Recent reviews by Spielraum

Best game for value for Steam Summer Sale 2017, esp for the base game alone. Content that is sufficiently long and not drawn out, ok storyline, quite a few decent 60s songs and most importantly, just for US$15, you cannot go wrong. There are a few minor black marks in my opinion; of which I will go into detail later when I have finished the game but overall its a fun entertaining open world third person shooter. It has nothing to do with politics and more with the gameplay (one example I will bring up now is about dialogue and exposition that is hidden if you do not do stealth).

The DLC may not add a lot of content and hence not as value for money but its only about US$10 more.

P.S. IMO devs should really think twice about using social commentary in order to specifically sell games to particular audiences. It may work for movies but not for games.

ADDENDUM:

Best thing about this game is the driving. Old school arcade style driving on automatic without manual. The most fun and challenge in this game is to beat the records on the various tracks. Not only that you have a 60s good vibes soundtrack and customisable "muscle cars". However, selection is limited. As for the gunplay, it is pretty good and satisifying - its a pity the AI is unintelligent.

As mentioned, if you do not do stealth, you miss out on a bit of further exposition and some background dialogue (including some cutscenes). Occasionally re-doing the same scenario will have different dialogue. It seems to me that the devs have toyed with the idea of doing a RPG-style branching storyline (apart from the ending) but not invested into it throughly.

Which leads to the open world. "New Bordeaux" is quite small (despite quite good looking in places) and not very interactive. A comparison can be made to the Watchdogs series where you can play various mini-games etc. but in this game there is no multi-player. If you are going to sell a game at AAA prices, the expectation is that the game will be chock full of content - hence at $60 I agree that its a 3.5/10 whereas at $15 its a solid 7/10 IMO.

I mentioned this before in another review: there should be a neutral recommendation. I read some of the critical reviews and I do have to agree with some of it such as repetitive gameplay and very little content. I would also add amateurish looking non-animated cartoon cutscenes as another criticism.

But on to the strengths of the game:
1) Its free to play. If you want to be casual and drop in once and awhile, this game allows you to do this. However there is a daily login bonus, so it is advisable just to login daily even if you are not really playing. On the 2nd day, the reward is sufficent in-game currency to buy a 2nd superhero from most of the available superheroes. Only a handful are too expensive but you can grind a bit to top up to be able to afford them.

2) Every super hero plays very differently and have different mechanics. Once you hit raiding content (of which there is not much of), your builds would be put to the test. This is the core strength of the game; a toned down Diablo with much less content but lots of characters (aka classes in other games) with many different playstyles. Of course there are not really as many playstyles as there are superheroes because some will have similar skills and fall into a pre-defined role, but fortunately there are quite a few roles such as DPS ranged, melee tank, support buffs, summons etc.

3) Its Marvel. Do you like Captain America / Thor / Psylocke / Rogue / etc and want to play a video game with them as the main character? Guess what - outside of Marvel V Capcom and since they stopped making Marvel: Ultimate Alliance series, this is the latest game that allows you to do that and its already been out for two years. It is a fairly competent game and they fixed a lot of bugs and QoL issues such as the camera but not all of them.

4) It is quite fun. If you get sick of it, you can always come back to it later. Some ppl will complain about the grinding - but what do you expect from a Diabloesque game? The fun is in the slaughtering of hundreds and hundreds of mobs and bosses and hoping for that lucky drop to complete your favourite build on your favourite Marvel character.

5) Nice professional voice-acting. Lines are quite funny too. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of dialogue or ambient comments.

After getting end game gear and sinking hundreds of hours to obtain them and participating in end game raids, here are the criticisms:

1) As mentioned before, there is very little content outside of a few maps and encounters of various supervillians in very small maps. There are currently only 2 end game raids. The story mode is very short and can be completed quickly if your character is levelled quickly first. Characters can be levelled quickly during events which gives massive experience bonuses. This leads on to another major criticism I have of the game.

2) The rewards (in terms of experience and loot) for playing the game outside of the above-mentioned events ie majority of the time are so sub-optimal to the extent that it is really not worth playing the game at all. I suspect that the devs did this in order to prevent player burn-out. I think it is not fair or realistic to expect players to only play according to the dev's schelude so that they won't miss out on the really good rewards which is a scarcity during normal game time. IMO once people feel they missed out on the rewards, they will stop playing because there is no incentive for doing so anyway.

3) With regards to the boss fights in raids, the mechanics dont require much coordination; if at all. Or builds for that matter. The current mechanics doesn't suggest that future content will place more emphasis on team work other than merely DPSing and avoiding major enemy attacks (ie red circles)

4) The UI. Firstly, it is unattractive and plain at best. Functional boxes for inventory and that is it. The worse part is the lack of QoL when it comes to the UI: no auto sort function makes inventory management a hassle; boss / loot indicators for bosses/loot outside of your current map on screen is completely opaque, obstructing the power bar and not being able to see the cooldowns of your various powers. There are a few other minor UI issues as well.

5) The business model of the game is prohibitively expensive to completionist/collector players despite being a F2P game. If you want to unlock the full roster of the game and the various in game permanent minions (called team-ups), you will have to "grind" a lot of in game currency. They are gated to drop 1 at a time per 5-7 min and the average character costs 400 of this currency. You dont have to grind in the traditional sense of gameplay as you can be afk for 6 min per 7 min or so but even then this is nothing but monotonous clicking. There are currently 48 heroes in the roster, each costs roughly $5 to unlock on average and there are about 15 minions (give or take a few). Not to mention inventory space is a RL $ commodity too but there are a few workarounds for that.

You do the Math.

6) Various minor bugs and glitches. Other MMOs have fixed the majority of those after two years.

7) Graphics. If you really want to criticize, the game has dated graphics. The environment is extremely bland and is reminiscent of 10 year old games. Don't mention texture quality etc.; there is none. Even the character models of the various superheroes and villians look dated. On the upside, the particles and visual effects of powers such as vortexes etc look decent. I think ppl give some leeway to the graphics because it is a MMO game but even then I feel that Marvel Heroes is still subpar. Fortunately it is the old school ARPG gameplay which make players overlook the graphics.

The good news is that the devs are fans of the Marvel franchise themselves and are committed to improving the game. There are plans to introduce more game modes and map areas. But a major revamp of this game is quite unlikely imo.

Early Access preview:

I wish there is a neutral instead of a yes/no recommend button.

At the moment, 4 classes and only one boss.

Movement is awkward and clunky, melee feels like marshmellow nerf pugil stick slashing. Gun play is so-so but the sounds of the guns sound tinny like popguns. It feels like a low budget FPS MMO that is built to accomodate thousands of players simultaneously and not a team-coop polished experience. Compared to Left 4 Dead 2, everything feels like a step backwards. Fair enough, Tripwire isnt a big studio (no offense) but for a FPS, I believe generations weaned on high budget quality FPSes would expect better quality in terms of controls and "feel". I am not really a FPS fan, but this is what I would assume would happen.

However, there is some class customization available and difficulty is not nerfed on the hard difficulty, unlike the devs inclination to protect easily offended ppl on the internet. Since when is toxic behavior confined to racism/sexism/homophobic behavior (L4D2 prime example) and why should some extremely special ppl feel they need to be constantly protected even in internet video games?

But I digress from my preview. You should wait for the full release, unless you have a group of friends who want a challenge in co-op FPS or a very good FPS player who can carry average teams. After the full release of more maps, classes and bosses and mods which may take a long time, I would do another review. Price point is about right for a full release though. Another thing going for this game is the lack of competition in the same genre. Borderlands Horde Gore Zombie Mode is not going to be released anytime soon.

Baldur's Gate rehash with outdated 15 year old graphics and all. Obsidian is clearly banking on nostalgia and a current dearth of stats heavy RPG to sell this "homage" to D&D 3.5E replete with kobolds, character classes and themes found in earlier games when they did have the Wizards of the Coast (formerly TSR's) license. The combat system and lore etc were clearly tweaked from their earlier games and I am sad to say PoE's plot is mediocre at best and not in the least bit engrossing at all.

Technical issues from a previous era made a reappearance such as the inability to see the bottom and right corners of the isometric map with no camera rotation allowed. Graphics are even worse than many games found on mobile devices these days. Gameplay allows you to cheese most encounters via doorways and pulling enemies one by one. If one was to compare this poor effort to the games they made 15-20 years ago by imagining it was released back then as a competing game, the Baldur's Gate and Icewind series would have massively outsold it. There is no rousing score, just some background musak. Voice acting is ok, given the dearth of good material they have to work with.

Back to the "modern" era, with a cherry on top to add insult to injury for this US$45 full retail price PC game, it panders to Western "progressive" political sensibilites. In the first place, why bring politics into gaming in the first place? If you really dislike this sort of thing, avoid this game like the plague.

But I have to admit they got me good with regards to the lack of stats heavy RPGs currently and I do like the greater flexibility of builds as compared to D&D 3.5E. Any class can wear full armor without additional penalties and can go sword and board for example=. No weapon restrictions either and firearms finally made an introduction.

Avoid at all cost if you are not a RPG fan, pick it up at US$10-15 if you want to scratch that D&D 3.5E RPG itch.

Much better than the Darkest Dungeon which is just the simplest of tabletop RPGs dressed up in a nice art style, hence much more deserving of your $20 in my opinion.

Procedurally generated encounters, with random outcomes per encounter cumulatively contributing to your chances of success or failure. The permutations are quite varied with the amount of encounters / cards currently in the game; one can imagine the devs adding more content in the future.

The fights are interesting; albeit fighting utilizes simple mechanics but can be difficult enough to challenge the most hardcore of gamers. However, the inability to control the camera angle can be uncomfortable for gamers used to modern games. I imagine more creatures, bosses and maps can be added to the game in the future.

As I have pointed out, the game has a lot of potential but as it is currently, it is already quite polished and worthy of your time and money. One can only hope that it can be further improved.

Mass effect + XCom mechanics. Cheap game. Fun fights but mediocre gunplay. Still recommended however.

Don't believe the hype.

First Impressions: No 1920x1080 fullscreen mode, no rebindable keys, very few players online ATM.

Update: More players online but connection is terrible for non US players. 1920x1080 fullscreen is available by configuring using the Nvidia Geforce program, not sure if there is a custom command option to set the resolution. You cannot set 1920x1080 resolution within the game.

Update: Key rebinds and full screen 1920x1080 patched. But still far too little content for US$15. Magicka has far more content.

Retro gaming is great - but the perspective is terrible if you cannot see a wall or door in the downwards direction. Warrior and Valkryie seems very limited and boring in what they can do as classes.

Not worth US$15 I paid at Greenmangaming. Wait for price drop + server stability + bug fixes + more content updates. There is a lot to fix with this reboot

The graphics are dated and gameplay is a bit simple but the mature intriguing story line is a rarity amongst video games - much less fantasy RPGS. The game's lore draws extensively from the Dark Eye universe and expands it further by delving into its demonology. It is a selling point for Dark Eye fans who have played previous games such as Drakensang and Drakensang 2.

It is helpful to think of this game as a far better Risen 2. That game has terrible graphics and gameplay, a simple progession system and is buggy but it had a lot of humorous dialogue and a decent story line and lore continuing from Risen 1. Demonicon similarly has some humorous dialogue and a simple progression system but has a more complex and intriguing story line, a richer lore and passable graphics and gameplay. For $10 its worth it but not at full retail.

*PS Watch out for a certain Grand Magus. Best dialogue in the game. Some of the dialogue come across as stilted and unevenly paced - however the guy playing the Grand Magus pulls it off brilliantly.