Recent reviews by Sternutation

This is basically Heroes of Might and Magic in a science fiction context. Can't say I like the name though. If anything, it should be something like Heroes of Tech and Psionic and that too is not great but I would say is a better way of translating the words Might and Magic into a sci-fi setting.

Or even better (but not particularly great) would be Heroes of Technology and Technomancy. The acronym would then be HoTT!

The good :

1. Solid gameplay
2. Decent setting
3. Graphics
4. Spiritual successor of C&C through and through
5. Active developer
6. QoL features such as select all units are present as well as option to only select military units

The bad:
1. Campaign mission design
2. Monotonous mission briefings and cinematics
3. Faction unit design is a bit limited
4. Aside from the monotonous voice acting, there are very few characters in the game. It does not feel like C&C where you often had both stellar casts and voice acting. Even in later entries such as RA3, you had a ton of characters. Here, it's like 4 characters a faction at most...

Bit of a strange and weird game, all things considered. I mean that in a good way. The combat is not good, yet I feel the urge to play it. I think that it is partially because it is such a solid open world RPG in it's own right combined with being a MMO. The quests in particular are interesting and you can see a lot of the impact of your decisions on the world as you move through the various Zone questlines.

Good game, but after investing a decent amount of time, I’d say it is a bit hit-or-miss in terms of story and narrative. The companions can be interesting, but the broader storyline feels heavily reminiscent of Dragon Age: Inquisition. And that’s not exactly high praise, considering my lukewarm feelings about Inquisition’s early pacing. If anything, it's even worse than Inquisition's opening.

On the positive side, the game is visually stunning and performs remarkably well on my setup (GTX 1060 3GB, i5-8400, 32GB RAM). The character creator alone had me immersed for two hours, and the lore so far has kept me intrigued. Visually and technically, it’s a solid win.

However, there are some rough edges. The dialogue is really bad at times, overly expository and lacking natural flow, which detracts from the immersion. Combat could use some polish, and the lack of an option to import previous world states is a real letdown. Say what you want about The Keep, but it at least provided a sense that my decisions from past entries shaped the world I was stepping into. Here, that continuity is missing, with only a few imported choices from Inquisition carrying over.

It’s clear BioWare aimed for a cautious approach after recent missteps, which gives the game a “soft reboot” vibe. While it’s a competent action RPG, this cautiousness is a bit disappointing. Feels really disconnected from the previous games and everything feels as if I am getting barely a window into a world rather than actually roleplaying in it.

TL;DR: It’s a decent game that plays it safe. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I’d have preferred a darker tone and more layered writing like its predecessors. Weak story and dialogue but fun combat and visually interesting.

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☑ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

---{ Gameplay }---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☑ Grandma

---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☐ Decent
☑ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☐ Old Fashioned
☐ Workable
☑ Big
☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data

---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{ Grind }---
☑ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding

---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☑ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life

---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☐ Average
☐Long
☑To infinity and beyond

---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☑ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☑ 9
☐ 10

---{ Author }---
☑ https://vojtastruhar.github.io/steam-review-template


The QoL improvements alone make it really difficult to go back to older Total Wars to play them, let alone the setting. Empire Total War is still my favourite, but so much of the jank with things like diplomacy etc are gone from older Total Wars.

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☑ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

---{ Gameplay }---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☑ Grandma

---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☐ Old Fashioned
☐ Workable
☑ Big
☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data

---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☑ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding

---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☑ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life

---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☑ To infinity and beyond

---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☑ 9
☐ 10

---{ Author }---
☑ https://vojtastruhar.github.io/steam-review-template

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☐ Good
☑ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☑ Grandma

---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☑ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☑ Old Fashioned
☐ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data

---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☑ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding

---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☑ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life

---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☑ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond

---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

---{ Setting }---
☐ Generic
☐ Some novelty
☑ Innovative
☐ Unexplored or Unprecedented in the genre
☐ Truly original

---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☑ 7
☐ 8
☐ 9
☐ 10

---{ Author }---

Using a modified version of the review template below.
☑ https://vojtastruhar.github.io/steam-review-template

Pathfinding and AI issues aside (enemy AI basically has one strat - spam units and send to base, units that it seems to cheat to get), this is a lot of fun. It's basically if you took WarCraft III, reduced the HP of the units, but doubled down on hero progression(and added an element of unit progression as well).

What is most impressive for me, tbh, is how easily it translates to both isometric and third-person views. I have been plauying this primarily on the mod launcher, hence why my number of hours is a lot less than they actually are.

But I like this a lot more than I liked Spellforce 3, primarily because of the latter's weird worker-management system.

Rather goofy and stupid but in the best possible way.

Midfield.