Recent reviews by Swisspike

OK. I have perhaps 20 reviews of Steam games. More than half are good reviews, and a sprinkling of games that didn't meet up to my expectations.

I won't review a game until I have played it enough to learn it. It doesn't do YOU any good if I am making half-assed comments about the game, and I don't understand the mechanics.

OK...let's start with the graphics and polish. Similar to Hearthstone, with bright colors and sharp detail. Sounds are excellent, and the presentation is very good.

But...I don't care about graphics. I still play Master of Magic, and the original X-Com. I am all about the gameplay.

I keep discovering new things about the game. As I blasted past the two hour refund point, I never hesitated. I knew that this game had legs, and was a keeper, and will be a favorite of mine for a very long time.

I don't have anything to fault here. If you win, it is very, VERY satisfying. I have had 25 "runs", and have one just once. It's a roguelike, and the stars have to align for this to happen.

I think that what I enjoy most is the sense of progression. Even if you lose, you gain experience in your main army, and the secondary army you choose. Play enough games, and you unlock levels, and unlocking levels unlocks more cards, better cards, and a better chance to progress deeper in your next game.

There are five armies in the game, with two unlocked at the start. After 15 hours of gameplay, I just unlocked the fifth one..so everything is unlocked.

After my one and only victory, the challenge level increased. I didn't realize it, but I was getting smoked pretty good. In complete honesty, I am not great at strategy games....but I am doing OK here, trying to figure out the synergies and relationships between the cards.

There are MANY variables on each run through. I haven't begun to believe that I have remotely seen the content. Under 10% at this point. This game can be played for hundreds of hours, and still have unique combinations and synergies uncovered.

Each run starts with a base set of cards, and some standard, non-army specific cards using generic units. There are units and spells, and each has their own purchase price. You can increase the cost or their efficacy, or make them stronger at the risk of consuming them - one shot. If you don't use all the cards in your hand, they go into your discard pile, to be recycled.

This really is a terrific gaming system. My grandson was looking over my shoulder as I played earlier today..he's ten, but smart, really smart, like his mom. I think the Bank of Grandpa is going to kick in here....

I cannot recommend this game, under any circumstances. The lock pick system is completely broken, and it is very frustrating. It should NEVER take 28 lock picks to pick a lock with a 28% chance. It should take four, plus or minus. But 28? The fanboi's will tell you that this is normal, and expected. It is not. The game itself is repetitive, and boring, with crappy 2002 graphics. I have given this game a lot of my time, over 90 hours. I thought the crafting would finally work..but no, even that is broken. The idea of having a +1 strength amulet is great..but if you get a plus +1 strength pair of boots, THEY DON'T STACK!!! WTF!!! This is a weird hybrid of DnD and other fantasy rule sets, and they simply don't work well.

I'm going to recommend this game, with a few reservations.

I purchased this a couple of years ago, played it for a bit, then stopped.

Recently, this caught my eye again, and I have played it for several more hours. I am in the process of roffle-stomping the AI, under an easier setting.

Most of the fun in this game is figuring out what works, what works quite well, and what will get you a nice roffle-stomping of the computer.

I believe that I have hit upon one of possibly many ways to crush the AI. Not that the game isn't still fun, but after 80 turns of three hundred, all I have to do now is to hit the end turn button 220 more times.

The secret is that money in this game isn't linear. It doesn't go 1-2-3-4-5-6, it goes 1-2-4-16-64, or a geometric progression. Once you hit that slope rocketing upward, you cannot be stomped. I can purchase new territories every turn, which in turn allows me to purchase new industries, which in turn causes and exponential growth in revenue, which allows me to purchase even MORE territories...and bigger ones at that. I believe that I can own every. single. territory. on the map, under medium difficulty.

I suspect that as I gain competence in this game, having the game settings set on much more difficult would do just that...bend the revenue curve in such a way that it will take longer to roffle-stomp the AI. It even may well be possible, under the very hardest settings, to even make a game of it. I'll try this, next game, under the most brutal settings, and we'll see how it plays out.

Oh...I generally suck at strategy games. If I'm kicking its electronic ass, then you probably will too! This may well be a point in favor of purchasing this game...it's easy to learn, and quite accessible.

Interesting builder game. No orcs to kill, no combat at all, just a nice resource chain that gets increasingly complex.

I haven't completed all the chains yet...but to make a berry cake, these are the actions I had to take:

Fully research to Base Level 4, quite a job in itself. This required chopping wood to make planks, making planks into wheels, starting the stone harvesting, through two levels, unlocking metallurgy, ANOTHER big "school" project, getting the forge up and running, to produce needed metals.

Whew! The actual berry cake takes...grain to flour to cake mix, three different buildings. Berries, collected or grown on a farm (another huge project!), sugar, milk, butter, eggs, pastures, and other facilities, each taking time, and their own level of resources.

It's a lot more complicated than this, trust me! But....you have a limitation of workers, so you have to be efficient. Rather than having five farms, each taking one worker to feed a kitchen with each item needed, better to build a barn, and have all the resources dumped into one place using carts. Continuity of supply, and easier supply planning is a GOOD thing!

In real life, prior to retirement, I was a supply planner for the second largest Coca-Cola facility in the entire Midwest...my facility was fed by over 100 large trucks a day. I had 770,000 cases of product on the floor at one time, and each had an expiration date, requiring rotation, and two months lead time to order from our production facility. It is what I did, with a fair level of success. I get that same vibe from this game. I have yet to master the game, despite 27 hours and counting. I would say that I have produced less than half of all available products at this point...but I am getting better, and faster, at setting up the early game. I don't have as many bottlenecks, and the layouts (random maps! yay!!) are getting more efficient. I have maxed out the population for a tier V base, at over 200 peeps...and to see 200 workers all over the maps is ... remarkable.

If you have ANY interest in builders, or strategy games, or being brain-dead after a four hour session due to intense concentration, then this game is for you.

This is the next big thing. I can see this being bigger than the original DOTA, LoL, OR Fortnite. The gameplay is accessible to an old guy like me...I'm retired, and in my 60's. If I can be competitive, they you can as well.

I have played just ten matches, with my average ranking 4.78. One 2nd, one 3rd, one 4th, three 5ths, two 6's and a seventh.

I'm learning as I go. I would highly recommend the first several matches against the bot, with no clock. Get a feel for the synergies and combo's. Then, still play against the bot, but take off the clock, and when you win 2-3 in a row, play against medium level bot opponents.

Medium level AI opponents give me a tougher match than humans, on average. I expect to see humans get better over time.

Gameplay is engaging, graphics are excellent, and there is a sweet spot between the RNG Gods and your tactical skill. The one match where I came in second, the stars aligned, and I built several powerful units, that almost took me to the finish line.

I have spend almost $100 on the big Steam sale, I have close to 300 games in my account, and have well over a hundred excellent board games in my office...and here I am, playing a free game. Go figure!

This is a must play. YOU be the one to turn your friends onto this one! YOU be ahead of the curve!

I have been watching this game for quite awhile. Finally took the plunge the other day. As of this time, I have about ten hours into the game. It is April 24th. When you read this review, notice how many hours I am adding over time. When you are fully retired, like I am, you have a very large number of hours to play games.

...which means, of course, that I have a choice on what to play. Right now, out of all the 290 Steam games I own, this is the one I choose to play. That says a lot.

First, this is NOT an "early alpha" game. If you would have told me that this was complete, I would have been just fine with it. Rock solid, no crashes, and the feature set, with just one or two exceptions, seems feature complete.

Character generation is good. There is a very large number of attributes that you can increase. Unlike many other game systems, ALL your attributes (rifle, pistol, hacking, etc.) start at "1" and increase with use.

The standard endurance, agility, perception, intelligence, dexterity, and strength values ARE important, and can be manipulated at game start to make your character more effective. Want a two-handed sword specialist? Increase your strength and dexterity stat. Need your tank to be more tanky? Increase your agility and endurance (hit points) stats.

The tactical combat is very X-com'ish, in a good way. Facing, crouching, range, weapon types all affect damage, and you are given a percentage chance to hit prior to attacking.

Armor and loot systems work well. No issues, and there is a very wide variety of loots.

Healing works over time..so very little or no downtime after a battle. You can heal DURING battle, either healing yourself, or having a squadmate do the healing to an adjacent soldier.

All in all, I am finding this game excellent. I haven't touched the flight, or mining, or crafting systems.

This is a deep game, and deserves to be supported. I highly recommend this game for any 4x or RPG fan.

I don't have a ton of playing time for this game, but I believe that I can give a representative review. I am on #92 of the developers video blog on youtube. Yep..I have watched 91 videos, starting from day one, and stretching for two full years.

Each of these videos are 10-20 minutes long. I believe that I have watched close to 20 hours of Cliff Harris' videos, which are quite thorough, and quite detailed.

The man is obsessed with what I would call bug-stomping. Drives him nuts, and keeps him awake. YES, this game is in beta access...which in his mind means features are generally complete, all to do now is balancing, tweaking, and yes, stomping on those bugs.

The game itself is excellent, and very playable. I enjoy complex games, from factorio to Automation, to any number of sims. The more complex, the better.

This game, despite its complexity, plays extremely well..fluid, with decision points that actually make sense.

Research is handled quite well, and in the course of 92 videos, I have seen him change the economic model of the sim many, many times. He will almost certainly make additional modifications over time, as well.

Graphics are good, the animations are excellent, but by far the most important part of this game is the gameplay. It is VERY satisfying to see your concept of a factory come to life. Do you want to build cheap sh*tboxes, you can. Do you want to build a modest number of cars, spend lavishly on research, just to start making luxury sports cars? You can.

The factory that you start with is configurable, as is the level of resources available to you. You can start small, slowly purchasing additional plots of land to expand to, or go big at the start.

A couple of important points. If you design a car, and build the factory, you just cannot hit fast forward and expect to survive. You must research, adapt, and change, all the while making modest adjustments to your pricing, and feature listing for each model you sell.

This is a micro-managers dream. I wouldn't dream of playing this game on any other speed setting other than slow. There is just too much going on.

I see myself planning out new models YEARS in advance...do I want a compact car? An SUV? A pickup? Do I want to research electric motors, to give Tesla a run? Do I research production technology to drive up the rate of production, or do I concentrate on researching ABS technologies, so as to enhance the vehicles I am selling?

Completely open ended. Quite a bit of the gameplay is solving a bottleneck. Engines take "X" to build and install, which is twice as long as the downstream activity, electronics. How to solve this? Double the ability of your factory to make engines, or add more robots to increase the rate of production, or both. Or neither, if the rest of your production line can't be sped up.

In my mind, I am Henry Ford, trying to squeeze every single car per hour out of my line, all the while chopping costs at every opportunity. You want a color for your car? Henry Ford said "You can have any color you want, so long as it is black." I want to mass produce cheap cars, where even a spare tire is extra!

Anyway, if you've read this far, just buy the damn game. It will be installed on my PC forever. TERRIFIC game.

As you can see, I am a gamer. I have 270 or so games.

This game is great. It strikes an excellent balance between complexity, realism, and playability.

There will be 2-6 times each game when you are given direct control over your teams' actions. The active player can dribble, pass, or shoot. It is pausable real time. You can provide direction to 1 to 10 teammates, take actions, and stop again just a split second later to redo, or let it run until you either score, or lose the ball.

This is pretty exciting stuff! The fun when you pull off a very slick pass in traffic to bury the ball in the top corner of the net is just ... exquisite. Nothing like it in any sports game I currently own, and I own a lot.

Team management is also excellent. Poring over players, deciding when and how to upgrade them and your teams' facilities is a mini-game all its own.

The money you generate from sponsorships and ticket sales must be managed wisely. You can splurge, and buy an excellent 'keeper, but you're going to have a lot of nil-nil games. You can upgrade your physio, but if you players suck hard, who really cares if they're hurt?

GREAT game, highly recommended, and you'll thank me for it. Seriously..you'll IM me, and tell me thank you!

This is a very good game..but for a special sort of gamer. I like mining games, and I like slow-paced, methodical games. This game, from start to finish, will take a looong time. At least 60 hours. Mine mine mine mine mine, jump to new system, shot the bad guys, and mine mine mine mine mine mine mine mine mine. Occasionally, rarely, upgrade your ship. I am nowhere near done with the game, and I go back to it every couple of months, play the hell out of it, and shelve it again for a couple of months. Not that this is a bad game, quite the opposite. Just a tad repetitive. Like landscaping, terrific in small doses, with a break in between!

This game is terrible. I thought I had a real gem on my hands, until I played my first game.

After just a couple of weeks, a MASSIVE horde of German planes appeared, and I got crushed. OK, fine, reset my strategy, and micro manage the anti air, and RADAR.

....aaaand cue even larger attacks. I poked around, and found that in this game, the enemy scales up when you play well.

Yep, that's correct. The better you play, the more difficult it becomes to be competitive. I'm not talking about balancing, but about two to ten TIMES your forces.

This is beyond stupid, and makes that game easily THE most hated game in my library. Sure..go look, I have close to 300 steam games.

My son in law has this game, and I played it on his computer, in an attempt to show him how to play. My actual gameplay is higher than shown. Doesn't matter....when I discovered that the better I played, the worse my results were, that did it for me.

Note the 60% or so rating for this game, and utter lack of support by the developers. They need to be ashamed of themselves. Criminally stupid, and I will NEVER purchase a BlackMoon Design game again, ever.