Baldur’s Gate 3 – If Michael Bay made an RPG

It’s time to finally review this mastodon of a game after giving it around 150 hours on one-and-a-half playthroughs. For the most part, Baldur’s Gate 3 is a fine addition to the CRPG genre, and Dungeons & Dragons games overall. However, it’s not without issues, and issues it has aplenty. This rest on more than just gameplay and story, unfortunately, since there is a lot of polarizing content in it that takes the form of the current progressive zeitgeist. Your level of tolerance will affect your enjoyment of Baldur’s Gate 3, unless you are a firm believer, and sees this game as some kind of triumph furthering the cause – like mainstream gaming journalists. More on that later.

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UnMetal – The Army of Mikes

We are back with another action-adventure game by Unepic fran. The last one I played from these guys was Ghost 1.0, which I thought was an excellent metroidvania. UnMetal is this game’s name, and while it manages to stand on its own, it’s a comedy spoof of the Metal Gear games and takes a lot of its content from them. From the sneaking and knocking out guards, to long inane conversations with villains with questionable motives. Not even the main guy is safe, as both mannerisms and visual appearance are very similar to the number one chain smoker Solid Snake. Now copying mechanics like this would be considered a bit weird, however, UnMetal takes the themes and makes one hell of a parody of it—and not only in writing: the gameplay is stand-out too!

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Jagged Alliance 3 – Mercenaries Unite

One of the most abused, but beloved turn-based tactical PC franchises is back with another game. Earlier attempts go from abysmal to somewhat playable but often lacking soul. Through some fantastic luck (and skill?) this time it actually captures the classic feeling and is fun to boot. Jagged Alliance 3 has the essence of what once was, which is a rare instance of something old being updated to modern times and still manages to retain an old-school gaming feeling. It’s not without faults though. For example, the laptop shenanigans from Jagged Alliance 2 have been transferred over, but it has not been fully explored, which makes it feel like a cheap copy of the original. The basics are there, yet, all the fun flair, or at least most of it, is gone. The A.I.M mercenary recruitment page no longer comes off as a normal website either. Luckily other parts have much more effort put into it – like the combat, and story, which in turn makes this a worthwhile sequel to a fabled game.

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Aliens: Dark Descent – The Lethe Bug Crisis

In space, nobody can fix your bugs. Besides the fairly buggy nature of Aliens: Dark Descent, it is somewhat of an unexpected sleeper hit of the year. The gameplay, and general mechanics work well, and are clearly thought-out, which together with the visuals and audio creates a very nice Aliens experience. It truly feels like the movie when you slowly skulk the poorly lit and narrow space colonial corridors – then for it to suddenly switch from tension to high-octane action when your badass Marines with their cool outfits and iconic weapons open up on the deadly and terrifying Xenomorphs. It actually resembles Aliens to a fault, as it becomes a little too much familiar in the narrative. Seemingly, there is only one way to write games based on the Alien franchise.

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Star Trek: Resurgence – Alien Diplomacy R Us

So, how about this! A new Star Trek game that is actually good. Well, as far as the story goes at least, and the presentation overall. It is lacking in the gameplay department, but what else can be expected from a studio consisting of former Telltale employees? Star Trek: Resurgence is Dramatic Lab’s first game, and to nobody’s surprise the gaming aspect remains as mentioned limited, however, it comes with severely upgraded visuals. Gone is the heavily penciled-in comic book style and is now replaced with full Unreal 3D glory with a semi-realistic approach. To truly enjoy Star Trek: Resurgence it all comes down to personal expectations (as usual), so the sane approach (which I took) is to leave any form of system interaction at the door going in. And if you can do that, you are in for a pretty good time!

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