Recent reviews by Kronous

Brickrigs Review

I have spent a lot of time playing Brickrigs, it’s that one toy with bricks but in a video game form and with some pretty wicked physics added into the mix.
Development on this one is slow, as it's developed by a single guy, and to be honest it's been around a year since the last update, which makes it hard to recommend this title to other people.
So I have to ask myself, do I think the current price is worth the content currently included, and the answer is Yes.
At current the price is 14.99USD which for what's included in this game is I think justifiable.

What’s included?:
Currently there are several maps, from the city to the desert highlands, all the way out to space.

There are three game modes, Racing, which is available on a few of the maps. Zombie Survival which is pretty bare bones but can be enjoyable with a few friends. And finally Sandbox which is the real MVP of this game, you can pretty much build any type of vehicle and then have fun with it.

Pros__
You can build tons of vehicles and even non vehicles.
Advanced Physics, you can deflate tires to add more grip, weight affects your creations.
Really active community, the discord has new competitions every week.
The workshop has tons of content.
Has a wicked title screen.

Cons__
Slow development cycle. The developer is making the game alone which is hard for anyone but there are long periods of time with no updates.
The GUI is kinda jank and unless you are a masochist it could use some work.
Game is in Early Access. You know what that means, Purchase at your own peril.

Again, would I recommend Brick Rigs? Absolutely. And for $14.99 USD its honestly a bargain.

American Truck Simulator is the quintessential truck simulator, Sure there is ETS2 as well, but honestly the variation in vehicles and terrain are in my opinion better in ATS.

If you don’t like driving, this game is not for you, and honestly it can be quite a grind to unlock all the truck variations and parts.


The game has a perk system, as you gain levels you can add points to skills which actually make earning money easier.

Pros__
Huge Modding Potential, This game has thousands of mods, from skins to trucks not normally available in the game you can enhance your experience in pretty much any way you want.

Decent monetization, They change for land expansions (Around 11$ per state added) which is reasonable considering development costs for each new map. Trucks to this point have all been released for free.

Technology, The game engine is tried and true and is a modified version of the engine SCS has been using for a long time, this variant has pretty good graphics, i mean it’s not the most beautiful game ever but they have made a lot of strides in the technology behind the engine including added FMOD audio which makes a huge difference in audio fidelity.

Community, They hold events in the game, both seasonal and world events, like the Big Sur mudslide.

Cons__
This game is a time sync, Even though the map is scaled, it can still take the better part of an hour to get from point A to point B and currently only the western most states are included.

Instability, This game is fickle, but that’s really only when you start adding mods, if you play it unmodded it's perfectly fine, but who plays without mods?

All in all I really enjoy this game, now that likely has to do with my profession but I love trucks and this is the perfect platform to be able to experience any trucks you can imagine.
I suggest this game, if you enjoy driving simulations ATS is as good as any and better than most.

This game is not perfect, there are some really silly bugs including ragdolls sinking into the ground, death screens not populating and having to restart the game to fix, and more. That said the story is in my opinion really well done, I was captivated the whole time, A mixture of Vampire lore and Science Fiction. I wholly enjoyed this game and would love a sequel.

Interesting Elements:
Dark Souls style combat where stamina is key and dodging is required.
Light RPG elements, You level up by "sleeping" and spending blood points.
Open World where the choices you make actually matter, the path you choose has long term effects on the game world.
You are a doctor, you are expected to actually heal patients through out 1918 pandemic ridden London.

8/10 would play again.

Garry's mod is a sandbox, you can build pretty much anything. The game it's self is fairly small but if you plan to build you will need to either install other source games or install the games dedicated server files to have access to that games content (Props and Materials) for building. Over all i quite like Gmod, and with the addition of x64 mode it runs much more stable for high stress game modes. Let's be honest, no one doesn't have gmod so this sales pitch is really mute...

So I booted up the game and got about 10 minutes into it and had to leave. When I got home it took me a few days to get back to the game, I started over and at first I didn't think the game was for me, but I was wrong.
This game is frankly fantastic, it tunes Skyrim into a game that feels familiar and yet completely new. If you like the Elder Scrolls series, or fantasy games then you will surely like Enderal.

Give it a chance.

Some Pros and Some cons:
Pros:
Mod support / Active modding community
Rich visuals
Good modifications to the combat and magic systems.
Rich story and quests
Tons of differing locations

Cons:
Occasional crashes.
Quest characters freezing and unable to be interacted with for a few seconds.

Note:
I am using some modifications and while they likely do not contribute to the Pros, they very possibly could cause the game to become unstable.

Final Thoughts:
Enderal is a game I would have gladly paid for, It has more content then many Triple A titles that are released in this day and age and it is a real pleasure to play.

This Game has the second highest learning curve of any game i have ever played, Surpassed only by eve.
It provides many tutorials before you start a game, and Documentation while in the build mode to help you understand what you are doing, Still its difficult to get right the first time.
Once you create your first ship and destroy your first enemy it is the sweetest feeling in the world though, Knowing you had to put that much effort into getting your ship right.
This game is advanced, but not un User Friendly.

So let me start off by saying this is one of the most impressive games I have played in a long time.
From it's Terrain deformation, to it's beautiful graphics engine, right down to the vehicles themselves this game was masterfully designed in my opinion.
Which makes this review that much more difficult to write.
If the game was a travesty then it would be easy enough to just click the don't recommend button, but the game is even in its "unfinished" state very playable and very enjoyable.
The game released a little while back, it went from a beta to Full Release status which at the time felt pretty rushed but with promises of continued updates making that look a little bit more palatable, Unfortunately updates have stopped coming.
As of the time of writing this it’s been around 2 months since the last official announcement from the developer team, and a month before that.
The community outlook for this game is pretty grim as well if you would like some examples of what the hub of a “dead game” looks like 3 good examples come to mind, Minerwars, Starforge and Spintires.

The T.L.D.R of this review is, the game seems to have gotten stale as the developers have went from infrequent updates to just not releasing updates. I DO NOT recommend this game.

Early Alpha howevere its still pretty fun to build ships and crash them.


**EDIT**
Nov, 2016

Three years later and building ships is just as fun, crashing them can be game stopping though. The game has had some great additions added and workshop makes it a treat almost to the level of a Bethesda game to mod.

The biggest issue I have with this game is that running it is really a problem for my machine, I mean it's a little bit outdated (Nvidia 670, 4xcore @3.8ghz) but the only way I can run this game is on low, Luckily its still a good looking game on low.
The multiplayer is also a little bit iffy, the Net Code leaves a lot of room for improvment which thankfully they are doing right at this very moment.

My sysnopsis then is I WOULD reccomend this game to anyone with a decent computer and if you can get it on sale more power to you.

Single Player but much fun to be had, Up to 300 star galaxies to explore and exploit and hundreds of items and ships to unlock and upgrade.