Hidden & Dangerous 2 – Achtung, die Tommies! [Review]

This review will be on the original Hidden & Dangerous 2, without the expansion Sabre Squadron, which is now sold together over at Steam and GOG in one package called Hidden & Dangerous 2: Courage Under Fire. With that said, H&D 2 can be one of the best squad-based games ever made thanks to a fantastic engine and simulator approach to the gameplay. However, it’s not without problems that occasionally cause headaches, and its sloppily made final stretch of missions unfortunately drags down the experience. Let’s get into it!

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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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Critical Shift – Playtest Impressions

One thing that’s common now is to base your game on SCP, especially if you want mystery, and instantly want to set the tone of what’s to come. Critical Shift leans into SCP something fierce, being the game that feels the most similar—without actually being set in that universe. At least, that’s the impression I’m getting from the three missions in the playtest.

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EXODUS – Extended Gameplay Reveal [Gameplay trailer]

Is EXODUS the new Mass Effect? If we go by this twenty-minute narrated gameplay demonstration, there is a pretty good chance it is. Before watching this video, I honestly thought EXODUS was a semi-dead AAA project (like most of them). You know how it is—while it got the mechanics and gameplay down, it’s looking absolutely soulless yet here we are now. It actually comes off as genuinely fun, with a strange future to explore (sentient animals, anyone?), good third-person pop-a-mole combat (even has stealth), and classic choices & consequences to ponder.

Now, this could be a highly curated slice of gameplay, which it probably is, but I can’t help getting a bit hyped. I need a new massive third-person space-opera shooter to explore! Check out the video after the jump!

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Xenonauts 2 – The Boys Are Back In Town [Review]

After a thousand years in space, slowly floating from one uninhabitable planet to the next, the distress call was finally picked up by HMS TomsGamingVault, and the package was retrieved. After carefully thawing out the mysterious object, it—lo and behold—turned out to be the sequel for the awesome Alien defense simulator Xenonauts—the people of Earth cried out in rejoicing! Hence, the artifact was named Xenonauts 2.

Now, the question to ask—is it a worthy successor, or not? Read below and find out!

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