Recent reviews by GameVoid

First off - this is NOT A GAME. No puzzles, no meaningful choices, etc. It is an interactive set of short stories.

Game is very good, not perfect, a few of short tales are kinda "meh" but overall the game is at times heartbreaking, disturbing, beautiful (visually), and even humorous.

The developers deserve a lot of credit for the sheer amount of detail in the house and game environments. Hardly any 3D models with the exception of some books are reused. Every room, every chapter, is different and every frame is 90% original material. Unlike in some games, in WROEF if you see a knick-knack on a shelf in one room you won't see it on 30 other shelves around the house. Because of this, every room in the house exudes the personality and story of the person who lived in it. Very well done.

tldr;
If you liked Gone Home you will like this game.

Definitely one of those "if you like that sort of thing, you'll love it" experiences. In other words, this game is not for everyone. Anyone who has never played an old school text adventures, anyone who doesn't like (simple) audio, visual, and number puzzles and anyone who doesn't like games with dark endings should pass.

However, if you liked those things, if you like Gone Home or Her Story, then this game might be for you. It's short and there are walkthroughs available if you get stuck. If you have epilepsy or photosensitivity to flashing lights, don't play this game.

And avoid the forums at all cost in order to avoid spoilers.

Very well done sequel to Shadow of Mordor. Game is basically SoM but with just about every aspect improved. Nemesis system is more present this time even at lower difficulties. Some orcs will become very well known to you because they keep popping up all over the place ambusing you unless you finish them off once and for all and even then they sometimes return from the grave to hinder your progress.

Fortress sieges are fun, fortress defense, not so much. Castle sieges can be made a lot easier by running quests that help reduce the upgrades that a fortress has in place so you are not charging into a wall of poison or trying to batter down a solid iron door.

The story line is okay. The main quest line is short and not that impressive. I was genuinely surprised when I got the "Point of No Return" message as it seemed like there was a lot more that could be done. For instance, Game Informer magazine gave the impression that you would fight all 9 Nazgul and see cinematics of their backstories, but that is actually only true for 2 of the Nazgul.

I did not find the post-storyline "Shadow Wars" to be grindy at all.

I never used real money to purchase war chests and when I beat the storyline I had enough in-game currency to purchase more than 20 war chests if I had chosen to do so. But if you play the game normally, opening up the war chests is not even worth the time it takes to access the store.

Online Vendetta missions are entertaining and provide decent rewards. Online Conquests were not that fun for me.

Overall a good game. If you like Shadow of Mordor then you will enjoy this game.

You can't beat the amount of content for the price. Tons of maps, each map having 4 different challenge stages. Lots of humor and a decent plot as well. Even after you finish all the of the main stages then you have another huge New Game+ to work through!

I really wanted to play this game, ever since it came out a few years ago. Back then, I did not have the time. When it came out free on Steam and I was on summer break I thought I would finally get to play.

Unfortunately, no.

After downloading and patching, the game would not connect to the game servers. This went on for about 20 minutes and then resolved itself. I actually got logged in, created a character, did the tutorial. The game itself is great so far. Very colorful, vibrant, and a refreshing change of pace. I had to log out, but was eager to start playing again later that day.

Now, I cannot login again. For over an hour, the game pops up a blank taskbar. Sometimes the taskbar fills up and then mysteriously vanishes and nothing else happens. Sometimes it sits there for a few minutes and then gives me an error that the patcher cannot connect to the patch servers.

I check the boards, the NCSoft website, all servers are supposedly up.

This game was not ready for Steam. The front end, patching, and authentication system are mired in the past. Of the 70+ games I have on Steam, this is the first that will not work out of the box. I am not going to spend hours tracking down drivers, firewall settings, modifying my HOSTS file, etc. in a vain attempt to work around issues that should have been fixed 2 years ago.

Dozens of early access multiplayer games show up on Steam all the time and don't have these problems. I figured a game from a large company would be able to handle the front end UX without any problems.

While overall a good effort at an interactive narrative, the pacing of the story leaves the player more often than not just exploring empty shacks, tunnels, or paths that have no impact on the story or experience at all. With that said, if you are looking for a very slow paced game and want to spend a lot of time just wandering around, then this is a good choice. There is nothing really WRONG with the game, it was just too slow for my taste.

First off the game is beautiful graphically. I was shocked to see how well the fire mechanics work and some of the items are really fun to burn or burn together. The burning alone is good for a few hours of fun.

The combos are basically the only gameplay. There is no conflict. All you do is gather coins to buy things to burn. Burning 2 or more of certain items at the same time scores a combo which gets you express tickets to get items you buy delivered faster. A certain number of combos are required to unlock new catalogs full of new things to burn. There is a combo list you can reference that gives you hints on items to experiment with.

There is a small story wrapped up in the game that reveals itself to you over time. The game also has a pretty decent (if long) ending cutscene/activity to reward you for your efforts.

Also, if you are given a coupon for a "Free Hug", you might not want to burn it. Just a hint. It won't break the game if you do though.

I am sure by now that you know that this is really not so much a game as an interactive story. All you do is go through the house collecting items, listening to journals, and snooping into your family's stuff. Sounds simple, but by doing all the things I just said you uncover many interesting things that help you piece together what is going on with the family and why your sister has gone away.

No guns. No violence. You occasionally get to listen to some cool punk music. No bugs. No glitches. Just an interesting story that you discover on your own, a story of love, loss, heartbreak, and more. Honestly, I shed a tear, a couple of times. It is a small game but it is such a well made small game that it feels much bigger.