Recent reviews by AlconburyBlues

Interesting and cute idler.

Tutorial needs to slow down a bit in the beginning, and the tutorial arrows are in the wrong places at times. For example, when it told me to equip the shield, I was simply following the arrow that told me to (accidentally) recycle (trash) equipment instead. So the shield I didn't even know I had disappeared.

So I wanted to start over, but no button in settings to hard reset the game. Seems you can only exit, and re-launch the game to start new.

Tutorial doesn't reset completely when starting new. I had to exit and relaunch 3 times for the tutorial to start from the beginning.

Now that I'm playing it and figured most everything out, I only have one complaint. No sound effects for the killings. Only interface sounds, and the boring music which I always turn off. Add some sound effects to the fighting and this would be very fun keeper of a game.

Very addictive and well planned. Only problem I've run into, is that you can't buy shop items in the Steam version. If you click purchase on any real money items, it goes nowhere. But I've figured a temporary workaround.....

1) Go to Options and Link Account with an email.
2) Save & Exit.
3) Install and launch the mobile version on your phone or tablet. (I know they have an iPhone version, not sure about Android.)
4) Now that you have an account and a save, do the same as Step 1 on the mobile app, making sure you use the same email and password. It will connect to your Steam save.
(If everything worked you should see the same game progress on the mobile app.)
5) Go to the Shop and purchase whatever you wanted.
6) Save & Exit.
7) Go back to the Steam version, and you should see your purchases when the game loads.

Until they fix Shop purchases on Steam, this is the only way to do it. I would think that would be pretty important to them if they want to make any money from this game.

The Enhanced Edition is not balanced against AI. At the Easy level, AI destroyed 2 of my cities in 20 turns, while I was only trying to build up my cities, and haven't even got one shot off. Tried against only 1 AI opponent, as well as a full field of AI opponents. All set to Easy.

Also, with the graphics set to Max or Minimum, Vsync on or off, etc. (tested everything) you get this really bad graphics artefact that look like TV static across the middle of the solar system. This is on a top line gaming rig that I put together last year.

Bogus.

SGWC(1) was somewhat enjoyable at first. It's like a mashup of Sniper Elite and parts of Far Cry Blood Dragon in a way. But after playing thru it, I started discovering it's major flaws. I would not waste my time playing thru it again. The controls are poorly planned out, and are sometimes unresponsive.

-- I'll start with the most annoying thing. You CANNOT adjust your position via the movement keys while in scope view.

You can change your stance, but you absolutely cannot move left/right (or forward/back) to adjust your shot. That's just dumb. If you need to adjust for objects in between you and the target, you can't. You would have to leave scope view, adjust without being able to see, then go back into scope view to see if you adjusted enough. By the time you get the right positioning, the target has moved on. Major fail on that one devs.

-- Picking up a body and melee are the same control. (and the game does not prioritise melee over picking up.)

So if you are sneaking up on someone that was hiding, and his dead buddies are around him, your character would rather pick up a nearby body, getting spotted by the target you were trying to sneak up on in the process, and you're dead because you can't use your weapons while holding a body, This one just made me shake my head. It's so stupid.

-- The challenges are set up in a way that forces you to do multiple playthroughs.

Meaning, some of the challenges contradict each other. No need for examples. I'm pretty sure you know what I mean.

-- Some seriously bad hitboxes on the final map/mission. (The one the devs should have put the most time into.)

I lost count of the number of times I had a perfect shot, especially someone standing in the open, and my shot would be deflected off of an invisible hitbox from an object 3 feet away. I got so frustrated with the last mission, I didn't even worry about the challenges.

All I can say in conclusion is that I hope SGWC2 is way better than this. The SGW series is, after all, the same game as Sniper Elite. (same menu format, same interface, same HUD/interface sounds offset in tone, etc.) i.e. SGWC is based off of SE3, although I enjoyed SE3 immensely. And supposedly SGWC2 is based off of SE4. We'll see.

Very confusing format. Unlike the others in the AC series, where the main story missions are clear and easy to tell apart from the "unnecessary" or "optional" side missions, AC:S missions don't seem to lead you anywhere. You get to Sequence 4 where Jacob and Evie have their differences. But then there's no path to follow after that.

There's a bunch of missions all over the map, none of which seem to be associated with the main story. You can roam the map for hours on end, switching between to two protagonists, and still not figure out what to do next. I've completed every mission on the map with every "Associate" that you need to gain loyalty with, but I'm still in Sequence 4.

Also, I have yet to see the present day characters "pull you back" from your time travels to talk to you about how you're doing either, as is the case with the other AC games.

Most of the Associate missions are severely buggy. You can do exactly what the mission tells you to do, including the usual tasks that give you extra credit. But 90% of the time, you won't get credit for one thing or another even if you accomplished every task with incredible ease.

There an Assassination Target map in your hideout train, but it serves no purpose other than to tell you what Sequence you're in.

I've given up on trying to figure it out, and went on to collect all the collectables on the map. But now that's even finished, and nothing left to do on the map, and STILL in sequence 4.

I was really hoping for this one to be a winner, mostly because of my British heritage and my fascination with the 19th century Industrial Revolution era (where the concept of Steampunk came from). But it's time to move on.

Oh and BTW, I did all of the things I've listed in only 32 hrs gameplay in about a week's time. Unlike AC Unity, Rogue, Black Flag, etc. that took about a month or more (each) to accomplish the same amount of tasks.

Moving on to Origins and Odyssey. I hope they'll be worth the hype they were given. This one certainly was not.

I bought this game years ago as a bundle. i.e. All DLCs and the Templar Legacy pack.

It's evident all the other DLCs are active (increasing storage, bonus outfits and ship addons), but the Templar bonus missions are not there. i.e. The Armor of Sir Gunn Quest, and The Siege of Fort de Sable.

I checked in the properties to see if there is a CDkey I have to activate, because Ubisoft Connect says it needs one when you go into Additional Content in the game menu. But there's no key to enter.

It's almost as if I got "part" of the DLC, but not the whole thing. I'm guessing the game is so old that Ubisoft doesn't activate everything anymore. Weird.

Apparently I wasted some money on this one. Very linear and directed. And graphics from the late 90's, early 00's. Not something you would expect from 2013. As far as the "directed" linear format, I found that you can sometimes ignore you're orders and just start shooting. But the game only gives you this opportunity about 10-15% of the time. Most of the time your movement and camera controls are restricted. This game felt more like playing a sniper version of the earliest Tomb Raider games.

I launched it once. But after realising how complex it seemed, I decided I would start it again when I had more time. BIG mistake! No way to reset game and start over. No basic instructions (maybe because I closed the game the first time, IDK). I have no idea what's going on here. It said I have a billion shadow clones from the game I couldn't reset, but won't tell me what they're for. This is stupid.

Edit in response to Dev: Maybe I embellished the exact number a bit. My apologies.
But the number was quite high in "multiple digit land". My review was out of frustration. I have no doubt that it must be something good for all the positive reviews. But I didn't get that first impression with your game.

I basically remember when I first launched it, I felt strongly overwhelmed with all that was going on, without me even triggering anything from the start. (It was counting up so fast, I was like "WTH, what am I supposed to do now?" So I closed it right away and decided to come back to it when I could. But that wasn't for a month or so.

So I relaunched it, and it showed Shadow Clones WAY up there. I tried to give it a second shot at trying to figure things out, but there didn't seem to be any guidance. (I assumed that maybe I killed whatever tutorial there was by shutting the game down prematurely the first time.) I also tried to find settings to try over again from the beginning, but couldn't find anything.

Maybe if there was some kind of backstory, or explanation as to what-does-what, I would've spent more time with it. But there didn't seem to be any of that. So I gave up again and uninstalled it.

I would definitely give it a 3rd try if there was something to make it less confusing, and tell me what I looking at.

If you ever built models as a kid, you will like this one. (Along with the other ...Mechanic Simulator titles from Playway.) There are a few quirks that take some getting used to. But they are so minimal, that after a few hours you won't notice them anymore. It does eliminate some of the hassles associated with the Car Mechanic series, so that you can have fun faster without getting bored easily. Cars are cars, but tanks are TANKS!

I do believe some adjustment needed to be made when earning points towards skill upgrades. It's not a grind at all. Quite far from it. You definitely unlock all the skills after only 5 or 6 jobs. Way too easy. But at the same time, maybe you do want to get those out of the way early. Because then the world opens up and you are able to do so many things.

The amount of tanks in the game is substantial, and growing I hear, and they are all quite historical. No fake tank names for something that resembles the real thing. Still haven't pinned down the scope of what eras are covered yet though. So far I've only been seeing tanks from WWI or WWII. As well as some armoured cars and other vehicles. Would be nice to see some Cold War or Modern era tanks, like the Russian T-72, the American M103A2, the Vietnam era M551 Sheridan, the M48 Patton, the M60A1, the M1 Abrams, the Leopard 2, the Challenger 2, the Type 99, and maybe even some mobile artillery models..... (you get the point)

This game does use the workshop. So far it's only filled with different camos and decals, so that once you start getting tanks of your own, you can decorate them to your liking. I would like to see it expanded a bit more to actually include tank addons like the ones I mentioned above. (Similar to Car Mechanic Simulator 2018/2021 where you can add and work on cars that are not part of the game)

You get a Museum to showcase your favourites. An enormous Warehouse that you can upgrade to 100 levels! (You can own at least one of every tank in the game, and still have tons of room for more.) A Proving Ground that you can actually play with the tanks in. Lots and lots to do. I haven't even gotten around to everything yet.

Overall, I would definitely say this game is a keeper. It gets my 2 thumbs up! Keep it coming!

I thought this would be great for beginners, or someone familiar with the fishing basics but doesn't get all technical nerdy about it. This is NOT the game for that.

No tutorial at all, none for fishing fundamentals, none for gameplay, and certainly none for the interface. It just throws you into the menu and you have to figure it all out.

I can already tell this is a very highly technical fishing sim, only for those seasoned fishing veterans that are already familiar with how crazy detailed fishing can get. I spent 30 minutes in the interface trying to figure it out. Had no clue about tackle or lures or which rods to use. I gave up before I even got to start a basic fishing trip for the casual learner. It's just way too complex.

Edit for the response: It's funny because I was being honest? I'm SOOO sorry that I don't know enough about technical fishing to play this game. May the game gods strike me down now. SMH