Recent reviews by Astartes

I've really enjoyed my time with this game. That said, I find the price to be a little high for what is on offer here, but ultimately I feel that the game is still worth recommending (especially if you can get it on sale).

I think the first game most people will try to compare this one to is Darkest Dungeon. While they both have fantastic artwork and a few other, similar aspects, I find Darkest Dungeon to be a much deeper and more complete game. In particular, Deep Sky Derelicts has little to offer outside of clearing the space derelicts scattered on the map. Each class does have a detailed skill tree to level characters through, and weapons can be upgraded through mods that can be purchased or looted. But only having access to 3 characters at any given time means that these level ups and upgrades will be few and far between. The majority of gameplay boils down to: enter derelict, clear as far as energy will allow, return to base to sell loot and refill energy, repeat.

Combat is fun and engaging, relying on a card-based system rather than a positioning one a la Darkest Dungeon. Each character has a personal deck, made up of cards determined by their class and equipment. Weapon and equipment mods add additional cards to these decks. Each time a character's turn comes up, they "draw" 4 cards from their deck, and the player can choose 1 to play, or spend 10 energy to redraw the hand and choose from the new cards. The Scavenger class generally has cards to supplement their drawing ability. There is some complexity to deck management, in that it is important to streamline decks to allow classes to efficiently carry out their primary function. For example, saturating your primary damage-dealer's deck with too many support cards can hamper your party's overall offensive effectiveness. So while it may be tempting to add mods to everything, in the instance just mentioned it might be better to forgo shield mods to increase your likelihood of drawing attack cards.

Check out my video review here

Fantastic game! Manage your own stable of gladiators as you navigate politics between the local legate and magistrate, then jump into fast paced and bloody gladiator matches. Combat is frantic and messy, but requires skill to master. More interested in managing your fighters? Let the AI duke it out for you. Hire agents to steal equipment for you, architects to improve your villa, bards to keep morale up, and many other workers to help you reach the top. All the while jamming out to an intense and thematic electronic soundtrack.

My only complaints were that the version I played lacked a save function, and that the game is finite and not open ended.

Check out some gameplay and tips here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTUamCCbu14

First, let me say that the game can be a lot of fun. The visuals are incredible and the atmosphere is right on point. The gameplay is gruesome, hectic, and addicting.

But the game is broken. Some server issues at launch can be forgiven, sure, but the list of game breaking bugs in this game is just unacceptable. After playing through the first two chapters, I encountered a bug that wouldn't allow me to deploy my squad with weapons or use attacks. After trying everything I could think of to get it working, I gave up and decided to take my issue to the community forums. There I found a huge amount of others having issues of their own, and resolved to drop the game from my YouTube channel and not play it again until it was properly fixed.

TL;DR - Don't buy this game. It's broken.

Here is video of my bug if you're interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTPsrjhOH1I

Hard to recommend this game. I had really high hopes for it as a deep empire-building strategy game... what it appears to be so far is a micromanagement sim. This game makes features out of mechanics that many other games would automate, such as selling surplus goods to neighboring towns and buying up commodities that you aren't producing yourself. Want to unload your excess food onto your starving neighbors for some extra cash? Then you need to buy all the excess from your townspeople, load them onto a merchant wagon, wait until said merchant arrives at the neighboring town, then sell them your excess goods. A lot of work for what many games have reduced to a single button click or slider adjustment. Sure, you can set up automatic trade routes for your merchants, but production is never consistent enough to be able to rely on these, and even if it was I'm not sure what you would do in the mean time considering just how much of the game the trading mechanic makes up. Then there's the questionable "sympathy" guage, seperate from the actual relations guage, that is somewhat ambiguous and never seems to rise when it should. No big deal right? Wrong, good luck growing your empire beyond 3 towns without people able to consistently raise neutral towns sympathy ratings beyond 80. For these reasons and a few others I just can't recommend this game to anyone other than hardcore economy sim enthusiests as much as I was really excited for this game.

The controls are a bit clunky, the UI can be annoying at times, and the game isn't very deep. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy every minute of this game I've played so far.

The game plays as sort of a 2D, side-scrolling RTS. You control individual soldiers one at a time as you move them around the battle field in hopes of protecting your "Brain" and destroying the enemy's. Mine for gold to purchase an air drop of more troops, or hijack the dropship and fly it into your enemies to cause lots of destruction.

Not the most polished game, but lots of chaotic fun to be had. Hard to recommend at its current $20 price tag, but definitely worth the buy if you can find it for less during a Steam sale.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbE_JOetqx0&list=PLpqkCjhP2qY1T1UFanjbtxIdVFbkz1TH8

What can I say about Crusader Kings II that hasn't already been said? This game has more depth than any other strategy game I've ever played. With all the content available in the game as well as all of the DLCs and mods out there, the possibilities are almost limitless. Choose to play as the head of a vast number of different noble families from a variety of historical periods and negotiate, manipulate, and assassinate your way to the top. Help establish your chosen religion as the dominant faith or become a heretic and try to throw the world into chaos. The game may lack any semblance of story line, but the organic way in which small events can snowball into much larger ones can create a vary more interesting and unique story than any hard-coded script. Not a fan of history? Then check out the Game of Thrones or Elder Scrolls mods that completely overhaul the game and its setting, or one of the many others available to download.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe_8nroCpkY&list=PLpqkCjhP2qY1YU6UlhLR7rqz3aacJyU37

First of all, this game is fantastic. Easily one of indie gaming's bright spots so far in 2015, this game has a very unique premise, is solidly executed, and follows through with a great sense of humor, although it isn't very challenging.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you tried to start your own Power Rangers / Super Sentai clone in your garage (or in this case, your uncle's conveniently abandoned warehouse)? Well you no longer have to wonder. Manage your warehouse/studio by upgrading your filming equipment and studio layout. Buy your actors better costumes and props to improve their abilities, or build them some out of duct tape and card board. Then take to the stage and film your show by battling it out with monsters and minions in tactical turn-based combat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtVI_YfLxvM&index=1&list=PLpqkCjhP2qY0iZXXf-hUIjrCpFAAFTv0J

I saw this game listed as "Coming Soon" on Steam's homepage and immediately knew this would be the next big Early Access hit, and so far it hasn't disappointed. Set in a somewhat grim, low-fantasy world with a bit of German flair, Battle Brothers puts you in command of your very one mercenary company. Travel a procedurally generated map full of mystery and danger, defending the locals from bandits, orcs, werewolves, and the undead, and explore completely randomized locations where no two battle maps are ever the same. The art style of the game is fantastic and the core gameplay is engaging and at times very challenging. The game as it stands is already a much more complete game than just about any other Early Access title, and as long as the developers continue to patch the game and add new, interesting features at their current rate, this game will be a must have.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lWxLgvBdAo&index=1&list=PLpqkCjhP2qY1ZQtgtwVsBmice3Ettw-Mx

I really enjoyed this game when it came out, and enjoy it even more now that most of the rough spots have been patched out and the modding community has had time to sink their teeth in.

Positives:
- The battles are almost always enjoyable, if not a little more arcadey than previous Total War games.
- The graphics are amazing, this is one of the most beautiful strategy games you'll ever play.
- Like in Shogun 2, the art style (unit cards, etc.) reflects the time period
- Factions feel really diverse, playing as Rome, Sparta, barbarians, or nomads all feel distinct
- City management is really satisfying. It's nice to see your cities change and grow as you improve them.
- There are tons of mods allowing you to tweak the game to how you like it.
- Modding tools have been released making it easier to tweak the game yourself.

Negatives:
- The AI will continue to make questionable decisions at times.
- Without mods, diplomacy can be somewhat limited.
- I much prefered the family tree in previous games to the internal politics system Rome 2 uses.