Recent reviews by Michael_v_Anken

Memories came up again! ;)
That was the STALKER feeling I missed so many years.

Atmospheric, dark, cold zone feeling.

[Maybe I write more in the future, but actually I want to play.^^]

Raubritter ist ein "Early Access"-Titel und kann aktuell nur auf einem kleinen Teil der zukünftigen Karte gespielt werden, was nur ein vorläufiges Fazit zulässt!

Man kann aber schon erkennen, wohin die Reise gehen könnte!

Der Spieler hat bisher die Möglichkeit, sich als friedliebender Händler
oder raubender Bandit zu betätigen.
In beiden Fällen, kann man entweder ohne festen Wohnsitz "rumgammeln" oder im Laufe der Zeit eine eigene Burg bauen und von dieser aus als Lehnsherr/ Raubritter agieren.
In Folge dessen, übernimmt man entweder durch Mord oder mittels Münzen kleine Dörfer & Produktionsstätten, um durch deren Tribute/ Einnahmen den Unterhalt und Ausbau für die eigene Burg sowie der eigenen Armee gewährleisten zu können. Letzere bräuchten wir gut ausgerüstet, um final den eigenen Thronraubenden Bruder und dessen Heer zu besiegen.

Manche Elemente sind im Grundgerüst vorhanden, müssen aber noch mehr und besser implementiert werden und andere sollten noch dringend hinzugefügt werden:

- Nutztierhaltung, sowohl in der eigenen Burg & den zu befreienden Dörfern
- größere & authentischere Dörfer, mit mehr NPC's + deren Tagesabläufen, mehr Händlern
- mehr Waren & eine authentische Verteilung selbiger, manche Dörfer haben etwas, was es nur dort gibt
- mehr poi's die zum erkunden, questen und oder kämpfen einladen
- passendere Grafiken, einige wie z.B. die eigene Burg sind noch sehr Platzhaltermäßig
- ein Photomodus
...

Es liegt zwar noch eine Menge Arbeit vor dem Entwickler, aber für ein Ein-Mann-Projekt ist es gut gelungen.
Man erkennt, das hier ein Entwickler mit Herzblut bei der Sache ist und auch im Forum wird sehr schnell auf Anregungen und Kritik reagiert. Kaum ein großer Publisher reagiert auf die Spieler bei Bugs und lässt uns teilweise Wochen auf Abhilfe warten! HIER hingegen kommt ein Patch und noch am selben Tag werden bereits Fixes nachgereicht zum ausbessern. Es ist toll einen Entwickler zu sehen, der wirklich daran interessiert ist ein gutes Produkt zu kreieren und auf die Community hört!

Ich kann (wie oben Erwähnt) noch kein abschließendes Fazit ziehen, bereue aber nicht den Titel gekauft zu haben und gebe gerne einen Daumen nach oben!

- good graphics
- high level of detail (see screenshots)

The player is offered an immersive setting. The campaign map is beautifully animated and, in addition to forests and deserts, also beautifully depicts differences in altitude such as mountains, gorges and valleys. In the seas you can see dolphins and schools of fish swimming authentically and near the coast you can discover shipwrecks, among other things. The respective battlefield maps were also created with great attention to detail. You get a realistic feeling of ancient Egypt during the 19th Dynasty.

- brutal animation/decapitations
- role-playing game-like ability to equip your generals with items

Whenever a battle is fought, you will see a short animation at the end in which the leading generals fight with each other.
Depending on the type of weapon selected, you will see different execution animations. I haven't seen all of them, but I'm currently at almost 50+ different scenes!

- Dynasty option
- Family tree

The game allows us to marry into an existing dynasty and/or create our own. Using the example of the eponymous Pharaoh Merneptah, we can either marry into his ruling family as Egyptians and thereby be protected by him. Alternatively, we can cause a civil war and, if successful, become pharaoh ourselves and then create our own dynasty that others can then marry into (if we want to and it benefits us enough).
The possibility of a family tree is not new and was implemented here rather superficially. We decide on our potential wife and then have up to four children. We can then turn them into active battlefield generals when they come of age and or get them political positions in the Pharaoh's court (It's easier if we are the Pharaoh^^). Options such as contract killings, blackmail, marriages, etc. are available, but a certain game-defining depth is missing.

- Legitimacy
- Legacies

You can choose between five different types of rule (legitimacy). You can choose from the Pharaoh in Egypt, the Great King in the Hittite Empire, the Wanax in the Aegean, the King of the Universe in Mesopotamia and a kind of vandal path of destruction. Relatively early on in the game you will decide on the most obvious option and then try to climb to the top within this hierarchy.

Depending on which legitimation you subscribe to, you can choose a legacy from two or four options. These give a massive boost in their respective areas (economy, influence, military).
[In the game options you can set that you have all legacies to choose from regardless of culture and can then choose one from them.]

- Battles
- Defense

Everything here has remained very classic; you can have up to 20 units directly and optionally have them reinforced by another 20.
On the campaign map you have the opportunity to build fortresses at predetermined positions and station up to nine units there (these would then support the city garrison in the event of an attack).

- Mod support

I have never used mods in any previous TW part and am currently excited to have tried it out for the first time. Some mods definitely polish up the vanilla version!

A beautiful, detailed medieval building economy simulation with an integrated combat system.

No other game currently offers the opportunity to design a village organically in this form. Streets can be drawn and built completely freely (circles, corners, etc.). Residential houses can then be perfectly integrated into these crooked paths, as they can also be moved freely (in shape and size). The result simply looks authentic and beautiful!

Since it is still in early access, some options and features are still missing and others are not yet error-free, BUT it has a lot of potential and, at the latest after the full release, offers a few dozen hours of gaming fun for anyone interested in the Middle Ages. ;)

Since the game was developed by a single person, you have to take your hat off to this masterpiece and looking at the future and the content yet to be implemented, the game is definitely destined for a great future! ;)

I can't say anything about the predecessor because I've never played it!

World:

Dragon's Dogma 2 features a large open world divided into 2 areas. In the Vermundian north (mostly populated by humans), there is a temperate climate with forests and meadows. There is an elf village here, as well as the human settlements of Melve, Harve, Rest Town and a small garrison. The most impressive thing is the royal city of Vermund with its huge castle.

In the barren south of Batthal there is a desert climate and the local population (mostly Biestren) therefore mostly lives in the capital Bakbatthal. However, it is relatively spacious and impressively built.
Even further south there is another temperate climate area with the settlements Excavation Site and Volcanic Island Camp.

Gameplay:

The focus is clearly on the fights and for that we need companions. These are called vassals or pawns.
At the beginning we create a companion on a rift stone completely according to our wishes. In addition to the appearance, the personality (aggressive, defensive, voice, etc.) is also set here. Later you can re-customize your character an unlimited number of times (without real money!). The finished character is saved as a kind of copy in the intermediate world (Rift) and can be hired by any other player as often as you like. The original always remains with us. A group can consist of a maximum of four members, two of whom can be hired companions. The system behind it is brilliant. Both our and the hired vassals remember everything they see and experience in their respective worlds. If I hire a companion who knows something from his world (e.g. a cave or treasure that I don't know), then he will offer to guide me there.
This function is also useful when leveling up certain badges in the area of ​​monster hunting. I don't have to defeat all the monsters, it's enough if my Pawn was hired by a player and achieved success in his world.
Since only our own Pawn can level up in our world, you should replace the hired vassals from time to time and either recruit completely new ones or bring back the old ones (their level has then been readjusted).

Fights:

There are roughly four main groups for our minions, which are divided into Mage, Fighter, Archer and Thief.
The mages are masters of healing, the fighters act as tanks, the archers do ranged damage (good against flying enemies) and the thief is nimble and good at climbing onto enemies.
You are not bound to equip your team with all classes. You can also only play with magicians or archers. When a fight breaks out, the Pawns act according to their nature. The more aggressive ones rush at the enemy and the more defensive ones start healing and firing from a distance. It just looks epic when a five meter tall ogre is climbed by several companions and they then ram daggers, swords and/or spears into its neck or head.
Later in the game, dragons also fall in a few minutes through teamwork.

Wish and conclusion:

For the future (DLC's) I would like to see a little more variety in the big monsters and an even bigger world. At the same time, the limit on target crystals would also have to be lifted.

Finally, all I can say is that I love the game.
The world is big and full of monsters and creatures to hunt. It's a lot of fun to be out and about with your Pawns and explore everything while listening to their conversations. The vassals are always nice and extremely polite, something that is unfortunately becoming less and less important in today's world.

The game divides me!

positiv:

- huge landscape divided into 4 principalities
- great English dubbing
- huge crafting system (weapons, potions)
- the option to build your own village*

*Most buildings and a selection of decorative objects can be freely built in a given area.

negativ:

- poor graphics (Gothic / Witcher 3 before the 4k patch)
- low story (take this, bring me that, escort or kill...
- lock picking is done randomly (sacrifice lockpick and hope)
- poor combat system (no shields and therefore no arrow blocking)
- very frequent grinding for resources
- repetitive illogical puzzles*

*Among other things, you should replay melodies. If you don't do it correctly, you will be harmed.Alternatively, light rays should be redirected using mirrors so that a specific point is illuminated. The puzzles become harder as more variables are added, but they are not varied.

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It's a kind of Gothic 3 in Sherwood Forest. Anyone who likes to grind a lot and doesn't have a problem with repetitive task patterns will find what they're looking for here.

Skyrim with many extra content.
I like it. ;)

For me it is a very good game. Bethesda did the same great job like by Skyrim and Fallout 4!
But, there is not always light - like in space there are some things who are dark:

+ big world (1000 planets, 100 with life, towns, villages, outpost, mines and other poi's)
+ very much quest (you meet interesting characters and the variety of jobs is big, some are combined with land and air options)
+ fighting ground and space (much better than in previous games, very immersiv, capturing ships is a nice and good feature)
+ interesting story (NG+ is a must have if you wan't to see and get the full experience)

- no gore effects like in Fallout 4 (would be cool to dismember enemys and let them explode)
- stealth is terrible and not working atm. It won't be possible for me to sneak and attack an enemy from behind with a knife (Starpower "Void Form" lvl. 10 & armor "Chameleon Perk" & sneaking lvl. 2)
- weapons and armor won't scale (sadly we have no option to scale our favourite items with money or materials, grinding is alternativless)
- grinding items and powers (it is ok to collect 24 powers and some magazines, but doing this in every run again is too much, there must be an option to take more item's into the next playtrough and finding the powers easier, maybe trough a special trader)
- less space (you are running very fast out of capacity and you have very less containers who have infinity space and no one of these is connected starwide, so you have to travel too often to your chests on different planets)

I won't regret buying Starfield. It is a nice, new era in the Besthesda universe and the game has much potential.

[The review is not finish, I will write more in the future.]

Very nice building simulation of medieval life in Japan and a wonderful alternative to Medieval Dynasties.

The player has the possibility to follow the main story either in the first person or the third person view and to shape the expansion of his village himself. As you progress, new buildings and skills will be unlocked.

Some aspects such as combat and religion will be expanded even more in the future and the game will then be given even more depth.

For an early access version, the game has very few bugs and doesn't produce any crashes.

Why I would recommend this game?

Go on the island and hunt some monkey,- human,- mutants and find it out ...
... they taste delicious, ^^
... or burn them to make armour out of their bones, or wear their skin directly.^^ ;)
... build your own world with stonecastles, wooden forts, small skyscrapers,

Best building simulator I ever played. Watch my screenshots.^^