Pieter "SuikerBrood" Jasper
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XboxEraLatest Reviews
The risk of too much-simulated suffering is that the most challenging decisions can leave you feeling emotionally detached, as the end often justifies the means. This dynamic makes Frostpunk 2 a unique experience where you can never truly be the ‘good guy,’ only ‘less bad.’ It’s better to play this in short bursts, as it will keep you from becoming emotionally numb to all the suffering in Frostpunk 2.
I think you won’t be disappointed. If they can fix some of the AI problems and balance issues in future patches, Age of Mythology can truly stand among its peers. It might even become the true fan favorite it was always destined to be. Maybe we should ask the gods for their favor and start praying.
Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles is not made for everyone. It’s an odd duck in the way it controls, the way it tells its story and the way it simulates the world, but it truly is a great way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon. Want a conventional strategy game or city-builder? Look elsewhere. Are you in for something executed by a single developer, taking risks and doing something new? Well then – The Ursee awaits.
SteamWorld Build is a city-builder with heart that successfully mixes various genres. It is also accessible to players who don’t put hundreds of hours into Cities Skylines and for players who have played many games in the genre it is a cute palate cleanser that can be played through in one weekend. The game offers various maps, but the replayability is what’s going to hold this title back.
Jurassic World Evolution 2 is an accessible, well-polished simulation/building hybrid from the developers over at Frontier. The campaign isn’t a real campaign, just a tutorial. The additional Jurassic Park: Chaos Theory missions are where the fun can be found. The weak points are the lack of depth and freedom in terms of building a unique park. Maybe it’ll happen in the third installment? A new film is coming after all, perhaps it’ll be a case of third time’s a charm?
But – it’s not revolutionizing the genre or setting a new standard in design. It has taken the best aspects of various games, creating a well-rounded package, with love and care of the stories being told and the civilizations and historical sagas being represented. Is it going to instigate new dawn for the classical real-time strategy game? Very doubtful. Is it going to be an amazing experience for fans of the genre? Absolutely.
Interactive storytelling is a difficult genre to get right, as it requires both an interesting story and a story that can be interacted with by the player. You want your actions to have meaning, you want them to matter. In Last Stop this isn’t always the case, and combined with the filler gameplay segments this is the aspect where the game let me down a bit.
Destroy All Humans! is a modern looking remake of a game that is clearly from another time. The open level structure allows players to create chaos and play around. The story isn’t anything to write home about and is still stuck in 2005 but all things considered this is a decent remake of a game that didn’t set the world on fire over 15 years ago.
The things developers of real-time strategy games have learned from Age of Empires 3 has inspired and will inspire every new instalment in the genre. And I’m sure Relic and World’s Edge have been taking a close look at Age of Empires 3 for the development of the fourth game. As we can already see some similarities with the different mechanics per faction and amount of factions.
Spiritfarer is a game where death is treated differently than in many other games, which makes this game unique. We’ve been killing people and things in video games for so long, that we’ve stopped to wonder what actually happens after that. In Spiritfarer we learn this, in a colourful and happy world that invites you to be the best Spiritfarer in history.