Recent reviews by nj28sc

Fun little game - you will unlock everything after around 9 hours and you are meant to lose a couple of times before you can really get going.

I like the balancing act of when to focus on houses and economy vs when to focus on towers and upgrades.

I look forward to an update of two that takes into account the feedback and ideas of other reviewers.

I came into this with no expectations other than having liked the demo and the overall concept (base and resource management combined with the RTS element). However, the next 34 hours or so it took me to reach Vladivostok had me deeply invested all the way. While being literally on rails, there were curveballs and problems along that had to be resolved and me being a more casual gamer, I did not min-max the fun out of it as I suspect others might have.

Yes, snipers are very strong. Yes, the enemy AI can be cheesed and yes, resource management can be made trivial by simply reading the Steam guide on how to open a rolling munitions factory - if you so choose. But you don't have to.

Going in blind, unprepared and having to hold on for dear life when the strafing runs started, I had so much fun and I highly recommend a playthrough of this game.

It scratches the itch.

I wish this game had microtransactions - I would gladly spend more money on this game because it is so much fun.

Yes, my friends. Of course I will upgrade.

Thank you for your tireless work to improve this excellent toybox of a game.

This is not the slam dunk that it was presented to be.

I remember when my father recieved the Collector's Edition of Age of Empires I and II in 1998 or 1999. I still have the box and the full contents today. Watching him play and subsequently proceeding to play my first matches against the easy AI as well as diving in to the history of El Cid and Attila the Hun was what got me started with gaming.

I mention this, because it was a magical feeling when I was 6. That feeling has now been rekindled with Age of Empires IV.

The tutorial campaign does a great job of explaining the basic mechanics of the game in a narrated story designed to ease you into it if it is your first time with an RTS. The additional tutorial missions, dubbed the Art of War, take many concepts - such as early economy and unit counters - and allow you to practice these before you venture out into the multiplayer where all of these skills will be put to the test.

If, however, you wish to spend some more time in singleplayer modes, the campaigns are very well done. Each mission is backed by a beautifully made cinematic, narration and premise that explains the real history that the mission is based on - visualizing history on real world footage by using shadow figures from (I assume!) the game itself is a really cool take that I very much enjoyed throughout.

Diving into multiplayer, overall I think the factions are balanced. As far as I know, each civilization sits at somewhere close to 50% win/loss rates which is a good sign. Each faction feels more unique than they did in AoE II. Each faction has the same access to the basic units like Archers and Men at Arms, but they are all designed specifically for the civilization that uses them (classic medieval looks for the usual suspects in Europe and more eastern or asian looks for those civilizations specifically.)

My only nitpick is that the matchmaker for both ranked and quick games seems to be working suboptimally at the moment. I have been matched with far superior opponents more than opponents on my own level even though I am sure there MUST be others who have just recently gotten the game...

Overall - I can not recommend this game enough. It is a slam dunk and a master class in how to make sequels in established franchises. Let's just kind of... ignore AoE III (which was fine, but nowhere near this level) :)

Domina is a very enjoyable game to fire up for an hour or two to kill time. The original year to win the championship in Rome is a fun challenge and can be made milder or harder with difficulty/brutality settings.

The new endless mode is a lot of fun but obviously at some point, you end up with a whole bunch of max-leveled and one-shotting gladiators. I also played around with the new DLC classes where the Velite is a clear favorite. The Scissor and Sagittarius seem relatively useless in comparison to the Retiarius and the max level spear they get.

XCOM 2: War of the Chosen takes everything that XCOM 2 did well, and adds more of it. There's more customization, more planning, and more pain when everything falls apart.

The main elements, the Chosen, are at times unfair and infuriating in exactly when and where they show up. They can end up being juuust the curveball required to turn your mission around and end your entire campaign, especially in the early game. However, when you do take them down, the smug feeling of superiority is absolutely earned. The new classes also add very interesting options to help you do this and their acquisition makes sense story-wise.

XCOM 2 is one of my ongoing love/hate-affairs. When it's harsh, it's harsh - but when it's good... There's nothing that scratches that kind of itch just quite like it.

The game drags you in with a good overall story and setting, lots of options for soldier customization and long-term planning on the strategy layer and then makes you scream out loud when it decides that this is the end of the line for your favorite soldier who takes an unfortunate shot in the shins despite being postitioned in a (to you) safe spot and then proceeds to bleed out because you literally just used your last medkit on some rookie that you're hoping will soon carry his own weight.

Still, you put yourself through this because they might have caught you off guard this time, but now you know what's up and it's your turn to be on the giving end for once. "That's XCOM, baby!"