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In some ways this was similar to Fallout 3. But there are major differences too and this game is no where near as good though I still wanted to finish it.

The main combat mechanic of the game is OK once you start using it. The combat interface uses a radial dial interface. Sometimes this style interface is great, other times not. This time it is pretty good owing mostly to the fact that when using the talent selector, time slows way down which gives you plenty of opportunity to decide on your next move. It also makes for some cool video as you can watch everyone's moves in slow-mo if you want to relax and take the action in. Indeed, this slow motion effect can make it too easy. I found that it was possible to hit the Q key (combat radial) such that I could make several moves in quick succession. At first this was to toss grenades one after the other. Later it was to activate various buffs at the beginning of battle. With the grenades there was no need to wait for the first grenade to explode before you toss the second. A fast way to take down bosses. I could easily get six off at a clip if necessary though it was not often necessary. With the buffs my combat damage went way up. For ranged attacks, you use the combat radial to slow time, then use the middle mouse button to "lock on" to a target and then scroll through targets with line of sight, then pick your action. But ranged weapons are not enough. Most enemies will close on you so you will eventually be in melee combat but you can always roll out of this to get some distance.

There are two significant disappointments for me though neither of them detracted a lot from game play. First is that the skill tree which is composed of three sets of skills, does not open up the "magic" skill tree till act 2. In the end though this was not a problem as it is not necessary to have all skills maxed to be quite powerful and some skills seemed of less value than others. On the other hand this was a good way to get you to invest in the other skills before magic as some of these other skills are quite valuable. You will have to decide how deep you want to go into different parts of the skill trees as you won't be able to do all skills and you will have to invest a minimum of skills in order to unlock the next tier of skills in a tree (there are four tiers of skills in each tree and each skill can be buffed twice more after initial activation). You can choose to cherry-pick skills and their buffs from each skill tree or simply ignore one of the skill trees and bulk up on the other two. Which brings us to the second let down. There is no real manual or guide. Thus there is little way to know what each of these skills does till you use it. But in the end I seemed to manage it well enough. There is no complicated scoring taking place and the explanations of the skills is reasonable when you look over them.

I found four bugs, but none of them caused lost play time thanks to the auto-save feature. Bugs included sound error which self corrected, falling off the game universe into empty space which required a reload and careful positioning of my character second time around, quest locators were not always evident on the map, and there was some inconsistency in the interface (the appearance of doors often told what the door did but not always and this was annoying). I found no bugged quests as are indicated by others reviewing the game so I am guessing a patch fixed these. Save and Load and Startup and Exit times are very quick. Right mouse click is also very handy for skipping scene change animations and for advancing dialog in you decide to reload a prior save in order to try out different options. I experienced no crashes to desktop and no installation issues either so the game is pretty solid overall software wise. Nice to see a vendor taking the time to QA their work themselves rather than letting the customer community do it. Kudos.

The crafting system is limited but quite easy to figure out. There are few weapons (about 10) and armor (about 8). But if you get the abilities that let you upgrade, the upgrades make significant differences. You can craft better armor and weapons than your enemies will have. If you are looking for a diablo style crafting system this is not it. But the simplicity pays off if you want a more casual game in this area rather than having to try and figure out all the rock/paper/scissors dynamics common in other games.

Travel in the game does not require the sometimes huge crossing of expanse that other games make you go through, and game areas were limited in their layout such that as in many game designs, you don't have too many ways to go. The early maps are a bit more open than the later maps for whatever reason. This is done by the typical door way offerings and ultimately one path to the current quest goal. Eventually I started using the overlay map options (tab/M key) and after that I figured out I had to move between locations to see quests come up on the map. This made travel and questing much easier.

Video I thought was good overall and yet it does not require a 400$ video card in order to get it. The game does use PHYSX if your card supports it. I highly recommend PHYSX if you got it though I also admit there are no great moments like there were in Fallout 3. Was nothing like seeing a Raider's head roll its way down a hill into a lake. But with this game's slow motion you can see things like the nails from your nail gun making their way to their target so that was pretty good.

Missing from the game is a lot of game lore. You don't read stuff to learn what happened and you don't get a lot of history on anything. I am guessing maybe some of this is on purpose in order to make a sequel worth playing (so you can find all this stuff out (why are people on Mars anyway?, who are the mutants?, etc.)).

Overall this is a somewhat dumbed-down but quite solid 30+ hours of gaming. If you want it, look for a sale.

Hail Flavius!

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First off this is NOT a cyberpunk genre game. Steam punk would be a better term.

Pros:

Interesting story

Cons:

Very Linear

High learning curve

The game is an RPG vice a shooter. Also, the combat system takes a bit of getting used to. You can free shoot but there is no reticule so it takes some practice to do it. Melee combat seems to be the main combat form and again nothing revolutionary there. If you time you blocks properly you will automatically riposte. Much of what you can do it based on what you have unlocked. Many of the unlocks are confusing. For example, I had the one that gives 100% stealth when not moving in stealth mode. This should mean that as long as I'm not moving I cannot be seen even if an enemy walks right up to me. That is not true. If you're out of cover they will see you. It just seems to reduce the distance they see you at. The only reason I'm giving this three stars is because of the story. I'd recommend getting it if you can pick it up for $10 or less.

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When I first started playing I was worried that the game would be short lived, but it isn't at all. It has a decent skill tree for you to explore 3 different combat styles and pretty neat perk system. Advertising for you it made it seem like there was deeper character development, but it's characters are pretty interchangeable. Combat is crazy hard which I love, bu this is mostly due to the fact that it is usually 5 vs.1 (you being the one) and even if you do get a team mate they aren't going to much expect die or hurt you.

Overall I liked the challenge this game had to offer.

Honest reviews on Mars: War Logs

I tried this game on a whim because the cover caught my eye and I am so glad I did! A great story, satisfying battles, beautiful graphics, it has it all. It's not as intense as other games in its genre but for entrainment value, I was very pleased.

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I bought this on impulse from steam and regret my rash action. The game starts

slowly and tapers off so I don't believe I will finish this game as it is just too tedious.

The pros:

Hmm

The Cons:

mediocre visuals

endless and needless, cut scenes

voice acting that makes you cringe

horrible interface that cannot be remapped

a clunky combat system

a ranged weapon you cannot aim, it automatically aims at the nearest enemy

There were a few good reviews on steam but I believe they were from the

developers.