Recent reviews by Zahik

Yes.

Good game

Very good. It is like regular Total War game but with extra hot Nando's sauce.

Good fast paced game that will keep you busy for the day.

Very true to the original film Alien. Very unique gameplay, unlike other rambo games about the same universe.

You are an engineer in this game, so you should expect to do some engineering mini-games around, which is one of the game's strong points in my opinion. Although they can be repeatitive and usually unchallenging, and there could have been twists in the mini-games events, like power failure in the middle of them, but that is my own opinion.

Another strong point is the sounds. Don't play this game without a sound card or an amplifier system attached onto your gaming pc. The terror is hearing the steps of a nearby enemy or a xenomorph approaching or walking away, or the thumbs of a close XX121 spider crawling a feet away near your head. I'd kiss the sound engineers who made the sounds of the game.

Graphics wise? A challenge for my 3-screen gaming rig, and beautiful to be hold. The design of the levels are breath taking, very beautiful and creepy at the same time, the shadows and dark corners play a great deal of the game's atmosphere. Don't play this game without having cranked the graphics to the maximum settings.

The only downfall of the game is that it's short, nearly 20 hours of game play only, although I know it's not easy making a game long and interesting, specially for the fact that the game designers ran out of tricks at the end part of the game, and you can get that sense. Another thing is that the game doesn't support multi-screen game play 100%. The HUD was missed up that I only found out that I could actually fabricate items in the middle of the game, and that the weapons actually had an aiming reticle, but it was on the right screen.

From my experience in the Tomb Rider franchise, which is comprised of the first game in 1995 and the Tomb Rider Underworld in 2011, this by far is the best one. It is a good benchmark platform, it gives a rewarding exploration experience, it has a sublime level design, an ok story with good twists, an ok voice acting and great character developement. However, the game is devoid of a good music score, there's too much ammo in such a survival based game and there's a scent of repetition about it which is unfortunate. Although the advancement in the weapons and items will make the game more interesting in that area.

I bought this game a year and so ago, and I played it a little bit, and I knew I had to get a better PC to run it. I owned an Asus G73 laptop, my faithful companion since 2011, and only this year I bought a new desktop parts with dual-gpu setup, and I ran the game on every maximum settings possible with 2x anti-aliasing with an average of around 50-60 frames/s in-game (benchmark results yielded around 120 minimum, 160 average and 200 maximum on 1600-600 resolution.) and I wasn't surprised with the quality of the graphics, it's a work of art and it can strain your PC well.

What I was surprised about really was the amount of details in the environment the developers have put into this game. I don't think I have really liked to take my time into walking around in other games, but this one was different, it had a real sense of exploration that you don't usually get in any game I know of (pardon my limited knowledge), and that 'wow' element every time you walk in a tomb. The level designers should really be rewarded well for creating those mesmerizing scenery, even though in some areas you won't even spend 5 mins in it, but it has such an amazing foggy background and environment to give that specific atmosphere. A work well done. I know because I mod sometimes and create small maps to test things, so I realize the amount of working hours to get a single map done: too many.

I don't think many players agree with me in this point, it's just that I wish the game was all about exploration and survival against wild animals and fighting starvation and securing food sources, but, you know, you have to satisfy a broader range of players to sell the game and introduce more weapons. The best part of the weapons however is the upgrade element. It helps killing the scent of repetition about this game a bit beside the introduction of new fighting skills.

As for the story, I called it an ok story because it is. The end was as expected, and although some characters have fallen during the course of the story, there's nothing major or memorable about it, the good part was finding out what was going on, but it stops there. You will find the source of all the problems in the end, but nothing major happens in that regard, and you can't do anything about it, it just ends there. I think the story is the weakest link here, but it's not negative, it's just normal, nothing extraordinary.

(the following point is personal ranting, you may skip)
The other problem for me is that when I saw the trailer of the game couple of years ago, and I saw the making of bow to hunt for food, I thought the game was about survival in the wilderness, which I love so much along with camping, and watching survival movies and stuff, but to my sadness, it wasn't but a very well made platform slash action game. And I was annoyed when I had to use the assault rifle with the grenade launcher to blast through big numbers of enemies, it was like the little fragile Lara Croft became Arnold Schwarzenegger. And if you think yes, well, she's very agile and fast and you can actually kill lots of bad guys with dexterity and agility alone, then I am sorry, but many a time in the game Lara showed some inhuman strength, like pulling and ripping doors apart, or later, use the grappler to rip through concrete barricades, which in my opinion is not possible, unless Lara is one of the World's strongest men, it's just so ridiculous.

In general I like this game. Would I recommend it to you? It depends on your preference, but yes I would. The game was nominated game of the year of 2013, and that is reasonable. The game is great, and I loved it but that is its place, to be nominated. (9 out of 10).

I have been a huge fan of the original Total Annihilation, which I played for an uncountable hours back at the beginning of the millenium with my first PC. I liked the idea that I could build enormous armies and wage huge wars and break through the enemies' defenses and armies, using the idea of having to upgrade through a higher tier as fast as possible to over power the enemy and crush him completely.



That said, Planetary Annihilation gave me hope that I could do that again, and it almost did it right, after playing with Supreme Commander and getting that old taste of humongous battles except for a few irritations, but nevermind that. What matters here is that Ubur almost got it right. Almost. But it was ruined with technicalities and a few little more problems. And here is the list of irritations.



1-There is no LAN. Just why?



2-There is no true offline mode. Just why again? this become pretty much like Diablo 3, you must have a constant connection to the internet to play single player games and ai-skirmishes, which is plain ridiculous, with all due respect to the team and their effort.



3-The idea of different robots commanders is nice, but why do I have to pay for extra to get them? I understand that you have to make money to live on, but it's not even a DLC, it's just a model. I paid extra to get into the Alpha and have the Theta commander, and I don't feel the difference. I think only those who are 8 and 12 years olds are into this idea, which is totally not among this game's audience. But the context of thinking of having to pay to get those models is what worries me with the developers, it's a complete EA mentality. And no one likes EA.



4-This is the third skirmish game that I play this week that gets disconnected from the main server. So after a 45 mins of having to stand on my toes and a complete uninterrupted focus of trying to beat the hard-ai (which is very hard on triliniar planetary systems or more), I get a message that the game disconnected from the server, and I get back into the main menu. I am writing this negative review just because of this problem.




The game should be fine. It really had all the pieces to be perfect. It had fantastic gameplay that we all like from Total Annihilation, Supreme Commander and Forged Alliance, interesting graphics also, it has epic music score that is stuck on my brain for months and it has a crazy idea of warfare that involves smashing moons into other planets, but it got ruined in the end by these thinking context that is borrowed from EA. I think the team rushed the game into the finishing stages, just to work on their other game that I am really not interested about, which will probably be something about online competitive play that really isn't interesting, Dota or LoL like.

Personally I would give the game a 5 out of 10. Don't get this game.

One of the best RTS available on the market today for PC.
It is similar to the first Company of Heroes with just minor changes, like the commanders, which are interchangeable, and the improved sight or vision towards more realistic manner, also the improved physics for the dead bodies and vehicles and the improved graphics.

If you are a World War 2 enthusiast like me, you will enjoy this game. It is one of the best in showcasing the war machinery that roamed europe during WWII. I especially adore the germans heavy tanks, and the game does a great job in doing that and more, since it has realistic shells firing, explosions, and the clanking of tank treads sounds and everything you can imagine.

What I usually do is play a difficult game, then relax afterwards and watch the replay, then and there is when you will appreciate the game's looks and level of details, since during the game you will be so focused nothing will matter.

Now, as a game, I have to say that I have been a big fan of the original CoH, and I have more than +500 hours off steam and 340 hours on it, so I was super excited about the new game. At launch, however, I was disappointed at the amount of changes the developers have made over the original game, but it grew up on me, especially for the fact that the developers have kept on improving it and patching any bugs and problems, and releasing many dlcs and commanders on the way.

As for the DLCs subject however, I am against any person who claim that this is a pay-to-win game. Sure, when you buy a new commander you will get the advantage of the surprise, but later players will eventually recognize the weaknesses of said ability or special unit, therefore rendering it weak provided that a counter plan was applied.
Seriously, I know a guy who can beat a Tiger Tank only using conscripts and their anti-armor grenades, or spear head through the enemy's base and pin him/them there while his team mates seize the reminder of the battle field. Simply put, if you gave up because a tiger tank showed up, you aren't trying hard enough.
The game is well balanced so that you can win no matter what the opposition choose as their commander, as long as you use your brain, even if you don't choose any commander at all, you can still achieve glorious victory.

The only problem I see of this game, in the end, is that the pace is much faster now compared to the original CoH. The game would last to more than 1 hour if the teams are well balanced. The original game was a multitasker's heaven, the better you are at shifting your focus to as many units at a given time as possible, the better player you will be. This one is the same, though you have to do it faster. Another problem (not necessarily the developers' fault) is that after every patch and update (which occur from weekly to twice a week) the replay files become obsolete, so I can't enjoy watching tremendous victories as I used to do in CoH.

In short, this game is excellent. Definitely recommended, and I give it 9/10. Graphics and phyiscs wise, it is astounding, and if you are WWII fanatic, this game will keep you busy for sometime. DLCs are not a con of this game, it's just a way for developers to make money, and since they did a good job in this game, I support them.

I have been a big fan of the original Rainbow six series since Raven Shield, followed by Rainbow Six Vegas, where the mixture of realism and cover system was first introduced as a single combo. Since then I've always wanted to play an online game that has this style, combined with team work, and Ghost Recon Phantoms did it for me (although I haven't played a Ghost Recon before).

I give this game 8/10.

Pros:

Game style:
The best in its class in my opinion, beats any CoD & Battlefield in my opinion. Heavily reliant on team cooperation, if the whole team consisted of pros but none of them followed the objective and provide help, they will lose.

Replayability:
Very, although the map variety is scarse.

New ideas:
As a game designing enthusiast, the game offers qeite few futuristic ideas that can insipire me to make and produce new contents and mods for UDK and CryEngine.

Limited classes:
This should enable you to focus your effort on specializing in one class only, should you chose to pursue your career in the game without paying a dime (which I did).

Cons:

Graphics:
It's mediocre, nothing new to offer.

P2W:
Getting my ass kicked by a 9 years old who paid using his mommy's credit card can always get on my nerve.

And neglect the 9.2 hours on records, I have +150 hour in the EU version.