Armello

This game is great if you have friends to play it with. Last random match I tried took about 20 minutes to find. Single player is playable, but computer AI is a joke. Once you figure out the core mechanics, they won't stand a chance. Note: the game is no longer supported by its devs. You will encounter bugs like game crashes. If your connection is unstable, do NOT hope to play multiplayer, because there is NO reconnect option.

Seems like a neat game but I'm not sure I can recommend it. For a fairly well reviewed title, that's been sitting on my periphery of games that look interesting enough to try, I'm pretty disappointed after my brief introductory playthrough. The game seems to be in state of technical decay. I crashed 4 times just trying to play through the tutorial. Graphical options are limited, a lesser issue, as the game is toaster friendly. Playing games rewarded me with chests which spat out a 'Failed to connect to server' error whenever I attempted to open one. And it would seem Multiplayer Matchmaking is either dead or requires a blood ritual by moonlight to connect. Something that bothered me was the visual clarity. Normally for this type of game you want to zoom out and get a good idea of the state of the board. However the zoom is quite limited, forcing you to drag the board around often to see what is happening, but there is also the baffling decision to blanket the screen in a horrible white fog which obscures clarity further! Yes, it's 'clouds' but it's also ugly and annoying, and can't be turned off through normal means. There is a Follow Player camera that should be helpful for assessing the situation and yet it felt in-elegant. Whenever you drag the board around, and you will due to the issue mentioned above, the auto-follow disables. You have to then click a little icon to turn it back on (or possible hit some hotkey). Stealth is a mechanic of the game and player characters often engage in it. Naturally the camera shouldn't follow a stealthy boy but then you are once again dragging the board around to survey and think your next move. The auto-follow disables and once more you must turn it on. It really starts to add up how often you must do this and I can't help but think there was a better way to implement the feature. That's a bit of a giga-nitpick, I imagine for players familiar with the game they don't care about the auto-follow at all. But my point is it speaks to the certain lack of polish I felt from the game. Maybe my standards are unrealistically high but for a product so well reviewed and matured I was prepared for a smoother first taste than I got. I will say I really like the art, the music is enjoyable and fitting, it's easy to pick up and learn the basics with clear amount of depth to dig into, and games are quick (relatively) which is a bonus. Multiplayer board games which let you ruin your opponent's day and break friendships apart are one of my favourite genres. And the game was dirt cheap on sale!