Recent reviews by [λ] MatGreen [GΞR]

It's a decent game. Expectations were high, maybe too high.
Basically, it's a newer variant of the first two, pretty much copy+paste, but some points are below the quality we've known from the first two (especially the first). Wait for a sale if you're sceptic. But overall, it's fun to play.

Overall I can recommend this game, although, with many, many grains of salt. Let me explain, it's not that simple.

The basics: graphics are good, gameplay is easy and fun, though a bit boring in the long run. It's a AAA title with all the features you'd expect from it, and it's noteworthy that it comes with very few technical issues at this stage. Story is the standard hero's journey (I'll come to that later), and the characters are (with exception of Mirabel Garlick, ofc) all a bit stiff and quite lame. Concerning it's open world, I've seen far, far worse ones, though I'm tired of THIS kind of open world where you run around collecting useless stuff and doing meaningless things. If you like to explore, have a go here, but expect to spend much time outside of Hogwarts. If you want only the Castle and noteworthy other locations, then you'll have to find a compromise with story and gameplay; much time will be somewhere else, and overall it's just... very... uninteresting, concerning the "rewards".

Alright. So, about the grains of salt.
If you are a die-hard fan of the Wizarding World, Harry Potter and all this: be careful. This game breaks a lot of lore, some story-wise, some gameplay-wise. I'll just name some examples.
- If you are interested in the classes, they are implemented very poorly imho. You go there, get a short film sequence, do a bit of pressing a button here or there, but that's it. Neither in terms of gameplay or story are they of any importance. You do learn spells from every teacher, you'll learn Wingardium Leviosa from the herbology teacher for example. Quite a mess overall.
- There is both a spell and a potion for invisibility, both are easy to master for a student, it seems. I thought that cloak Harry had was kind of a big deal, but that seems not to be the case.
- You are special: school uniform is not required in the school. You can wear anything you want. And the teachers treat you literally as a bloody chosen one. Gameplay-wise, you get special out-of-class assignments (that make no sense, as above mentioned, you learn things all over the place), and story-wise, e.g., the frickin deputy Headmistress shows you the Room of Requirements.
- the NPCs are all a bit dull, uninteresting and unresponsive. Affects both story and gameplay. And of course they are diverse. Of course the keeper of the Three broomsticks is transgender, the Professor for herbology is a lesbian, your school friend migrated from Africa and so on... In the 19th century. Alright, the Wizarding World is way more progressive than we Muggles are, who would've thought?
- Last point: the open world. I'm sick and tired, really, of games that "offer" me 50 different "challenges" or "quests" or whatever, where I have to do something over and over again to "unlock" or gain something. Really. E. g. you expand your inventory by completing Merlin's trials, where you travel through the world and do simple puzzles.
And this last point did it for me. I'm not that big of a fan of HP. And still, the game is nice (with all it's flaws), but if you do care for either good game design or the HP universe, then this game can and will disappoint you. Like, the whole world, Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, the Forbidden Forest, they all get kind of degraded to locations that offer you dozens of different, small, uninteresting tasks to do. Of course you can cast a special vision to highlight these things. Of course the school is littered with these things. Find 6 gobstones. Find 15 House tokens. Collect uncounted codex-sites. Collect 11 Demiguise Moons (And that's just the school, out in the world is even more of that ♥♥♥♥)...

Overall. The game looks very nice. The gameplay is quite fun (for a certain time). And it's really cool to be able to explore Hogwarts. BUT in no way is this the kind of "Hogwarts-experience" you'd expect from reading the books or watching the films. You are not playing a Hogwarts student. You are playing the chosen one on his/her journey to save a progressive world by collecting dozens of things and smashing buttons.

HOLD ON FOR A MINUTE!

Somewhat 20 years ago, I played this game for dozens of hours. It's awesome, even after that long time. The graphics are nice, even for today's standards, if you take into account how old it is, but it looks... good this way. No, really, that shouldn't concern you.

The story, well, if you know the legends and ballads, then you know what this is about. And in the end, everyone knows who Robin Hood was (or at least, what people told over centuries).

The gameplay is very static, but features some nice elements that seem to have got lost in game development over the years. You can actually fight with the cursor (attack from left or right, defend, beware of friends nearby...). Could've been more different maps, but hey, it's ok.

So overall, it's a nice game, even after all those years, BUT!

DO! NOT! BUY! IT! ON! STEAM!

Get it on GOG or anywhere else, but the Steam-Version is buggy beyond repair. Tried it, failed. Maybe it's possible, but I bought it again on GOG for a few bucks.

Don't get it here, get it somewhere else.

===[Audience]===

[] Kids
[X] Everyone
[X] Casual players
[] Pro players

===[Graphics]===

[] Potato
[] Really bad
[] Bad
[] Ok
[X] Good
[] Beautiful
[] Masterpiece

===[Price/quality]===

[X] Full price
[X] Wait for sale
[] Average
[] Refund it if you can
[] Don't do it

===[Requirments]===

[] 90' PC
[] Minimum
[] Medium
[X] Fast
[] High end
[] NASA computer

===[Difficult]===
[] You just need 2 arms
[] Ez
[] Normal
[X] Easy to learn / Hard to master
[] Hard (first few hours)
[] Dark Souls

===[Game time/length]===

[] Really short ( 0 - 2 hours)
[] Short ( 2 - 8 hours)
[] Few hours ( 8 - 12 hours)
[X] Long ( 12+ hours)
[] Endless

===[Story] ===

[] It doesn't have
[X] Still better than Minecraft
[] Average
[] Good
[] Fantastic

===[Bugs]===

[] Game itself is one big BUG
[] Bugs destroying the game
[] Lot of bugs
[X] Few Bugs
[] You can use them for speedrun
[] Nothing

===[Others]===
Multiplayer: yes
Singleplayer: Yes

===[Overall]===

18/20

If you've played at least one Total War game, you already know nearly everything you need to know. If you liked it, it's a safe buy, if not, then keep away.
That being said: at this point, it's pretty decent for a game that's out since two days. We've seen way worse games when it comes to both performance and content and I strongly expect both to get even better with time.

===[Audience]===

[X] Kids
[X] Everyone
[X] Casual players
[] Pro players

===[Graphics]===

[] Potato
[] Really bad
[] Bad
[X] Ok (bad for today's standards, but that static isometric view combined with the graphics is rather nice)
[] Good
[] Beautiful
[] Masterpiece

===[Price/quality]===

[X] Full price
[] Wait for sale
[] Average
[] Refund it if you can
[] Don't do it

===[Requirments]===

[X] 90' PC
[] Minimum
[] Medium
[] Fast
[] High end
[] NASA computer

===[Difficult]===
[] You just need 2 arms
[] Ez
[] Normal
[X] Easy to learn / Hard to master
[] Hard (first few hours)
[] Dark Souls

===[Game time/length]===

[] Really short ( 0 - 2 hours)
[] Short ( 2 - 8 hours)
[] Few hours ( 8 - 12 hours)
[] Long ( 12+ hours)
[X] Endless

===[Story] ===

[] It doesn't have
[X] Still better than Minecraft
[] Average
[] Good
[] Fantastic

===[Bugs]===

[] Game itself is one big BUG
[] Bugs destroying the game
[] Lot of bugs
[X] Few Bugs
[] You can use them for speedrun
[] Nothing

===[Others]===
Multiplayer: yes
Singleplayer: Yes

===[Overall]===

18/20

===[Audience]===

[X] Kids
[X] Everyone
[X] Casual players
[] Pro players

===[Graphics]===

[] Potato
[] Really bad
[] Bad
[] Ok
[] Good
[X] Beautiful
[] Masterpiece

===[Price/quality]===

[X] Full price
[] Wait for sale
[] Average
[] Refund it if you can
[] Don't do it

===[Requirments]===

[] 90' PC
[] Minimum
[X] Medium
[] Fast
[] High end
[] NASA computer

===[Difficult]===
[] You just need 2 arms
[] Ez
[X] Normal
[] Easy to learn / Hard to master
[] Hard (first few hours)
[] Dark Souls

===[Game time/length]===

[] Really short ( 0 - 2 hours)
[] Short ( 2 - 8 hours)
[] Few hours ( 8 - 12 hours)
[X] Long ( 12+ hours)
[] Endless

===[Story] ===

[] It doesn't have
[] Still better than Minecraft
[] Average
[X] Good
[] Fantastic

===[Bugs]===

[] Game itself is one big BUG
[] Bugs destroying the game
[] Lot of bugs
[] Few Bugs
[] You can use them for speedrun
[X] Nothing

===[Others]===
Multiplayer: No
Singleplayer: Yes

===[Overall]===

17/20

This game is pretty much like Divinity 2, just with an authentic historic setting and without that elements-mechanic. If you liked Divinity and XCOM, then you'll like this one too.
The ancient background is nice. Yes, it's not realistic: you'll see women fighting (they even included the conflict concerning the role of women in ancient societies into some companion backgrounds, which is nicely done). The devs used history as a good template for everything: ingame classes are named after republican roman soldier types, weapons and armor got their latin name etc. The story is interesting, even a bit thrilling at some points, but it's not revolutionary.
I haven't seen a single bug to this point, which is also quite convenient. If you hated that situation in XCOM where your character would miss a target though he should have hit AND STANDS IN FRONT OF THE TARGET! then let me assure you: it's not a problem here. Attacks can glance off, but yeah, it's not that bad.
So overall the game offers quite a lot. But there are three downsides as well:
I'm german, and I've stumbled on many wrong translations in the text, at one point even the voice actor adopted such a mistake. Furthermore, you'll get flooded with items. So, nearly every item has a quality grading, but also improved versions. I. e. there's a "normal" gladius I, but also a "good" one. And a "normal" gladius II, and so on. You'll find many items both on the world and the ingame map. Every item can be scrapped for materials, and you can craft new ones. Each crafted weapon's stats varies a bit. So, to get the best stats, you'll have to craft multiple ones and each crafting process takes some ingame time that has bo be waited out on the world map. But the thing is: you can only craft IN your camp, and getting in and out requires loading time as well. At some point, it get's too much, a bit like in Mass Effect I. (Also, you'll have to press a certain button to highlight lootable things on both the level and the world map, otherwhise you'll easily miss things)
And the third downgrade: the gameplay on the world map gets very repetitive with time. It's not bad, but it doesn't matter if you fight Gauls or Greeks.

Overall: get this game, if you like historic settings and turn-based strategy games. It's really worth the money.

Was a bit worried before the buy.
Was a bit confused the first hours as well.
The graphics are... well, they exist. That's all. Not good, not bad, they are just there.
The gameplay isn't bad as well, of course it could be better.
I had just one freeze up to now, and as far as I can tell, no other bugs or glitches.
But anyway, I think Firefly has still some work to do here. But I guess if you liked the first Stronghold games and if you are furthermore an optimistic person, then you can get it with good conscience.
Everyone else: wait a bit.
But again: this is NOT a bad game. It's not perfect, neither. (Of course not, it's a recent Stronghold)

For just 20 bucks you receive the quite best equivalent of a joke I've ever seen!

Including:

- after logging in, waiting 3 (!) hours in a queue for no particular reason because restarting the process randomized the waiting time

- after passing the queue, endless (literally endless) loading screens. Had to restart. And guess what: next queue! Oh, boy!

- several crashes while in character creation, including crashes to the main menu as well as crashes to desktop. Who doesn't love a decent amount of funny surprises?

- got asked which country I'm from - not once, not two, but three times IN A ROW! It's fancy being such a person of interest!

Honestly: DON'T GO FOR IT! It's a trap! You'll waste time AND money!

I've played this game as a kid and really liked it back then.
PROS:
- atmospheric comic graphic
- funny heroes
- story is at least not bad (which is good in this relation)
- nice combat system, fits into the game overall
- you can create your own heroes

CONS:
- you really have to like superhero comics
- it is already a bit old and rusty (obviously)
- I think there are some possible crashes and compatibility issues

It i very hard to rate Jurassic World: Evolution.
The game is not as deep as other games from this genre, so if you want to play a complex and difficult park builder, this is NOT what you are looking for, moreover not for 50 bucks.

BUT if you've enjoyed Jurassic Park in any way, if you like dinosaurs and want to play a game with this setting, it's worth it.
The graphics are very nice. It runs smooth and steady, never had bugs, crashes or any other unpleasent happenings.

Because the gameplay is not that deep, it's really easy to learn. No big deal. Don't want to spend 6 hours getting into the mechanics? You won't have to.

Well, you can breed your own dinosaurs! The compounds are build free hand, and every animal can be bred with different traits (colors, attack / defense stats, lifespan etc.) It was amazing to see my first Triceratops coming out of the lab!
It's possible to pilot the ranger jeeps and ACU helicopters around, which is really nice. (I don't know if that's standard for these kind of game)

JWE is really nice if you want to relax a bit with your own Jurassic Park, your own dinosaurs.
I usually don't play games like this, so maybe I am the wrong person to review it, but I came here because I already liked the first book and then the film. If you are like me, then this title may be something you can have fun with.