Is it good?

[happyfaceman]

Giantbomb said it sucks but I don't trust Brad Shoemaker. I want multiple opinions.

[Rutabaga]

After my first hour, i've got mixed feelings. The tower defence part seems quite shallow, and i kind of ran out of resources with no way to get more pretty fast. Not terrible, but not amazing either. I haven't unlocked all the buildings yet though, so maybe there's more to it.

The controls are kinda clunky in the action sequences. There's a lot of BS enemy placement, and enemy types that gel incredibly poorly with the controls. Like anything you have to jump to hit, but requires more than one hit? Quite likely to hit it, then fly right in to it. As for placement, i've gotten dunked on the head by spiders several times, and the only way to know where they are gonna drop seems to be memorization, which feels less than stellar. Also, there's no way to control the camera, so prepare for blind jumps. Some times there's treasure, some times there's brambles and angry crabs.

Honestly, i think the original Act Raiser is a much better game. This feels very mediocre so far. Like i said earlier, not terrible or unplayable, but also not fantastic. For the price though, it's hard to be too critical. But don't expect this to be your game of the year, if you decide to get it.

I give it maybe a 4/10, but that's not on the IGN scale where everything below 8.5 is rectal trauma.

[Slobad27]

Not amazingly good, not terribly bad, i would say it is a rather dull gameplay experience for the moment :/.

I have finished the first world and i sincerelly hope that the gameplay loop improve in the way. Otherwise, you will need some willpower to finish it.

The tower defense part is shallow as Rutabaga said : you face waves after waves of creatures going toward your fire camp. All mob follow a predetermined path. You can't close ennemy spawn point like in original act raiser so prepare to repell them to no end.
City management is minimal : you need wood to construct building, food to feed your villagers, hutts to boost said villagers population cap.
Wood is available in limited quantities and buildings placement can be sometime tricky (for example, there is a forge building that boost the capability of your defensive structures in a given radius).

The action part is a mixed bad : control are very stiff (like in Act Raiser 1) but responsive, there is a very old school vibe to it, that's for certain. Very repetitive for the most part. Quite easy for the moment.

Act raiser 1 was more fun in my humble opinion (but WAY harder in the action phase).

[Nokarma]

This makes me so incredibly sad. I really wanted a rebooted ActRaiser with Action and Sim portions. What happened to the sim town building?

[happyfaceman]

Thanks for the opinions. I guess this will be the 2nd ACE game I don't buy. I know these people have talent so I hope the next game they make is a homerun, they mostly have a good track record outside of Abyss Odyssey. I really enjoyed the Zeno Clash & Rock of Ages games.

[YOLO KNIGHT]

The action sequences chafe me a bit. They're simplistic and the controls are not as responsive as they need to be. There's a bit of a learning curve to the strategy parts but I'm really starting to like it after tinkering and eating dirt a few times. Unlimited retries helps a lot.

[Power_Bert]

I dunno, i dunno.
The citybuilding is stressful and suffers from a clunky interface. You never know how many idle villagers you have, life meters for your warriors and the enemies are very hard to see, there seem to be no quests or meaningful upgrades.
the 2d fighting stuff looks beautiful and has great music but most of the time it just boils down to: Kill everything in this area.

Im quite disappointed to be honest. This has to be a smaller title for ace team just to keep the money rolling.

Abyss Odyssey had the better 2D combat and in Rock of Ages the tower defense elements were more fun. :(

[iosubx5]

Its a game that is in need expansion packs. It can run off a microSD card though in 1080p.

[MedicRabbit]

Its basically garbage

See attached video for Review. Love ya!


https://youtu.be/Cxq0aDY3-Pc

[Felimarsh]

And it's basically just YOUR OWN OPINION about it and nothing more. Personally I really liked it. So there you go. To each their own TASTES you know...

[Felimarsh]

@JD: I beat the game in 2 sessions on PS4. 11 hours of gameplay overall and I have nothing bad to say about the game. I really liked it and everything about it. I guess the only complaint I would have is a little of a difficulty unbalance in one of the areas compared to the others. Otherwise it was a super fun game to me.
I'd play it again with great pleasure. People nowadays are too critical of everything....

[MedicRabbit]

Yeah.... I mean some things are objectively bad. Like this game. If you enjoy this dumpster fire, and found something you love in it? Good for ya! People have been able to do the same with things like anthem and fallout 76 too. But... much like a helicopter crashed in a tree? Something obviously ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up, is . . . Obviously . . . ♥♥♥♥♥♥.

[Felimarsh]

Well, yeah, but you're talking about some sort of art here (in the wide sense of Art like Music, Painting, whatever lincluding Video-games). So there is nothing objectively wrong about ANYTHING in Art. All there are (different) opinions. But you probably think that yours is better and/or more objective than everyone else's....

[Lord Quinton]

Originally posted by MedicRabbit:

Yeah.... I mean some things are objectively bad. Like this game. If you enjoy this dumpster fire, and found something you love in it? Good for ya! People have been able to do the same with things like anthem and fallout 76 too. But... much like a helicopter crashed in a tree? Something obviously ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up, is . . . Obviously . . . ♥♥♥♥♥♥.

this game is not a dumpster fire (e.g. no mans sky, fallout 76) it does everything it sets out to do, just in the most unimaginative way possible. To use the dumpster analogy, its a brand new one, just out of the factory, and in its new home sitting by a building, nothing good, nothing bad, just something to walk by and go "meh".

[redgrave2007]

No, it's not.
It's an awful tower defence with weak towers, VERY limited resources, no upgrades and lots of enemies, where you basically should guess the only allowed way to win with lots of trial and error.
Platformer sections are fun, but short and simple.
So it is not a medicore platformer with strategic elements, it is an awful tower defence with platfromer sections.
I beat first world and enjoyed it, but then i tried snow world and was raped by boar riders who don't give a ♥♥♥♥ about my soldiers and barricades just riding full speed to firecamp.

[sere]

As a die-hard ACE fan, I have to say this is their weakest game. It was developed in a short amount of time with the studio focusing on multiple projects. There isn't much love or signature present like their other games and feels more like a rushed paycheck obligation. Rock of Ages 3 also looks to be a "paycheck" but with more resources available for development and the experimental, true to their spirit, "The Eternal Cylinder", will be and Epic exclusive (which really breaks my heart).

I can't recommend this game but as far as missteps go, this one isn't so bad. Yeah, it's a disappointment but I wouldn't go so far as to call it a dumpster fire. ACE is among the most talented and promising studios in the world and eventually they will again show us why; likely in 2021 when the exclusivity ends.