Recent reviews by mexalen

Not only is this game full of cups of liber-tea, managed democray that spreads per rounds, and sweet freedom landing from orbit, but it's fun, fun and fun. Thick with satire you need to cooperate with your fellow Helldivers, and duck and dive out of not-so-friendly fire. Press B to salute the flag, and enlist as a Helldiver today!

On one hand I like that I can just have someone from the village over, talk to them, hear their gossip or memories, and offer something to eat... and maybe I get the right combinations to unlook a new room, or maybe it was just a chat about the weather and we can try tomorrow.
As it says in the description: this is a chill game.

On the other hand, I am missing the urgency and dire situations of Cultist Sim. I am sometimes spending a day fortune telling or with menial tasks and earning pennies, just because that's what I'd have to do in CS.

The tree of wisdom is a great addition. I am looking forward to explore it more.

So far I am enamored with the game. The occult lore of this game world is just fantastic, and the writing is top notch as usual.

I wasn't sure If I were to like the game, as previous reviews mentioned the micromanagement involved from midgame. I get why people would prefer this to be autonomous, but it would take away a lot of the atmosphere and allaround feeling. Balancing the sectors, and deciding which projects need to be prioritised is an important part of the game, in my opinion.

Ixion is often compared to Frostpunk. I think that only applies on the surface, as Frostpunk was more focused and more on point (keep your people from freezing to death), and Ixion has a broader spectrum of fail-states and how to avoid them. Or at least try to ;)

At my first attempt it was a close race of what would kill me: a mutiny or a hull breach. When it finally ended I was just glad, that I could restart :D

I can totally recommend this game to anyone that likes games like Endless Legends and Heroes of Might and Magic, or previous Age of Wonders Games.
I only played about 3hrs so far, and will update the review. Just wanted to give a thumbsup, as the game deserves a better reviewscore, than it does at the moment. Obviously only the players with tech issues can write reviews now, everyone else is busy playing ;)

Besides a few quirks in the UI, this game is a true gem.
It's challenging and keeps you on your toes, without being unfair or unreasonable.
It's mixture of town- and resource management and the strategic gameplay blends flawlessly.
Towndefense feels like a threat almost every night (unless, you are really lucky ^^), but towards the end it's always a struggle.
You can mix-and-match the powers and abilities not just towards your prefered gameplay, but also to use the strengths of your heroes as they develop.
Personal tipp, as it took me too long to figure it out: regularly check if you can upgrade buildings. Sometimes you'll unlock something and forget about it and realise shortly before failing, that you could have had more heroes at your disposal :D

I am giving it a thumbs up, because DF is a brilliant game and I really recommend it to practically anyone.
BUT: the new controlls are very frustrating.

I am all for upgrades, I am not whining or complaining about changes to the game (although I am a ASCII purits for +10 years).
Placing multiple workorders at a workshop is taking ages, with typing the item name. If there is a mouse support, then let me click on the item repeatedly. Let me specify the amount of items i need. Or put Icons of the items in a grid, instead of the item name in a list.

To me this is the worst combination of mouse support and text-commands. Just typing a - t 10 times in a carpenters workshop took seconds. Clicking "add item" and then enter "tab" in the search field and clicking "Table" 10 times? DF has always been work, but now it is WORK.

Same with creating rooms. Picking an item and creating a room from it, makes sense. Why do I need to make a zone, say it's a bedroom and make sure that there is a bed in it?!

There are so many little irritating things about this release, that make me appreciate "regular" DF even more than before.

Anyway. Managed to kill both miners while triggering a cave-in to smash through the aquifer, because I didn't check if they were out of danger when collapsing the last column. I'll never learn... :D

I want to like the game, but at the moment I can't. I was willing to power through the early game, to fail and learn, to get to know it. I've played enough PDX-games to know, that the complexity of the gameplay loops open up to amazing stories and lots of fun, once you understand them.

All Victoria 3 managed so far is making me sleepy. The slow pacing, myriad of screens (I actually like the UI), and hundreds of tooltipps, just to blindly click on anything that has a green icon next to it, just doesn't do it for me at the moment.

I know, I should keep on playing and not judge the game by its cover (aka 1st game and less then 15 hrs of gameplay)...yet at this point I just feel, like I am missing out on fun, that I could have with another game.

tldr:
saved the economy
reformed the constitution
tried to assassinate the queen
got the electric chair

9/10 would do again, but differently

Now to the serious part:
This game puts you in the shoes of a newly elected president, that basically inherits a huge mess. You are confronted with every kind of crisis, economic recession, racial tensions, an outdated constitution, threat of war, a womens rights movement, etc. The only thing missing is climate catastophy, and you'd have a real life scenario.

The game is basically a text adventure. You've got tons of stuff to read. Newspaper articles, updates from the different regions of the country, responses to the actions you take.
These actions come from interactions with the members of your government, special interest groups, your family, etc. They offer you propositions with different solutions, and once you pick one that's it. You can't take it back and it's final - you can't even reload to a previous stage of the game.

All in all it is a very intriguing game, with most actions leading to reasonable consequences. You anger someone - they don't support you later on. You take a bribe - someone might use it as leverage.
There doesn't seem to be a "correct" or perfect way to play the game. It allows you to be a callous, unfriendly, egomaniac or a steadfast paragon and SJW. I am sure you can just amass private wealth within one term and let the country burn to the ground.

One playthrough took me about 11 - 12 hours. Because of the open nature of gameplay and the vast amount of choices there is a lot of replay potential.

too long don't care to read: it's less game and more experience and I recommend it on the basis that you get it on a sale or in a bundle.

Witch Stranding is full of atmosphere, from visuals to sound. A lot of the game is conveyed purely from being in the world. There is very little text, but it's well written and mostly between the lines. It adds to the mystique of it all, but doesn't make anything clearer. Most of the game is simply felt.

Especially through your movements. You only have your mousecursor, and you will move it around a lot. Quite strenuous on longer play sessions tbh. It is very tactile and a lot of the gameplay, as well as the feeling of your surroundings, is conveyed through your your movements. To me that's the biggest plus of Witch Stranding.

Unfortunately the game doesn't really give much feedback on what you're doing. Are you performing well? Are you on the right way? What should you do next? ... I couldn't figure it out.

I played the game for 3 hours, unlocked "the heart", couldn't find the witch and stopped playing at some point.
I started a new game (which deletes the previous save), played for another hour. I performed better by my own metric (ie less deaths, faster progress towards "the heart", more requests fullfilled), but I do not feel, like I am getting it now.

Actually it feels like it makes no difference at all. Helping the animals and reconstructing the structures, clearing hexes and brambles ...I am pretty sure the game doesn't care about anything of it. There is a clock tracking time, and when you die, time is sped up. A new day makes the animals move a few tiles, creates new requests and replenishes some items. But it doesn't seem to make any difference to the gameworld, or the witch ...or me. It's weird.

Despite being confused and not able to finish the game I am quite fond of the experience. My only gripe is, that it's way too expensive. The price generates an expectation that Witch Stranding can't fullfill.

Does what it says on the box.
There is no gameplay, there are no goals, there are no rules.
It's just you and your colofrull blocks.
Create Islands, and cities, and spires, and gardens, arches and underpasses, and, and, and

It's just eyecandy and relaxing.