Recent reviews by Zem

What a fantastically fun little game. The interface is clean and comfortable, and the game mechanic is simple but always leaves you wanting to improve on your performance.

There is a ton of content here, and plenty to keep you busy for quite a long time. There is no set path to passing a level, and the levels themselves unfold differently every time that you play them. It truly is a polished gem that more than delivers considering it's price. This is a challenging yet soothing game that you can lose yourself in for a few hours at a time.

Highly recommended.

I agree with everything stated by Olivine (currently the most helpful review). I am a HUGE fan of the original games. Stronghold was a masterpiece, and Stronghold 2 improved on that game. The player-made scenarios and maps were fantastic for Stronghold 2 (and still are!).

Stronghold 3 was a regretted pre-order. It launched buggy and limited, missing both the charm and the scale of the originals. The maps felt tiny and compressed, and the campaign didn't grab me the way that the first two games had. I STILL have and play Stronghold 2 and Legends, but this was disappointing.

I would love to see another grand Castle management sim in the future like Stronghold 2. Stronghold 3 is just not that game.

This game is amazing and very playable even in its Alpha build. The scope and breadth of this sandbox is impressive. That's the short review.

Pros:

• There is seemingly no limit to creativity and imagination when it comes to constructing real, functioning, capable vehicles of war in this world.
  
• There is no clear path to victory. If you want to conquer the world using only balloon airships equipped with lasers, you can. Subs? Surface fleets? Fortresses? No problem. Replayability is fantastic as a result.
  
• There are truly capable and complex engineering frameworks in place that allow you to make spectacular vehicles with discrete propulsion, offensive, and defensive systems.
  
• The graphics are playful and cell-shaded, which I usually detest. However in this case it works.
  
• The developer is active and working hard.

Cons:

• Controls. This is not so much a con as a warning. The controls are GREAT for this game...once you learn them. They are not intuitive, but they are also no difficult to learn. If you want a more simpler "Minecraft" style of control, that is available as well. However I urge you to take an hour to become comfortable with the default control scheme, as it works exceedingly well once you grasp it.
  
• It's an Alpha. That means there are broken or disabled parts of the game, balance issues, and plenty of opportunities for optimization. However none of these are game breaking (IMO) at the moment.
  
• There is a LOT to learn. Seriously, you can spend a whole day just learning how to design cannons. Or lasers. Or engines. The cool part about this is that you will find that there are many many ways to engineer any of these, and you can have a lot of fun experimenting. But if you want a casual game where you won't find yourself looking up a tutorial on YouTube for how to contruct a laser-powered missile defense, this is not the game for you.

I am truly obsessed with this game at the moment. Between this and 7 Days to Die, my crafting and survival urges are well cared for. I recommend this game to anyone who is interested in engineering or building your own contraptions. There is a learning curve, but it is a fun hill to climb.

The simple: 7 Days to Die has come a very long way and is now a very fun and deeply engaging game with massive replay value (IF you like survival building games)

The more in-depth: I now have over 100 hours in the game, and I am loving it. The updated graphics removed all of the minecraft-esque feeling and now it feels like a real world. The lighting effects are gorgeous, and the ambient sounds and music are creepy.

But the gameplay is where this game really shines. The world feels alive and real. I was a huge fan of the DayZ Epoch crafting system, but I was alwasy frustrated at the number of buildings that were non-enterable. It killed some of the immersion for me, EVERY building is open to be explored and looted, and while some of the building layouts are formulaic, the overall feel is of a post-apocalyptic world that was once truly alive. EVERYTHING is destructable, and everything that you loot can be crafted into something else. You have a truly open world in which you can explore and attempt to survive.

There is multiplayer, PvP and PvE, and a TONS of developer support. You can craft weapons, armor, clothing, food, and building materials. There are plenty of options so you can customize your own personal world. There are multiple biomes and regions, each with very different resources and ambiance. There are randomly generated caves and mine systems. There is a deep structural integrity system that goes way beyond just different strengths for different materials, and instead also emcompasses how high and how far you can stack and build out unsupported blocks of each material. And all of this is available inside a custom crafted world to explore. And if you tire of the main world? Then there is a random seed generation option that creates an entirely random and custom coherent world so each playthrough can be different from the last.

Basically, if you like building, crafting and surviving, this game is a ton of fun. I have mainly played singleplayer because my life doesnt give me a lot of time for multiplayer these days, but the game has a ton of potential. Be aware that if you look up videos of the game from even 6 months ago, it looks very different now. The devs are constantly adding new features and the game is easily worth the price at this time. Recommended.

One of those games that has pulled me back a few times. To this day the graphics are stunning. I won't lie...it is not easy. There are some parts I did over and over again, trying to get it right. The core free-running mechanics are solid, and the environment is immersive as hell. Definitely a fun game if you like to really let yourself be taken away by a tense moment in a game world. Worth the sale price. SUGGESTION: Don't come to this party packing a 9800GT or some other vid card from the Bush Administration. This game needs power. Also check the forums if you can't get the Physx effects working. You sometimes have to install an older version of Physx if I remember correctly.

To this day this game is still delightfully awesome. The depth of gameplay and template design is truly impressive, and the loot tables are massive. Not only that, but the loot tables actually change and improve on each playthrough, so that by the third playthrough, you are getting access to even more powerful and rare equipment. There are also new and extra bosses in later playthroughs. Basically this is a fantastic game at any price. *WARNING: Only buy the GOLD VERSION on Steam. You want Titan Quest Immortal Throne. You will never play vanilla TQ, as TQIT is basically just a patched and improved and greatly expanded version of the original game.

Oblivion is easily in the top five games for me in terms of TIME INVESTED. I have played and modded the hell out of it over countless avatars and playthroughs. Morrowind had the best gameplay, Skyrim was the prettiest and most immersive, but the WORLD of Oblivion is still my favorite hands down. Where Skyrim feels detached and lacking life (especially in it's city design, Oblivion's Cyrodiil felt lush and alive and worth fighting for. If you enjoy Bethesda RPGs (Fallout 3/NV, Skyrim, etc), I suggest you pick this title up and apply some of the mild graphical improvement mods out there. Cyrodiil is the world I most love in the Elder Scrolls universe, even if Skyrim is a more polished and entertaining title.

This is one of my all-time favorite strategy games. I simply love it. Galactic Civilizations II is a fantastic turn-based strategy game with a massive mod database and a really cool shipbuilding aspect. I bought the retail version. Then the disc broke, and I bought it again later from Stardock's Impulse service. And then again on Steam simply because I felt the devs deserved it (and Impulse was sold off). That 92 rating is no lie. Highly recommended.

A beautiful game. It is thick with atmosphere and adventure, and totally engrossing. The learning curve is nice and gentle, and the world they have created with only the contrast of black on white is simply stunning. I found it easily worth the full purchase price.

I literally purchased this within 20 seconds of the Steam announcement on Facebook that they were offering it. Let's not mince words: This game is old. It is also one of those gaming experiences I will remember for the rest of my life. Once of those truly amazing games that was light years ahead of its time. I loved this game, and some of the sister games from that era like Flashback. If you are a fan of scrollers, I think you will enjoy this. I know I will. if you are uncertain, wait for a sale. For me the nostalgia was too great to pass up.