Matthew Hung
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GameSpew Latest Reviews
What do you expect though? The Journey was the biggest move in the FIFA franchise for years and expecting more than a new mode is wishful. The fact remains that FIFA will continue to sell ridiculous numbers of copies with nothing more than updated rosters and stats. So having something, even a short-winded and underdeveloped new campaign mode, is somewhat worthy of praise. Truthfully, FIFA 17, to me, is one of the stronger entries in the last few years from the EA Sports guys and it’s a pretty great game if you’re relatively new to proceedings. It’s just difficult for ragged veterans such as myself to wholeheartedly endorse a game which has been so formulaic for so many years. Somehow I always hold out a tiny shred of hope for something different, and it’s that shred which stings me every single year. All we can reasonably do is pray for more than miniscule hops forward, such as an improved Journey, to punctuate another year of football flavoured slavery we’ve resigned ourselves to.
I have a lot of games. Mentally, I’ve organised them into ones I know I’m not going to play after the post-buy enthusiasm has wore off, ones that I might if I’m desperate/in certain moods and ones that I will play now and in the future. Necropolis is firmly in the last category and that surprises me as much as anyone else when I started. I’ve yet to start multiplayer campaign but any game that has me harassing casual acquaintances to buy it and play with me speaks to the quality. It’s a really solid game which will only benefit from improvements in AI, aesthetic polish and more ambiguous loot. Necropolis rewards those who put the effort into decoding the weirdness, and while some may not appreciate that, for those who do, it’s a game worth investing in.
At the end of the day, Hearts of Iron IV was just not a game I looked forward to playing. Sure there are some elements of goodness: having greater control of your army and production is a welcome addition and you still do have some control about where you want your fascist Australian empire to expand to next, but these inclusions shouldn’t have to be at the expense of diplomacy or wit. Ironically, the cold inflexibility of Heats of Iron IV makes it slightly more realistic at the expense of more fanciful fun. I’m sure some WWII enthusiasts and military logisticians will appreciate the level of optimisable detail of armies and their behaviour, but for a general audience, the managerial emphasis is in all the wrong places.
Unreasonable expectation of perfection aside, Stellaris is an expertly blended mosaic of 4X, grand strategy and self-created narrative. For the relatively small niche that this game occupies, it is the undisputed master and commander. It’s also a nice platform for DLC and modding so as if the game didn’t provide enough substance out of box, then I’m sure there’s going to be plenty of content for years of come to constantly rejuvenate the experience. If you’re the type of person who dreams of galactic empire, write a nicely worded letter to the people in your life saying “see you later” and pick up Stellaris.
As previously mentioned, The Banner Saga 2 is an ideal game for game-as-art deniers and an effective bridge for older generations who don’t quite understand the medium. It is unabashedly slow and beautiful, with a lot of strong storytelling elements to ease people into the unfamiliar interactivity integral to games, yet even to a seasoned gamer, there’s plenty to like. The Banner Saga 2 is far from perfect; the combat trips the flow up a bit, the pacing will have you a bit bored at times, the sound design is sub-optimal and I probably won’t be compelled enough to have a second go at it, but there’s no denying the unique charm that the game offers. If you’re looking for an atmospheric, beautifully crafted, nuanced and thoughtful narrative experience, The Banner Saga 2 is a contemporary leader in all of those fields.
So is XCOM 2 a good game? Yes, it is. The core gameplay is solid and provides a good backdrop for the drama of random numbers. It captures the suspense of wondering what the aliens will cook up next or what’s in that facility and should be praised for that. While there are problems so caked on that mods will likely never wash them away, the fact remains that there’s a strong game here. The glaring aforementioned asterisk is that you have to assemble it into something worthwhile yourself from unincluded parts. It played the “blah” sequel part to perfection, neglecting seemingly obvious features for the community to figure out; not that they were even overly difficult to do seeing as how mods have already addressed many issues. It all indicates pure oversight from the studio, which I suspect were caused by a rushed delivery. XCOM 2 was released a barren Christmas tree of a game, luckily possessing enough branches to dangle somebody else’s flashy ornamentation on to gussy it up.