Recent reviews by Dr. Sedula

Good Game -- But It Needs A Post-Launch Patch (Day One Review)

There's a very appealing, visually-interesting rpg here, but it still needs a patch or two to get rid of noticeable problems, especially a long start-up time (as long as 5 min for the game to start) and long file-load and game-exit times.

Another problem the game currently has is that -- uinless you just happen to see certain loading-screen tooltips at the right time-- certain game rules are not obvious and can lead to frustration.

Case in point: there's an early encounter where your party fights insect swarms. The game does not tell you that insect swarms can only be damaged by area-of-effect attacks, like firebomb or acid flasks, and not weaponry.

Add to this that the swarm bites drain your characters' Strength score with successful attacks, and players can come out of this fight feeling like they've "ruined" their characters, without quite knowing why. The game even calls the statistic drain permanent -- even though it's not. See, so-called "permanent" stat drain can be restored for free, simply by resting the party once for every point which needs restoring.

To hit beginning characters with a foe type this obtuse, when they're barely out of the tutorial risks souring them on the game early -- especially when the game calls significant character danage "permanent", when it's actually no such thing.

So, there's a good game here BUT it needs some technical patching, and it needs to be clearer when educating new players about the nature of the gameplay, post-tutorial.

Wait for the patching, then take a look, unless you're the patient type.

Tacoma is a relatively short game (you'll play it through in about six hours, tops), but it is utterly excellent IF you're the kind of gamer who doesn't mind a purely investigative game every now and again.

There are no lurking xenomorphs here; no gun-toting badguys. You play an AI specialist sent to recover a dormant AI from a damaged near-Earth space station so that the corporate owners can determine what happened. You're told up-front that the crew has already evacuated the station.

While you wait for the sections of the AI to download, you begin to explore the station and to piece together for yourself what might have actually happened, and that's the basic gameplay.

You find "virtual reality" fragment clips of the Tacoma station's crew as you investigate -- corrupted excerpts left unsecured when the AI shut down -- and these provide interactive clues to past events.

You can also examine and handle many of the objects aboard the richly-detailed, entirely immersive environment of Tacoma station itself as you seek to interpret what exactly happened aboard.

The game never explicitly explains the science-fiction setting of Tacoma station in 2088, but through inhabiting and investigating the station, you will get an acute sense of the immersive future world your character now inhabits.

Perhaps best of all, as your investigation progresses, the question becomes not so much "What actually happened here?" as "Which of many possibilities actually happened here?"

The clues you find suggest various possibilities. Will you guess at the correct answer? Very likely, near the end, but only as a number of equally-plausible scenarios competing in your mind as you explore Tacoma station.

An excellent change of pace from what we usually see in science-fiction games.

Absolutely, utterly recommended if this sounds like a style of gameplay which would interest you.

Fun for what it is -- an uprated phone game -- but in no way is it worth $20, in my opinion. I got Warhammer 40000: Deathwatch for around $2 during a Steam sale, and that felt about right. It's a fun little casual thing, but there's not a whole lot there, when all is said and done. Wait for a price you can tolerate, would be my suggestion.

My opinions, anyway.

Probably the best, most compelling single-player fantasy rpg I have played in years. If you're looking for a story-driven game where your choices can help shape what happens, Tyranny is your game.

Is it perfect? No. The pause-and-issue-orders combat style can seem a bit cluttered and clunky at times; the level of inventory management might seem tedious to those not familiar with classic-style rpgs; you and your companions start out relatively weak combatants, and have to grow into power; and I still can't figure out why the default zoom couldn't have moved in even closer than it does.

But, for me, the few flaws in the game do not matter -- they pale in comparison to all the things Tyranny gets right.

This is true story game, one that pulled me in, and refused to let go of my imagination. The choice-and-consequence system is the best I've seen yet -- rather than second-guessing what developers might deem a Good or Evil act, the game keeps choices relative -- and actions have consequences.

Win Favor with one faction and its people through your words and deeds, and you may incur the Wrath of another faction. Or multiple factions.

Your companions may stay with you because they're Loyal, or because they've learned to Fear your power. Both motivations will require something from you.

My only true complaint about Tyranny after 60+ hours of play, is that I wish there were more of it.

The ending seemed somewhat abrupt, after all the moment-to-moment adventuring which brought me there -- the consequences of my final actions and choices were played out through a series of title cards describing and depicting what came next.

I was so engrossed in the game by this point, I would've rather have played through these events for myself, rather than read about them in summary.

But I loved this game. It's companion characters became true personalities in my mind, who will remain in memory, alongside our adventures.

As above, the only thing I was truly left wanting was ... more.

Absolutely recommended for those who might be interested.

(Random Tip: Invest in Lore skill, no matter what you play -- it reflects your knowledge of your world and its customs)

Not without its flaws, as other reviewers have noted, but each new patch brings it closer to perfection.

Even now, I can honestly say that this is the best, most detailed, most engaging, and most truly epic science-fiction space strategy game I've ever played -- and I've played most of them, at one time or another.

Recommended to those who might be interested. Even with flaws, I find Stellaris more intriguing than most of what's out there, for whatever that might be worth.

Not my favorite in the series, but certainly good for a day or two of distraction.

Because it's the 7 Wonders series, how much replay value you get here will depend on how okay you are with replaying the same levels over again.

I liked the mini-games offered on the side, but the bonus power-ups these mini-games rewarded for use in your main game felt a bit too powerful, especially after I'd collected all of them.

In the later, more complicated levels, I felt like I wasn't succeeding so much on my abilty to match tiles before the timer ran down, but because I was using the various power-ups to short-cut my way to victory.

Still, the game is a pleasant distraction if you already enjoy the 7 Wonders series, and you aren't expecting the best game in the series for your money.

One of the major selling points of CK2 -- one of the ongoing reasons for its popularity -- is that it not only works as an intricate historical simulation, it also offers unique "role-playing" opportunities, and emergent storytelling, within that context, which other strategy games simply don't.

In Crusader Kings II, you also get to play out the fantasy of what it might feel like to be an historical ruler trying to shepherd a family dynasty to greatness, in additional to the tactical and strategic aspects of a deep strategy game. On some level, CK2 has always been very character-based, for those who want that.

Conclave effectively kills all the character-driven or determined aspects of the gameplay. The new Council mechanics make it nearly impossible to do anything fun, or interesting (or spontaneous) as a ruler -- your Council members have stopped serving as customized expressions of your style of reign, and have merely become another form of randomized AI challenge or struggle to be overcome. Another "battle".

The randomization of Education takes away the sense of directly shaping your own heirs; of having some influence over what sort of dynastic ruler(s) you hope to play in the future.

Basically, Conclave takes all the personalized elements of playing (the fantasy of) an historical ruler, and renders those elements as simply further randomized strategic challenges. And since the AI in CK2 has always been impressive, but imperfect, those challenges can often feel nonsensical at best, and absurdly frustrating at worst.

For those who enjoy CK2 as a purely strategic/tactical game, in the vein of Europa Universalis IV, these changes won't be a problem -- but for those of us who favored CK2 for its emergent storytelling, and for it's unique fantasy of what it could be like playing as an historical ruler building up a storied dynasty, Conclave minimizes those unique aspects of the game franchise like nothing which has come before.

I expect this is the last Crusader Kings II DLC I will buy, and that doesn't make me angry, it makes me sad. I see a game which offered things other strategy games simply don't becoming more like its standard competitors. The loss of options is regrettable.

I can't recommend you purchase Conclave if the (formerly) character-driven aspects of CK2 appeal to you -- so much of that has been taken away, as of this writing, that it's literally like playing a different game.

Easy to learn, but hard to master, Planetbase is one of the most fun games I've played in quite a while.

It's not perfect -- sometimes your AI colonists (you do not control them diectly) will idle when they should be following orders, for example -- but the good massively outweighs the bad for me with Planetbase. Most of the problems I've found are minor, and could certainly disappear with time and patching.

Even now, though, Planetbase is eminently playable, and far more fun than I expected it to be. Perhaps its greatest design acheivement is that it never slips into that "mid-game dull spot" I remember from games like Sim City, where you've acheived enough in-game that the challenge is gone.

With Planetbase, you're always trying to keep your colonists alive, thriving, and expanding in hostile planetary environments, so you can never completely call your work finished.

I find the game fun and truly compelling, and would recommend Planetbase to anyone who might be interested.

Be sure to play the Tutorial (maybe even a couple of times). As above, the game is simple to learn, but developing solid survival strategies will come with time and play.

Oh, and get yourself a second Medic on base, as soon as you're able. You'll thank me later. :-)

Recommended.

Remember Me is an excellent game with a few noticeable flaws which hold it back. For me, the positives far, far outweigh the negatives, and I thoroughly enjoyed the game as a whole. I hope the rumored sequel comes to pass one day.

Perhaps the games most obvious strength of the game is it's visual design. Not only does the world of near-future France look gorgeous, it also looks _different_ from all the other near-future games out there.

It's a new way to show a near-future world; a way which eschews most of the usual overused visual tropes one sees in movies and games. Even when familiar elements are used, they look different than we're used to seeing. The novelty is both refreshing and admirable.

The voice-acting (at least in the English version) is also impressive. The actress who voices your character, Nilin, is subtle and nuanced in her delivery, and so are most of the rest of the voice cast -- so much so, that the poorer exceptions stand out like a black bear in the Arctic. (a couple of the lesser villains indulge in some truly Shatner-esque scene-chewing, unfortunately).

One of the game's flaws, however, is that you are introduced to this intriguing world, but you are very much playing a character (Nilin) who is following a pre-determined plot path, like a character in a novel.

The design makes you want to roam through, and interact with, this beautiful and detailed Neo Paris, but this is not an open-world game, alas. While the game is not oppressively "on rails", you do feel at times as if you're riding a tour bus through Disneyland, and no one will allow you to get out and ride the rides.

Similarly, the "memory-remixing" ability -- much touted before Remember Me's release -- is effectively just a mini-game where you splice a very few characters' memories to conform to the needs of the story. There is no classic Bioware sense of creating and choosing new plot possibilities; instead, it's a simple guessing game -- order these elements to achieve result X.

This is the recurring main flaw of Remember Me -- game elements promise to be engaging, but turn out to be less than what they might have been.

So it is with the combat, as well. You're told that you can create and customize your own fighting combos using button-presses (called "Pressens" by the game), and you can, but ...

... the fights can be very intense and swarmy in Remember Me. I found, especially in the early game, that I could rarely get out more than a three-hit combo out (your shortest combo template) before some minion poked or jostled me, breaking my combo.

Even with dodging and evasion, I often found the mayhem level high enough that getting off a five-pressen combo was an achievement.

Still, the fighting is reminiscent of the Batman: Arkham games, and can be visceral and thrilling once you get the hang of it.

For those playing on PC (i.e. all of you) I would definitely recommend playing Remember Me with a USB controller hooked to your PC. Unless you're a virtuoso of the mouse and keyboard, the fast-paced battles in Remember Me may prove frustrating that way.

Speaking of frustrating, while you can re-slot your combos at will, I dscovered that if you re-slot during a battle and die, when you re-spawn, your combos will be re-set to what they were before you started the fight. It can be very annoying during tough battles.

Also, some of the fights expect you to intuit how to beat certain enemies. Be prepared to check out Let's Plays on YouTube to get you through your inevitable stuck spots. I never found the game cruelly unfair, but chances are, you will run into at least one combat (or puzzle) which simply leaves you baffled.

These are the kinds of design flaws which keep Remember Me from being all it could have been, but it's still a fresh and engaging experience -- it's more than I ever expected it could be.

If you're interested, definitely give Remember Me a try -- despite its flaws, it's put developer Dontnod on my list of dev houses to watch.

For those who aren't sure what this DLC does -- it adds marked Pressens (i.e. Combo build elements) which add three different combat animations when triggered: a punch type, and two different kick types, as mentioned in the product description.

This isn't an "I Win" DLC; it won't improve your damage,or anything like that, it simply adds a few new combat animations that you can mix in to your fighting combos.

Me? I liked it. Your mileage may vary.