Recent reviews by ObsidianOps

I find this game addictive. Like I burn away multiple hours, forget things I should be doing, and just become completely absorbed. It became a problem, and I had to uninstall it. This game is dangerous!

Don't look at the wiki. Seriously.

At least in the beginning of this game you should avoid getting ny outside help. Struggle through it a bit. You'll die. A lot. But in learning how not to die (and being constantly surprised and shocked by the things you come across in the process), you'll experience the full potential of this game. With outside help, the game is an exercise in crafting and occasionally fighting. Without, its a dark, intense, dangerous world full of surprises.

That being said, lets get to the review! The game is essentially part of the "crafting" genre. You collect resources, combine them into new things. Some of those things will unlock other options for crafting. Rinse, repeat. What sets Don't Starve apart from the others are a few things. To begin with its very challenging. Death is permanent, and can come from many sources. I've died at least once from every single possible danger in the game's world. But every time just increased my resolve to start again, trying things differently, learning from my past mistakes.

The overall style of the game is beautiful too. The art looks handrawn, live a very dark children's book, and along with the music and sound effects all combines for a beautiful effect. Its certainly not the most graphically complex game, but it provides a unique and self-consistent style that I'll take over a generic 3D world any day. It also lets it run on just about any computer!

If I were to list any cons to the game, its that it may lose some of the allure once you've figured everything out (though there are expansions to help with that). Provided you don't go ruining your experience with walkthroughs, this will still provide many hours of play. To be honest, I still aren't tired of the game, even though I've done most of what there is to be done (and I haven't even touched the Reign of Giants yet, or any of the mods available). I just present this as a possibility for some potential players, yet for them I still recommend the game wholeheartedly.

So play this game! And try not to starve!

In 1998, I was in sixth grade, and my father brought home a new computer. With Windows 98, the newest version of Microsoft Office, and even Encarta, it was a bright and glorious future. Day after day, I came home, exploring every possible thing I could do with it. We wouldn't have internet access until the next year, so every possible thing was, in fact, somewhat limited. One day, searching through the folders of the Windows install CD (because what else do you do without internet?), I discovered a folder full of games. To be specific, trial versions of games. One of them was Age of Empires.

I was an immediate fan, playing the demo endlessly for (what I remember as) months while I tried to scrape together enough money to buy the full game. All my friends at the time were tranfixed by Starcraft, but I managed to talk a few of them into buying AoE as well, and we went through the confusing process of playing over direct dialup modem connection. I always kept the foldout tech tree near the computer, for easy reference. One day, my cousin saw it during a visit, and I found out that he too was a fan.. He was the one who, during his next visit, told me about Age of Empires 2.

The first game had simply clicked with me. The art style was simple and pleasent, and still doesn't look too bad these days. But by comparison Age of Kings was absolutely beautiful. There was detail - so much detail for the time, and so many little things that made the familiar game mechanics so much smoother. The first time I saw the rain of arrows coming down from a castle I think I laughed in the gleeful sort of way the only a preteen can. Age of Kings quickly became my favorite game of all time.

What I always loved most about either game were the custom campaigns. The superstars of scenario design made things with the campaign editor that can truly be called art. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, take a look at some of the downloads at Age of Kings Heaven.[aok.heavengames.com] I recommend Ingo Van Thiel and Mark Stoker to name a few, but check out any of the top rated, it will be worth it. Since I was never actually very good at competitive online play, I spent most of my time on these elaborate single-player experiences,

Eventually I stopped waking up early to play before school. I played some other games, some by Ensemble Studios, many not. I discovered girls, and later alcohol, both of which occupied much of my time. I have never been far from this game, though.

So now we get to the HD not-quite-so-remake. Being not-quite-so because only a few things are actually change, making it more of a rerelease than a remake. Since Ensemble Studios, the group of masters who made the Age series, were inexplicably dissolved by Microsoft in 2008, its very possible to view this as just milking some intellectual property for every last dollar, with no profit to the developers. And honestly, most of the new things introduced here have been available for some time for the original game. HD means it supports high-resolution, which is also offered by the UserPatch[userpatch.aiscripters.net], and the Forgotten Expansion is a polished version of the Forgotten Empires mod.[www.forgottenempires.net]

What is really new then? There's the rendered, water. It does look pretty, though I feel like it might clash a bit with the overall art style. For me it caused lag, so I turned it off. There are other graphical changes as well. Interface icons are different - I'm not sure why they took the time to make them, as there seems to be no advantage or improvement. I'm neutral on this one. A lot of noise has been made online about new farms, but for me, the farms are exactly the same as ever. Perhaps they patched it? If they did, I wonder why they would have bothered to change the farms, but leave the cliffs. Yes, the cliffs in AoE2HD are absolutely horrible, weird gray smudged things that completely contrast with the landscape around them. Luckily, its easy to fix via steam workshop, but the real question I have is why? Why in the world would they go through the effort of adding something that just doesn't look right? Why not just leave it alone, less work for them!

This seems like a lot of evidence stacked against AoE2HD, so it may surprise you to find out that I think its still worth the buy. What it really comes down to is convenience. Getting the original game running on Windows 7 or 8 (or Linux, like I use) requires some steps, but AoE2HD downloads and runs without a problem (not native on Linux, granted, but that comes with the territory). There all those fun steam features to go along as well - achievements (so superficial, and yet so motivating), cards and badges, and easy multiplayer. The Steam Workshop seems like a perfect match, yet I haven't been all too impressed with the content there, compared with AoK Heaven. AoKH has had a few more years to build its collection though, so maybe I just need to give steam some time.

So in all, even though AoE2HD doesn't bring all the much new to the table, changing up my favorite game of all time would probably not sit well either. Therefore I do recommend that this be bought, but maybe buy it when its on sale.

This review has also been posted here.[dfarnand.wordpress.com]