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The Marinated Meeple (1848 KP) rated Above and Below in Tabletop Games

Mar 20, 2018

Above and Below

2015 | Adventure, Book, City Building, Economic, Exploration

8.3

(12 Ratings)

Tabletop Game Rating

The Art is exceptional (3 more)

the gameplay itself

the characters you use to build your village

The story aspect for exploring

I Love this game.... Ryan Laukat does amazing work.

This game is a great mix of a lot of ingenious aspects. You are leader of a village, and you have people in your village that not only have different skills and also look different. You want to utilize them to do the things they are good at, but just like in life sometimes you have to send a suboptimal person to accomplish something the village needs. And the exploration aspect is so much fun. each time to go exploring is a different short story predicated on the drawing of a card. then then you have to make a choice about what to do on that journey, and it might have dire consequences or or it might be light and fluffy. So it's sometimes hard to make a decision based on how many resources to send down to make sure everything works out, but then you can't do as much on the surface. The game is relatively short and makes us want to keep playing. which is the sign of a great game. Also check out near and far which is the sequel to this game.

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Show all 3 comments.

Akward (448 KP) Aug 4, 2018

I'm in the opposite boat: I've played Above and Below, and I'm interested in how it compares to Near and Far.

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The Marinated Meeple (1848 KP) Aug 4, 2018

Now that I’ve played near and far. Near and far is better. But has more going on and more storytelling. Above and below focuses more on above with below as an add-on. It’s definately the precursor. Near and far is far better.

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TacomaSquall (3 KP) rated Mass Effect: Andromeda in Video Games

Aug 11, 2018

Gameplay, cast, updates (0 more)

Original animation (0 more)

A flawed launch...

When I started playing this fourth installment in the Mass Effect franchise, I was struck by some of the daring departures from the original trilogy's gameplay. The ability to choose your hero(ine)'s role based on situation. The hub system for worlds that was more reminiscent of Dragon Age: Inquisition than ME. The departure from the truly galactic scale of Commander Shepard's battle against the Reapers to focus on a seemingly weaker adversary.

I was fortunate to avoid most of the initial bugs in the animation, but was disappointed in the limited exploration available. While I liked the Angara, they couldn't get me to care about them as much as the original games caused me to care about the Quarians and Krogan.

I was tickled by the interactions between the members of the cast, which were dynamic and as detailed as the crew of the Normandy's had been. In the end, it was the team supporting the Pathfinder that sold me on the game, and kept me going to the madcap pell-mell race to the ending.

Yes, it was rushed. Yes, it felt incomplete. But a mediocre installment in the Mass Effect universe still is better than the majority of RPGs out there.

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Kristy H (1252 KP) rated The Girl Who Lived Twice in Books

Mar 19, 2020

I can't quite let go of the Millennium series and Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist, despite the fact that the late author no writes the books. This novel, however, is timely, covering the topic of Russian trolls and their impact on social media and politics. We get short snippets in each chapter told from the point of view of a variety of characters, so the story moves fairly quickly. Lagercrantz lacks Larrson's meticulous detail and his exploration into the character's psyches, as well as the true intense reporter that shined in Larrson; the trade-off: the books do seem to move at a somewhat quicker pace.

Still, Lisbeth and Blomkvist just don't seem the same as they were in Larrson's world, and I miss my old friends. There's also a lot of focus on Everest in this book--it's plot-related, but it gets to be a bit much. More Lisbeth and Mikael, less mountain, please. It makes the story more complicated than it needed to be, perhaps. Still, there's plenty to keep us entertained, including more from Lisbeth and her sister's dark past.

Overall, a fairly engaging read, but lacking that special flavor and special Lisbeth/Mikael zest that Larrson always brought to the series. 3.5 stars.

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Mothergamer (1546 KP) rated Final Fantasy VII Remake in Video Games

Apr 21, 2020

Final Fantasy VII Remake

2020 | Action/Adventure, Role-Playing

8.5

(24 Ratings)

Video Game Rating

I just finished the game and it really delivered. The main story is pretty much the same as the original, but there are some new elements that change a few things here and there. Those changes honestly make the game better and add some great elements to the story as well as allowing you to get to know some characters better like Biggs, Jessie, and Wedge. The battle system is done really well making fights and boss fights fun. There are side quests and mini games that add more to the exploration of Midgar. Getting to see Midgar in depth like this definitely adds to the atmosphere and story of the game. The music for the game is perfect and the fact that each character has their own theme song is a nice touch. Cloud is much better here too. The story takes the time to show the pain and trauma he has suffered, but also allows him to be a little more vulnerable with his emotions as well. Getting to see him gradually open up and grow as a person as he gets to know everyone was great to see. The game is amazing and got everything just right.