The Black Pits (Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition) [Review]

The Black Pits is Beamdog’s arena expansion that came with Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition when it was released years ago in 2012. And here I thought it was high time to finally try it out. Now, this little side-adventure isn’t much more than a string of fights put together, but it does have a story, and a prominent antagonist (Baeloth the Entertainer) that will make an appearance again in the future Beamdog releases (The Black Pits II: Gladiators of Thay and Siege of Dragonspear) and Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition itself. Effort was made to at least have the main bad guy in a continuation of sorts, which is nice, as Baeloth is one of the best parts of this expansion besides the battles.

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Star Wars: Zero Company – Three Strikes and You’re Out

Finally, a long-sought-after turn-based tactical game in the style of an X-com-like is here, and simply, it’s good. Now, that’s not to say it doesn’t have problems, because it does, but in a general sense, Star Wars: Zero Company is a welcome addition to the genre and should satisfy the call for squad-based combat. I might as well make one thing clear already. This is not a battle simulation in the style of Jagged Alliance 3—it’s more of an Xcom 2 (nuXCOM) game, with perhaps even a stronger focus on board game rules, gameplay and combat abstraction. But before we get into that, let’s talk about the story, which is a huge focus in Zero Company, maybe to its detriment in some cases.

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Star Wars: Zero Company – Very Early Impressions

After geeking out on Star Wars: Zero Company for about eight hours now, I’m ready to give some very early impressions—so take what I say with a grain of salt. This will be a bit haphazard, so I won’t go over things in detail; I just want to talk about a few points. We can start with the story and the protagonist. The story so far seems interesting, with you running a mercenary company during the height of the prequel era—and having the big separatist war looming in the background is just awesome (if you like the prequel movies, that is). However…

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Crypts Of Carith – Demo Impressions

This guy looks unwell and thus, must die

Since we are on a blobber roll, why not try another one! And this time we are playing the Crypts Of Carith demo, a turn-based blobber made by a solo developer. Right off the bat, I can say that this game certainly tickles the dungeon-crawling itch. The visuals do not impress me much, as it frankly looks a bit drab and empty. Yet the gameplay, which is based on some kind of ruleset akin to Dungeons and Dragons, made me feel right at home with the combat and dice rolls.

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Dverghold – Dwarf Digging [Early Access Impressions]

If I got a coin every time the dwarves dug too greedily, I would have zero coins, since they would nick them too. This will not be a full review of Dverghold, since this Early Access release is far from finished. And I don’t mean buggy, as it’s actually very polished and stable, but there are camp followers that should serve a role but offer nothing at the moment. This means that I’d rather stop now and wait for the complete experience instead of spoiling the game piecemeal. Even so, let’s go over my impression of this EA release!

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Dverghold – Early Access Out Now!

As most of us know, the dwarves in their greed can’t help but dig a little too deep—usually unearthing something foul that soon thereafter becomes a plague for everyone. Dverghold is no different, with you answering the call for massive underground cleanup. In other words, Dverghold is out in Early Access, with its first four dungeon levels to be explored. It’s a turn-based blobber, and when I tried the demo, I came to enjoy it a lot.

I’m hesitant about Early Access games nowadays, but Dverghold feels like a sure bet if you like these types of (rare) games. It’s incredibly cheap too, coming out to 13.16 euros for me, with a current 15% discount. So, go get it! Release trailer after the jump.

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