Game reviews – Page 65 – Savior Gaming

Rim World

oh Rim World, how the hell do I describe you. Well here is what Steam says.

A sci-fi colony sim driven by an intelligent AI storyteller. Inspired by Dwarf Fortress and Firefly. Generates stories by simulating psychology, ecology, gunplay, melee combat, climate, biomes, diplomacy, interpersonal relationships, art, medicine, trade, and more.

That is copy and pasted directly from Steam. It kind of tells you what the game is, but it really doesn’t tell you anything. My game started with three people crashed on a planet, it can be three random or customized people. You will start by gathering some resources and then building yourself a home. This is around the time a crazed rabbit attacked my startup colony and killed my dog. That isn’t a joke, I skipped the tutorial because I figured how hard can it be? Well, I didn’t know how to do anything and the damn bunny killed my dog before I figured it out.

After I went back to the tutorial, which you should play, things got a bit better. Notice I did not say easier. Why? Because the entire game is just trying to kill you. From food to raiders to animals, it can all kill you. In fact, the game is more or less designed to kill you. Yea you can escape the world you crash on but until you get some experience this isn’t likely. For me the fun was just building stuff and trying to survive raids and seeing what happens. Is a bunny going to attack? Are their robots in these ruins? Who knows. There are also some pretty insane mods. I don’t use mods but I saw one that basically let you build in space, one that lets you make prisoners work for you.

The game, in general, is just a lot of fun, even when you lose. If you like building and survival games, this one is worth checking out just know that it isn’t easy. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order trailer

As every main hero of Star Wars has had to deal with, I too feel a powerful sense of conflict after seeing this trailer. The trailer’s story looks awesome; I love the idea of a young Jedi having to live in secrecy, hiding from the Empire and the Inquisitors, not trying to fight a grand rebellion but simply stay alive. BUT, there is a dark side- its a EA game. After the complaints about Anthem, as well as the last hand full of games they produced, it’s no wonder a game fan would cringe. There is hope I’m sure as always, at least I’m praying to the gaming gods there is but I ain’t holding my breath. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Victoria 2 (PC)

Victoria 2 is a grand strategy game from Paradox Interactive and is considered by many to be one of their more difficult games to master due to its complexity. I by no means consider myself a master, or even good at the game, I simply know how to play a bit. I have some experience with their other games such as Stellaris Console Edition (PS4) and Crusader Kings 2 (PC) and I have to admit, it truly is far more complex.

To start you pick a real-world country in the 19th century, and manage it in just about every aspect possible. I will use America as an example since that is where the tutorial takes place and it is my home country. You start just prior to the Texas war for independence from Mexico and is really one of your first major decisions. Do you want to get involved or do you leave them alone to fend for themselves? Well wanting to do the right thing for America, I helped them out and they later became a state, true to life. From here I was setting tax rates, attempting to settle Oklahoma and out west more and moved into what is now Canada. This pissed off the British who at this point still own Canada, they then invaded me. Not know how to really defend myself they took over my new settlements in the north, and the New England states all the way down to New York before I restarted the game.

I decided to not piss off Britan and rush the American Civil war by instantly pissing off the south over slavery, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of rebels and the North getting stomped in the Civil war. After that every 6 months a new civil war would start. Yup, time to restart.

Around the 5th restart I got the hang of the game, most of what is modern America eas under my control, I managed to outlaw slavery while avoiding the American Civil war completely and my tax rate was almost 0 due to my economy being insane with investments all around the world. Until the British, Mexico and for some reason I still don’t understand Haiti invaded me. About 2 months in and Hati quit the war, but fighting in both the north and south was taking its toll on my troops and economy. About 6 years later Mexico asked for peace and gives me Arizona for me to leave them be. The damn Britsh are the bane of my existence tho.

These are the types of scenarios you will come across in Victoria 2, and they get even more insane and weird if you decide to start as a country like Italy or Egypt. You can do things like make Canada never exist, let the Cherokee thrive, have a small African nation take over Asia, your skill level and imagination are the only things stopping you. Well, that and a pretty high learning curve and make no mistake, it is high. That is the only real issue with the Paradox grand strategy games, they take time and dedication to learn, but damn are they worth it. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Depraved (PC)

Depraved is a pretty typical city builder but this one has some survival aspects to it as well. This is a nice change of pace from the usual build stuff, wait awhile build new stuff we usually get. This time in the old west you are not only picking a spot to build that will allow you ample room to build, but also access to supplies such as rock, wood, and food. You will then need to build enough houses for everyone, give them jobs and attract new people.

If this sounds easy, it is because I haven’t gotten to the part yet where bears will occasionally attack you if you wander too close, the winter will come and attempt to freeze you to death. Bandit attacks will also come and go because what is the wild west without that?

The game does a great job of making you decide what to build and when since it won’t be easy to stockpile materials in the early game. You will constantly be building something to attract more people or keep people alive. For an early access game, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of content, and I will be checking back in or more. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Far: Lone Sails (PS4)

As always I like to get my full disclosure out of the way, Far: Lone Sails is made by Okomitive who was kind enough to give me a review copy of the game. It is always appreciated.

Far: Lone Sails is a simple concept. Take your machine (shown below) and travel this seemingly post-apocalyptic world.

You have quite a bit to manage between keeping your engine going, picking up the items you use for fuel and not smashing into things. The further you go however you can upgrade your ship. I won’t spoil what upgrades you get, but they do make certain things easier or give you fewer things within your ship to focus on, but this does come with a trade-off. While things are easier within your ship things outside get a bit tougher.

The game, however, is never all that hard, and I don’t believe it is meant to be. I had quite the relaxing time with this game. Watching the scenery go by was amazing and beautiful. The weather changing, the ever-changing world as amazing to look at.

The sound was also nice, the chugging of the engines the steam pushing the ship faster, me slamming it into a wall. All the sounds in game served their purpose well and the music set the scene in ways I never expected going into it. I was constantly thinking about what could possibly have happened to this world, wondering why it became what it is, where am I going, where did this ship come from? These are the questions I had kept me going. Are there answers? I won’t tell you. I knew nothing about this game going into it and you shouldn’t either. The true joy of the game is simply going and seeing it all.

The game isn’t perfect, as no game is but I truthfully can’t point to anything truly wrong with it aside from it being rather short and for its price point ($14.99 I believe on Steam and consoles I believe) that isn’t an issue. This one is a solid 9/10 worth buying. I greatly enjoyed it. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Romero Games And Paradox Interactive Team Up

Reported by Variety and announced on Twitter by Brenda Romero, Romero Games (Gunman Taco Truck and Dangerous Dave in the Deserted Pirate’s Hideout) for mobile. Not much has been said, except that more will be announced at E3 this year and it is a strategy game of some sort. Don’t let the name Romero fool you tho, it is a pretty popular last name and there is no relation with the famed director George A Romero so chances are it is not a horror-themed game despite some speculation I have seen in some forums. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Forest Revisited (PS4)

I reviewed The Forest (PS4) when it first came out, but I thought after a few updates I would revisit it and let you guys know how the game is progressing. I won’t go into detail too much about the game itself, as you can just read my original review. Suffice it to say it is a survival horror game.

Some of my original complaints were of frame rate drops or some graphics issues when games were rendering at a distance. I am happy to say recent updates have mostly solved these problems. Obviously, no game is perfect. The caves are still insanely dark even with the brightness maxed out. There seems to be no fix for this. Some light sources help more than others, like the flashlight. But it is just one of those things you will have to deal with.

The more recent update has added some new caves and late game enemies. The stability has also greatly increased which is pretty nice, tho admittedly sometimes while in caves and transitioning between inside and outside there are some pretty big slowdowns. None of this is game breaking or even all that annoying, it does exist tho. The game is still worth a purchase for any fan of the genre. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Battle Ages (PS4)

Anyone that has played games for more than a few weeks knows, don’t expect much from a free to play game. They are almost always pay to win, are rarely well made and usually are not worth the time it takes to download. There are exceptions to the rule of course. Warframe, for example, is a great game and I hear great things about Path Of Exiles, which I will play with it out on PS4 today as a matter of fact. (Look for that review soon) Battle Ages, well god damn.

Battle Ages is bad by even free to play standards. I have seen better looking mobile games, and the time to upgrade things starts out fairly high so I can only imagine what the late game ends up being. You have to rebuild your troops after every battle, even if they don’t die and man are they stupid. They will stand there and get attacked by enemy defenders to the point I watched 10 guys get slaughtered by 1 defender because they wouldn’t stop attacking a wall to kill him.

Never expect much from free to play games, but expect something. Even with those low expectations, this game falls low below them. It took about a minute to download, and I consider that a waste of time. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Princess Guide (PS4 Review)

The Princess Guide, set to release March 26th, 2019 from NIS America. As always in the interest of full disclosure to you guys, they were kind enough to once again toss me a review copy which I am always appreciative and honored to get. The Princess Guide is the story of you, a former soldier turned tutor so to speak. Your student? One of four princesses each with their own story to watch unfold and each with their own desires and missions.

The battles take place in real time in a sort of action RPG style. Each commander has troops you can recruit with their own style of attacks, such as magic or swords. They also can be ut into different formations that have different effects. Need higher defense or attack? There is a formation for that. Want to heal? They have that covered as well. When you are controlling a princess in battle you can praise or scold her, and this interestingly enough helps her increase knowledge which will increase her stats and even comes into play when it is time to upgrade weapons.

The graphics are nice, while admittedly not the best out there I have no complaints. Even with a dozen or more characters fighting on the screen at once I never noticed any framerate drops or glitching. The sound is also nice with the music setting each scene nicely.

My only real issue with the game honestly is, I didn’t have fun with it. I felt like I spent to much time grinding away to power up my princess for the next battle. Also, the fact that I had to use commanders that weren’t the princess seemed to interfere with training her which annoyed me to no end. Obviously, these are pretty subjective and may not bother you at all. I wouldn’t steer you guys away from the game on those grounds alone but for me, that hurt the experience quite a bit. The game is solid, but it just wasn’t fun for me. The game is still a solid 7/10, but it just didn’t do it for me. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

7’scarlet Review (Steam)

7’scarlet is the newest game developed by Idea Factory and published by Intragames, who full disclosure tossed me a copy to review. I am also kinda glad they did because I truly never would have bought this type of game in a million years. I would have seen it, thought it looked interesting but never got around to it. Why you may ask, well it plays out like a visual novel. I have no issue with visual novels, by the way, they just aren’t my thing. This game may have changed that tho.

The story starts off explaining what is going on, which is you are laying the role of a young woman searching for her brother with her friend from when she was a child. This will lead you to the town of Okunezato which is surrounded by all kinds of mystery and intrigue. From the political atmosphere to the odd relationship between the owner of the hotel and the police officer. I know this all seems pretty vague, but it has too. The entire point of this is the story itself, and it would be wrong of me to spoil that and it is worth the experience. In fact, it is designed to be played multiple times as there are multiple paths to take with various characters. This will allow you to see the entire story and adds plenty of replay value.

The game is also quite beautiful to look at which I feel is pretty important for this style of game since you wouldn’t want to feel like you were reading a book instead of playing a game. That, however, is my only complaint. As aesthetically pleasing as the game is to look at, and as enjoyable as the story is, it is still a lot of reading and kinda felt like one massive cut scene even tho I did have to make choices at times. If you like to read books or visual novels this is a great game, it also was nice to relax with. It just wasn’t very exciting, and if you are used to shooters or action games this may not be for you.

As always tho I judge the games I play based off what the designers were creating and the functionality of it, and with a great story, no serious technical faults that I ran into and nice visuals I feel comfortable giving this one an 8/10, but pointing out it is not for everyone. Enjoy the trailer below that I added because honestly, I love the music. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.