Recent reviews by Estellus

I was incredibly excited for this game. The trailers look great, the aesthetics are amazing, the story seems interesting. The separate download character creator is one of the best I've ever seen.

The truth is that the monetization is absolutely filthy and the combat is shockingly abysmal. The game feels clunky and unfun, and that's playing with a controller as intended.

0/10 do not recommend. Download the free character creator though if you play D&D or other tabletop games.

Preface: I sincerely enjoy playing World of Warships, and consider it one of my favorite games. I'll touch on the good stuff, but first:

This game receives a negative review from me not for the gameplay, but for the practices and habits of the developer behind it.

Wargaming is a morally bankrupt company, content to use and abuse the playerbase and their community. On a nigh-monthly basis they introduce new events and monetization schemes designed to obfuscate the actual value of things in the game and prize cash from the playerbase at every turn. Their so-called "Community Contributor" program doesn't actually allow for community contribution, as the corporate overlords in St. Petersburg gleefully ignore all feedback and plow ahead full-steam with whatever plans they may have, to the detriment of the game, the playerbase, and the community as a whole, in pursuit of some unknown goal on a spreadsheet. No company in the industry has the same level of disconnect from the desires of their players.

Time and again, they have proven that they care naught for loyalty from their players and have no loyalty to the players in return. They would rather old players leave the game in disgust while they fleece new players for cash, who will in turn become jaded and leave as more new players flow in.

This game is rated for children and strongly marketed towards military veterans, and despite both of those groups being highly above-average for risk of gambling problems, Wargaming aggressively pushes lootbox gambling mechanics during major events multiple times per year, including the yearly Thanksgiving/Black Friday and Christmas events.

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As for the game itself, it is a wonderful naval arcade game focusing on the first half of the 20th century. History fans and naval warfare fans will likely enjoy it, as it features beautifully rendered and faithfully recreated depictions of dozens of historical vessels, as well as developer interpretations of designs that never actually made it to a shipyard for construction. (Though this isn't always a good thing, as some of those draft designs were in very rough form and the end result only functions in a video game, as the characteristics of the vessels are not conducive to realistic seakeeping or operation. At the end of the day, it is an ARCADE game, not a simulator.)

The most played game mode, Random Battles, lasts up to but not more than 20 minutes on one of a large selection of maps, featuring evenly matched teams of 12 fighting over a variety of objectives. The gameplay can seem slow from an outside perspective, as it takes many seconds for ships to come about to new headings or bring guns to bear on a target, with projectiles visible as they travel through the air towards their targets. While playing, it is a hectic and complex dance of mechanics as the player attempts to out-think and out-maneuver their opponents and put themselves in an advantageous position to exploit enemy weaknesses, while attempting to conceal their own and avoid incoming fire from main batteries and torpedoes.

Overall, it is an absolute joy to play and incredibly skill reliant. While anyone can buy a high tier Premium ship with a credit card, unless you've played from low tier, grinding your way through one of the free-to-play Tech lines learning the game as different mechanics are introduced over the course of dozens of battles, you'll never perform well. A common rule of thumb is 'never buy a premium ship higher tier than your highest tech ship.'

With four ship types (Destroyers [DD's], Cruisers [CA's and CL's], Battleships [BB's], and Aircraft Carriers [CV's]) available in various configurations and playstyles across nine different national or regional technology trees, there is a dizzying variety of ways to play the game, before bringing in the dozens of unique, "Premium" ships.

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I heartily endorse World of Warships as a game. I cannot endorse Wargaming as a company. I cannot in good conscience encourage anyone to try the game while the developer slides deeper into their greedy and dismissive practices. Do yourself a favor and disregard this game, who's developer has been described by former Wargaming affiliates in the Community Contributor program as 'toxic' and 'akin to an abusive relationship', in favor of another naval warfare game, such as War on the Sea, or the upcoming Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts.

Should Wargaming finally start to live up to their many promises of improving internal communication and listening to feedback from players and CC's, and cease their aggressive employment of gambling mechanics in a game aimed at military veterans, I would be happy to change this to a positive review and give them any praise they may earn in that implementation.

tl;dr: game good, developer bad, don't support the exploitation of veterans, vote with your wallet and play something else.

Battlefleet Gothic: Armada is the Warhammer: 40,000 game I've been asking for for years.
It is beautfully detailed, engrossing, and faithful to the lore of the universe in a way no other game has been, both in broad strokes and small details of the Gothic War.

The campaign is long, with choices you make and battles won or lost affecting the course of the story. Yes, I said 'or lost'; Armada does not force you to replay a mission over and over until you win, guiding you through the story on rails. Any battle can be lost, and can dynamically affect the progression of the story from there on.

The gameplay itself has been described as 'tall ships in space', and that is fairly accurate. Despite the lumbering appearance (and even lumbering movement) of many of the ships, combat is still fast-paced and unforgiving. Most battles you fight will likely be over in ten minutes or less, as ships on both sides are torn apart by a mix of broadsides, torpedoes, bombers, boarding actions, and other, more arcane, weapons. Or even just rammed.

With a minimum of 2 DLC's on the way (as of posting this review, 6/11/2016), this game should definitely have some staying power, and you will reliably get your money out of it. For myself, I find the combination of beloved universe, excellent gameplay, and stunningly detailed graphics to be the perfect mix. I expect this will be one of my favorite games for years to come.

DoWII: Retribution is a great stand-alone expansion for a wonderful game. A Real-Time Strategy game based in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, the races and units are balanced and interesting, especially if you are familiar with the universe and its idiosyncrasies beforehand.

Game-play aspects are refreshing both in campaign and multiplayer, removing the classic system of building a base, and instead focusing on getting you straight into the action right off the bat. In campaign, you start with a small selection of powerful 'Hero' units, with abilities that vary based on your race and what you chose to specialize each unit in. From there, you progress through the mission more like a third-person, multiple unit RPG than an RTS. In multiplayer, you start with a single 'Commander' unit and a unit of basic soldiers, and must vie with other players for resource nodes throughout the map, which automatically produce resources which you can use to deploy more soldiers.

5/5