This War of Mine Review

This War of Mine is a game whose sole purpose is to have you survive a war zone. And unlike most war games, it puts you on the shoes of a civilian in midst of one of the worst situations you can be at.

Scavenging night trip.

The game itself is very simple. You can only move around your house/shelter or whichever location you happen to be visiting, and interact with objects. Your interactions are either by picking them up, inspecting containers or crafting something, like when you make beds for your own shelter. That said, it does have a combat system where you can injure people. Using your fists, a weapon or shooting at others, it is a very simple strike system. Once you get close enough to your target, you can interact with them to attack. Do not forget, you are a civilian here, not a battle hardened soldier. On top of it there is the occasional "event" system that will throw you some unexpected situation for you to deal with. From a simple life saver "we saw you needed help, take some food!", to the more dramatic "give us what we want or you will be sorry" kind of thing.

Good neighbor saving us!

Progression is equally simple: For every day you stay alive, you get to be one day closer to surviving the war. You can also improve your shelter if you find sufficient resources to do so, further increasing your chances of survival. Wood and general materials are the most common things you'll come across, yet very important resources to manage. Like everything else in this game, it is all about never having enough of what you need. Sounds tough? There is more!

Trading screen.

You can trade everything and anything you can carry in your inventory. But the situation is not rough just for you, everyone is in this together. No one is looking to give you a good deal. And some people might plain reject what you have to offer! On the other hand, if you know what someone else needs, they will pay extra for what they are looking for, themselves.

On top of all that, this game has no tutorial. There are no "help, how do I do this?" menus. And that only strengthens the deep feeling of hopelessness that you find yourself into. Did something and now you regret? Well, too bad! That is life, you gotta live with it! This War of Mine succeeds where so many other titles failed: It forces you into a complex situation where you need to show your true colors. It makes you take a deep breath and consider deeply the possible consequences of your actions. And there are no indicators, no counters, no User Interface telling you what is best or what is happening after. It makes your choices meaningful and important. It makes you cry for being helpless, for being unable to fend for yourself and your loved ones. And it does all that with a mean smile while telling you it was not your fault, but you are here, now, and you need to survive.
On top of a beautiful soundtrack This War of Mine is a unique experience that can truly open your eyes and help you sympathize with people in tough situations. It can also help you find that humanity in you that might have been lost in midst of brainless shooters. But to get there, you will need to get through it first. While we truly highly recommend this game, use your best judgment for when is the best time for you to play it.

Good luck, survivor!

PS: With much hardship we managed to survive without hurting others. By the end of our play we had no water, no food and barely anything left to trade. But we did it! But not everyone made it... So is the cost of disease when there is no access to help.

Cadence Change

Dear gamers and readers,

It is with a heavy heart that I come today without a review to publish. For the past four years I have managed to deliver over 60 game reviews and never faltered on my initial promise. No less than one game a month, played to the very end. The few times I did not "finished" a game was when I, as a player, was incapable of beating the ridiculous difficulty of some titles. Which is also a problem I am currently facing with This War of Mine, but I am sticking with it until I make it! Because that game is awesome, and I want to make through that war!

But that is not the only issue preventing me from making the review. The main issue is time! That ephemeral thing we all receive plenty and free of charge, every day, without really thinking about it. Currently going through some life changes including a second career change is directly eating my dedicated gaming time. Just like Maslow Pyramid of Needs, before we can play, we have to eat and survive. On the bright side, this will allow me to tackle huge deep titles like Dragon Age, Divinity, The Witcher and so on. And as I go professionally into Web Development I am hoping to revolutionize the blog with a more modern and interactive look! That is something I have been looking forward to, for quite some time now. =)

So I am officially breaking the cadence of reviews from "at least once a month" to "When I Can". The review structure is not changing, just how often they will be published. Thank you for reading this far, your interest in this work is greatly appreciated!

May the Eye see you,
Diego "Wolf Fivousix"

The Sims 4 Review

The Sims 4 is a simulation game that you enjoy creating and controlling people in a virtual world with no rules. Build their personalities, their homes, their experiences and their digital lives as you want.  

Getting back from work to pay the bills...

The game itself plays from a third person perspective. You select which Sim (person) you want to control, and then click on objects and choose the interaction. For example, clicking on a book to read, on a stove to cook, on a computer to play some games. If the object is another Sim, then the interaction will get a response. If you are mean to someone, they will be mean back. If you are funny, they might laugh. If you are trying to be romantic, but haven't build up to it, you will probably get rejected. To spice things up a little, every Sim has six necessities (bladder, hunger, energy, fun, social and hygiene) that you need to satisfy, otherwise they might die. On top of that they also have moods. Just finished a work-out? They will feel confident! Are they starving without food for days? They will be angry! Haven't seen a living soul for a while? They will probably be very, very sad!

Progression for a game like this is a bit tricky, as it depends a lot on what your own goal is. Maybe you want to achieve the highest point in a career track. Maybe you want to accumulate wealth. Maybe you want to build a huge mansion. Maybe you just want to survive another day. Or maybe you just want to live in peace growing a family as generations goes by. To mention some of the most common. Regardless, the true progression from a simulation game like The Sims is making your own story unfold.

House Renovation Time!

In order to make all of this possible, you need a place to live. The house construction tool have come a long way, just like the game itself, since The Sims 1. The menus are very visual and quick to navigate. Modifying or building a house has never been so easy. You can now even drag the whole house around! Increase room sizes, turn single rooms around, among many other convenient features.

The Sims 4 is a very stimulating game. The character creation allows for a deep customization of each individual. The game gallery allows you to share and use other peoples creations, if you feel like the need for a quick addition. You can also dabble in a plethora of community mods that can enhance your game in more ways than we can talk about here. On top of all that, there are so, so many little secrets all around the game that there is no way we are spoiling the surprises for you. Our favorite part in all of it? It is not a game about violence, but about life.

Happy living!

Endless Legend Review

Endless Legend is a 4X Strategy game. The term is a short for "eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate". In plain English, it means it is a strategy game where your goal is to dominate something and everything. Be it through force, through resources or through sheer numbers.

Combat view

Gameplay is quite simple. There are two major management focus: City and Army. In your cities you will allocate your population into different structures in order to increase/decrease production of a resource. Be it science, food, troops, or even the city expansion itself. For army units you will move them through the world exploring the environment. In case of combat, you have the option to decide individually about what each unit will do in a turn based environment or just let the computer simulate the battle in an instant. Once the turn ends, you repeat until someone wins the game. If you have more than one city and one army, you just do the same process to each of them.

Science progress.

Throughout the game you can expand your empire by building new cities, research new science that will give you "world wide" bonuses, destroy or conquer enemies through military power, explore the map, trade goods and the list just keeps going. There are basically six main progression systems in the world and each can give you the victory if advanced enough. City, Army, Science, Quests, Politics and Commerce.

Strategic resources Market

Just like the real world, a lot of importance is given to the currency and all systems connects to it. The more money an empire have the more access it has to other resources, effectively converting money into power. Lacking a specific resource? Buy it! Too much of something? Sell it! Small, but rich empire? Make your units so strong through financial means that they will rival the mightiest army out there! A savvy trader can be a deadly force in the game, by understanding other empires needs and anticipating enemy moves, one can effectively lock the goods into a price so high or so low that they will have no choice but to bend to your will. Starving an army or a whole empire is as effective as bleeding it!

Unit equipment screen

We have just started describing Endless Legend here in order to keep our post manageable. There are so much depth and interconnecting mechanics in this game that we could make a whole series on it! From the nuance of hero choice, the peculiarities of each race, the consequences of boosters optimization to the smooth population system and city development. Endless Legend is a very daunting game with a steep learning curve and pages and pages FULL of information to process at once. Fortunately just knowing how to build a city and battle units is plenty to enjoy the game. Both of which are taught in the tutorial. 

The empire grows!

Our favorite aspect of the game is that every little detail that you learn how to master gives you an advantage all around. For example: Learning how to better expand your cities to use the land resources will give you more resources to use. Learning how to better equip your units will make your army stronger. Learning strengths and weaknesses of other races will make you more efficient against them. And so on. There is no optimal strategy in the game. The more you learn about its connected systems, the more you will understand that every scenario, every enemy, every play will be different with different factors to consider under different circumstances. All that with beautiful eye catching graphics, delightful music and rich possibilities.

May Auriga favor you!

Book of Demons Review

Book of Demons is a deck-building hack and slash adventure game. In plain English, is a game where you will obliterate hundreds of weaker enemies with your mighty power provided by cards. Your goal is to slay the Archdemon and save the world.

Things seem quiet enough...

Gameplay is quite simple. You move through a set path in the dungeon and activate up to ten equipped cards. Despite the simple controls, the game can get quite complex when you layer multiple opponents with different skills. That is one of the things we really liked about this game, it is not hard to play, yet it offers a significant challenge if you wish. (Easy mode is always there for simple Hack & Slash.)

Leveling up a common card.

Progression in the game happens in three concurrent ways. As you progress through the floors, you will get closer and closer to the Archdemon and your final battle. As you explore the dungeon you will find cards with powers that you can equip. You can find multiple copies of the same card, with slight additions depending on the rarity (common, magical and legendary). Third and last is your own level. The more creatures you slay the more experience you rack up. Every time you level up you get 1 point to distribute either in health or mana. Attribute points also drop as loot in the dungeon itself, making leveling up not the main source of attributes.

Cauldron sample.

As you dive deeper in the dungeon and slay many demons, you will acquire riches. Such wealth can be used to upgrade cards and buy the contents of the Cauldron. It holds extra loot from your pillaging and one attribute point opposite to the one you choose when leveling up. Basically the same stuff you find in the dungeon, but in one big pot of boiling goodness.

Book of Demons is a very enjoyable game. The paper theme is superb, with great visual effects, amazing soundtrack and an overall lighthearted theme. If you played Diablo I you will catch some funny references. On top of that, the developers did brilliantly in adapting controller support in-game. Specially the Steam Controller. Last but not least, the game has a splendid mechanic called "Flexiscope", which allows you to change the length of your play session.

Good hunt, adventurer!

Flexiscope in action.