100 Word Review - #T26 - Dear Esther

As a book, it probably would've been pretty decent.

Dear Esther

Genre - Adventure, Indie, Casual

Metascore - 77%

Developer - thechineseroom, Robert Briscoe

Other Games by Developer - N/A

Tom's Playtime -  1.3 hours

I'm receptive to the idea of games as art, however Dear Esther seems to forget about the idea of games as games. The modus operandi here is simply on-foot navigation around an island while the protagonist narrates to you. Very little happens in Dear Esther and it was tedious to reach completion, but along the way I found merits in the eloquent writing style and a few environments which would give Skyrim competition. These merits do not detract from the non-existent “gameplay” that Dear Esther attempts to provide and, while better than Dinner Date, it too is ultimately forgettable.

Tom's Score - 3/10

Skyrim Update

Two weeks ago, I decided to go back to Skyrim to try and get the last 9 achievements. As I said in my review, I really didn't feel like playing any more after finishing the main quest, but as Tom had just bought it, I decided to give it another go.

It was nice to have something to aim for, but at times, it just got really tedious, and I remarked that it was like a fetch-quest Inception. The 'One With the Shadows' achievement in particular was amazingly drawn out and probably took me a couple of hours of repeating seven feats of theft for the Thieves Guild until I was given some other jobs.

I did, however, get a chance to increase some of my other skills to get the achievement for getting to level 50, which created a challenge as skills without perks can be pretty useless (especially in the endgame).

I've also been experimenting with a few mods, like Enhanced High-Level Gameplay, (which scales enemies above the level 35 cap they have otherwise) and various graphical enhancements, such as improved snow and blood effects.

I may experiment a bit more with mods, and try a few custom quests and areas or I may wait until an expansion is released. I may just uninstall it and sell off my Steam account. £1000 - any takers?

100 Word Review - #J1 - Mount and Blade: Warband

Goes down smoother than a Creme Egg

Mount and Blade: Warband

Genre - Action, RPG

Metascore - 78%

Developer - Tale Worlds

Other Games by Developer - Mount and Blade, Mount and Blade: With Fire and Sword

James' Playtime - 65.9 hours

Mount and Blade: Warband! It’s a declaration of war, in many online communities; for good reasons! Did you ever want to take the reins of a medieval army general? Maybe horsing around as a merchant interests you? Will you pillage or save peasants from bandit neighbours? Load up the game, journey from rags to riches to empire in this action RPG, and realise a week has passed in the blink of an eye. The graphics are aging, but the combat and gameplay offer more challenge and roleplaying depth than hotshots like Skyrim. Name your horse! I call mine Whinnyfred.

James' Score - 8/10

100 Word Review - #10 - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

What would you do if you turned around to see this?

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Genre - RPG

Metascore - 94%

Developer - Bethesda Game Studios

Other Games by Developer - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Fallout 3

My Current Playtime - 46.2 hours

You can’t help but notice the visuals in ‘Skyrim’- they are spectacular. The gameplay is a well-executed version of the standard fantasy RPG formula (magic, dragons, etc.) and the series has been improved upon with addition of features from the ‘Fallout’ series, like perks. It does however, like all Bethesda fare, contain a few bugs. I love messing around when playing games and this is facilitated quite well - I spent far too much time messing around with NPCs. As good as ‘Skyrim’ is, I just didn’t feel like playing it anymore after completing the main quest, which is sad. 

My Score - 9/10