Recent reviews by Sitchrea Potere

You manage a library. Read books, patronize guests looking for knowledge, host parties for friends, and bake pies.

This is one of the coziest games I've ever played. Extremely forgiving, with the EXCELLENT writing one would expect from a Weather Factory game.

110% recommend.

The game is less than what I expected. The writing is distractingly bad and brings the whole experience down. The mechanics might be deep, but that intro turned me off enough to uninstall after my first mission. Way too many characters, way too much exposition... Just poorly handled overall.

The First Descendant very much tries to be a competitor to both Destiny and Warframe, but it is just a copy-cat which fails to understand why certain systems work in those games.

Mastery Ranks, Mods, Character Crafting - all lifted wholesale from Warframe, but without the complex movement system and layered melee mechanics, there is little tangible difference between early and late game. All "mods" are just stat bonuses, with none of the unique flavor or playstyle-defining features of Warframe's mod system. The game also doesn't bother changing the name of any of the systems it copied from Warframe, so Warframe vets can port their knowledge over easily.

Meanwhile, the game's open world design is part-and-parcel lifted from Destiny, even down to the design of the community hub - which is a far cry from Destiny's Last City. While the Tower in Destiny felt full of life and activity, First Descendant's HQ feels like a landing pad with some technicians stationed around. Interacting with any of the NPC's shows you the exact same dialogue UI as Destiny, with zero evolution on the formula.

However, if there's anything First Descendant should have - and did not - copied from both Destiny and Warframe, it's their attention to storytelling. Destiny's story might have had its ups and downs, but it was always emotional and thematic, with care given to make every NPC unique down to the most minor detail; First Descendant has seven characters wearing a green overcoat, and four of those have a beard. Warframe's story may take a bit of time to truly shine, but its character-driven narrative is bold, with some decisions made for its story being unique across the entire games industry; First Descendant tries very hard to have a discount Lotus character, but the "Guide" has none of the charm, power, or dread over the narrative the Lotus carries over Warframe.

All in all, even though it's free, I can't recommend The First Descendant over Destiny or Warframe. There's nothing unique here that isn't done better in the games it's trying to copy. The story is boring and derivative, the characters are knock-offs of Warframe classes, the weapon mechanics are wide as a puddle and deep as a sink - when both its competitors cost the exact same to play, there is no reason to play the First Descendant instead of the games that did it first, and did it better.

This is a great representation of politics in gaming. Very well-written, interesting gameplay, and engaging right from the start.

Also, great setting design and world building. This world feels tangible and alive.

FOR THE EMP--

Oh, right.

FOR DEMOCRACY!

This game's complexity only serves to drive me away every time I try to play it. Mech Engineer desperately needs better tooltips. The tutorial popups fail to explain basic mechanics, and places where you would think a tooltip should be, there just... aren't.

The developer insists the obscurity of Mech Engineer's game mechanics are part of its design difficulty. I disagree. Failing to explain basic mechanics does not make the game difficult, it makes it unable to be played. Even if this game had the most brilliant design choices hiding under the hood (it does not), very few players would give the game a long enough chance to appreciate its eccentricities. Unfortunately, while this game *is* eccentric, it is not approachable.

I've sunk hundreds of hours into XCOM: Enemy Unknown and XCOM 2, and an XCOM game this is not. It's obtuse, obscure, and just not very good.

This game "gets" Warhammer 40,000. It is constantly improving, and has a positive-looking future even if the mechanics aren't all there yet. After 75 hours, I think it's good enough to recommend, even if it's not quite finished.

If you read this review after a few months, check the game's updates, as it will have undoubtedly gotten better.

10/10, would eat my best friend for eternal youth again.

An incredible city builder. Worth every penny!

I've walked this same road before. Don't make excuses; why not give it just one more try?

This is one of the greatest games ever made. Buy it. It will change you for the better.