=== PC Game Review -- Rogue's Tale - Turn-Based Dungeon Crawler - 2/10 ===

What Are We Reviewing?
Now I do like RPG and rogue-like games, and I also like when games are difficult and don't hold your hand, so today we're going to review Rogue's Tale. This is another game that I really tried to like because I do enjoy these types of games, though you'll soon see just how frustrating a game like this could really be.

Released March 28, 2014 and currently available in on Steam for $5.69 CAD, Rogue's Tale is a turn-based dungeon crawler which is meant to give you the experience of playing one of those good old RPG games which used to use the ASCII graphics and more often than not killed you before you got anywhere interesting; that's the same experience when playing this game.

As seen above you get to create your character each time you play and can even start with bonuses IF YOU'VE UNLOCKED THEM though grueling play after dying and dying and dying again.

Of course there is an easy mode where things hurt less and you can sell items without identifying them first, but you aren't able to unlock some things... and why would I want to play easy mode anyways?

Gameplay:
So the idea behind the game is that you're thrown into a randomized dungeon to explore for items and experience until you reach the bottom at which point you can leave and "reset" the dungeon which creates a new one to explore. There are various creatures throughout the dungeon, some of which are happy to live their own lives and some of which will attack on sight. There are also other adventurers and traps which you'll come across and more often than not you'll see one of the following screens:

There really isn't much to say about the gameplay of Rogue's Tale because you just can't get very far into it unless you get lucky and find all the right things for a successful run to get further than the first dungeon. In the time I've put into Rogue's Tale so far, I've only had one run which has been able to make it past the first dungeon... at which point I almost immediately died in the next dungeon.

I actually can't believe it, but I have less to say about Rogue's Tale than I had to say about Mall Empire. Even though it was a buggy game, there was at least some gameplay to get through.

Graphics:
I find the artwork and aesthetics of Rogue's Tale to be very nice. I do like the design and detail that has been put into the things that are seen, though I do find the information presented to be somewhat clunky. There's a lot of stats on the screen and not much to tell you what exactly does what... or why?

Replayability:
As much as I love being destroyed again and again in a game, I at least like to see some progress. Let me give you an idea of just how much progress I achieved throughout playing this game: 0 / 148 achievements. The top achievement is for reaching level 7; only 37.4% of players have ever reached level 7.

So while I would absolutely say the replayability of this game is HUGE, seeing at you enter a different dungeon every time you play and everything is different every time... I think it's the type of replayability that's actually... bad. Of course you want your game to be replayable to keep players wanting to come back and play it more, but we again come to the problem where if there's not progress into the game, then playing it again and again isn't fun anymore, it's just tiresome.

SUMMARY:
While Rogue's Tale isn't an expensive game, I still expect it to be a game worth playing in exchange for my money. I can't talk enough about how the gameplay is lacking for me. I'm sure there are others out there who love this sort of thing (hence why there are quite a few games of this type), but there are certainly better options than Rogue's Tale.

While I didn't enjoy the gameplay of Rogue's Tale, it is a working game that doesn't seem to be filled with bugs making an unplayable game. I'm giving Rogue's Tale 2/10 because I just can't stand bashing my brains against the same thing over and over hoping something different will happen; but it works and there IS a deeper game to be found in here... somewhere.

~ DaemonVirus

Age of Wonders -- Keepers Scenario 7 - Part 2

Uh oh, we're getting close to the end of what I have already recorded from months ago. I'm going to have to start recording new videos again soon with my continuation of this fantastically amazing game!

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This campaign and more can be found on my Age of Wonders page.

Check out more of my stuff!
- On YouTube
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~ DaemonVirus

Age of Wonders -- Keepers Scenario 6 - Part 9

A quick livestream to finish off scenario 6 before moving on. I know I need to (want to) do more livestreaming and I promise it will be coming soon. I think the biggest problem keeping me from livestreaming more often right now is the anxiety of going through the process of advertising and making commitments and then WHAT IF I LET EVERYBODY DOWN??? That's definitely something I need to get over though. Honestly, I should probably just do more streams where I don't put myself through the torture of advertising beforehand, but rather I just turn on the stream and go.

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This campaign and more can be found on my Age of Wonders page.

Check out more of my stuff!
- On YouTube
- On Twitch
- On Twitter

~ DaemonVirus

Age of Wonders -- Keepers Scenario 6 - Part 6

Looks like we're starting to get overwhelmed by this silly teleportation point right next to our starting town. We might have to give this location up and move somewhere else. Another short part for you this time.

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This campaign and more can be found on my Age of Wonders page.

Check out more of my stuff!
- On YouTube
- On Twitch
- On Twitter

~ DaemonVirus

=== Age of Wonders -- MolzyMoz - Fire Rebalanced -- Mod Review - 5/5 ===

Okay so here's something a little bit different today. Normally I review games or food or movies... but today I'm reviewing a MOD for a game. I'm also going to take this opportunity to start using a 1-5 rating system because I think it's a much more straightforward system for just how good I think something is which I'm reviewing.

So FROM HERE ON OUT I will be rating everything on a scale of 1-5.

MolzyMod - Fire Rebalanced (Download)

Rating: 5

Even though I am a long-time Age of Wonders player, using mods is something I'm not super experienced with, so this managed to be my first mod to EVER use for this game. I have to say I'm very pleased; I honestly think this may be what I start using in my own games from now on.

There are quite a few changes to units, some of which are in their stats and many of which are in their abilities as they increase in skill; especially for making level 4 units more powerful and unstoppable just by having empty fortified cities. I haven't been able to experience much of this as I just started using the mod and have only read about the majority of the changes so far.

One of my favourite changes includes the change to the Goblin Bomber at silver level gaining a Call Flames ability (which would only be attainable using an arena or the Warmonger spell).

Speaking of SPELLS... Many of the lower level combat spells have been lowered in casting cost which makes spell-based leader and hero builds possible to use throughout the game. Many of the spells such as flame arrow only have a cost of 1 now which means your hero can be useful even with Spell Casting I and low stats.

So all in all, this mod is pretty sweet. It's super easy to put into the game and doesn't make a huge number of overwhelming changes; if you have any thoughts about using any other mods in the game but are unsure after reading all of the HUGE number of changes... this is truly a great place to start when getting into trying out different mods.

As a result, I'm giving this mod for Age of Wonders a 5/5 rating as I really do think it has been done very well and has broken down the door for me to try other new things with an already great game.

~ DaemonVirus


To Age of Wonders Directory

Age of Wonders -- Keepers Scenario 5 - Part 3

Here we go, trying a different strategy this time seeing as the usual "take over the whole map" strategy isn't too effective during this scenario in which I have a time limit.

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This campaign and more can be found on my Age of Wonders page.

Check out more of my stuff!
- On YouTube
- On Twitch
- On Twitter

~ DaemonVirus

=== Age of Wonders - Game Review, Turn-based Strategy - 10/10 ===

What Are We Reviewing?
If you like turn-based strategy, whether it's in a table top game or a video game, Age of Wonders is at the top of the list.

Released: October 31, 1999
Price: $6.49 CAD
Genre: Turn-Based Strategy

     Age of Wonders was released back in 1999, so we're getting pretty close to the grand 20-year mark in age. For such an old game, you might think it would look pretty aged and unable to hold up to present-day gaming. In my opinion, this game is a classic that is still plenty of fun to play and has a great art-style that still looks great even to this day. If you go back to the original pictures of this game before it was released, the art is so simple and would easily have gotten old pretty quick. Thankfully they decided to go in a bit of a different direction which I think looks like someone painted it by hand; this sort of painted-looking art-style is definitely my favourite. Of course the visuals are important when deciding whether or not to play a game, but there's so much more to talk about.

     The gameplay is turn-based; if you're really into board games, this will feel just like playing a board game where everybody takes a turn one at a time to plan out their strategy and execute their plan of action to the best of their ability. There are some options such as having the map already explored, whether or not to have your leader as a playable character in the game, and whether the turns are taken simultaneously or one at a time. Personally, I prefer to have to explore everything on my own, have a leader, and have turns played one at a time; though every once in a while I change it up for fun.

     Games can be a little as 2-players all the way up to 12 with each player playing a different race; each of which have different advantages and disadvantages. Each game revolves around capturing cities and other landmarks, then using the income from those sources to create the right mixture of units to eliminate your opponents. If you've ever played a turn-based combat game, you may already understand how each attack has a chance to hit or miss. If you really enjoy the strategy of combat, you can choose to control each battle yourself, or have the game automatically generate an outcome for you. Obviously this speeds up the game to have it decide on an outcome for you, but the system has a certain way of doing its calculations which can sometimes give you a completely different outcome from controlling the battle on your own. One example is if you're trying to protect a unit that is low on health, you can choose to have that unit run away on your own, but the computer-generated outcome will run that unit headlong into battle even on 1 health point.

     Throughout the game you also have to choose what spells to research to help tip the scales in your favour. Your leader and additional heroes which join you during the course of the game may or may not have the ability to cast spells. These leaders and heroes have an amount of spell points which get refreshed at the beginning of each new turn and from this they can cast spells which each cost a number of spell points. Choices of spells can change the state of the overworld map, enchant units to make them stronger, or can be used in battle to turn the tides in an otherwise unwinnable situation.

     If you can't tell, I absolutely love this game and could go on and on about all the great qualities forever, but unfortunately at some point I have to acknowledge the grit of the game. There are some points which can be a little bit painful either due to the age of the game or due to design. Depending on how much time you have, you may enjoy watching all the animations. Some days I like having a relaxing time watching the animations go on, but they can be a little bit slow sometimes which makes an already long game take even longer to play. You can be playing just one map for an entire month without proceeding to the next scenario. This is why I tend to play while running a program which speeds up the game. My only other real gripe about Age of Wonders is that it has a habit of crashing while playing in any kind of windowed mode. This usually isn't a bad thing as I prefer to play on true fullscreen anyways, but there is another problem where if you tab out of the game and tab back in, it likes to either crash or not open back up... which can make it difficult if you have other things going on while you want to play some Age of Wonders. This makes you have to plan sessions to play rather than just opening it up whenever for a bit while doing other things.

     Overall, even with the negatives of this game, I have to give Age of Wonders 10 / 10 because it's just so amazing for me. I highly recommend getting this game and playing through it if you're into strategy. The Age of Wonders games are my favourite turn-based strategy series so far (though I haven't managed to start playing the new Age of wonders III yet).

     If you're interested in seeing some gameplay, you can head over to my Age of Wonders Gameplay page or you can watch my videos directly on my YouTube channel TheDaemonVirus.

~ Kyle Welykholowa