Recent reviews by Mostafa

Lots of potential, but the latter half of Act 1 really isn't balanced right now. After a certain point in the game (not sure when exactly) it stops generating good actors/actresses. The majority of them have extremely low potentials, and once your cast outgrow certain roles - that's it.

New actors also don't spawn with Artistic talent, so if you pick the Boutique policy, but didn't grab every Artistic talent you could early game - you're out of luck. I thought it was a World War 2 thing, but even after I made it past the end of the war it didn't recover.

Other major scaling issues include the ridiculously long research time for sequels (which is THE core feature of the Trash King policy), Trash King coming online a year before the Academy bans all Trash topics, having to manually select every single amenity when renewing contracts, and all your friends getting taken off the board around the same time.

Are you, like me, a huge fan of urban sprawls? Do you love seeing housing organically popping up all over the map? Do you get a sense of achievement watching your buildings develop into more complicated structures? Then Memoria Polis is for you.

The early game suffers from some balancing issues, but if you can get past that it's all uphill. I can't wait for the full launch to explore all the new features the developers have in store.

I'll start with a disclaimer that I am not the exact target audience for this, so there will be things I can't really comment on.

But even so, this was a very, very fun experience. The world building is phenomenal, the art style is both original and imaginative. And the music and soundtrack is some of the best in the genre. I could probably write an entire essay on just how good the entire soundtrack is and how this game really takes musical storytelling in video games to a whole new level.

In terms of length, it's on the shorter side of things. But honestly, that works in its favor - this game does not overstay it's welcome and has no bloat or repetition to speak of. Every bit of this game feels lovingly hand-crafted.

Gameplay in general is broadly divided into three categories: world exploration, regular encounters, and boss encounters. The world exploration aspect appealed the most to me and platforming generally feels really good. Especially after you unlock some mid-late game abilities. Boss encounters are pretty epic with some innovative arenas and a lot of spectacle. Regular enemy encounters are probably some of the weaker parts of the game - but because the game is 10-20 hours long, the lack of enemy variety doesn't stick out too much.

The plot is a lot of fun, and works very well as a coming-of-age story. While the game does tackle a lot of pretty dark subjects, the writing is still generally PG. I personally would have liked a bit more grit - but that's just a personal preference.

If you're from the Southern United States and are familiar with the Southern Gothic genre, you'll get a lot more from this game. I hope this is a financial success and Compulsion continues to make more games in this setting.

This is a culture-war free review of Avowed.

I absolutely loved the game, but I want to acknowledge that this is not in fact a game for everyone. And, having finished the game, I want to give everyone an idea of what to expect.

First and foremost this is an exploration game. You get a better story if you explore. You get better equipment if you explore. You straight up get better dialogue options if you explore. This game is for all the people who do every possible side-quest before advancing the main story. Because how those side-quests get resolved affect how the main story progresses.

Just to give a vague, spoiler-free example, not solving a murder mystery and not exploring a cave mentioned by an important NPC, led to a series of events that wiped out an entire settlement and most associated NPCs at that location.

If that's the sort of experience that appeals to you, you'll love this game. If not, if you only want to get through the main quest as fast possible, you'll have a substandard experience and the story will become pretty bleak.


Combat feels really good, not just because of how well-made each component of combat is, but also because of how easy it is to change combat specs and try out something new. There were numerous times where I found a cool new weapon or armor while exploring and decided to change up my build to take full advantage of that.

Honestly, some of the unique weapons and armors add completely new ways of playing. For example, I found a gun that fired massive frost explosions. And it became my go-to for crossing rivers easily without using frost spells or frost grenades. I didn't use power attacks very often, because I was a mage, until I found a mace that only increased essence but also restored hp on power attacks.

To get the most out of the combat, you do have to use different systems together. A pure melee build without any magic or acrobatics might get stale really fast. It's a lot more fun to, for example, set up several magical dangers to enemies and then use your combat prowess to push them into it then it is to just whack people with sticks

A part of gameplay that I don't see a lot of people mention is the parkour. I think the parkour system feels really nice, and the exploration element wouldn't feel nearly as good as it does without a snappy movement system. On top of that, any first person parkour system that doesn't make me motion sick gets an A+.


The literal first companion you get is voiced by Brandon Keener, the legendary voice actor behind Garrus from Mass Effect. Not only is he still an incredible VA, he's given a great script to work with. Kai has a very moving personal story, and he can, depending on your envoy's choices, undergo some excellent character development. All of the companions can actually.

But what I appreciate the most about your companions in this game are how they're all very different people. They regularly debate what on what the right choice is in a given scenario. But it doesn't feel forced, because they will just as easily agree with each other if the situation calls for it. Also, their opinions are dynamic, and, based on how far along you are in their personal quest, they can have widely different views on the same point. The decision to ask your companions what they think of a choice is also very nice, because they'll explain why think the way they do.

From a gameplay standpoint, they are okay - nothing too fancy. They are pretty decent (though not perfect) about using abilities at the right moment unprompted. I wish we had the option to change up their gear or that there were more costume options though. If you are used to Mass Effect companion combat, this is pretty similar.


Choices in this game really matter, and you can have widely varying game states. However, to unlock more choices you have to do side-quests and even explore the map. The Envoy is good at what they do, but they are an outsider first and foremost. I think it makes a lot of sense for them to not magically know the right answer to a solution, if they didn't take the time to learn more about the Living Lands. However, I acknowledge that this mechanic might be frustrating to some people.

Your Envoy's background also adds more dialog options and I personally really enjoyed all the creepy stuff I knew from being an court-sanctioned occultist. As with most Obsidian games, you can avoid a ton of fights by just choosing the right dialog options and having high enough stats.



If you played the first two pillars game, the tone is somewhere in between them. There are many dark moments in the plot, including graphic dismemberment, disturbingly realistic cults, and various war crimes, but there are also occasional quippy one-liners. For the most part, the quips are well-timed, and the occasional campiness works.


The Pillars setting was already really intriguing, but the Living Lands really take the World Building up to greater heights. It doesn't retcon anything from the previous games, but builds up on them lovingly. This is as high-fantasy as high-fantasy Australia can get, and I was mesmerized by all the vistas. Obisidian's visual designers outdid themselves with how vibrant they made this game.

It's mostly ambient, but the ambience is glorious. I don't know how thy do it, but they have dramatic music that really swells up when you discover some secret, picturesque vista. Climbing up an ancient ruin in Dawntrail is probably going to be a memory that sticks with me for a long time, because of how the music swelled higher and higher, the closer I got to the top. And then it reached a crescendo when I looted the chest and looked out across the sea.

It's personally a 9.5 for me, but I am not big on numeric scores.
You'll love this game if:
- You love exploration
- You love the setting
- You like to experiment with different types of Combat
- You like quippy companions
- You love doing all the side activity before progressing the main story
- You love the idea of dual-wielding magic wands

You'll not like this game if:
- You want the main-story to be good independent of how many side-quests you did
- You don't enjoy exploration
- You hate companions that quip
- You hate companions that brood
- You want to go deep into one style of combat without dipping your toes into anything else
- You hated the Outer Worlds

From a purely gameplay and mechanics standpoint, Civilization 7 has a lot more to offer than what either Civ 6 or Civ 5 did on launch. A lot of people had issues with the Ages System - and I think it's fine. It's definitely different, and that's enough to make some people upset. But for me, change is inevitable. I'd rather a game swing and miss trying to do something new than go the 'safe' route of rehashing older mechanics with a new paintjob. But that's not to say this was a miss - I think it breaks down the game into smaller chunks and definitely solves the old problem of the game getting stale after 100 turns.

Sure, you do some progress when the age advances but I think it's done in a very smart way. I wouldn't be opposed to losing even more (like certain cities becoming independent people) after aging up.

I want to highlight how much smarter the AI is in Civ 7. My allies actually come in to defend my cities even when those cities are far away from their own territory. I got a distant island from Machiavelli after brokering peace - but eventually Machiavelli wanted it back . I wasn't in a position to go after that city since it was so far from my territory. But then my ally Napoleon came to the rescue - even though this town was a long swim for him as well.

I do have some serious gripes with this game and all of them have to do with the lack of critical QoL features which we had in both Civ V and Civ VI. To start of there is no auto-explore. To an extent this is fine in the early game so that you get good mileage out of the reworked scout abilities, but the longer you play the more annoying it gets to micro another unit all over the map. Less fine is the decision to remove the ability to queue up techs and civics. This is especially egregious considering certain techs now have levels, so not understanding why you can't queue up techs feels worse than it would have otherwise. I never really queued techs in Civ 6 or 5 because it would take me just a few seconds to figure out what tech I needed next to get the unit/building I wanted. It's much harder to do in Civ 7 because I can't tell whether or not both levels of Industrialization are needed to research Railways. Being able to just click Railways and have the game automatically research all the pre-requisites would feel much nicer.

Another frankly bizarre UI change is the fact that you can't drag to reorder your queue. That would be unpleasant but manegable if you could move items both up and down your queue, but as of right now queued items can only be moved up. This is functionality we had in older Civ games so I am stumped as to why they thought removing it was a good idea.

Ultimately, I am going to give this game a thumbs up because I enjoy the new content and I think it's a lot more fun to actually finish games now. However, this upvote comes with the caveat that I think the new content is buried under a lot of UI and QoL issues. UI and QoL issues will eventually get patched, and Firaxis has already indicated that reworks addressing some of my bigger QoL gripes are in the works.

Firaxis is one of the best studios out there in terms of improving their game over a long period - so I have no doubts they'll do the same with Civ VII. Also the new victory conditions are actually pretty cool.

After reaching the heights of Peak-Writing, Citizen Sleeper 2 took the franchise in the only possible direction: Starwards.

You'll love this game if you enjoyed:

- Citizen Sleeper 1
- Mass Effect
- Any Cyberpunk title
- Scavenger's Reign
- Disco Elysium

One of the best remasters of all time. This game looks exactly like what the original looked like in my mind.

A very well written adventure game with fun characters, intuitive puzzles, and a lot of fun side-content. If you like ghosts, Victorian England, and Sherlock Holmes - you'll absolutely love it.

In terms of jump scares - there's only one real one and even then it's fairly mild. If you hate jump scares the way I do, I can assure you that you won't find a lot of them here.

This is a great game to just pick up and play a couple rounds of.

Every mission gives you that 'Halo Reach ending sequence' vibes. The developers are quick to respond to issues and are consistent with the level of support

There haven't been a lot of games that make me stop playing to just stare at how pretty it is (the last I remember was Skyrim back in 2011). But Manor Lords is, without a doubt, one of them.

I am sure plenty of other reviews are going to go on about how satisfying it is to see your settlements develop organically. But I want to gush about how gorgeous everything about the game is. The soil, the mud, the earth - the way it glistens is unreal. I can practically smell the petrichor after a rainstorm.

When the seasons change; when summer turns to fall - my expectations are shattered. The greenery changes to the most vibrant crimson - not just in the playable areas, but in the distant skybox too. I look to the horizons and I see red rolling hills: islands of vermillion amidst a sea of mist. And when Winter comes to wash it all in glistening snow; all I can do is shiver.

I can honestly say I've never played a prettier city builder. I don't even know if I've played a prettier game period. I cannot imagine that this was all made by a solo developer.

But enough of me; go play this game and give the dev your money. They've earned it a hundred times over. I can't wait to see how much better this game gets over the course of Early Access.