Recent reviews by Caffeine

Some of the smoothest platforming I've played in a long while.

Hands down the best game I've played this year, its not often that something comes along and deconstructs an old trope and then builds it back up again with a fresh coat of paint. Forget breath of the wild re-imagining the first Zelda, this absolutely takes that feel from the old NES classic and gives you something new, but with a distinct echo.

Combat is challenging but rewarding as you figure the system out, very little is handed to you but as you get father into the game you realize just how much you were being told things in a very subtle way. The unlock-able manual in the game has everything you need in it, every marking on a page is deliberate and meaningful.

I won't get into spoiler territory but there were only four puzzles that had bad designs, one is an unnecessary bonus that requires you translate the language in the manual. The other three all revolve around game mechanics that have no use outside of the individual puzzle you're trying to solve and that aren't explained in the manual.

While that is getting to be a bit of a nit-pick, this absolutely is a game you should get and not spoil for yourself with any guides or hints if possible.

I wish I could truly do a NewGame+ having forgotten everything about this game and play it fresh again.

This game is so good it made super giant break their 'no sequels' rule

Coming back to post a review after finishing another game with some strong similarities in puzzles.

While I spent time getting 100% in this, I can't say I'd recommend it now. Lets start with the good....

The good:

Beautiful music, stellar art design, and a really cool central game mechanic.

The Bad/Ugly:

While most of the puzzles have fun designs, getting to 100% is super obtuse and requires you translate an in game language based on very vague hints. I can admire it, but at the same time it feels like someone writing their own DnD campaign and thinking they made the best fun puzzles for their own home brew dungeon, but when it comes to actually putting players through it you'll find that people may think different than you do, and what breadcrumbs you think you may be dropping are completely missed by the party.

If you're a completionist you'll absolutely need a guide. And unfortunately for a puzzle centric game, I feel like is a bad thing. Its one thing to need one for a type of puzzle you're horrible at, but another thing to need one for the core puzzle underlying everything.

If this is cheap on sale, go for it...if not something like Tunic or Outerwilds are better experiences.

Pros:
- Great restoration work on the old FMV cutscenes
- Fantastic graphical facelift
- Preserved the classic gameplay
- Some of the best music in a game
- Great Mod Support

Cons
- Preserved the classic gameplay


If you like RTS games and want to see where they really started to hit the mainstream this is very worth picking up. The soundtrack is one of my favorites of all time and its been beautifully redone by the original composer.

Downside on this one is no fixes or updates to how the games played. I can really appreciate keeping things as true to form as possible, but it leaves Tiberium Dawn feeling very janky and slow. Red Alert is much more playable all these years on and goes to show how much Westwood improved the formula between the two games.

Really hoping we'll see Tiberium Sun & Red Alert 2 get the same treatment and love these got.

If you're into games like harvest moon or stardew this is a good one to add to your library. There's some nice things that mix up the formula with the tech trees and being able to work through the night. The art work and animations are nice and there's enough to explore for a good 30-40 hours worth of content in the base game.

Where it stumbles is some obtuse progression paths for quest lines, I swear at one point I thought I was bugged between two characters and might have to restart or give up on the game. Some other pieces of the tech tree or crafting items have a single use in the story and then are never used again. There's at least one mandatory quest that has a major money grind, and I felt like you were either making tons of money in the end game or almost nothing in the early game, there was very little ramp or build up.

Overall, its worth a buy if you like these types of games, $20 is a bit steep, but if its on sale for $15 or less pick it up.

Came back for the Expedition DLC after playing several years ago and hitting a brick wall and I’m pleasantly surprised at the updates to the base game that addressed many of the complaints I had in my initial playtime.

There are still issues that I’ll outline below, but the fixes that have been made and quality of story and world building that have been added over the years make this game a much better experience.


Good Stuff Added Since Last Review:
- Easy Mode! The normal level difficulty is still quite high, but if you want to get your feet wet on a first playthrough you have a spot to start that isn’t as punishing.

- Crafting System has been greatly expanded, especially with the expansion

- There’s a world map now, makes getting around a lot easier, the DLC even has coordinates

- Writing in the added expansion content is very good, it’s been quite a while since I’ve wanted to read every bit of dialog I could squeeze out of characters.

- Added late-character customizations are a nice way to round things out and improve bonuses and specializations

- Some builds and abilities have been rebalanced to make them more usable

- Atmosphere / Music Still Fantastic

Bad Stuff:
- Combat can at times feel like I’m forced to use cheese tactics, some quests don’t have options for stealth/non-combat approaches

- Still able to build yourself into a corner, but there are now more resources on the net if you need a guide. The addition of easy mode also makes this more difficult to do.

- Building money is difficult, there is no ‘skip time’ mechanic you’d see in other games to advance a day & night cycle, the only thing that refreshes a merchant’s inventory is playing more hours.


Overall the game is in a much better place than it was, there is still a bit of ‘get good scrub’ in how you build a character or play the game. It’s much more forgiving now if you play on easy for your first time before doing a second playthrough on a higher difficulty.

For as much better as the game is, a looming nerf to PSI builds on the horizon has me worried. I love the fact that in working on the expansion and listening to feedback, the game overall was improved well after release. However, if players have found powerful builds I don’t feel they should be removed or scaled back. Part of the replayability in RPGs like this is building a completely different character to get a new perspective and see content you might have missed. Removing an avenue for players to take, even if its ‘overpowered’ or ‘too easy’ doesn’t quite sit right with me.

That being said, I’m changing my review from ‘not recommended’ to ‘recommended’ - if you are a fan of cRPGs it's definitely worth the purchase.



---Old Review Below for Posterity and my thoughts at the time---

I really want to get into this game more, but its really difficult. As a fan of isometric RPC this does a decent job of trying to recapture some of the feelings of Fallout, Arcanum, or Planescape, but its got a few glaring design issues that keep it from really excelling.


The Good Stuff:

- Atmosphere and Ambiance are nice, feels like a nice mix of post-apoc and cyberpunk

- Crafting system is a nice tack on but it has its own problems (See Below)

- Combat is decent if a bit unintuitive all things considered


The Bad Stuff:

- Incredibly hard even on 'normal', combat is incredibly unforgiving and requires a lot of pre-planning or constant back tracking to a doctor after you pick off 1-2 enemies

- Backtracking...without a world map or fast travel, it can be really tedious to get back to old areas. Some travel options open up as the game progresses, but without any kind of map I felt very lost in the beginning

- Very easy to make a "bad" character - I never felt this way while playing fallout, but here its very easy to screw up your build and make it incredibly difficult. Most of the quests are 'combat' focused and trying to make a psycher you'll end up severly underskilled in some areas

- As for skills, its very easy to mis-assign them. Crafting system requires you dump stat points into things, given that merchants are super picky about buying stuff its not worth it early game

- Speech type skills also aren't really worth much, best bet is dump all your early game points into a combat skill and dodge

- Merchants incredibly picky about what (and how much!) they will buy from you, if you're the type to pick up every little thing you'll find yourself overburdened a lot.


Overall if you really really like isometric RPGs and like playing a combat focused character its worth it when its on sale. If you like playing a non-combat character and speech your way through things its probably not for you. Some quests do have those sorts of options, but I found them to be pretty limited.

Even if you played this one long ago the restoration patch adds so much back its worth the re-tread.