Fnord

It’s been a month since last time, but there’s some big games this time around. And some not so big ones.

The Flower Collectors

3.1 hours, 7 of 13 achievements

I wrote a review for this one! Link at the bottom of the post


Assassin's Creed: Syndicate

28 hours, no achievements

The forgotten Assassin's Creed, or at least it feels like it. The game came out between the much maligned Unity, and Assassin's Creed Origins, which seemed to re-invent the series. And between those two, Syndicate really does not stand out, for good or bad reasons. Syndicate is basically using the mechanics of Unity, but it's a lot less buggy. That means that you have the standard Assassin's Creed gameplay, of jumping between buildings, Batman Arkham-series-like combat, loads of menial tasks to do, combined with a rudimentary RPG-lite system, where you get skillpoints that you can allocate, and an actual stealth system (a game about sneaky assassins, with a stealth system? Who would have thought that was a good idea?!)

The highlight of this game, like any other AC really, is the setting. Victorian London looks quite impressive, and you've now got trains and steamboats to contend with. Overall, this part is really good, and the main reason to play this game.

As for the story, it's passable. Templars are doing an evil, and you need to stop them. This time you're playing as two characters, twins, who have slightly different skills and of course personalities, and they have their own missions to contend with. In the open world you can pick whichever you want though. And as for the characters, one of them is a bit of an idiot, and I don't get how he could become an assassin. The story is by no means good, but at least it gives you an excuse to climb some tall buildings, and stab some people.

Final verdict: This game is a Ubisoft game.


LEGO® Batman™: The Videogame

10.0 hours, no achievements

Ever played a LEGO game? Well, this is just like that, only you're Batman. Or a Batman villain. This game has two campaigns, one good guy and one bad guy one, and they play pretty much the same, only with the Batman one, you're changing suits mid-mission, which gives you different abilities, while in the villain one, you change characters between levels. This game is nothing special, but like all other LEGO games, still pretty fun.


Mega Man 11 / Rock Man 11

3.6 hours, 22 of 50 achievements

Mega Man is back, in yet another Mega Man game! Well, in all fairness, it's been a few years since the last one. This one is very "standard Mega Man", you get 8 stages to chose from at the start, each stage has an end boss, and if you beat it you get a new weapon. Each boss has a weakness to another weapon, and once all these bosses are down, the final set of levels is revealed. The only new mechanic here is what they call the double gear system, which lets you give yourself a boost, either by slowing down everything around you, or increase your attack power. I found the attack power boost to be far inferior. Other than that, it's like any other main series Mega Man game. Which is to say a solid 2D platformer. I don't think this one will be remembered as the high point of the series, but neither is it a low point.


Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team

4.0 hours, 7 of 12 achievements

Warhammer 40k: Kill team is a perfectly fine twin stick shooter, where you and another player get to play as Space Marines. You need to battle your way through a ship filled to the brim with orks and Tyranids. There's nothing really great about this game, but nor is it awful, it just kind of is yet another co-op twin stick shooter. Co-op works fine, and it is remote play compatible, so that's nice, but it feels a bit slow, and the character balance did not seem great.


Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales

29 hours, 36 of 39 achievements

Remember Gwent from Witcher 3, and how this was a massive success? Well, they made a digital TCG out of it. And then that spun off into a singleplayer game. That's this game.

Thronebreaker takes place a bit before The Witcher series, where you're following Queen Meve, as she defends her country against Nilfgaard. I don't want to spoil the story, because it's actually pretty good, and worth playing this game for.
As you move through the lands, you'll encounter different tricky situations, and these are, of course, solved by a game of Gwent. The card game has been expanded and rebalanced, compared to how it was in The Witcher 3, and is a lot more tactical. Some encounters are regular Gwent games, where you use a deck you've made, to face off against the enemy, and some use a pre-determined deck, and are more like puzzles than regular games of Gwent.

I do have a few criticisms of this game though. It feels like it wants to teach you the basics of Gwent, but it also does a pretty good job at encouraging bad habits for TCGs, like treating larger deck size as a bonus that you need to pay for (in most TCGs you want to keep your deck as small as the rules allow, to increase the likelihood of you drawing the right cards for your combos). The games economy is also a bit busted, and it gives you far too much resources.

But other than that, this game is really good, and the best game of this update.


Flower Collectors review

Arbiter Libera

I absolutely agree with you on Thronebreaker. People saw Gwent and promptly bailed when in reality what we got is more-or-less an adventure/RPG that only uses the card game as conflict resolution method. Fact there are so few actual Gwent matches only proves that because game is way more geared towards unique scenarios and puzzles instead. Although, I would say actual deck building is almost irrelevant because of that. Game gives you plenty of cards, but you can play from beginning to end with almost that starter deck + heroes you recruit along the way.

That soundtrack, though.

Fnord

I do wish they would have done a bit more with the deckbuilding part of Gwent. The only time I needed to tweak my deck (because I lost more than once against an opponent) was against the boss in the swamp, because the deck I had made was too good at dealing damage.

And the soundtrack was indeed quite good, though I think they re-used a fare bit from The Witcher 3. Not that that game had a bad soundtrack though :P

Lex

Final verdict: This game is a Ubisoft game.

Considering some in the series are duds, that’s decent praise.

Fnord

I think it’s a fair verdict, because it really does feel like a game that does very little to set itself apart among the other Ubisoft games