The Witness

The Witness is a game of maze puzzles in a pleasant atmosphere.

Overview

The Witness is a long series of little mazes to solve. The environment hints at a deeper story, although I didn't play long enough to figure it out. The mazes themselves are fun, but after doing dozens of them I would need a break. 

Recommendation

It's hard to recommend The Witness. For me, it was too repetitive. I really liked The Talos Principle and I can't quite put my finger on the difference. While slow, The Talos Principle had a plot to figure out. Also, the puzzles felt more clever. The Witness feels like doing a whole bunch of Sudoku puzzles. I like the occasional Sudoku, but I don't want to do them back to back for hours.

Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords

KOTOR 2

Kotor2 is a popular Star Wars game, expanding on the lore of the Old Republic in the wake of Revan.

Overview

The game itself is a real-time over-the-shoulder team-based RPG. The game mechanics are heavily influenced by the d20 Star Wars game. You follow a mostly linear plot, gain levels, acquire companions, and get better gear.

Assessment

Graphics

This game is over ten years old and hasn't aged all that well. The graphics aren't distractingly bad, but people watching me play commented, "wow, how old is that game?"

The movement scripts are pretty good, though. It's fun watching lightsabers flash and deflect blasters.

Gameplay/Combat

I specialized in melee, and all encounters were far too easy. In general combat didn't feel very good. When you start to attack, you get to queue up your actions. That's great, but for some reason you can't queue up buffs unless there is an attack. Very annoying. Also, one of the companions would often do a melee attack when I queued up a spell. Also annoying. Between the annoyances and the ease of fights, combat was tedious.

On the other hand, some of the force powers are pretty cool. At the end, Force Lightning was decimating everything.

Puzzles/Bonus Quests

Ugh, so bad. I should have skipped more of these. Too much running around doing nothing, punctuated with boring combat. Puzzles were generally too obvious, with the occasional "what do I do now?"

Main Story

The actual story was decent. This is the only reason I can think to play this game. The dialogue is very well done.

Level Up

Good. Leveling up is pretty fun. There are a lot of choices. You have enough variety of companions to cover any weaknesses in case you make a mistake. You eventually gain enough levels that you start down one path and change your mind. At the end, I was gaining powers I never planned to use (melee skills on a mage, force powers on a fighter).

Items

Poor. Getting new items is pretty comparable to other RPGs. However, there is to convenient way to compare item. "Cool. I found a Mandalorian Shield. Uh... what does it do?" Instead of a quick tooltip of the abilities, you have to dig through menus and scroll through an unsorted list of items to find the new thing. For the most part, I didn't bother. Every few levels I would see if I had somehow acquired a better items.

Crafting

Mediocre. The crafting system is almost cool, but it has a few problems. The biggest problem is that it is not clear what item upgrades fit into which items. Is "Energy Absorption 3" underlayer or overlayer?

Companions

Mixed bag. There is a lot of variety in your companions and their stories develop. However, none of them are very deep, and it's not easy to extract the story. Every so often you have to talk to them and go through the same dialog choices you have seen a dozen times before you know if there is anything new. The different companions are great, though. Something for everyone.

Voice Acting/Dialogue

The voice acting is always good and often outstanding. It pairs with good writing to make you look forward to talking with NPCs. 

The Sith Restored Content Mod

Also known as M4-78 mod, this comes highly recommended, but I disagree. It adds another planet, but the puzzles and voice acting are done by fans. The quality of the puzzles are about the same as the rest of the game, except the running around is even worse. While the voice acting is very good for a fan mod, it is far inferior to the excellent work done in the game. Since I consider the voice acting the best part of the game, this Mod is worse than pointless.

Overall

Kotor2 is generally boring with dated graphics. The highlights are the voice acting. It took me 78 hours to play but 20 would have been more tolerable. Overall, I don't recommend.

Fallout 76

Fallout 76

A massively single player RPG.

I'm a fan of the Fallout genre. I've played Fallouts 1,2,3,4 and Fallout Shelter. Fallout 4 is my favorite, and I like MMORPGs, so Fallout 76 should have been a slam dunk. 

Single or Multiplayer

Unfortunately, Fallout 76 incorporates the worst features of a single and multiplayer games. The world doesn't have many other players in it and doesn't really encourage grouping. There is no player economy. For the most part it feels like a single player game. 

As a single player game, Fallout 76 falls short. You can't pause, you can't save the game easily. There are no actual NPCs. Quest lines are shallow. Playing Fallout 76 made me want to replay Fallout 4 to explore areas I missed.

Team Play

Where Fallout 76 shines is playing with a group of friends. It has built-in voice communication and squad combat is fun. You can teleport to people in your group and use each other's bases. You can trade blueprints, weapons, ammo, or whatever. Difference in levels is handled fairly well.

Recommendation

Buy Fallout 76 if you want to play with friends. As a single player or mmo, it is lackluster.

Disciples 3: Reincarnation

Disciples 3

A turn based strategy game with tactical combat, a strategic map, and rpg elements.

Overview

Disciples 3: Reincarnation follows the long tradition of tactical combat on a strategic map. You control one or more heroes who command a small squad. You roam the map looking for goodies while following the story line. Your hero and followers can gain levels and equipment, and you can build your home base.

I lost interest with this game before finishing the first scenario, so this review might be skewed.

Story

The story seemed pretty generic and I wasn't engaged. On the other hand, it didn't get in the way very much. If thought of as a loose reason to move from fight to fight, it was sufficient. I liked the setting, though. It is a little more grungy medieval without a lot of the high fantasy elements you generally see in a game with wizards and angels.

Combat

What should be the meat of the game feels very bland. Combat is only a small step up from Final Fantasy style. There are few real decisions because most moves are obvious. Frequently you overpower the enemy so you can auto-resolve the combat. Unfortunately the AI is not very good so don't be too liberal with this. Also, auto-resolving the "most fun" parts of a game does not bode well.

Strategic Map

The exploring the map is a bland experience. There are a lot of resources to be collected, but it isn't exciting. Really it's just a mechanic to get from fight to fight. Some fights are too difficult and must be avoided and it's a little tedious examining enemy forces to make that determination. 

There is very little time pressure so you can wander around to pick up all the treasure and fight the easy fights, then go back and fight the harder encounters once you are higher level. That sounds extremely boring to me, but the alternative is sub-optimal play.

Often treasures are difficult to see because they might be under a tree or something. You can get around this by rotating the map, but what a pain.

This game triggers one of my biggest pet peeves in turn-based games. After a combat, you don't automatically heal. This means that you might intentionally drag combat out a few turns to give your healer a chance to catch up. This is both mechanically annoying and breaks the fiction. If my healer can cast a spell every minute in combat, why can't he cast a spell when I am spending days to travel across the map?

RPG Elements

You can have more than one hero, although it looks like you only really want one squad for fighting. Perhaps a second hero might make sense for picking up treasure.

Heroes gain levels and have a skill tree. Most of the skills in the tree are very bland and just points on the way to the interesting powers. Even the "interesting" powers weren't exciting to me. Equipping items are similarly bland. Generally they are things like +15% fire resistance.

Followers also gain levels. With each level they gain a predetermine skill. Every three levels they can be promoted to a more powerful unit. This feels exactly right. There is just enough variety to be interesting without having to micromanage mundane choices.

Buildings

Buildings allow your followers to be promoted. In the first scenario, money isn't a problem and buildings are mostly an automatic process with no real decision making. You can choose if you want your mages to be wizards or elementalists but the game could have that decision be made when your follower is ready for promotion. There is no building time or building prerequisites. 

Art

I like the art. The design is good. The animations are good, but they get old quickly. After half an hour I set the animation speed to maximum, and it was still clunky.

Conclusion

Despite my criticisms, Disciples 3 is a fine game for the genre. The tactics aren't complicated but they aren't totally brain-dead simple. You can get attached to your squad as it levels up. The story is light, but it isn't bad. For a similar game, I would recommend Mordheim: City of the Damned.

Dishonored

Dishonored

A stealth/combat game with a rich setting and good character development.

Summary

This game feels very much like Assassin's Creed with a little Shadow of Mordor. I enjoyed both of those games more than Dishonored. However, if you like that style of game, Dishonored is very true to the genre.

I really like the settings of Assassin's Creed and Shadow of Mordor. The world of Dishonored is fine, but doesn't have a massive body of lore to expand on like those other games.

In the end, I wouldn't especially recommend Dishonored unless you like the stealth genre but don't want to play those other titles.

Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley

A cute farming game with lots to do.

Overview

At first glance, Stardew Valley is a farming simulator but once you get into it there is much more. You get to learn the personalities of everyone in the town. There is an interesting plot that is slowly revealed. Besides farming, there are other activities like fishing, mining, crafting, combat, and all sorts of collecting. There is a lot of depth to it.

The Good

There are lots of things to do and you can pick whatever style you prefer to focus on. Every type of sub-game has a fair amount to do, so there are many avenues of progression. Collection is a big part of the game.

The Bad

Like other farming games, there is no real challenge. There is some enjoyment in finding optimal ways to achieve your goals, but at the core the game is little more than grinding. Watching the story unfold is enjoyable but it is slow.

The Neutral

I'm not a fan of the retro art style and game interface. However, it is done well so if you are a fan you will likely enjoy it. The inhabitants of the town have extensive scripts, but ultimately I did not care much about them.

Conclusion

Stardew Valley is very good for a relaxing way to pass time. If you enjoy farming simulators or simple RPGs, you will certainly enjoy this game.

Broken Age

Broken Age

A cute point and click adventure game.

Point-and-click isn't my favorite genre. I've played many, and I certainly have fond memories of Monkey Island and Space Quest. There are some great Telltale Games out there (RIP, Telltale).

The Good

Broken Age has a lot going for it. The artistic style is unique, the voice acting is incredible, the plot is fresh, and it has a neat gimmick where you switch between two characters.

Art & Sound

Some people love the art in Broken Age. It is very unique and creative and adds much to the surreal atmosphere. For me, it is easy for "unique" art to be distracting, but Broken Age managed to find the line between entertaining and off-putting. 

The voices actors have an impressive cast including Elijah Wood, Will Wheaton, Jack Black, and Jennifer Hale (one of the most talented game voice actors out there). The dialog is well written and has a lot of funny lines when you attempt to do the wrong thing.

Plot

I've played so many adventure games that it is rare to see such a fresh plot. Normally I sit back and watch the story unfold, but the twists in Broken Age kept me guessing and that engaged me further.

The Bad

Broken Age suffers from the same problems as all point-and-click games. It is easy to miss a hot-spot on the screen. Sometimes the "correct solution" doesn't really make sense. Often you have to figure out puzzles through trial and error, applying all of your inventory items on all the screen hot-spots.

Puzzles are hard to balance. It's hard to know where a player will be stuck and need a hint vs. a player is who just starting to try things. For example, if there is a lock a smart player might try to put a key in it. Someone playing around might put a spoon in it and get the response "that spoon can't unlock the door". I mean.. thanks for the hint, but I don't think most people need a hint that a key goes into a door. On the other hand, Broken Age had a few spots where I missed a single piece of dialog and wasn't sure how to proceed. In general, however, the puzzles were more likely to have too many hints than too few.

Conclusion

Broken Age is of the highest quality. If you are in the mood for a point-and-click adventure, you won't go wrong.