Recent reviews by Enderoe

I really have a hard time reviewing this demo.
It is kinda buggy but for sure playable, even somewhat enjoyable. You can see devs put a lot of work into the game - GFX, sound design, mechanics etc.
But I just can't get over few things like:
1. Graphics - way way too mobile'y... Game just feels "not serious" enough. Music saves it tho.
2. UI - atrocious. This combined with mobile like style just makes things unreadable or hard to get to. Definitely needs a lot of work.
3. some new mechanics, never seen before in franchise, like:
- artifacts - dust, upgrading, lots of bad, dull items - Why change something that was working?
- upgrading spells? WHY? Also why there is so many spells, most of them being useless? It's unnecessery bloat. Fewer spells, but actually spells that matter.
TBH I see the reasoning behind those changes - fixes having too many arts in late game by granting a way to turn bad arts into resource which can be used to buy spells (which reduces RNG in guild) but overall I think there are better ways to achieve that. I don't think meddling with resource system is the way.
- Law system - I'm torn on this one. I half like it, half hate it. I feel like a little bit of rebalancing and giving us the ability to disable it would be welcome. Also allow us to queue laws.
- way too many creature abilities - msg to devs: there is no need for every creature to have +2 special perks/abilities. Having some more generic creatures is fine. Low tiers can be a little bit more dull, not every upgrade has to be so strong and vital.

What I love here - native support for templates, zones, game modes (Arena, 1 hero, normal).
Hope multiplayer will be stable. Please fix UI and readability.
Give some thought how law and dust systems change the game. Are they that important? Should they be that impactful and vital?

As much as it saddens me, I don't think Olden Era will surpass H3 but I wish good luck, hope I wrong :)
I give it thumbs up because I appreciate the work and a lot of is done. After all it plays like a Heroes game and for now we can turn a blind eye for some things. But I really wanted to give it negative review at the beginning - I had to convince myself it doesn't deserve one.

To put it simple - It's a strategy deckbuilder roguelite with tetris mechanics. If you like games such as Slay the Spire, Across the Obelisk, Balatro, Into the Breach and you don't mind some tetrising, it's good enough game to buy and try it out for yourself. It's not expensive.
GFX and SFX are cartoony, they remind me of Across the Obelisk, maybe The Bazaar.
I didn't encounter any bugs yet but frankly speaking, don't expect them, game isn't complicated.

Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales offers a solid single-player adventure that incorporates Gwent's card game mechanics into its combat system. The story is engaging, especially for fans of The Witcher universe, though it's not necessary to have prior knowledge of the series. The game takes place long before the events of the first Witcher game, telling a tale parallel to one of the stories in the books, which provides valuable context to events in the Witcher games.

As you explore the map with your "army," you'll engage in a variety of combat encounters, meet a various NPCs who may join your party and gather resources to upgrade your camp, which grants useful bonuses as you progress. The puzzles can be challenging on the hardest difficulty, but they’re fairly accessible on normal, even for those who are unfamiliar with Gwent or digital card games.

Overall, Thronebreaker is a well-rounded game that should offer around 30 hours of fun, especially if you’re aiming to complete the main story and most side quests on a higher difficulty. If you're seeking a story-driven adventure with puzzle-solving, strategy, and RPG elements, this game is definitely worth a try. It’s a good idea to wait for a sale of 30% or more for the best value.

An excellent blend of stealth and RPG elements set in a sci-fi world, Prey is a narrative masterpiece. The game excels at building suspense as you progress through its story. The world, set on a massive space station, evolves as you delve deeper into the narrative, evoking memories of Bioshock, but in space. With the freedom to explore the station, it offers an open-world feel, though the hostile environment also makes it a survival experience.

The mechanics are solid, the VFX hold their own, and it combines elements of Dishonored, Half-Life, and survival with open-world aspects. All of this is enhanced by a well-written, engaging story filled with moral choices and plot twists that are sure to surprise anyone.

Definitely worth trying out :)

As a dedicated Paradox fan with thousands of hours in Europa Universalis 4, Hearts of Iron 4, Crusader Kings 3, Stellaris, and of course Victoria 2, I cannot recommend Victoria 3 at this point.

The main gameplay loop quickly becomes repetitive after a few campaigns. Each country feels almost identical to play, and every run involves doing the same things: building the same structures, enacting the same laws, and managing the same groups etc.

Additionally, there are numerous oversights like persistent wars, an awkward war and peace system, illogical mechanics, and a UI that often misleads the player.

While the game has impressive graphics, great visual and sound effects, DLCs, and plenty of content, these elements won’t improve the core gameplay loop. It’s a fundamental flaw that seems difficult to fix.

I sincerely hope I’m wrong, and that Paradox can address these issues, but for now, I can't recommend the game. Maybe try it during a big sale—it’s not a bad game, and there’s some fun to be had, but the replayability, which I consider key in grand strategy games, is quite low.

As a dedicated fan of Spellforce 1 and 2, as well as a long-time RPG/RTS player, I found my time with Spellforce 3 enjoyable. The graphics, optimization, story, and world design are solid, but none of these elements stand out as extraordinary. It's a well-crafted game, but not a truly great one.

What I enjoyed most was the story. The RPG and RTS aspects, however, didn’t particularly impress me. For most players, Spellforce 3 offers a solid 40-60 hours of single-player campaign content. While you can find other games with better strategy mechanics, deeper RPG elements, more compelling stories, or richer world-building, Spellforce 3 offers a decent mix of all these aspects.

Many have tried to recreate the success of Slay the Spire, and while some have come close, the original roguelike deckbuilder will always sit at the top. A game that single-handedly creates a genre deserves serious recognition.

It’s easy to pick up but incredibly hard to master.
What may seem like a simple choice often leads to regret later on, showing the depth and complexity beneath its straightforward design.

If you have even a passing interest in card games or roguelikes, Slay the Spire is an absolute must-have!

I’m genuinely impressed with how, in today’s gaming climate, WARHORSE Studios managed to release a fully fleshed-out game—complete with no paywalled content, minimal bugs, excellent optimization, fantastic voice acting, and a solid story. For that, I’m truly grateful.

Honestly, it's reignited my faith in the gaming industry and rekindled my passion for games and the stories they tell. It reminded me of simpler times when you’d just want to lose yourself in a game. A game where you can truly immerse yourself and lose track of time until you’ve finished it.

As a sequel, this game does everything its predecessor set out to do—but better. It improves upon the formula in almost every way: with better and more intuitive mechanics, simplier combat, more engaging and immersive world-building.

That said, there are a couple of minor points to note:
- The pacing could use a little refinement. Early on, you struggle against even peasants, but with some leveling up, you can easily take on multiple well-equipped enemies, which makes combat feel a bit trivial as the game progresses.
- Occasionally, the AI glitches and NPCs behave strangely.
- There are minor graphical bugs—specifically, NPCs sometimes T-pose after being killed instead of ragdolling, which breaks immersion.

Despite these minor inconveniences, everything else holds true. It’s an easy 9/10, maybe even a 9.5/10. If you enjoy story-driven or open-world RPGs, this one is definitely worth your time and money.
It’s 100% GOTY material.

It's a great adventure game with elements of stealth. Everything is done in such a movielike style. You can feel developers really took first indiana jones movies really seriously and got a lot of inspirations. Puzzles aren't very simple but simple enough for most people to get through. Stealth is mostly fine - few places could be a little bit better handled It's definitely not a shooter though you grab a kar98k and shot but the model unfortunately is not that great. Melee combat is simple and solid.

It's not open world but maps are huge with plenty of sidequests and hidden secrets. On top of that they are beautiful - places are well thought out and well reflected. You feel like you are on a good action movie set.
NPCs are expressive and distinctive. Well written by developers and well played by voice actors. The world overall is immersive.

All those things together make a really great game! It shouldn't take you long- 20h for mainquest+most sidequest, 50h for every secret and collectible should be enough- but those hours will be put to a good use and you will remeber that game as definitely enjoyable experience!

If you like games like Uncharted, Dishonored, Dark Messiah, maybe some Portal, The Talos Principle - you will definitely like this game.

Game feels like Slay the spire and Darkest Dungeon had a baby that loves cartoons.

So you have 4 classes of heroes, You assemble a team of 4 heroes. Each of them has different starting cards ("skills"), possible bonuses from level ups and table of perks you assign before the game.
So already here you have a lot of possibilities.

Then you start the game which is somewhat proceduraly generated.
At the beginining of each Act you enter a city where you can spend resources to craft or upgrade cards, remove them, buy equipment.
Then you embark on your journey where you move between nodes, fight encounters and resolve events until you fight Act Boss. After killing the boss you move onto next Act and next region and so on.
On the journey you will find new cards, corrupted monsters (harder versions that grant yield better rewards) and other stuff that may help you or curse you. You fight through all the bosses or die somewhere in the middle and you go again from the start - just like in all roguelikes.

Pretty fun game, lots of experimentation, lots of builds and decisions to make.
If you are a fan of StS or DD or generally rougelites, card games and turn-based RPG strategies it's definitely worth a try.
And all of those guys crying over added launcher - for real you haven't found anything more worthwhile crying over?? It's barely noticable. It runs fast (in opposition to most paradox launchers) and doesn't run when you game.