It’s time for my weekly game review, but this week is something special because it’s time for a video game review!

 

Shadowrun Returns

TL;DR-Not perfect, but damn fun.  Please help, I can’t stop! 85%

Platforms-Steam and OSX

Graphics-The graphics are serviceable to good.  The view is approximately 3/4 overhead, which brings with it some great and some bad.  The view gives a good view of the rooms, but also leaves some of the details obscured.  Since the game is cross platform with the lowest resolution in the iOS, the best the graphics can do is iOS.  This is not bad, but again not the best it could be.  Also, icons appear that the player can click on.  But, they do not stay visible, and when multiple things are in the same area, it’s hard to click on the proper icon. 3.5/5

Story-This is story is amazing.  I might not thing this game is game of the year, but I can’t stop playing!  It feels Shadowrun through and through.  And since this game is a story game from the RPG, this is the most important part to nail. And they real did nail it! 5/5

Mechanics-There are two area for mechanics: character mechanics and game mechanics. Let’s look at the game mechanics first. This game is point and click.  You point and click.  Point and click.  Battles tend to get a little stale over time as you tend to do the same thing over and over.  Its not bad, but in the longer battles it gets to be a problem.  You click on powers and the click on people to use them.  Players only get so many items before the start of an encounter.  Players have an home base that they go to before missions to buy gear and then recruit new runners to their team.  Character mechanics next.  The Characters have the standard Shadowrun stats that we all know in love.  Beneath each stat is a few substats that build on the standard stats.  An example is Strength.  Below the standard strength stat is close combat.  This replaces the standard skills of the Shadowrun game.  It’s not bad, but it’s different.  All and all, a fun game with a little bit of drag. 4/5

Shadowrun Feel-The game feels like Shadowrun.  Story that feels like a Shadowrun game with characters that are ripped from a Shadowrun game book.  If you can’t find some people to play a home game, this is a about as close as you can get.  Its not completely the RPG, but its damn fine.  Also, when the main game is done, go get some player made content.  I LOVE games that allow players to make content.  This makes the game feel even more like the RPG. 4.5/5

Final Thoughts-So I’ve complained about a few issues, but honestly I can’t stop playing.  Its a lot of fun and makes me want to play some more table top Shadowrun right now. It’s a pretty cheap buy in for about $25 bucks.  Go get it-17/20-85%

TL;DR- Best part of the adventure path 5/5

Plot-Spoilers ahead!- The pirates now have a ship and begin to be pirates.  The player have a chance to grab an island for territory, make some alliances and explore an sunken dungeon.  At the end of the adventure, the players will move from small time pirates to Full Free Captains of the Shackles.

GM Impressions-THIS IS THE ADVENTURE TO MAINLINE PIRATES!  We’re past the level 1 problem of the first adventure.  Now the players get to go be real pirates, and ITS AWESOME!  I had a blast.  The players had a blast.  IF YOU WANT TO PLAY ANY OF THIS ADVENTURE PATH, THIS ADVENTURE IS THE ONE!

Good-You’re FINALY pirates in Pathfinder.  You have a ship, and you set sail.  The PCs can go ANYWHERE!

Bad-This is an improve heavy adventure.  The PCs just go after ships.  The book has some basic ships and a basic village they can attack.  You as a GM have to make it entertaining.  Its not hard, but you have to put in a little bit of leg work to make this fun.   Also, get ready for underwater aquatic combat.  If your PCs hate rules heavy combat, they will not enjoy that part.

Final Thoughts-Best part of the adventure path.  YOU ARE PIRATES!  No random skill checks.  No real control on your PCs.  Just GO!  Be pirates!  As a GM, read ahead, know your rules, and be ready to make stuff up on the fly!  5/5

Game: Storm the Castle!

Players: 1-4

Playtime(setup/play/clean-up): 120 minutes

Set Ending: Yes

TL;DR-A “Fun” game that fall just short of being fun-52.5%

How You Play: Players take the role of different factions trying to invade a castle full of good, heroic people.  You play as zombies, dark wizards, orcs, or dark elves.  Each round the players get gold and draw a card.  Then players do a blind bid to be the overlord.  As the overlord you get to choose two options on when to play and draw a special overload card.  Then play goes round robin with each player taking turns moving pieces, attacking the castle, and trying to defend the castle.  The game ends when a player invades the castle center or after a set number of rounds.

Theme: The theme and theme/mechanics mix of the game are well done in as far as the mechanics are well done.  This game is semi-“co-opetitive” games where players fight one another, but can’t spend all their time messing with one another or they are guaranteed to lose.  Each race gets its own deck of cards that show who they are, and these decks really give each race a flavor.  Some races even get different mechanics of the game like zombies and wizards getting magic, orcs getting some sappers, and elves having archers.  This aspect makes the game feel interesting and enjoyable. 5/5

 
Mechanics:  Here is were the games flat out fails.  There is no internal balance.  When I played, I pretty much dominated the game as the overlord once I got it.  You get extra gold as the overlord and you spend gold to be the overlord, so I just built in that gold to the bid!  Also, there is not enough ways to mess with other players, hence the runaway victor problem.  The final straw in this is the dice.  All events in the game are based on six sided dice, but the dice only hit 1/3 times with the first die having a critical chance where you hit and roll extra dice.  This is not “horrible” but more often than not you end up rolling four dice with zero hits!  When this happens once, its ok, but in the game I played we had whole rounds where attacks and defenders didn’t touch each other.  This makes the game feel less like a pitched battle and more like a game of two children in the back seat of a car screaming at each other playing the “I’m not touching you!” game.  It makes the game grind to a halt and not fun. 0/5

Instructions: Here is where things are worse.  The instructions are full of problems and the game needs errata to be playable.  Even worse the game’s errata doesn’t cover all the problems we faced in the simple version of the game.  Even then the games rules are too long for a simple game. 2.5/5

Art/Components:  Its good art.  The components need some work.  The tokens have two sides for ready and used.  Some of the used sides are hard to see.  Also the turn markers are two sided, but they have different values on the different sides….WHY?!  This makes giving out random turn orders very hard.  DON’T DO THIS GAME DESIGNERS! 3/5

Final Thoughts: Despite my ravings about this game, I didn’t hate it….I see so much potential in this game.  A bit more work and this game would be AWESOME.  I love the races and their differences.  The defenders are great and have personalities.  What kills this game is the crappy dice, the poor instructions and some component trouble. 10.5/20-52.5%

 

One second game fix-Take the dice you get with the game and throw them away in the garbage.  take a bunch of six side yatzhee dice and use them.  1-3 you miss,  4-5 you hit, and 6 your crit (but only one die that you color).  DONE!  Now you get a fifty-fifty miss chance that will make your game that much more fun and feel like a battle!

During the Labor Day weekend, my wife and I finished the first arc of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game.  Let’s give it the run down and I’ll tell you what I thought.  Along the way, I’ll give you my wife’s thoughts as this is a co-op game.

Game: Pathfinder Adventure Card Game

Players: 1-4

Playtime(setup/play/clean-up): ~30 minutes

Set Ending: Yes

TL;DR-Great game that was a ton of fun to play.  I’m looking forward to the next part of the adventure path.  I am cautious about the future though-80%

 

How You Play: Players take the role of iconic Pathfinder characters and investigate different locations.  How this translates to a game is at start, players build decks of card with different cards in each location.  These cards range from traps, people you can met, monsters to fight, and items/weapons/arms/spells you can find.  On your turn, you flip a card from the blessing deck( a built in timer for the game), and can flip the top card of a location deck you are at.  The card may call for a roll.  Each character has the six normal Pathfinder/3.5 stats and these are represented by different dice type you roll.  Players can play cards to add more dice to the roll.  Combat works just the same as finding an item or evading a trap.  Play continues at a location until the players find a henchmen who they fight and then they can try to close a location.  Players may move between locations and have different types of encounters this way.  This continues until players find the lead main villain who, when beaten, means the game is over and the players have won.

 

Mechanics:  The mechanics of the game are well put together.  Nothing to hard to figure out when you know what you’re doing.  Turns go quick and play is fast.  Nothing comes out of left field that makes the game grind to a halt.  I found it pretty easy and so did my wife.  We both liked the way the game plays. 5/5

 

Theme:  The theme and theme/mechanics mix of the game are “interesting.”  Not bad “interesting,” but “interesting.”  The game does not use a D20.  This fact is kind of strange as the game is based on Pathfinder.  While not horrible and a deal breaker by any means, it does make the game feel a little bit less like the Pathfinder RPG and more like different third party RPGs I’ve played.  I reiterate, that’s not bad, but I doesn’t feel like the Pathfinder RPG.  Also, I and my wife and I a strange revelation.  The way you recharge powers/cards/spells made us think of 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons.  Some items were one time use, but a lot of cards had recharge abilities and made us think 4e DnD.  Again, not bad, but it makes us think of other RPGs.  That all said, at WORST the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game makes us think of other RPGs, NOT a card game.  It was a fun with nail biting moments when we HAD to make a roll or I would die and we would lose the quest.  Good time without a person having to DM.  4/5

 

Instructions: Here is where things are not as great.  The instruction book isn’t a long read, but it is kind of difficult to get the important information out of.  This is Paizo’s first real game that I have played.  The book does get the game across, but I had to check out watch-it-played youtube videos so I could figure out different questions.  A major one was the blessing deck.  My wife and I read the rules and both thought you drew cards from it.  We were both very wrong.  Now we both know it is a timer deck that you only place cards on.  The rules don’t have many pictures or breaks.  This is great for an RPG book, but for a game, I need more examples and pictures of play.  It’s not horrible, but it does need outside help. 2.5/5

 

Art/Components:  Paizo has never made crap, and they didn’t with this.  Hard cardboard with a well put together box.  Great stuff.  For the art, a lot comes from the Pathfinder RPG.  Not bad.  If you like the Pathfinder art style, you will like this game.  It’s as simple as that.  I’d like more new, but I got over 500 cards for $80 bucks.  I know art costs, so I’m happy with what I got. 4.5/5

 

Final Thoughts:  This is a great game.  You want to play an RPG and don’t have a group?  Get the game.  You want an RPG and no one want to DM?  Get this game.  Basically, this is a fantastic game that my wife and I love.  My wife and I both can’t wait till the next adventure releases. 80% 16/20

 

Caution in the Future:   What I am concerned with is what will happen in the future.  The game is great, but the mechanics are very similar throughout the entire game.  That is great, but if the next adventure is the same, then I will be disappointed.  The adventure game does vary some things, but I can’t help but compare the game to the Lord of the Rings Card Game.  My wife does not completely agree with the comparison, but she does think that the Lord of the Rings game has more variety.  The game instructs the players to make new piles of cards, the draw differently, to completely make new adventures and go quest alone, and more crazy things.  While some of those mechanics openly do not work so well, the game shows no fear in finding new ways to play.  I would like the makers of this card game to look at that one and see how the Pathfinder Adventure card Game can grew.  I’m cautiously optimistic that Paizo will make something new and awesome, but I also have a touch of bad feeling that something might go awry.