Recent reviews by DaPowerTaylor

I really wanted to like Skyshine's Bedlam......

I saw glimpses of greatness that put it up there for me potential wise with FTL, but i just can't give it a possitive score at the moment with some of the glaring issues the game has. The combat(at the moment) while solid feels completly unbalanced even at low bedlam levels. The AI completly outmatches me because i'm lacking some pretty basic feedback in the interface that should be there, stuff like an actual grid option on the floor to plan movements better and easier to see/understand range markers.

I get that the theme of the game is that your suppost to have the odds stacked against you as you progress (i play a lot of XCOM so nothing new there) but even with veterans and max level guys the combat balancing feels horriffic in certain fights even with equalizers avalible to you. Plus theres no real padded out progression on your soldiers other than flat stat increases. Normally i wouldnt have a problem with this but whats the point in having all those cool backstories and lore for your guys if all they get on a level up is a sole re-skin job and some +1's. The Dozer isn't much better with flat percentage upgrades and a few (but admititedly intresting) unique abilities per vehicle.

Despite all of that i do have some hope for the game, we are only 6-7 hours into open release, im a picky *ss lol and most of what i see wrong with it can be patched out or changed, there is a solid game under the hood somwhere here and with some luck the devs will change some things for the better.

Pros:
- Lovely art style and setting
- Interesting characters even with individual backstories
- Solid turn based combat

Cons:
-The combat (at the moment) feels completly broken and unrewarding
- RNG is huge (yes i know its a rogue-like but 2 HP sharpshooters getting RNG'ed on spawn 4-6 tiles from the enemy every fight is just stupid)
-Any lack of meaningfull upgrades on the Dozers or soldiers

So far i'm about 12 hours into the main story line so i though this would be a good time to write down some thoughts on Shadow of Mordor. Warning this will be a bit in detail so skip to the end for the verdict :)

The storyline itself is very solid, Talion the ranger you play as is a good, likeable main character who's circumstances (without trying to give to much away plot wise) you feel rather sorry for. The voice acting is superb not just for main characters (even Gollum makes an apperance and is very well done) but all the orcs are voiced beautifully and each ork be it a captain or grunt has a very distinct personality when combined with very well though out visuals.

The gameplay itself is solid if a little repetitive, with the focus being on an Batman: Arkham style combo system, Talion effortlessly flowing between orcs and uruks using a variety of sword, dagger and bow moves combined with very powerfull finishers and utillity spells by his wraith compainion, with Talion also becoming passivly more powerfull the higher the combo, becoming able to break through shields with normal attacks for example. Enemy archtypes are decently varied if a little sterotypical, but theres enough to make large mob fights very tense and desperate affairs if your low on the combo meter. The animation quality between moves is beautifull and there is such a wide variety of moves i am yet to find combat repetitive or boring, and i'm at this point 70% through the main story. (As a plus note, the soundtrack to the game is also excellent and is worth a look for if you enjoy music from LOTR)

The Nemesis system if icing on the cake of what is already a very well presented open world game. To begin with ork captains need to be killed in order to keep check on Saurons growing power in Mordor, with the added benifit of them dropping powerfull runes when they die that can be used to uprage Talions sword, bow and dagger. As the game progresses more abilites become availible such as 'branding' orks mid fight to turn them to your side, or sending one off to issue a death threat to his captain, which in turn makes him more powerfull(and surrounded by even more orks) but also increases the chance of a better rune dropping on his demise. Orks can eventually even be subjued and ordered to turn on there own Warchief, igniting a power struggle and potentially making a captain you control into the new leader, assuming you take the time to go help him out on the side mission it creates. Every ork captain also has an individualy determined set of skills, strengths and weaknesses(that can be exploited), that can be discovered by branding a peon ork or saving human workers. Even dying has strange mechanics, as an ork who kills you will be promoted to captain or gain a power increase if he already was one, so be carefull how many times you die, as dying to a particular ork too many times will only make him even more powerfull and hard to kill. Ork power struggles have never been so much fun.

I know many people have had issues with getting the game to run on less powefull rigs, as it currently lacks SLI for. While personally I had no issues and run the game on high at 50-60 fps constant, i have no doubt proper support will be introduced and i know that several people have already found workarounds. Graphics for the game are generally good on high but not amazing, and this can be a little strange as the game requires alot of video memory on you GPU. Otherwise the game is a very solid looker and i'm yet to encounter any serious graphical glitches or bugs.

I've played (pretty much) every LOTR game out there and i am a self confessed nutcase when it comes to reading material by Tolkien so i think im in a resonable position to judge the game for both lore and gameplay, and i can say this is one of the best games set in middle earth for a very long time. There is easily 20-30 of gameplay to be had with this title, including various collectables, audio loges and lore items that will have fanboys like me scouring Mordor for many hours to find them all. The love for the lore combined with solid fighting mechanics and good graphics make this a must have for anybody into open world games. Add in a price of just £30? You should go buy this right now, if you can get it on sale even better. Probably the best presented and fun game i've played all year around. 9/10

I brought COH2 when it first came out, and being a hardcore player of the first game i had very mixed feelings with the way number two was put together, let me try to explain. This is still most definatly a COH game first and formost, tactical infantry and tank based comabt useing cover, fog of war and suppresion; essential all the things that made the first one epic. They even refined many features like adding weather and the ability for infantry to hurdle cover, more commander options aswell as an (argubly) more defined role for airpower. Relic sknows how to make a good RTS.

Whats the bad side i hear you shout then? It's to do with scope. Im not exagerating when i say the war on the Eastern front was by far the biggest in Europe, but the problems with it are that it was fought primarily between just the Russians and Germans, which means you esentialy lose all opportunites to include the other Allied factions, the British, Americans and even the possiblity of factions like France and Italy dissapeared fast. This causes a (perhaps unforseen) consequence of the game being more streamlined and 'dumbed down'. Not to mention there was so much potential when they implemented the new commander system, what about unlockable lease-lend units like the Matilda and Churchill III Russia had access too? The game simply Could not capture either scale or scope aswell as it had the potential too. Don't even get me started on the whole 'pay for units/camo/opperations approach' relic have going atm, honestly its just a cash grab.

All in all it's still an excelent play and i do recomend it if you can look past that your not going to get much else other than pure Russian on German RTS game, with a decent campaign, but if you can look past the slightly dated graphics COH: Allied Assault is where you want to be going for online play.

(Post American update: Ironically my biggest problem with COH2 was the lack of variety of units, and while the dlc price for Americans is a bit steep it adds MUCH needed diversity to online play, the US faction has a nice selection of units and fits nicely inbetween the previous factions, with a good selection of commander units to boot. also recent changes to the way skins and commanders unlock make playing COH 2 much more fun and easy. No more worrying about unfair pay to win scenarios with overpowered commanders.)

I brought this 4x game a while back and was full of promise for what it had the potential to become, back then the developer was promising all sorts of intresting features in the form of updates and frankly they have not turned up in the quanity they should have. Now thats not saying this is a bad game, the ship customization and planet management is excelent and the combat feels like it should in space, but it just can't carry the game on there own. Wheres the Multiplayer? Story mode? Improved diplomacy? We were promised it but it just never materialized. Its a trend thats been happening for the last year with 'pay to play early' Alphas and Betas, and i honestly wouldnt of minded if the game had been continualy updated and polished. But it wasn't, It's AI feels buggy and will uterlly crush you on anything higer than Normal, balancing resource production is a NIGHTMARE, the game crashes after several hours play for no reason and Diplomacy isnt finished, just the classic 'give me tech and planets' approch or picking from a list of things your spys can do. The term 'cash grab' certainly has come to mind.

If somebody put another 6 months into polishing and actualy finishing this game it would be great, in its state now? Save your cash, go play Galactic Civilization II, SIns of a Solar Empire or Armada, that should cure your itch for space colonization for awhile.

I was among the unfortunate who played Rome II when it was first released, and being an avid Total War fanboy i was extremly disapointed with its state then, so much so i gave up and went back to playing Shogun II and Empire. Having got a more powerfull computer recently i decided to reinstall the game and give it another chance, a decison to which i was pleasently suprised. The vast majority of issues with the game have been fixed (I'm ignoring the still broken Naval combat here, Total War games have never been about naval engagements for me) and the game is actualy the sequel i was hopeing for. There are still issues with AI and balancing (Im looking at you War Elephants) but the game is very fun to play in its current state and i am glad i went back to it and gave it another chance.