Recent reviews by davidbalparda

The campaign start is very challenging, but if you are able to fend off the initial onslaught by the two hostile clans bordering you (Shoni and another one), it's possible to develop real quick from trade due to Otomo's seafaring headstart. Overall quite difficult campaign because most clans are hostile and regard the Otomo daimyo as dishonourable. They can be swayed a bit through trade though, if you get hold of desirable trading goods. Why do the Portuguese terços speak in English?!

157 hours of play later... Wow! What an addictive, challenging game! Not for casual players. It's quite much more multi-dimentional compared to the older Shogun, and the learning curve is long. Expect to be crushed or run out of money in your first campaigns before you get the hang of it. The last time I lost because it was the short campaign and I really was not mindful of the 1575 time limit. And, if you expand a lot before deciding to go for Kyoto, it's going to be harder because nearly all clans will join the Ashikaga shogun and declare war on you and you'll probably run out of time. Also, if you want to get very far in the technology tree, you must play the long campaign. Doing the micromanagement plus defense strategy in your realm after you get 15+ provinces will take a lot of time, and it's going to take you a long time per turn (30+ min ), so save the game and try to get some sleep and hit the end turn button the next day. If you have a lot of sea trade routes, you'll have extra headaches protecting them. As for the battles, as they get bigger and bigger, hit the pause button to look around and don't feel guilty - the AI is making decisions much faster than you. In conclusion, I reccommend this one a lot, and I intend to keep playing.

I think the movement + camera control concept is just terrible, the quick one-word answers in dialogs sometimes are misleading, I absolutely hate button-mashing and the story failed to grab my attention. When I saw I the character sanity was getting wrecked because the camera controls are stupid and I coudn't button-mash competently enough, I flat quit.

A story-driven strategy game that's really gripping. It consists of basically three inter-twined games:
1- A conversation simulator-like game where cops respond to calls around town and make decisions that might involve having brought the right equipment. Their skills affect the outcome of the actions chosen.
2- An investigation puzzle-solving game that requires correctly interpreting the clues available.
3- Turn-based tactical squad combat scenarios, where cops use their skills and equipment. The standard firearm is the six-shooter, but you should opt for non-lethal whenever possible. One shot might kill or disable your officers, so don't go in with guns blazing!

All of them require the same manpower: your officers, that get tired or sometimes just don't show up for work! So, on top of all three games you have to manage personnel, time and equipment. Also, the protagonist needs money in his personal bank account, so he needs to get some odd jobs done.

Some mechanics in the game aren't very clear at the beginning, but it's not a big deal. Also, micro-managing equipment and skills could be a bit stressful compared to TITP1, that was way simpler because the only relevant stat of an officer was his professionalism.

All in all, I think it's a very well thought-out and challenging game with a slow learning curve. If you like story-heavy games, management and strategy, this is a great pick!

The visuals are OK and the music is great, but I just found the game too hard for me to enjoy the former, and it has no difficulty setting.

It's an iteresting and lengthy (13 hours for me) point-and-click adventure game with non-linear narrative. It has some elements of meaningful choice towards the end and you alternate playing with three different characters in different scenes throughout the game. The puzzles are OK for most of the time, even though I found some of them kind of far-fetched and hard to get, and some pixel hunting is involved.

This is pure gold. Super funny and family friendly, but it doesn't mean adults won't laugh their butts off too! Sam & Max is the perfect balance between smartass and slapstick humour. If you're into humorous adventure puzzle like Monkey Island or if you played Sam & Max Hit the Road, get this!

Pros: A great little adventure game. Puzzles and interactions perfectly well-balanced and logical. Adventure Game Studio at its best, with a well-polished and gripping outcome.

Cons: So, there were situations where Vera was clearly walking into danger and I couldn't activate the (spoiler) augmentation, which pissed me off. Also, I knew a certain person was not trustworthy, but the game did not allow me to do anything about it, which increased my suspicion even further. That surely impacted the game's believability and immersion for me.

This title presents the most well-rounded Shadowrun Returns system and loads of character traits, items, spells and upgrades. The matrix also feels a little better too, although the matrix mini games are kind of unecessary in my opinion. The Extended Hong Kong campaign ensures loads of hours of fun gameplay, even though the story is not the masterpiece that Dragonfall was. You'll also enjoy the great and long custom campaigns The Caldecot Caper and Calfree in Chains available in the workshop. In fact, I'm giving this a 5/5 instead of 4/5 due to these campaigns and the editor.

This title has all the huge content from the trilogy available for use in the campaign editor and better-looking ork models (although you can't use the old outfits on them), so you have loads of resources to create your own Shadowrun solo campaign if you're feeling creative.

I see it's a very well-produced game, but I simply did not enjoy the infinite inventory items, combat system and gameplay in general. I guess it's OK if you enjoy the Japanese-RPG combat system, but I really dislike it and even being an old school SW fan I just don't think the SW setting makes up for it.