Recent reviews by bladiator

I've had Tavern Keeper on my wishlist ever since I played the (very) short and (very) sweet demo a long time ago. I was going to try to wait for the real release, but I couldn't help myself. I'm sure there are bugs in the system but I'm not finding them. The storyline approach to a sim game is really giving it some extra oomph and charm that I am really enjoying. I rarely laugh at games and I find myself chuckling a lot at the ridiculous things that happen (and also how I can respond to those ridiculous things). I'm not much for designing and/or sprucing up rooms so that's for some else, but I really enjoy everything else. Top notch execution so far by this team!

I thought for a long time about whether or not I would recommend this game, and I have to say that at 40 hours in, I'm playing it more to "beat" it than to play it. The biggest issue for me is that the scenario objectives are not all that fun. Initially I was imagining the possibilities with combos of strange and interesting course selection, but now about 9 scenarios in, there really is almost no reason to branch out from what they start you with, because the objectives will all be based on what they have given you, and creating different courses will just cause you to have to build different rooms that a) you don't need for your objectives and b) that you can barely afford while trying to attack the objectives.

Perhaps at some point the scenarios will become much more open ended so I can curate my own campus. I love watching them all learn, especially heading to the library and seeing them go at it is so satisfying. But when I'm spending 3/4ths of my time trying to get attractiveness up to 80% or hygiene up to 90%, I don't get to enjoy seeing the college life unfold. On top of that, some of the scenarios require a certain number of high grade graduates or high grade classes or something similar, so there's nothing really to do except put the game on super speed until they finally reach those benchmarks (which could take 3-5 years in game).

I may change my mind if I get to a point where it's just wide open space and no rules except make a good college experience (but NOT TOO GOOD haha). It was very satifying when I started, but now it feels like a 2nd job. Disclaimer: I've ingested tons of hours of this and TP Hospital in the last month, and will probably grab Museum shortly which I've heard good things about as well. Hopefully, some of these irks are ironed out in that one.

EDIT: I see that there is a sandbox mode, but I also don't enjoy NO guardrails. Maybe I'm just not the target audience for this type of game even though I really enjoy many aspects.

Oh, and temperature control -- so tedious. It's too hot! Ok, slap AC everywhere. There's no thought involved, just a constant nag. I was hoping that they removed this from TPH.

Enjoying this very much. Seems like this was either made by the original developers of Theme Hospital years ago or at least loved it so much that they created their own version of it. I could do without having to make my hospital "pretty" or "warm/cold" but other than those minor gripes, I really enjoy most other aspects of this game. I know that they're trying to make it difficult to make efficient, but the shapes of some of the hospitals is really frustrating, and I hate deleting stuff later on to redo everything, but that is probably more of a personal problem.

I played this the first time when it came out and nearly 10 years later, I'm having my kids watch with me as we go through it again, and they're enjoying every minute as if it were an animated movie. The thrills ("DAD JUMP FASTER DAD JUMP FASTER!"), the sad times, the touching moments, the WHOA WHAT moments .. it's all just so well made. I have always enjoyed the 5-episode layout of adventure games, but not all of them do it well -- this one has cliffhangers, but also doesn't require them since it's a retelling of old stories.

You really start to care about the individuals in this game as it goes along, and I'm just as touched by the great moments now as I was the first time. A few episodes still are just tiresome to get through, but the good moments make it all worth it. I hope more people continue to buy and enjoy this game.

I'm not sure that a "Thumbs Down" is really what I'm trying to say here, but if you're looking for the charm from the original game, you won't find it here.

* SLIGHT SPOILERS ARE POSSIBLE*

I loved the first game, and I was hoping for great things with BtS. The problem is that -- as with many prequels -- you've written yourself into a hole before you even start. If you have played the first game, then you already know which characters exist and that nothing THAT bad can happen to them. Also, you know certain traits about characters later on but that you can't explore in this game.

Which brings me to why this is a problem: because Chloe (the main character) is irredeemable. She is a piece of crap. I loathed having to make decisions for her for 2 full episodes because she just sucks as a person. With Max in the original LIS, you started with someone that you could mold for good or bad. In the case of BtS, if felt like I was doing everything in my power to just get to a "I don't absolutely suck" status.

Super powers: In the first game, you had an awesome un-understood power. In this one, you are good at .... backtalking. That's right, your irredeemable-ness just continues to bring forth new fruit of sucktitude as you swear down friends, neighbors and complete strangers. Eventually I just stopped taking that route because I got tired of being reminded of what a horrible person I was playing.

The pace was slow and didn't really give me much of a "WHOA" factor like the first game until somewhere mid-3rd act. And by that time, it was nearly over anyways.

There were good times, but all in all, the game didn't take me very many places. I just felt like the main characters became chummy way to quick for almost no good reason at all, and why anyone would ever decide that Chloe was a trustworthy person after seeing any of her track record to date was especially unbelieveable. That being said, its been a while since I was a teenager, so maybe this is just goes to show how stupid they really are.

If you get it on sale, I would still buy it, and after finishing both games, I think I would probably recommend playing this one first and then the original -- that way you aren't tainted by knowing anything about the characters you meet, and (IMO) you finish with the stronger of the two stories.

The Deadly Tower of Monsters caught my attention from the trailer on Steam, but I figured that it was being clipped together as more interesting and funny than it really was. I was mistaken.

The gameplay in this action-clicker is average at best, but it shines in its heart and ingenuity. The voice actor for the director doing the audio commentary captures the character perfectly. While I didn't do a lot of lauging out loud because I was furiously trying to keep everything from apes to dinosaurs off of me, the constant half-drunk comments were what made this game work. Even if you die or are just standing still, the director has something to say about it.

The "VCR" graphics overlay gives it an old crappy MST3K feel (but you can upgrade to "DVD" if that bothers you) and I loved it.

There are plenty of "extras" that you can try to achieve in the game that are littered all over the game landscape, but personally I just wanted to enjoy the main story and burn through it like I was watching the original "movie". I don't think this is a game that could be replicated again with the same success because its charm is in its originality.

THIS LITTLE WAR OF MIIIINNNEEEE
WE'RE GONNA BE JUST FINEEEEEEE
THIS LITTLE WAR OF MIIINNEEEEEE
DON'T CROSS THE REBEL LINNNEEEEE
THIS LITTLE WAR OF MIIINNEEEEE
I'M GONNA DRINK MOONSHINE
DRINK MOONSHINE
DRINK MOONSHINE
DRINK MOONSHIIIIIIEEEIIIIEEEIINNEEEEEEEEE

I usually don't write reviews. And by usually I mean, this is my first one.

I found this game because someone had it on a top-50 best game storylines list. I decided that that was at least enough to warrant spending $1.99.

The game is short, no doubt about it. I finished it in about 4 hours. I am a very fast reader and the words barely get on the screen before I ready to move on. That being said, there is plenty of storyline to be had. The ending is a little abrupt gameplay wise ... I expected that I was about to be given a plot twist but the story was actually over.

The music is fantastic. I'm usually pretty harsh on music, but even at its most simplistic, it was all perfect for the part of the story it accompanies. I still can't get the main theme out of my head at this moment. The inclusion of the soundtrack was just gravy.

As far as a "game" goes, there is very little gameplay to be had. It is 2 steps up from being an interactive novel. Very quickly I found that I didn't care at all, and the few gameplay elements that were included could have been thrown out for all I cared about them.

I wish we had learned a little more about the female protaganist because her story seemed to have been really deeply thought out but then not all able to fit into the storyline.

I thought that the main playable characters were a little too wacky for the rest of the story. I understand that they were sort of like the "comedic outlet" for a very somber story, but sometimes it detracted too much.

All in all, I thought this was a very fresh idea and I enjoyed it very much. I will think about this story quite a bit in the next couple weeks. It seems like it could be a movie, but I think that screenwriters would screw it up big time. Somehow, the simple pixel graphics held this game together by making you get engrossed in the music and the story.