously affects immersion.
- Due to its nature game is linear.

„I beat You all the time by myself Eggman, and now there’s two of me!” ~Sonic

The above quotation sums up the whole idea of this new Sonic installment pretty well. What You get in Sonic Generations is more of the same, proven experience known from some of the older SEGA productions. Across the course of the game we revisit some iconic locations from the Sonic universe both in 2D and 3D incarnations, and once again roll through them with a blazing speed.

Unfortunately the game does not introduce anything new, except more of the old ideas. Even challenges (called acts) assisting each main level feel somehow repetitive and in most cases waste their own potential. There are a few promising moments, but in most cases they’re ruined by numerous bugs, glitches and sloppy controls.

As I said earlier, the whole idea about the game, and it’s main plot twist is an emergence of a mysterious time-eating fellow who “erases time”. This allows our heroes, namely Sonic and Tails, to team up with their previous incarnations on a quest to save all well-known Sonics friends. During our task we’ll be forced to beat each area twice, both with our “new” fully 3-dimensional Sonic, and his old-2D-only-self, once again collect all chaos emeralds, and finally beat time-eating creature.

The plot is almost nonexistent, dialogues between Sonic and Tails feel stiff and does not encourage to explore the world. The case is similar with our friends, who once rescued reappear only to help us during certain, usually 2-3 minutes long acts, by performing certain special actions. Sadly those certain acts are usually affected by the highest number of glitches.

There are only two good things I could say about this game, while recommending it to any non-hardcore Sonic fan would be the music and the modds. Music in this game is simply a collection of best pieces from the previous Sonic Games, which more than once proved itself to be one of the strongest points of the series, perfectly accompanying our high-speed runs through the world.

As for the modding system it’s unofficial, but in my opinion the game improves dramatically after a few modds are installed. Luckily most of them come equipped with a guides allowing us to change the game drastically. Not only we are able to change our playable character, add new levels or even add new game modes, but also change already existing levels, or even affect controls of both Sonics.

Summing up, the game is not bad, and I’d risk saying that it’s still, despite all its flaws, a solid Sonic experience. Unfortunately numerous bugs, glitches, poor plot, and terribly broken on-line mode make it feel like an unfinished product. So if You’re not some kind of hardcore-hedgehog fan, better avoid this game and get Yourself one of the older, proven editions.

Pros:
• Refreshed classic levels
• Old music brought back to life
• 2D and 3D gameplay mode in one game

Cons:
• Extremely sloppy controls both with keyboard and X-box controller
• Booring plot, and repetitive side challenges (acts)
• High number of bugs and glitches
• Broken on-line mode
• Visibly unfinished product with a lot of wasted potential

"Can the Rock Giant create a boulder that it cannot lift ?" ~Loading Screen tip

I’ve always been a huge fan of so called ‘sim games’, so playing Reus seemed inevitable to me. If You’ve ever heard, or better, played legendary ‘Black & White’ series, You’ll instantly notice some similarities between those two titles. They both may be called “God simulation games”, ‘cause in both of them we take up a role of tremendous beings, with power to shape the world itself, and the humans are only there as some kind of a cattle, growing and expanding their culture thanks to, or despite our actions.

In Reus, we get to control not one, but four godlike beings – The Giants, awoken from their slumber by the power of The Planet itself, in order to reshape it, and make habitable for humans. Each of those cute beings rules over one aspect of the planet – oceans, forests, swamps and mountains/desserts, but in order to restore life, and make it blossom again, they’ll need to use, and combine all of their powers.

One of the main problems Giants will encounter, and an inspiration behind the game itself, will be a growing greed of the human race. This feature not only defines gameplay pace, but also may prove crucial in achieving game objectives, required to unlock more complex resources. Basically the more goods You’ll provide to humans, the more they’ll want, and while trying to get them they’ll no compromise, resolving to fighting with each other, launching a full scale war or even attempting an attack on The Giants themselves.

But the best thing about ‘Reus’ is a seemingly endless, and flexible number of possible development strategies. Every resource created has its own unique “symbiosis” making it more potent under certain conditions. For example certain plant may provide more “food” while growing next to a mineral, which may also benefit further from the nearby animal nest. With 108 different types of resources present in total, You’ll need a long time to discover all potentially useful combinations, and craft Your own unique strategy to master the game, and help Your humans complete most challenging projects !

The last thing worth mentioning about this game, are its undoubtedly beautiful visuals. The whole planet, The Giants, and human villages are set in a cute, round and pleasant 2D environment. This concept fits the game perfectly, and in symbiosis (sic.) with a good soundtrack makes a perfectly addicting combination definitely worth it’s price !

Pros:
- Extremely high replayability.
- In-game milestones provide targets for every round.
- Intense theorycrafting is possible, due to a huge number of possible choices.
- Lively community, developing its own challenges, and competitions. (Official Reus Forum[forums.abbeygames.com])
- Cute and enjoyable visuals.

Cons:
- Unusual gameplay, may be boring for some players.
- It takes time to figure out every aspect of the game.

“As the stone over the scarab, so rules the scarab over the stone” – The riddle from the Ancient Vault

After finishing Memoria’s prequel „The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav” I was anxiously waiting for this game, wanting to know how exactly would Geron’s and Nuri’s tale end. Sitting to the game I had some expectations about the overall course of it, and involved mechanics. I was somewhat uneasy about announced introduction of another main character – Princess Sadja, but overall I did not expected any drastic changes between “Memoria” and its predecessor.

To my surprise however, after just a couple of minutes I had to completely abandon all these previous assumptions, and for the benefit of the game that is ! Not only all the strong points of “Chains of Satinav” were still present – with its stunning music, beautifully hand-painted backgrounds and complete, detailed voice-over, but also, to my content “Memoria” introduced a handful of new ideas making the game even better !

In ‘Memoria’, contrary to the previous game, we follow two seemingly separate stories. One starts right after the events of the previous game, which left Nuri, a former fairy and Geron’s girlfriend, turned into a Raven, and the featuring Princess Sadja, a heroine from over 450 years ago, whose footsteps we’ll have to follow. The narrative is written perfectly, telling us the truly moving story, full of surprising events, magic and sacrifice. The characters are likeable, interesting, and their motivations are truly believable.

The main flaw of “TDE: Chains of Satinav’s” gameplay were its puzzles, which although solid and logical, turned out to be quite simple, and after a while may have felt a bit repetitive. In “Memoria” this problem is nonexistent, ‘cause almost each of game’s many brilliant puzzles feels unique. All that thanks to an improved magic mechanic, greatly augmented in comparison to “Chains of Satinav”, with both spells variety increasing, and their impact on puzzle solving changing dramatically. Now we are allowed to choose from much larger diversity of powers than before, each coming with a distinct applications.

Summing up, I have to admit that “Memoria” has left me speechless, and after finishing it, I won’t hesitate saying that this jewel should be counted among best adventure games of the last decade. Both plotline and the puzzle design in this game are as close to perfection as I’d dare to ask, and above that we are once again pleased with astonishing aesthetics known from the previous game in the series.

I’d strongly recommend this game not only to those who enjoy this particular genere, but also to anyone who has even the slightest liking to a top grade fantasy tales !

Pros:
- Deep and intriguing plotline with two entangled keynotes.
- Huge amount of witty puzzles.
- Unique magic mechanics.
- Beautiful soundtrack perfectly fitting the story !
- Sequel to “Chains of Satinav”
- Set in a vast fantasy setting of ‘Dark Eye’

Cons:
- Boxed “Collectors Edition” available only in Germany

When I launched ‘Chains of Satinav’ for the first time my, expectations have been pretty high. The game set in an almost legendary fantasy setting of "Dark Eye" (in some countries it's even more popular than 'Dungeons&Dragons' !), and above all an adventure, not RPG one, to me seemed like a guaranteed success.

Despite minor flaws like surprisingly low frame rate, and a few resolution problems, I've started the story, and meet our Hero for the first time. In ‘Chains of Satinav’ we take up a role of Geron, a young bird-catcher who bravely stands against dark forces threatening his home town of Andergast. The narrative we follow is a solid piece of work, with some surprising plot twists and believable, memorable characters. Not only the fully voiced dialogues, so important in adventure games, but also the world itself are designed with a great care for details making the whole journey a pleasant and memorable experience.

The riddles that fill the world of 'TDE: Chains of Satinav' are pretty good, some of them really witty, but overall not hard enough to discourage You from finishing the game. A huge plus is the fact, that they’re all pretty much logical chains of actions, which prevents typical adventure-game puzzle rage. An unique addition to the common point and click mechanics are two special 'talents' that Geron can use to his aid. Our particular bird-catcher is capable of breaking, and later even fixing some fragile objects, which allows him to solve some of the harder puzzles.

“TDE: Chains of Satinav” is a great adventure game, with beautifully drawn backgrounds and captivating story. The puzzles although not that hard, may provide just enough challenge to prevent You from blitzing through the game. Another great feature is an atmospheric music, perfectly accompanying Geron's adventures and enriching the whole experience.

Pros:
- A very good narrative with believable characters.
- Set in a vast fantasy setting of ‘Dark Eye’
- Need at least two play troughs to get all mutually exclusive achievements.
- Unique atmosphere created by hand-drawn stills and amazing music.
- Sequel already in store (check ‘Memoria’)

Cons:
- Surprisingly low Frame Rate.
- Some common problems reported with game freezeing and resolution.
- Puzzles are not that much of a challenge.

"Kid just rages for a while" ~The Stranger

Bastion should be counted among those few games that not only meet, buy even exceed all the promises we get in their early description. Being one of the most beautiful and climatic games of 2011 this action RPG shines brightly even now, still as fresh and original as during its release.

The game itself is not so complicated. You take up role of a Kid, waking up, all alone, surrounded by beautiful yet crumbling world falling apart into thousand pieces. What You need to do is get to the Bastion – safe heaven set up to shelter those who’d survive any crisis threatening Your homeland – city of Caelondia.

To Your aid, in a quest to find, and rebuild Bastion, You’ll get a vast arsenal of even the weirdest weapons, each coming with different mechanics and “special skills” which further enhance Your possible combat strategies. Further modifications to Your play-style can be achieved through quite original system of upgradable structures built inside the Bastion, which allow Kid to chose worshiped “gods” in a shrine, or special drinks in a distillery each differently affecting game environment, providing new opportunities or threats.

Despite game mechanics being pretty simple it’s not easy to get bored with ‘Bastion’ even after a few long hours, but what really makes this game stand out is its unique way of telling the story. Most of our actions are commented actively by omniscient narrator, who not only slowly reveals some details behind tragic events that left the whole world in ruins, but also perfectly portraits the Kid and his few friends, allowing us to immerse into the games plot on a level rarely seen in video games.

The last thing worth mentioning about ‘Bastion’ is it’s astonishing soundtrack. Composed by Darren Korb this game’s music fits its dreamy, hand-drawn canvas perfectly, strongly enhancing the impact of the narrative.

Overall, I consider this game to be one of the most amazing feats of storytelling in video games, and definitely one of my favorites. And don’t get scared that the game relying so heavy on its story will get boring after just one completion. NG+ and Score Attack modes, matched which some arena-styled levels will allow You to spend long hours in “Bastion's” captivating world !

Pros:
- One of the most beautiful soundtracks out there.
- Light, yet interesting story with uniqe responsive narration.
- Vast amount of weapons, special skills and other modifications.
- High replayability with NG+ and Score Attack.

Cons:
- To some, controls may feel a little unresponsive (I base on some friends opinions)

"I can assure you I'm no war hero, detective." ~Cole Phelps

L.A Noire is a highly underrated game, emerging from an unusual meeting between open world action game, point-and-click adventure and a 1940' or 50' film Noire.

The game places us in the role of Cole Phelps, veteran of the sixth marines, former war-hero from Okinawa who, after coming back to L.A. in 1947, takes up a job in LAPD. Through the course of the game we assist Cole in solving various cases grouped into four desks - traffic, homicide, vice and arson.

Each case is diferent, and may require different aproach, but the general tools we use over the course of the game remains the same - we need to gater as much relewant evidence as we can, and later, eventualy use them to prove our point during many witnes questioning parts of the game. To nawigate through this piling mountain of names, locations and objects we get a cool interface feature resembling LAPD detective notebook, that alows us to track case progress anytime we need to.

The strongest point of the game is definitely it's plot, settled in an alomost perfectly recreated 40's L.A. Cole's tale, as he rapidly advances through LAPD desk offices and departments perfectly catches specyfic atmosphere of Noire movies from mentioned times, with all it's moral ambiguity and dillemas. Above that every single case tells a story of it's own, often re-telling some well known crime-stories like 'Black Daliah' case, or creating a longer plotline connecting some seemingly unrelated cases.

I'd strongly recomment L.A. Noire to any fan of Noire movies, and good thriller or crime stories. The game itself is quite specyfic and to be frank, due to the nature of it, the replayability of this title is very low (what point in solving a case, if You already know the culprit ?), but nevertheless it's still worth playing !

Pros:
- Amazing storyline based on 40's and 50' film Noires.
- Game with one of the most convincing characters in history of VG.
- Engine simulating real facial expresions and body language.
- Story set in almost perfectly recrated L.A. from around mid 40's.
- more than 90 historicaly correct car models to drive !

Cons:
- Extremely low replayability (due to the nature of the game)
- Huge amount of cinematic breaks and introductions slowing the pace of action.
- Controls may feel somewhat curde

The two words I'd use to describe this game would be: unsettingly beautiful. What You get in this title is about 3.5 hour of gameplay, which may not seem much, but it's one of those cases where what matters is quality over quantity. And the quality is spectacular, mainly because 'Papo & Yo' comes close to perfection in terms of merging beutifuly designed world, deep plot, and amusing gameplay relying on solving not-so-hard, yet satysfyingly clever puzzles.

Chosing one from points mentioned above it's definitely the plot, and how it's told, that makes 'Papo & Yo' unique experience worth getting. The plot in which we guide Quico through dreamy land strongly resembling one of the south american favelas takes some sudden turn, as we experience more and more deeply methaphorical events culminating in one of the most touching story climaxes I've experienced.

I strongly encourage everyone to give this game a try, I believe none of You will regreat this.