Recent reviews by Spartan322

Seemed interesting, had good reviews, honestly, I am utterly disappointed. I'm fine with dramatic VNs, I've played my fair share, I've played through Clannad and After Story numerous times, I've played a decent amount of them, but this one pissed me off.

First off, the good things: translation is pretty good given its Russian, noticed tiny missing words or slightly incorrect word usage but nothing that made it difficult to read, it wasn't common. Also music isn't bad, but its really grating once you hear the same tracks over and over again, (and its a multi-choice romance VN, you're gonna replay this at least 4 times, even just 2 times ruined the soundtrack) I guess I shouldn't have expected much from a VN but I was expecting something a bit more rock for something with Rock'n'Roll in the name. (especially when its alluding to the classic trope of Sex, Drugs, and Rock'n'Roll) Arts pretty good, its clean and unique without being cheesy or grating. Animations were nice but seemed completely unnecessary, their disconnect from what they're actually doing was more distracting then it should've been. Dialogue wasn't bad for the most part. UI is clean if but strange to be done in such a way. The writing is also enticing when it makes sense. That's about all the good stuff I can think of.

Now for the frustrating and bad:

Foremost deceptive name for someone who understands the allusion of the name, I had a complete false pretense of what this game had going for it and the synopsis was next to useless.

If you believe this is a story about music at all, and for which the banner claims that as the case, you're wrong and you were scammed. Only one of the routes includes any interest in music at all.

As is usual with a bunch of low rate VNs, the decisions don't make any logical sense and you need to use a guide or a diagram to traverse each route properly. This is especially bad because all the good endings require very specific decisions which many don't even seem related and which make no semantic nor narrative sense to contribute to said ending.

And now lets get to a big elephant in the room, and spoiler warning for the game, but Himitsu (the childhood friend archetype) has been stabbing the MC in the back from the start and Kogame is a literal sociopath. Both of their paths are pretty frustrating in light of these facts. For Himitsu, it really does start to feel like she was merely spying on the MC in light of what the story gives you instead of actually caring about him, only for the story to forget what it said and move on as if she only did something extremely minor. As for Kogame, she kidnaps Ellie forcing the MC into a position where he can't refuse to help her. And guess what happens if you do? The MC is murdered by Ellie's grandfather. WHY?!?!? Out of every single element of the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ story, this was the thing that completely destroyed my suspension of disbelief, which was starting to get on thin ice for how often the translation, being totally proficient in what it was saying disagreed with the tone and feelings of the characters and their behavior, you think that despite everything that you actively releasing someone from rope ties after being kidnapped in a warehouse, after said kidnapped character asked you to release her and pleaded with you, you would ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ think that minimally Kogame would be the one killed. I'm sorry but what the actual hell is wrong with you? Are Russians this so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ braindead they believe these sequence of events make any ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sense? I swear to God after that fiasco and forcing the MC to participate in kidnapping and then constantly torturing him over it and then the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ kidnapping girl whining and complaining that you're somehow in the wrong, I can't forgive this crap tier story for this. I wasn't even invested in finishing the story because it doesn't matter what more you had to say, you jumped the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ shark when you justified kidnapping someone innocent and drag innocent people into your affairs that will get them killed. The story never points out how evil this is and the MC has to just go through with it, the more I played this part the more angry and depressed it made me, I just wanted to stop. I honestly want a refund over this trash, too bad visual novels fall outside the realm of Steam's refund policy, nothing was worth this, I don't care about the positives, just this entire branch that goes on for at least a few hours was so horrifically stupid I can't stand even opening this game again. And I'm willing to bet the railroading, maybe not being as bad in the other branches I haven't played, they likely are just as jarring, even if not as frustrating, as this. How the hell do you even translate the story so well and produce complete nonsense thinking? Its supposed to be the opposite way around. By the end of the narrative I was wishing I could've personally killed Kogame.

Not much to say since its so short, but the story is quaint and neat, its a nice twist. With it being so short much of what I could say would spoil the story, its not exactly original nor a masterpiece of anything, but its kinda silly and an entertaining 20 minutes.

All that is despite needing a bit of an English editor for the translation. its not that hard to understand, but some conjugations are missing, intonations are a bit off, and the occasional kind of misuse of a word does appear, its not that distracting especially if you're used to fan translated mangas and visual novels (even though sometimes the official translation is the worst for some VN) but any native speaker not familiar with translated works will probably be a bit miffed. But I suppose its a valid question to ask if any of those types of people even download these games in the first place.

All in all its a good read/play, just hope the developer can find a better translator for his next work or get a native English editor.

The problems with modern Paradox Interactive Games generally boil down to one thing, and its the dumbing down of integral systems. In the case of EU4 that's true in a sense, so much of the game is disjointed number systems that are generally stupid and don't integrate into each other at all, I can't actually tell what the core design is suppose to be though because instead of designing deep integrated systems with thought, they got a barrel full of darts and a "cool" ideas board and just kept throwing things at it until the systems become so overbearing its impossible to manage. I was able to learn the basics of CK2 in a few hours, HOI4 took me less, and Victoria 2's complexity comes in waves which only took me marginally longer to learn, but with EU4 I can't even figure out the mechanics, everything is numbers without context. (and I'm into CS, numbers shouldn't be a problem for me) I read up on tutorials, guides, (for beginners especially) and I tried to brute force my way with all the recommended nations but it was only infuriating and boring. I get frustrated enough with the obtuse nature of Vic2 and CK2 which I understand because they're older games with a lot more obscure systems, (Vic2 only ever had a handful of updates) but EU4 is fairly recent in comparison and is one of the games they focus on the most in their catalog right now, I should not have a problem with esoteric stupidity. (that at least isn't the AI, I'm aware they won't ever make it decent, but sometimes I feel its because they're just incompetent on that front too) And I'm aware with PDX you're suppose to spend time brute forcing your head against a wall until you get it, and I've already done that for every other recent game, (and it didn't honestly take me long to get it, didn't even need tutorials to do that, they just optimized my game, but I was able to figure most of it out myself) but I find the stupid nature of EU4, its design, its UX, and the locking of 60% of QoL features behind paywalls (which while on bundles and sales, I still spent a hell of a lot of money on for what should be inbuilt) unforgivable. I can't recommend this game, especially when its missing any core tenent of design and you can just cheese map painting, I already hate HOI4 for being a painting simulator, at least Vic2 and CK2 have actual limits that matter in terms of map painting. (mostly, you can still cheese them, but you do need to work to expand) In EU4 there are technically things stopping you but they're not very relevant.

At the end of the day this is a poorly designed mess with 500 different systems of numbers without any actual mechanics, the only mechanic that actually exists is combat, and nothing about combat is explained, I'm still not sure where they hid the terrain combat bonuses, I searched for nearly an hour. On the topic of combat, its pretty terrible, movement locking is not visibly distinct from standard moving, (unlike in CK2 where I know when the movement is locked instantly) there isn't any visible manner to tell you how you can move into a fort. I still don't understand how to rationalize sieging btw, why is it a random incremental chance, and why the hell would the fort prevent movement like it does, you can only move around one province tile from a friendly province unless you take the fort, that's not explained at all and it's so unintuitive it feels more like a pathfinding bug that they just decided to leave in the game. There is no other game that does this and I don't see how it makes sense. Even from a strategic point of view its practically impossible to predict the attackers movement from the defenders POV.

Also like always, tutorial is trash and only makes you feel worse playing the game.

Honestly I can't find redeeming qualities from this game, if you want a good example of how not to design a game (if you could even call this design, it feels more like they set a second hand IT as project lead and told him to fill it up) that's about the only redeeming quality I could find on EU4. No depth, lots of random esoteric complexity, terrible QoL, trash design, and an excessive amount of numbers, half of which turn out to be completely irrelevant.

Update: Playing even longer, I don't retract a single speck of my review, instead, as an addendum, I find it even more insane that amount of esoteric and unclear things that go into the combat, foremost it is impossible to organically determine relative strength with a nation or even an army and there are hidden modifiers (as far as the player is concerned, they are technically listed but there is no way for the player to know about them) behind many nations that makes them overpowered with no positive contribution by action, but by a set period of time, even if history ceases to exist and none of historical or semi-historical things happen, you are still forced to face historical nations as if they are following the historical path. Even if France is a one province nation for example, many of the modifiers that only make sense for France as a large empire can or even will still apply, those modifiers themselves already make no sense historically because they're not representation of a nation or state, and nothing you can do would stop them, but its even dumber when these modifiers apply as a one province state.

I used to like RL, had it for long time but I've since stopped playing it, I suppose I don't have the right to complain but I don't like the Chinese spurgs of Tencent derived companies keeping my money to abuse the consumer base, at least if they're gonna participate in the market they should use that money to compete, not monopolize. But of course it had to go this way, I'm a Linux Masterrace now and killing our Linux support for what I know is a fabricated reason to shutout the Linux market is unfair and I can no longer suggest anyone spend money on Epic, Psyonix, nor anything of the MTX trash this game has now become. (I didn't honestly mind it before but with all this I am annoyed that I can no longer play without likely getting banned)

So on my first impressions of R6S, it was fun, really enjoyed the idea, thought the design was doing well. Thought it was a good game to play and something I could jump into. I was also playing it on a free weekend, bought it right then.

However that didn't last, first issue I found with the game is this grind and microtransaction crap. Now ethically, personally, and philosophically, I've got nothing against microtransactions. If you want to make money off a game using systems of finance, it's fine, its your right, and it can be done in ways that don't actively infringe the experience of the game. Even if its done poorly, you have the right to do it. However the first issue with this game is that you are actively forced into otherwise grinding for everything in it.

And when you buy the starter pack, its about 50 games to unlock the base tier operators. You have to grind for 50 games, given each casual game is about 15 to 20 minutes, that's over 12 hours of grind just to be able to really play the game anew. And that only applies to one side, so your choice is useless for half of a match. I thought at first this was fine, it didn't look too bad because I didn't realize how much of a grind it became, nor did I think about it or how crappy a practice it was. And the game info already is straight up about it, so what's so wrong? The problem is its a multiplayer only game and the majority of the content is locked behind a long ass paywall. In truth it seems a lot like EA's Battlesuck 2, granted progression isn't locked into the loot box scam (which personally I'm opposed to calling gambling btw, ethical, moral, and philosophical concerns) but the its still locked behind a paywall, your ability to truly experience and enjoy the game is entirely a price of admission inside the game. Not to mention the alpha pack system which woefully retarded and clearly made just in the hope you'll be spending money on gear later.

Now that's not my biggest gripe, its merely a issue that grew into a huge thorn as I played more. There is no reason first that it should be full price when its multiplayer only. (there is an ability to kinda do singleplayer stuff, buts it slapped on, gives you nothing, is boring and stupid as hell, and just simply isn't really replayable, you do it once and you've done it a thousand times)

But those aren't where I find the biggest annoyance. That lays in the netcode and design, the game is designed around headshots instantly killing, any hole or angle you can hold is an advantage, and information is powerful. However that doesn't really happen. Headshots are fairly arbitrary, hell sometimes body shots are inconsistent in game, you can shoot someone in the head five times and have only two of them hit, and rest make a hole in the wall behind the head in such a way that his head is covering the hole from your view. Like straight center headshots can somehow miss. I've witnessed this countless times and been subject to it just as many times, I've had this happen with some body shots as well, and its just so inconsistent. The ability to harm and kill enemies is extremely arbitrary and it doesn't make sense. And when your client shows you landing your shots and then the game tells you he took no damage, you wonder how and just feel like leaving the game. Add in the fact that some operators are OP and broken while others are actually fairly useless. The problems in this game start to make me feel like its trying to more so be a service product then a game, and the more I've played looking for the engagement, the more discouraged I'd become. I mean its fun to play if you can mange to play without running into complete ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ every ten seconds, problem is its hard not to. And Ubisoft really doesn't seem to be taking any real steps to fixing their design or backend issues which clearly perforate this game. If you can avoid taking it seriously and have a few friends that can do the same, then this might be an alright game for you, but otherwise, I can't recommend it.

Looking into TIS-100 for two hours, and it's pretty obvious what kind of game it is and what to expect from it.

Foremost, its obviously trying to inspire that retro-hardship software development was in the past, and this is another one that gets close to hitting the old software terminal nostaglia. An interesting idea is introducing a basic cross-platform assembly syntax, despite being more limited then assembly. Where in assembly you have a few registeries you can interact with and you're responsible for all the memory you mess with, here you get one accessable registry to save and read from, and one inaccessable one you can save and swap to. That's per node (ignoring the stack nodes), which is a limited interface that represents seperated code execution.

For the less tech inclined, this means the puzzles are about using limited resources to design a solution, and the game's mechanics only really get an addition once as far as I see, (I'm unsure but there might be graphical problems too) and it has to be a robust one, a hacked together one designed for the current input you see would fail the testing system. I'm less inclined to call it problem solving game so far because the solutions do appear to have an optimal design, and while technically you're scope of design is close enough to unlimited to qualify for problem solving and there is no strictly garunteed optimal design in that way, the solutions are most times going to only have one optimal design and then strictly less optimal design. But that's ignorable unless you're a 100% obessesive completionist, to most it will be more akin to programming style problem solving. For those who aren't software developers or into lower level code, this game will have a higher learning curve, and having no skills in programming at all, I'd definitely think its a extremely steep cliff, this game does not really guide you and has no tutorial, you're using a reference manual the whole time to deduce the purpose of everything. For those of us used to code documentation, its a quick 5 or less minutes to get started, for everyone else, it will most definitely be longer then 15 to get setup.

And for everything else:

The puzzles are pretty deep for only having three different types of interfaces. (one of which just discards values)

You get stack machines later, where you can push values to the top and take values off the top. Would've been nice to have seen other types of IO interfaces in the game, but the current concept has a nice simplistic idea. And I suppose is easy to wrap your head around

There is the ability to mess with pixels in the executing code, so you can draw small images.

You can create your own puzzles however it only has you designating input values, output values, and the layout of interfaces, nothing specifically new can be added. Though you can pretty easily share the puzzles around.

You can mess with a no objective sandbox where you can input values and get output values, though you have to get through a good few puzzles to get anything interesting.

There is also the ability to copy programs if you did something like say create a basic start framework.

Other then that, the game is very simple and in my opinion is definitely worth the seven bucks, and would be nice to be expanded upon much further in the future somehow. (It likely won't but it definitely is an idea that could be taken much further.

I'm only reviewing for the modding bull that Take Two is pulling, though admitedly the game is full of content and absolutely no depth, it doesn't even have the strength of Just Cause without modding, I don't have much reason to own it thinking about it. Especially now cause of Take Two.

On first look, I found the first game interesting, I didn't originally play it myself because learned it all ends the same, but watching I felt the pain the game was suppose to give you. It was an interesting experience that taught you a lot of things, like don't wait for someone and be daring. (even though neither of those options mattered to the game, but its the illusion on the first play that it made you think it did)

Come back to the next game, and for the first two chapters especially, it felt awesome, you actually get real choice in game, so I decided in my first play to see what happens, be honest and play it where it falls. Play myself pretty much. Doing this I had no problems, this was until I continued talking to Evelyn, and when asked "Have you had sex?" I told her "eh kinda" suspecting that was gonna be like Emily's "not really, only like third base" option when she asked. Except instead of saying what I expected, it just outright forces "yes" with no other response. This became a huge issue later on. So I continued the game, only thinking that was weird but that it had no hold on me. I than get to the "You gotta choose a girl right now" moment and decided to try my hand at doing both, and I failed (and sorry for ruining this very interesting point of the game's illusion of choice, but as of now,the dev seems to have designed it to autofail infinitely speed up as far as I've seen, he doesn't expect anyone to do it, and I don't think the game will let you do that honestly, you'll probably not want to bother) forcing myself to pick Evelyn. So I get through that and go to the prom with her and do all that stuff, and then I reach last chapter after Emily and Evelyn have talked, but that choice I made that I had no intention nor knowledge of making, it happened to be the only reason Evelyn got mad at me, as a result I got the poor breakup with Evelyn ending all because of a choice I never meant to make.

That really ruined the game for me. On one side, it made me think even harder on my choices, but I became obsessive and paranoid about every choice I made that I was unable to play anymore games with the intention of playing me or a character, I ended up designing a strategy to best the game, (as I oddly seem to do when I start to notice breaks in the illusion, I did the same thing with the Mass Effect series, call me crazy) which I really didn't want to do when I first got it. I went from trying to play the game the "right" way to gaming it, and that is something you shouldn't need to want to do with this game. Aside from that, this game honestly has very little replayability. I mean better than the first one, and while better than like Mass Effect 3 in sense of ending choices, the game is not as clever with hiding its trick on the second playthrough, (which it clearly expects given all the secrets that require replays, granted you could look them up, but it seems that was at best an afterthought) I mean the choices you made being reiterated perfectly verbatim feel kinda flat for both characters, Evelyn and Emily can end up saying almost the exact same things with some simple choice flips, and your player choice changes due to the character are no longer hidden in any way from the player, I don't recall any real changes from chapter to chapter on the second playthrough that don't involve the little extras you unlock, and I've yet to see if they affect the "plot." (but I doubt it) All that given, there isn't really anything new to playthrough a second time at all, except the endings, which are probably more effort than they're worth to get, given how the conversations stay pretty much the same all the way to the fifth chapter.

One thing I think about this game is the dev was thinking that instead of reiterating an emily is away sequel where it does the same thing, he was trying to do something new. Doing so, he pulled probably one of the most popular ideas of "the happy ending" people and "give me real choice" people. And while it did make it interesting, what he wrote up and designed out didn't line up with those "features," (or objectives if you'd like) and it seems more like a lot of the attempt was too heavily mixed with trying to implement more design of the original game back. As a result, while in select moments Evelyn and Emily both seem unique, especially in dialogue, there are way too many times they are functionally equal, and it if not for the writing, they may have been easy to confuse. I think if Kyle wanted to push this idea, his design needed to be much more devoted to creating an experience that made the characters feel different, and not by just stating it, but by acting it out, cause as of now, the ingame actions of both characters are basically the same and the only difference between any particular action is who you choose. (or none in that case too, which I haven't seen or tried yet)

Given all this, I do recommend it, I'm a little sketchy on five dollars for it, while fun and interesting first time through, (unless you hit the glitch in the Matrix I believe I hit) unless the content gets changed, updated, or we get workshop content, it'll probably be a waste for most, as the current core game offers very little actual payback after the first playthrough. I'm hoping Kyle sees this type of critque (and I'm hoping I'm not alone in it) and is willing to do one of those things, (I'd really like him to do all three, but even just a longer and more planned out experience would put this game far enough to ignore the price tag) but as of yet, great game, sketchy ending (Give you anything less then perfection in certain choices totally screw you up without much reason or information, combined with the flaking, it really can screw you, wouldn't be as much a problem if some of these decisions could be reigned in a bit) with only one really interesting unique design choice, but it has potential to be improved upon, as long as the dev continues to improve its design. (and maybe some more content, and/or add player made content)

So yeah, I recommend it, but I also recommend you wait and see if Kyle plans to do more with it first before buying.

Lets kick this off, if you are a brainless derp, I don't think this game is for you, its not a game for idiots, and its not a game for people who can't think. And by all means try it but I don't think it will end well if you have no ability to think. And just to clarify, even if you aren't good with computers, as long as you have a brain, this game works out great. Now on to the review:

Hackmud is basically what the name implies (if you know what a MUD is at least), a Hacking simulation MUD combo with many immersive elements. This game shines in the aspects for its very barebones approach to hacking that while not nonexistent before, is definitely different. Every action you make you do through a script, which you need to type up, and every single one of those scripts could murder you and burn your ashes if you aren't careful, this is a game where the best and the worst of humanity shine without it becoming too ugly. The community itself is also great, you will always find people willing to help, and while there are treacherous players to watch out for, there are also many famous players that will guide you. (after you learn you are no more special in the game then everyone else, gotta understand, you have to earn your place in this game) The player controlled market is nice, but because its 99% scripts people just don't want, its often full of useless ♥♥♥♥ you find by typing six characters and hitting enter. And the good stuff is so marked up by players its kind of hard seeing your cash flow, especially when every cash intake increases the risk of you getting hacked. Speaking of that, if you try too hard, too fast to earn too much money, it will nip you in the ass, people can easily scan the dead accounts for you and it all ends when they get the info left, you have to quickly get everything off that account, and lucky they left you a second one, just make sure you have strong enough locks to hold for 17 minutes when you switch. Yeah, don't expect to understand half the ♥♥♥♥ I said until you get into the multiplayer, a lot of it is difficult to get into you get dropped into it. Last but not least, the singleplayer is amazing, I had it entirely spoiled, but I legit believe this it the best singleplayer tutorial I've experienced in a MMO in a long time if not since forever.

All this is to say if you like computers, or programming/scripting, or just is someone who loves puzzles or social engineering, hacking, or just plainly smart, this is the game for you, this is not an action filled game, nor is it an emotional experience or story driven mostly on its own, but once you get in, you will find this game can have a lot of action and emotion if you are willing to give it that, and most of all, TRUST NO ONE, everyone will literally stab you in the back for any and all your worth.

Lets start off this review with a quick mention that this is basically Kingdom++, the mechanics aren't so much new as comparable to leveling up in a regular game to a certain point and then resetting back to near zero, that specific statment in fact reminds me of Call of Duty's leveling system, go up so many levels, then basically start over for a reward, and do it about four more times. (I think, haven't gotten to the end)

Anyhow, of my last review, my biggest complaint was that it can be easy to get overwhelmed by the fact that the AI felt you just weren't worth the recruitment you paid them for. Gladly thats mostly fixed. Its not as common a bug, and quit/save seems to fix it when you do have problems.

However an even bigger issues has shown itself from playing this game a lot. There is no depth in the mechanics. This is very strange because being the more advanced browser flash game it basically is, its surprising to be able to get sucked into this as I did, however after you pass the first or second island and either die or keep repeating the same tedious tasks, the game starts to become a drag, you feel nothing for most of the game, and only after protecting the crown does it even feel remotely worth it. Combined with the RNG Gods telling you sometimes (or always depending on your RNG sacrifices) that your exploration efforts are worth nothing, and all of a sudden it becomes a flash game with no intrinsic or extrinsic value. Not to say the game doesn't deserve to cost $15 but its the type of game you will only want to play when you have little else to do and need an hour or two to kill in the day. This is not a game you can play for hours on end and always find enjoyment. An even stranger effect is I feel more drawn to Kingdom: Classic because it always feels more engaging. Maybe its due to the fact that its a harder start with a more arcade attraction, maybe its because the mechanics are more arcade-esque, whatever the reason is, I know I spent (and proabably will continue to spend) more time on Classic then New Lands.

All in all, there are actually a lot of reasons to buy New Lands, as it technically comes packaged with Classic, you also get an rather exciting arcade game (tbh though, it be better if they were integrated into one game, and have a UI to manage on start up instead of being thrown right into the damn game) and a more linear and less waves based game for the completionist in you.

My rating is about a 7.5/10 because the engament and depth fall through much quicker then in Classic and I could only get an hour or two of constant play without getting bored where I always managed four or so hours on Classic constantly. (usually I only ended Classic when I died, with New Lands, I had to end shortly after I jumped on the boat everytime because it only felt engaging for so long after that)