Recent reviews by Emberhard

This is one of the few, if not the only game I recommend to anyone and everyone.

One of the best games I've played in years.
Pure, chill, fun, with tones of content, that always surprised me with how many more mini-games and systems there were.
Its like a game from an alternate universe where instead of the devs asking "how much money can this make us?" they were asking "how much fun can we make this?".

Isonzo successfully bridges the worlds of simulator and more traditional shooters to make a legitimately entertaining, yet historically minded first person shooter.
The movement mechanics are a bit slow paced to be perfectly aligned with my tastes, but it does keep ridiculous antics like bunny hopping at bay. The spawning, map design, and flow of battle is fast paced enough to keep the action rolling, rather than becoming tedious like other more simulator games.

Team play and the objective focused flow of battle are the two highlights of the game’s design. Teamwork is critical to success. Each class, and even each perk/loadout takes up some cog in the grand machinery (or chaos jalopy) that is your team.
The best way for you as an individual to swing the tide of battle is not necessarily to one man army the objective (because let's be honest that’s probably not going to happen).
Rather it could be the strategically placed ammo/grenade boxes outside an objective, an expertly timed gas attack, a position fortified with sandbags and barbed wire, or the perfect hidden spot for your squad to spawn on you and get a sneaky flank.

Your WW1 adventure takes place upon a dynamic front line that will move as objectives within a sector are achieved. Some objectives only have to be taken once, such as sabotaging gun emplacements, others have to be held, and can change ownership. In addition to the primary objectives there are secondary emplacements to fight over, that are not technically necessary to take a sector, but can be strategic game changers. For example a defending team could gain a significant advantage by penetrating thru attacker’s lines to sabotage their forward spawn emplacements.

Much like M2H’s previous WW1 titles, Isonzo has a bit of a learning curve.
You will die a lot.
Have patience though, soon things will start to fall into place.
You will still die a lot.
It is WW1 after all.
But you will start to take a lot more guys with you.
You will understand the flow of battle, and play objectives better.
The niches of the classes will make sense, and you will play them to their strengths.
Congratulations, you are now a functioning cog in the great war machine, and so long as it's virtual, it's pretty entertaining.

reviewing for steam awards nomination badge

I just finished this game and now I'm not entirely sure how to go back to my normal life now that its over

This is an excellent game that really deserves more attention than it's getting.
It's the only "battle royal" game that's worth playing anymore because it takes the genre and does something truly interesting with it.
There is a high learning curve though, and teamwork is critical, so it's best to have a friend to play with, or make one in game!

At first I was really enjoying this game. It sucked me in, and I could see some people enjoying the game all the way to completion.
There is a lot of content here, is it satisfying content? Well, that's where my issues begin.
This game manages to be both deep and shallow at the same time, there is a lot of complexity, but the way it is applied is a very unsatisfyingly simple grind.
It's a complex web of crafting tiers that are all interconnected, and are often dependent on each other. It turns into a grind of working your way up to a crafting teer to get slightly better, and pave the way to even more crafting tiers. It is a tried and true formula in games that can lead to a satisfying sense of accomplishment, and in this game it does at first, but it overstays it's welcome and becomes repetitive and stale.
I put this game down and never picked it up again after I received a quest that required me to get all the way to the end of a of a crafting tier I thought completely optional, and that I didn’t have an interest in pursuing because it wasn’t something I had in mind for the character I was playing. Not only that, but to get that far it also required so many tie in crafting skills and tiers. I had already gotten this far and experience told me what the journey ahead would be like. I could see it wasn’t going to be all that great along the way, and that i wasn’t going to be all that satisfied at the end. All that just to make a burger and beer.

One of the best games I have played in years.
It's the type of game that when I wasn't playing it, I was thinking about playing it.
I came for the exciting open world to explore, but was very pleasently surprised by the story, which I don't want to reaveal too much, because that is honestly part of the fun, just stumbling upon it and figuring things out.
The built in codex is very good, and I highly advise trying your best not to use outside resources, and instead experiance and explore the game yourself.

This is an excellent turn based strategy game that can not be overlooked. Having thoroughly enjoyed the first game I knew I was in for a treat gameplay wise, what caught me off guard was the fantastic visuals, soundtrack, and lore that flung me head first into the Endless universe.
What I can best describe as having your cake, and eating it too, Endless space 2 injects events, storytelling, lore, and quests into the reality you forge for your space empire. Bolstered by the excellent atmosphere of a rich space opera to enjoy your strategy game in.

There’s also a THICC, green, alien frog lady whom I’d gladly do some captain Kirk exploration with.

This game is unique in my collection for it is one of very few that I have sat down to play it one lazy weekend morning, only to suddenly realize that it’s 18 hours later and the reason I feel horrible is probably because I have not eaten all day.
10/10 would destroy my blood sugar again.