TheWizardTower 最近的评测

This game is delightful.

Mechanically, it's very simple, and you can probably get through it in an afternoon or two. But it's got heart, and is very charmingly written, and will absolutely transport you to the fantasy world it's creating.

A fantastic testament to the fact that gameplay and writing can absolutely carry an experience, far and above spending millions on a AAA experience with a ton of bells and whistles but absolutely no heart or soul.

FTL meets a turn-based card-driven rogue-lite.

That'd be fine enough, but *everything* about this game has been polished to a mirror shine. Every action is dripping with juice and game feel, the writing is evocative without wasting your time, the pixel artwork and animations are absolutely glorious, and the sector-to-sector combat is engaging and quick while still giving you a worthwhile puzzle to have a think about.

As you'd expect, at some point you're Just Screwed, but there's meta-progression to help you get a bit further over time.

Anyway, I'm excited, I loved my time with the demo, and I can't wait to see the first paid release.

Honestly worth it for the soundtrack alone, discovering The Kyoto Connection was a delight.

That being said, the game is solid. Lots of mechanical crunch (you'll be upgrading your ship for a /while/), different approaches and styles to what ship you want to fly, a high skill ceiling for flying, and a beautiful world to explore. Flying your ship feels lovely, too, especially given the plethora of ships to get and upgrades to buy, there's almost always something new to try out.

My two gripes are:

It seems like you hit a bit of a wall with income potential. You'll run into ships that cost millions and still be getting 10-50k jobs. Entirely possible this is a skill issue, I haven't played for too long and haven't looked up any guides for it.

The music is wonderful, and there's a field in the escape/settings menu under "sound" that tries to show the artist and title currently playing, and even throws in a "next song" button for good measure. All of this is wonderful, I wish more games did this. However, the artist/track-name field is a bit messy, I've seen it show artist - album, or album - track name. Given that there isn't a separate game soundtrack to buy as DLC, this made looking up the songs I fell in love with a challenge, but certainly not impossible.

Let me ask you something:

Do you miss good writing?

Do you love character-driven stories?

Do you hate mary sue characters?

Do you *love* Motorcycles?

I match all of the above. And friends, I am *not* a zombie game lover, I'm not a fan of this genre, but this game absolutely won me over. I love this title, and cannot recommend it strongly enough.

The world you inhabit is by turn beautiful and heartbreaking, the characters feel vibrant and genuine, never cliched, trite, or in service of a narrative punching bag. The voice acting is some of the best I've come across in gaming.

This game did not sell particularly well on playstation, which I think is a screaming outrage. It deserved so much more praise and recognition, and I'm hoping that it's second life (geddit) on PC will help with that.

If you're even remotely interested, buy this game. Be ready to sink over a hundred hours into it, and be ready to love the whole process.

If you're still reading, I'll try to explain what I love about this title.

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First off, it isn't easy to try to explain this, simply because it is so uniquely its own thing. This isn't an isometric RPG in the vein of Pillars of Eternity, or even Fallout: New Vegas's first/third person perspective on post-apocalypse americana, but there are meaningful, tactile role-playing decisions to make here, both in terms of who your instantiation of the protagonist becomes, and how he conducts himself through the game.

This isn't exactly a classic adventure game, though it certainly borrows elements and mechanics from that genre.

If I had to sum it up, it'd be a period-authentic role-playing adventure murder mystery, rendered as if it was an illuminated manuscript.

I keep hearing this described as niche, but honestly I do not understand that. Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous is niche, it has a pile of DMV-grade fiddly mechanics around character builds. Command: Modern Operations is a niche game, it's the best simulation you can get of modern naval warfare shy of getting a security clearance. Europa Universalis is a niche game, running that game feels like getting a double major in history and economics with a minor in political science, each achievement feels like a doctoral thesis in the making.

This game? This game is approachable enough that I struggle to think of anyone I would not recommend this to. You find the fun immediately, and the fun will stay with you until the end.

It is achingly beautiful. Every single element was crafted with beauty, meticulous care, and dedication to the craft.

It's oozing with gravitas and verisimilitude. The characters feel vibrant and real, the place becomes as familiar as a lifelong home, and the story keeps you guessing until very nearly the end. It's embarrassingly well written, and well-researched.

It's jam-packed with impactful, meaningful choices, reactivity to virtually all of those choices, and a deadly-serious story that will percolate in the back of your mind both in between sessions and, I'm certain, long after the credits roll.

Get this game.

Oh man, this was good.

Fair warning, it's short. But it's good.

Wonderful title. Lots of fun to play, extremely well paced, the puzzles feel logical, and the writing is excellent.

I wanted to like this game.

I came across it from a passing mention from Hello, Future Me's video on Cyberpunk 2077, and decided to give it a go.

in fairness, it does many things right. The graphics are cute, the soundtrack isn't original by any means, but it's clearly reaching for a Vangelis synthwave vibe, which is at least appropriate for the setting, and the gameplay is cozy in an inoffensive, Law and Order on a weeknight kinda way, but.

Man, the writing.

The story puts you in a number of "moral quandaries" ala saving or harvesting little sisters in bioshock, with a few important differences:

1. They are never handled well, even by that standard, and that is NOT a high bar to clear
2. There's always a very clearly telegraphed "correct solution" to the predicaments you're put in, rather than letting you sit in the uncertainty and find your own way through
3. That correct solution is, invariably, what is correct according to the cultural norms of an upper middle class Liberal American in the early 21st century.
4. If you aren't part of the afore-mentioned smart set, you are not welcome or well thought of, period.

I regret buying this game, and I regret the time I spent playing it. There are piles of better games out there, I encourage you to find one of them. This game does not reward your time.

This game is fantastic.

It's also *very* dense. If you're into naval warfare, and want to learn the practical application of things, this game is the way to go. Expect to do some background reading and to spend a lot of time learning the UI and how to express your intent clearly and effectively. But I think it's been great fun.

Short version:

If you love The Terminator, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day...

Buy this game.

Play this game.

The end.

Slightly longer version:

They did their homework. They got everything right.

Look, the *mechanics* of the game are all old familiar friends. The lockpicking is straight out of every Bethesda game since 2009. The shooting feels decent. The graphics are good, but closer to last-gen than the devs would probably like.

NONE OF THAT MATTERS.

Why?

The texture, the feel, the vibe, the gestalt of this game is straight out of the first two films.

Every detail is right. Every nod and hint and plot twist feels like it belongs there.

This game represents two things converging that rarely happen:

1) This is a licensed title, made _by ardent fans_
2) This is a AA title made by people who *know* their craft, and stick the landing.

If you're even remotely curious, my advice is to make an evening or two of it. Re-watch the first two films. Fire up this game. Bask in the gloriousness. You won't be sorry, I promise.