Recent reviews by Seva

Context: I've played all the Civs since the first one (including Alpha Centauri and Beyond Earth, and even a bit of that mobile one). Some of them I played religiously, some not so much. I don't play on deity and I don't minmax, I'm here to have a good time.

Overall: So far finished one full playthrough and went straight into the next one - I think there is more than enough here at launch to have a good time, and everything actually works, with a couple of minor bugs thrown in but nothing that won't be quickly fixed. It's already sucked me in and I can see the meta progression and the ways in which you unlock civs and leaders while playing really leading to hundreds of hours in this.

The good stuff:
- The ages and leader/civ mixing adds a lot. The variety of civs, the variety of leaders, and the variety of combinations is a bit head-spinning. The fact that Egypt was presented as the geographical choice for Isabel in the antiquity age is very funny.
- Game is gorgeous IMO and the leaders are well animated. Machiavelli gives strong dweeb vibes which I very much approve of.
- Really solid writing for narrative events - I'm a fan of this addition, it would be great to have even more, and deeper, quests. So far lot's of variety in the writing of the events, I don't think I read any repeating stories, but there were so many that it's even hard to tell.
- Some of the music is incredible, gorgeous Buddhist chanting in the antiquity age made me pause and just luxuriate in it many times.
- I didn't miss the workers at all, in fact after the first few turns I basically forgot we had them before.
- Manoeuvering with the army commanders makes fights very engaging
- Transitioning between ages is super fun
- Ages are very much distinct, which is certainly an intriguing change. The first two ages in particular are definitely super fun to play, with their own challenges and mechanics.
- Ability to change capitals between ages and them being renamed to the capital of the new Civ is a fantastic idea
- I didn't fight anyone in the modern age but I did see that my unique Buganda unit, i.e. dudes with spears, had a higher attack rating than my tanks. I think this rules and is unquestionably fun. As an actual historian of actual history with an actual doctorate, I would like to invite everyone who is outraged by this to consider some grass touching activities.
- I like the game enough to write this extremely long review which I basically never do.

Suggestions, apprehensions and drawbacks:
- Somehow feels like the antiquity age could use more wonders now that I am in my second play through.
- I would love religion to be reworked into an all ages spanning legacy path. This is probably either unrealistic or years of development time away, but I think it would really add a lot. At least conceptually and historically it can totally work in both antiquity and modern ages, requiring some culture legacy path changes. In fact with this clear division into ages, there are so many compelling conceptual and narrative things you can do with religion/theism/spirituality/atheism etc. The fact that settlements' religions didn't change at all in the modern age, for example, and that there seemed to be no way to build on the religious mechanics of the exploration age, I think is a huge bummer.
- The last age needs some work most likely, but maybe my difficulty was too low. The AI just let me run away with it.
- Diplomacy changes are overall good but still not enough to make me care about diplomacy in these games, at this point I don't know what could.
- The end of the game is a bit weird, feels like the end of the modern age as if another one is about to start - would love something more grand, especially on victory, that provides an overview of all ages. It felt anti-climactic just being dumped back into the menu without any fanfare.
- City states feel much less interesting and less powerful than in 6 to me. The city state management did get too complicated as the game progressed in 6 for sure especially on bigger maps, but here it feels like in an effort to make it more straightforward they took away too much and it's a bit flat.
- I ~need~ bigger maps. It is an interesting idea to make the separation of the world into a central mechanic but I wonder if it will mean the maps will be less diverse and more formulaic as a result. So far there aren't too many options.
- Maps are also small enough that there are barely any city states left in the modern age, and even in exploration they also seemed less numerous and less interesting to engage with.
- Seriously though I need bigger maps. I don't mind playing smaller and shorter games for now while unlocking leaders and civs, but for this game to have a long tail for me personally, playing at the slowest pace on the largest maps is essential.
- Some UI issues of course, and some bugs (A city state with all its units just disappeared once right off the map WHILE I was looking at it during my turn. Wild. Another time the city state name disappeared off the screen, it then never grew, I couldn't interact with it or its units at all throughout the age so couldn't even destroy it. Another time couldn't get a tile with a resource added to a settlement because there was an invisible village on it. etc.) but it's all going to get fixed, and there is nothing so egregious here as to make the game unplayable.

A very special game - SWERY is a beautiful human being and you should buy this at full price to support him.

Come for the style, stay for the story.

I bought this off a recommendation from someone on Twitter, so I was not sure what I was walking into, knowing only that it was gorgeous and that the story goes places. Very happy that I went for it.

I finished it just now and this game has a lot to say. I don't want to spoil it, but this game is asking some questions that are extremely relevant in today's political climate. I am not sure if it always gives satisfying answers, but it certainly gives you a few hard choices throughout, but also a few that it frames as hard and that, personally, were no brainers for me.

This game has a lot of character, and straddles naiveté with wisdom in a very convincing way as the choice-driven story unravels around you. It is interesting and will endear you to the world, but the world itself and its characters are what really hold the game up, and will make you keep playing. The voice acting for the main characters is top-notch and the smaller roles are charming, similarly to Figment from another Danish developer Bedtime.

Overall, I highly recommend it, and I look forward to more from Throughline Games.

Short and sweet but full of depth (and free) - an intriguiing story will make you want to keep exploring the masterful abstract space that the geometry of the game creates. Try it out you won't be disappointed!

I highly recommend this game.

It's a short narrative experience exploring the meaning of labels we ascribe to our identity, whether they are unfathonably huge in scope, or more down-to-earth and personal.

It is worth playing for the story, but the sometimes abstract, sometimes grimy, sometimes clean art is extremely evocative and in combination with the soundtrack perfectly complements the game.

Celeste is fantastic.

The platforming and jumping is extremely responsive, and the simple moves are complemented very well by environmental mechanics, different in each level.

The characters are extremely well written, and the story about overcoming yourself is inspirational, leaving you feeling warm and hopeful by the end.

The music, ohhh the music, Lena Raine really did an amazing job, perfectly complementing the gameplay and story.

Cannot recommend this enough. Finished in about 14 hours or so after trying to explore as much as I could, but there is a ton more stuff to find, ensuring I will be playing this game for many more hours. As close to perfect as you can get.

I am not a huge fan of rogue lite likes but this is probably one of the best in the genre, given that I have spent quite a few hours enjoying the action. What I appreciate most of all is the feeling of progression that the game gives you - there are short and long term goals that you can progress towards with every run.

I have also been playing it with a keyboard and the controls are really great.