http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...nder_cover.jpg

Divinity: Dragon Commander (2013)

I've been looking at this game for quite a while but wanted to wait until it came down in price. Yesterday it was added to a Humble Bundle with some other games a friend of mine was interested in so I decided to buy the bundle for this, and gift him the rest.

Anyways, Divinity: Dragon Commander is a steampunk fantasy RPG/Grand Strategy/ RTS game where you play as a the bastard half dragon offspring of the recently deceased Emperor and have to balance diplomacy and military prowess in stopping a civil war and reuniting the Empire. As this is a fantasy game, there are various races like Orcs, Goblins, Elves, Imps, Undead, and homid lizard people that remind me of Argonians from The Elder Scrolls series, however there are also steampunk elements added, like lasers and flying fortresses and shit.

So yeah the game is broken down into 3 different play styles with one being optional. The first part of the game is mostly RPG/ dialogue selecting as you talk to different members of your cabinet, most of whom represent the various species and how you can crush your enemies through shrewd political maneuvers. This is a very interesting part of the game and despite it not being the most open, there's a lot of interesting lore to be found by talking to your generals and ambassadors and shit. It's helped by some incredibly well written and thought provoking dialogue as issues of sexism, racism, inequality, nepotism, and if the ends justify the means are all present and presented in a mature manner.

From there you can enter the second phase of the game, the grand strategy part that resembles the friendship ruining board game RISK. This is my weakest area because I skipped the tutorial and can't find a way to go back, so I really can't comment on it other than it's a little unintuitive because I honestly cannot figure out what the fuck it is I'm suppose to be doing. Still, that can be rectified with tutorial videos and what not, and these types of games do expect the player to be willing to put some work into the experience.

Lastly there's my favourite part, the Real-Time Strategy part of the game. This isn't like the Total War series RTS, this is basically Starcraft except with a very unique distinction, if you press the R button you turn into a fucking dragon with a jetpack and can fly around the battlefield aiding your troops in fucking shit up. From what I've gathered so far, most of the resource gathering aspects of your standard RTS have been replaced, I assume the RISK portion of the game is how you gain gold and other resources so mostly what you do is gain command posts that let you build specific types of installations at the expense of your recruit population. I'm not really doing the RTS portion justice, because honestly when you can turn into a dragon with a jetpack... yeah sorry but building a bunch of troopers to help me in combat isn't what comes to my mind immediately. I know when I get further into the game the strategy will have to change, but for now it seems a little simplistic. It's also worth mentioning that if this aspect of the game doesn't interest you, but the rest does, the RTS battles are optional as you can do an auto battle and take a chance that you'll win. Don't know why you'd deprive yourself of the opportunity to turn into a dragon with a jetpack, but whatever.

Anyways, this is definitely a game you'll have to put some time and effort into, but it's also the kind of game with LOTS of options so there's plenty of replayability. If you enjoy complex games with multiple paths to find, you'll enjoy this, and even if you enjoy simple games, the complexities aren't so much so that you won't be able to figure it out or get help. As far as I can tell there aren't many games that offer a similar experience, nor are there ones that are willing to put the time and effort into writing the kind of story and dialogue this game goes for.

I'd say if you consider yourself a PC gamer then you owe it to yourself to give this a go, even if you've never heard of it or never thought of playing a game like this, give it a go anyways, you might just be surprised.

^^^

Sometimes not having a computer of my own feels like the end of the world. :(

Have you thought about getting a Steambox? They're going to be a little more expensive than a console, but you'll end up saving money in the long run on the games because you can almost always get them on sale during specific times of the year.

Still wouldn't help his situation if he doesn't have internet at home.

Im playing Odin Sphere atm

http://www.gamereactor.eu/media/82/o...ere_148295.jpg

it has a cool story but a weird ass gameplay, you LvL up your HP bar with the items you use to heal which are mostly fruits or food.

You get seeds you plant as you fight and they collect the souls (Called 'Photons' in the game) of the enemies you defeat to grow.. for exmpl Grapes take 12 Photons to grow

And you can absorb those Photons to LvL up your spear your ONLY weapon in the game.

The gameplay runs like a Novel through chapters and in between those chapters you go to a battlefield that's fragmented in circular sections.

this game has one of the weirdest *****n gameplay ive ever seen, it's a side scrolling beat'em up Rpg where you harvest fruit to LvL up and the sprites are huge, the game looks like a precious moment manga.

I know the feels, i don't have one either.

That game looks tight

Odin sphere you mean?

here is what it looks like.

http://images.psxextreme.com/screens...nsphere_11.jpg

I got it for like 5 bucks at the Psn it's not a bad game but it's not great either..

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...blockcover.png

I've been playing this on my crummy laptop that can barely support playing it for more than a half hour. Which I guess is a good thing. It's fun, funny, and a great way to waste yet another foggy as hell afternoon while updating resumes and looking for rooms.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...re_2_cover.PNG


u mad i have a tactical insertion on top of that little building on the Terminal map and I'm firing my RPG and grenade launchers with the Danger Close perk and noob tubing everyone to death

Playing Fallout 1