Recent reviews by Donald J. Trump

I'm genuinely not exaggerating when I say this may well be one of the best games i've ever played if not the best. When it comes to the CRPG genre from who's played most of the big ones, new and old this might be the best we have ever seen coming from it.
It's shocking in all honestly that they have managed to actually to live up to the promises they made, the companions are interesting and detailed and have well fleshed out backstories and motivations and not only that you can play as them and get unique playthroughs with them.
The visual presentation is downright the best we have ever seen from the genre. The combat is top tier the way they have implemented the DnD rulesets makes for a amazing experience.
As someone who has played the original 2 games multiple times, the biggest piece of concern I saw pre release from many people was whether or not Larian would get the tone right or if this would just be Divinity in regards to the writing. I can wholeheartedly say they nailed it. You will see insanely disturbing stuff and it will be all animated so many of the locations feel like BG2 and 1 just in 3D the writing and tone is perfect.
I really think this is a must play game even if you arent into Crpgs typically and if you are then you are nuts if you dont play this.

Not as good as it's predecessor, but still a solid book. The interschool conflict is not nearly as well developed as it could have been. The two choices for who heads up the school in the future are barely developed and I just picked based of who I felt was the most "royalist" of the two, because the game doesn't do a good enough job of making you get invested in either character.
In all honestly I found the school part of this game to the worst of it. When you get involved in political matters later on and go to the capitol the book gets way better. After considering why this is I think it simply has the do with the lack of any sort of conflict during the school portion of the book. Everyone basically sucks you off the entire time and I think it leads to the book just feeling bland. Only 2 main characters in the book are openly hostile to you and only one of those has a interesting reason to actually be (the revolutionary character). The interactions with this character especially as a royalist were the highlights of the book for me, but everything else just ends up being fairly forgettable.

Ultimately I liked the book I think it deserves a positive review, but thats not to say it was perfect, there were things I felt could have been done better but ultimately it didn't destroy or hurt the experience to any major extent. The world building could have been a bit more detailed and a little less vague, the character development of some of the characters could have had more substance, but as a first book and setup for the rest it was a fun experience.

I'm gonna get into some spoilers so be warned, I really liked the hook of the book, being a prince or princess and being in constant competition with your siblings for the throne makes for a entertaining plot especially when the final decision isn't made by a person, but some magical object that has it's own will. It makes the relationship building with these siblings far more interesting as there's this underlying conflict with atleast some of the siblings as for who ultimately gets the throne.
As for the characters themselves including the siblings I generally liked them all, but I do wish there was another sibling who was a bit more brutal in their desire for the throne. Atheris is the closest thing to this, but she's never overly confrontational or anything since shes the only one who actively wants the throne I felt the family was lacking a bit of conflict to make the family dynamic a bit more interesting.
Finally to get to some of negatives I had mentioned this game had, although I do think all the characters are fine there's a couple who could have just used some more scenes to make them a bit more interesting, Jarean is a example of one who I just felt was kinda in the background especially in the second half of the game it just feels like he sorta disappears and makes appearance here and there without having enough of a connection the plot.
The last bit of critique I would have is in regards to this first books main climax which is the mass poison arc. This whole section of the book was great it's chaotic in a good way and was really the best part of the book for me, especially if you chose to let Astryn live in your first play through learning it was her is a huge punch to the gut and it nice to see the author willing give the player that nice reality check, but if you executed Astryn it falls a bit flatter because it doesn't feel like the game really acknowledges the fact you killed her in a meaningful way and just says Astryn planned it all before you killed her and nothing changes. Since the entire arc is really entertaining I dont think it would have been a good idea to just cut entirely if you kill her, but make it a bit less sucessful as Astryn wasn't there to fully entact the plan perfectly and let the player feel a bit of satisfaction for having predicted her trying something.

Again these are ultimately minor in the grand scheme of things and I really do want to stress that I liked the rest of the book quite a bit and am really excitied to see where this author takes the story with the next one.

I can quite honestly only describe this game as mind blowing. It's been one of the best gaming experiences i've ever had; It's quite sadly been years since i've had a game engross me to this degree and I can't stop playing it.

Most open world games these days purely feel like a marketing ploy where the open world simply doesn't add anything positive to the experience and is only there so they can sell more copies. Elden Ring is not one of these cases the open world format genuinely feels like a natural evolution on the souls formula.

People often get major tunnel vision when they play these games and simply forget that these are RPGs and that skill is quite honestly the smallest form of progression and the biggest is leveling up and upgrading your weapons and armor. Elden Ring with it's new open world really makes this clear if a boss is destroying you then just explore the huge open world and partake in the mind boggling amount of fantastic side content FromSoft has created and then return once you've leveled up and have acquired far better gear.

From a combat perspective they've really improved on the already really good combat system they've developed over all the previous souls entries. Combat generally feels far snappier and way more responsive to your inputs and it's not just improvements they've also made some additions to the combat such as jumping. While it might seem like fairly minor feature being able to jump attack for more damage adds a surprising amount to the combat; many enemies will have low sweeping strikes and jumping can often times act as a dodge that you can also attack out of.
Stealth is another addition to combat this time around and I can say I quite enjoy it. Rather than the type of stealth from games like metal gear where you can kill entire groups of enemies without ever being seen in elden ring stealth if far more of a opener. You can some times thin a group of weak enemies if some are spread out, but enemies will hear you doing a critical hit and you will always need to end up fighting.
The last addition is horseback combat and to be honest it's not very good and lacks any depth or major skill. It basically just devolves into you just timing charged attacks as you ride past enemies. It normally just makes fights easier and can often times make you feel like you're cheating in way as you basically get to just avoid any difficult dodge timing or parrying you might have needed to do with out it.

While I wish I could go more into depth on the world design I feel like it's really something you want to experience blindly. I will simply say that this open world they have crafted is incredible. They still have a large number of more typical souls type dungeons and these are some of the best they have ever made in any of these games. Some of the sights you will see are just awe expiring FromSoft has really outdone themselves when it comes what they have crafted here.

The last thing I wanted to touch on is the performance. They have improved it to a degree with some of the patches they have been releasing over the last couple days, but stuttering still is an issue albeit a far more bearable one now atleast from my experience. If you don't want to have any blemishes on your experience and have the patience you might wan't to wait a couple more weeks until they've fully fixed the issue.

Even with the now pretty minor performance issues this really is a game I would very highly recommend you play at some point in the near future as it's an experience I quite honestly believe is now one of the best you can get in gaming.

Royal court is a amazing expansion that is slightly ovepriced. The new features they have added to the game really enrich the experience. The new culture system revamps what felt like a outdated system when compared to the religious one. Cultures really do feel unique rather than just the technological difference from before now certain tenets of a culture grant stat bonuses,events and even languages which you can learn to make other cultures like you a bit more. Hybridizing with new cultures and diverging feels rewarding and really adds to the roleplaying and storytelling potential of the game. This is easily the best feature of this DLC.

The new court is great from both a artistic and gameplay perspective it gives a ton more content when playing as both a vassal and a liege. You can now directly petition your liege for things and have your vassals do the same to you. This really improves the roleplay in the game, pulling the player out of the map screen and into the 3D court room makes these interactions feel far more personal. I actually tend to remember these and when a certain vassal consistently annoys me or when my liege refuses my requests it makes you want to screw them over when the opportunity arises.

The only major issue with the DLC is the price. There is a ton of content here and it's content that will impact your game regardless of where you play on the map (unlike the single culture focused flavor packs) and it's far bigger than any of the individual expansions for CK2 were, but even then the 30 dollar price tag really is a bit steep and it stains a otherwise perfect expansion, however I would still recommend it because I truly do think it's still worth money due to the huge improvement on the game that it makes. I sincerely hope paradox reconsiders it a bit as compared to the really well priced flavour packs this feels a bit over priced I really think these expansions should be $20 instead or at least $25

I've beaten the game, have experienced multiple different endings and can without a doubt say this game is incredible, If you are roman history fan this game is an unmissable experience. The game really does do a good job with historical accuracy for the most part however the biggest issue is definitely how they represented Ptolemaic Egypt and basically ignored the huge Greek and Hellenic influences that were present with the Macedonian Ptolemaic dynasty, however I can understand that they might have wanted to make it feel a bit distinct considering the first act is set in Greece.

When speaking about the actual gameplay systems such as combat, it's nothing special I did enjoy it, but it does nothing new for the genre and it will be similar to what you will have seen in other turnbased crpgs. The real unqiue concept here is the actual campaign map where you will be leading a legion "about 4.5-5k men" and conquering different settlements throughout the map and fighting 2D legion battles. These really aren't very impressive and I really wouldn't go in expecting an actual strategic battle system it's essentially just a incredibly basic card game where you pick between 3 cards with different outcomes every round of combat to try and achieve victory.

Where this game really shines is in it's setting and story. Sadly historical RPGS are quite rare and even rarer are roman ones so this game already earns huge points for being set in a unique and rarely explored setting in the genre. The story is huge and will take you through 3 different military campaigns set over a 10 year span. You will meet a ton of different well written characters and be given numerous amount of decisions that will impact your story and how it will play out. It's not perfect and sometimes it can sometimes feel a little railroady, but there is a lot of freedom in what you can do and how you can resolve situations.

The last thing I want to touch on in presentation. This game looks and sounds incredible. Firstly I want to mention the voice acting because it deserves a huge amount of credit not only in the quality of the voices actors, but the fact that they used actual classical Latin pronunciation for Latin words. Meaning that it's pronounced the way the Romans actually spoke it (rather than the church pronunciation you are more familiar with) with C sounding like a K and V sounding like a W. I also wanted to mention the art specifically the portraits, they are easily the best I have ever seen in the entire genre and just look incredible and also will change depending on the skin tone of your character in creation. I really hope more future CRPGs adopt a similar system.

Would highly recommend to CRPG fans and would rate it as a must play if you are into roman history.

It's very obvious playing the game that the dev team simply had no clue why people liked the last game. They seem to have thought that making the game more complicated with unnecessary mechanics equals a better game when thats simply not the case. The open world that they must have spent a ton of time and resources creating is simply unnecessary it wastes your time forcing you to walk around a mostly empty map to buy something or speak to someone at specific locations when they could have just done what they did in the last game, just have the player teleport to them. The open world really just feels like a backdrop for delivering packages which they essentially force you to do if you want to make any sort of money in the early game. The fact they did this just leaves me confused, why the ♥♥♥♥ did they think delivering packages was a fun mechanic? If I wanted to be wage slave in video game I would have just bought delivery man simulator instead or just gotten a job as a mail man.

I'm honestly just disappointed because if they had focused their efforts on improving and fleshing out the actual good mechanics from the last game instead of wasting their time this could have a great sequel.

To open my review I wanna make it very clear this is a niche and difficult game. The developers don't hide this so I highly suggest if you don't have experience with similar titles that you try the free prologue demo before spending money on it.

Vagrus is a open world caravan simulator. You are leader of a "Vagrus" or a traveling company. You go around the world taking on trading or combat contracts, preforming quests and just trying to keep your company alive. You'll encounter many different settlements with a large numbers of unique quests and storylines, meet companions who can join your company, act as officers in it and fight in your turnbased battles.

Although the game is open world you do have a main storyline that is tied with the goal you pick during the creation of your character and vagrus. You can pick a number of different goals and these are what drives your character and is the reason they are risking their life and will open into the main story. The writing of the game and it's quests in very good it's all very grounded in it's setting and was always a interesting read.

The biggest star of Vagrus is the world it's based in. It's incredibly interesting and the world building is really well done. The passion of the developers can really be felt in this regard.

I think the game has a very enjoyable gameplay loop where you over time get your bearing in the world, learn of new profitable trade routes and slowly maneuver your way around the world and growing your Vagrus slowly, but surely.

The game has a relatively simple turn based combat system. It's nothing particularly special, but it gets the job done. In addition it has a larger battle system when your entire vagrus engages in combat where you can make tactical decisions.

Overall I really like the game based off of what i've played, but there are some things I wish would have made it in such as your character actually being able to fight in battles. I understand the reason this didn't happen was due to art requirements, but I think it would made the player feel more connected to the world and could have given the player a interesting choice at the start of the game to pick a background that would make your character stronger in combat, but less effective in the management of the Vagrus.

I would 100% recommend Vagrus to people familiar with the genre and highly advise people who aren't, but have some interest to try the free prologue as I think you'll be able to decide pretty quickly if you want to buy the game after doing so.

To just get the main question out of the way: Should you buy this game? Yes, it's genuinely one of the best games i've ever played.

Suzerain is set in a realistic fictional world heavily inspired by our own. Your the newly elected leader of Sordland in the early 1950s. The nation is in a recession due to the previous president's attempt at change. While Sordland might be in a dire situation it is poised to be a major power if you play your cards right, but theres also a war looming on the horizon the powerful nation of Rumburg is threatening you with war. You will need to attempt to rebuild the country and prepare it for this war before it is to late.

You can choose to develop the country in a lot of different ways. You can play as reformer and attempt to make the country more democratic and in turn make yourself a enemy of the Sollist cult of personality. You can instead play as a Sollist, respect tradition and work to preserve Soll's great constitution and continue on the path he laid out for the country and in turn make enemies of the reformists. You can try to play as a dictator and reform the constitution, but not the way the reformists might have envisioned. You can push your country in the direction of capitalism or socialism or maybe somewhere in the middle. Depending on your choice you might have to contend with oligarchs or communists. You can try to allign yourself with the western capitalistic powers or the eastern communists in attempt to gain protection from Rumburg or refuse to be a puppet of the great powers and have your great Sordland stand on it's own. Be aware there's a lot of danger depending on how you go about your path. If you fail to appease certain factions and don't prepare to eliminate you can end up assassinated, impeached, imprisoned, exiled or couped by the military.

The choices are truly endless and there's a ton of options and replay value. The game is not one your probably going to be able to beat on your first attempt. You will need to think about your actions and consider the enemies you might make and prepare accordingly, but when you succeed it's a fantastic feeling and only makes you want replay it with a different ideology or goal.

One of the best games i've played and I highly recommend anyone who is even slightly interested in the concept to give it a try. I really doubt you will be disappointed

After playing and beating the game I have what I would describe as a mostly positive opinion towards the game. In short I think the game is good. It provides an enjoyable "experience" for a reasonable price. Note how I said experience rather than experiences, the game really isn't honest with the player in regards to choice and replaybility. There's ton of choices, but few of them really matter. There are different endings, but if you manage to get a good ending (which isn't really hard) you will find no reason to replay it. So although I enjoyed my first playthrough of the game,I really don't have any interest in replaying it since the game lacks any unique endings to make it worth it. All in all I would buy this game if you're fine with the fact that it's probably only worth a single playthrough.