Recent reviews by Shepherd Bemeu

Warning: This game is an addictive timesink. You will loose days. It has flaws, but it is extremely fun.

Bannerlord is a unique game; you can only truly hate it if you love it. It gives you the medieval rags-to-riches fantasy that culminates in sitting upon a throne, wistfully remembering the days of each hard-earned denar. It has a lively modding scene, a fun weapon crafting system, indepth and reactive trade mechanics, and a robust meme community.

When you get Bannerlord, you're not paying for 60 hours of story and adventure. You're paying for a grind that builds a story out of moments, and a touch of your own imagination. You don't play this game to turn your mind off, unless you already know what to do, and it's simply rote going through the motions. Fore-thought, awareness, and care brings you from merely smacking shields with weapons til you hit, to playing on hard difficulties are making plays that feel like they ought be clipped.

The game is broad and somewhat more shallow than Tale Worlds would like. It's grounded, but offers you a level of heroic great-man potential that really makes you feel like you're shaping destiny with your moves. Even so, you don't have the same level of rich detail you'll encounter in a game more specific to any given topic; Unit commands are difficult to memorize and hard to order without mods, fief management is hub-localized and fairly abstract, Spears feel like they don't work due to enemies preferring to bear hug you in combat, and politics feels more about balancing actions rather than courting favors.

You didn't consider this game because it did one of those things though. You're considering this game because it does all of those. You can command troops while fighting for your castle you've been nurturing for a year ingame now, with troops you've guided and helped flourish into who they are. You want this game because you want to run a trade empire to finance your power-brokering as you seduce other clans to your cause. You want this game because it gives you a taste of the whole package deal.

And it does that.

Buy this game, and you'll lose far too many hours saying "one more turn" despite it being real time with pause. You'll get obsessed with the new specific weapon you want to make for yourself or your companions. You'll get frustrated with your liege for not doing what you know is best, and perhaps even choose to aid another.

It's amazing. Holy Canoli, we're so back.

After having replayed this game twice, I can say with some disappointment that despite mechanically and technically being the most well polished of the Half-Life series, this game's pacing jumps around a little bit. The road trip is a little too quick, with too frequent stops for set pieces that are absolutely gorgeous and exciting. The mines are oppressive and the hive is uncomfortable but there isn't quite enough time to relish it in some spots, and in others it overstays its welcome. Acquiring the Jalopy is a highlight, along with the several defense segments. Episode 2 is jampacked in memorable moments and exciting sequences... with too little time between to savor, or rarely, too much time left on one section or another. Evading the hive guardian, later fighting it, all extending the feeling of the mines into feeling like half of the game, while the actual majority of the game with the car doesn't feel as engaging as Highway 17.

A strong recommendation; this game is worth the price, and if somehow you are reading this and haven't gotten it, get the Orange Box now. You won't regret it.

What makes this expansions so bad? Well, for a new perspective, none of the Chinese units or buildings presented are unique or sourced in the correct time period. The Chinese use Gunpowder in the Bronze Age, something that is flatly not true, they use units and technologies (And some cards!) from Age of Empires 3, ported directly over. The units at play are often closer to something you'd see in Age of Empires 2, and to really bring it home, they're just the same as Egypt, but better.

No, seriously. They are just Egypt, but for some reason, everything about them is better. Their phoenix does AoE damage, their hero can do way more, they don't need to empower because their gardens will do the same thing but safer, and they have the ability to swarm the enemy with cheap units that don't need gold. That's something not even the Egyptians can do, their infantry were just so incredibly cheap.

Speaking of, the other cultures DO get ONE WHOLE new unit. The Norse get a Jarl with a bow on foot. Extremely, ridiculously strong. The Greeks get a healer unit, which could honestly be better served as a hero, but ultimately it's a mediocre addition. And Egypt... got an absolutely garbage infantry that is counter villager. I don't even know what Atlantis got, it's that unimportant to how they play it effectively doesn't exist.

Skip this. The maps might have some new takes, but they're not worth money because the workshop exists. The larger map size doesn't actually make the map larger, it *Stretches* it, making resources more scarce and space more plentiful without making it a better playspace.

Also, the new theme song and background are awful, the new menu will need to be modded to be corrected, and... yeah. You will pay to downgrade your experience, if you buy this DLC.

Somehow, this sequel plays worse than its predecessor. The combat feels incredibly detatched, the units are hard to see, the unit outlines are incredibly translucent and difficult to make out, MULTIPLE systems that would ostensibly function, fail to... all in all, give this one a pass for now. Wait for the Grand Campaign, then wait until it's either on sale or the gameplay is patched back to game 2 levels.

In terms of campaign, it's nearly-strict improvements all across the board. Diplomacy is finally interesting, the alliance system is fun, the outposts in allied settlements is a fun touch with some entertaining possibilities. Unfortunately, the colorscheme is actually intolerable and a headache to deal with.

And, finally, Kislev is hot trash right now. All their units are in less-than-dwarf unit sizes with better-than-Empire stats. They do NOT play like a Human-Elf faction, they need more numbers for their regiments, they need better performance against a majority of their enemies whom are more elite and have superior numbers, and they lack a dedicated halberd unit that can counter charging monsters. Best they get are Ice Guard Glaives, which are obscenely expensive. Their lack of a dedicated combat hero, like a Bogatyr or something, a parallel to a captain of the empire, stands out horrendously. Ice Witches seem like a great idea, until you realize you're going to be fighting Demons of Chaos (Who are about as elite as it comes) and you need a general that can actually handle themselves.

Something feels very off about this game. Nothing seems to feel as impactful, things don't seem to do real damage to one another unless they're melting, and overall it feels like this game is entirely new instead of an evolution of TWW2. None of the strengths of the previous game feel like they're present.

Starsand, after two hours of play, is interesting. The massive gulf between its potential and what it currently is however, is beyond tolerable however. The game's got multiple issues, resourcing being difficult and dismantling being a losing endeavor, paired with no observable durability despite tools breaking outright with no real means to get the stuff you need to feel comfortable enough to begin exploring. The jump-start the demo gives has this degree of illusion as to how humble you're really going to be.

In no small part, the wonder of exploring the beautiful dunes and wonderful ruins is there, but pair that to the extremely powerful hostile life and how absolutely abusive the climate can be, and you simply are going to find it difficult to truly relish the game. It using an archaic system of death, with no respawns, but instead having to reload from a manual save location, and given how there's no starting comfort zone to find your footing and learn how to engage with the game, I simply did not have fun nor wish to keep the game to see if it would be developed into something fun.

This is a hard-core only type of survival game. It's unforgiving, brutal, and archaic, both in design and themes. While I want to like it, to stick with it and see it bloom, it's simply too brutal in its execution that no degree of ironing out little kinks and issues in code is going to fix the core issues. Keep an eye on this game, but I would not buy it yet.

This game is, by all means, unique. It has a lot it brings to the table that might be hard to find in other 4X games; customization of your soldiers armaments, a civilization construction system, an intuitive and easy to use interface, and a Sci-Fi touch to fantasy for its flavor and flair. It's a fun game if you're looking for an all-around solid game. Don't let its high-notes delude you however, the game's got a few bugs, it's a little iffy on its idea of Magic, and if you're looking for some familiar cliche's to build off of, you'd best look elsewhere. The game's basic premise seems mostly to stem from a unique attitude towards magic and fantasy, where the "Magic" in the system is treated both as MacGuffin and common currency. But don't worry! It's also life-blood of Lich-Ghost-Knights, and the source of emo-wizards rather potent magics. What the game lacks in familiar faces, it gains in some rather fun and new archetypes, such as the affor-mentioned wizards and knights, as well as "Dwarves" which are really just Troglodytes in the purest sense, Druids who think of themselves as elves, statues that are alive and religious, a race of mutant infectious bugs, and to bring it all home, you got nomads with giant beetles that feel exported from Morrowind. Not that that's a bad thing. It's about the most familiar flavor this game has, the rest of it is telling you "Welcome to something new."

At the end of the day, this game is fun. It has bugs though, and sometimes it's not exactly clear on what the quests require from you, but if you want a new flavor of 4X, give it a shot. When it's on sale. If you're going for full-price, I'd recommend first deciding if a Middle-fantasy-With-Science 4X is the flavor of game you want,

Castle Story is in a sentence, Minecraft Meets Stronghold. It is a game that gives you the tools and asks you "What Now?" Unfortunately for Castle Story, the answer is not as exciting as it would like.

In Castle Story, you play Omnipotent Spot On The Ground, that for some reason needs to... Change it's elevation with startling frequency. Intended as a feature, perhaps to allow in-depth inspection of your creations, instead it becomes a hindrence as you will have to weave up and down to bypass your own defenses. Maybe this was meant to be a callback to the success of From Dust, with its focus on a central point being the source of your attention AND power? This honestly seems to be moot point given the Generations of development in RTS games for computers. It's ironically a pioneer going to Europe in hopes of finding an exploitable Wilderness, only to discover that he was a little late to the party.

Don't let the hindrance of the Camera dissuade you, though, for there's a lot more about Castle Story that has both potential to become truly exciting, and things you should weigh should you decide to buy this game. Chief, it is, would be resources. In any RTS, resource management is a major focus on a successful game. Failure to manage and gather funds appropriately will lead to defeat and worse, being called a Scrub. Castle Story succeeds in making resources fairly simple, with Wood and Rock being the bread and butter, and an elusive "Spirit" energy, being the third factor. You would expect that with such a basic, simple divide akin to Warcraft, this would mean a more streamlined time gathering resources to focus on the more important aspects, such as fielding an army or constructing infrastructure. This is sadly not the case due to the method of storing resources in preparation to building, which in itself hold similarities to an older and more well-known game, Stronghold.

Constructing Stockpile pallets allows you to hold your resources and, in the case of Rocks, transmute fistful’s of gravel into Granite slabs. Unfortunately, you’re not only capped to four of a resource to a pallet, you’re also restricted to a single resource per pallet, meaning that if a single log is on a pallet, that pallet cannot store stone until such a time as no more Logs are present. This is equally true to Stone, which unfortunately has the ramification that you cannot place gathered stone on Pallets that have even a single slab present on them. The obvious solution, to create an abundance of Stockpiles to allow one to create a more capable industry, is completely shot due to the inability to access Stockpiles if there’s an obstruction that would result in no path, even if all surrounding Stockpiles are clear of resources, they will still count as blocking one of your little industrious teletubbies from accessing the resources on the interior. The other option, to create a line of pallets that runs on, is completely impractical due to both time constraints and build space.

In the sandbox mode, you are given a single map which is, in theory, a great canvas on which to explore your creativity. This is not the case. Restricted by both an overgrowth of cumbersome trees that require cutting down and your own limited storage abilities, you are given a shallow pool of potential build sites, that further restrict you by being pods on a massive floating island. While theoretically allowing you to pick a topography to build to, this sadly only gets in the way due to excess wasted space on “Sky”, which (thankfully?) will simply consume Logs from felled trees as they fall if they reside too close to the edge. Almost as if to acknowledge this there exist many cut-off Islands that temptingly sing “Build to me”, yet any will to do so is lost upon the aforementioned hiccups regarding tedious camera movement, troubles with managing resource allocation, and the actual gathering of the resources.

While I’ve mentioned that you “Transmute” sacks of Gravel into full-blown slabs, it is actually closer to the gathering of an exact number of Rocks, that when combined will explode into exactly four slabs. While this isn’t an issue by any extension save to those obsessed with immersion (To them, I recommend Stronghold, not this) it is an issue when it will cause your entire workforce to immediately slam to a halt without warning if every pallet has one resource on it, and you lack the space to set up a new rock bin to toss gravelstuff into. If this happens, your Teletubbies will simply stop whatever they were doing, upon completing the task sufficiently to qualify as “Far enough”, and stand at attention, sometimes even while bent over with a log held behind their backs or a massive slab of Granite! While I cringe at the suffering they must experience in such a display of discipline, I find it equally aggravating that in such a slow-paced, Casual build-sim, that I must micromanage pallets to ensure the optimal spread of specific resources, when that worker could just as easily be picking away for Gravel, slapping up slabs into walls, or cutting down trees and sending their constituent logs tumbling down into the cloudy abyss, simply to ensure I can gather the raw components to allow me to build with something resembling a timely manner.

Finally, and what truly saddens me, is that after you build your castle… Your Teletubbies don’t require feeding, don’t need iron for swords, or labor to manufacture arrows. You simply arm your little yellow Flubbers, man the parapets, and stare out at the unending Golem horde with something resembling annoyance. Your castle will be bare, sure it will have walls and towers, but it won’t have a dungeon, it won’t have a mill, or a well, or a Keep, or honestly anything to make it feel like it’s lived in. You might have your Blue-Crystal-Of-Yellow-Dude-Generation situated safely at the heart of your stronghold, but not due to any significant story-reason, or any interesting design, but due to practicality. And there-in lies the single largest issue that absolutely must be resolved with Castle Story:

A good story isn’t nearly this practical.

For this story to be one worth retelling, it is my humble opinion for a few additions to make this game more appealing for both short-term and long-term enjoyment. The inclusion of some form of background to the meanings of the events that happen in the game, giving you an investment in your little yellow dorks. Flavor and effect-creating buildings would also be a very nice touch, such as being able to designate a room or structure as a “Blacksmith” or “Grannery”, or to be able to increase your Archers by having the right doo-dads present to denote that the structure attached to them is a “Fletcher”. To be honest, simply being able to place a Flag would add many things to the game even from such a simple feature, as it would turn a gray-and-brown structure, occasionally lit up by torches and Braziers, to something that feels owned, maybe with a splash of blue, red, green or yellow in the odd corner or atop every other Turret. What’s more, potentially adding the need to house your little yellow buddies might create a more populated feeling to a castle, prompting a more protective affection for both the structure itself and those who would call it home.

Castle Story is chock-full of potential, so much so I am almost afraid to dissuade purchase, however in its current iteration, it has far too many hindrances and not enough realized to make this game a valid purchase. If the game should evolve past some of these issues, such as macro resource storage and an annoying camera, and implement more features to make the castle more complex and alive, then it will easily come to the fore of RTS and Sim games.

I do not recommend buying Castle Story, but I caution against forgetting about it either. There is much potential in this game to be bright.