Recent reviews by Paikia

I've finally started playing this game, although it's been waiting in my library for a while now. I kind of forgot about it, but I recently noticed there was a DLC out, right about the time I was looking for something new to play, so I figured I'd get the DLC and give this game its rightful chance.

I can't give you a thorough review yet, but I can tell you that at least so far (10 hours in), this game feels just like the previous games in the series, or at least like Civilization 2-5. I've never played the first, so I don't really know what it was like. I'll get to the specifics after spending some more time playing, but generally, it's pretty much what I was expecting, and what I suppose anyone who's ever played a Civilization game before should expect.

Anyway, I know this game wasn't received as well as the last couple of Civilization games, and honestly, if there's a good reason for that, I haven't found it yet. I'm writing these very lines after forcing myself to stop playing, so I could get some sleep before a long day tomorrow. I could have otherwise easily kept on playing for a few more hours at least.

More info to come as soon as I feel I have a good enough grasp of the specifics, especially in comparison to the previous games in the series.

Update (14h+):
While my general opinion of the game hasn't changed much since I started playing, I figured I'd share what I now consider to be its biggest flaw, which was also mentioned and discussed by many other reviewers. While the formula hasn't changed much since Civilization 5, the game's main backstory theme has, and in my opinion, it has changed for the worse. Up until Civilization 5, the series, at least for me, was about history, culture and progress. While Beyond Earth is also about progress, it lacks the other elements. Sure, each faction has its own history and culture, but those are totally alien and meaningless to me, as they're not an important part of the game, and I feel no urge to learn about them. If Civilization 5 was based, loosely as it was, on some true historical background, Beyond Earth is pure fiction in that regard. Some people may find this futuristic theme curious and refreshing, but I, for one, would rather have it the way it was before.

Having all that said, as of now, there's no other strategy game I'd rather play. Not even Civilization 5, which has my highest playing time count (500h+) on record ever since I installed Steam.

When I read the game description, my first thought was that it would probably be something like Giana Sisters, as in a medium-paced platformer with the occasional puzzle. As I read further and realized the emphasis would be more about puzzles, I supposed it might be a little more like Nihilumbra, meaning slow-paced + puzzles. After actually playing for a little more than an hour, I can say for sure that Mushroom 11 is much more a puzzle game than a platformer.

Is that good or bad? I don't know, depends on which of those genres you like better. Personally, I'm usually not into complex puzzle games. I often find them tedious and generally uninteresting. This one, however, just like Nihilumbra, has a unique feel to it, that got me curious enough to keep going.

When I first launched the game, I picked up my Xbox controller and was expecting to play with it. When the game wasn't responding to the controller, I checked the options menu, expecting to find there an option to activate it... except there was no such option. I imagined Grumpy Cat look at me and say "No controller for you, dumbass! Deal with it!". So I went on and started playing with the mouse. The control felt really awkward for me at first. It took me a while to figure it out, but I have been learning along the way. Also, the game is quite challenging. Most of the puzzles got me thinking for a while before I could find the solution. Same for the bosses, and I'm only at chapter 3 (out of 7).

The game looks and sounds well, the level designs are really cool, and maybe most importantly, it runs smoothly and quickly. Nothing too fancy about it - no extra weight.

Ugh... what now? Oh, right - the bottom line!

Well, the bottom line is, that this game is mainly about patience, creativity and solving problems. You don't need fast reflexes or a good eye-hand coordination to play, but you do need to be patient and think. If you think that's for you - Mushroom 11 will definitely be a lot of fun for you. Otherwise, it might get tedious and frustrating very quickly.

I really liked Sid Meier's Railroads. When I discovered Train Fever and decided to buy it, I really hoped it would be a worthy successor, as Sid Meier's Railroads is pretty much an antique by today's standards. I've been editing this review quite a few times as I've been playing and learning the game, and after playing for around 25 hours, I believe I finally have a good enough perspective to give a thorough and fair review.

The positive points:
1) The game is, or at least *should be*, fun to play, if and when it works properly. Needless to say, I wouldn't have wasted 25 hours playing a game I didn't enjoy playing, so that fact speaks for itself.
2) The vehicles look good, graphically. I can't judge for myself how accurate and realistic they look, but by reading other reviews and comments, I got the impression the developers did quite a good job about that.
3) The soundtrack is nice and fun to listen to while playing.


The negative points:
1) The performance is *really* bad. I have a decent PC. Nothing too fancy or cutting-edge, but enough to run most modern games smoothly on medium-high settings (Cities: Skylines, for one). Train Fever, on the other hand, barely works. It starts out okay, but as soon as the cities get a little larger than their starting size and there are over 30-40 vehicles moving, the game stutters constantly. I read somewhere that the main reason for that is that the game only uses one CPU core, as it doesn't support multi-core. All in all, the game seems not to use the hardware resources it has, which implies poor programming.

2) The interface is very uncomfortable, there are no tutorials or in-game beginner-friendly guides to help understand how the game works. The information screens are vague and confusing. You pretty much need to learn the basics by trial and error, which is quite frustrating, considering you also have to struggle with the lousy performance while at it. I work as an accountant and I deal with companies' financial reports on a daily basis, but even I have been having troubles figuring out the financial data the game gives me about my company. Totally counter-intuitive. Needless to say, I know practically nothing about engineering or anything related to trains, which seems like a serious disadvantage when playing such a game. I've managed to improve a bit in my track building skills, but I'm still pretty clueless about how the cargo industries work, and the little I do know - I had to learn from a guide I read online. The little information the game gives about that is so cryptic, that it made me wonder what the developers had in mind when they released the game in such a state.

3) Not enough content. There are no AI competitors, no random events, no side-quests, missions or anything else to make the game more interesting. While the game could be interesting enough without all those things (if it worked properly), they would sure be an important addition.

All in all, I only recommend this game to hard-core fans of the genre, and even then - I'd suggest waiting for it to go on sale. For anyone else, I'd suggest to pass on this game. Not worth it.

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EDIT (August 7, 2016): While I stand by my analysis of the game, I decided I've been enjoying the game so much (as evident by my play-time counter, that has already passed the 100 hours mark), that it would be unfair on my part to leave the negative rating as it is, so I'm about to flip it to positive.

This isn't a real review yet, as so far I've merely been playing around for an hour or so, trying to feel the game.

The little I can tell you already, is that this game does have a refreshing feel. There's nothing really fancy about it, as there is no voice acting and there are no extra-impressive animation sequences. The game does look and sound good, though. So what's so refreshing about it? Well, for one, it took me 15 minutes of walking around the city, just to figure out where's the exit I needed. Unlike many other modern games, this one seems to be also about exploration, as it lets you wander around and get to know the environment, instead of leading you by the hand from one place to the other. The basic storyline seems like it has a good potential to become really interesting, as each of the main characters has his/her unique personality and back story. I really hope the story turns out to be as good as I expect.

As for the battle-system, so far it looks like a standard JRPG system, but just like with the other aspects of the game, it's too early for me to have any real opinion about it.

I'll keep you posted as I play along.

Paikia out!

Finally, a good city builder after all these years! Cities: Skylines seems to handle very well everything the other recent city builders couldn't. For starters - it works. I'll admit the game did crash once for me, but it seems to have been an isolated incident. After playing 26 hours, this one crash is the only negative I can come up with. The game seems to squeeze all the juice out of my system in terms of CPU and GPU usage (Intel i7 Quad Core 2.67Ghz, 16GB RAM, Geforce GTX465), but in return it gives me a smooth and enjoyable playing experience! Unlike the competition, you can build large cities, but there are no slowdowns, no stuttering and no need to restart the game every 30 minutes.

As of now, to my knowledge, Cities: Skylines is the only good city building game available. The other two I'm aware of (Simcity, Cities XXL) don't even come close, as they have too many problems.

Since I've only started playing, I won't presume to know enough about the game to give you a full review, but I do have a couple of impressions already. The first of which, is that the game looks cool and interesting. Graphics aren't too impressive, but aren't bad either. Voice acting is solid.

As for the story and game mechanics I still can't say much, except that the story looks like it has a lot of potential, and the battles are quite difficult, to say the least. I consider myself a reasonably experienced Strategy/RPG gamer, yet I find the battles in this game very challenging. Actually, "very challenging" is an understatement too. I guess I should have used the word "frustrating" instead, but since I've only just started, I'm giving the game the benefit of the doubt and assuming it simply has a somewhat steep learning curve. :)

Anyway, I'll keep you people posted with new impressions as I play, hopefully to make this post worthy to be considered a full review eventually. :)

This might not be a thorough review, but after 16 hours of playing this game, I do feel I have enough to share about Banished.

If I wanted to describe "Banished" using a single phrase, I guess that phrase would be "Colony Management". All you do in this game, is manage your colony. You are responsible for the lives and the well-being of your colonists, sometimes very literally. For example, if during the summer you neglect an important aspect, such as producing food, your colonists will probably starve and not survive the cold winter. Or, for another example, you don't make sure your colonists have enough wood and the ability to use it to warm their houses during the winter, they'll just die of hypothermia. So far, the game's formula seems simple, yet deep and complex enough to make it interesting and carry the weight of an entertaining game.

Visually, Banished looks really well. There's nothing too fancy about the game's graphics, as it seems the developers were smart enough to focus their efforts and resources on other aspects of the game, but they obviously did enough to make everything really polished and smooth. I really liked the weather effects, they really sell the seasonal theme of the game. I raised the game's settings to the maximum and it runs very smoothly. Up until now I haven't encountered any bugs or problems. No crashes, no slowdowns, nothing - pure gameplay experience! While I do have a decent computer (Quad-Core i7, 12GB RAM, Geforce GTX465), it seems like this game could handle itself well enough with much cheaper hardware.
The only aspect I'm a litthe disappointed of, is the audio. There are important sounds effects, but the music is so insignificant, that after 15 minutes I decided to turn the game music off, so I could listen to popular music while playing.

If you like colony management games, you should definitely try Banished. While it might not be an incredible AAA game or a pure city-builder, it's easily better than the broken and buggy Simcity and Cities XL.

I promise to update this review if I learn anything more worthy of sharing.

After a couple of hours of playing, all I can say is that the game looks like it has potential, but I kind of got the feeling that's all there is to it. Sure, I got my post office, I hired a couple of clerks, a couple of sorters, a few vehicles to collect and deliver letters, and I even got to buy another post office, linked them together and so on. So I switch to Fast Forward, watch as everything happens, and.... I'd say that's a nice start, but okay, what now?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's a bad game, and the mere couple of hours I spent playing are hardly a fair chance, but so far, this game seems like it could be great foundations for a better game, but I'm not sure it's worth much on its own.

I will update this review as I give this game at least another hour of playing before giving up, it's definitely worth at least that much. :)

Many recent Indie games I tried felt like unfinished, half baked products by lazy developers who've been trying to ride a trend for some easy money and fame, leaving me feel cheated and disappointed. Not The Banner Saga, though. This game looks like a lof ot talent, effort and hard work had been poured into it, and that alone, in my book, means a lot.

The Banner Saga is a tactical Strategy RPG with a deep, intense story. The graphics and soundtrack are great, but what I like the most here, is the story. The atmosphere of the game is really dark, as the story is about a violent and bloody war. There's a lot of death, injuries, bloodshed and grief. Some people might consider such a setting to be problematic or even inappropriate for such a game, but I kind of like it. It's a refreshing look on things, at the very least. Just don't expect too many rainbows and unicorns. :)

Another good aspect of the game, in my opinion, is the choices. Some people complain they don't have enough influence on the game. While I agree that it would be great if the choices had more weight, I think they do offer enough replayability value. Going through the game just once hardly feels like all there is to it, as I know if left me quite curious to play again, make different decisions and see where it leads me.

As for the strategy part of the game, it's certainly one of the better parts of the game for me. The battle system is simple to learn (should be almost intuitive for anyone who's ever played such games before), but seems to have enough depth and balance to be appealing and interesting. It kind of reminds me of the battle system in Expeditions: Conquistador (another great tactical RPG, btw).

As of now I haven't beaten the game, but I did get to the final battle. I ended up losing quite a few times, after which I simply got frustrated and gave up. I restarted the game, got kind of half-way before losing a mid-game battle and getting a 'Game Over'. The reason I'm describing all this, is to point out what I consider to be the only two real problems I have (or used to have) with the game:

1) At the time, the difficulty level of the final battle was much higher than anything else you encountered during the game, and I don't mean "slightly" or "moderately" higher (which would make sense, considering it's the final battle), I mean it was REALLY much more difficult. I know many people have been complaining about this, enough to have the developers address and fix this issue, which probably means it should be okay now.

2) The game is somewhat vague regarding the consequence of losing a battle. In most cases, if you lose a battle you can still continue playing, but you suffer some negative consequences. In a few specific battles, though, losing means getting a "Game Over". It means you can get back to your last save and try again, but you don't get to continue playing despite the loss, as you would after losing a normal battle. This wouldn't be a problem for me, btw, if the game was clear about the rules. I'd expect to get at least a clue, that I'm facing a critical battle that I must win in order to survive. Well, the game doesn't give you anything to indicate there's a difference.

Despite those two problems, I really like the game. It's one of the better games I encountered during the last few years. I'm kind of disappointed I didn't get to beat the game yet, but I did really enjoy playing it, regardless.

EDIT (March/31/2016): By now I've managed to win the final battle and beat the game on 'normal' (the medium difficulty level). While I'm happy to have finally succeeded, I still feel the spike in the difficulty level was too much.

The basic idea of the game seems interesting, but it feels like that's all there is - a nice general gameplay principle. Everything else is.... isn't! I'll gladly spend time and money on a real game based on the idea of this game, but this particular game is hardly enough to keep me interested, sorry. :(