Recent reviews by Draknar986

This is a hard review to give. I initially gave Injustice 2 a thumbs down, but after some thought decided that was overly harsh.

The short is this: Would I feel comfortable recommending this game to my friends?
No.

-- The multiplayer is dead
-- The pay for DLC is insane. It feels like Warner Bros. just oozes slime-ball juice of greediness.

*BUT* ... I Keep. Freaking. Playing.
I bought the DLC. Would I buy it again? Yes, yes I would.

This is the BEST fighter game I have ever played. Period. Including newer releases (Moral Kombat, Street Fighter, etc.).

What ends up leaving a sour taste in my mouth is due to the need for my own mentality shift.
At it's core, pick a character you like, fight an enemy you like, at a difficulty you *enjoy*, and do that. The combat is so rewarding and satisfying, that's all you need.

The game has so many layers of leveling, gear, loot, and objectives that you keep trying to push yourself to the extreme to achieve, but at the end of the day just leaves you stressed and annoyed. And all of it is pointless. So let it go.
And even then? The game has an AI system! Meaning you can turn on the AI to play FOR you to earn all that RNG junk you want anyway! So just do that instead of trying to master combos until your thumbs bleed.

So overall, I basically tell my friends "hey, I enjoy this game, you probably would to, but I understand not wanting to support Warner Bros. by sinking your mound of cash into this game"

The movement and flying feels excellent!

There's definitely annoyance with combat, the AI Aimbots, and progression awkwardness between the early and mid game. But I keep coming back for more!

Do not buy.

The terrain sculpting feature has ruined this game for me.

I tried so hard to appreciate it, and all it does is act as a constant, buggy, thorn in my side.

Being able to modify the terrain sounds great in theory, but instead, because of how the fields are laid out, becomes a necessity. And it's ridiculously expensive, finicky, and will downright glitch out fields so they are unusable.

You thus spend more time and effort just trying to create a canvas of land to work with, before you can even start the elaborate process of re-drawing fields with a plow (which you will have to do again). Leaving you with an utter mess.

If newer iterations of the game do not remove, or completely overhaul this system, I can't even see myself trying them. Which is such a shame, because I LOVED Farm Sim 17!!

Best Total War Game I've played (as of Oct. 2019)
Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of good (or decent) titles. I especially recommend trying "Three Kingdoms".

But Rome 2 is far and away my favorite, the version I keep coming back to. It's complex enough without being crazy, and doesn't have the constant struggle of internal civil wars like later games. (It has them, but they are more manageable and less random than later titles.)

I think Rome 2 is a fundamental title that any TW player, or strategy player, should have in their library.

As a Total War fanboy, I *want* to give this a thumbs up. And Creative Assembly did so much to revolutionize the game, with daring creativity that I applaud.

But I realized when talking about the Total War franchise to my co-worker, I just can't recommend this game. Not over past titles anyway. If this was the only Total War game ever made, then yeah it's worth trying, but it's not the cornerstone of a PC Gamer's library like older titles were.

I will start off with saying I'm a bit biased with the theme. The Chinese culture just isn't pulling me in like Rome or Medieval did. It's wonderfully well done, however, so this is a bias I’m trying to overlook while giving a review, but undeniably may be negatively impacting my overall fondness of the game.

Things I liked:
— Building up Provinces (Or “commanderies”), are not as cookie cutter. You can’t choose what to build in minor settlements, so you have to decide if you want to “snowball” those benefits with what you build in the main city, or “force” something else.
— — This gives a lot of replayability, but also can make the game brutal for new or returning Total War players.
-- -- It also blends well with the enhanced diplomacy. Made too much food and not enough money? Trade it for cash with someone.

— Diplomacy is easier to jump into, with much more impact than in previous games. It adds a deep layer of strategy to the game.

— The focus on characters gives the game a “Crusader Kings 2” feel, which really pulled me in... at first.

— The army Retinue system (units tied to characters) is a much more streamlined approach. Units don’t “die” like they did in previous games, and you don’t need to ferry units all over the map because they had to be made in particular cities (also makes building construction strategy easier in that regard). It was a bit of a slap in the face though when I learned that top end "Dragon" units can be made under any character, but mid-level units you unlock have to match the color of the character. It's not well described in the tech tree.

— Reforms (tech tree) is neat how it’s purely turn based. No research bonuses. Makes for a consistent game and adds to replayability.
— — However, the UI is terrible, confusing, and downright off-putting.



Things I did not like:
— Romance mode. You can pick either Romance mode, or Records mode, with Records being more traditional to Total War. I was led to believe Records was for the "hardcore traditionalist that values tactics and troop management". I didn't feel like I fit that bill at all, so I tried Romance mode first. Not. A. Fan. I'd argue it actually makes the battles harder. Your first goal is now to manage your generals vs. their generals, and sort out the cannon fodder minion troops later.
I learned after looking up guides that most players (at least veteran players of it) prefer Records mode, and not because of the "difficulty" of it. So I tried Records... much much better.

-- Characters. The character development seemed interesting, especially since I am a huge fan of Crusader Kings 2. But it just falls flat. It's lack of enjoyment doesn't balance out the tedium of the management. Getting a general high level just to have him leave because now he's outgrown you is annoying. Manageable to prevent that, sure, but it's just an extra layer I have to worry about now, without any payoff of "fun".

-- The cartooniness of it. This is probably what's leading most to my overall dissatisfaction. The fighting in battles just doesn't have any meat to it. It's like watching Warcraft III troops fight. Probably worse. Troop A swings at air. Troop B flies back in comical fashion. Rome 2 was way more satisfying for interpersonal combat. You could almost *feel* the brutalness of a veteran experienced army.
Even the archers fall short. Video after video tells you how powerful archers are in this game. And they aren't wrong. But it's like watching a laser light show, with enemies falling over at random. And not even satisfactorily. In Rome 2 the arrows are getting buried in shields, pinging the ground and having troops stumble to the ground. In 3K, they just kind of magically fall over when they decide to.
In truth, I bet the mechanics are fairly similar, but maybe it's the graphics or art on top of it that make it feel less meaty.

In the end it's still a good enough game, but I wouldn't recommend it over other titles in the series.

Update 16 Apr 2019 - I'm changing this from a negative to positive review.
Indeed all the issues I ran into have been addressed, even though I don't think the patch notes specifically called them out.
There's no more camera shake, at least that I've encountered.
More importantly, flying feels so.much.better!
In the old system, it kind of felt like flying a space ship, where you can put a tiny thruster on any goliath object and eventually get to infinite speeds, but no hope to control or stop the thing properly.
Now, if an item is too heavy, you just don't get off the ground. Or rather you do, but sink back down and kinda bounce around a bit. In the newb ship, items that weigh 3 or 4 tons I just can't really keep off the ground so I know it's too heavy. For items around 2 tons (which I think was what I was carrying in my first negative review), I was originally able to get off the ground and get up to good speed in the old system, much to my detriment when rapidly approaching a mountainside.
Now, I feel *heavy*, but I can keep off the ground. While I can barely gain altitude, I also can maintain a managable slow and controlled speed. So I can really feel the heft and have to work with it (which I enjoy, pushing the limits for more payout), without it making my ship go insane with a dynamically unstable and unpredictable system. It feels just like Euro Truck Simulator now when trying to haul some of those beasty loads with horse power that can barely cut it, but you still want to push your revs to the max for the sweet sweet $$$ and not have to worry about your truck hurling into a volcano. It's just going to take more patience getting over that hill =)

I am extremely impressed. There is so much that can be added to this game, especially if there is some sort of dynamic trade-route calculator either built into the main game or as an add-on.

=============================

There's clearly hope for this game, so I don't want to return it. And honestly, I bet if I took the time to upgrade my ship I might enjoy it more. I just don't have much time to play in general so I wanted to give my out-of-the-box review for other casual gamers.

The "controls" aren't bad, especially on a controller. Not brilliant, but not bad like I see a lot of reviews (I think it's been updated since).

However, the "feel" is awful.
1) My camera kept shaking like I had Parkinson's. I thought it was from a volcano or something, but it remained even off the ground, and kept happening all over the map.
2) The sound effects, especially when taking damage, could use some improvement. I flew through a geyser, and beyond my screen turning red it just felt unimpactful. Maybe having a bit more control and randomness thrown in as well would make it seem more epic. Especially if there was a chance I could crash land successfully.
3) And this is the worst that made me just close the game... the feel when taking on way way too much weight.
I understand that's meant to be a challenge type thing. And incentive to buy upgrades. But wow... it felt like I was playing Kerbal Space Program. I realize this is a major PRO for a lot of other players, so take this with a grain of salt depending on how much of a glutton for punishment you are, but personally I feel like a ship should have an enforced weight limit, based on your ship and mods, and if it feels like you're trying to fly a washing machine it just not let you pick that item up in the first place.

When I get more time to play in the next week I'm going to cheat and buy all the mods for the first ship, and see if my gameplay enjoyability improves or not. I'll update this review accordingly.
*Edit - I thought this game had console command cheats. I was wrong. I will not be bothering to continue my progress to find out if it gets more enjoyable or not.

Get this game!

I loved Hearts of Iron IV, so when I learned that Crusader Kings 2 was by the same company, I needed to give it a second look.

I say "second look" because I played it once before a long time ago, and I thought it was ok, but nothing to write home about. However, that's because I didn't "get it". I didn't understand it's a game about playing a family dynasty, that's open-ended, vs. a world-domination war game. And after falling in love with Hearts of Iron IV, I knew I had to go back and try CK2.

So much replayability. And it's a great game you can pause and come back to instantly.

Granted, the learning curve is a bit much, but if you Google any question you will find an answer, and there's *still* new tutorial videos on YouTube being posted. As old as it is, there's still a thriving community. That's got to say something in upon itself.

Wow.
This game is an absolute gem.

I normally play things like Diablo, WoW, Destiny. I put Stardew Valley on my wishlist, but took forever to pull the trigger because it looked so "kiddie". I didn't pull the trigger until I was getting burn out on other games, had a kid, and needed something super casual.

So I played Stardew Valley. I loved it. I got some mods. Loved it even more.
Then took a break for a couple months.
... and then... very unlike my personality... I came *BACK* to it again, and the flame is immediately rekindled.

It's like the perfect blend of casual, easy mechanics, but then layered with more and more advanced concepts to keep you coming back and exploring (but not so challenging you get annoyed or burned out). And there's so many different activities, it has excellent replay value (and that's after hours and hours of a single playthrough).

Highly recommend.
It looks simple, it's looks almost childish, but I highly encourage you to pick it up and try it out.

I'm on the fence with this guy, so here's what I'll do: I'll give this a thumbs up for potential, but list all the negatives first.


-- Must be played with Mods. Avorion Commands Mod for sure, and I like Pirate Spawner too (to help boost faction reputation... spawn pirates, help them kill pirates, gain rep).

The progression just seems very slow and tedious. Made worse by the fact that Resource Stations have extremely limited stock, and do not replace it. Struggling to find Titanium? Good luck farming Iron to sell for Titanium. Not going to happen. Multiplayer servers are far worse.

It also irks me a bit that from square one, you have to start as a weak miner *and* salvager (keep both turret types on you) until you can start getting some titanium. I guess that makes sense, but I felt like I was stuck searching for Titanium for hours before I could finally get some decent combat.


-- Death and Damage penalty is nuts. When you build a ship, each block requires Resources and Credits. You can insure your ship to help refund some of the credits when you need to rebuild after death.

However, the Resources are not replenished. And after spending so many hours farming enough to build a ship in the first place, it's a huge penalty. Granted, death itself isn't that common, however you still have to *repair* damage blocks with those resources. So it ends up being more annoying than a sense of accomplishment.


-- Turrets and Upgrades are acquired (bought/looted), not crafted (well, unless you have a Turret factory, but that's another can of worms). It's nice when you find something you want, but normally it takes quite a bit of searching.


-- Factions don't seem to be as robust as I would have hoped. My End-Game was to try and find or found a faction, and help it spread across the galaxy. However, that's not really feasible. I befriended a very aggressive faction, and helped clear out their neighboring enemies... but they never expanded. I don't know if they even can or not. I know they would send ships to attack, but not more than that. And as far as I can tell, after destroying everything in a sector, they don't rebuild anything. So you're actually at more of a loss from the war than a gain.


-- Station Building is also lackluster. There are two main issues:
1) You have to do a *lot* of hauling yourself. I would hope you could build AI ships to do that monotonous chore for you. I don't see why they couldn't.
2) Sectors STOP FUNCTIONING when you leave. Yet you *STILL* have to pay crew for anything in them! E.g. you have a mine in Sector A, a factory in Sector B, and an advanced factory in Sector C. When you leave Sector A to Sector B, Both A and C STOP PRODUCING. Yet you *still* pay the crews working there!
Again, I feel like there's got to be a way to fix this. Granted, it may be a very immersion breaking aspect of you having to physically dictate what sectors you want to keep loaded and functioning, but I feel like any work-around at this point would be worth it. As it's such a robust and interesting system, completely made useless because of this.


-- Lack of End Game. With Station Building and Faction War ruled out, there's nothing left for end-game. Basically all the reasons I wanted to play this game over Elite: Dangerous or StarPoint Gemini are gone.


Ok ok, so that's the negative... what about the positive?

Main Point - This game is a phenomenal platform that I think with polish will be fantastic.
-Multiplayer - Check (once servers start regenerating resources)
-Factions - Check (once improved)
-Economy - Check (once improved)
-Creative Building - Check (if some sort of change to resources and repairs/death is implemented)


Again, definitely play with mods.
Also, absolutely go here:
http://www.avorion.net/forum/index.php/topic,1946.msg18182.html#msg18182

Find those ships in the steam workshop and download them. They are such a total boon to new players.
Load a ship, then use the "eye" icon in the build menu to filter blocks by type, and check all the different types of blocks used. (it turns your ship transparent except for the desired blocks). This is an extremely useful head start on seeing how ships are constructed.

Further, make use of the "transform block" tool. So you can take, say, an iron hull block, and convert it to a Titanium block so you can put a Titanium turret on it when you get one.
In fact, being able to build in a creative game, then save the model, and use it in your normal game (or online) when you farm the resources... that's awesome.

Overall, excellent potential, great platform, controls, physics, and mechanics. Just right now the lack of fleshed-out content is a game breaker.