PsycoRevolution 最近的评测

The Witcher 2 is the greatest bad game I've ever played. There are so many great things to love in this game, but almost as many questionable decision choices that make it a frustrating exercise in tough love.

+ Meaningful choices, a rewarding combat system with a simple yet fun magic system, unique preperation-focused monster hunts, ACTUAL puzzles, and Nekkars... those Nekkar Warriors are terrifying.

BUT, then you have:

- There are huge difficulty spikes, a lack of save locations, no fast travel to speak of, a poor and seldomly-used stealth system, and a weird mix of awesome and crap animations.

I recommend this game, but with the caveat that it is not for everyone. It is NOT open world and it engages in a lot of old-school RPG methods. So if you're looking for a modern/old school RPG hybrid and don't mind replaying fights over and over again until you beat them then the Witcher 2 is for you.

PRO TIP:
Play on whatever difficulty isn't frustrating, the tutorial said I should play on Hard, but I soon realized that it was mistaken. I dropped down to Normal, but still had to deal big difficutly spikes. (I had to drop to easy for the final fight)

I reviewed this game when it was first released on the OUYA, and now I've made a first impressions video of the PC version CLICK TO WATCH

(Before you scoff at my hours played let me tell you that the bulk of my time was spent playing the DRM free version. I was having troubles with my Steam copy crashing)


I created a video review which you can watch by click this link ->Banished Video Review



V--But if you're a fan of letters, then enjoy the written verson--V

Apparently you've been banished, I guess you refused to drink the Kool-Aid. Now you're in the middle of nowhere with a wagon and some potatoes...survive.

That's the montra of Banished, a survival-based city-builder developed by one person. After selecting your level seed and difficulty you are left to your own devices. Either to create a sprawling town of trade and prosperity, or utterly fail attempting to recreate the Donner Party (unfortunately cannibalism is not in the game).

As you clear land and begin building homes for your settlers you'll soon realize that you're about to run out of food. So you'll begin focusing on bringing in consumables by fishing and foraging only to see your supply of clothing is about to run out and winter is already here.

If nothing else, Banished is a great reminder that electricity is awesome.

You'll assign your settlers occupations and tell them what to build, but besides that you don't have direct control over them. A hard lesson I learned when the citizens of Bogustown decided a 13-year-old girl should be in charge of smithing tools for the entire settlement. She proceeded to bug out and sabotage the operation by stealing iron and placing it in random spots around town. The shortage of tools led to a starvation. Eight people died...including her.

The small narratives that can be accidentally spun through gameplay are delightful, and I deeply wished for the ability to rename my citizens for added drama, but sadly you can't.

Aside from the random bugs, the settlers are pretty intelligent. If they can't complete their current task due to a lack of resources they will assist in other jobs around town without you having to instruct them. The settlers truly feel like living people in a society. They work, stock their homes, and much to your dismay, even take breaks from work.

But their autonomy takes some getting used to. I found myself overly managing their tasks on my first settlement, but once I understand that I didn't need to, the tedium was minimized.

The games UI is customizable and unobtrusive, which keeps it from detracting from the game's simple beauty. As you play you'll find stats are hard to come by. Production is displayed on a per building basis and the overarching stats like population growth you'd expect in a city builder are unobtainable until an expensive city hall is constructed. Once built you'll have access to helpful growth and resource numbers to help you better plan and manage your settlement.

Once your settlement gets to the point of farming, seeds and livestock become invaluable. Depending on the difficulty selected, you will begin with a select few or none at all. The only way to obtain new seeds and livestock is by trading with outsiders. This can only happen if you build a trading post and even then you must wait for a merchant to drop by, and then hope he's selling what you want.

An interesting meta game is created as you divert resources away from your settlers and into your trading post in preparation for a merchant, only to then find out you don't have enough to buy what you want. This brilliant mechanic is diminished when you realize goods are always a certain price, allowing you to then prepare enough trade goods to buy your desired item.

The game's achievements reward settlements that exist for over 100 years, but after passing the threshold of fighting for survival over to prosperity, the game has little more to offer you besides civilized buildings like the church or town hall. I found myself losing interest in my settlement after about 20 years, which equaled out to around 6-7 hours in real time for me.

That's nothing to scoff at, but I would have preferred to remain engrossed in my existing settlement rather than starting fresh in search of a challenge.

Besides disease and fire the only threat your settlers face is your own incompetence to fulfill their needs. As you get better at the game this threat begins to dissipate so it would have been nice to see non-environmental forces threatening you.

The addition of hostile settlements would help to shake up the game, but the introduction of a combat mechanic would likely break the simple survival sim. I wished for a happy medium with something like hostile wildlife which would threaten your settlers in untouched parts of the map. This would help bridle rapid expansion into the wilderness and keep you on guard.

After reaching resource stability and then the point excess, there are few things the game can do to challenge you. It lacks a large end-game goal to work towards beyond simple survival. But that's not so much a shortcoming, rather a sign that I want more. The game's budget price tag makes it a low risk purchase, and modding support is a planned release in the near future. So the thirst for more content may soon be quenched.

If you're expecting the complexity of a SimCity then Banished probably won't be your jam. But the game has crafted a dense blend of survival and resource management that makes people like me squeal with delight.