Report #61

Knights of the Old Republic (Kotor) is a classical BioWare RPG. I finished the game already once about a decade ago, but not on Steam. For my christmas vacation I wanted to play something nice as a treat, so I decided to replay the game on Steam. It was funny how some parts of the game were still quite present in my mind and I recognized them at once (e.g. Korriban or Rakata Prime) while I had absolutely no recollection of some other parts of the game (e.g. Manaan). Which was a good mix: I was able to enjoy the nostalgia, but still experience "new" things.

You can clearly see that this is an early BioWare game. Everything that made BioWare great (a long, long time ago 🙃) is already there. The writing is just superb. There were so many great lines of dialogue, which really resonated with me -- of course I've forgotten all of them by now. The companions were varied and mostly very interesting, each in their own way. As last time I was a big fan of Jolee. And I enjoyed the development some of them made during the game, Carth for example.

As it is an earlier work, some things are not working as well as in the later BioWare games. Inventory Management or controling your companions during fights was a bit too tedious. The game also has dated graphics by now, but as usual this did not bother me personally.

All in all it was a good decision to take this game up again. It really sweetened my christmas vacation. Personally I like Dragon Age or Mass Effect still a bit more (sorry MsKotor), but it is definitely a superb game, one of the best RPGs I have played over the years. Definitely a 5/5 rating.

Brigador is a top-down shooter riding on the retro-wave and quite successfully so. You play a variety of different mechs, tanks or antigrav vehicles which can be equipped with a plethora of different weapons. The game is a top-down shooter focusing on gameplay with a little bit of story and a bit of lore. I don't remember when I last touched such a game, but I did enjoy this one.

Trying out new vehicles or new weapons is fun, slaughtering countless enemies as well. I enjoyed the art style and I was blown away by the soundtrack. It was so good, I even bought it. It's also noteworthy, that the game received constant improvement and free updates from the devs over the years since its release.

However, there are also quite a few aspects I did not like. While it is fun to gun down enemies, it gets a bit boring over time -- at least for me. I would have wished for more story. Also I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of different vehicles and weapons to choose from. Yes, a lot of them were great fun, but in the end they all blended together and only very few of them stood out (the König for example, awesome soundeffects with this one). I realize that a lot of these points are probably intentional and "correct" for this genre, but this is about my personal experience. As I said, I enjoyed trying out something new, but I don't seek to repeat it soon.

The achievements are mostly easy to get, but often a bit stupid. They require you to do very specific things, so that you end up cheesing a lot of them.

Similar to Knight of the Old Republic I don't think Mount&Blade needs a lot of introduction. It is a well known sandbox open-world action RPG. You play as a mercenary forming their own company and helping different kingdoms to overcome their foes in a medieval (non-fantasy!) world, with hopes of earning your own title and land one day. I have played Warband and With Fire and Sword, but never the original game. So I thought I would dip into it for a few hours.

A lot of this game is great. Managing your companions, the regular troops, the inventory, riding around on the strategic map looking for opportunities to strike at your enemies and last but not least the battles themself. All of it forms a unique and really fun experience.

I had a bit of an issue with the progression though. The beginning is interesting, depending on your settings even challenging. Then comes a middle part, where you level up your character and develop your troops, also very fun. But after a couple of hours you hit a point where progression is almost coming to a stop and here is, where I lost a bit of the fun. And I remember it was similar in the other Mount & Blade games. You are strong enough to beat most single enemies without a problem, but you are still way to weak to really achieve something, e.g. conquer something on your own. Once I reached this point in my playthrough, I stopped with the game. Still, it's a great game.

Now, 17 hours is not much for such an extensive game. But why spend time on this when you can play Warband?