Recent reviews by simshadows

RIP Atlas Reactor, 2016-2019. An incredibly fun and unique game with so much character that clearly got a lot of love from the developers and artists that made it. Definitely one of my favourite games of all time, and as of writing, there's literally nothing else like it on the market. Really sad seeing it killed off and rendered unplayable only 2.5 years after release (until someone builds a server emulator). "Games as a Service" is a really toxic business practice that must be avoided as much as possible.

This is my first Monster Hunter game and I have to say, I'm completely hooked. I absolutely love this game so far! I'm most certainly looking forward to dumping hundreds more hours into this title, and eventually purchasing future iterations of this series.

However, I do have to make an important point: This port is not the PC gaming experience it should be.

The optimization is fine. I don't care about graphics enough, and it runs smooth enough for me to be comfortable at low settings on my 7 year old budget gaming PC. Also, there are network and server issues (e.g. difficulty starting assignment quests with others), but those will hopefully eventually be fixed. I can even accept the stick emulation, even if it feels imprecise.

What I do have a real problem with though is the abysmal UI adaptation. It very much feels like a console port, with an inconsistent sprinkling of more PC-like controls. Everything is admittedly usable enough, but infurating to use. If you're looking to get this game on PC, know full well that this is what you'll need to compromise on.

The skill curve is incredibly steep, but once you're over that initial cliff face, you're greeted with a vast and plentiful landscape of strategy, mechanics, meaningful teamwork, and tactical space sim/combat that very much transcends the dated UI, graphics, and technology.

It's like chess, but like, not chess. But seriously though, the mechanics work really well. The rules are very simple, it's easy to pick up, yet they lead to a lot of diversity in strategy.

I do have two problems with it though. Despite what some sources may lead you to believe, there is an element of RNG: fairies. They randomly spawn on the map and they give mana, allowing you to make more actions. I understand the logic here with adding some level of chance to make things a bit more interesting but lucky fairies early in the game lead to some very serious snowballing. My suggestion would be to delay fairies until turn 2, or maybe prevent fairies spawning next to druids during turn 1.

The other problem is to do with the limited screen resolution options (limited to 4:3), but it doesn't bother me too much. I want to play it windowed anyway.

Overall, a mechanically great game with a cool artstyle! We need more people on multiplayer.

UPDATE (2/4/2015): So I randomly lost my campaign savegame... No idea how it happened, but it happened. Oh well. Multiplayer is where it's at!

Halibut... sheep's cheese... tomatoes...

Awesome game. Perhaps the funnest tower defense formula I've ever played, the whole ship construction thing works beautifully and the speed delivery mechanic naturally caters to all skill levels while giving it replayability. So, if you're looking for a challenge, you can load up with engines and shoot for "lightspeed delivery" speed or even far past it, pushing your micromanagement and your APM to the limit (yes, it can get very frantic - you can't pause or *slow). Sadly though, the game lacks a leaderboard for this.

Also, the levels don't change (or at least that I know of) so each one can be played over and over again until you learn the timings of where and when things happen.



*There is an ability in the game that will allow you to slow down time for you to build, at a cost.