Recent reviews by Otagan

Did you like Command & Conquer back in the day? Of course you did.

Do you think you might like to revisit a bit of that old school nostalgia? Of course you do.

Do you want to hear the immortal pounding of Act on Instinct in your eardrums as your GDI forces sweep that Estonian beach of Nod insurgents for the umpteenth time, only now with some quality of life improvements that trim away at the anguish you might otherwise experience after wrestling with fan patches or, Kane forbid, trying to play in classic 1995 resolution?

Of course you do.

A bit of a flawed gem that could have used more TLC than Gearbox was apparently willing to give it, DoK is still well worth having in any RTS fan's collection. I'm not one for campaigns as of late, but the campaign here is generally well regarded. The skirmish AI is decidedly lacking (having exactly one build order that it executes every single game), there is still a multiplayer community on the Homeworld Universe Discord[discordapp.com] that you can find games with every day. Many of the assorted balance quirks left over after the last official patch have also been addressed in various mods (which also have introduced new map layouts created by the community to play on), and details can again be found on the Discord server if you are so inclined.

Not perfect, but still easily one of the better RTS games of the last five years or so. At sale prices, it is well worth checking out.

Rise of Nations is one of the first games that tried to fuse a conventional RTS like Age of Empires II with a 4X TBS like Civilization IV. At the time, it was better than any of its competitors at doing so and it has yet to be surpassed even today. Between its clean graphics, superb soundtrack, fantastic hotkeys and top-notch gameplay, Rise of Nations remains in the upper echelons of the RTS genre even in this updated re-release.

It just doesn't get any better than this.

This game is simply brilliant. I'll leave it to other reviews to extol the value of the gameplay on offer here, but this is easily the best strategy game released in the last year.

Several negative reviews criticize the game for being too easy or too simple. Difficulty options easily address the first point, as the AI is perfectly competent and can challenge even the best players. If you think the game is easy, you need to step up the difficulty level or try your hand at a human opponent. They don't bite.

Anyone who says this game is simple has no grasp whatsoever of the nuances of the design. Under the hood, the game's primary system is a simulated free market economy. On the surface, you can influence prices by buying and selling goods, but the ability of the player to influence both supply and demand through interaction with the colony and other players is really what the game is all about, and those possibilities are limited only by your capacity for foresight. That's the way a strategy game is supposed to be. The player who wins is the most clever one who can exploit whatever situations present themselves, not the one who can click the fastest or can memorize a hundred opening builds.

Of the short list of critiques you can level at Offworld Trading Company, lack of depth is absolutely not one of them, and the mere thought of it is preposterous. This game has received so much support from the developers over its lifetime (and arguably beyond) that the mere prospect of being able to play any portion of it for free makes it a no-brainer to at least try, if not buy and love.

Once upon a time, Payday 2 was an enjoyable if not particularly deep shooter. The game asked for a purchase price up-front and then contained a series of DLC that you could purchase to add to the game.

Soon, the sheer volume of DLC started to cause even the most stalwart of fans to question the wisdom of it all, but many kept buying and playing the game. A perverse contract had formed wherein many players were willing to put down money on a regular basis for bits of extra content and to fund the continued development of the game. Amounts of money that are, frankly, a bit absurd.

That wasn't enough for Overkill and Starbreeze. To them I say, no more.

The best RTS to come out in the last year, bar none. Mountains of intricately modeled Cold War hardware, grandiose team battles and cooperative play add up to countless hours of fun. Plus, weapons nerds can spend tens of hours in the armory alone. I know I did. Highly, highly recommended.