For me, Terraforming Mars. I love the theme. The complexity is just the right amount without being overwhelming. And engine building is fun. There are also tons of different paths to take.
For me, Terraforming Mars. I love the theme. The complexity is just the right amount without being overwhelming. And engine building is fun. There are also tons of different paths to take.
I wouldn’t say that’s entirely true if you understand the game enough (at least the base game). It punishes survivors for the sake of it, but that doesn’t mean it’s punishing the player, or the player’s chance to achieve victory. The examples of fully prepared survivors doing the right things against the monster and still losing are surprisingly far and few betwee. Except when you expect to lose and hedge for that (certain middle-game boss fights). Remember, there’s dying rewards that are sometimes more valuable than the corpses that created them.
I mean, there’s two settlement events that were downright unfair. The bad one was patched. The other “just sucks” and isn’t game breaking. What you’re saying is not entirely off-base… I just daresay it’s a little off-base.
But also similarly, the game punishes monsters for the sake of it, too. The two you fight most often can (and rarely do) die from your first attack (not always ideal, admittedly). As one of my favorite streamers has pointed out, a key strategic point in KDM is that unless you believe in woo-woo dice, the pendulum swings both ways on chance and if you outplay the monster with a prepared party you WILL win within an expected number of casualties… And while that might mean your favorite survivor loses an arm suddenly (or worse), it also is “enough” to tier up your survivors for a victory. I’ve never seen a seasoned KDM player struggle in the final phases of the game.
Well, I did not finish the campaign, just tried the first missions and have not followed the patches after that. As you said, it has its very rewarding moments too, but I love campaign games and inmerse myself in the stories and I just felt like I was losing people, sanity or limbs in every event because of dice, without a chance to mitigate it. At the end of the game I was not happy or relaxed, I guess the atmosphere of despair is very well done XD. The battles can be swingy too, but strategy can mitigate some of it. So not really and issue with the game itself but with how it makes me feel, if that makes sense.
Well, yeah. The atmosphere of dispair is intentional. And it is entirely reasonable to get a full settlement wipe in the first attempt because resources have a snowball effect and regularly losing to monsters (or just wasting resources) will lead to you being underprepared for later on. After a certain point, you are forced to choose level 3 hunts, and are frankly dead-without-knowing-it if you aren’t ready for those (though, I can’t imagine surviving the “game over” fight prior to that if you’re not ready for level 3 hunts)
If you think of it as the settlement being your main character, however, it’s a lot less terrible. But still brutal because yes, sanity and body parts go flying in a heartbeat. And there’s at least one or two “if _____ all 4 survivors immediately die” ultra-rare moments that are pretty terrible (but usually salvageable)