Recent reviews by hutima

This is a good game. There is a really high learning curve but with enough practice, achieving a few air or ground kills is truly satisfying as a feat of in game skill.

We don't talk about naval though

This game was good. Maybe it's even the best character based Star Wars game since KOTOR, and surely it is a better story than Battlefront 2. With platforming, and a very forgiving RESPAWN (which I'm sure is an inside joke) system (important because the number of times I fell to my death is uncountable) the initial exploration of the worlds of the game is truly breathtaking. The main character is a little bit flat, but the supporting characters have emotional stories. Additionally the mainquests give some important backstory to The Force Awakens in one of the worlds (though you might overlook it) and ultimately Cal, as a non-star destroying jedi, is relatable as he grows and moves through his own jedi journey

The maps are designed in a metroidvania style where more portions become unlocked as additional abilities are gained and the way this mechanic integrates into the story makes each world feel fresh with new abilities. However there is still some limit to this as the lack of a quick travel mode often made me not want to go back to old worlds due to the tedium of reaching some areas of the maps.

The cosmetics in the game are ok at best (though the new game+ and sith inquisitor uniform from the latest DLC take the cake for me in terms of best cosmetics, it's a nice reward if you want to replay the game). The multi-color ponchos and different colors of the ships are varied but I mean ... it's a poncho and a ship you see for 10 seconds as you fly around. The only ones I really cared about were the ones for my little droid companion, though event then after I found the color scheme I wanted i never touched it. And I also cared about the lightsaber, which was cool, even though in game you also never really see it (except for the color crystal) since it's such a small model on screen.

The combat is also fun, the dodge system allows for real skill to be developed. I do wish there was a dual blade lightsaber form expansion, but as it is the moves you do have are very polished as they were clearly done with motion capture rather than basic model manipulation like you see in KOTOR.

It's a beautiful game, platforming is fun, the story has a relatable jedi and my minor gripes relate to the lack of truly decent cosmetics, and the lack of quick travel.

The game will take approximately 20 hours to complete.

8.5/10

This game is a good MMORPG.

Having taken a class in supply chain management, this class looks at one very small part of it, the final assembly where one can truly explore every part of queuing theory that exists. Line Balancing, single or multiple lines, birth-death processes, you must instinctivly understand them to be good at this game.

The constantly ratcheting competition and defects as your line becomes more complex also ratchets up the difficulty. You need to rebuild every time you unlock new, more efficient technologies. You need to balance time and part cost against making the most cars. This game is one giant optimization problem. It's factorio with more capitalism and less biters. I thoroughly enjoyed my first runthrough of this game, and if you like optimization you will too.

replayability comes from expanding your factory and trying to make larger and larger factories. That really wasn't for me but if you like continuous optimization with increasing complexity you will find this immensely replayable. I though was satisfied with just my first small factory.

8/10

This game is pretty fun. It's a mix between the small unit tactics of Total War Arena (the canceled beta game) and the single unit PvP of For Honor. Each weapon plays very differently so chose carefully and find one that suits your style. The tutorial does a good job of taking you through the core mechanics, but after it finishes at lvl 20 you are dumped into the main queue where there is not yet ranked matchmaking so there is a skill jump but you are allowed to obtain some high level units for free temporarily each week (called auxiliaries) that can help mitigate the skill gap.

Combat is fun and varied. And it's fun trying to figure out how to use unit abilities to their most useful state. Very enjoyable

The economy I think could use a little bit of work. there's three types of currency which can be hard to balance. Additionally all items eventually completely break and become unrepairable. It's also hard to build up significant cash because it costs a significant amount of bronze to maintain units and obtain resources.

Customization options are also limited and I hope that more will be added over time.

The core mechanics of this game are here and at least for 50 hours, I've had plenty of fun in this game and because it's free it's worth trying out if you have the time.

I give it a 7/10. Worth a try, but longevity given limited customization may be limited.

In short: This game, while clearly taking cues from SimTower, is passable at best, but I don't think it matches the pure addiction of the simtower gameplay loop. However Project Highrise is well made with new mechanics that allow for at least a few hours of fun. I give this game a slight recommend for a quick time killer, though anyone hoping for an elevator management sim like SimTower should stay away.

In depth: While superficially like SimTower, this game trades in the key mechanic, elevator management, for a slate of resource demands, smells, sounds, and contracts. These new mechanics are able to hold the game for at least a few hours as you are forced to loan money in order to expand. Then as you start to add on layers you have to deal with the smells of garbage and restaurants and keeping them away from residents and offices. Noise has to also be managed similarly and ultimately this game is about the optimal placement of the four types of tenants (offices, apartments, food, and shopping) in the upper levels to keep the generated pollution away from those most affected.

The cost of building up increases at a dollar a level, and soon you’ll find that to expand another level requires substantially more money than you have. Then you must manage utilities (electricity, gas, water, and phones) and the associated plumbing. And then you also have to manage services, balancing demand for various things like copiers, couriers and plumbers (among many others).

All these competing demands are good to keep your attention while your money remains limited.

However that’s where this game ends. After playing an hour to familiarize myself, and another three hours on a tower to level 25 I found myself getting substantially bored. The issue is that after about 20 levels your income can approach 14,000 profit per day and when the maximum loan is 25,000 paid out over 30 days there’s nothing you cant buy by waiting another day. At this point the difficulty of the game is minimal and you might as well play the unlimited money mode. Additionally, unlike simtower where random events can directly impact your tower via bombs or VIPs, here random events modify costs and rent demand which while impactful in the early game, again become meaningless after money is no issue.

Ultimately this game loses it’s appeal after the challenging of balancing income with expenditures dies and this game wont give more than a few hours of fun unless you’re grinding for the sake of grinding.

Additionally, the game does have several mechanical deficiencies that stand out very quickly. Wiring rooms becomes very tedious without a wire entire floor button, a large portion of my building time is spent dragging wires across floors, something that ultimately is very repetitive and boring. The game also moves very slowly even at the fastest speed setting.

The mechanical deficiencies, the lack of difficulty at the standard setting and ultimately the shallow gameplay limit the value of this game. It’s fun for a bit and it might be worth it on sale, but it isn’t the unqualified simtower successor I was looking for.

EDIT 2020/2/10: this game is broken, and no one plays anymore. Can no longer recommend
EDIT 2020/06/28 The community has taken over the game, and fixed major bugs join the discord to find games

This game is a little rough around the edges, especially with regard to documentation and introducing new players but after a really rough few games you can begin to see the potential of this game.

Unlike first person shooters like heroes and generals, or RTSes like company of heroes, in this game you control a single squad with no respawns. You move them around with the mouse or keyboard (in this game, learning hotkeys is a must or there's no way you can respond in time to changes in the field of battle). The objective of the game is to either capture victory points (VPs) or to eliminate the other team.

You move your units between cover and you try to minimize the percentage hit chance the enemy has on you. The game has mechanics of suppression, including for grenades, and also fog of war (though, it's not indicated as fog on the map, your units have a limited field of view in a cone in front of them).

The game moves very quickly, and falling behind can quickly lead to being flanked. However, with good team work and communication you and your team can also move individual soldiers so optimal positions to snipe, suppress, or kill the enemy and win the game.

I reccomend this for anyone who wants a tactical game based on soldier positioning and teamwork.

Disadvantages

the game has a limited player base which leads to many empty lobbies. I'm hoping that will hange with time

It's hard to manage all the soldiers individually and even with hotkeys I find myself unable to properly command soldiers as I want to.

There's a few bugs but for a first steam release I think it's pretty good

A lot of people complain about grenade spam, but personally I think it's ok because of the suppression mechanic.