Neue Rezensionen von Toren_S [Also Friendly]

TLDR version: If you like tactical fantasy RPGs and don't have to have tip-top graphics, this is an excellent game you should purchase whether you've played Escape from the Pit or not.

Obviously this isn't a full review, but as somebody who's played every one of Jeff Vogel's games, including the prior remake Avernum: Escape from the Pit, I have a pretty good idea what I'm getting into and what you should be getting into.

Vogel's had 2 decades to refine his skills, and while his budget isn't as big as pretty much any other studio out there, he puts a lot of heart and soul into his games. Especially with Crystal Souls, he's taken the best of fan mods to Escape from the Pit and put his own twist on them, bringing a hugely fun fantasy RPG adventure with very tactical turn based combat. The difficulty settings make it so that everyone can have the level of challenge they want, even switching mid game if a particular fight gets too hard for you or you decide you've got the hang of it. He's really tightened up the UI in general since the old days too, making the flow a lot smoother.

The skill trees provide diversity without being confusing, it's easy to see what kind of characters you want and go straight for it. Magic sometimes feels overpowered, but there's always the enemies that are nearly immune to it, making a balanced party makeup helpful and desirable the whole time through.

The story in the original Crystal Souls game was excellent, and just like the remake of Escape from the Pit, Vogel is keeping the best parts intact while introducing multiple new areas and bosses to the game. I could go on for a while, but I think I'll just close with the fact that even the games of Vogel's I was sure I didn't like I ended up loving when I tried them, so you really just can't go wrong if you think you're at all interested.

The Evil Within doesn't try to do anything exceptionally new in the genre of Survival Horror, but that's part of why I love it so far.

It has solid mechanics, excellent visuals, a storyline that has me interested, and enemies that are a challenge without feeling unfair. It also has RPG upgrade mechanics to let you tackle things your way instead of just having 'oh the shotgun is better than the handgun'.

If you must have your games be super innovative or new, I would not bother with Evil Within. If classic Resident Evil-like Survival Horror is your comfort zone, jump right in. It has enough of the more psychological Silent Hill style stuff to keep it enjoyable on that level, but it slants further towards RE4.

TLDR: Decent to good sneaking game that's brought down by several flaws.

I'll start with what's done right. Very well done sneaking mechanics, especially if the AI is placed on Master difficulty. Being completely unseen is actually a challenge, you can't just club every guard you see and move on. It's enjoyable that it allows a reward for different playstyles as well. The Voice Actor they got to replace the original Garrett is supriringly good, as well. The levels have an interesting variety to them, with a smattering of short but sweet small missions added to the larger main plot ones. Choosing your own upgrades adds a fun sense of agency to what kind of thief you want to play.

The downsides are that the cutscenes and overall plot get a little silly and disjoint at times. Also the city hub is kind of a pain when really all we're interested in is more levels. Additionally the levels weren't as wide and sprawling as you'd really like. If you're looking for a story masterpiece, I would move on, but if you're looking for a game where you get to have fun stealing things and evading guards, this is it. Just absolutely put it on Master difficulty.

A lot of people are disappointed because they say the first two thief games are 'better', but I went back and replayed them and.. to be honest they weren't, despite me having a lot of nostalgia for them as well. The mechanics were a pain to deal with, the plot was just as disjoint, the only major upsides were that the Garrett voice actor did amazing work as well as the two iconic guard voices and various town conversations adding a lot of charm that didn't quite make it into this game.

A large improvement over the original Shadowrun Returns.

The story was excellent and even though there wasn't serious branching I still felt like the personality I wanted to play could shine through. Shamans now could meaningfully take part in combat in the early game without having to invest in another skill. Saving isn't a giant pain anymore.

It's a solid tactical RPG with an engrossing storyline, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes either.

There were a few glitches but they didn't interfere with the enjoyment and the devs seem interested in still fixing things even this long after the game's release.

One of the best adventure games I have ever played, an excellent job of balancing the bleakness of the amazing story with wanting to keep you figuring out what happens next.

Not quite as good of a hint system as the Broken Sword games but I still appreciate any game that gives any kind of nudges to save me from just going to look up a walkthrough.

Episodes 1-3 are stronger than 4 in a gameplay sense, but the entire story was very well crafted and well worth seeing through to the end.

I've come back to this game over and over through the years as various expansions keep getting released.

It sort of defies a simple explanation, but the basic idea is that you either alone or with some multiplayer friends undertake a vast strategic campaign to purge an even nastier version of Skynet from existence.

Given the crazy amount of options in the game as well as all of its expansions it has almost unlimited replayability. The ships you get to use will be random (although there is a core set and one you pick at the start) and the tech trees are wide enough that in most games you won't get to use anywhere near all of it. The difficulty paces itself very well, for a beginner starting at recommended difficulties things start off light and raise in tempo, with unexpected bites coming every so often both from the AI's own plans or your mistakes. As you get experienced you can make the game harder in any number of ways so no matter how skilled you get you can make it a fun challenge.

The developers maintain awesome forums and listen to the people that play the games and treat their customers right.

Really all I can say is if you're looking at the page for this game and have even the remotest hint of interest, buy it.