Recent reviews by The Restless Kaiser

The latest offering from Eugen systems very much takes off where Wargame Red Dragon left off. Offering huge improvements on the previous game all wrapped in a highly desireable WW2 setting.

Where this title differs from most is in the scale. It is neither a skirmish, nor a grand strategy. It is a truly operational level game where each player fields what probably amounts to a battalion sized battlegroup during the course of any battle. With such large maps to fight over infantry transport becomes a serious issue and mobility has a real use and aircraft take time to reach target allowing for patrol aircraft time to intercept.

There are a lot of revierws out there for those who want to drill deep - but to mention a few key ones as a development from wargame RD I would say the inclusion of crewed weapon teams, something sadly missing from previous iterations, and the dynamic frontline system.

A fantastic game - 5/5

Tough but satisfying, this game improves on the reboot in almost every way. There are innumerate reviews, lets plays and such out there if you want details and spoilers...

I often think the mark of a successful game is my willingness to play it again after I lose. Well I have done that quite a bit with this one.

Only cautionary note: this game is currently poorly optimised & will straing your rig. I had to play it on lowewst settings with mid-range PC to get it to run smoothly.

All I will say is that if you enjoyed the reboot, you will love this game.

5/5 Worth waiting for

A great little game, and a real gem of 2015. This game offers a great storyline, whith some variation depending on your deity choice at the start.

The game is a resource management and questing turn based stretegy but conflict resolution is with a very intersting card based challenge system. These cards are modified by character types, equipment and stats all which combine to give a huge variety of customisation of your characters.

The game is also quite brutal, many of your characters will die along the way. This is the kind of game where demons sweep down at night and steal all your children and eat them, or your community is crippled by plague, disease, curse, or ... insert your favourite pestilance here...

With a randomly generated map every game is different, and resource placement on that map means wach game is a different challnge.

For fans of the genre there are hundreds of hours of gameplay here without being overly repeptetive. The game could use more quests for sure, but there are plenty enough for a few replays.

4/5 - Loved it.

Only 7 hours into this game and already hooked.

XCOM style move & shoot tactical combat & cover system is at the core of this game. The focus on movement, flanking and cover make this system one of the best ideas form recent turn-based games. The 'scenarios' are each mini-campaigns complete with a world map to explore and several scripted battles.

What you get in Hard West, that you don't really get in a lot of these tactical games is a great story. Hard West is a gripping series of interconnected stories set in a Steampunk wild west with a bit of Lovecraftian horror tossed in for good measure.

Customisation options are there for your characters and have a lot of flavour to them. Perks are obtained by slotting playing cards, each with unique passive and active bonusses. These can be arranged into sets constituted form classic poker hands.

If the game has a drawback, I guess the lack of legacy. I found that once I got invested in a character, they died or the scenarios finished. That said, the changing cast of characters is part of the charm.

Great little game:

5/5

Lovely little game of turn based battles and turn based campaign. No twitchy features at all are a huge boost in this game. What stands out about it is the 'worms-like' firing mechanic. Hitting and missing is about careful judgement of range, which definitely gets easier to judge as you play more.

There are some defnite downsides to this game, the main one being there is only one campaign to play, the pacific. Other things are the ship customisation doesn't seem to remember what you chose last time, though that may be an option somewhere I missed, and finally, that guns are a bit more powerful than perhaps they shoiuld be, and torps a bit weaker.

None of those things detract from the overall effect of a really nice, simple, cheap game, playable in half hour bursts.

Great for the price, 5/5

I really want to likie this game. It has a very high level of economic detail. It is a micro-manager's paradise. The learning curve is sharp, and the game doesn't seem to try very hard to help you. There are a bazillion messages popping up on the screen after every turn, and you just cant read them all. They tell you trivial things, like unit recruitment, but not that your towns are not developing and such.

The real snag is the gameplay. This is such an old school interface that it seriously interferes with gameplay. You are constantly merging and reforming armies... armies that you can't even drag a box around!

Then the fighting... well it certainly captures the charnel house effect of the great war, but what it doesnt do, is readily identify the size of enemy forces roaming around. Some are a unit or two, and others are hundreds... this should be very obvious on the map. As for balance, it seems messy. France is easily defeated in Europe. Conversely, Russia feels conspicuously powerful.

But after a a healthy 40 hours of gameplay I have to conclude it is a bit lacking. Hopefully future patches will address some of these things.

3/5

This game has had quite a bit of bad press on here for being a phone/tablet game ported to PC. This game is what it is, exactly that and no more.

If you remember games like heroquest with fondness and are looking for a boardgame type experience on a PC then this is decent value. There is an in-game shop for things you don't seem to need at all, but would certainly make the game a bit easier. Paying for extra characters might provide some diversity of gameplay for those that want it, but again, you don;t have to pay a penny more to play the game.

I like boardgames, and this is nice, simple, computer version of that. Like I said, it is what it is

3/5

For those of us Britons that yearn for our Saxon Ancestry this game offers a much more promising start date than the default. Fight of the invaders and don't pay the Danelaw!

5/5

Really pleased with how this game played out. For those who findly remember old skool RPGs with action points for combat then this is definitely the game for you.

I especially enjoyed a return to party based features, moving away from the console style RPG 'I am a megaman' who can do everything amazingly well. Having each member bringing unique skills to the team because of the punitive skill system is a blessing.

My only real concern is the game still has some very old playstle faults. A party wandering in a blob that takes massive damage from grenades and AoE unless you know combat is coming. Especially in fights that start with dialogue. Similarly the skill system means you really need to pick 3, or 4 skills max per character or they quickly become worthless.

Overall though, thoroughly well put together game that I have really enjoyed. Many hours in and far from complete. Best game I have bought in months.

5/5

As a veteran of games like the Hearts of Iron series I am no stranger to complex strategy games. Indeed looking at the vidoes of this game I thouogbt I was going to love it. Boy was I wrong.

The game is bewilderingly complex with little or no help to overcome this. The tutorial was pointless at explaining anything, only highlighting my confusion. There are just too many things to do in too much detail that might or might not matter very much. Where should I put this oil well? Well there are glowing lines on the map which presumably matter... and there is some sort of produciton chain but I was unclear on if that had any geographical significance. BUT

That all becomes trivial when I engaged, or should I say 'watched', my first battle. Troops literally wander around all over the place...

I am sure this game is amazing once you get into it, or if you have played their games before. As a newcomer and hard core strategy games veteran I honestly couldn't be bothered...

1/5