Recent reviews by Snarfff

TLDR: It's a moderately difficult blend of Castle Crashers and Rogue Legacy that's a blast to play with a friend or alone. The randomized dungeons, items, armors, and weapons (which more or less serve as "classes") give plenty of reason to restart after dying to that damn dinosaur.

My rating: Since this game is EARLY ACCESS I'm going to hold off giving it a score until its finished. But I RECOMMEND picking up Lost Castle if you are a fan of beat 'em ups!

╦╩╦ Likes ╦╩╦

• It's difficult, but not unfair. You will die. Probably a lot. It's sometimes going to be because you stupidly went for that last hit on the boss when you have no health left, other times you'll drink a potion and poison yourself. While bad things will happen, I never felt like it wasn't something I could have prevented.
  
  
• Couch co-op works wonderfully. The reason I picked up this title in the first place was after playing it with a friend; I'm really hoping they add online multiplayer (and possibly more than just two person co-op), but even as is the system is great!
  
  
• The amount of different weapons/skills. Each weapon has a light attack , special attack, and heavy attack, though some weapons (like the musket) use the heavy attack as an evade instead. I really enjoy that you are able to run across different weapons of the same type that have differing stats/special attacks.
  
  
• Character/base development skill tree system. You basically earn "Souls" by killing things which you eventually sacrifice after your character dies. The souls are used to unlock the blacksmith, thief, and alchemist, as well as raise the base stats (attack, defense, move speed, etc.) of your character. It's not crazy complicated, but it serves the game perfectly.
  
  
• The armor(s) and the aesthetics. I keep running across different types of armor I hadn't seen before. While most of what you find during one playthrough is rubbish except for one or two pieces, it's still enjoyable to see all of the different types/looks. I also really like that certain armor types pair up with certain weapons for a bonus.

╦╩╦ Worth mentioning ╦╩╦

• Lack of graphic options. This is not a problem for myself, but is worth pointing out. Outside of picking resolution and language (which is either English or simplified Chinese) there are no other settings.
  
  
• Randomized character appearance. You have zero control over what your character looks like but let's be honest, it doesn't really matter since they won't stick around for very long! Some of the randomized characters you get are hilarious looking.

╦╩╦ Future hopes ╦╩╦

• More weapon types! The amount of weapons/skills in the game already are a decent amount, but it's always good to have more choices.
  
  
• Online multiplayer/expanded co-op. Either of these things would be nice (4 player co-op and/or online multiplayer) but are in no means needed for this to be an enjoyable game.
  
  
• A pet/companion system. This is just a random idea, but these kinds of games have always massively benefited from some sort of "collect more pets/companions with different benefits" depth. I personally think it'd be really cool to see.

For an EARLY ACCESS game, Lost Castle surpassed my expectations. The combination of depth and randomization still has me interested in doing another playthrough just to make sure I've seen everything. Whether or not you have someone to couch co-op this game with, there is a lot of enjoyment to be had. I definitely recommend picking up a copy.

I hope you found this review useful. If you have any questions or comments, give me a shout!

TLDR: One of the better ports from a console game yet. A mix of spaghetti-western and samurais, this craft your own adventure keeps you coming back for more via the multiple styles of combat, the various types of decisions you have to make, and the multiple different endings. For $20, this was a purchase I don't regret for a second.

Since my initial review they have added keyboard/mouse optimization which has improved it significantly. I still personally prefer a controller, but one is no longer required.

My rating: 4.5 out of 5


Pros:

• Multiple different fighting styles; between swords, spears, and hand to hand/unarmed combat, the vast amount of different fighting styles can keep you experimenting for days, eventually leading you to crafting your own unique style (which you can share amongst your own dojo!)
  
  
• Craft your own story; in every sense of the word, the decisions you make in the game ultimately craft out how the story unfolds. Want to be a heartless, xenophobic samurai who only uses his fists? YOU CAN!
  
  
• Well done port; it's a big surprise in the market nowadays when a port from a console game actually works well. This is probably the most pain-free console port I've played to date. I've had zero graphical issues, no problems with the interface, FPS isn't stuck at some ungodly low number that makes the game skip around.

Neutral:

• You need a controller to play the game; the mouse/keyboard is so dreadfully awful that you really shouldn't even bother trying. Even with switching around the bindings to suit your needs, it's just painful. Grab a cheap wired 360 controller (or equivalent) if you don't already have one just to save yourself the frustration.
  
  
• Lack of graphical options; while the port is extremely well done, there is a very limited number of settings you can adjust when it comes to the graphics. I'd be a bit cautious if you were just below the minimum requirements simply due to the lack of adjustable features. Updated: They've added a few adjustable settings to fiddle around with; I have not messed with them much, but its a welcome addition.

Cons:

• The torturing "mini-games"; this is just a personal issue, but I found something about these games slightly unsettling and unnecessary. Not so much the concept of them, I just feel like the game itself could have done so many different things than a torture mini-game. It feels like a short-sighted decision on making something "edgy".

I'm extremely happy that they've brought one of the WotS series to the PC, and it has set a wonderful benchmark for the rest. While each playthrough may take between 45 minutes and 2 hours (maybe longer if you choose), the vast amount of options add an insane amount of depth and replay value to the game.

There are some short comings with the game itself, but that is all a matter of personal opinion. I found a few of the fighting styles to be a bit clunky (and some downright worthless), but it doesn't take away from the core game itself.

For newcomers, I recommend starting on Easy just to get comfortable with the game. Plus, you'll unlock more weapons/styles/accessories/etc for your next playthrough.

I hope you found this review useful. If you have any questions or comments, give me a shout!

When I first saw Godus, I had a lot of hope. It seemed like a really cool concept that had a decent amount of progress being made on it. Well, that is all it was: a cool concept.

The game is painfully boring, and feels like something that isn't even suitable as a half-a**ed free to play mobile game let alone worth $20. I guess that is unless you enjoy spam clicking and watching nothing happen. It's a crime to even call this a "God game".

The one saving grace I found to the game was modifying the landscapes. It was fun to make mountains out of the terrain and all that for a whole fifteen minutes before I realized there wasn't much else to the game.

Not a big fan of being lied to, but after the promises he's made on previous games (*cough* Fable *cough*) I shouldn't be surprised. I'm all for supporting Kickstarter/Early Access games (I've bought quite a few), but not this. Save yourself the money and buy a game that isn't a complete scam. This is the prime example of Early Access backfiring.

I'll leave you with this: even Spacebase DF-9 makes Godus look like a complete rip off.

TLDR: FM15 has improvements over FM13 and FM14, but feels like two steps forward and one step back. Veterans of the series will see that some of their main concerns have still not been addressed while other unwanted/unnecessary changes were made.

My rating: 3 out of 5

A more detailed review can be found below.



Pros:

• More dialogue choices for meetings/players; these conversations have more benefit than previous games (and stuff like tunnel interviews). Assistants also seem to give better advice about addressing your team than previous games too.
  
  
• Ability to individually train players. You can choose what positions, what playing styles/habits they learn, and what individual stats you want them to focus on.
  
  
• Transfers seem a bit more realistic, especially when a club does not want to sell a player. Same goes for staffing transfers. My only complaint is when it comes to trying to recruit quality youth players and the clubs want 40m+ for them. I mean, I get it, but no 15 year old kid would realistically be bought for 40m euros…
  
  
• Adding benefits to transfers/contracts seem to properly influence negotiations. Weekly/monthly payments, bonuses, even buyout clauses all seem to effect the overall bartering.
  
  
• More players (youth in particular) with potential, but less become actual all-stars. After the first season or two, a lot of my focus goes to developing youth players with potential. I’d say out of the eight who were 4 ½ to 5 start potential, only three of them wound up at 4+ star ability.

Neutral:

• The interface is much simpler and easier to navigate (excluding the Tactics menu) but takes some getting used to. It feels less intuitive at first, especially for those familiar with the normal UI, but eventually becomes easy to navigate.
  
  
• The match engine is kind-of improved, but many of the same problems (40 shots vs 1 shot and you lose 0-1, that kind of stuff) are still ever present.
  
  
• 3d engine has occasional glitches during highlights but never anything game breaking.

Cons:

• There is STILL a ridiculous amount of injuries. This was one of the problems I complained about most during the beta, and while it does seem to be toned down a bit, it’s still a huge issue. I understand that injuries happen in real life, but this is far too much. A good example: I was playing a season with Dortmund and had a 10 day international break. During that time four of my starters were all injured, three of them IN THE SAME GAME (and were all on the same team).
  
  
• They’ve fixed most of the buggy UI, but I personally like to play the game in Windowed mode and split screen with a live game or a movie or something. Many of the UI elements don’t seem to account for this and either render incorrectly or reverse preferences / settings every time you change the screen.
  
  
• Searching for players/staff doesn't always yield proper results. Even if you enable the large database and whatever leagues you are interested, I’ve still struggled to find some players or staff that actually exist in my game when trying to use the name search in the scouting field. If I go to the club and look for the player however, I can usually find them.
  
  
• I touched on this a bit under neutral, but I feel like some points are worth reiterating about the match engine considering the game is based around it. The game struggles with the “same tactic fits them all” logic like most of the previous generations have, and there is definitely the same amount of shoddy logic (like players missing open net shots, injuries occurring when no contact is actually made, and much more).

If you are a veteran of the series, I personally think the biggest hurdle will be learning the new UI. The game hasn’t really made any massive improvements over FM14 and it seems like the devs neglected to address some of the main complaints from the past. Between this and the constant injuries that plagued the game, I found myself constantly making backup saves just in case five of my players come back from an international break with an injury.

Overall I'm fairly happy with FM15. Granted the majority of people purchase these games just for the updated clubs and all that, but the game has a lot of potential as always. I'm personally a bigger fan of FMC than I am the more "traditional" FM, but they both have been improved on overall. It's definitely a step in the right direction though.

If you've played Football Manager before and didn't enjoy it, this one isn't going to make you love it any more than the past ones. I’d recommend waiting to pick it up on sale, or even holding off until FM16 comes out if you are on the fence. If you have FM12/13/14, you can get your footie manager fix without missing out on much.