Recent reviews by wxdylan

After about 55 hours, my thoughts are this: the game is fun. It already is getting updates to give it the polish it currently lacks. Most of the game mechanics that are new are great, and there is a really excellent vision that I looked forward to seeing evolve with the game. The UI is not great, but getting better, and the bugs are getting squashed.

I will add - like others, I'm not impressed with the predatory DLC practices at launch. Especially given the poor state of the UI and other missing QoL features on release. I'm assuming that 2k had a hand in that, and shame on them.

This is one of my favorites in the "Similar to Vampire Survivors" genre of roguelike bullet hell survivors. There is so much variety here in terms of playable characters that each have its own unique play style that you will have to build around. Item variety is crazy as well. Despite having 100's of those, the game still feels relatively balanced and fun to play run to run.

Fun inventory management game. Figure out how to place items in a way to maximize stats and combos with other items, then battle other players.

Unique take on the RPG genre with card mechanics, building, inventory management, etc. Your choices do matter, and your character will rarely feel invincible without thoughtful choices. This is also a great game for those with kids who may only have a nap or a half an hour before getting back to it, as each "pass" in the game can be accomplished in 30 minutes to an hour, and can easily be paused at any point. The story is interesting as well.

Best $3 you can spend. Very simple game that has depth and challenge to it. Plenty of unlocks, achievements that aren't a grind. Once you get the basics of each of the items and weapons, you'll quickly find that combinations matter, and planning ahead is required to advance in the game. I purchased this on a whim after seeing a streamer I enjoy play it for a few minutes while waiting on a queue, and I don't regret it at all.

Think Stardew Valley or Harvest Moon, but a bit simpler and without the pressure of the clock. Days revolve entirely around your energy budget. You'll level up your various abilities, from crafting and harvesting, to even your personal relationships. Overall I've really enjoyed this as a peaceful game to play for an hour or two after work. The music is great, the pixel graphics well done, and the game play chill.

A fantastic take on the subset of the 4x genre based around historical civilization building. Having a lot of fun exploring the new mechanics. I really enjoy how territory and cities are created. The world feels meaningful in a different way than most 4x games. Looking forward to spending a lot of time with this!

Great simple puzzle game that is similar to what you would find in an old puzzle book from "back in the day". Learning the gimmick is simple but the puzzles get increasingly more challenging. Well worth the price.

After playing through my first game, I can highly recommend this to both new players to the Civ series and long time fans. I personally think the game looks beautiful; my only complaint would be that roads can sometimes be a little hard to see. The UI takes a little getting used to, but I find it to be very fast and convenient. There are buttons to quickly get to just about anything you want. City management is much improved for those who don't wish to micromanage every single citizen and every single turn. You can now have cities focus on more than one thing or tell them to ignore a specific icon. As a for instance, if you wish to have a city focus on food, production, and ignore gold, you can do that.

The game has some additional layers of complexity that have been added in city building, and frankly I love it. Tile management is king now and you'll find yourself constantly making decisions about where to place the new districts, which districts you want to place, and even whether or not world wonders are worth it. All world wonders now must be built on a tile, so you won't find yourself or other civs ripping through all the wonders. There are a lot of them, and a lot of options for how to build out your civ as a by-product.

Speaking of options, the new civic system brings together the best of the Civ V style policy tree with Civ IV style governments. The civic tree can be thought of as a separate tech tree for culture. Governments are unlocked through civics. Governments provide 3 things: a bonus to something, such reduced gold purchasing, a bonus that builds over time that will stay with you throughout the game, and slots for cards. Cards are also unlocked through civics, and come in 4 flavors: miltary, economic, diplomatic, and what are basically great people bonuses. Each of these cards do something for you, like reduced settler cost, or extra gold for trades, or extra production for miltary units, etc. Governments have different numbers of slots for different styles of cards. They will be oriented to one specific type, usually. I love this system. These cards can be changed at any time for a gold price, or you can change them every time you earn a new civic. It provides for what feels like nearly endless customization.

One of my favorite changes comes in the form of city states. City states are no longer bought with gold like in Civ 5, a system which became pointless as gold runaway began to happen for larger empires (also, the AI struggled with this, hording money without actually buying the city states). Now an envoy system is used. Envoys are earned using a separate currency that is earned based on the government you are in. They can also be earned by completing quests for city states. City states give bonus based on number of envoys in them: 1, 3, and 6 envoys. After 3, a special bonus is earned by the player with the most envoys. These bonuses are well thought out and different even among the same type of city states.

This only scratches the surface of the positive changes from Civ 5. You'll find, for instance, that the mid-game is a lot more interesting now - no more just simply clicking through next turn to get to the industrial era. I found war to be fun - units can be formed into corps, but cities are much more difficult to take as you now must have a siege unit or surround the city. Needless to say, I plan on putting a lot of hours into the game for years to come. I can't wait to see what the modding community eventually does with the game, and I'm already looking forward to the dlc releases.

Firaxis and 2k lost a lot of confidence from me with how poorly Civ:BE was handled. I almost waited to buy this until after it came out (pre-orders are bad and stuff). However, it is clear they decided to embrace and listen to the community. The openess of the delevopment process was wonderful. Allowing streamers and other individuals early access to a good chunk of the game was wonderful. Needless to say, they've earned that trust back for me.

10/10. Buy it. Kiss your weekends goodbye. It's worth it.

I bought this game on sale for $4 and immediately put about 4 hours into it. Windward is an extremely relaxing questing style game. You'll fight pirates, defend cities, help build new cities, grow cities, grow your ship, etc., etc. in repeated quests. For some people, this may get repetative or boring. For me, it was relaxing. I enjoy a somewhat mindless game like this as I think enough during the day. The game looks beautiful in my opinion, and the music is nice, albeit repetative.

It also looks like the developer is still actively adding to the game, so that's a positive. I haven't tried playing with other friends yet, so I can't speak positively or negatively about multiplayer experiences, though this would probably be fun in a multiplayer setting. May purchase an extra copy so my wife and I can try to play.