Foreword

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₪ Genre: Science Fiction, Simulation, RPG
☑ Release date: November 2013
♬ Soundtrack: Fanfare for the Common Redshirt and Red Alert

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I should point out I'm the kind of guy who has immense dislike for the entirety of social media and doesn't use any of them seriously except to enter site giveaways and such. Hell, I don't even have a proper private Facebook account. With that in mind it's not really a stretch to see how I would have little tolerance for a game like Redshirt. And it does pain me to say so because Redshirt was developed solely by one person so credit where it's due.

Problem lies in the premise as far as I'm concerned – this is the kind of game that could've been spun off into a more established RPG, and god knows we can always use more science fiction RPGs when you tally their number versus fantasy RPGs, but is instead at its core a a social network simulator with all the tediousness that apparently implies. What do I mean by that?

Well, it's the constant minutia.

You see, you get to create a character from couple of races and some cosmetic choices, none of which really matters that much aside from some disposition and your sex for relationship preferences later on, after which you promptly start at the bottom of the hierarchy on a station Megalodon-9. Along the way you have to navigate through Spacebook, making friends along the way as well as organizing various events, maintaining relationships both real and online, advance in your career, etc. It's actually quite a decent offering when I think about it, to be honest. One major issues that arises is that you're navigating with all of this just through menus. That may have been a great asset and cost cutting design choice, but in practical terms it means you better get used to staring at lists to fill, bars to grind and repeated faces.

In structural terms you get a predetermined number of ACTIONS each day which you can then use to choose what you want to do. For example, in the morning you get one action before going to work and then you get more when you're done with said work. Needless to say, you also get free weekends with a lot more action points which means you can do a lot more. Speaking of work you do get daily results based on a lot of factors such as you adeptness, quality/attitudes of co-workers, pure random chance with events, etc. Doing certain type of jobs will net you experience in specific skills and interests. If anything, job market itself is rather extensive and you have a thorny path set out for you if that's how you want to win the game. Oh, I didn't talk about that yet, did I?

A lot of windows dressing.

This is the screen you'll spend 95% of the game looking at.

And not even barren missions will provide any respite.

Basically, early on a timer pops up with X number of days until... something, happens and you're expected to get off the station by then. How you go about it is really the best part of Redshirt because there's quite a few options. You can get to the top of the job ladder, bribe your way out, romance or be BFF with the right person to secure a way out or simply pay for an exorbitantly priced ticket. None of these is really simple and will take a while whether you're playing the Spacebook game 24/7 or saving up money. As tempting as it would be to getting tunnel vision and focus on getting out you can't really do that because you still need to exist on day-to-day basis aka handling your happiness and health meters, and also dealing with others. This is where EVENTS you use action points to initiate come into play with all their variety and consequences they can incur. I'm not talking CYOA approach here because that's not it, but let me give you an example: you spend two action points to throw together a holo-sculpture viewing for you and your friends, contact them on Spacebook and they agree only for one guy to bail out – in the end you get some art appreciation experience and happiness goes up. This is just one example.

Getting down to the nitty-gritty and past just bland descriptions my problem with this one is something I've already mentioned and it's something Redshir shares with Daily Chthonicle in a sense that the game simply isn't engaging to play. You're stuck to menu navigation and no, not even occasional away missions change that up, and the entire ordeal gets repetitive real fast because you end up in a cycle of monotonous daily life until something interesting pops up. Which strikes too close to home for comfort.

Joking aside if you actually have a thing for social networks and religiously checking what people are doing every waking moment of their lives you might find this quite engaging. Fortunately, I prefer my sanity intact so I'll give it a wide berth.

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₪ Genre: Fantasy, RPG, Action
☑ Release date: April 2013
♬ Soundtrack: Airship and Overworld [16 Bit]

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Evoland was quite a treat for me to play through. To start with I should say I'm a fan of JRPG and have been pretty much my entire life and have only recently gotten into Zelda games so that angle is fresh to me. Which makes it all the more interesting to see a game tackle both sides and put them together. Is the game perfect? No, not even close and I'll get to it eventually, but genre fusion and clever use of a gimmick goes a long way to keeping you engaged and wondering “What are they going to do next?” Let's dive into Evolve and see whether nostalgia holds up and, more importantly, can a game stand on it alone or does it actually need merit proper to stand out.

This is where I would usually give you the basic premise of the game, yet this time I'll abstain for two reasons: it's a very archetypal take on JRPGs and story is clearly a token addition. Our ???? protagonist is trying to figure out what's going on, he runs into a girl and embarks on a McGuffin chase for a while before finally some tragic happens and, now named, protagonist has to go fight the villain who has multiple forms, naturally. This is all standard fare and part of the game's charm that flows rather well together all things considered. Let's just say that plot, lore and characters will not put Evoland on a pedestal of quality, but considering it's more about paying homages and references everywhere you can see this is was a deliberate choice and not a display of incompetence. Which is comforting.

Real meat of the game at hand is how it handles progression or, dare I say, evolution of games over the course of decades. By “games” I mean specifically Zelda-style action adventures and eventually JRPGs, although later on we also dip toes into action RPG with appropriate change to gameplay. But that's a just a general notion – real intriguing part is how you gradually unlocking tech improvements. For example, you unlock the upgrade to 16bit graphics and this visibly improves the, well, visuals of the game. Evoland starts out as a very basic Gameboy game and it really pulls you in with each new addition. I especially fancied some small things like protagonist having to grow up before NPCs will start to take him seriously or sell him weapons. Something that's often overlooked in JRPGs and game even complaints what's with all the kids in the business. Buying a faster DVD Player at the shop to eliminate loading times was especially humorous.

Hard to believe such humble beginnings were the start of it all.

Proving there's more here than just Final Fantasy.

Even the load times are not safe in this trip down the memory lane.

Those were obviously some positives to we the appetite, but like I said not all is perfect.

As charming and endearing those references are game does tend to go a bit overboard with them when it quotes Blade Runner in the end and things like that. Even obvious references it wears on its sleeves like Final Fantasy 7 are a bit too on the nose so it's a fair warning to tell you about them. I didn't mind it seeing as it's right up my alley and I got them for once. There's also a plethora of Shigeru Miyamoto adoration early on when Zelda phase is in full effect even if you have to look around a bit for them. It's a lot of callbacks that will either annoy you or leave you feeling fuzzy.

In gameplay department is where we get the game's biggest problem in my opinion – simplicity. Everything present in the game is on very basic level starting with only three options, two of which only become available as you progress, to solving adventuring parts and very very simple JRPG combat where you'll be spamming attack through rather aggressive encounter rate. If you're used to more modern titles this could be a hair pulling affair. Game also spaces out secrets for you to find in the form of Stars and cards, latter being usable in equally as entertaining Triple Triad knock-off. I was surprised how much this took me back to Final Fantasy 8 days.

If I had to put it simply it would be this: you'll get a lot more enjoyment out of Evoland if you come into it from the Zelda club rather than Final Fantasy crowd because former brings the variety to the table. I still found it enjoyable because references were endearing, but like I said this will vary immensely from individual to individual.

If you can get it cheap go for it.

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₪ Genre: Fantasy, Action
☑ Release date: October 2015
♬ Soundtrack: The Skaven Come Out To Play and Rat Ogre

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A lot of what I'm about to say about Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide should be taken as something put together by a Warhammer fan. I personally lean more toward 40k branch of the franchise, but it still applies in this particular case seeing as it provides me with more background and potential investment material than someone who randomly picks up Vermintide.

If one cares about story in a multiplayer co-op game it is the following: End Times are upon the world of Warhammer. Cunning and vicious Skaven – rat-men – come in swarms to end everything people hold dear and precious. Our story takes us to Ubersreik where unlikely adventurers have to muster arms and sometimes put aside their differences to save the city before it's too late using one of the last remaining Inns as place to formulate their plans in order to strike back at the vermin. While the game is set against the backdrop that was the End Times that spanned across the entirety of the known world these particular events are localized to Ubersreik... provided you don't have the DLC which takes it elsewhere. One interesting aspect of the story, aside from the fact it exists and isn't just a string of randomly generated missions that would ensure replay value, is the fact the game is divided intro three acts. Each containing a number of missions as things get worse and worse. This can also be annoying as you need to effectively unlock the missions before you can play them in multiplayer, but it does wonders for the buildup as you get more information from missions themselves as well as various snippets from characters.

Speaking of characters I think they definitely warrant their own paragraph seeing as they add a helluva of lot of, well, character to the game. So much so you don't really get it until you try something else where playable characters have random grunts or not even that. There's five individual involved and they cover major careers and races in the Old World of Warhammer – from Dwarf Ranger to pyromaniac Bright Wizard, they're all intriguing and provide insight into their own situation and take on what's going on. Banter between them, depending on party composition, is priceless and carries a lot of the charm until you get used to it. Still, I'll take it over silence and audio cues they have to warn the player(s) of incoming dangers is a welcome addition. Some even have mutual stories, like how for example all three of Empire's characters are brought together by events prior to Skaven invasion. Does this really matter in the game itself? No, but it's this fluff and lore that really brings another layer to the game if you care about it and might be a gateway into further reading.

Developers even realized this and introduced the Loebook as free DLC that lets you collect pages on levels and as you find more and more of these you add new new chapters to the eponymous Lorebook at the Red Moon Inn where you can read plenty of Warhammer writings. This tells me effort and care was put into respecting the property, but would one expect any less with Games Workshop's tight control of the property? Still, good stuff.

With all that out of the way it's time to tackle the mechanics and gameplay proper. Let's start with basics – if you played Left 4 Dead, you know Vermintide. There's more elements added to it, but the essence is there. Out of five playable characters you put together a party of four and embark on missions of various difficulty, ranging from easy to Cataclysmic. You need to unlock higher difficulties by beating the levels on previous ones which might be a bit grating, though.

There are differences that emerge at this point.

Inventory play is a far cry from what you might see in RPGs, but you still want better gear and to find what suits you.

Things can get hectic yet Vermintide is generally good with signaling the player about what's going on.

Loot dice rolls are bane of every player's existence and reason to keep going for many.

First, there's a leveling system. You get experience for completing missions, based on difficulty – how many characters died and extra stuff – and after fulfilling the bar you get a level up. Which is, honestly, less important than you might think and more of an indicator of how much you've played the game than anything else because it confers upon you no advantage. You do get free basic gear on every one, but you'll find other uses for it than actually wearing it. Which brings me to a second major standout point – loot. At the end of every successful mission you will get a chance to roll Ranald's Bones aka dice and depending on how many successes you get, you also get the appropriate gear. Now, chances for good dice can be improved by doing additional objectives on missions such as collecting Loot Die, Tomes and Grimoires which can be found in chests alongside things like health potions, ammo, bombs, etc. Unlike the Die which is basically free higher chance of a good roll, latter two are a trade-off because they take your healing item slot so you're always weighing what takes precedence. Grimoires are particularly nasty as they reduce entire party's maximum health by 33% and two can stack for up to 66% reduction.

So you did great horribly on loot rolls... what do you do with all the gear? You equip it, obviously. There are your classical “item rarity” ranks involved you should be familiar with from other games (starting with common white and going up to veteran red) and while you obviously want the higher quality of said gear, and you're not level locked or anything so you can wear whatever you grubby hands acquire, real deal aren't direct damage increase but rather number of traits. Higher in rarity you go the more traits each weapon can have, keeping in mind that Veteran rank weapons have fixed traits which cannot be changed like lower ranks can. So if you get this awesome weapon you want and it has shitty traits on it... yeah.

I bring up things like “changing traits” and this is where functions like the Forge and Shrine of Solace where you can upgrade gear, smelt unwanted stuff, pray for melee or ranged weapon of various quality by offering material, etc. You'll become a regular with both of these hotspots in the Inn after you've grasped how the gear system works and set goals for yourself on what you want. You'll also be accumulating tokens with no idea what to do with them so might as well spend them. That Elf Waywatcher's glaive just isn't dropping for you? Pray and it might appear. Oh, it did but didn't have health restoration on hit? Offer some materials and re-roll just might be kind to you. None of those worked? Say goodbye to RNG hell and smelt the damn thing. She didn't deserve you, anyway.

Before I close this I'd just like to say couple of words about Vermintide's visuals and audio. Looks good, but tends to still have occasional performance problems on my PC at seemingly random times. It's no fun having to wade around in melee at 10FPS, but graphics are rather nice if you crank them up. Green is name of the game, but with Skaven that's a given. Jasper Kyd did a damn good job with the soundtrack on this one if you ask me. Strings are sadly underutilized in soundtracks and never given a spotlight, but not this time. He went for a lot more ominous and foreboding atmosphere as both you and Skaven are skulking around the levels. Things pick up when patrols roll around and specific enemy types have special songs dedicated just to get you into panic mode. Really good job, but I wish there were more songs on the offering.

♪ Don't lose your heeeaaaad. ♪

Closing remarks. Should you get Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide? I would say yes. Keep in mind I had no problem getting into games in Europe region, but that might be different elsewhere. If you like a cooperative game where defeating the monsters isn't the end goal, as much as some people forget, and are into dealing with gear RNG this might for you. Warhammer license also added quite a bit to the experience for me.

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₪ Genre: Post-apocalypse, FPS
☑ Release date: October 2011
♬ Soundtrack: These Cars Belong to Me! and Shrouded Bunker

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More than any other game I've played in recent memory RAGE feels like a relic of its time. Would you say that's a bad thing? Perhaps, but as I'll go into over the course of this review it becomes evident the game embodies so many of the video game fads from the turn of the decade when console FPS' were riding all-time high, with the notable exception of being wrapped in some of the finest threads technology can manufacture at the time.

Alright, gather around the fire for story time. Game makes use of a real life asteroid 99942 Apophis which it then exaggerates and employs as the catalyst for the game's premise - 99942 Apophis will hit Earth and humanity has to do something about it. Solution? Cryogenic Arks where humanity can escape to be awakened at a later date and restore civilization on whatever remains of the planet. 106 years after the asteroid hits Earth in 2029 our protagonist awakens and sees people in cryo units surrounding his own have been less fortunate. Having no idea what's happening he stumbles outside and almost gets accosted killed by a raving bandit before he gets rescued by Dan Hagar. He offers the confused sleeper ride back to the settlement and briefs him on the state of things.

Interesting thing is that, aside from the explanation where oppressive stratocracy/military dictatorship of some kind called the Authority and freedom-loving Resistance that fights it come from, life-that-was never really has a large role to play and seeing as our protagonist is mute he never really reminisces about his past life, either. Story of RAGE is firmly rooted in the post-apocalypse it inhabits with all the raving bandit clans, mutants hiding in the sewers and escaped experiments. Plot itself is disappointing simple and disjointed with developments you'll see from a mile away, but I won't pretend that's the main appeal of the game... and frankly characters don't fare much better. If you held me at gunpoint maybe I could remember someone from the game other than Hagar. That could be because he's voiced by John Goodman.

While I'm on the subject of good things I will say the game has rather insane production values all-around. Fact it still holds up so well six years later says more than I could probably put into these scribbles. That is, if megatextures feel like loading and you're not staring at a blurry mess. But design of pretty much everything, lighting and textures, as well as outstanding gritty and uncomfortable aesthetic really drew me in. Sound design is probably equally as good with phenomenal weapon effects that deliver just the appropriate amount of BOOM you want in your boomsticks. Soundtrack less so, but that might be because it pretty much employs atmospheric tribal and bombastic action tracks which is good for informing the player what's going on, but not really for being memorable and standout.

I also wish the ending was, you know, a proper ending instead of just setting up for a sequel that would never come. You could also excuse the following by saying “it was 2011, give id Software a break”, but ending your game with a gauntlet of enemies? No.

If you're in for brown and bandit-ridden wastelands I can recommend you this nice little tourist spot.

More than just a run and gun shooter. Even if your mileage might vary.

Screw the gasoline prices – we RIDE!

With story out of the way we can move onward to the actual divisive part – gameplay itself.

With that in mind I realize that may come off as some kind of sensationalist opinion when it really isn't supposed to be. RAGE is a good game, great even if it resonates with you on that specific level, but I had this constant feeling something was off as I played it. I'm specifically talking about to-kill ratio for enemies which only gets worse as the game goes on. I'll bounce back to that later on.

Structurally we have on our hands a tight mission-driven FPS that's interwoven with an open world section between missions. Now, keep in mind when I say “open world” I'm not really talking about modern idea of open world that has proliferated everywhere in video games – RAGE's take is more like couple of corridors and larger openings you drive through with your vehicle on your way to the mission entry point. That doesn't mean it's bad, though. In fact it was rather refreshing to go back to simpler days because I had little to no problem imagining how bloated this very aspect of the game would be had it been released today. There is still stuff to do here like pulling off jumps that reward you with materials for crafting, destroying enemies as part of repeatable missions, finding rare material, etc.

Wait a second, did you say crafting? Yessir. You see, RAGE is a bit of a kitchen sink in that it has a lot of everything, but none of it is really as fleshed out as I'd like it to be. Compared to modern titles that pretend to be more than just FPS' and water themselves down in the process, RAGE is perfectly aware of what it is. It just likes to two-time the missus with all these 20-something hotties like RPG inventory, weapon upgrades and quickslot items, varying the gameplay with vehicle races that have their own separate upgrades which carry over to Wasteland open world, etc. I may have mentioned this in one of my earlier review, but RAGE is one of those fully realized games we don't really see that much anymore when everything is so hyper focused and focus audience tested. Like I said earlier a lot of those additions are simple, but you'll also remember I mentioned this game knows what it is and that's shooting dudes with a variety of weapons. Which brings me full circle to my earlier point.

To-kill ratio. RAGE is a game where you MUST learn how to aim and make headshots. Which might seem kinda counteractive when you're dealing with enemies like agile mutants that close in on you in a second and actually do some genuinely impressive maneuvers like feigning dodges and bouncing all over the place. Hell, all enemies have a sort of expanded health system in a sense that you can wound them and they'll start crawling away, possibly even opening fire on you when you approach. As the game goes on you'll come across more advanced enemies like armored Authority guards that require you to get better ammunition and be aware what works best on which enemy because unless you get that right and unless you're aiming for headshot/weak spots it's no rarity to empty a clip into an enemy and see him walk it off. This is probably my sole notable annoyance with the game in its entirety, doubly so when this is the post-apocalypse and there's assumed to be some ammo scarcity yet you'll be swimming in it as long as you scrounge whenever you can.

And, of course, loot your enemies for money and ammo because this is that kind of game.

What goes around comes around. At least Windstick lets you save ammo early on.

I touched on it already, but I really liked how there are proper settlements in the game and noticeable effort went into them. Like, we're talking actual quest givers and mini-games abound to pass the time. There's an entire collectible card game in, well, game where you collect cards in the world to play the game with. Not to mention the racing aspect of RAGE which offers its own staple of races/FFA if you want something more to do with your multiple vehicles, that's right – multiple for you acquire them over the course of the playthrough, in case just wasting some mutants in the Wasteland is not enough.

Maybe I should have dedicated more than a single paragraph to all of that, but that's exactly how it all comes across to me. Despite the insane production values that must have went into it when you look at the quality of assets it's still just an addition on top of the core shooter mechanics.

So how to end this? I'd recommend RAGE provided you can tolerate the brown & bloom that seems to have come to represent that era of FPS, but that goes almost goes with the territory. If you're into Mad Max and general post-apocalypse without frills you can have yourself a great time. I'd prepare myself for some repetition and missions that take you for a ride, literally or not.

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☉ Platform: PC
₪ Genre: Platform, Stealth, Action
☑ Release date: April 2015
♬ Soundtrack: Main Theme and Great Wall Tension

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It has been a long while since I last played an Assassin's Creed game which makes such almost instantaneous jump into Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China almost surreal. I'd like to say this translates into what an amazing game it is, but my more realistic self is well aware Ubisoft is very keen on its “familiarity factor” when developing games. Strangely enough, most of that translates into different perspective this game inhabits compared to series' core entries.

Story-wise I imagine you'd get a LOT more out of this one if you're familiar with Assassin's Creed beyond just what games offer and you delved into all the expanded universe stuff, but I'll give it an honest try with my summary.

Set in Ancient China during Ming dynasty, period during which you quickly gather Templars have managed to oust the Assassins and decimate them, we take control of one Shao Jun as she returns home and sees the place is in tatters. Much to my amusement you start by busting out of a hanging prison and go meet the Assassin's Mentor for the Chinese Brotherhood. Your mission? To clear out the Eight Tigers aka Eunuchs at the royal court who have brought ruin to China and don't show any signs of stopping. Cue rightful premise and hero's journey.

Except that's not exactly how all this goes down. I mean, it does, but it's severely hampered by lack of more pronounced character development you've come to expect from series in general no matter whether you like it or not as a product. Shao Jun herself gets very little character development and what she gets is your typical “revenge is bad” stuff. Another aspect is that story itself is split three-way – the mysterious box protagonist got from aging Ezio when she was on her trip, her revenge against the Eight Tigers for destroying the Brotherhood and overall fate of China as conspiracies abound and Mongols are looming on the horizon. None of these is sadly explored enough and you'll have to dig into rather extensive database game provides you with if you want to find out more.

Things are not as bad on the gameplay front, though. Switch to 2.5D perspective, where game itself controls as if it were on a 2D plane but you can back and forth in 3D where levels decide you can, has been a fortuitous one for the game as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, if you're looking for classical Assassin's Creed experience of “wonder around collecting things and agitating local garrisons, maybe remember to do story once in a while” you'll be disappointed, but if you prefer tighter levels with light metroidvania touch here and there this will be for you. I'd prefer it if the game wasn't so linear and didn't keep relentlessly pushing you forward without a breather. There were also points when signature “sticky controls” came into play much to my annoyance because sometimes I really really want to jump away from the wall and not drop straight on enemy's head. Alas, such is my lot in life.

What you see should appear somewhat familiar to anyone who played the Nintendo DS spin-off title.

Extensive database featured in core entries is back and, well, it's just as fluffy as ever.

Some might dismiss artsy cutscenes as a budget cutting measure, but I have a fondness for them and they add a lot.

What is good is the way game gives you a pretty decent sense of freedom in how you can go about said levels. So much so I didn't even realize what was going on and thought I was skipping content when in fact there's usually more than one route to progress. You'll also be happy to know that game can in fact be played entirely through stealth, but due to how game autosaves that may be annoying if you get spotted. By that I mean it only saves at main objective progression which may leave you repeating side objectives when their progress ends up resetting. It's a minor quirk and I imagine something you might not even notice unless you're going for a stealthy approach, but it was more than awkward for me. While I'm on the subject I have an odd complaint – levels are too long. It feels like they could've been reduced by about a third and nothing would be amiss.

Unlike from Assassin's Creed 2 and onward Shao Jun is decidedly not a walking armory and instead opts for a lightweight approach. Aside from her trusty sword she packs some distinct tools unique to Chinese Brotherhood. Things like rope dart and hidden footblade instead of more familiar weapons from the series. She's also packing some throwing daggers for damage and utility, whistle for distracting enemies, etc. Be prepared for a lot more obfuscation and avoidance... if you feel inclined that way because combat is just as viable. You have your sword to work with, things like blocking, countering, rolling over, etc are present and make combat a surprisingly decent affair.

I think visuals are pretty damn good. Assets are obviously recycled, but intelligent and consistent use of colors to set the atmosphere is appreciated. Not to mention gorgeous backdrops which usually manage to steal the show more than, well, forefront graphics you're supposed to be paying attention to. Soundtrack... eh, not so much. It's there and does its job, but you won't hear me whistling any of the tunes. As far as voice acting goes it's inconsistent with Chinese and English voice, but unlike other games they did not accent the English voices this time so you have a rather eclectic mix going on. My only snide comment about this would be about Shao Jun's voice actress who could have done a much better job and came off as phoning it in. Maybe she was going for stoic badass, but it didn't work out. At all.

So what do I think about Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China in the end? It's a so-so game largely marred by less than substantial budget which spreads all across the game, but particularly the story department. It's clear story wasn't deemed to be a priority and that's a shame. Gameplay and structure were right up my alley as I always preferred careful scenarios over sandbox roaming, but you might not.

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₪ Genre: Historical, Drama
☑ Original run: March 1974 – June 1974
⇲ Episodes: 13

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They don't really make them like they used to with Fall of Eagles in a sense that few modern shows attempt this particular blend of historical drama and dose of authenticity to a point you're looking at a make believe documentary. It's been a while since I checked out in World War I media and I remembered watching an episode or two of this show on local TV some good 15 years ago so I figured out its time to give it a proper bash. I was not left disappointed.

At its core Fall of Eagles follows events that lead to World War I and spends a very brief amount of time focusing on the war itself. Which is something that took me by surprise when I finished the show because it frankly wasn't what I expected. Focus lies quite decidedly on one aspect – observing the events through the lenses of vital people from the period. Who are these people? Well, it tackles three dynasties of European royalty; Habsburgs, Romanovs and Hohenzollerns, representing in turn Austro-Hungary, Russia and Germany. More specifically this is a show about kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and tzar Nicholas II of Russia, and how two people's incompetence and dire social situations can lead to a disaster. Maybe I'm being unfair, in fact I know I am seeing as people tend to oversimplify World War I perhaps out of ignorance, but when you see it from the personal angle Fall of Eagles aims for it's very difficult to draw a different conclusion.

I don't really have to tell you the story because, you know, it's World War I but I would like to talk a bit about the show itself. Structure and such, I mean. It covers roughly about 80 years, but a good chunk of that is basically just meant to characterize all involved parties from militaristic Prussians looking to make for stronger Germany under their stewardship, almost indifferent and methodical Austria with its own internal strife due to being a melting pot of so many peoples and ultimately harsh and distant Russia where peasants are still stuck in the medieval era while times are rapidly change everywhere else. If you're not familiar with the conflict and time period alone are fascinating as we see all the strings behind the scenes as well as alliances based not on any pragmatism or political expediency but on the fact Europe is essentially divided between three royal houses so it all comes down to nobility being nobility. If you haven't surmised already this a so called “talky show” aka don't expect action scenes and learn to love people talking about politics and drama unfolding all the time. In my opinion this works in show's favor because a lot of events are helluva lot more interesting to observe before end results become apparent. For example, the way horrendously thought through alliance between Germany and Russia comes to seeing two flawed leaders working behind their back of their ministers. Needless to say, show jumps between all the POVs every couple of episodes until the final back and forth.

Two key players putting on a show for their grandma.

You have to consider this is a show made in the '70s which means couple of things – somewhat overblown acting at times where you can see actors slipping into the historical aspect more than they're going for legitimately good performances and there's a lot of British actors involved in this. Latter is often juxtaposed by the fact most regular characters speak with their country's stereotypical accent, to a varying degree, while leads speak prim and proper royal English which could take you a while to get over.

Above is fortunately balanced out by some stellar performances all-around, though. Aside from many, many excellent character actors standouts that stuck in my mind the most were Barry Foster as foppish and completely ignorant kaiser, Charles Kay portraying equally as incompetent but rather polar opposite tzar, Tony Jay in few scenes he had, and Patrick Stewart as Vladimir Lenin of all people giving a show stealing performance as Lenin assumes the mantle of an anti-hero. There are so many smaller roles where I either didn't know the actor or can't remember their name right now, but quality casting and talent on display is definitely one of Fall of Eagles' best assets.

I can soundly and unabashedly recommend this one. It would be transparent of me to point you might not like it if you want action in your TV shows seeing as this boasts shortage of such a commodity. Seeing as it is available in its entirety on Youtube you really have no excuse to at least check it out.

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₪ Genre: Science Fiction, Animation
☑ Release date: May 2017
⇲ Running time: 105 minutes

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There are cases where being oblivious of the source material is perhaps the best way to experience an adaptation. Now, this Blame! movie is not exactly a straight up adaptation, but in no way is familiarity with Tsutomu Nihei's practically legendary and impossible-to-categorize manga mandatory in order to appreciate it properly. In fact I would make the argument that going through the story in the same manner characters themselves are will add a lot to the work. I will limit my review to movie material as such.

What is Blame! then? Well, as the intro narration tells us it's been a long time since humanity lost the ability to connect with the City. City that has kept growing randomly, now without direction or human control that presumably set it in motion, going so far as using the peacekeeping forces – Safeguards – to hunt humans indiscriminately. In such circumstances we find a group of heavily armored teenagers who call themselves Electro-Fishers and who snuck out of their village in order to find some food because their days are numbered. Through some bad luck they end up on the receiving end of a Exterminator patrol and are only saved by a timely intervention of a mysterious stranger and his high-powered laser gun. He asks them a single question – are there any humans here with the Net Terminal Gene? Shell shocked and glad to have just evaded death they, naturally, have no idea what that even is and suggest village elders might know. Agreeing to come with them stranger reveals his name is Killy and that he's a human.

This is where the whole “best experienced blind” comes into play because despite a setup that screams COOL MYSTERIOUS BADASS this is not a story about Killy at all, but rather about the Electric-Fishers themselves who despite all the advanced technology they posses know so little about the world they live in and understand even less. Killy himself is more of a elemental force with a mission while people like Zuru, Pops and others who effectively serve as this defensive organization for their little village are our POVs into the setting. Why is their little village seemingly invisible to the Exterminator patrols? How will they survive the coming months without any food when all the Goo pipelines have run dry? As more ridiculous things begin to happen while they hang around Killy over a common goal they remain, well, the viewer. If you are not familiar with the source material you are genuinely as lost as they are because that's just the kind of setting this is.

Do or die situation for you. Just another day at the office for Killy.

Not when I wrote “Animation” up there I meant it because this is not your traditional drawn anime. And that's really where the main problem rears its ugly head with the absolutely HORRENDOUS below 24 frames-per-second animation. I realize there's a technical reason for this when you combine CGI and 2D drawn assets, but for the love of god I cannot believe how anyone could approve this. TV series Knights of Sidonia had the same problem and it persists. It's even worse here because there are few parts that are entirely CGI and frames positively fly as opposed to constant jittering. I got used to it, but you can get used to a lot of things without making excuses for them in the process. This is the reason why I'm not going to give the movie a full recommendation I wholeheartedly would have otherwise. If you can't mix and patch properly, choose one method and stick to it.

Which is a goddamn shame because the movie looks gorgeous otherwise and obvious effort was put into bringing this dark and ominous world, where everyday existence is a struggle as you're besieged from every side by the system you don't even understand, to life. Nihei loves his backgrounds more than characters and it comes through in the movie even though animators managed to largely avoid the sameface problem artist suffers from. Helmets notwithstanding, of course.

At the end of the day this is a so-so recommendation purely because of how the animation was handled, but whether this is a deal breaker or something you can easily overlook will be entirely up to you so feel free to adjust however you see fit. One major thing I like about Blame! the movie is that it still works as an entirely self-contained story and makes it clear that what is for these people matter of life and death for Killy it's really just another side stop along the way.

After all, you don't climb thousands of levels just for giggles.

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₪ Genre: Historical, Drama
☑ Original run: September 1983 – November 1983
⇲ Episodes: 12

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Seems only appropriate I admit to not knowing much about Sidney Reilly as a historical figure other than that he was pretty much the basis for James Bond of 007 fame. Now that I've seen Reilly, Ace of Spies I can safely say he must have been fascinating person even if you account for fictional liberties show must've taken at some point for dramatic effect. Then again it was based on a book with some credibility so who knows.

Historically we're back at World War I or events that lead to it as we follow Sidney Reilly, a spy of the British Secret Intelligence Service, on his globe-trotting escapades doing work for the agency but also seeing how things are shaping up for events that will lead to the Great War. It should be noted that episodes for the first half or so are mostly episodic as they cover a variety of events foreshadowing future developments – acquiring the results of oil surveys that could bring Turkey into the conflict when they but heats with the Brits in the region, entire situation regarding Port Arthur, matter of who gets the contract for the Russian war fleet, etc. Like I said these are mostly episodic with the exception of establishing Reilly's own personal life and how things change there over the years. Once we get to the second half of the show is when things really heat up with the Russian Revolution and its backdrop. Considering show spans almost 25 years there's a lot to cover...

Yet it's also something I cannot talk about because of two points: show spoilers and the fact these are historical events you can look up on your own. Amusingly enough these two points are almost at odds with one another. Which is why I'll move to character who are by far the most fascinating part of the series. I would say Sidney Reilly as portrayed by Sam Neill is simply fascinating the way he comes off as this multifaceted person and not simply a character you can summarize in a sentence. Master spy, womanizer extraordinaire and genius in his own right makes it almost difficult to believe one person could garner so many exploits. Show manages to keep him ambiguous throughout and that works very much to its credit. It's all fun and games thinking he's James Bond who has a different women in every city and limitless access to his government's coffers until you realize things often go sours during missions and he has to, in fact, kill innocent people to get away. This is almost never shown on screen but there couple of episodes where it is explicitly pointed out in his report and Reilly waves it off because hey, it's just part of the mission. Even the romantic angle loses some of the appeal when you realize our protagonist clearly has a mindset that sees most of the people he interacts with as tools or ties that can be severed at any point which leads to a rather sad personal life with broken relationships and marriages simply unable to sustain themselves because he's so absorbed with his work and see it all as almost a grand game.

That kinda goes hand-in-hand with the times considering this was before the notion of modern warfare and organized intelligence, which makes woes of the Secret Intelligence Service all the more relatable as you see them struggling to get the point of their purpose across to government that simply doesn't get it. Seeing the act of gathering information on global scale transform from almost this gentleman's affair with fair play between individuals to a ruthless machine brings its own sense of dread and inevitable future taking hold. More than focusing solely on the events of World War I show delves a lot more into the nature of these organizations, how they dealt with operatives and their overblown egos ad in essence events that get glossed over or totally ignored because they were cloak and dagger deals you won't read about in history books that much.

When you have to choose between the proletariat and those nubile dancers you're rooming with.

While I'm still on the subject of characters and story I remembered I haven't said anything about the support cast which is odd considering this is most certainly a character-driven show.

Through and through a Sidney Reilly show, but there are other characters that stand out. Primarily his agency boss Cummings and other colleagues who due to how the show is written genuinely come off as believable people in their own right. There is something especially endearing in how they gather ranks despite all the nonsense they usually can't do much about and on multiple occasions never lose faith in Reilly. Their manner decidedly rooted in avoidance and finesse always puts them at odds with more straightforward elements of the British government when going gets tough and these scenes were a job to watch. There are plenty of other characters I could talk about, particularly Reilly's liaisons over the course of the show, but that's too many altogether to go into details so let's just say there's a myriad of character actors doing excellent work here. I think Stalin and Lenin stood out for somewhat uneven performances, though. One being too hammy and other just poorly cast in my opinion. I'll let you decide which is which, comrade.

Very much like Fall of Eagles this series is also what I would classify as a “talky show”, but because of the nature of events that transpire we can get a more down to earth perspective which sometimes translates into possible action. Now don't get your hopes up because I'm talking couple of shootouts here and some explosions. Keep in mind this was an '80s show with a middling budget. Budget that was, mind you, allocated cleverly to acting talent. Considering the locales I assume they filmed at actual real locations most of the time and definitely comes through. When I talked about how the show was written above I was referring to the fact it really doesn't insult the viewers' intelligence by feeling the need to overly explain everything. Whenever we see smart people doing their work it always feels authentic when you don't need throwaway “dumb lines” for the audience to get it. Reilly, Ace of Spies leans more on the subdued school of acting and goes for legitimate portrayals over flair... which sadly does not extend to variety seeing as we, once again, see English actors everywhere with their posh accents. Such were the times, I guess.

I won't mince words anymore – I strongly recommend Reilly, Ace of Spies if you're either into World War I history, like all this scheming and dealing or generally enjoy smart, well-written shows. I'm not sure anymore, but last time I checked show could be found on Youtube in its entirety so give it a try at least..