Recent reviews by GMsU | Acoul

--- | GRAPHICS |---
☐ Stunning
☐ Good
☑ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
Looks perfectly fine, especially when taking the year of release (2006) into account.

--- | GAMEPLAY| ---
☑ Amazing
☐ Good
☐ Average
☐ Meh
☐ Awful
Something like an early TOTAL WAR game, with both strategic and tactical warfare, an dall that with units and characters from an amazing and iconic franchise. Just awesome.

--- | AUDIO | ---
☐ Eargasm
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
Includes some of the music from the movies, meaning it's pretty good.

--- | SINGLE-/MULTIPLAYER | ---
☐ Singleplayer only
☑ Mutliplayer available, but not preferred
☐ Both work out fine
☐ Predominantly Multiplayer
☐ What even is Singleplayer?
Most of my playtime is on singleplayer, which i think works best in this game, especially for conquest/campaign.

--- | PC REQUIREMENTS | ---
☐ Potato will suffice
☑ Below average
☐ Decent
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
No fancy specs needed here.

--- | DIFFICULTY | ---
☐ Braindead clicking and pressing "W"
☐ Fairly simple
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
The general idea can be understood very quickly, but getting to know all the units and their stats and purpose takes a long time.

--- | FRUSTRATION | ---
☐ Nothing but relaxation and harmony
☑ Occasional Anger
☐ Feelings of accomplishment and frustration even each other out
☐ You will be upset for a lot of time
☐ Might as well open your own salt mine
Some mechanics can be annoying, but for the most part it's very chill.

--- | GRIND | ---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Isnt necessary to progress
☑ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You‘ll need a second live for grinding
The whole concept of expansion gets kinda repetetive over time, particulary in conquest mode.

--- | ACHIEVEMENTS |---
☐ Just play the game and you will gather them easily
☐ You can get them by progressing in the game and keeping an eye out
☐ Some are easily obtained, others you will have to grind
☐ They require you to commit a lot of time and skill
☐ You can spend a lifetime trying to earn all of them
No Steam achievements.

--- | STORY | ---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☑ Good
☐ It‘ll replace your life
The stories from both the base game and the Forces of Corruption expansion are very interesting.

--- | GAME TIME | ---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☐ Average
☑ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
I used to play this game for 100+ hours before getting it on Steam, so you can spend plenty of time on it.

--- | PRICE | ---
☐ It’s free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ Maybe on sale
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
Absolutely worth buying, even in 2020.

--- | BUGS | ---
☐ None at all
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ Lots of bugs
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
Not really that much to worry about.


--- | OVERALL | ---
☑ Amazing
☐ Good
☐ OK
☐ Bad
☐ Waste of time and money

--- | GRAPHICS |---
☐ Stunning
☑ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
Characters and locations from the TV series are displayed very accurately and easy to recognize. The general graphic style of the game is quite pleasant too.

--- | GAMEPLAY| ---
☐ Amazing
☐ Good
☐ Average
☑ Meh
☐ Awful
Mostly it's about choosing dialogue option, some exploring/fighting now on then. This wouldn't be an issue, but just a few decisions actually matter for the game's outcome - most of them towards the final episode.

--- | AUDIO | ---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Good
☑ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
The sound is neither highlight nor weakness here.

--- | SINGLE-/MULTIPLAYER | ---
☑ Singleplayer only
☐ Mutliplayer available, but not preferred
☐ Both work out fine
☐ Predominantly Multiplayer
☐ What even is Singleplayer?
All said :3

--- | PC REQUIREMENTS | ---
☑ Potato will suffice
☐ Below average
☐ Decent
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
No fancy specs needed at all.

--- | DIFFICULTY | ---
☑ Braindead clicking and pressing "W"
☐ Fairly simple
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
Fights are easy, and since most decisions don't affect the outcome, there reallly is nothing that can be done wrong.

--- | FRUSTRATION | ---
☐ Nothing but relaxation and harmony
☑ Occasional Anger
☐ Feelings of accomplishment and frustration even each other out
☐ You will be upset for a lot of time
☐ Might as well open your own salt mine
I played till the end several times and - SPOILER ALERT - was pretty upset that you can't have a "good" ending no matter the choices, your castle will always be razed by your enemies, your family dead, and your lord wounded and barely escaping. Thats the only mayor frustrating moment though.

--- | GRIND | ---
☑ Nothing to grind
☐ Isnt necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You‘ll need a second live for grinding
All said :3 once again

--- | ACHIEVEMENTS |---
☑ Just play the game and you will gather them easily
☐ You can get them by progressing in the game and keeping an eye out
☐ Some are easily obtained, others you will have to grind
☐ They require you to commit a lot of time and skill
☐ You can spend a lifetime trying to earn all of them
You should have all of them upon finishing the final episode.

--- | STORY | ---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☑ Good
☐ It‘ll replace your life
The story is very good overall, although the Forresters seem to be much alike the Starks in a lot of aspects. - SPOILER ALERT - don't hope for a happy end though. I guarantee you'll like the story if you enjoyed watching the TV series.

--- | GAME TIME | ---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☑ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
I'd say two playtrough are recommended to experience every mayor option at least once, but beyond that the game is probably exhausted.

--- | PRICE | ---
☐ It’s free!
☐ Worth the price
☑ Maybe on sale
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
It's not that expensive, but playing it doesn't really feel like playing a video game and more like watching a spin off from the TV series, because your interaction with the story is so limited.

--- | BUGS | ---
☑ None at all
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ Lots of bugs
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
No bugs encountered.

--- | OVERALL | ---
☐ Amazing
☐ Good
☑ OK
☐ Bad
☐ Waste of time and money

--- | GRAPHICS |---
☐ Stunning
☐ Good
☑ Decent
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ Bad
Considering this game is more than 15 years old, there is nothing to complain about how this game looks. Surely newer games outclass HL2 in terms of resolution, animation and colour saturation, but its old look has something undeniably charming about it.

--- | GAMEPLAY| ---
☐ Amazing
☑ Good
☐ Average
☐ Meh
☐ Awful
The mixture of different activities throughout the game - exploring, fighting, driving, sometimes simultaneously - they really make the gameplay shine.

--- | AUDIO | ---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Good
☑ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
The sound is neither highlight nor weakness here.

--- | SINGLE-/MULTIPLAYER | ---
☑ Singleplayer only
☐ Mutliplayer available, but not preferred
☐ Both work out fine
☐ Predominantly Multiplayer
☐ What even is Singleplayer?
This game doesn't need multiplayer, besides, it wouldn't fit anyway.

--- | PC REQUIREMENTS | ---
☑ Potato will suffice
☐ Below average
☐ Decent
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
Any laptop with ♥♥♥♥♥♥ specs can run this without problems.

--- | DIFFICULTY | ---
☐ Braindead clicking and pressing "W"
☐ Fairly simple
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☑ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
While the gameplay mechanics and controls are quite straightforward, some fights later in the game can be challenging. At some points you will have think more than once to figure what you need to do in order to advance.

--- | FRUSTRATION | ---
☐ Nothing but relaxation and harmony
☑ Occasional Anger
☐ Feelings of accomplishment and frustration even each other out
☐ You will be upset for a lot of time
☐ Might as well open your own salt mine
Referring to the above, being stuck at one points in a level can be frustrating.

--- | GRIND | ---
☑ Nothing to grind
☐ Isnt necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You‘ll need a second live for grinding
Well, all is said for that one.

--- | ACHIEVEMENTS |---
☐ Just play the game and you will gather them easily
☑ You can get them by progressing in the game and keeping an eye out
☐ Some are easily obtained, others you will have to grind
☐ They require you to commit a lot of time and skill
☐ You can spend a lifetime trying to earn all of them
Many are story-related and can't even be missed, most of them are doable by exploring the areas and being creative with killing opponents. The one that requires you to find all Lamda signs really is the only one that takes up more time and awareness.


--- | STORY | ---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☑ Good
☐ It‘ll replace your life
You're a physicist fighting with rebels against a authoritarian/oppressive regime. Nothing special overall, but the details filling out the story make it pretty good.

--- | GAME TIME | ---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☑ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
I made two whole playtroughs, about 20 hours total, and I don't see many reasons to play it any further once you completed the story (and maybe got all the achievements).

--- | PRICE | ---
☐ It’s free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ Maybe on sale
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
It's an all-time classic for a relatively cheap regular price, totally worth buying.

--- | BUGS | ---
☐ None at all
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ Lots of bugs
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
Just some glitches and stuff, nothing to worry about.

--- | OVERALL | ---
☐ Amazing
☑ Good
☐ OK
☐ Bad
☐ Waste of time and money