Fnord

Dang it, forgot to select the option that makes it clear that these are clicky! All of these are clicky, so if you want to see a mini-review, just click on them.

Heroes of Hammerwatch

42.4 hours, 26 of 92 achievements

Heroes of Hammerwatch is yet another rogue-lite, with randomly generated levels, persistent upgrades and all that jazz. There are loads of them on steam, I've lost track of how many I have in my steam library at this point, and I only have a fraction of all the ones on steam.

Heroes of Hammerwatch is also very good. It gives a nice sense of progression, and each region feels really distinct from each other, so there's a good amount of variety in the game, which really helps when you're going to end up replaying the same areas more than a few times. The game also does a really good job with the different characters. They feel distinct from each other and have their own playstyles, which gives the game a lot of replay value. This game is also not overly punishing. While it's not a cake walk, just getting through to the end is realistic, and it does offer you several crutches, in case you get stuck. Grinding for permanent upgrades is of course one thing you can do, but passing certain milestones with each class gives you a permanent buff to all classes, depending on the class you played (so for an example, beating a few bosses with the Paladin will give you a permanent armour boost to everyone).

And finally, this is a really nice co-op game. While it does not have a whole lot of unique co-op mechanics & interactions, the way the game is structured makes it work well in co-op. Working as a team really speeds things up.


Pyre

8 hours, no achievements

I was worried that Pyre would end up being boring when I first heard about it. It's a VN mixed with basketball, and I don't like basketball games, and I don't tend to care much for VNs either. But Pyre was good. Really good actually. You're playing the manager of a team of outcasts, who were exiled from their homes due to some crimes they had committed, and only by doing the "trials" can they escape. And so you go from match to match, face off against an opposing team, and between the matches you have somewhat lengthy dialogue sections where you get to know the characters. And the characters are compelling, they all feel fleshed out and interesting in their own ways.

I don't want to spoil the story here, but one thing that does harm it a bit is the games lack of difficulty. Losing a match does not mean game over, the game seems to want you to persist, even when the goings get tough. There's just one problem, I was never close to losing a match, not even once. And that harms the game because that aspect of the story does not work with the gameplay. And before anyone asks, yes, I did have several of those "challenges" that you can activate later going at once.


Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear

20 hours, 39 of 68 achievements

An expansion for a game from 1998? Sure!

Siege of Dragonspear is an expansion to the classic CRPG Baldur's Gate, and it takes place almost directly after BG1 ends (so before BG2). So this story has no real impact on the overall BG plot.

Siege of Dragonspear is weird. You can tell that it was not made by the original team, as the style of writing is different, and the encounter design is very different from the original game. The encounter design actually reminds me more of Icewind Dale than Baldur's Gate (that's not a bad thing, I think IWD has superior encounter design). As for the writing, it's a bit hit or miss. I was never a big fan of Jaheira's 4th wall breaking comments, and they play this up a bit more. Only instead of being a direct 4th wall breaking comment, they make weird and unnecessary references, like one character might randomly quote the Beatles as her "idle" chatter.

4th wall breaking stuff aside, it's still pretty good. The conflict feels interesting, and fits in pretty well with the setting. And most of the side quests are given more backstory here than they did in the base game, it's not just random person needs you to do minor tasks, many of the side quests are given a fare bit of backstory, so in this regard it's more like BG2.

I think that's how I would sum this up. This does not feel like Baldur's Gate 1, it feels like a mix between BG2 and IWD, with some minor unnecessary things thrown in.

Oh, and if you're worried about the rumored "pushing a political agenda" thing…. there's one trans person in the game, they tell you about it in like 8 lines of dialogue, and that's only if you ask them about the significance of one of their possessions that you help them retrieve. People are just looking for an excuse to complain, it seems… Trans people exists in the real world, they existed back in the middle ages as well, I don't see how including one is in itself pushing a political agenda.


Age of Wonders 3

63.5 hours, 36 of 74 achievements

This is a game I started all the way back in 2014, and I beat the first campaign (both endings) in 2018. And now I beat the second campaign (both endings)!

I don't know why it ended up taking me so long, it's a great game. I guess the fact that these are some beefy campaigns might have been the issue. But I had no issues with playing the odd random map from time to time.

AoW 3 is a turnbased strategy game, in the same general vein as Heroes of Might and Magic or Masters of Magic. And it's a darn good one at that. While the main story is nothing to really write home about, the gameplay is great. Unlike HoMM (well, I guess apart from 4) your heroes are units on the battlefield, who level up and get stronger, and this gives a nice sense of progression to the game. You've also got a very nice amount of variety between different "classes". And that's one of the things that sets AoW 3 apart, you've got race and class here. Race are things like goblin, elf, orc and so on, and class gives you a set of different units and spells. All the races play the same and have the same set of units apart from one unique unit, but the units have slightly different stats and abilities (an orc will hit harder in melee but have lower magic resistance, a dwarf can cross mountains and so on), and then you've got the class which is the main thing that decides how you'll play, and the exact stats of the class specific units are also modified by race (an engineer has a blunderbuss (ranged weapon) and repairs mechanical units, but an orc engineer also hits a bit harder in melee, and a dwarf engineer can still cross mountains). All of this adds up to quite a bit of replay value for the skirmish maps.

I would say that AoW 3 is one of the best games of its kind. Well worth playing, and if you were one of the people who grabbed it when it was free, then give it a shot!


Lengray

Congrats on beating both AoW 3 campaings! It’s a very good game but, while playing the first campaign, I thought things were taking too long.
Your post made me reinstall the game in order to spend some time on custom maps. Maybe I’ll come back to the campaigns someday.

Fnord

Yeah, the campaigns are not short. Even though I knew how the game worked, the Commonwealth campaign ended up taking me 22,5h (for both endings)

Adelion

Thank god. I said the same thing about that one specific completely optional quest about that Trans character. That people are boosting problems where they aren’t. Then again I have a suspicion this quest has been changed at a later point and was maybe more straightforward before. But yea, the complains about the politic agenda are ridiculous. Although one gay, one bi and one trans character may statistically a bit to much. Dont care though.

Also liked the encounters, especially the final siege and how previous decision made the battle. Especially the decision for the underground “preparation” has been a tough choice. Although it was an obvious for me and it helped me then in the sequence near the end-game. For most part I also found the transition in the population and their fear believable. The refugee thematic may have hit a bit to close to current day politics for some but was portraited believable too. If I would have to criticise something specifically it would be the antagonist which seemed kinda gullible to me. It was clear that her agenda wasnt necessary evil. But believing that bullshit about saving the damned? She should have been smarter than this. Even if you take the guilt factor into consideration.