Recent reviews by General Chaøs™

The game is good monster battler game with some okay story,a enjoyable world,a colorful arrangement of different monsters & challenging boss encounters.Overall as of this review it is quite balanced with a few hiccups here and there considering the large array of combinations from both your mobs and the mobs of the enemies.

Pros

• 101 Monsters to raise as of this review with 11 having evolution forms giving them all new skills, an the rest being able to be shifted[monster-sanctuary.fandom.com] to dark/light.Shifting gives the monsters new passives
  
• An infinite tower Arena & online pvp (needs some matchmaking fine tuning but still good)
  
• Metroidvania style exploring with some puzzle elements, I enjoy this a lot
  
• A team not just a single mob, but a team you raise and fight with vs 1-3 mob teams
  
• Monsters have skill trees that you select w/e skills you want in them
  
• Interchangable gear which acts as stat buffs helping buff existing or lacking stats
  
• Food items which add perma stat buffs changable at any point, upto 3 total in a balance way
  
• Potions which can be used to heal,remove debuffs,etc at cost of a mobs turn
  
• Restat items that can be bought for cheap and used as many times as you want
  
• Combat is turned based which these kind of games are suited for
  
• Some nice easter eggs for those that notice them which will put some smiles on your face
  
• Lovely pixel graphics & animations for attacks and mobs which suit the style
  
• Enjoyable game music
  
• NG+ is being made to be officially included in the game

Cons

• The game world itself can seem bare at times since there mostly just monsters everywhere. There is detail on the various maps but would like to see more to give areas life. Maybe more lore friendly mysteries,interesting ruins,statues,etc stuff to fill the locations more without cluttering.
  
• Not the best controller support, however it is being worked on, I play with a controller via joy2key. Plays perfectly fine on keyboard. Taken care of.
  
• Would like to see more map details like the name of the zones you are in when looking at the map, & unsolved puzzles once you discovered one, maybe a user placed map marker. Taken care of in forthcoming v1.1 update
  
• Would like improvements for pvp such as the ability to challenge friends to duels Taken care of in the forthcoming v1.1 update

Final Thoughts
If you want an enjoyable monster battler game without needlessly trying to compare it to pokemon,digimon,etc and take it as a different take then you will enjoy it. If you're looking for a pokemon clone look elsewhere.It's worth the full price to fans of the game style and I can recommend it.

Overview
This game you make factory production chains using logistics networks of various types: trains,loader belts, liquid/gas pipes,barrels & robots. Think of how fun the chains are in games like Anno but without the worry of the needs of npcs, and instead you just satisfy the needs of your manufacturing. The game is relaxing & sports a host of map options you can set to make the maps harder or easier for your game play experience.

Pros

• A tutorial that teaches you all the basics helping new players
  
• Complexity without being overly complex allowing anyone to learn as they go.
  
• Flexible design with how you make your factories
  
• UI design that is structured well, smooth & easy on the eyes after hours of playing
  
• A detailed yet simple graphic style that suits the game perfectly
  
• A blueprint system that allows you to save & reconstruct your structures
  
• Various in game monitoring of everything from power to product production of various items & resources
  
• A logic gate system allowing further control of your production lines & power output/use
  
• Massive maps with seed generation #'s for sharing
  
• Very smooth co-op experience with almost non existing lag (dependent on the host)
  
• Various paths to power production that are all useful throughout the game
  
• Fun Offensive & Defensive measures for those who wish to have a bug war while making their factories.

Cons As of October 9th,2020

• Some descriptions can seem lacking in UI tooltips for some items, this can be more a nickpick than a con
  
• No ingame recycling system to breakdown old unused items. You end up with a cluttered in inventory. You need to use
  a recycling machine mod, which using mods breaks steam achievements.My advise is to skip material fuel inserters/miners and only build a few miners/inserters til you have what you need to go with electric miners.

My Nickpicks

• Lack of Diagonal belt placements would be nice if you could design in this way as well
  
• Lack of wind power production I think is a missed opportunity since Solar is present ingame.

Final Thoughts
Factorio looks complex & it is however after you do the ingame tutorial you will be able to start and learn as you go smoothly. Luckily you do not "Need" to check the wiki for everything, you will likely use it for reference than anything else. It's a great game and next to the Anno series probably my favorite production chain sim.

Reminds me of some well made festival & college band music played during parades and such. Others remind me of Evil Genius & old school James Bond. Always loved the music in the game,the trailers and the cinematic shorts so this was a no brainer to me. I hope as they do more they add more to the collection as time goes on or release more as other takes, unused tracks,etc.

If you loved the music from the trailers,shorts and the game get it, it's $2.60 when 80% off and is worth it at full price as well.

Worth every Bro

Some say the best things in life are free. This is one of them.

If you like the original soundtrack head to bandcamp to listen to this arranged version. I think you will buy it once you hear how it sounds. Like the original soundtrack this sounds great in any music playlist while lending enough difference to want to listen to both the original and the arranged.

I buy game soundtracks based on only one of two things, do I like listening to the music outside of the game itself or while playing other games. This soundtrack I enjoy both playing other games and in my music playlist so I can recommend getting it as well as the arrange album.

Started playing this for the 1st time after I got the expansion. The game has that Fallout 1/2 meets metro vibe and stands on its own two legs. It brings its own gameplay mechanics to give the game its own unique feel & setting. One can tell it was made with love of the genre. Other than wanting some more UI options and graphic options in settings any other pet peeve I might encounter is small so far.

The story is decent, the charm of the various characters so far I have run into is there and the enounters I have had have been fun and enjoyable. I had to start from scratch 2x because I picked the wrong starting stats for my char and the stuff I encountered in some areas were different than the 1st time. There is consequence of choice, factions to side with and such giving the game good replay value.

Difficulty is good, Normal for casual/normal play, Hard for Vet players , and Dominating for Hardcore Vets who like pain & pleasure rolled in one. There is a very well thought out wiki and char builder as well so you can make your builds to see how they are on paper.

Combat is a thought out process based on your skills and feats(they act like fallouts perks) which act to enhance the combat style you have chosen. The crafting in the game is great and you can make nice profits bartering if you wish to craft or dump points into the Mercantile + Persuasion skills to negotiation better deals. Though like many games the best gear is usually what you craft yourself.

I say buy the base game, try it, if you like it buy the expansion as well, it won't steer you wrong.

I will make this more a recommend statement then a review. If you liked Diablo2, Torchlight I+II,Nox ,Divine Divinity,Titan Quest Immortal Throne, Titan Quest Anniversary, Path of Exile, Victor Vran,Van Helsing,etc. Do yourself a favor and get this game. I will state this , you do not NEED the Ashes of Malmouth or The Forgotten Gods expansions to fully enjoy the game.You will be missing out on more factions,dungeons,bosses ,three new classes ,tons of loot,higher lvl cap,more lore,a new game mode,etc though.Personally I say get the base game with Ashes of Malmouth at the minimum. You get the lvl 94 max level increase,more loot,new mob types,new locations,2 new classes,3 new factions & a campaign about half the length of the base game.

• Varied Character Classes and builds to play them with
  
• Ability to have a secondary sub class (think like how MMOs have a Main +sub class)
  
• Gritty dark setting (love these for arpgs like this)
  
• Great loot drop system with loot quality filtering built into the UI
  
• Great UI with mini/large map UI,markers,multiple hotbars, char status icons,etc
  
• Handcrafted dungeons and over world. Most of the dungeons are large some huge with multiple floors and some small
  
• A love it or hate it crafting system for making gear,items to add buffs + skills to gear
  
• Various factions in the game each with their own set of armor & weps you can buy
  
• A reputation system which rewards you cheaper npc armor/wep items to buy,potions & components to add additional states to your gear. You gain rep by doing npc quests and taking on bounty hunt quests(which are repeatable).
  
• A base game that needs no dlc, comes fully packed and playable.
  
• Actual expansion packs that give you a expanded experience. They come with new acts,loot,character classes,more dungeons,more bosses,story,etc
  
• Varied difficulty settings including a rogue-like 1 death difficulty.
  
• 32 and 64bit support,plays on Windows,OSX & Linux
  
• Older Gpus & Cpu's can handle the game without issues (just turn down some settings).I suggest at least a 1gb vram card. I played it on a AMD Phenom II X4 920, Intel Core 2 Duo & Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 without issues.

• Crafting higher tier relics is a pain since they require quite a few prerequisites that you have to craft one at a time while filtering through the lists for each one.For me this is the only real headache I have that most people will notice when they play.

• Inventory space may or may not become an issue for some. There are upgrades you get as you play.There are two standalone apps called GD Stash & Item Assistant that many use to store loot in a separate stash while playing.
  
• Learning curve about damage/defense types,class combos,skills,devotions, and how they work for your char can overwhelm new players.However the official wiki & the community can help you to understand things if your stumped on somethings.
  
• Freedom of builds can overwhelm new comers making character building difficult but I don't site this as a con more a mix.

If you are a fan of the games I listed , and want something worth your time get Grim Dawn.Full price,half price, even for a buck it's worth it. My con's list is very short for a reason. I should state I am not a fan of Diablo 3 & found Titan Quest pacing dull which was the only thing that kept me from beating it. Grim Dawn's combat is fast paced which is why I prefer it. As it stands Grim Dawn is my #1 ARPG as of this 2020 Feb updated review.

If you like Don't Starve + Reign of Giants and always wanted to play co-op with your friends then get this.DST has more content than what is in Don't Starve + Reign of Giants, cosmetic item drops,workshop support with lots of mods the whole thing. I believe eventually the ship wrecked content will be in DST as well.

As of this review the sheer amount of content it has is already worth it price.Also to note, if you want to play by yourself, you can it just you will launch your server and pw /lock it.

Highly recommended by me and I 100% recommend it for Don't Starve fans and co-op players alike.