Recent reviews by BLORTH

Slay the Spire but with DICE!

Very good game thus far with plenty of depth and replayability.

Do not buy this game. Seven years early access. I played it originally in 2021; four years later game is still in Early Access and doesn't manage more than 1000 players in a month. Terrible performance, constant crashing. Laggy servers due to "staff" using custom modules for themselves that do nothing to improve gameplay.

If you have a custom server to play with friends, this game might have potential but the performance issues that arise after the early game with no change in optimization in FOUR YEARS shows the effort being put into this game by SLG.

This is such a fun and chill iteration of the roguelite genre.

I am thoroughly enjoying this game.

Great sequel to an already great game.

When you launch the game, your discord presence says "Manor Lords Demo". I think that is pretty much a good starting point. This game will be great in a few months. Too early access and pretty much unplayable at this point in time.

The city building early on is gorgeous. Your first two to three hours playing and learning is awesome. The building feels awesome, same with roads. All of the building feels very organic and intuitive. Depending on which scenario you choose, you'll have different issues however.

Around the mid-game the cracks really start to show. Logistics issues despite having the infrastructure in place, non-functional units like Archers, UI doing a poor job of explaining basic functions (e.g. replenishing retinues has to be done in retinue customization?), no way to limit production (all my planks are disappearing and I can't limit their use without destroying the level 2 burgages using them or changing their backyard extension?), and when I finished the "Large Town" scenario and tried to proceed with Endless Mode, the game kept displaying the victory screen on every consecutive day. Making the game literally unplayable! Not to mention, huge gaps in the development and policy upgrades that literally say "work in progress". I understand the game is in early access. I've played many games in Early Access. This is one of the most barebones games, but functional games I've seen.

If you do the scenario against the AI, you're in for even more issues. Influence is required to claim neutral territories. The only way the player can generate influence is once they've built the Manor administrative building and use the Tithe feature. Tithe gives away excess food(!) in exchange for influence. Early on, especially in the terrible starting territory, you're not going to have excess food. So you have to win battles against bandits and clear their camps to gain influence. Meanwhile, the AI generates influence at an insane rate without any challenge. By the time the player has enough influence to claim a neutral territory for 1000 influence, the AI has claimed 5 territories. This happens whether or not you can kill off neighboring bandit camps for influence before the AI wipes them all out. To make a claim on an already claimed territory you need 2000(!) influence. The AI will press claims on your territories and you will have to win those battles in order to keep them. Sounds fair. When I attempted to claim an AI territory, I had my armies and mercenaries ready and they brought theirs. I went to the battlefield, but neither army could engage each other. I could walk my entire army through the ranks of theirs and neither could engage the other. So there's a waste of 2000 influence which accrues very slowly.

As long as bandit camps are on the map, they'll just magically steal goods from you. This is outside of the raids where they will raze your town if you are unprepared for them. You'll need your army, a retinue, and maybe even some mercenaries to fight them. As stated above, Archers are completely useless which is unfortunate because iron is a limited resource. Mercenaries cost Treasury which you won't be hurting for once your manor and trading post are off the ground and going, but that's probably not an early game situation you will be in, since you're just trying to make sure your village is functional for the early years.

TL;DR: Wait for future updates. This game is not ready to be played yet. This is one of the most barebones games, but semi-functional games I've seen. If and when they fix the game I'll change my review.

Best current 2D fighting game.

If you like games like Slay the Spire, you'll love this game.

This is GOTY 2020.

Deep Rock Galactic is by and large one of the best co-op games on the market today. The game is deceptively fun, has well-polished game play, is home to one of the least toxic communities I've ever seen in an online game, and the developers have consistently followed the development roadmap they have set out to achieve since the game came to Steam. I look forward to the substantial content updates they have coming in the future.

Rock and Stone!