Recent reviews by Korrent

If you were born before 1990 and played video games as a child, you might just love this. For me, it captures the feeling of stepping into a game store or video arcade as a kid, seeing all of these games I knew nothing about and letting my imagination go wild.

Some of the games in the collection are pretty simple, but well designed. I can't explain what it is, but they have an addictive quality that makes you say "Just one more try..." each time you hit a Game Over.

All of the games feel authentic and you could believe they are games that actually existed in the '80s, but they are almost all quite unique. They clearly pay homage to certain titles but they all provide their own twist.

The authentic feels means that some games are a bit clunky, but this is part of the charm. The goodwill earned with some of the better titles encourages me to play through some of the clunkier ones to really see what it's about. Even if you don't love every game, you feel like you are experiencing a part of video game history (even though it's all a fiction).

I've played fewer than 20 of the games so far, and I am excited to continue discovering more. If the entire collection were only the games I've played to this point, it still would have been well worth the cost and the time.

(Note: 10+ hours played in open beta)

Before deciding if Stellaris: Nexus is a good fit for you, it's important to set expectations properly. This is not Stellaris. It does not follow the Stellaris gameplay loop. It does not use the Stellaris engine or even the graphics. It is related only in name and the appearance of some empires, leaders, and creatures. This is not a criticism, but when evaluating the game it may be easier to try to pretend Stellaris is not in the title at all. It's also not a mobile game, pay-to-win, idle clicker game, or anything of that sort.

All that said, the game is very good and delivers on what is promised. It really is an actual fast playing 4X strategy game. For a game that takes about an hour to play, the level of strategy is quite good. It is not as in-depth as a grand strategy or a 4X like Civilization, but it does have more depth than other fast 4X games like Ozymandias or Polytopia.

It is better to compare this to a strategy board game than to other video games. You can certainly see similarities to Twilight Imperium. But it is not just a board game, as it makes excellent use of the digital medium. The turns are simultaneous and move fast. You won't see what moves others are making until everyone has entered their "orders" and ended their turn. Conflicts automatically play out in between turns. Unlike most real board games, including digital adaptations, you aren't waiting forever for your turn to come around.

The game seems to be designed with multiplayer as the primary game mode, and it works well. If you are expecting a deep story driven single player experience, it may not be the game for you, but to be honest I have not really touched the story missions at all so there may be more value there than I assume.

If you read enough about the game to get a feel for what its about, and that sounds interesting, then dive in and you probably won't be disappointed. If you buy it because it has Stellaris in the title and you don't know what you are getting, you may or may not be satisfied.

The game has some cool ideas, and great sound and visuals. However, the gameplay is not quite there. If you play the game seriously at all, you quickly find out there are so many broken aspects to the game balance. It just can't hold my attention. It needs a major patch or DLC to iron out the mechanics, and has the potential to be great, but it just isn't there yet. Feels like it is in beta.