Recent reviews by Jordan

It's a good game but the AI diplomacy is too non-sensical & piss-poor to play a good game. Needs updates and TLC to hit its' stride.

Example?

Play as one province Visby--- get declared on by Sweden to war.

Fine--- scum-saved and gave Sweden as much gold as I can to avoid it. It worked!

Denmark declares war this time at around 30:00 mins ingame time.... just cause.

Fine--- scum-saved and gave Denmark and Sweden a split of my treasury to avoid it. It worked!

Norway declares war this time at around 30 mins ingame time... just cause.

Fine--- scum-saved and gave them gold. It worked!

Now a fellow one province pagan declares war on me! A fair fight I'll play through! At around 32 mins ingame time, a Christian Poland joins them as an ally. . .

Then Sweden declares war on me, so now its two seperate distinct wars--- but they may as well be allies because they do siege things down together as one army on the same side of the war.

I'm like "f--- it" I'll play this death through at this point--- First I realize Sweden peaced out unprompted/unnotified.

As I figure the only way I can win is attrition--- and the enemy army of 6K+ has spent years at this point supplied at ZERO without food, so that game mechanic may as well be useless. The AI has decided not to siege down my capital Visby and just parks his army outside it indefiently---- when my horse breeders rebuild the AI decides to ransack it and go pack to parking outside of Visby. He doesn't care for peace, and my army of 200 units can't do ♥♥♥♥ versus a "starving army" that's been malnourished and logistical f'd for a decade that supposeably has a chance for "an army revolt." The modifier for a stavered undersupplied army in the medieval ages is only "-5," so I can just get f**ked.

Now look at my playtime, and that's all I needed to see how fundamentally frustrating this game was going to be.

In all regards I expect down the road when they balance out these issues I'll play the ♥♥♥♥ out of this game. It does show' it hold's a candle against the genre titans like Paradox games.... but until then...

So the last time I played Skyrim was when Dawnguard came out--- in 2012. I got the OG Skyrim still on my steam with hundreds of hours etc...

Hol-lee ♥♥♥♥.

It's like a whole new game.

I've sat on the sidelines to the memes joking Bestheda has re-released the same game a dozen times. So I felt no need to buy into the "Creation Club."

Well evidently I let that marinade for 10 years, and got the entire bells & whistle package discounted to $20.

Hol-lee ♥♥♥♥.

It's like a brand new game.

Maxed out the difficulty because I ain't no peasant. Survival mode? Sure because I ain't no ♥♥♥♥♥.

More variety of armor & weapons?
Camping?
Fishing?

Sign me up!

(There is something to be said about Bethesda procuring these mods via the Creation Club. I know about the drama surrounding it for the modding community. But it does provide fluidity to the game when Bethesda integrates it. Instead of the clunky "oh this is a/the mod" that often comes with playing them, as far as immersion goes. I'm not fanboi'in - I just like that it's seamless both in & out of the game-play.)

At the time of this review, 14 hours... and I've JUST left Riverwood.

I was expecting a quick nostalgia trip of maybe 10 hours of ♥♥♥♥♥♥ around before I put it down again. Now I'm sucked in as if I were playing it for the first time again, (besides remembering a few major plotpoints)...

So that's who this review is written for. This game is famous enough everyone knows what to expect... but if you haven't played Skyrim in a hot-minute...

Hol-lee ♥♥♥♥.

Better than I was expecting.
It's a lot more CIV like than I was anticipating, but in all the best ways while improving the formula.

It's straight-forward without sacrificing depth. Where diplomacy is sensible & fair since the AI at the macro level is surprisingly competent. Rivalries are naturally formed, and the game doesn't pigeon-hole your playthrough/nation to certain traits or playstyle.

For example, playing as Sparta for my first playthrough─ the game starts you with specific military techs already unlocked that help wonders for an aggressive player. Although, I found myself sliding into a more diplomatic & sea-focused game simliar to that of historic Athens. And the game allows that to be perfectly viable.

Simply, give this game a few more iterations of TLC from the devs, and I can see myself perfering these mechanics to that of CiV─ maybe I already do.

It's exactly what it needs to be for the price.

I didn't have much problems with a laggy maps or such, but the game could use QoL improvements to the UI.

It's pretty basic & rudimentary, but funnily enough the straight-forward gameplay mechanics is exactly what games like Empire of Sin or City of Gangsters needed to have─ and totally whiffed on.

Where in the case of Empire of Sin focused on turned-based combat.

And City of Gangsters focused on logistics.

This game gives a sandbox macro-view of running a crime syndicate.

As said, it's bare─ but it works, as I've yet to encounter a bug. Which allows me to forgive the lack of tooltips & not having a bit more in depth gang customization; like naming it. Plus the pixelized font being hard to read at times, this game could use a couple pointers from Empire TV Tycoon's pixel art/interface.

For the price, and being a pixel game─ it's exactly what it says to be, but not much more. It is worth kudos for threading the "gangster/mafia mangement" needle the other aforementioned games dropped the ball on.

To the point where I wished the genre would use this as it's core gameplay mechanic, and then maybe the genre would sell.

You just need to make an economy tycoon game with gangsters.

Yet City of Gangsters & Empire of Sin niched their game so much, somehow this got the closest.

When in doubt─ flail it out.

Stutters more than Forrest Gump.

Sound mixed by Helen Keller.

Haven't seen any cheaters, but AI bots with the right rifle can give you that impression.

Fundamentally Broken.
After doing as well as one can for 6 hours of play, where even the graphical stuttering was helping me as I see it effect other players in PvP. I was very mat, ammo, and weapon rich--- complete with several food & medical crates. Only to log on the next day to see my entire inventory cleared. Yet I still had the gear I was wearing when I logged off the day prior.

Very bummed, but not defeated I quit the game to relog hoping it was a momentary mishap.

Game said "Duck you," and decided to clear the gear I was wearing as well this time too.

Which warranted this review.

Now I'm worst-off than the game starts you, and I'm out 113k in warbonds I didn't trade in so I could feel like Scrooge McDuck whenever I looked at my inventory.

All that said--- I'm confident this game will be better than Escape from Tarkov, and be a genuinely fun adrenaline inducing game worthy of a positive review. Hell, maybe even pretty soon.

Why? Because it's only one step removed from working in each problem I listed. While being a pretty decent shooter in of itself.

I say give it a few months, perhaps until the holiday season for the devs to iron out some wrinkles. You could roll the dice and not get wiped like I did, and come out with a good experience of the game currently. (The graphic stuttering lessened the more you played.)

But yeah, I don't think this game is going anywhere, and I'm convinced it'll be better than Tarkov even before it leaves early-access.

I'll thumbs up it when it is.

The Spacelords smiled upon me, and gave me my ♥♥♥♥ back.

People blame multiboxing & cheaters when it is not nearly as prevalent as they make it out to be.

Why?

Because they don't realize that they aren't good enough to win against 5 people consistently. You'll be lucky to win 1/6 of your games.

The strategy and any possible meta is a lot more nuance than I initially thought, and after 80 hours I'm just now able to win about 1/4 of my games against masters & grandmasters. With clear & learnable lessons most of the time as to why I lost. Even in the occasional game where the beginners luck of a newbie takes the W.

If you think you're gonna come on here with your favorite Risk strategy from family game night, and expect yourself to win most of the time... your in for a bad time.

First time playing this game since I don't bother with consoles, and it's fantastic!

Moreover, it's probably the best port I've ever played; better optimized and quicker loads than games made for PC. If you told me it wasn't a port, I would have no problem believing you.

Been playing since 2015, and I would describe the game as the epitome of fantastic indie development.

Devs who care with consistent updates, with big ones more or less every quarter. Listens to feedback, and I look forward to see how this game keeps evolving.

NOTE: It's still has a way to go