Recent reviews by widgetguy

The Homeworld Remastered Collection includes Homeworld 1 and 2 (not Homeworld Cataclysm) and has had a graphical overhaul, which is very noticeable if you try out the “classic” game versions that are included in the collection. Gameplay-wise though, they play identically to the originals. This means Homeworld is a 3D Real Time Strategy (RTS) game with focus on gathering minerals and building/capturing a massive fleet of space ships to smash your enemy. Note that Homeworld 2 is much more difficult than 1.

Both Homeworld 1 and 2 follow a similar plot, with you trying to get your fleet of survivors from one end of the galaxy to the other while under attack by a powerful enemy who really has it in for you (for different reasons in each game). Along the way you encounter other “races” also intent on wiping you out and stealing your resources. You see your enemies as spaceships pretty much the whole game so they could be 8-legged aliens for all I know. The games’ stories are mainly told in brief cutscenes before each mission, with some voiceover during the missions too. Honestly the campaign’s story isn’t all that compelling, the main draw is gameplay.

Each game is broken up into about 15 missions, but unlike other RTS games you might be familiar with, in Homeworld you start each level with the same resources and fleet that you ended the previous level with. For example, if you did poorly on level 1 and finished the mission with just a couple ships and almost no money, you’d start level 2 ready to get your butt kicked. You’d be better off replaying level 1 for a better outcome. This leads to a strange problem that both Homeworld games have (more for Homeworld 2). The game tries to “scale” the enemy fleet to match yours, for example if you start a mission with 20 ships, the computer might start with 30. If you only have 10 ships, the computer might only have 15. These numbers aren’t accurate, just trying to give you an idea. There is a minimum enemy size though, so don’t think you can sell all your ships at the end of each level to start the next with the enemy having nothing. What this means overall is that the game is always trying to make sure the odds are stacked against you. The unfairness really stands out in a few of the Homeworld 2 missions where you’ll wonder what the game designers were thinking, making it so hard.

The element that really sets Homeworld apart from other RTS games that I’ve played is that the game is truly 3-dimensional. Your ships move vertically as much as horizontally, and there are a few missions where you can just move up and over enemy positions to strike at specific targets. Because the 3D setting makes each level so large, ship speed plays a major role. You can’t just rely on destroyers and heavy cruisers to roll over enemies. They’ll pick you apart with quick strike craft while running away from you. Homeworld doesn’t even have any “bases” except for your mothership (which can’t move in Homeworld 1). The enemies are usually fleets of ships that you need to either chase or evade.

In Homeworld 1, probably the most fun and most satisfying part of the game is the ability to “steal” enemy ships using your salvage corvettes. These small quick craft can latch onto enemy ships and slowly drag them back to your mothership where they get converted to your control. Doing this ignores the game’s “population cap” so you can amass a very impressive fleet by the end of the game. It doesn’t work well in Homeworld 2 since capturing is much slower and you can’t capture over your population cap.

You should try Homeworld Remastered Collection if:
+You’ve played the classic Homeworld games and have a hankering for some nostalgia.
+You want a game you can replay, trying to end with more and more captured ships in your fleet (in Homeworld 1 only). Unfortunately, the second to last level of Homeworld 1 is pretty much designed to bust you up so you’re not overpowered for the end level.

You should NOT play Homeworld Remastered if:
-You’re looking for a game with beautiful graphics. Remastered definitely looks better than the classic versions, but it’s still not “modern” in terms of graphics.
-You’re looking for a polished experience. I noticed some annoying bugs with control groups and ordering ships around that make a very big difference on levels where you’re attacked right from the start. Also, I mentioned that you start each level with your resources from the previous, meaning you will want to harvest every scrap of mineral in each level before exiting. In Homeworld 1 this gets old really fast because it can take more than half an hour for your harvesters to grab all the resources after you’ve defeated the enemies in a level. And sometimes they stop moving for no reason so you can’t go grab a snack while you wait. In Homeworld 2, the levels end immediately after achieving your objective, and all minerals are automatically harvested.
-You’re looking for an easy game. There is no difficulty setting in the game, so you can’t turn it down if you’re having trouble. The enemy fleet scaling is much more noticeable in Homeworld 2 because the enemy almost always has a way to produce ships, so not only do they outnumber you, they keep pumping out more units. In Homeworld 1 the enemy rarely has capacity to build units so you can move slowly and chip away at them without engaging their entire fleet. The last level of Homeworld 2 is an absolute nightmare because you also need to defend a large target from bombardment, often sacrificing your own units.

Soma is a First-Person horror game where you have no weapons of any kind, with the murky ruined environment of Bioshock and the run-for-your-life gameplay of Outlast. This is one of those games that you can blow through in about 5 hours if you’ve played before, but you really should be exploring and reading/listening to all the story snippets that you find lying around. The game has an “easy” mode where you can’t be killed by enemies, in case you only care about story and don’t want to be molested by the various monsters.

*spoilers ahead*
You play Simon, a regular dude who finds himself in an empty post-apocalyptic environment a hundred years in the future. It turns out that in the future, brain scans can be used to build artificial intelligence versions of people (like you), and the “real” Simon died long ago. Your quest is to launch the ARK, a self-contained computer simulation that holds computerized copies of the last few remnants of humanity. You’re not completely alone in this ruined world though. The same technology that brought you to life has also created monsters, and they want to eat your face.

You play Soma in First Person perspective with very simple controls (keyboard and mouse are fine). You don’t have any weapons, and only have a couple of usable tools. This isn’t a true “stealth” game because in Soma there aren’t that many enemies, and the ones you meet aren’t that great at tracking you. In fact, I’m fairly sure that most of them can be outrun if they do see you. This is an immersive horror game, not an action game. There are a few jump scares though, so be warned.

You should play Soma if:
+You’re looking for a scary game, not as scary as Outlast or Amnesia, but definitely enough to creep most people out.
+You like the kind of game where you’re exploring a spooky environment, trying to find out what happened to the world while trying to avoid enemies that pop up occasionally. The story is thought-compelling and pulls you in. I got stuck in a few places because I’m used to games with “objective markers” while Soma just gives you clues of where to go next.

You should NOT play Soma if:
-You generally avoid horror games.
-You want to blast aliens/monsters. You have no weapons and throwing stuff at the monsters only makes them chase after you harder.
-You want something casual or straightforward. As mentioned earlier it can occasionally be unclear what you’re supposed to do next. There’s no game map and some of the puzzles are not intuitive.

Styx is a Third Person stealth game with a steampunk setting and some “magic” elements, somewhat similar to Dishonored. Avoid combat whenever possible, though you do have the ability to defend yourself in 1 vs 1 situations. This is one of those games that’s actually quite short when you replay it, but seems big because there are multiple routes to reach your objectives in each mission.

You play an ugly goblin creature named Styx trying to reach the heart of the World Tree, the source of “amber.” Amber is a kind of addictive magic potion harvested by elves that gives Styx a few powers to help him sneak around. “Someone” is trying to disrupt the uneasy peace between humans and elves, and you are caught in the middle. The story gets kind of confusing since a few of the major players look a lot alike in the “cut scenes,” but your general objectives are made pretty clear. A marker tells you where to go at all times, and like I mentioned earlier the maps are actually not that large. If you don’t care about being stealthy you could probably run through most of the 8 levels in about 30 minutes each.

The game is played almost entirely in Third Person Perspective, only changing to First Person when you’re ducking under tables or in narrow tunnels. You’re going to spend most of your time crouched behind objects and snuffing out light sources as enemies patrol around. Quick save and Quick load are going to be used a lot because when you get sighted by an enemy, physical combat has you at a disadvantage, especially if there’s more than one enemy (which is most of the time). Instead, you’ll have to rely on sneaking up behind guards and silently killing them, then hiding or dumping the corpses so nobody finds them. As you play you gain skill points that can be used to unlock character upgrades. These upgrades persist even when you use mission select, so you can replay levels with more skills later on, kind of like a New Game Plus, except you don’t need to beat the game first.

You should play Styx Master of Shadows if:
+You’re into stealth games like Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Dishonored, Alien Isolation, etc. Yes, you can fight some of the enemies if you get caught, so you’re not completely helpless like in Outlast.
+You’re the kind of player that likes to explore all the different ways to achieve an objective, like in the Hitman game series.

You should NOT play Styx if:
-You’re looking for a “run and gun” action game, or a hack/slash combat game. In Styx, you should be avoiding combat whenever possible. If you get caught, you’ll probably want to quick-load immediately.

Alien Isolation is a First-Person Shooter survival horror game with heavy focus on stealth and avoiding combat, despite having some nice weapons by the end. The game world (space station) is reasonably large, but you can actually run across the map in a few minutes. Well, you could if there wasn’t a creepy unkillable alien listening for your footsteps.

You play Amanda Ripley, the unmentioned daughter of Ellen Ripley, the heroine from in the Alien movie franchise. For over a decade Amanda has been looking for what happened to her mother and the starship Nostromo. It seems that the Weyland-Yutani corporation has done a good job covering up the Nostromo’s destruction, and more importantly the xenomorph creature that killed almost everyone on board. Well, Wey-Yu has heard word of the Nostromo’s flight recorder turning up on a backwater space station, and Amanda, a seasoned engineer/mechanic is going along for the ride. Similar to the city of Rapture in Bioshock 1 & 2, the station is mostly deserted and lays in ruins, but there are a lot of logs/audio recordings lying around for you to get a feel of how everything went to hell.

In terms of gameplay, Alien Isolation seems partway between Outlast and Deus Ex Human Revolution (without the RPG elements). What I mean is that the main enemy of the game, the alien, cannot be killed. You’ve got to run or hide whenever you see it. Mostly hide, because it’s way faster than you and will kill you practically instantly. A couple of your weapons, such as the flamethrower can drive it off for about 10 seconds, but he’ll be back to check the location you burned him at, so you’d better have been running and hiding for the last 10 seconds. There are a lot of vents to crawl around in and your motion detector can help you keep tabs on your enemies as you crouch behind objects, waiting for them to turn their backs so you can sneak by. Unlike Deus Ex, you have no “takedown” attacks on unsuspecting enemies.

The game has a rudimentary crafting system, where you pick up scraps and other materials lying around and can put together throwable weapons with. For example, Molotov cocktails, EMP bombs, and pipe bombs can be put together after you find the blueprints and materials scattered around the station. These items are extremely powerful (often 1 shot kill against anything but the alien) but you really should be sneaking around, not using weapons. Usually when you find ammo it’s 1 bullet, so you only have a nice supply of firepower at the end of the game. Note that the loot you find lying around seems to be randomized, including the loot in fallen enemies. Every time you reload your save, the items you can find are different. The alien’s position also seems partially random. He likes to hide in ceiling vents and drop down if you make too much noise. This can actually be useful if frightened human survivors start shooting at you, because the alien can pop out and chomp on them, saving you the trouble of fighting people who have guns. Of course, this means you’ll have to sneak past the alien instead.

You should play Alien Isolation if:
+You enjoy stealth games. Normal mode is not especially hard but the game has very infrequent autosaves and no quick-saving. Instead you need find save stations scattered around the map, kind of like Dead Space. You can’t quick-save right before a fight and reload if it doesn’t go well. You actually need to reload from the last save station, which could be a while back.
+You liked the Aliens movie franchise and want to get back into that “world.” The game’s plot fits the story of Alien movie 1-3, beyond that I’m not too sure. Pretty much nobody from the movies show up in the game aside from voice recordings, so I guess it’s possible that it fits the canon of all the movies.

You should Not play Alien Isolation if:
-You don’t like stealth. If you like to run and gun like you’re playing Doom, you’ll die horribly over and over. There’s no fighting the alien for most of the game. There are areas of the game where you can run without fear of being heard, but you’re going to spend a lot of time crouched and walking slowly. It’s not just the alien out there, wanting to put holes in you.

Quick Summary: Middle-Earth Shadow of Mordor is a Third Person, Open-world, Hack/Slash RPG with obvious tie-ins to the Lord of the Rings novels and movies (Takes place after The Hobbit and before Fellowship of the Ring). While you will only recognize a few characters, the story is kind of a prequel to the LotR trilogy. If you haven’t read the books or watched the films, it’s likely that you won’t understand a lot of what’s going on in this game (though you might still enjoy the gameplay).

You play Talion, a Ranger like Aragorn from LotR, who has been stationed near the Black Gate to the cursed land of Mordor, where for some time Uruks (upgraded orcs) have been gathering their forces. If you’re familiar with LotR, you’ll know that this is because the dark lord Sauron has returned and is searching for the One Ring of power, while simultaneously building an army so huge that he’d probably win even without his Ring. Without spoiling too much of the storyline I’ll just say that Talion has help from an ancient elf named Celebrimbor, who gives Talion amazing abilities, including magic arrows and the ability to dominate the minds of his enemies.

As mentioned earlier, the game is controlled in Third Person Perspective. If you’ve played Sleeping Dogs, Batman Arkham, or Mad Max, you’ll have a good idea what to expect in terms of both movement and the strike/counter combat system. Just like those listed games, in Shadow of Mordor you will constantly find yourself surrounded by enemies taking turns trying to smack you while you’re fighting off the others. Like Batman, you build up a combo count of how many times you land a hit without getting hit yourself, and when you have a high enough combo you do bonus damage (flaming sword!) and can use instant takedown moves. You also have a powerful bow that can kill most regular enemies with a single headshot (and it also slows down time while you’re zoomed in), so you’ve got more than a fighting chance.

Shadow of Mordor has an unusual “boss” system called the Nemesis system where randomly generated Uruk “captains” roam around the game world, each with their own weaknesses/strengths (such as fear of fire or immunity to ranged weapons). To find out these weaknesses, you need to acquire intel by either finding notes lying around, or by interrogating specific specially marked Uruks. If you’ve played the Batman Arkham games, it’s a lot like finding Riddler info by beating up and questioning thugs who glow green. Each of the captains have a power level that goes up over time (or if they kill you). If you keep getting killed by the same captain, that Uruk will be getting stronger each time. You may find yourself doing this on purpose near the end of the game because the stronger the captain, the more power “rune” he can drop. Runes are like power-ups that you socket in your weapons. If you’re going for all the game’s Steam achievements, you will need to manipulate the Nemesis system, “crafting” your own boss to get the best possible strengths/weaknesses for your goal. You’ll want the guy to be as high level as possible, while not being invincible (invulnerable to stealth/ranged/takedowns is possible).

A word of warning to new players: the game can seem overwhelming in the beginning because they drop you in the middle of a map crawling with hundreds of respawning Uruks, but you’ll find that the map really isn’t as big as it seems. You can run across it in a few minutes. Also, the combat system is very forgiving. You can see enemy attacks coming a mile away (not the ranged enemies though) and the map is peppered with healing herbs that can refill your health almost instantly. If you find yourself getting overwhelmed, just run away! There is maybe one kind of enemy in the whole game who can catch up with you (and you can dominate/ride them later). The Uruks will give up chasing you very quickly and basically forget you were there, so you can sneak back and use stealth for instant kills.

You should play Shadow of Mordor if:
+You enjoyed the Lord of the Rings movies or novels and want to dive into Middle-Earth again. The game’s story sort of aligns with the movies and you can think of it as leadup to The Fellowship of the Ring. You can also chop Sauron in the face if you play the DLC included in the Game of the Year edition..
+You like open world games where you’re a badass taking on a dozen enemies at once. The combat flows well and is easy to get a handle on, especially if you’ve played the other Third Person games mentioned above.

You should Not play Shadow of Mordor if:
-You’re expecting some kind of epic story similar to the novels. This game’s story is self-contained and is mostly about how one dude can cause as much trouble to an enemy army as possible. This is on purpose, because they want it to fit with the existing movies/novels. You might akso find the gameplay repetitive quickly if you’re not into hack/slash melee combat games.

Quick Summary: Resident Evil Revelations 2 is a Third Person Shooter with light puzzle solving mechanics, and is more action packed than Revelations 1, but less spooky. If you liked the first Revelations game, you should enjoy this one too. Raid Mode, which was the best part of the first game has been expanded this time around and is easier for the most part. Unfortunately, there aren’t many people playing online anymore, so if you want to play Raid Mode cooperatively, you’ll need to bring your own friend. There is no online campaign co-op (I believe split screen is available).

The game’s story takes place some time between Resident Evil 5 and 6, with some quick mention of the events in Resident Evil Revelations 1. You do not need to have played the first Revelations to understand what’s going on here, but it certainly helps. None of the characters from Revelations 1 return in this game though (except as playable characters in Raid Mode). This game follows 2 “teams” of people that you may recognize if you’ve played the earlier RE games, Barry Burton and Claire Redfield. Your overall goal is to escape a mysterious island infested with various people/monsters who are infected by something similar to the Ouroboros virus from RE5, including a few bosses. The game’s main villain has weird-ass motivations, but who cares since you’re mostly just trying to stay alive.

If you’ve played Revelations 1, the gameplay will be extremely familiar. The camera follows your character from about 6 feet behind so Claire/Barry takes up about 25% of the screen. Most of the enemies in the game are fairly slow once they get close to you, so you should have no difficulty blasting them with your guns. Melee combat is generally a bad idea unless the enemy has been stunned with a headshot, then you can run up and use a powerful punch/kick, just like RE 5/6/Revelations 1. Ammunition is only semi-common so using the contextual melee attack is a good way to avoid wasting it. Note that enemies do not drop ammo when they die, and you don’t get experience/money for killing them during the campaign. This means it’s often a good idea to just run past enemies whenever possible, especially on hard mode. They won’t follow you through doors, but a few of them are fast enough to catch you, so keep an eye out.

The game’s campaign is broken up into 4 episodes (about an hour and a half each if you like to explore), and each of these episodes has 2 sections: One as Claire and her companion, the other as Barry and his companion. Revelations 1 also gave you a partner through most of the game, but this time around you can switch between characters at almost any time with the push of a button. For example, Claire’s companion Moira has a crowbar and a flashlight, allowing her to open doors and boxes that Claire can’t open, and Moira can use her flashlight to blind certain enemies (a little like Alan Wake) or reveal hidden items (like the scanner in Revelations 1). Claire is the one with the guns though, so most of the time you’ll probably be controlling her in combat. Inventory management is a challenge, just like previous Resident Evil games, so if you like to collect everything you find you’ll end up throwing a lot away throughout the game to make room (like the various bandages). Fortunately, all your characters have separate inventories. So, if Claire’s full of ammo and healing herbs, move extra items to Moira’s inventory.

There are also a couple of difficult “challenge” modes that you can unlock for the single player campaign: Countdown mode and Invisible mode. In Countdown, there is a clock that starts around 3 minutes, and constantly runs down toward zero, and you need to play through the single player campaign as fast as possible before your time runs out. Killing enemies adds a few seconds to the clock, depending on the strength of the enemy. The game difficulty for Countdown is locked on “normal” and you can’t bring your inventory from previous playthroughs (in regular campaign mode, you can replay episodes with your current inventory, like a New Game+). I barely beat the first episode on Countdown mode and didn’t even try the others, too stressful. In Invisible mode, the enemies cannot be seen unless you use your companion’s detection ability to make them show up briefly (for example you need to switch to Moira and use her flashlight to see the enemies, then quickly switch back to Claire and blast them before they move too far). Invisible mode is locked on “survival” mode, the hard mode difficulty, and making enemies invisible certainly doesn’t help. I only got half way through the first episode before I gave up. Just like Countdown mode, you start from scratch with no gear, so there’s no “cheating.”

Just like the first Revelations, there’s a chance that you’re only playing the game for Raid mode, which is where most multiplayer comes into play. In Raid mode, you choose one of about a dozen different Resident Evil characters (some characters are DLC), each with different “skills,” to take on short missions in familiar environments. The levels are from previous Resident Evil games and you’ll probably recognize a few of them, including the enemies that show up there (a lot of them don’t show up in this game’s campaign, only Raid mode). Every character levels up independently by completing missions, but you share money / weapons / upgrades among all your characters. I mentioned earlier that Raid mode in Revelations 2 is easier than in the first game, and what I mean is that these Raid missions are very linear and short. There’s no “Ghost Ship” type mission that takes 30-45 minutes of exploring. Most of the time you just need to run to the end of the level, killing about 30 enemies along the way to finish (about 6 minutes per mission). There are more enemy types and more “elite” enemies, but as long as you keep upgrading your guns you shouldn’t have too much trouble until you’re in the real hardcore levels. It takes a really long time to reach level 100 though.

You should play Revelations 2 if:
+You enjoyed the first Resident Evil Revelations game, or Resident Evil 5 or 6. These are action games taking place in horror environments, not exactly survival horror. The locations are creepy and the enemies are disgusting, which is probably what you’re looking for in a Resident Evil game.
+You have a friend that you want to play co-op with in Raid mode. Don’t go in thinking you’ll find some random person to play with on the matchmaking system. There’s nobody playing anymore.

You should Not play Revelations 2 if:
-You thought the first game sucked. It’s mostly the same type of game. You don’t need to hoard door keys in Raid mode this time around. There’s still some backtracking in the campaign because Barry goes through most of the same areas as Claire, sometimes in reverse order.

Short Summary: Mad Max is an open world post-apocalyptic driving and brawling game where most of your time will be spent on “side content” since the world map is packed with enemy camps, car races, and scavenging areas for you to explore. If you’re wondering whether the game is based on the movie Mad Max Fury Road, I’d say it’s pretty close in terms of world building, but the game doesn’t follow the movie’s storyline at all. It’s a lot of fun and has been very cheap recently so definitely give the game a try, especially if you find you already own it.

You play the title character Max (though nobody calls him that in the game) attempting to put together a super car, the Magnum Opus. You’ll need a badass car to get where you ultimately want to go across the barren wasteland of Australia. In your way are the forces of Scabrous Scrotus, a brutal warlord who’s dominating/destroying all the nearby settlements, as well as the random crazies who inhabit the wasteland. Despite being a gruff loner you’re not alone in your quest, after all Scrotus and his horde of war boys are causing havoc everywhere. By reading the small flavor texts on historical relics found all over the map, you can get a glimpse of the fall of mankind (or at least the fall of Australia) that turned the land to desert as far as you can see/drive. And yes, the people in the game talk in the weird semi-language from the Mad Max Fury Road movie.

The game is played in Third Person Shooter perspective, like Sleeping Dogs, Saints Row, or the Batman Arkham games. While you have a powerful shotgun (with very limited ammo) most of the combat is hand to hand, with a similar strike/counter system to Batman, Shadow of Mordor, or Sleeping Dogs. In other words, always be ready to hit the counter button while you’re fighting, because almost every fight will be you vs. about 5-6 psychos. Note that the combat is a little more difficult than Batman or Sleeping Dogs, since you have less time to counter enemy strikes. There is also a small element of free climbing, where you search around camps scavenging for scrap (the money of the game), but the vast majority of the game will be melee brawling and driving your car around. The wasteland is huge, and even in the Magnum Opus it takes a long time to get everywhere. Especially with all the enemy cars patrolling the roads and snipers plinking their shots at you.

You Should play Mad Max if:
+You already own the game. It’s well worth your time: about 30 hours if you spend a lot of time searching for collectibles, but maybe 20 hours if you just play for the story.
+You liked the bleak post-apocalyptic vision of the Mad Max movies. You could almost see this game as being a prequel of Mad Max Fury Road.

You should Not play Mad Max if:
-You want a short straightforward game. Mad Max requires a lot of driving around and can get repetitive very easily. If you’re trying to work your way through a large backlog of games, this is going to take a chunk of your time.

Short Summary: Jydge (pronounced Judge in the game) is a “twin stick shooter” game, meaning you control your character from the top down perspective using WASD keys while aiming 360 degrees with your mouse. Other similar games are Guns N Zombies, Alien Shooter, Alien Swarm, etc. The game is broken up into levels that you will need to replay over an over to get the “medals” needed to unlock later levels. Each level has 3 objectives, 1 is the main objective, such as kill this boss, or free all the hostages. The other 2 objectives are optional, such as kill every single enemy in the level, or take no damage during the level. You do not need to complete them all in one try (just the main objective). The reason you want to collect these medals (1 for each objective you complete) is that missions are locked if you don’t have enough medals. For example: to play stage 10, you might need 25 medals, so replay stages 1-9 until you have enough (each medal only counts once). So to recap, the game requires a ton of grinding, completing levels over and over for money (to buy upgrades), and to have enough medals to advance to later levels.

The game’s story is pretty much a cut and paste of Judge Dredd movies (I’ve seen the Sylvester Stallone version and the Karl Urban version, but never read the comics). Your city has been overrun by crime, and in desperation the leaders have created the Jydge program, where a law enforcer (you) dispenses justice on the street as judge, jury, and executioner. In other words, kill all the bad guys without worrying about consequences. Honestly the story is pretty sparse, with a few short cutscenes (if you can even call them that) talking about how controversial the Jydge program is. It’s very easy to accidently kill a bunch of civilians in each mission.

As for gameplay, it’s fairly standard twin stick shooting, with upgrades and new weapons purchased between stages. You need to grind to progress, not just for the medals, but also to get enough money for the huge number of upgrades available. There are going to be times when you need to customize your upgrades to meet specific challenges, for example a stealth build to get a “don’t be detected” medal, or a “stun” build to kill really fast/strong bosses. The game was a little harder than I expected but people who play “bullet hell” games or rogue-like games such as Binding of Isaac will find Jydge to be a breeze.

Overall I would recommend this game to people who enjoy twin stick shooters where you buy weapons/upgrades but I caution you that there is A LOT of grinding. Because of this, the game really doesn’t have much re-playability because by the time you beat it, you will have replayed every level at least 3 times already (less if you’re awesome at getting optional objectives).

Okay, wow this game is really hard to explain. It’s a “meta” game that’s more about subverting expectations than about actual gameplay. The only thing I’ve played similar is The Stanley Parable.

This game is definitely not for everyone, and I don’t want to give too much away. I’ll just say that if you’re looking for a "thinker" game that’s weird the whole way through, give this one a try.

Quick Summary: Dragon Age Origins is a CRPG (Computer Role Playing Game) similar to Baldur’s Gate 2. The game is long, it’s difficult, and there’s a whole lot of talking/decision making throughout. If you thought the occasional conversations or choices in games like Fallout 3 or Mass effect were boring, you may have a hard time working through Dragon Age.

One of the more impressive aspects of Dragon Age is the world that they’ve created around the game. Like the Witcher or Mass Effect games, you really get the feeling that you’ve been dropped into a living history. You play a newly recruited “Grey Warden” whose quest is to unite the kingdom of Ferelden against the coming Blight, a mass swarming of demonic Darkspawn that threatens to overrun the world. The Darkspawn have been lurking around so long that most of the world no longer see them as a major threat, so the various cities/races of the world are more interested in political intrigue and stabbing each other in the back. You’re going to spend as much effort traveling the various lands fighting bandits/supernatural beasts as you do fighting Darkspawn. This should sound kind of familiar if you’ve played the Mass Effect series.

You control your (up to) 4 person team from the top-down isometric perspective with the ability to zoom in close or spin the screen around for better view of the environment. You can even zoom in behind your character and play it as a Third Person game. If you play in 1080p resolution, everything looks tiny and you’ll be spending a lot of time changing the perspective to make sure you’re not missing anything important. Fortunately, stuff that you can interact with “sparkles” (such as loot from fallen enemies). When you engage enemies, you have the ability to pause the game and issue commands to each member of your team. Then unpause the action and watch the combat. You also have the ability to take control of any member of your team for more micromanagement at any time. Doing this is vital to protect the squishier members of your team, such as archers or mages, and to unleash your mass destruction abilities.

You should play Dragon Age if:
+You like long conversations in your games, with well-developed story, where you can tell there’s a whole world going on, not just the events of the game. See the Mass Effect or Fallout series for examples. Yes, there are romance options.
+You want the fighting to be more strategic, where the speed and reflexes in your fingers are less important than gradually building up your character’s skills and positioning them during battle. There is a variety of customization for characters, even among the 3 main “classes” (Warrior, Mage, and Rogue).
+You want to explore a relatively large world filled with a lot of stuff that you probably won’t find without a game guide. The “world map” seems rather limited, but you need to do some traveling back and forth to areas you’ve explored before.

You should Not play Dragon Age if:
-You want a short, action packed experience that is more about player skill than character building. This game is more like Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic than Diablo or Torchlight. The areas can be rather large, so traveling often feels slow, without much going on except keeping an eye out for loot to collect.
-You want a linear experience. While it isn’t exactly an open-world game, you do get to choose what order you want to tackle the main areas. I don’t think the enemies always scale to your level, so often you’ll run into bad guys that seem way too strong (like dragons). Even on easy mode it’s common to get your squad wiped out if you just rush into combat.

Overall you can spend between 40-60 hours beating the main campaign without any DLC content. Unlike some other RPGs I’ve played, your character’s “origin story” actually affects gameplay. I would recommend playing on easy mode at least once, so you can experience the awesome area affect spells that mage characters can use. Unfortunately the really big spells have friendly fire so if you play on normal mode or above, you’ll hold back from using stuff like tempest/blizzard/Storm of the Century.