Recent reviews by Gac

Not the most revolutionary sequel, but it's more Dragon's Dogma if that's what you're looking for.

Yes.

A sensible middle ground in complexity between Path of Exile and Diablo

Cool game with excellent sound design and art style. Very challenging. As a strategy game, it's more like a puzzle and less like a sandbox. Story has some twists, which I also appreciate. Definitely worth purchasing for a single playthrough.

This game has come a long way since it originally released. It's not at all among my most-played games in my Steam library, but it's definitely one of the best indie purchases I've made on this platform.

Expect something more akin to the randomness of RimWorld than a strategy sim like XCOM. Be expected to lose sometimes despite doing everything right. Some people may find that frustrating, which is perfectly understandable, but it just requires you to play the game differently: more cautiously, and always with an exit plan. Acts of triage and knowing when to dip on a contract -- not perfecting planned-out tactics to every encounter -- are what define the experience here.

You can cast a spell called death lightning

d e a t h l i g h t n i n g

When I first played Morrowind in the early 2000s, I dreamed of the idea of being able to play a similarly styled game with the company of my friends. This is that game.

And without the cliff racers.

This game has kept me sane during the days of COVID self-isolation.

It's ArcheAge over desert with Mount and Blade combat and grappling hooks.

Yes.

It's a fun game, but don't expect something to the level of XCOM. It's full of neat ideas, but not all of them work out in the end. For starters, the idea of positional overwatch is interesting, but it really only ends up slowing down gameplay to a crawl when setting up your ambushes.

The stealth mechanics were also initially quite interesting, but enemies have so little situational awareness to the point where it becomes way too easy to sneak up on people, especially once you start unlocking additional perks later on. I found not using disguises helped make things harder, but it doesn't feel great to intentionally gimp yourself because the game is so poorly balanced for challenge. To compensate, I began starting missions by just skipping the stealth entirely and opening fire on the first guard I saw. I found missions a bit more enjoyable taking that route.

On the subject of combat: They removed most of the RNG XCOM-likes are known for, but it ends up just making fights feel way too predictable. Flashbangs + sniper/pistol headshots eliminate pretty much any target in one turn. The lack of destruction physics also makes full cover way too strong. Anyone with decent experience playing XCOM-likes will walk through this game even on the highest difficulty.

The only reason I'm honestly recommending this game is its geoscape. Its base management features absolutely exceed most XCOM-likes, and it's easily the most interesting area of the game. I don't mean that in a bad way, either; the missions can feel like a chore, but the geoscape/base management is absolutely top tier.