| Grey reviews "Swords & Soldiers II"; Humble Review Bundle | |
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| Topic Started: Sep 16 2016, 03:46 PM (155 Views) | |
| Greymon57 | Sep 16 2016, 03:46 PM Post #1 |
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Okay I've really been putting off this review. Like I seriously don't wish to review it. I've reviewed many games I didn't like. but this one takes the cake. Nonetheless I'll try to review this as fair as possible. Swords & Soldiers II Story: 7.5/10 The plot of this game is very long, as well as very confusing. So I'll try my best to explain it, even though I didn't understand it myself. Probably cause I skipped thru most of it. But essentially there are like 3 traveling clans: Vikings, Arab Merchants, and Demons. These 3 clans seems to be traveling all over looking to pillage and fight each other. One of the clans finds an oil lamp which, SPOILER WARNING, has a magic genie in it. I know unexpected right? Anyways the clan that finds it is unaware it has a genie, but the other two clans are trying to get their hands on the lamp. Oh and there is a traveling cook or something doing mini-missions. You play randomly as any of the clans, often fighting against clans you've already played as. Gameplay: 6/10 For what it is, it's not bad. I just really don't like this type of game. It's like if a facebook browser game had a child with a mobile game. Honestly this type of game would make more sense on iOS than the Wii U. Anyways let me try to explain it. Each map starts you on the left and you must reach the right. No it's not a platformer. As time moves, you gain coins and manna. You use coins to spawn warriors, and manna to do spells and build towers. When a warrior is spawned, they begin walking towards the right, attacking anything in their way. Warriors have a health bar, so if they run out of HP they die. At the same time that you are spawning warriors to go right, the enemy is spawning enemies to go left. Enemies will attack your warriors and towers. If an enemy reaches your base, it will attack it. If your base runs out of HP, then game over. The game is simple yet ramps up in difficulty quite quick. There is a lot of strategy involved. Also luck play a huge role. Either way, maps often take a huge time to clear, or to get a game over. Level Design: 4/10 I guess I'm judging the levels based on the enemies and towers set up. For the most part, they all feel the same. There are a few levels that are based on a gimmick. Or on pre-selected Warrior/spell combos. The backgrounds also change. But really it's just more of the same. Characters: 3/10 Don't get me wrong, the game had tons of charactes, and most of them had personality. I just couldn't get myself to care for them. They all seemed so.... cartoonishly lame. And I like cartoons. But this just felt like the extras from a knock off movie that is trying to ride the success of a more popular movie. It was just, BLEH. Music: 5/10 The music wasn't bad. The composer clearly earned his cash. Yet there wasn't any track that felt amazing to me. Bosses: 3/10 There weren't any 'Bosses' per se, but there were levels were the enemies were stacked against you. They clearly had the advantage. That gave the feeling of a boss challenge. It was a clever trick, but a trick nonetheless. Abilities: 10/10 I didn't like the game or it's mechanics. But it did have a wide selection of warriors and spells. Thus making many customized strategies. Replay Value: 0/10 If I may quote Samuel Jackson "Enough is Enough. I've had it with these Monkey-Fighting Swords on this Monday-Thru-Friday Soldiers!!" Well I may have paraphrased a bit, but you get the General Idea. Average Sum: 4.8/10 Overall Experience: 2/10 Look it's not that the game is bad, it's just that I can't stand this type of game. If you love mobile and browser games then this might be for you. But for me it was just too much. I forced myself to play this game just for the review and even then I put off the review cause I just didn't want to do it. They say if you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all. Well the game was clearly not a cheap production, it's just not something I ever want to play. -------- Oh yeah, I decided to add Trailers to all my Reviews. To kinda give an idea of what I'm talking about. |
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| CyraxkilawattMKII | Sep 17 2016, 09:00 PM Post #2 |
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Angel of Death
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I am not going to lie, and I hope you don't mind some pretty damn harsh criticism, but personally your review became invalid in two places "I skipped through most if it" in regards to the story, I get why you would but that's like me skipping to the end of Gone the wind, reading the last page and saying "Why is Rhett saying "Frankly I don't give a damn"" why is he leaving, the story makes no sense. and again a book like Gone with the Wind is one you have to read from start to finish, if you were to skip around you wouldn't fully understand the motives of the characters. That's not to say S&S II is a masterpiece, quite the opposite, I have no doubt it is awful and cliched but again, I never played it so I can't rate it. And the second and most important part is "I just don't like this type of game" , that completely invalidates your review, and I have seen this with many "Professional Reviwers", where you can see they went in hating or wanting to hate said game in the reviews they write. You're influenced by your own disinterested in this game, so it is possible you went in wanting to enjoy the game but if you already didn't care then you already didn't care. I.E. I Hate Halo, so I know my experience with it will not be possitive and if I were to do a reveiw, I would look for any crack to bitch about . I am not saying, don't do a negative review, but at least do it on a genre you like or are somewhat interested in. Negative mindset will generate negative experience which translates into Negative Review. But on the lighter side, I kicked my Nephews ass in Halo, and he was taken back by it. considering how I didn't give two shits about the game.
Edited by CyraxkilawattMKII, Sep 17 2016, 09:01 PM.
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| "Boston or Bust" Nov. 10, 2015 | |
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| Greymon57 | Sep 18 2016, 07:11 AM Post #3 |
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Yay! A response. And don't worry. I have thick skin. Let's hear it. Also I hope you don't mind as I'll be responding to some of your points. #1. "I skipped through most if it" in regards to the story, I get why you would but that's like me skipping to the end of Gone the wind... a book like Gone with the Wind is one you have to read from start to finish, if you were to skip around you wouldn't fully understand the motives of the characters. That's not to say S&S II is a masterpiece, quite the opposite, I have no doubt it is awful and cliched but again, I never played it so I can't rate it. Funny Story, I never read "Gone with the Wind" so I honestly have no Idea why the line at the end is so popular. ![]() But anyways I agree that I shouldn't have skipped the story. And in all honesty I tried. At the beginning I listened to every cutscene and read every dialogue box. But they were just so long and unappealing. After a while I started skipping halfway thru, and then I just tried skipping thru most of it. I agree I should have taken it all in to give it a just rating, but at the same time I feel the developers have a responsibility to write a plot that pulls in the player. A story that players will want to read. Not just hashing out dialogue boxes for the sake of having them in the game. #2.You're influenced by your own disinterest in this game, so it is possible you went in wanting to enjoy the game but if you already didn't care then you already didn't care. And the second and most important part is "I just don't like this type of game" , that completely invalidates your review, I agree that if I have no interest in the game that my disinterest will affect my rating. But does that mean that I can't review a game that I don't like? Well the way I figure IF I am to review such a game, then I should be fair and let the reader know I have a bias, which I did. I even stated that I would TRY to be fair. That way everyone can know part of the reason why the score is so low. #3. and I have seen this with many "Professional Reviewers", Well I mean I'm not a professional reviewer. There may or may not be a problem with them. I really would not know. I just do these for fun. #4.where you can see they went in hating or wanting to hate said game in the reviews they write. I fully agree. It's one of the reasons why I put off the review for so long. I had beaten this game before MN9, yet I kept putting it off because I figured my review would be biased. Even in my "Thomas was alone" review I stated that I did not wish to review this game. It kind of got me to give up on reviews for a while. Until I played Fairune, which re-kindled my spark for reviews. I figured I might as well just get this one out of the way, even if I had nothing good to say. #5. I Hate Halo, so I know my experience with it will not be positive and if I were to do a review, I would look for any crack to bitch about . Personally I dislike FPS games, yet GoldenEye and Metroid Prime are some of my favorite games. So just because i'm disinterested in a genre doesn't mean there isn't an exception that I might enjoy. If a reviewer with similar gaming tastes as me suggested Halo I might pick it up. Yet if such a person said "Stay away from Halo" then I wouldn't give it a second thought. #6. I am not saying, don't do a negative review, but at least do it on a genre you like or are somewhat interested in. Negative mindset will generate negative experience which translates into Negative Review. I partially agree. As I stated earlier, I put off this review because I knew it would be negative. It was a negative experience, it was a negative review. Yet I still feel I should talk about it. Still felt like there was something I had to say about it. Add my two cents, if you will. When I was in college we did art critiques. Some classmates hated them because they could not take negative criticism. Some left infuriated, or wouldn't talk to anybody who made a negative comment about their work. The point of the Critique is to share our thoughts, both positive and negative. Now you are suggesting I stick to genre's I like. And for the most part I do. S&SII I obtained thru the Humble Bundle. I reviewed every other game there. So I felt I must go full circle and do the last one. Now just because I should stick to a genre I like that doesn't mean I can't leave my comfort zone once in a while. Can a Non-comic book fan review a super hero movie? What about a non-comic book fan who doesn't typically enjoy action movies? Are their opinions obsolete? I'd say the are welcome to share their opinions, just make sure to let others what your preferences are before had. But on the lighter side, I kicked my Nephews ass in Halo, and he was taken back by it. considering how I didn't give two shits about the game.Nice Conclusion: I agree with a lot of what you are saying. But I also feel this is a much broader discussion. Just a few weeks ago IGN was on fire for their "Sonic was never good" comments. Those comments infuriated the Sonic fan base. Now as a fan of Classic Sonic games I disagree with IGN, yet defend their right to their opinion. Those IGN commenters don't like Sonic and they shouldn't have to pretend otherwise. I mean the statement underminds the massive success that the Sonic Franchise has had, but it's still how they feel. IGN tends to like Triple A titles more than 2D sidescrollers, and there is nothing wrong with that. To each their own. Personally I like the retro-inspired indie experience. Don't care much for big name games. Like you said with Halo, if I were to review it I'd give it a low score. Many might feel that my low score is tarnishing the name & success of the Halo series. Those people need to get over themselves. There are many opinions and tastes in gaming and not everyone will agree on everything. Overall I liked your comments. They were very insightful. Provoked intelligent discussion. Don't take my words as me being defensive or combatant. I'm just the type of person that likes to share ideas and different POVs. So by all means respond to any other review you disagree with, where past or future review. I welcome any feedback. Edited by Greymon57, Sep 18 2016, 08:08 AM.
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| CyraxkilawattMKII | Sep 18 2016, 08:09 AM Post #4 |
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Angel of Death
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1. I get that, I might have been overly harsh here considering that there have been times I was like "I don't give a fuck, can I please move on to the game". So it is understandable, so if the story is not engrossing I can see wanted to mash the 'A' button to get by it. again, I play RPGs like Fallout, where I end up creating my own story. Like the time I stormed Black Mountian to put an end to Tabitha's reign, only to find out there was a much more amusing alternative. ![]() 2. My personal Philosophy is, if it's a game I am expected to not like, A. I don't play it, B. I don't review it. But there are times, when I am excepted to like or love a game only to be let down by it. But that is my personal View, which is why I won't review games like Halo which I will never play as it is. 3 & 4. No you are not, I was just pointing out how bad Professional Reviewers are, and why I don't care for them, in that way there is much more credibility in your review than there's. 5. There are exceptions, I do love Doom, and of course Metroid Prime, I don't dislike FPS, I have Modern Warfare 4 and Black Opts on my DS, and enjoyed both, my only gripe with most FPS (and at the same time reasons I may play it) is that I find them mind numbing with the few exceptions of course. 6. Again this might have been overly harsh, because every Genre has it's exceptions, I dont' care for Fighting games and do not see the Hype over Street Fighter, to me it's meh, but I do enjoy the more creative ones like Enternal Champions and the Original Killler Instinct games (Haven't played the new one). 7. LOL, he was so confident he was going to kick my ass, his reaction was beautiful. I do not believe he got one kill on me, mostly it was 1 V 1 and his tactic is to rush, and I am a sniper. HOwever, even when I got bored and rushed him, he still couldn't beat me. I got bored quickly with it though. Conclusion: You have to admit, Alpha Sapphire had to much water, 7/1j0. But seriously, I prefer none professional reviews such as yours and I suppose some Youtubers. I am not a big fan of the Sonic Series, at all, but even I know there was some good games, Sonic CD being my favorite, so having a right to an opinion is fine, but not when it's a professionally done review. Even at my Work I have to follow unbiased Guidelines or risk losing my job. Overall: It's nice to have a intelligent discussion, most people are overly sensitive and can't handle any sort of criticism or alternative views. |
| "Boston or Bust" Nov. 10, 2015 | |
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| Greymon57 | Sep 18 2016, 08:14 AM Post #5 |
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Thanks for the input Cyrax.
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| CyraxkilawattMKII | Sep 18 2016, 08:33 AM Post #6 |
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Angel of Death
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No problem, . I maybe doing my own review pretty soon, I've gotten the itch. . I bet you can never guess what game I will be reviewing. .
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| "Boston or Bust" Nov. 10, 2015 | |
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| Greymon57 | Sep 18 2016, 04:54 PM Post #7 |
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Does it involve the Force of a certain Federation? |
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| CyraxkilawattMKII | Sep 18 2016, 08:01 PM Post #8 |
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Angel of Death
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nah, but I do need to get back in gear and finish that game, but as an Original Metroid Fan and one who was open minded about Federation Force, I would like to review it. |
| "Boston or Bust" Nov. 10, 2015 | |
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| Greymon57 | Sep 19 2016, 05:47 AM Post #9 |
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Yeah I'll review it once I get close to 100%. Not sure why the full campaign is only 30% completion. But I don't wish to review something that I've only experienced 1/3 of it's potential. |
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considering how I didn't give two shits about the game.

12:53 PM Jul 11