Year: 2023

Dreams in the Witch House – Rat Trouble

Another day, another Lovecraft-inspired game. However, the difference from other games that tries similar things, is that Dreams in the Witch House actually succeeds at what it tries to do. It got nice atmosphere that feels like it could be part of Lovecraft mythos, and it got interesting gameplay to boot – beyond the traditional point & click stuff. I played the demo last year and was impressed with the game then already, so it makes me happy the full title retains the feeling I got from the demo. Atom Brain Games created something truly special here, and now we can only hope that they continue on this track for the future. But enough of that, what about the story, and how does it play?

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USC: Counterforce – Demo Impressions

USC: Counterforce looks like a game that could be made for me considering its theme – space marines fighting aliens in space. Unfortunately, it is not, and left me rather unimpressed. The demo starts with a tutorial that explains one million and a half things, and it all seems rather complex, however, as soon as you know the controls it’s rather basic. You can argue that the classic X-com game is also rather basic, but what that game does that is missing from USC: Counterforce is simulated systems – like weapon projectiles. This makes Counterforce have more in common with the modern iteration of X-com than the original, which is disappointing and makes for pretty boring gameplay.

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Exogate Initiative – Demo Impressions

If you ever wondered what it would be like to run something like StarGate, now you get your chance. At least for a little while in this demo of Exogate Initiative. Gameplay-wise it’s a base builder, and I think it could be best compared to Evil Genius, except that are you not hellbent on world domination. Here it’s about catching specimens from far-away worlds, analyzing them, and earning money from the patented research that follows.

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SpellForce: Conquest of Eo – First Impressions

Conquest of Eo is a 4X spinoff of the SpellForce series, and initially, my impression was great. But as it turns out, the game seems to have some serious problems in form of difficulty. The first few hours were awesome. It felt like a nice mix between Age of Wonders and Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes. I was happily building up my heroes and doing some general adventuring when something foul and smelly revealed its head. As it turns out, the circle mages, which are powerful opponents, don’t play by the same rules.

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Infested Fortress – Demo Impressions

Tried out Infested Fortress by Bitmen Studios, and it’s a hybrid of X-com and Dungeon Keeper, set in a medieval fantasy setting. It is similar to their previous game The Storm Guard: Darkness is Coming, but a lot more advanced. While it ticks a lot of my gaming boxes, it comes with a serious problem… just like Storm Guard to be frank. The problem is that it’s way too hard on normal!

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