Recent reviews by [n00b]SaVage|Lockdown

This is a really cool old school cyberpunk top-down, turn based game. If what you just read excites you, by all means go out and buy and play this game. If not, nothing further in this review will convince you otherwise. I bought this game in a bundle on sale and so far have only fully played Shadowrun Returns. I found that it had the perfect blend of a passable and not terribly over complicated storyline, a decent mix of classes, skills, and combat, and enough of a challenge to keep things fun in my approximate 35 hours of playthrough. Best of all is the look and feel of the cyberpunk universe. I have read the classics of the genre from Bruce Sterling and William Gibson, and the dialog and overall feel of Shadowrun Returns just felt so familiar and awesome. I had never played the Shadowrun RPGs, so I can't speak to the faithfulness to the original pen and paper games. Overall I found the game be immersive and entertaining without getting bogged down in complexity or too many sub-sub-sub plots. Highly recommended to fans of the genre.

Got bored, quit after about 45 minutes. I had purchased this game on sale a couple years prior and actually went into it with a lot of anticipation as it was highly-rated AAA title. However the story never really engaged me, and I guess as it turns out I'm not a big fan of chasing weird aliens around a spaceship (WHY are we here again?) with a blowtorch. I think Mass Effect 1 and 2 set the bar way too high for me for the sci-fi space genre. I imagine I'll return to it later (I also previously bought Dead Space 2) but it will be a while. I imagine most gamers will enjoy it, especially now that it's likely practically free on Steam.

EDIT: Apparently the price on this game has risen at the time of this review (4/30/20) and I wouldn't recommend it based on the price of a PC port of a very old game - your mileage may vary.

A simple, fun, and cheap top-down shooter game, but not my style. I quit playing after around 30 minutes. However, I downloaded the FANTASTIC industrial electronica soundtrack and have probably listened to that for oh, 30 hours or more. If you really like these types of games, you'll probably enjoy Ruiner.

This is a good game, and it's the best of the Witcher bunch by a good margin. However, after around 30 hours of play I encountered the same issue I always do with these games - I simply lose interest in trying to keep up with the vastly complex storyline which includes plots, sub-plots, sub-sub... you get the idea. And there is just a HOST of NPCs, and even interesting monsters with special powers and abilities that you probably should learn about, but will probably forget due to the sheer volume of STUFF in this game. I'll probably come back to it, but I guess it doesn't match my playing style very well. I like to play a game for a couple hours and put it down, then come back when I feel like it. None of the Witcher games work this way and seem to require way too much effort just to keep up with what's going on. When I found myself actually making notes on a piece of paper, I had to give up. Bottom line: Great game for many good reasons, just not particularly my style. Your mileage may vary.

NOPE, NOPE, NOPE. See original early gameplay review below - after the first boss battle I threw in the towel.

Starting this game I thought it would be a highly atmospheric story-driven experience with little gameplay. When I realized I had to "do" stuff, that was fine. But very quickly "doing" stuff became a massive chore, and oh, the "smoke mazes" and boss battles are impossible. I am no longer able to look at this as a wonderfully immersive story. Now it is merely a supremely frustrating, mechanically awful game. HIGHLY disappointed. Starting a new game now, thanks for wasting my life.

::Original early gameplay review below::
OK about 2 hours of gameplay in and I'm already frustrated by the silly runes games and have resorted to YouTube for walkthroughs. Visually, audibly and overall atmospherically, the game is stunning. The story... well not much of a story so far. Very immersive though. But them runes... why??? I audibly groaned when after 3 rounds of twin rune-searches to open a door, I was faced with - tada! THREE runes to search for. That's when I gave up and turned to YouTube. Additionally, upon your first "cut scene" auto-death (unavoidable) you are instructed that if you fail too many times the "black rot" will spread to your head and you will have to start all over. Well, I certainly hope that's not the case, because YOU WILL FAIL EVERY CHALLENGE the first time. That's just a fact. While I turned the combat to "easy" after the first couple times to avoid additional failures, the "smoke mazes" are impossible to navigate the first time around. So you will die - and fail. I'm going to #ragequit this game if I can't finish it because there is no save mechanic to allow me to restore if I "fail" these impossible challenges too many times. I GUESS there is an audience for this particular game - probably masochistic folks who also want to know what it's like to be insane vis-a-vis a stunningly immersive game. But so far for me it's just a major annoyance.

Update 2/21/19:
LAG ISSUE FINALLY CONCLUSIVELY SOLVED. Apparently TD is a huge resource hog. By using the free Microsoft program "RAMMAP" I was able to purge system RAM and now the game runs great. Ocasionally it will slow down after a couple hours, but purging via RAMMAP does the trick for me. Win 7/Intel/Radeon setup

Update 1/24/19:
After many, many hours of play, I greatly enjoy the game's immersiveness. There is only one persistent, inescapable problem: MASSIVE INTERMITTENT LAG. Originally I thought this was related to my satellite internet connection, but it persists on my 4G connection as well, and often it doesn't happen at all. I have researched and analyzed it to death and can find no one solution that works. For me, the CPU actually DROPS from around 60-80% down to around 10%, causing my entire computer to temporarily lock up - which is completely illogical and counter-intuitive, but I have ample documentation and screen shots. The only thing that USUALLY works is to log off (not restart) the game and log back on. That USUALLY works but not always, and sometimes it works for 30 minutes, other times for hours, and others - not at all. I have had days where I could play for 4 hours solid with zero lag on 1000 ms ping satellite, and days where I am continually restarting with 50-60 ms 4G. There is no rhyme or reason. Otherwise - it's a fantastic game. Too bad it has this one huge flaw....


Original review:
Disclaimer: I do NOT play multiplayer or PvP games due to my crummy internet. I bought The Division with reservations, passing it up on sale the first time and finally making the plunge for the Fall sale. Initially I really disliked most aspects of the game. I faulted the persistent online mode to my extensive lag issues, but these persisted even when I was using fast internet. I learned over time that this game is RESOURCE INTENSIVE. I'm running a modestly decent rig, 8G DDR3 RAM, i53470 @ 3.2 GHZ, and Radeon R285 card. I had to greatly reduce all settings just to get a fairly lag-free game. But after I address that, I found a LOT to love about this game. Initially I thought I would only be able to play a limited solo game, or at best, would need to team up with other players fairly often to complete missions. No. I'm currently about 30 hours in, level 13, and just entered the Dark Zone and got destroyed in under a minute by the NPCs. So I can EASILY see a significant amount of solo playtime before I get bored. Gameplay is a bit repetive - go here, get that, protect this thing for x minutes, but overall it's satisfying. And as many reviewers have commented, it's simply entertaining to walk around the MASSIVE city. Other than Skyrim, I cannot think of an open world game this satisfying. Your mileage may vary based on play style, and I sure wish I had a beefier rig to run this game, but I am definitely hooked. Recommended.

Must play for fans of the original - warning: extremly linear. I have played all of the Baldur's Gate franchise multiple times and was overjoyed when the Beamdog revisions were released. Likely the best of this bunch are the original BG and BG: Shadows of Amn. However, Icewind Dale gets a very nice treatment which revives a decades-old top-down CRPG classic. Basically everything that was wrong with the original gets fixed, though with caveats. There's no hiding the extremely linear nature of the game. IWD is by far the most annoyingly linear game of the franchise. And sadly, Beamdog doesn't seem to have been able to do anything about it. Annoyances remain such as grinding through a five level dungeon only to find that there is no exit at the end - you must backtrack through all five levels to get to the exit! Seriously?

Despite apparently unsurmountable flaws with the original, IWD EE shines on multiple fronts: enhanced graphics including some gorgeous spell animations and the ability to zoom in and out, addtional player scripts, and a plethora of new items make this a must have for fans of the original.

Oh... and that SOUNDTRACK. ::shivers::

Definitely recommended if you find it on sale. My threshold for a "good deal" is $10 USD or less, and this one came in WAY less on Steam sale. As others have mentioned, it is VERY reminiscent of the older Rainbow 6 games but without the storyline and FPS factor. Neither is missing: this game is pure top-down, RTS goodness. I was quite surprised at the depth of game play which enjoys an extremely well balanced team and squad member leveling system, equipment upgrades, "Doctrine" upgrades (perks or feats), and a variety of modes and maps in both "training" and "campaign" modes. Holy cow, you could spend some serious time just playing through the various practice missions and leveling your team and gear. Grab this one on sale for sure; I'd even recommend picking it up for whatever the normal price is, if budget permits.

Good but insanely complicated. Take an already obscure and complicated game like Baludur's Gate, which is based on an obscure and complicated pen-and-paper game (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons) and make it EVEN MORE complicated, and add in a TON of open world sidequests, then you have Planescape: Torment. I never played the original version, and am sure I would appreciate all the enhancements that no doubt improved this old-school RPG classic. I greatly enjoyed the story and gameplay for many hours until I simply lost track of everything that was going on. If you are a hardcore completionist who likes to do things like, oh, keeping a notepad next to your computer to keep track of what you are doing, then you will probably enjoy this game. If you like immersive RPGs that can be played fairly casually, this one probably is not for you.

I can recommend this game only with deep qualifications. First, if you buy it on deep discount, it's a steal. However I absolutely cannot justify paying any significant sum (whatever that means to you) for this game. First the good: The Cryengine 3 is great. Terrain, especially in the Bosnia scenes is awesome, though I did get stuck (requiring reload) enough times to where I quit looking for cluttered areas to hide. The shooting mechanic is good. I found that after a brief session on the practice range I was able to easily play the game on the highest difficulty level with aim assists off. That's about where the good parts end. Story is incredibly cookie cutter. AI is not terrible but is frustrating. This is especially evident with your "spotter" who is of course immortal, but also sometimes forgets he is a spotter. Early in the game you get lots of "guy by the tree, 10 o'clock." Later it's "get those guys" where your "spotter" leaves you to hunt down large numbers of well-hidden snipers while he... shoots randomly at a bus stop? The game is also very linear with little to no room to deviate from the paths the game wants you to take. (Many areas actually have those stupid "return to mission area in 5 seconds" warnings.) The save mechanic is extremely frustrating. Reloading a checkpoint often results in forcing you to watch minute-long cutscenes which cannot be skipped - totally inexcusible. On the flipside, I found that once I had run through most of an area and died, I could simply sprint through to get to the next checkpoint. Overall, if you like this kind of shooter/sneaker game and can get it for a VERY deep discount, I recommend you try it. Otherwise, save yourself the frustration of a good looking game that is hampered by far too many flaws in execution.