Recent reviews by MARVIN THE ARVN

This game/novel just gets a thumbs up from me. This is my first visual novel and I enjoyed playing this in slow time, focusing on the story and visuals.

The Pros
-I enjoyed the music and the sound effects when used
-Art style was pleasant
-The various characters and stories were interesting
-Story goes to places I didn't expect it to

The Cons
-It feels overpriced as it took me about 7-8 hours to finish and I was playing quite slowly
-The decisions you make can quickly lead to results that you didn't want to happen due to less than clear wording
-I don't think that many choices will change that much if anything
-I'm guessing there is only one ending, it would have been nice to have a few endings for different 'play' styles

Overall, if you are interested in Vampire the Masquerade and don't have a problem with this being a visual novel and not a game you should buy it when it's on a sale, if not, skip.

So, time to update my review...

I initially reviewed this game as a no but after another 60 or so hours think it is now a yes.

The game was a tough game to judge, it has it issues but it also has many strengths.

The devs are active on he forums and have been actively patching/upgrading the game, even if it is at a fairly slow pace.

The good
I still like the hands off style of combat, you send the army out with the general and see the results
The game isn't too micro intensive, if you generally ignore the trading tab (No issues if you do)
Many different nations to play and although the seem similar they can play differently
The decadence mechanic creates interesting decisions and shows the rise and fall of empires

The bad
Unfortunately this is still an issue, most of my time has been spent in multiplayer and it's actually impossible to win a game if all of the other players go idle rather than leave
The odd bug still exists but they aren't that common

The Extra
The ability to play out the actual battles in FOG2 if you own it really adds to the replay value. For a fun campaign I decided to play as Rome and picked a general, I played all of this generals battles and auto the others and this created some interesting decisions.

Overall, this game has got better with time, the updates have added some much need patches and fleshed out functionality such as diplomacy. If you like tactical battles then the addition of FOG2 makes this a great game.

Newbie to the genre

Pros
Looks nice
Gameplay is reasonably smooth
Could be fun, tutorial made me laugh
Good price

Cons
Auto match making is slow and frustrating i.e. it claims you are joining and then the server is full
It took me a while to be able to join a server via server selection
Randomly disconnected during my first match
It seems like there is no match making, the games I played were against higher ranked players
Very steep learning curve unless you want to play the AI for a while

Overall, being a newbie to the genre it is not my cup of tea, the issues with trying to get a game combined with the steep learning curve has convinced me to get a refund. If you have experience with these games you will likely enjoy it but for someone new it wasn't a particularly enjoyable experience.

So, after 100 hours+ of the game ive decided to short write a review on this game.

Pros
1-A great theme, I love the background to a lot of the heros.
2-The game has a solid hero selection and the god pack makes the cost of playing the game very reasonable.
3-The 3rd person view works great and immerses you more heavily into the game than other mobas.
4-The game has a different number of game modes.
5-Events seem a common occurance and the community seems 'okay'.

Cons
1-The match making is as bad as any other moba and will frequently (50%+ of games) put of a group of 2-5 against a team of solo players.
2-As in all mobas you get a fair amount of smurf accounts and that means as a newbie you will have to play against long time players who want to restart but look like a newbie to the match making system.
3-There arent many maps.
4-I would say that at least 66%+ of games are uneven slaughters, makes that really fun/tense game a rarity.
5-The servers are down a lot and frequently have problems.

Overall, if you enjoy mobas and will either get your friends to play or join a clan you will most likely like this game. This is because you can and will often get placed against solo players so you can combo and high five each other to your hearts content. If you are more often that not solo queuing I would recommend that you skip this game and play something else. Its a shame as the game has a great theme but is let down by its match making and unreliable servers.

Basically....

Don't buy this game.

More details....

Pros
1-Graphics dont seem bad.
2-Operators look cool.
3-Breaching and all the other interesting stuff is fun.
4-Maps are interesting.

Cons
1-The single player game is practically non-existant. You get to do about a dozen solo missions. This makes the game a multiplayer heavy experience, this will lead on to the next issue.
2-The match making is possible one of the worst ive ever seen in a game. Yep, even worse than heros of the storm quick match. As an example I regularly meet players who must have played at least 150 times more games than me. Granted they might be awful at the game but they know everything about every map.
3-The ranked match making is just as broken as the casual matchmaking.
4-You have to unlock heros using renown earned in game. Can't I just have all the heros? I paid for the game.
5-It trys to sell itself as realistic but I never knew that you could rappel upside down and headshot someone through a gap the size of a fist. Ive also seen c4 being thrown around like a sticky bomb in saving private ryan and some dude who has a massive shield at the end of his gun. He's also one of the new guys and very expensive in points to unlock.....
6-The defenders generally have a large advantage and can leave the building or peek to kill you.

Overall, I would avoid this game. I paid £15 for it in a sale and I think it isnt really worth anything as its a multiplayer game with a terrible match making system.