Recent reviews by Zlorfik [CH/BY]

Im writing this review approximately 1/3 of the game in.

Summary:
The game is well done, has great attention to detail and definitely brings axross Hogwarts look & feel. However, like any open world RPG, Hogwarts Legacy is not without flaw. As a heads up: the list of negatives is longer, but that doesnt mean i consider the game not worth getting.

I will update this review if I find more points to add to it.

Positive

• Attention to detail - so much love and detail has been put into this game that it is really awe inspiring. The tiniest movements of pictures as you walk by, the chatter of magical objects, students, etc.
  
• Engaging combat design - the ability to use 4 spells in any active spell set and the availability of up to 4 spell sets allows players to mix and match skills to match their playstyle
  
• Talent tree - i love myself a talent tree. The one in Hogwars Legacy isn't all that big, but it does contain meaningful talents that alter the way you fight
  
• Size of the map and locations - i think the size of the playable are is quite generous and interesting
  
• The Graphics - what can i say... The game looks gorgeous. And it actually requires quite the beefy PC for good performance on non-potato quality settings.
  
• Enemy speciality - i really like the variety of enemies having different strengths and weaknesses. It makes combat more interesting and rewards plannung ahead.
  
• No game breaking bugs - well so far at least

Negative

• Handholding - the whole first quarter of the game feels like a tutorial. Mechanics and spells are very slowly introduced. The revelio spell makes sure you dont miss a single thing. Good for completionists but takes a bit away from the magic of a great discovery
  
• Exploration - probably my biggest beef with the game is the decided punishment of explorative gameplay. Not only is the loot of exploring simply not all that great, you actually stumble upon a lot of places you cant access because you havent learned the proper spell (level) yet.
  
• Lockpicking - tying in with previous point, lockpicking only comes into play much later into the game. This means you'll have to revisit explored locations again - for every level of the alohonora spell. This is no fun. This is tedious and makes exploring annoying. Also, there is no need for locked chests behind locked doors. That's just extra tediousness that's not needed. The lockpicking minigame is not that fun to be doing it non-stop
  
• Let me just take that - so get this. You break open the lock of some witch's hut, waltz in there as she's sipping on tea and you are just strolling past her, robbing her of her valuables. What? Why? How? There is a system in the game for not being detected while doing illegal actions. Why not when breaking in?
  
• Are you even a student? - On the topic of illegal actions: since when is it okay for Hogwarts students to simply walk around at night unhindered? Or worse: why can you just leave thr castle to go to Hogsmede anytime, including at night? Also, why are you only attending classes every 10 days or so? It's still a school. I'd rather have mandatory classes that one attends to (or risks some sort of punishment) but a much slower timescale so you can actually do stuff after classes.
  
• Repeated treasure locations - i already know that the cave goes down, right and left into a chamber to find an item worse than what i am wearing. Let's jsut skip that, ok? I know that reuse of assets is important, but at least add unique versions to it by using a few different of a selection of corridor options. And please some more variety for the loot room.
  
• Potions - potions and other consumables have an extreme niche use. I still dont know why i should use a plant in combat when i can use a spell that deals more damage or better enemy control. Potions dont seem to impact much in terms of fighting either. Sure Edurus blocking all damage is nice, but you want to be blocking spells with protego anyway. The duration of potions is sinply not worth the effort
  
• Friends with the world - i dont know what books you read but Hogwarts is filled with rivalries and pranksters along with friendships. How are all characters so annoyingly nice with each other? Especially Slytherin is known to be very malicious towards others. I think the game could really do with a relation setting where you can both become friends or rivals.
  
• Bugs - no game is complete without bugs. Luckily for Hogwarts Legacy, they are more funny than anything else. From t-posing characters to ones stuck in the floor or to that puzzle cube that went mental when hit with a certain spell: ni have not seen any bugs yet that would annoy me. They are still bugs and thus in the negative list.

Northguard is an RTS with very intriguing elements and plays very nicely. It has a somewhat harsh learning curve. Don't expect to win your first games unless you are an RTS master. A major seller for me is the capability to play a campaign together with my wife. There aren't many good Co-Op games out there, but Northguard is among them.

Stellaris is one of those games where once you've started to strategize, there's no turning back. You are now in a love-hate relationship with the game and are bound forever.

Sporting a steep learning curve, the initial hours and attempts will be brutal. There are many systems interwoven in this galaxy wide empire builder. It will take a while for you to learn and understand all the system. But if you are like me and like learning about functionalities so you can formulate your strategy, you are going to love this process.

Once you are familiar with the game you can enjoy repeated attempts to dominate the galaxy in various ways, from a tyrannical ruler over to the leader of a powerful federation, as galactic peacekeeper or even as the endgame crisis itself. Oh, and probably you'll exterminate and enslave a few races here and there. Also, don't forget to eat your neighbours and come to terms with what a horrible human being you actually are.

Stellaris has very randomized aspects. Unless specified, contenders are randomly created from scratch using the empire builder, which to be fair can be considered a game of its own. If you are like me and often find yourself stopping a run of a game (not only Stellaris) because you want to try a different build, prepare to spend a lot of time in the empire builder. Whether you are a cute little fungus out to destroy the world or a menacing arthropod trying to befriend everyone, there are almost no limits to your creativity. The galaxy itself is then also randomly generated each time you start a game.

Paradox keeps the game up to date with regular patches addressing bugs as well as introducing new content and on top of that revamping existing functionality. While not everyone might like that because the game can quite significantly change from version to version, there is always the possibility to access earlier builds of the game if you want that old system you like.

Finally, as if it couldn't have gotten any better, there is a wide variety of mods from superficial cosmetic changes to complete overhauls.

In conclusion, Unless you hate space, Stellaris has something for everybody.

A spiritual successor to the SWAT game series, Ready or not continues where SWAT 4 left off. While it took a little bit getting used to the controls and mechanics, since there are differences in procedure between the games, overall the experience is comparable. Notably there are better graphics and modern weapons.

I found the experience quite brutal compared to SWAT 4. It took me at least 8 tries to finish the drug apartment mission, simply because despite wearing heavy armour, you are dead within the blink of an eye. It also seems that there is only one tactic - carefully mirroring every single door because it could be trapped or you could be killed if you didn't throw a stinger/flashbang in there. And even then, while the AI throws the grenades better than in SWAT 4, they are still extremely wonky and easily get themselves killed.

On top of that, non-lethal options seem to only work on targets that aren't hostile, but haven't surrendered yet. I expect that if I shoot an unarmoured enemy 3 times with a non-lethal shotgun, that he at least shows signs of pain if not simply surrendering. The pepper gun seems to be not implemented yet, since there is no effect on anybody.

I have only played in singleplayer for now.

I understand that the game is early access and also just launched into it. I've been following the development of this game for at least 3 years. I was excited about someone picking up where SWAT left off. For now, I am not convinced. I think there is potential, but it still requires a lot of work.

!!!SOME SPOILERS!!!

I found the game a bit disappointing. For being story driven, the story felt very disconnected between investigation what happened to Sam and AL-AN's requests. Furthermore, there was so little guidance to Sam's story in terms of what to do when, that i ended up discovering everything in the wrongest possible order. We also never find out what happened to the rest of the alterran crew.
With that out of the way, i found the new biomes very beautifully done. The fauna and flora was intriguing and nice to look at. I would have preferred more leviathan class creatures though. One thing i disliked about the level design was some of the equipment pieces. While in most cases you'd find new equipment in logical places, e.g. close to an alterra outpost of some dimensions, the grappling arm & rorpedo arm have no legitimate reason to be in the crystal caverns. There is no alterra base there from where they could have come.
It was still enjoyable enough that I think I can recommend it.
5/10

I have to say i am very disappointed with this DLC. The quests added have garbage rewards. If you thirst for a little bit more story/lore, maybe this is for me. But from a gameplay standpoint, this DLC offers absolutely nothing.

I was very skeptical the first time I looked at this game. It looked like it was "just another colony builder". I was so wrong. Let me explain:

Have you ever played the Sims? If so, you know the joys of having a number of people to command around. Rimworld is no different. But in addition, it has survival aspects, spicing up the game by a fair bit. On top of that, you will have to manage an economy with your pawns in order to survive, which brings in elements from economy games like Anno. Then you throw in the randomness of events that can mean colony wipe or that very item you really needed in this very minute. All in all i think Rimworld is a mix of very different game types and it blends surprisingly well. The built-in and encouraged mod support will make Rimworld run for years after its popularity decreases.

To sum up, if you ever wanted your sims to run a drug ring, take prisoners, sell livers, hearts and other organs of said prisoners and subsequently sell those prisoners, while at the same time balancing your economy around cannibalism, vegetables and game, building monumental bases... then this game is for you.

Green Hell is a masterpiece of survival simulation appealing on a lot of levels. The mechanics are brutal like a real life jungle experience probably is. It doesn't rely on any kind of supernatural elements to make the game hard - that comes from nature alone. While crafting is simplified for the sake of a fun game activity, the sheer variety of crafting possibilities are stunning. The game also appeals to people who like base-building, since (if you want) this is also an essential aspect of the game.

Along with the sandbox mode, there is a story mode with a captivating narrative. Not only that, but you can enjoy both the sandbox as well as the story mode in multiplayer with friends.

I have watched a lot of playthroughs on youtube about phasmophobia and it is very interesting and entertaining to watch others play, laugh when they die in funny situations, get scared alongside them and feel the unease in the situation.
Playing yourself is the same experience, but amplified. Your heart is sure to pound when you hear a sudden breath in your ears, even if you totally intended to get a ghost's feedback. Whether you play with friends or alone, Phasmophobia is an excellent game. The entertainment value is in my eyes only limited by the number of available maps.
The graphics are okay, people look a bit weird. Some interactions look silly (bending over or looking up), but what matters most: It feels very real. Though I would probably be sprinting away from a ghost, crash my head against a wall and die in this fashion.

All in all: Would totally recommend to anyone. You don't even need to be a fan of horror games (I can play this, but not F.E.A.R.)

Attention: biased. I love all things space and Mars especially. You have been warned.

Surviving Mars, where do I begin? I saw a youtuber playing SM with the International Mars Mission and because this is practically sandbox mode, I got a quick grasp on how things were done. Since it looked really polished, interesting and definitely like something I'd enjoy, I bought it. And I haven't regretted anything.

Surviving Mars puts you into the shoes of a planet-mayor, so to speak. You choose from a variety of mission sponsors (half of them rather boring or way too easy) and a commander profile, all of which very interesting and diverse. Other games would probably call that the faction setup. Since I love religion in space games (don't even ask why), I went for my first game with the Church of the new Ark and tried what I would do in any economy sim: become self sufficient. I knew in theory how to do that but compared to the IMM i saw on the youtuber's playthrough, the church doesn't really have many options. I failed a couple of times but in that period I learned how I need to progress and eventually made it.

I love the challenge the game offers if you play on one of the hardest sponsors and with serious disasters. You really question every move, turn over every penny and carefully consider whether you can possibly afford that building in the next 10 sols.

Since the game has a rather big variety of maps, a quite big possible combination of mission sponsors and commander profile and on top of that various game modifiers and mods that you could enable, SM offers a lot of replayability. The bigger challenge factor lessens in effect the more proficient you become as a mayor, but overally, you will always face unknown obstacles of some kind or another.

Green Mars is a worthy addition to the game, allowing you to turn the planet green, habitable and breathable (duh). It is a big investment but definitely worth it in the end, especially in zones with lots of natural disasters (they get reduced and eventually removed). Not every game is suited to make the planet easily habitable, but it can also always be your end goal in a series since SM doesn't really offer you an end game goal.

I think the graphics are quite nice and the attention to detail is definitely worth it. Most of the time you are too worried that something goes wrong though, so sometimes I forget how good SM is to look at. The game has pretty intuitive functions except maybe for some keybindings for rotation items or camera or changing the skin of a building.

All in all a very solid addition to my steam library.