I have 'officially' given up on Gears Tactics now, I want to be able to stop playing games when I have lost interest no matter how near the end I am and thus forcing myself through them. Here is what happened. I was on a frequently recurring mission (one of a handful that repeats many times over), where both of your characters cant die or you get a missions fail. So, I failed the mission twice and realised I was no longer enjoying this game, and then stopped. That was it. No need to go back now, I have seen many times over what this game has to offer, and if it were half the length or had more mission variety it would be fantastic, but it isn't. It tries to borrow so much from Xcom but misses 2 of the key fundamentals whereby you have to research new equipment to upgrade your characters, and more importantly, everyone can die. A idea that is both a blessing and a curse as it can be a major blow to lose someone highly skilled, yet human sacrifice is key to success. I'm not saying they had to entirely copy Xcom and re skin it with Gears of War, that would be cheep and lazy, but by fundamentally changing the entire way the gameplay system works with character deaths really has a huge negative impact on this game for me. It's a real shame as there was so much promise but turned out to be a mediocre spin off to try and bring new fans in to a waning series. Oh Well!
So, then what next (if you read the title I'm sure you can guess) as I wasn't sure. I tried many, Fe, a 3D platformer that interested me when it came out a few years ago, but turns out I'm glad I passed at the time as it is pretty dull. I tried Spiritfarer which is some kind of people/ ship building game that is very well respected and seemed interesting, until I found out it was about 30 hours long, and couldn't be bothered with that. Then Xenocrisis, a game from last year that also came new to the Mega drive (among other classic consoles) that I nearly bought for $40 or for it, but it was on Game pass, so sod it, anyway, it's a top down shooter and it was okay, glad I didn't spend that much on it. Then on to Rush: a Disney Pixar adventure but that became apparent within seconds it was very much a game for small children. Then Tetrix Effect, another well respected game, then I remember I'm terrible at Tetris (give me Hexic any day (No, I'm not joking)), so finally I tried Yes, Your grace.
It's a simple strategy game where you are the king of a medieval settlement where you control your budget, the welfare of your townsfolk, happiness of your family, relationships with other kingdoms and prepare for war. It's not combat strategy like a Gears Tactics or a Command and Conquer, nor a world builder like a Tropico. but much more simple, based heavily on story and the consequences of your decisions. In many ways it's more like a Telltale game. A lot of choices turn out to be unpredictable, what may seem right can turn out to be a huge error, meanwhile you might spend gold trying to solve a problem but it turns out to be a waste of time (see the excessive 50 gold wedding dress, if you play this game, do not but that).
Balancing these tasks is challenging and in fact come the final battle I had to reload the save several times over to succeed, which turned out to be frustrating as I had to repeatedly perform a time consuming magic ritual many times over before returning to the battle. this frustration aside, the interactions with your family, despite only taking place via text are fantastic and would pull at the heart strings, if I had one. The game looks great in a 16 bit style, with great, simple character design for the major characters and varying sounds for their voices, with the king himself the very tired sound of a aging man under so much pressure.
This is another Game Pass, as I realize now they all be due to me unlikely to continue playing a game for too long that I'm not enjoying with so many to choose from. A great story with tough decisions and a fine story.
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On to River city girls now, and it's yet another great brawler. Time might be coming up on Game Pass for me now, despite having the best part of 2 months left of my cheap subscription, but now there are finally some good looking new games coming out that are drawing my attention back to PS5. Bio Mutant finally has a release date, and it's not long away at all, whilst Blue Fire, that has just comes out, looks great and the comparisons I'm hearing to my 2017 game of the year 'A Hat in Time' are getting me excited. Anyway, after River City girls I plan to do my Game of the Year, but who knows if that will actually happen.
