Recent reviews by Xan

Qualified thumbs up - performance really is garbage compared to its predecessor (MW5: Mercs) and while it does look better than Mercs does stock, Mercs + mods is close to 'as good looking', but with better performance. And I miss the mix of open-ended/dynamic map exploration of Mercs alongside the scripted missions - here, it's ALL scripted, all the time. All that said - the scripted parts here DO make for a more interesting story, and there is just VASTLY more between-mission and in-mission dialog to connect you TO it, as well as more developed and more interesting characters along the way.

Altogether pleasant game. I think I've heard a genre "cozy games" being a thing - this probably qualifies. Challenges exist, but the pace is easy, puzzles are there but not hard to solve, suspense is real but mild, and the story that develops is compelling. Performs amazingly - simple aesthetic that works and guarantees smooth framerate, no crashes or bugs - surprisingly polished feeling. It doesn't overstay its welcome, either - with the DLC, I managed 100% achievement completion in under 30 hrs.

While true that the base game *badly* needs the DLC to really feel 'complete' from a story perspective, and also mods are a requirement (at the very least YAML to expose a lot of the elements from the boardgame that this did seem to MODEL, but just hide from the UI; as well as WarFX for a badly-needed graphics update) ...now, in 2023, with 5 DLC for it and a set of mature and stable mods, you're in for a real treat with this game. The campaign provides a nice mix of dynamically-generated missions that can often be a surprise, as well as some excellent scripted missions as part of the various story arcs.

With the DLC, and mods, it looks great, performs great, (just don't enable ray-tracing...I know you want to! Just...don't...you won't visually notice the difference, and it *kills* performance, even on GeForce 40-series cards), brings a lot to the table gameplay-wise, and has a solid co-op experience (again, with mods - you really, REALLY want YAML, for real)

It's the first 4x space exploration game that really scratches that 'final frontier...' itch as perfectly as needed (granted, with the 'story' DLCs) - it just does so much right! In setting, imagine a slight blend of Babylon 5 and The Expanse, and in gameplay a fine blend of 4x tropes with a dash of SimCity management of society demands and disasters thrown in, because why not?

Without the DLCs, you've still got a solid game, but maybe only 40-60 hrs of really feeling fresh and new every time you play vs the hundreds+ possible with the DLC. So - pluses or minuses on that point, depending on your point of view! If you happen upon it during a sale, though...you've lucked into a great experience!

Basically the perfect digital adaptation of an amazing board game - Scythe is very much a sort of "Cold War"-game, where combat is costly and happens rarely, but the RISK of it is always present, and you need to manage and guard your production and territory gains against the threat of it. Just fascinating, and this Steam version captures the play of the game perfectly, with the digital version eliminating setup and cleanup time, streamlining (and making clear) how scoring happens, graphics that can be set to either capture the look of the print game or be spiced up a bit with "painted" models that look solid...and the soundtrack is AMAZING.

Here's an unexpectedly entertaining game. For a 'mobile port', the developers did an impressive job updating it for the PC. The gameplay, while "turn-based", feels pretty reasonably authentic in the results you get.

On top of the decent simulation aspect and great graphics, there is also a dynamic campaign you can play through. Which...I mean, wow. So rare, these days, and it is done SO WELL. Absolutely amazing fit!

The only thing that could make the game better, and why I'd give this a 3/5 instead of 5/5, is multiplayer. It is, sadly, a single-player game, only. This game would be mind-boggling levels of awesome to play multiplayer, so it really stings that the option is not present.

Fairly solid take on 'modern' (near future, but close enough - most of this hardware is in final phases of development or initial deployment today) naval warfare, in the mold of the older Jane's Fleet Command. While there are somewhat less fiddly bits than JFC (with its mods, anyway), that's probably more realistic for a fleet admiral role. Here, you tend to control things more in the way of setting engagement posture for units.

Graphics are definitely a HUGE leap up from JFC - and it even properly supports widescreen monitors (which JFC never did) - and, strangely, although looking better than JFC, it still loads much faster and plays more smoothly. The campaign, itself, is a lot of fun, too...hitting some of those more difficult Steam achievements can be a challenge!