Recent reviews by RUNAWAY

An outstanding addition to the story we have so far. The tale might not be as heartwrenching, but the story is still gripping and builds up on the story of our researchers. Looking forward to the next.

Fix your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ game Square.

After a decade plus in development, still faster to come out than HL3.

Worth the wait.

Atrociously long load times for online - even on an SSD and 3900X with 32GB of RAM. While I could tolerate the piss-poor relative optimization, the fact that it forces you to run the Rockstar Game Launcher now is absolutely unacceptable. It is a garbage piece of software that I do not trust at all - this is more than likely the last Rockstar purchase I will ever make. Other sources provide the game without the hassle of the official launcher.

Probably one of the best competitive shooters on the market right now.

If you grew up playing Harvest Moon, you'd love Stardew Valley. Simple, clean farming game with lovely characters and a charming artstyle, it's sure to suck up a ton of your time.

2019 - Still rad

Finding Paradise is the follow up to To the Moon, continuing the story of Dr Neil Watts and Dr Eva Rosaline as they go in to people's minds to grant their final wishes. It is as beautiful as its predecessor, and will move you as much as the first game did.

I firmly believe everyone should play To the Moon, and afterwards, most definitely play Finding Paradise. It's been years of waiting, but it has been worth it.

A Hat in Time is a solid, charming, and fun little gem of a game.

I backed this game when its Kickstarter launched, and the moment they had the Alpha up I knew it would be good - it definitely needed time in the kettle then, and now, three years after the Kickstarter, it's finally out. Definitely worth the three year wait.

The game plays solidly - it's a 3D collect-a-thon platformer in the same vein as Banjo Kazooie (which I've never played) and games like the old Spyro trilogy (which I've played a ton of.) It certainly plays smoothly, even on a mouse and keyboard. There were a few spots where I struggled to get timing right, mainly with stuff involving the Dweller's Mask, but overall nothing would really frustrate you for bad handling.

Graphically, the game is a beauty. The characters are absolutely charming, and the environments are lush and beautiful. The game even gets a lil creepy at certain parts, and works it out really well! The levels are varied and carry a unique feel to each one.

The music and sound design is fantastic - the voice acting is great, although I'm pretty sure they ripped out a certain NPCs voices due to dumb backlash - which is a huge shame, in my opinion. Each level has really great music, with a few getting remixes as well due to the Kickstarter stretch goals. You can also opt to go for garbled dialogue by getting a badge, if you want it to feel more like Kazooie.

Everything about this game is great - really, the only thing that's bad is that it's pretty darned short, so hopefully Gears for Breakfast will find a way to give more content some time!

Absolutely recommend this game if you love platformers or if you loved old platformer games like Spyro and such, it carries a lot of the charm that those older games had in a nice, modern package!

Really good to see this be such a success!

Civilization: Beyond Earth may not break any boundaries, but it is still an enjoyable new addition to Sid Meier's legacy. Certainly nowhere near SMAC - which the devs have been trying to highlight for some time - Beyond Earth changes the formula up enough to make it feel more than just a reskin.

Beyond Earth puts you in control of a set of colonists sent into deep space in order to find a new Earth. At the start of the game, you are given several choices to make regarding your sponsor, space craft, and initial colonists – besides the choice for sponsor, which is like choosing your Civ, every other choice directly affect your early game, which plays a bigger part in this iteration of Civ.

Once your colonists land and set your first city, you are given an explorer unit plus any bonus unit based on your choices at set up. Like Civ, early exploration is key in getting an early advantage; however that is more emphasized in Beyond Earth, with the presence of resource pods and excavation sites. Resource pods are exactly the same as ancient ruins in Civ, giving a random bonus when you pick it up. Excavation/artefact sites are very much like the excavation sites in Brave New World, except that you gain a random bonus from them without losing your explorer, although it would have to go back to one of your cities to gain back an excavation module.

One key area that the game tries to emphasize are the aliens on the planet. Aliens are present from the very moment you make planetfall, and are quite hard to face head-on without upgrades, but become nearly a non-issue after you grab a few upgraded units. These aliens are mainly docile when left alone, but they can turn aggressive if you step too close to a nest, which spawns new aliens. In time, and, depending on your affinity, you can train your own alien troops to fight for you.

Unit progression works differently than in Civ – you have a few base units to work with initially, which improve as your gain levels in your affinity, your moral alignment of sorts which also leads to certain victory conditions depending on which affinity you choose. Once you level up your affinity, certain units get to be upgraded – all units usually receive a combat boost, but you get to choose side-upgrades, such as additional movespeed, bonuses for attacking with friendly units around, bonuses for flanking, and so on – while nowhere as deep and complex as SMAC’s custom unit set up, this gives a twist to the way units work in contrast to Civ V.

Along with unit upgrades working differently, Beyond Earth adds a 4th unit type - orbital units - which occupy their own special layer, the orbital layer. Orbital units have a limited life span, and crash down as salvage as soon as their lifetime ends. Placing them is also tricky, as orbital units cannot have any overlapping areas, thereby forcing you to plan ahead in plopping them down. They accomplish various things, from removing miasma, to generating resources, and bombarding enemy units and cities.

The tech tree has been replaced with a tech web – each major research area has a “leaf” research which costs more to finish, but gives a bunch of benefits. Culture remains present in the game, but gone are social policies – you have three virtues, which give you varying bonuses, along with bonuses for choosing x amount of tier 1, 2, and 3 virtues from each branch.

Graphically, Beyond Earth is not so different from Civ V – the interface feels wholly the same, and, while the units, buildings, and landscape have changed a bit, it is still most certainly running on the same engine as Civ V. Leader screens are a bit of a letdown, as there is no special backdrop to negotiations – just a blur filter passed onto the map while you talk to a leader.

Victory conditions have changed in Beyond Earth – you have to fulfil goals and objectives towards each of the victory conditions, which require you to be on certain affinities. Domination is still present, however, if you wish to go about global conquest. The victory conditions are interesting enough, although some are a bit tedious, particularly the Promised Land condition.

Overall, Beyond Earth changes enough to be interesting, and more than just a reskin of Civ V, although barely. It lacks a certain personality to it, perhaps largely due to the leaders being very bland. If you’ve been looking for a mix-up to Civ V’s formula for a change, this brings that along. A good game that would’ve been better with much more, but is still worth checking out.

Author’s note: Whilst a Kickstarter funder myself, I did not touch the game during its development process – therefore I cannot compare any pre- and post-release changes. This is an early, first impressions review. I shall amend this upon further venturing into the game.

Divinity: Original Sin is Larian Studio’s latest addition to the Divinity series, going back to its roots as a turn-based RPG set in an open world with unlimited possibilities. You control two customizable characters, who arrive on an Island chasing down sorcerers, fighting off orcs, and investigating the reports of undead activity in the area. Quirky and engaging, Larian’s Kickstarter darling is a welcome addition to anyone’s game library.

Original Sin starts you off by letting you customize your two playable characters. You can change their class, appearance, and even their initial stats, if you wish. There are numerous options to choose from, with the classes ranging from fighter to wayfarer, offering varied styles of play, but can probably be grouped into three major roles (coinciding with the three voice pack choices in game): rogue, warrior, and wizard. There are many roles that min-max certain skill sets, while others act as a blend between two major roles. Overall, there is enough variety here to cater to different play styles. Cosmetic customization is also rich, with options to change gender, hair, voice, skin tone, face, and portrait all available.

The game features a very neat art style and visual aesthetic. The world of Original Sin is colourful, vivid, and full of life. The trees sway gently, torches burn brightly, and water flows smoothly – the world feels dynamic and active with every little detail added in. The quality of the game’s graphics is astoundingly good, while also being somewhat efficient – it runs on Ultra by default on my GTX 765M, and I’ve had no issues with it dropping below 30, usually floating at the 40s on FRAPS. The art style is akin to a more realistic Torchlight – colours pop out and everything is somehow cartoonish, but it definitely feels like a believably real representation of its world.

Combat in Original Sin goes about in a turn-based, action point oriented style. It is reminiscent of other classic RPGs such as Fallout 1 and 2. Certain actions cost a certain amount of AP, movement AP cost is dependent on distance (in meters, unsure if you can change this to the empirical format) and certain units are given priority to move first. Various stats affect what weapons and armor you can equip, how certain skills work for your character, hit chance, dodge chance, and inventory space. So far, the combat flows nicely, and is quite enjoyable. One of the more noticeable breaks from the usual AP system is that any unused AP in a turn is carried over, adding more options for your later turns.

A major part of Original Sin is interaction with its various characters, with special focus between the two player characters. Often times, when a decision is to be made, your characters exchange dialog, with each option affecting certain traits of the characters, such as their persuasion, obedience, and altruism.

So far, with roughly two hours in, Original Sin is showing plenty of signs of a good game, and I will definitely invest more time in it to further develop my opinion. It seems like the game is made for coop, with two players controlling one character each. I can see that playing out fairly well, with hilarious results in the inter-character dialog! Overall, I would say that if you were already interested in the game, it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to get it, especially if you have a friend playing it as well.