Recent reviews by Arson

In the early days of testing, Starbase had a good concept. Sadly, the developers ran out of money. After, they simply gave up entirely and have stopped developing the game. No funds, remaining developers typically use the Steam forums to argue with players that provide solutions, and have plainly stated that unless someone gives them money they have no intention to continue to develop the game. Funding is not their issue. Integrity is.

Needless to say, I don't recommend Starbase or any future titles from FrozenByte or their associates.

My spoiler-free version of *what-the-heck-is-this-game*:

This is a game about building a fictional cult through an in-game narrative using the backdrop of a card game on a huge gaming table. The game doesn't tell you much more than that, and there's a good reason for it: you are meant to discover it.

You use cards and certain actions on this gaming table to discover how to play the game. You are meant to learn the game by failing. You are meant to discover how to play the game over time. Try new things. Read the story. Read it again. Play again when you fail. You'll get it. I promise. :)

Soma is a great narrative story with a good mix of mystery and spookdom. It isn't overly long, not too frustrating, and is a great buy on sale. If you like narrative horror games heavy on atmosphere you can't go wrong with this one.

Stories Untold is one of the most compelling narrative gaming experiences I've had in years. It's tense, sometimes emotional, and requires you to think in order to discover what to do next. Not so difficult as to hold anyone up, but challenging enough that you have to think through what you're doing. The four, separate stories are just the right length of playtime to keep you interested without "puzzles" that are needlessly complicated.

If you like horror games and bite-size stories I can't recommend this game enough.

Victoria 3 is a good example of a grand strategy game set during the Industrial Revolution. Victoria is lighter on story and personality than other Paradox games like Crusader Kings or Stellaris. That's not to say I found it boring. Victoria 3 is one of the most extensively simulated economies perhaps in all of PC gaming. If that sounds daunting, managing that economy isn't the matrix-like spreadsheet of Wall Street stock drivel that it sounds like. Actually, managing it is more like budgeting for your family. Balance the books and you'll be fine. You will definitely want some idea of how supply and demand works though.

Victoria 3 is my first foray into the Victoria series from Paradox. I held off on giving this game a review because my first impressions weren't positive and a dear friend purchased this for me as a gift knowing I like other Paradox games. Like all Paradox games, once you understand exactly what you're looking at on the screen the rest falls into place. Now I can dump countless hours into Victoria 3 and feel good recommending it. It's also worth noting that in just the few months the game has been out Paradox has pushed many fixes and a few absolutely monstrous patches. They clearly intend to heavily invest into making this game something to stick with. If it looks anything like the path that has been taken supporting Crusader Kings and Stellaris then I'm sure I'll get plenty of hours out of this one.

I have quite a few hours in Barotrauma solo, but multiplayer is where players have the best fun...or "fun" rather, because much of Barotrauma's entertainment does not come in the form of smooth player cooperation, but the hilariously awful interactions that can happen during emergencies in multiplayer situations.

For me though, I enjoy the game just fine as a solo player. You control the whole crew as solo, and you are able to freely switch roles among the crew to do the job that's needed. Barotrauma runs well on just about any system. There are a ton of mods available through the long early access period. Now that the game is in full release I highly recommend it to anyone that has interest in survival, submarine, or heavy co-op games.

I highly recommend this game for anyone that enjoys more pure roguelike games. The story is quite original. The level of ASCII in the game isn't too distracting. There are plenty of mods of all types, but the base game has a LOT of character customization available. Last, even for a roguelike the game has a lot of replay ability. I highly recommend it to anyone that finds the above at all appealing.

I do not normally comment on these types of issues for a game review, but I would be remiss if I did not take a moment to comment on the official Discord for the game. Joining the Discord required a personal interview with a moderator via PM where it was explained that the server ascribed to specific political/social views not normally expected of a typical official server, and vetted potential new users via social media and other sites to look for past behavior the moderators didn't think would be compatible with their aim. While I respect the right of any game to run a Discord server however they wish I cannot condone any official game server that feels to need to perform this kind of "background check" (my words). The stated rules of a server are more than sufficient to notify users of what is expected of them, and sifting through past internet history of users is both intrusive and potentially dangerous as moderators have no special qualifications to determine the accuracy or authenticity of what they find or do not find. After a few weeks on the server observing the behavior of the moderators, but particularly due to discovering a channel on the server where extreme opinions were openly discussed that espoused violence against people (not Discord users) who did not share the political and economic views of users/moderators, I voluntarily left without incident and have not returned. I cannot personally support this kind of behavior, or the hypocritical nature of the expressions I witnessed. I do not hold the above against the game itself, though I do think the developers should not support this kind of behavior. This was by far the most bizarre experience I've had on any Discord and I don't expect I'll ever return.

[s]Will update later with more info, but for now my review is positive. Kitfox has helped keep the game's core intact.[/s]

Update: Dwarf Fortress has launched and integrated about as well as one could hope for given such a complex projects from so many creators. That said, people love the game on the whole. The largest barriers to playing and learning Dwarf Fortress before the Steam launch are gone. No longer do you have to sift through decades of forum posts to figure out exactly how to install the game. The game itself and plenty of popular mods are all there in one place. The other concern is learning the game. While it's still quite complex, but new tutorial system really helps players get started.

Yes

This is a great game for people that enjoy survival games, especially in space, but a game with a bit more depth than your average survival game. It has a complex logic system that you can use for very simple things like switches, or you can go very deep, all the way into the in-game programming language.

The developer puts a lot of love into this game and keeps consistent updates.