Category: Steam Reviews

Frozen Synapse is a turn based strategy game where both players share the same turn. Think of it as simultaneous chess, in which both players map out where they want to go (neither one can see their opponent’s moves), and then they perform those actions at once.

And this form of gameplay takes time getting used to, mostly because you have to account for the fact your opponent could have killed one of the units that you are about to move. Unfortunately, this can be a cause for frustration, as there are quite a few maps where units will be stacked up against you, but you don’t really have control over this as maps are randomly generated. And with all randomly generated content, there’s always the case where you get a really bad seed and your experience isn’t as fun or balanced as others.

But looking past that, Frozen Synapse is a well polished game. The developers have literally implemented TONS of features that you wouldn’t expect to find in a computer game (like the in-game IRC client). Though that might be because the game is powered by the Torque Engine, which is easy extensible and tends to always output very pretty games.

Speaking of pretty, the color scheme is nice, if a bit samey, there really isn’t any variety to it other than Dark Blue, more Dark Blue, a smidgen of Dark Blue, and did I mention Dark Blue? Luckily it blends together really well and looks well designed. The same can’t be said for many of the game’s prompts like the unit actions menu. If a unit cannot do an action at a specific place, please don’t even show me that action. This way the menu isn’t so large and obtrusive in comparison to the incredibly tiny unit modifiers, because the game doesn’t scale properly for high resolutions. Fantastic.

Now the problem with a lot of indie strategy games is that their player base dies out within a month or is dead on arrival. But with Frozen Synapse, you won’t have to worry about the multiplayer dying out quickly. Frozen Synapse has a great online community that you are always informed about EVERY SINGLE SECOND in the form of player invites. I was trying to play a couple of campaign missions, when I was bombed with eight invites to start a multiplayer game. It’s great that the community is so lively, but maybe I just want to explore the game a bit without the constant prompts. Don’t believe me? Let me show you:

On the plus side, multiplayer is extremely well designed for this type of game. There are a lot of game modes, and how you play them is rather cool. In a sense, multiplayer skirmishes are state based, in which you don’t actually have to be connected to your opponent to play a game. One person could perform some actions and then leave and the next time they play, they can continue the game by committing new operations to perform. In my opinion, this is a really good idea.

The same cannot be said about the campaign story. It really isn’t all that compelling and the characters are rather bland. But it’s all okay because all you need to know is that you are some technological simulation thing that allows you to fight without you actually dying. What’s important is the thrill of having your plans work out. It is incredibly rewarding to see a move set be executed perfectly.

In the end, Frozen Synapse is a decent time waster that doesn’t require your full attention. It’s the equivalent of telling someone what moves to make in a game like Chess, but leaving the outcome of your moves up to chance more than anything.

Verdict: Depends. If you like strategy games, you should check this out. If you don’t really fancy strategy games, then pass on this.

I have to make a confession: I’ve never liked the RTS genre. There’s way too much meandering around and not enough action. I feel that with most RTS games like C&C and StarCraft, you spend quite a bit of time building your units before you actually start the action part of the game about five minutes later (rushing takes a lot less time, but the results are varied).

And I absolutely HATE it when your opponents can easily cripple you by taking out your resources, while you are busy trying to make a remote base. It throws you into this scenario where you either have to cheese it or sell your units to bulk up your defenses for your main base. I’m more of a turn based strategy gamer, so I like the fact that someone cannot pull a game winning move while I’m busy doing something else.

With DETOUR, there is no wait time for an object to be established, no “welp, there goes my base”, or resources that need to be collected by scavengers. You constantly get a flow of money that allows you to have access to whatever the hell you want, right now.

And it’s incredibly fun, because the gameplay gives you this sensation of being in control but at the same moment, being surrounded by chaos. At any point in time you have to deduce whether you should build roads, destroy your opponents’ trucks, manipulate the cops or all of the above in your quest to get your trucks to the other side of the board first.

The campaign is good too, though some people might find it a tad easy. However, the writing is what takes the cake, and the kooky characters you encounter are quite a delight.

The biggest problem with DETOUR is the longevity. Unless this game is picked up but a good community, I don’t see it living very long.

Fortunately, the developers already have a pretty solid gathering building up, so I’m not too worried. But even if there aren’t a lot of people, you can still play with bots and with the built-in map editor, you can come up with a lot of crazy scenarios.

Overall, with the great music, outstanding writing, chaotic gameplay and extremely cheap price tag, DETOUR definitely feels like it’s worth a purchase.

Verdict: BUY. You can check it out on Steam by clicking here.

So, Brink. The game starts with the coolest opening cinematic I’ve seen from a video game. And right from there it plops you into a commitment: Do you choose to save the ark, or escape it? After a couple of character customization windows, you are finally introduced into the world of outstandingly beautiful graphics. The scenery is drop dead gorgeous and the pure lighting really compliments the fantastically picked color schemes. Brink looks fantastic.

The campaign is rather unique, blending single player and multiplayer in a way that’s not exactly co-op. With Brink, you can play single player and have people come join you (even if they are working against you [if that feature worked]) and work together to get objectives done. And it’s an interesting idea, but it doesn’t work in practice.

Brink reminds me of APB. It looks nice, but the game is shallow. The ideas are there, but the flow is broken. It feels like the developers didn’t playtest enough before they released the game and hyped it excessively.

Maps are incredibly hard to navigate, and unless you have previously explored the map (Wait, you wanted time to explore the map? Nope, you need to go complete these objectives before Mr. Announcer decides it’s time for tea and calls off everything) you will be lost. SMART is really just a running and climb over wall button, it doesn’t show off anything super innovative. It has elements of parkour but it’s so basic, I mean, we were promised stuff like wall runs, flips and rolls. This is not the true parkour we were promised, this is just obstacle navigation that flows decently.

Sadly, the story ends anticlimactically, with some talk about “you win!” but nothing really goes on from there. Gamers never see themselves stop the uprising, our characters never do anything after the last mission. Somehow, this one mission stopped an insurgency or allowed us to escape the ark. We never really see much of what happens behind the scenes. Luckily, there’s an extended ending for both sides, oh wait, it’s just some guy looking wistfully at the sunset while the Ark appears to have burst into flames. Wow.

Lag absolutely ruins this game and it has nothing to do with people’s connections, the problem stems from Brink’s shitty netcode; it is absolutely horrible! In fact, every time someone joins a game, a host migration is attempted. I checked the console and saw, on average, three attempts initiate when a player joined. This is unacceptable!

Which leads to my critical point of Brink: It tries(?) to be a team based game and fails miserably. The game never focuses on working as a team! Most of the time you will spend yelling at teammates for ammo or health or whatever because they don’t know how to perform their roles.

Part of this is the fault of the indicators for help. They get all blurred together that it’s really hard to make out who needs help the most. And the game never prompts you or directs you to who needs help the most unless it’s super critical (someone lost all their ammo in all guns, or they are incapacitated). Even the game has this problem where you’ll end up trying to heal someone only to get the guy who just ran by him. Often times you’ll buff someone or revive them only for them to be killed (thus you waste your supplies and will probably have to throw out another one).

In the end, Brink is a game that has interesting ideas, but a terrible campaign (you’ll only play it once) that lacks content, and a poor story kills it completely. Brink is basically a campaign mode.

Verdict: Avoid. It’s a rather disappointing game that is not ready for prime time. The community feels like it would be short-lived when there are plenty of other FPS games that have better features and a stronger execution of game mechanics than Brink.