Recent reviews by Harven

I finally got around to finishing this old RPG that's been sitting in my library. The quick and the dirty on this? The game was really fun to play. The fights were engaging and I enjoyed how you can build a character to suit your needs - and you can improve your companions likewise.

The music fits the genre and while the story is pretty linear it is a good story. My own complaints are the inability to see find side quests. I did not like having to backtrack through every town and city after every event to see if I am unlocking side quests. Otherwise the game was fun straight up through the end. I'm disappointed to find some of the achievements are broken but that's just a small thing.

Great game overall and even as old as it is, worth a play.

Tricolor Lovestory is a Chinese Visual Novel with very limited interaction on the part of the viewer. Unlike the Telltale series of games you do not get to make many choices in the game overall, the game itself is a visual experience, but the few choices you do make will take you down the path of one of the two story endings to the story's conclusion. Because this game is primarily a visual experience, it may not be for people who desire more interaction with visual novels.

Overall the story is wonderful. It is well written and the animations of the characters, the locations, and the time shifts all fit the theme of the story. These things have the feel of even being a character in and of itself among the supporting cast. The soundtrack is beautiful and wonderfully done - with the songs changing to fit specific story beats as a wonderful overall compliment to the entire experience.

The only drawback to the game for an English reading audience is the translations from the native Chinese to English are very poor. In some places it seems as if an automated program did the translations and in others it seems as if someone who was not a native English speaker did their best. But the translations are good enough to follow the story and, to pun, nothing serious seems lost in translation.

Lastly, the additional content for the story, via DLC, is a wonderful compliment to the overall experience. But I recommend viewing the sidestories after one finishes the main story.

If you like visual novels or even just a really good romance story, this is a worthwhile experience. Highly recommended.

My Time At Portia is a game in the same genre that fits in Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley. While those elements are the same the developers have gone out of their way to create a beautiful game world, interesting NPCs, and a storyline that lets the player feel like they have an impact on the world at large - and they do.

The combat element of the game is simple and easy to learn. The creatures are not overly difficult to fight and so it does not wear out its welcome when you are forced to go out and farm for supplies.

Overall, I purchased this game in Early Access and I was not displeased with the results. The game has quite a bit of content that can take up to an addictive 50 hours to go through. This is an EA gem that I hope does very well.

Review Update 11/23/18:

Since I first reviewed this game the developers have continued to update and put out more than a generous amount of content. They respond to people in their forums and here in the forums on Steam, and actively solicit feedback for ideas and recommendations.

This has made My Time At Portia one of the best early access experiences I have had since Darkest Dungeon was in EA.

I still highly recommend this game.

11/29/19:

My final review for My Time At Portia, the game has maintained its innovation and the final content added leading up to release has made the game well worth a full price purchase. At a discount it is even a steal. This game is clearly a labor of love for the developers who have spent the time since their full release updating and adding even more content to the game without saddling the community with DLC pay walls and purchases.

Low reward quests and unbalanced enemies to fight does not make an RPG hardcore. The game does offer some wonderful dialogue options but when it comes to combat - the controls are clunky and the enemies are so overtuend that you may as well not make combat an option in any encounter. I understand what the developers were going for but I think they missed their mark.

My very first colony was wiped out by maddened manhunting beavers. And that set my experience for RimWorld. The developer has done everything they can to give a truly wonderful and differing experience in the sci-fi colony sim genre. I believe that once the game is out of Early Access it will be THE game that defines this particular aspect of the genre itself.

The sound quality is great with good music for the game. The gameplay is fluid and intuitive. And the random events are varied enough that they can often be a huge boon for a colony or the colony's downfall as a psychic ship drives your colonists insane.

Rimworld is one of the few games I would recommend a purchase of while it is in Early Access. The developer updates the game fairly frequently and has provided an EA game that is polished, balanced, and already plays like a full release game.

A quick and dirty review:

The game needs an honest to god options menu. The music is nice but overly loud. I muted it. It needs someone to go through with an actual english translater and clean up the language in a BIG way. Otherwise - the game is simplistic and easy to pick up and play. Easy to learn. It is tagged for nudity but there is not any and it does not really need it.

Plot? Interestingly there is one buried in all the other elements. And a very interesting love story there too. This would make for an interesting visual novel instead of the kind of dating sim management game that it is.

Is it a great game? No. But it is a great timewaster when you have a bit of time to kill and you want something to do that does not require a whole lot of attention.

I enjoyed it for what it is.

The music is good and the game, given its age can be overlooked for the poor graphical quality. You can see that some effort was put into the expressions given by the main character - and far lesser effort was put in regarding other character models.

But the problems with the game are more than just cosmetic. The game itself has a variety of game breaking bugs. The first is game crashing when the game has to minimize or you alt+tab. The game also crashed when encountering your first major bad buys on the bridge, just in the first 20 minutes of the game.

Another problem is that combat requires you to be right on top of enemies, practically clipping into them, to ensure that your combat strikes are hitting.

Two crashes in 35 minutes of gameplay that both require hard computer resets ends any further desire to continue into the story of Venetica.

Mafia 3 is a wonderful storytelling experience that steeps the player into the culture of the 1960s and 1970s. From start to finish the story remains engaging and complelling with event beats that create a wonderful pace based on the player's own behavior as they proceed through quests and story events. Every character that you meet going through this world is as interesting and diverse as the setting. So much I believe that the supporting character of Jack Donovan was a scene stealer with every interaction that the story brought him into. And for those interested in how Mafia 2's story plays out for its own protagonist will find some great answers here.

The biggest help for this immersion is the music of the era. Everywhere you go there are radios, jukeboxes, and even car radios that can be listened to that provide music from known artists from that era. One moment you could be mixing it up with Creedence Clearwater's Bad Moon Rising then kicking a station over to Aretha Franklin's Rrespect. All interweaved with talk radio and advertisements representative of the game's local color.

The gameplay for Mafia 3 is similar to other entries into the franchise, in that it too fits the semi-open world over the shoulder third person view of other games like Grand Theft Auto and Assassin's Creed. This can make gun combat difficult at times since a lot of the game uses a cover/stealth mechanic and the use of pseudo-aim down the barrel method that can make lining up shots difficult. Otherwise this means combat is succinct and brutal on the hard settings for those who love a good challenge.

Graphically the game shows its age as it seems to rely upon the same technology used to make Mafia 2. The cutscenes were detailed but in some cases were overshadowed by the lack of good texturing or just bad resolution. And this came through in many of the game models out in the world. There also seemed to be a few persistent bugs that required a full reboot of the game - such as the furniture in diners being relocated completely outside the store as if the models were incorrectly placed, or the minimap and ability to interface with objects and people disappearing. This could become quite frustrating when trying to complete mission objectives or interact with vital NPCs to forward the story along.

In the end I recommend Mafia 3 for the great soundtrack and storytelling experience. Fans of Mafia 2 will enjoy Mafia 3 because it continues the quality they've come to expect and new entries will be introduced to the best story in the franchise so far.

For two dollars this is a great sim management game to waste time on. The sound is good, the game play is simple, and the management aspects of the game keep it fun to the end. And the game's storyline is at least interesting and yet short.

There is enough variety in the classes to make consideration worthwhile and enough differing abilities to make each class unique. You really do get more than what you pay for if you like sim management games.

On a note, there are reviews that touch on the image the game uses being an anime style image while not being an anime game. The game store page has 5 images and a video posted of what the game looks like. The devs do just fine informing people of what the game is and what it is about, regardless of what splash art they use for their 'gamecover.'

I was interested in this game when it was in Early Access and because of the review by Splattercat Gaming on Youtube. Sadly the end results of the game when I picked it up on sale did not meet my expectations. Constant bug and game crashes combined with an unbalance in vital game mechanics makes this game an unpleasant experience.

Lastly, the game has been abandoned by the developer and no further attempts to fix the issues of the game are being made. There are games in this genre available. Play those instead.