Report #17
Some time passed since my last update, RL was quite stressful the last weeks. I finished another 3 games and although I guess my post will drown under all the end of the month updates, I’ll still do it now, otherwise I fear I’ll never do it. I also apologize for the somewhat lackluster reviews, I am just not as motivated this time around. Overall I had a very mixed gaming experience, but see for yourself:
BATTLETECH
101.8 hours, 73 of 109 achievements
★★★★★
I played this game for last months theme, since I got it as a gift from someone. The game is a strategy game, set in the BattleTech Universe. I don't know much about the universe, only read a little about it from time to time, so it was a rather new setting for me. You command a group of mercenary MechWarriors and try to keep them afloat. There are quite a few similiarities to the 'XCOM' series, so if you like 'XCOM', chances are you gonna like 'BATTELTECH' as well.
However, there is a big caveat: The game has a lot of technical issues. Loading takes forever, there are a ton of animations that stuttered for me (tested this on 3 different PCs, the result was always the same) and it still eats up a lot of ressources. Some of this issues were apparently addressed in a recent patch, but I haven't tried the game since then.
However, this didn't bother me too much, since everything else is just absolutely great. Do you know the feeling, when you start up a game for the first time and fall immediately in love with it? For me it was the opening cinematic and the main menu theme, that was enough for me to sink about 100 hours into the game. There is so much love for details and the combination of managing your company and fighting missions in between is just perfect. It also features one of the best OSTs I've heard in a while. The game is truly great, I don't know how else I should express that. And it has a lot of potential to get even better, either through DLCs or the modding community. I am really looking forward to see this game grow over time. I almost never award a game a full 5 star rating, but if any game deserves it, then it's this one. Definitely my game of the year so far.
So, I enjoyed the game a ton, but please be aware of the technical issues. If they would potentially bother you, your experience may be much less favourable than mine…
Master of Orion
16.1 hours, 29 of 102 achievements
★★☆☆☆
I have never played the original 'Master of Orion' series, so I went into this 4X space strategy game without any nostalgia and no expectations. Which was probably a good thing. The game is a very simplified 4X game. All typical elements, like colonization, ship design, espionage and diplomacy are there, but in a very very simplified manner. Which makes the game not that deep and - at least for me - not as rewarding. There are simply 4X space strategy games out there, that do all this things so so much better, that 'MoO' falters in comparison.
There is one scenario, where I think 'Master of Orion' might be the right thing for you: each individual game takes a rather short amount of time. You can finish a game in maybe 8-12 hours, which makes it perfect for the more casual gamer, that does not want to spend 50 hours in one single game.
All in all, the game is just to simplified for my taste. If you want some serious depth, I would much rather recommend 'Distant Worlds' or my all-time favourite 'Stellaris'.
Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition
23.8 hours, no achievements
★☆☆☆☆
I am going to be blunt here: I did not enjoy the game at all. The main reason being its age. I can absolutely see, why the game was so genre-defining when it came out in 2000, being a revolution and all: You have a lot of freedom to achieve your mission goals, the levels are really huge and there are a lot of things to explore. And it features a rather complex story for its time. I can see that. But it's just too old for my taste now. Yes, I installed mods to make the gaming experience a smoother one, but still. I don't mind the graphics, but everything else, the gameplay, the storytelling…I just feel the tremendous age on that.
Now, I know how there are a lot of people out there, who think 'Deus Ex' to be one of the best games ever made, but I just did not work for me. Therefore I award the game only one star, on account of not having fun at all playing it. If you enjoyed the game, I can understand its appeal, the game is just not for me.
So we have my game of the year next to a mediocre 4X game and a classic that just didn’t appeal to me. That’s it for Report #17, next time I hope to write some more precise reviews (again?).
So long,
Vito
Knowing that I’m such a sucker for stealth games, a generous person from SG directly gifted me Deus Ex. I feel so ashamed to have quit it very early on and put it on my “won’t play” list for the very same reason you mentioned. I struggled immensely with the controls and the overall gameplay and it seriously breaks my heart because I wanna play it so much not only out of respect to the gifter but also out of my respect to the stealth genre and what this game contributed to it.
There are some classic games I love to death that I got to play when they were released. Such as Thief. When I tried to replay it a year ago I could barely move due to the new control scheme I got used to in modern games. Therefore the outdated Thief controls made it impossible for me to replay it. I really wish I got to play Deus Ex when it was first released.
As unfortunate as it is, I’m a bit glad that you didn’t like ‘Deus Ex’ for similar reasons and I’m not alone with my failure to adjust to the controls. In a sense it’s a very interesting experience nonetheless, to see how used we are to always (more or less) the same controls and are completely thrown off in case they change.
I share your sentiment, I really wanted to like the game for its impact it had. And I also agree, that it would have probably been great to play it when it was first released. Although I suspect it would have been too hard for my younger self.
Deus Ex has certainly aged fairly badly and to be honest it should be expected for a game that’s 18 years old! I played it about three years ago for the first time and while I was able to play through the game and enjoy it (not knowing anything of the story) I did have some frustration with the controls compared to modern games. I can certainly see why this was a classic back in its day though and I’m glad I gave it a play.
My interest of the original came around after having played the reboot Human Revolution. Have you had a chance to play that?
I have some more of the ‘Deus Ex’ games in my backlog, ‘Human Revolution’ is among them. But since I try to play games “in order”, I haven’t played any of the later ‘Deus Ex’ games. I certainly plan to do so though. And looking forward to it!
And it’s true, a game that old is expected to show its age a lot. I mean, ‘Deus Ex’ is old enough to drive a car by now…
Hello VitoStippkow. I came here to apologise because I deleted my previous post which you commented on. I actually replied to you there but I have no idea if you saw it before I deleted my post. If you didn’t feel free to let me know so I can tell you about Witcher 2 again.
I realised that my post was missing two reviews so I decided to delete the published one and re-publish it after completing it. I wanted to let you know that I truly appreciated your comment, thank you so much for your support and motivation again. I’m looking forward to reading your updates too. Take care :)
Hi Lenor! Thank you very much for your comment. I was already wondering what happened to your post :)
Yes, I saw your response, but didn’t have the chance to answer. So here is what I would have written: I’ve never tried installing mods, thank you for this tip! I’ll make sure to take heed of your hint once I’ll give ‘The Witcher 2’ another try :) Funnily enough, I had a blast playing the first Witcher game. Even though it was several years after its release, for some reason I didn’t have as much problems adjusting to the gameplay as you and most other people experienced.
And now, on to the improved 99% Completion rate post of yours :D
Oh I’m glad I gave some information about it then. Cause I was thinking that it might be too much :P
I don’t use mods either actually. There are only two games I used mods that affect gameplay itself, Dragon’s Dogma for multiple saves and the mods I mentioned for The Witcher 2 to make it less stressful in my eyes. In my case they really helped. I even downloaded a mod that makes Geralt’s hair pure white :D
I’m actually happy you enjoyed Witcher 1 cause I really hated the gameplay even though its story was quite intriguing. It’s the opposite in Witcher 2 in my opinion, horrible story coupled with much smoother controls. I’m happy to finally experience all Witcher games though, the entire franchise was really fun to play ^^
Yes, I appreciated the additional information :)
I’m not a big modder myself either, but in some cases they just make the gameplay just much better. But I always try the unmodded game version first (ok except with ‘Deus Ex’) before installing mods to get a feeling for the original game.
Hehe I actually played Deux Ex without that mod :) I’ll most likely try Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines without mods too. Time will show what will happen with that one :P I hope it won’t share the same fate as Deus Ex :(
Ah, another game that gets such amounts of praise… I’m really reluctant to try it, for the same reason you hint at, sharing the same fate as ‘Deus Ex’. Luckily it’s not even in my backlog yet, so that’s a problem for another day :)
I hope it works out for you!
It was a gog gift from someone I respect a lot so I’ll do my best to properly play it. Besides, the clan I’ll be using is said to be pure stealth <3 I’ll try Deus Ex again, some day in an unforseenable future :P