Recent reviews by JIB1418

A great start, but drops the ball in so many areas of balance it turns from a great hook into a slog of a grind by end-game.
Initially, everything feels fairly balanced - send out droves of half-baked skeletons and chuckle to yourself as they throw themselves into the fray pushing through enemy bases and giving you juicy unlocks to make your upcoming zombies even stronger.

Wash, rinse, repeat as you push up in quality of parts until the enemy eventually overwhelms you. Slap together an upgrade or two and fire it up again. Progress comes quickly at first, but when the upgrades between matches push into the 4 and 5 digit gold amounts, that dopamine drip of growth outright crashes.

The problem I have with the game is the end-game experience. Those earlier skeletons you gleefully send to their demise? It fits. It feels right. However, when you're making end-game units that do massive ranged DPS that "fight" by sprinting back and forth over other enemies only to burn a hole in your mana and parts reserves, it's frustrating. If there were a way to control more than a single unit at a time, this might be avoidable with an 'RTS-Lite' experience, but that's not the case here (yet).

Lastly, and I don't know if this is an issue with tweaking code or the RNG was tested to be this bad, but I can't beat the game. The core theme is to rebuild your device for 'the return' - but if I play "normally" I don't push out far enough into the world to *maybe* get another part for it.

I'm at the point now, where if I want to make any kind of progress, I have to use an auto-clicker to summon the cat when it's off cool-down and abuse the fact that enemies don't spawn until my units get close to their bases - stockpiling generated parts from my upgrades and randomly acquired crypts from the cat. Then, after hitting some soft 'critical-mass' I spawn the max number of end-game units I can and pray that RNG drops me another piece of 'The Return' that I can make more story progress.

I can't tell if this game was supposed to be an active game or an idle game, but fails to do either well in any capacity. What was an alluring change of pace compared to a lot of things out there has quickly turned into a chore that I almost regret getting myself sucked into.

I don't know what else I can do to 'beat' the game, when it's completion literally relies on RNG and cheese just to gain an inch of progress.

Also, flat upgrades suck. So much for the "improved blueprints" upgrade when I'm still getting +1 armor and +2 speed. For a game like this, all the upgrades really should be percentages, so even the 'bad' ones are still useful for late-game and late-game units. It's frustrating to dump some 15k gold into getting better blueprints only to unlock a whole lot of useless ones, even when I have all the base upgrades completed.

With a massive balance pass on most every single blueprint drop, adjustments so 'ranged only' critters stop killing themselves, better direct control, and a way to automatically burn parts of lower-tiers, less RNG and more clarity on how to continue the story, this game could really be something magical.

As it stands the game falls off into a weird and boring idle-game territory where I'm pretty sure I'm gonna blow out my mouse with how many hundreds of parts I melt down just to stay mana-flush for creations that matter with an ending that feels out of reach.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTJ4dIpYwcc

Let us not forget the launches of Battlefield 3, 4, One, and V.
Despite a rocky launch, I'm still having fun. There's a lot of patching coming down the pipe, and I'm confident things will be fine sooner than later.

The game was sold to me as a monkey-themed Assassin's Creed with deep RPG and bloodline mechanics, but what I bought was some wild mix of Disgaea, Planet of the Apes, The Giver, and The Handmaid's Tale. Allow me to explain:

Ancestors is a game with a big hook and primary feature of "learning" about the world you're in with repetitive actions that you then pass down as matured abilities through your lineage and ancestors (hence the name). This is fantastic at first, because the natural exploration of the game in and of itself is very rewarding and then filling out all the little bubbles to make your lineage stronger feels very satisfying.

However, it's biggest strength is also it's downfall. Once the honeymoon phase of swinging through trees and making monkey noises wears off (just kidding the monkey noises button somehow never gets old) - you're left with an extremely grindy, clunky, monkey-themed upgrade game that's so sluggish it almost qualifies as a sleep aid.

There appears to be little to no flexibility in this growth tree for things that you are not interested in.
Scouting with your senses? Absolute grind fest. Walking through water? Multiple upgrades, and the only way to complete it is...by walking through water. Sleeping upgrades? You have to sleep. Healing upgrades? You HAVE to GET INJURED and THEN you can gain XP through healing it. You can't gain XP by witnessing things or figuring out things by doing similar things, it's only like-like.
(Final example, there's different trees for both crafting WITH and WITHOUT tools despite there being all of like 10 recipes in the game. You want to level unhanded crafting? Craft about 40 spears, of which a max of 12 can be used at a time between a max-size clan...)

Here's a brief example.
Hour 1-3: Learning the game, naturally progressing through the skill tree and exploring the world. All is well.
Hour 15: "Christ my child didn't randomly get the upgrade I want, better have six more and try again."

At the point I'm at, it's literally been gamified and the way I feel I've been forced to play it would make the devs weep. New generation, have six children, pray to RNJesus, grind a little to fill in the bubbles, repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. I'm not even playing the game anymore, I'm literally waking up, making monkey babies and grinding a tech tree all while in the safety of my oasis because that's all there really "is" to do. If I want to grow my tech tree further I have to venture into the world...and then grind some more.

I'm out of motivational factors outside of my own personal interest in some of the late-game techs are (and I swear to god if I get "Remember one more additional item" as an upgrade again I just might change this review to 'Not Recommended'.)

If you can get this one for cheap - or like I did got in in a bundle - it's worth swinging from a few trees and having a good time for a few hours, but this one lasts the staying power to play for any long period of time or a revisit for nostalgia or fun unless you're REALLY into grindy upgrade games.

This is a recommendation to a -specific- kind of people. I cannot recommend it for casual strategy players, or honestly - really anyone else.

What I expected to be a light management game turned out to be one of the cheesiest, sweatiest, most frustrating experiences I've ever had.

If you look at the forums, a great many people are stuck on some of the earliest levels of the campaign, and if you look at the achievements you'll see that barely anyone has passed even the first stage.

Why?
This isn't a management game, or a strategy game - it's a PUZZLE game.

You heard me, and I'll explain:

In most traditional RTS or Management games with goals, objectives, timers - etc - that's what you're up against. This game is largely no different.
The kicker is that it's more on-rails than a 40 year old power-tripping Dungeon Master.
Make one wrong move against the narrative, 'Rocks fall, everybody dies'.

Personally, I take great giddy joy in 'breaking' my games. StarCraft, as an example, you can skip entire portions of the level or complete it with wild plays like mushing 100 air units against the border of the map and 'sniping' a VIP or objective building.

If you attempt to gamify this game to any real degree, you get called out in a not-worth-doing-on-purpose unique dialogue and then be faced with worse overwhelming odds than Gordon Freeman.

That all out of the way though, Basement offers something special - those 'Aha!' moments where you pick up on a nuanced (or, sometimes, narratively-driven obvious) way to play that specific level. Everything the game holds your hand to teach you almost always goes out the window to some greater degree in order to accomplish said goal.

Here's how you create, and sell drugs to make money! Here's how you spend it!
Oh wait, don't sell drugs or the game instantly ends in defeat!
Don't make too many drugs, or you'll be noticed by the cops and the game instantly ends in defeat!
Don't attack this or that building, NPC faction, or the game instantly ends in defeat!

The rails on this one are super tight, sure, but when it clicks the game really winds down on itself into a wild rollercoaster of micromanagement against that level's -specific- strategy to win.

Reading that, it becomes painfully clear - play the way you HAVE to, and quickly, or you can't win.

The story, narrative, and dialogue aren't anything super noteworthy - but it was fun and unique. A little tongue-in-cheek, and terribly immature in some places, but it stuck to it's theme all the way through. The classic 'mob, gangster, drug dealer, and dirty cop' tropes are bursting at the seams, but it's still chuckle-worthy.

If you enjoy strategy games, management games, AND puzzle games that'll make you sweat, I give it a strong recommendation.

On a final note: I've got over 60 hours in this one, probably well over 40 of it were grinding achievements. Some of them were just bashing my head against it until RNG slipped in my favor (Which buildings the AI choose to randomly attack) - or by playing a very long game of 'hurry up and wait' (Earn a big pile of money, only reasonably done by controlling one building, and just letting the game run on fast forward for a lot longer than I want to admit I did).

If I get around to it, I'll consider creating a complete game and achievement walkthrough so if you get stuck - you can lean on my 100% completion experience to skip some of those more frustrating moments.

A trip down nostalgia lane with a fresh coat of paint over a rotted foundation.
While the QoL improvements - namely in multiplayer (which I haven't yet, and at this rate, probably won't touch) - seem like a fantastic way to bring an old franchise up to speed - it seems everything else under-the-hood was left untouched.

While I applaud keeping the game so literally true to it's roots - that's also part of the problem.

As someone who only struggled at times with the StarCraft II campaign on the hardest difficulties - the game was balanced against you through objectives, unit counts, etc.

The 'Hard' version in C&C simply adjusts numbers so the balance doesn't exist - and you're resorted to cheesing just to get through a majority of the missions.

Clunky pathing, lack of a modern attack-move, units AI (on both sides) responding to what feels like 800 ping (if they respond at all, in certain circumstances) leaves for a beyond frustrating experience.

While I was hopeful for a complete modernization of such a staple of my youth brought into modern times and being able to compete with other heavy hitters like StarCraft and Age of Empires, too many of the game's mechanics fall apart at the base for it to have an enjoyable experience.

While I can recommend this to any veteran of the oldest entries of the series (Pre-RA2) for an impressive visual experience in modern-OS supported HD - I can't recommend this to newcomers.
It feels like if Sony or Samsung released a new VCR. Sure, shiny and new, and probably a ton of amazing bells and whistles - but still the inherent problems with the medium at the time slowing it down from being a worthwhile experience.

If you're here for the remaster, do yourself a favor and play through it on Casual or Normal. Hard is so terribly imbalanced that unless you're into blindfolded Dark Souls level of suffering, you're in for a bad time.

How to close launcher

:Open Beta Review:
No bugs on my end, outisde of the rare visual bug between rounds.
Menus and UI were a little clunky, but managable.
Some -actual- keybindings for the controller would have been helpful.
Controller play is an ABSOLUTE MUST for most classes. Aiming with the mouse is a pain.
Queue times were long, but that was expected given the time of day I played and how little marketing for it I have seen.

:Closing Thoughts:
A great game with a lot of potential. It's fun, fast-paced, and if queue times were shorter I'd probably have continued to play it. A lot of class / profile progression that garners a ton of cosmetics that always keeps things fresh. Despite the complete chaos the game appears to be, it has a surpsing amount of visual clarity when you adjust to it.
My only concern will be the game's pricepoint. If not Free To Play with locked cosmetics, or very cheap out the gate - this game will likely die quickly. Even when you do niche games just right, you have to get it in everyone's hands in order for it to be a success.

Without a doubt, one of the greatest singleplayer survival games I have ever played - and that's all coming from pre-campaign.
This game gives you a real sense of dying in the middle of nowhere but the wolves and snow to keep you company.
Even when I had the routine down, it was still a constant struggle to persevere, and as the world grew ever-colder, it was only a matter of time before I would die.

This game strikes a fine balance between comfy, and nerve-wracking. Spent an evening indoors, warm, fed, hydrated, healthy. Ventured out to explore and gather more materials to make arrows and fire, only to sprain my ankle fleeing from a pack of wolves. The limp slowed me enough to have them tearing at my backside by time I got home, and the injuries left me bedridden for days. Supplies thinned, the world froze, and with the last bits of my personal sanity I ventured forth - only to die to a bear that evening.

If you enjoy survival games, namely ones with heavy use of weather and tempature mechanics, this one will be right up your alley.

My *ONLY* gripe, is that I had to make a macro to auto-walk, because on those safer days, it's quite literally a real-time several minute slog in a near straight line back home. (This was awhile ago, I'm curious if the devs have updated this.)
Think "Sunless Sea", but in a frozen wasteland and in first person.

You can't see the over 1,000 hours I've put into this gem from before it was on Steam - but if you like colony management games, this one is a MUST play.

Not unlike Dwarf Fortress, with each major update the game is so alive with new features and content it warrants another dozen hours of watching everything spiral out of control.

Inbetween regular updates and content, and massive mod / community support, this game will have legs for a long time coming.