BurningSheep

I have it on the wishlist, but I wanted to take the opportunity to mention "Tzar - Burden of the Crown", which is also an AoE-clone, but in this case by the Bulgarians of Haemimont (Surviving Mars etc.).

It's not bad (most of the time). There's a few too many levels and some of them are way too stretched out. Initially it was very difficult (on Normal) and it got easier somehow, perhaps because I adjusted or because the level design changed. Not sure. The arsenal is a bit boring, but the guns are still different enough that switching between them feels significant enough. Atmosphere is at times pretty good. Some levels are relatively expansive and the soundtrack is also often pretty good as far as I am concerned. The story goes for Hollywood and kind of succeeds during intro and outro, but otherwise it's pretty weak unfortunately. Overall good enough. Worth playing for the aspects that are done well.

I certainly didn't know about it. I only recently stumbled on it and I got interested since sexbad compared it to The Swapper and Braid. He did a review:

I have recently finished it and I'm not sure if I should recommend it. I played it on Normal for most of the time, but two of the last boss-fights were pretty extreme even on Normal. I found the soundtrack to be just good enough and overall the atmosphere was there, but didn't really impress me. Writing was good sometimes, but quite hit-and-miss overall. Same for the story-reactivity and it doesn't help that the story sometimes forces the main character into certain actions. The difficulty makes every little bit the player can get out of the equipment, crafting and skills feel rewarding, but the HP-sponges never go away and even the two-handed style doesn't do all that much damage. Overall I was mostly positive about it for most of the game, but the latter bits of the game have a lot of bosses everywhere and everything including the bosses respawns. The last few hours just were a bit miserable and the very scripted progression led to some problems for me in the last hours. Basically: You can't interact with something if it isn't there yet.

By the way, it has now been released on gog.

Yeah, I have to more or less agree unfortunately. While it's kind of explained how everybody died, the main character never really encounters anything that could logically have been responsible for everything. The few monsters I saw just didn't seem ... well they weren't exactly Necromorphs. The "everybody is dead except the hero" is bad enough, but Stasis barely tries to show how that might have happened. It's more of a stereotype than anything.

@kerdios: No, it's not a horror game. It's an atmospheric walking simulator with a lot of narration. Like Machine for Pigs perhaps, but without the horror element. @StrixLiterata: *shrugs* Well, I have no clue what you consider impressive.

I have just finished it and I would recommend it. I wasn't impressed by setting/story/dialogue, since it all seemed rather flimsy and superficial, but the environmens are often impressive and the relevant sounds and music - for a horror-game I mean - were well done. Gameplay is also nicely varied (there is a particular tool/weapon that gets introduced early, which mixes up things).

Ah, very nice that this is getting a bit of attention. I liked it very much, though I suppose the game is telling its story in a way that will have some people start screeching "pretentious". But it's also visually impressive and the soundscape is well done as well in my opinion, so it doesn't just rely on the story.

Unfortunately this one doesn't seem to be available anywhere whatsoever. Unless one counts russian "non-commercial" versions. Anyone knows a place to get an international version?

If I'm not misunderstanding you, then what you are actually talking about is Zeno Clash. And yes, it's really interesting. I especially enjoyed the second game with its beautiful and strange maps and their day-night-cycle. Wonderful game for just staring at things.

I did a playthrough with an Engineer (drones, guns etc.) maybe two years back and did rather enjoy it. Yes, the game is obviously pretty awful in some ways, but after getting over the initial shock I did mostly enjoy it. The stations are a bit of a weak point, I fear. Lifeless is what I'd call them. Most characters are not memorable at all, there is barely any narration on the factions or the world in general and the story, well... I honestly don't remember much about it. Where it works is out in the "wilds" when killing monsters and picking up loot. Especially the class-specific loot felt like it was the only thing in the game that was illustrating the factions in a way.

I recently tried playing through the Black Octopi-campaign but got stuck somewhere after the half-way point. Some issue with the mission objectives not resolving. More generally I also had a problem with not being able to scroll at a reasonable speed, but I got used to it. Why this is worth playing: - Not a lot of RTS' around that take place in an underwater setting - Nicely differentiated factions - As described by Enguzrad, some interesting mechanics (resources, depth etc.)

One of the first games I played. I still have the manual lying around: "'Even the lowliest of beasts knows order. Order is the purpose of intellect." - Imperium Ruling Director Grote Reber

A russian ARPG from 2005. The international version appeared in 2007. As far as I can tell it got a good amount of attention back when it was released, but has since been forgotten. For some reason the stand-alone expansion Dawn of Magic 2 is available on Steam while the actual base-game is not. The main reasons why this is worth playing are the art, the music and the unique spell system. You see, some of the skills and most spells can be put into the primary spell slot and can then be combined with spells that fit into the secondary slot. Many combinations that are theoretically possible do unfortunately not work or do work in an unreliable manner, but there is still a lot of potential for playing around. Other than that the story offers some replay value because during character creation the player can pick an alignment, which will change how things play out a bit. But for a more systematic and thorough take on the game, I have a write-up on the gog-forums, in case you are interested. https://www.gog.com/forum/general/dawn_of_magic_blood_magic_a_forgotten_rough_gem

It's quite long for an FPS and some of the levels suffer from bad pacing more than others. Personally I liked one of those levels on Mars later on, simply because it seemed to make sense in the context and because it seemed kind of interesting to have an FPS-level be that huge and having a good amount of down-time. Some of the other ones - especially the underwater-level - should have been shortened. The soundtrack is good and even though the levels generally don't feel like they are telling any kind of story, lighting and scale often helped to make them more enjoyable. The gameplay is often deadly, but only rarely got unreasonable in that respect (though there was that stupid turret-section right before the end...).

Now that is an interesting one. Overall not one of the better RPGs I have played, but I enjoyed the atmosphere, especially in the snowy first half. Also, both the combat system and the magic system are rather unusual. Magic use in one element always goes at the expense of all the other elements while making you more powerful/resistant in that one element. The combat system is based on a strange combo system, where certain moves (specific to weapons) are only unlocked with enough investment in the "Combo"-attribute. Many opponents are invulnerable or at least very resistant to many moves, so some experimentation is required. Unfortunately story and dialogue aren't all that good and rather flimsy when considering that the game is trying to tell an epic story. Still, whenever I hear the menu sounds or even the main menu music, it triggers some kind of fondness/nostalgia. It's one of these games where I cannot quite explain my positive feelings towards it. Still, I recommend it for being different and quite specific in how it does things. The game didn't work properly (it was very slow) for me at first, but once I changed the DirectX it suddenly worked without any issues.

To quote myself: "I recommend it if you like deathstars." I just did another attempt yesterday and it's still enjoyable. It seems like it's quite simple, but learning how much energy is needed and how to build the network and which turrets to use in which numbers, how to place them, how far to expand and how far to extend the defenses... well figuring all of that out and seeing how long you can survive, is a lot of fun.

I honestly broke off the campaign after a while. The RPG-aspect was kind of interesting, but once I decided to break it off and move on to skirmish and just focus on the RTS-side of things, I started to enjoy it a lot more. I think the faction and unit design is among the most interesting and diverese I have seen so far. My only real complaint about it is, that the Mechanicians (Dwarves) and the Cryolytes could have needed a bit more choice in terms of units. Mostly because both Elves and Undead have a lot of choice in that respect. Maybe too much. I think some of the units may be a bit redundant. Overall a lot of fun though: Almost Fantasy-"Total War" in RTS-form.

I recently played through part of the campaign and I didn't like it much either. It felt strange. Like the developer spent way too much time on the cutscenes and the general presentation, but failed to make anything about the game particularly interesting. The races and their units especially were a disappointment. That it was rather slow and a bit clunky also didn't help. "Universe at War" is by the same developer, but I have to yet try that one.

I'm just thinking about giving KKND2 another try. Mostly to create my own default factions with the unit editor and then see how that turns out. I think I'll try to stay with the lower tiers.

I completely failed at it on my first attempt, but getting a bit lucky (I think) on my second playthrough didn't die more than a few times. All in all very much recommended. Stealth and atmosphere and survival basically. The only outright bad thing I can say about it, is that it didn't feel like a game that has a lot of content. It's very reliant on it's basic systems and atmosphere, so it can start to feel repetitive rather quickly. Hence why I haven't yet replayed it.

Recommended. In terms of "completing" it though, it's a bit on the odd side. The game does provide some starter ship designs, but for the most part the player has to construct them. On my first playthrough with the default faction I cleared most of the map of enemy factions and of agents, but after a point (when the 8000P-limit is reached) there is little reason to do that. At least in my case a lot of the time was spent constructing ships. Running across the map and murdering everything becomes a bit pointless once a certain power level is reached (though one never really knows what kind of challenge the agents pose), but the feature to let the various ships fight agaisnt each other in little tournaments is quite nice to let them test their mettle against each other. When a big fleet is fighting another big fleet it can be hard to tell how effective the individual designs actually are.