Recent reviews by Wanace

Fun, can I say so fun that I'd play for hundreds of hours? No. I still recommend it. The opening rounds of the game get rather boring and repetitive, even to the point where at times I just restarted the run because the first bonuses for skipping blinds don't fit the playstyle I prefer and I don't enjoy "wasting" runs in pursuit of specific goals. I've almost won all the stakes using only one of the available decks and honestly I can't see myself doing it for any of the others because the differences just aren't meaningful enough to make the core experience any different or more fun.

My boss bought me lunch today so I got this. Thanks Egosoft for your work and phenomenal continued support for this game and this series.

I almost refunded this after 2 hours of play because the user experience really makes you think this is just a lame cash grab. Everything is flat and unpolished, the time to end levels and get your loot is ridiculously long, etc. But I'm glad I didn't, because underneath that annoying experience is an addictive, puzzly element in the Zen game, a frantic one in Classic, and an over the top one in arcade. Lots of stuff to unlock and play with and shiny bits to look at. A real gem.

All systems, no point in interacting with them. Just grinds with names that trick you into thinking they have gameplay purpose.

This game won't rank anywhere close to new classic roguelikes such as Caves of Qud or the fantastically dynamic and still in development Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead. I've spent over 500 hours in each of the latter and 2 hours in this one.

Even Unreal World, to which Soulash 2 has drawn favorable and unfavorable comparisons, has a dynamic economy with seasons that have a dramatic impact on the world and availability of resources, dangers that can only be mitigated and never overcome by arbitrary grinding like they can in Soulash 2. Soulash 2 is to Unreal World as Checkers is to Real Life.

It doesn't help that the developer's vision is clouded by yes-men affirmation. I had been following this one with interest but now I can see that the dev has truly been locked in his fart-filled rooms getting high on his own supply and will never make the necessary sacrifices or changes to make his game truly good.

I've completed the DLC. Some of the missions were fun, and some were tedious. I would really enjoy it if you occasionally encountered this stuff happening in the universe instead of having to "simulate" it through these missions. I would have gladly paid for the Timelines DLC if it made the universe a little more vibrant. As it is, the game doesn't generate these sorts of mini-events unless you activate them through a mission. Imagine you are flying through the sector, and you get a message from a station telling you they are having critical damage and need to evacuate non-essential workers. That would go a long way to making the universe come alive. As it is, Timelines is just an illustration of the failure of the game to evolve its universe more, and shows that these "set-pieces," while interesting on their own, would be far cooler if they naturally evolved in the universe.

Now, to go through the tedium of trying to find all the stuff I unlocked...

Original Review:
I don't know what most long-term players want out of X4 at this point, but missions that require completion to access what you paid for in the meat of the game doesn't appeal much to me.

I will put in the time and may come back to change my review later, but honestly, in my sandbox universe I rarely touch missions and I don't care about the story outside of the decisions I'm roleplaying in my sandbox game, so giving me an expansion that wants me to do them multiple times in some kind of score attack as if this was the Galaga machine at the local A&P in 1985 is an odd choice.

A beautiful golf game, even a kind of fun golf game, but the UI bloat and microtransactions make me glad that I got my fun in 7 hours on a free weekend.

The number of menus and options are sprawling and honestly I didn't engage with any of it because it's just too much moving around, clicking things, trying to determine whether or not the balls or shafts or clubs or whatever are better than any other is impossible, etc. Just a horrific experience off the course.

The golf itself is fun. But the last time I played a golf game was on the PS2 and the experience there, despite the far fewer options, was way better.

An entertaining and detailed tank "roguelike." I'm currently in the midst of the invasion of Poland as Germany to get a hang for things since this is a lower difficulty campaign. I've lost my Panzer II-d in every encounter so far but my crew has somehow been able to bail, survive, and continue up to day 4.

I've been playing with a controller. I think the game plays great with a controller, but there are moments where scrolling with the left stick goes too fast (not on the main campaign map, but on the encounter maps, if you click down left stick and scroll it goes too quickly). Otherwise I find it easier to manipulate what's happening on screen with the controller than with the keyboard.

There is plenty of detail and lots of trial and error involved in learning the systems. I've made tons of mistakes but the game is fairly forgiving on the Poland campaign, at least, which gives me the confidence to try different kinds of maneuvers and attacks without fearing immediate destruction.

I really love the way you can develop your crew and the level ups and medals with all the perks really add a ton of replayability to the game. That's not to mention the sheer amount of content here. I've owned the game for quite a while but have only barely begun playing, and I can see myself putting dozens of hours now that I've actually given the game a proper shot.

I'd love to see this one on Switch or something too, but when I eventually get a Steam Deck or another handheld device that can run Steam, this game will be a permanent installation.

Long time player of Bethesda RPGs. My first was Daggerfall, not long before I bought Morrowind on release, which up until Starfield, remained my favorite Bethesda RPG.

That's all changed with Starfield.

The base game is incredible, and I'm already salivating at the thought of what modders are going to accomplish with this game.

Cons: UI is typical Bethesda lackluster nonsense, there are still bugs galore, but nothing game breaking I've encountered so far. The randomly generated content could be better presented (shuffled modules? mirrored maps?) to avoid repetition for a game that I'll be playing for hundreds of hours.

Congrats, Todd. I was a skeptic, but you've succeeded. This is the pinnacle of Bethsoft RPGs. Can't wait to see what TESVI brings (if I'm alive when it releases.)

No QoL, when you try to mute the music and sound it comes back on anyway when you're in a battle, have to force v-sync through drivers unless you like screen-tearing.

Certainly not worth the price. Refunded.

The ultimate space lifesim.

I have been playing for around 25 hours on my current save and I still haven't even ventured beyond the stations around Ganymede. I've been too busy looting ships, making my own bigger, adding systems, redesigning things to make sure I can more easily deal with the various disasters that befall your ship in the solar system, fighting off pirates that want to take my stuff, rescuing people I've found unconscious and low on oxygen on derelicts and returning them to my ship, and generally just having a blast role-playing a space scavenger in the awesome Neoscavenger Universe.

I'm pretty happy that I put in the effort to learn the spacefaring and docking systems. Though they look very inaccessible and complex, it really is quite simple. Once you get the hang of that and the (slightly too obtuse) building and deconstructing menus (the sooner you learn to use this, the better your experience will be) things really open up into a space-faring simulator.

The more obscured systems like intimacy, altruism, and security basically boil down to finding an NPC and "Quivering Uncontrollably" or "Ask How They Are" or "Flirt" repeatedly until your character feels better about themselves. This definitely has a benefit on gameplay as a character who has all their needs met works faster and more efficiently and takes longer to tire out and waste oxygen in the EVA suits.

I think that there are some major improvements that can be made in those areas, especially with roleplaying purposes in mind. I was able to have my character consider another person (a security officer on the K-Leg Station) as a "Lover" while they still considered me a "Stranger." Weird. I still haven't hired crew because I think it will be more effort than its worth. I just installed a towing system to my ship so I might actually start to be able to make a profit than just get by with my meager scavenging.

I love everything about this game. I just hope that the events/Sim-like aspects get expanded a lot more to allow for a true roleplaying experience in this amazing world.