Recent reviews by Mocker

Endless Legend is an extremely polished 4X game with some cool mechanics, a slick interface, and beautiful music/graphics. It takes the classic Civilization formula, refines and streamlines certain mechanics for improved gameplay, blends in some lite RPG elements like quests and gear upgrades, and adds sci-fi/fantasy lore for flavor.

There are only seven factions in the base game but each has unique qualities that alter how they play fairly drastically. For example, the Necrophages can convert vanquished enemies into drones to bolster their armies, and the Broken Lords consume dust (the game’s monetary resource) instead of food.

Endless Legend tweaks the classic Civ system with a number of refinements, improvements, and new mechanics, like units that combine into easily maneuverable armies, a map carved into territories which only allow one city each, seasons that impact production and movement, and so forth. Where Civ often gets bogged down in micromanagement for larger empires in the late game, Endless Legend’s various refinements help keep things moving a little more smoothly.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about Endless Legend is its overall polish. Anchored by an elegant and intuitive interface that gives you quick access to all features and info, the game has a great feel and every aspect of it plays extremely well. The lush musical soundtrack by FlybyNo ties everything together with a beautiful and at times haunting assortment of orchestral strings and vocals.

The base game is entirely satisfying without any expansions. Each of the DLCs adds something but at this point none are truly essential, it isn’t like recent entries in the Civ series where the base games feel unfinished without the big expansions... Here, the base game gives you a fun and balanced experience with more than enough to keep you busy, then you can look at the DLCs if you feel like adding a couple of extra features on top. The developers have also been fairly active through the game’s first year and a half with patches providing minor improvements, tweaks, and fixes for the base game.

Like all great 4X games, Endless Legend will keep you hooked for “one more turn” as the hours drift away and the day turns to night and back to day again. Highly recommended for 4X fans who are looking for a cool new take on the classic Civ style game.

This is an intimidating game. You need to run up walls, make all kinds of insane jumps, and otherwise assert your dominance over gravity while avoiding/destroying a multitude of enemy drones, laser turrets, and other hostiles. Each stage opens by slowly scrolling over the length of the map, giving you a nice view of all the ridiculous obstacles that are lined up to crush your soul. If you listen really closely, you can almost hear the game smack-talking you.

Fortunately, once you get into it, the game isn’t quite as ludicrously impossible as it looks. You run, you jump, you boost, and you shoot, that’s all there is to it and the controls handle about as smoothly as one could hope given the angles and acrobatics involved. The initial tutorial level somehow makes it all seem reasonably sane and manageable before turning you loose on an increasingly difficult series of challenges. After putting in nine hours I’ve cleared several stages with solid D grades, and I even managed a couple of Cs and Bs, all despite the game constantly reminding me just how badly I suck.

All that crazy running, jumping, boosting, and shooting actually plays pretty well and it makes for a fun game. The subtly cross-hatched pastel graphics are well suited to the surreal course architecture and the sound/music also helps set the scene. There’s a bit of a story with a bit of voice acting, just enough to give the game some context without getting it bogged down in disruptions or distractions.

Neat game. Don’t let it scare you off.

This is a fantastic old school dungeon crawler RPG with a style similar to the original Wizardry, Bard's Tale, and Alternate Reality games. While the graphics may be simple, the game benefits from a truly striking design aesthetic which turns its limited color palette into an advantage.

The various characters offer a nice variety of strategic options and gameplay is fun throughout without ever growing stale or tedious. At the current price of $5, I'd say it's an absolute bargain.

This is without question the finest European truck simulator I have ever played. While many aspects of the game are quite well realized, I've found that it is particularly strong in the areas of trucking and Europe.

Highly recommended for anyone who has an interest in driving a truck across Europe, and even more highly recommended for anyone who doesn't.