Interstellar Marines (Early Access)

Zach Goodier

(Note: This game was played a couple months ago, so some info might be dated)

Interstellar Marines is an early-access first-person shooter which has you play an aspiring soldier looking to sign on as a recruit for the first marines to serve in space. It all sounds super cool, but for the most part, it keeps things fairly domestic, at least at this point. You can play competitive multiplayer modes and co-op against robot programmed to patrol and kill players, but the weapons themselves are modern. There really isn't a story to speak of aside from that, which is disappointing, but it seems that the actual story is going to be included in the main game. 

Weapons are modern, not futuristic.

The mechanics and movement are a little clunky, but for early access, everything looks pretty solid all around. Models are all solid and the guns feel realistic and the environments, while still on the small side, are well made. 

Monsters like this are, as far as I know, part of recent updates, but I only did a free weekend a while back.

Overall, this game still feels early in the sense that isn't a whole lot to do, but it looks like the focus has been on getting the mechanics and modelling right, and offering some entertaining challenges through unique game modes. I find the levels to be fairly short, and the general feeling to be generic. If they could really work on making this game look and feel like something unique, there could be a real gem here. Perhaps in later updates, and with the inclusion of story mode, this game could be a fun title. Until then, I wouldn't recommend jumping in with high expectations. Like a lot of early access games, there is always potential, but it's too early to tell how the final product will look.

Good:

-Decent mechanics.

-Some interesting modes.

-Solid modelling.

Bad:

-Lack of story.

-Nothing unique or exciting to hook you at this point.

Scully Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Fallen Enchantress

Zach Goodier

Fallen Enchantress is a PC strategy empire builder RPG that puts the play in control of a faction.  You must then settle your initial city, building outposts and trying to control resources on the map in order to secure yourself while conducting research, training troops, and sending your heroes on quests to acquire items and gain experience to level up.  These heroes can also be used to lead your armies or form adventure parties to clear the map of hostile creatures or rival empires. 

I do love the pride in building a successful civilization.

Gameplay is turn-based, with a map view that contains all of your empire/unit management interfaces.  There are local maps that appear when armies engage in combat, with initiative determining what units move in what turn.  This further adds some RPG elements to the game, and heroes can become very dangerous when they level up.  While playing, I enjoyed taking on larger armies, and still winning just because I had a hero or two mixed in, which really made a difference in combat that the calculator won’t give you in the estimates or auto-resolve, so fighting your own battles can be very rewarding if done right.

Customizing your heroes with looted gear has a very strong, yet traditional RPG feel to it.

The story is fairly flimsy, with each leader (which you can make on your own, if the presets don’t appeal to you) taking command of a race, and then seeking to become dominant in whatever area you wish, whether you research, trade, or conquer (I prefer the last one).  You can set up the win conditions as you see fit when you start a game, if you only want to play one type of campaign.  Maps include presets or randomly-generated maps, each with different regions with various characteristics and native monsters, whether they include bears, giant spiders, or various, much more lethal foes.  You can even take control of certain beasts if you are lucky/resourceful enough, which adds a new element of strategy when approaching enemies, and can really tip the scales if done right.  This game is about the struggle to dominate, and you are more or less free to choose the means.

Battles will start out small, but grow into big encounters as the stakes are raised.

While the foundation of this game feels solid, neither the graphics nor the gameplay feels all as polished as it could have been.  Character customization is nice when making a leader, but it lacks the depth and variation that the option implies.  You have some variety, but not much.  You can select gear and such for training units to truly make the armies feel your own, but they also lack the variety and depth beyond simple upgrades.  It would have been neat to see more options geared towards unit specialization and the like.  You can find and recruit randomly spawning heroes, and they do add some neat mechanics towards army management and questing, but they never feel like more than just a different type of unit, aside from the ability to gain traits as they level. 

Maps aren't really all that huge for a game of this genre, but random generation keeps the replay value somewhat high if you enjoy the game.

Overall, this is a game that entertains, but doesn’t really impress.  I found myself coming back, but not because the game itself was that impressive, just because I didn’t have anything else I felt like doing at the time.  So in that sense, it does a decent job of helping keep you entertained, but it certainly lacks the depth and polish that you find in other strategy games, and it doesn’t delve as deep into role-playing as other RPG games.  It ends up feeling like an interesting attempt to meld the two, which might have been more successful with more time and polish, as well as some variety and originality in how both the strategy and RPG elements were implemented in this game.  Fallen Enchantress is an interesting game at first glance, but starts to lose its sense of intrigue and wonder as you delve further into its world.

Good:

-Nice combination of Strategy and RPG elements, melding empire management and strategy with questing.

-Randomly-generated maps make replay value relatively high.

Bad:

-Attempts at variety are shallow in both character and unit customization.

-Doesn’t really do much with the strategy/RPG combo to really make it feel at home in this game.

Scully Rating: 7.5 out of 10