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What are the best Historical games on Steam?

23

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Considered

93

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Recs.

Oct 23, 2023

Last
Updated

23 Games Considered

Best Historical games on Steam	Price	Genre	Steam Rating
-- Crusader Kings II	Free+	Grand Strategy	Very Positive
-- Europa Universalis IV	$39.99	Grand Strategy	-
-- Kingdom Come: Deliverance	$29.99	Role-Playing	Very Positive
-- Civilization V	$29.99	4X	Very Positive
-- Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag	$29.99	Action-Adventure, Stealth	Very Positive

Crusader Kings II

Top Pro

Freedom to play how you like

The game allows for one to make their own choices with there being many "win" conditions in that you can choose to progress how you like. Want to take over all of Europe, that is possible, want to create a successful lineage of family that keeps to themselves, this is also possible. See More

Top Con

Extremely complicated

Crusader King II is a very complicated game that seems overly complex at first and may take a while to really learn as there are quite a lot of things to not only balance in the game but also figure out how to do either through in game tutorials or reading online. See More

RickZeeland's Experience

Hard to get into, but worth it in the end, and besides its free now! See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Grand Strategy

Top Pro

Massive online multiplayer

Crusader Kings II has a whopping 32 player online multiplayer mode. Something not often found in games of this sort which can make for a very intense and strategic gameplay session. See More

Top Con

No naval battles

No naval battles, which reduces the advantages of being an Island nation. See More

Europa Universalis IV

Top Pro

You get to chose how to play

You can either expand with colonies, martial might or be peaceful and attempt to ally neighbouring nations. See More

Top Con

Steep learning curve

When you start out, it can be overwhelming. You have a country and three thousand infantrymen -- what can you do? You decide to attack your neighbor -- and they cut you down like reeds. You start over as a bigger country and attack a smaller neighbor -- and suddenly you're in a war against several large countries at once. You start again and this time you find a weak neighbor with no allies. You crush them and bring them under your control -- and suddenly you find revolutions popping up everywhere. Even after you've learned the basics, you'll still find yourself wondering: if I declare a holy war, will it cost me diplomatic power to annex territory or not? And it's often hard -- certainly in ironman mode -- to undo decisions, so small mistakes and misclicks can end up costing you a lot. The game does give you guidance in the form of alert bubbles in the upper left of the screen, informing you of the things it thinks are most relevant, and paying attention to those can at least show you what you might want to think about. In the later patches, the user interface has been improving to help reduce surprises -- and the game mechanics as well. For instance, rebel uprising progress can be tracked easily -- you won't be surprised by a sudden uprising of Najdi nationalists, and when you're in for a long-term peasant revolt, the game will tell you why it's happening, how to prevent it, and how to get out of it once it happens. But simply finding all these parts of the user interface takes time playing. Determining what's important takes experience. You can pause the game at any time and find all the data you can handle, but if you're not just extracting the important parts, the deluge won't help. Your best bet is to find videos of people playing the game with a bit more skill than you. Streaming is best -- you can ask questions, and most streamers will answer. See More

Specs

Genre:Grand Strategy

Co-Op:12 Player Online / 32 LAN

Controller Support:No

Top Pro

You can set your own goals

While there are a lot of achievements for doing certain things in Iron Man mode, which runs can be tailored towards, and there is a points system allowing you to focus on becoming the "best" in the world, there is no definitive win condition and therefore a lot of players decide their own target for the campaign and focus on that, whether direct conquest or a trade empire or "playing tall" - highly developing a small nation without expanding geographically. See More

Top Con

Games can take a very long time

Due to the in depth, meticulous gameplay mechanics, the games can take weeks to finish which some people may not have the patience for. See More

Top Pro

Game features pausing and adjustable speeds

Europa Universalis IV allows you to play straight through in real-time, or pause the game for as much micro-management as needed. With this system in place, everyone can play at their own pace without need for rapid play styles or quick rushing attacks to achieve victory, thus giving players freedom to tackle missions at their own, preferred speed. See More

Top Pro

Pausable/adjustable speed RTS

Play straight through on real-time, or pause for as much micro-management as is needed. No rapid attacks and the key here, it is pausable even though it can be a real time system. Basically time can be slowed, sped up and paused with most gameplay taking place somewhere in between. See More

Top Pro

Lots of depth

EUIV is a simulation of global politics and war. There is a relatively limited set of choices you can make under normal circumstances: hiring advisors to improve your capabilities, hiring troops, about two dozen diplomatic actions in peace, and a number of different peace deal options when terminating a war. However, these interact to produce a large number of interesting decisions that affect your outcomes. If you want to annex a neighbor, do you declare a holy war on them, or do you fabricate claims on their territory and demand that they "return" this land to you? Do you ally a much larger nation that might try to force you to be their vassal? Conversely, do you try to improve relations with a much smaller neighbor in order to become their suzerain overlord, or do you attempt to conquer them directly and risk pulling their larger allies into a war? On top of that, there are hundreds of events that can occur once certain preconditions are met. Some of them are specific to which country you're playing as. Some require you to hire the right set of advisors. And if you don't keep your country's internal affairs in order, you may find yourself on the wrong end of a peasant's war or facing other national disasters. See More

Kingdom Come: Deliverance

Top Con

Optimization issues on consoles and lower-end PCs

For those playing on a launch PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, as well as an older PC, you might have issues with the game's framerate. Framerate drops are common throughout the game, possibly ruining your experience from time to time. If you're on PlayStation 4 Pro or Xbox One X, or you have a more high-end PC, then you shouldn't have too many problems with performance. See More

Top Pro

You learn and level up skills in organic, realistic ways

Instead of leveling up in traditional ways with the usual experience points, Kingdom Come: Deliverance has a much more organic approach to the ways you can grow your character. Playing as the protagonist Henry, you'll need to practice your skills in areas such as sword play, fist fighting, alchemy, and even reading. Just like in real life, as you fight more, craft more, and read more, you'll improve in ways that feel like you're actually learning as you go. You're illiterate when you begin the game, gradually retaining letters and words as you keep practicing. It's a refreshing system that helps you feel like you're really getting better at the skills you work on the most. See More

RickZeeland's Experience

Now on offer on Steam for only 8,99€ See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Role-Playing

Top Con

Brutal learning curve at the beginning of the game

Since you start the game at rock bottom as a peasant, you have to learn your skills the hard way, including with combat. You'll have to earn your skills by learning as you go along, but because you start with nothing, it's all too easy to fail at even the most basic encounters you come across. Sword fights and fist fights will really punish you while your skills are low, and you'll probably end up dying way too many times for your liking. If you stick with it, you'll be able to get by, but the difficulty curve might put some players off entirely. See More

Top Pro

Rising up in society from a peasant is a unique experience

Kingdom Come: Deliverance puts you in the shoes of an unremarkable commoner named Henry with few skills or specialties, giving you the opportunity to enrich his life and abilities however you see fit. You don't start off as a powerful fighter like in so many other games, and you don't even have the most basic ability to read. Instead, you have to start from scratch to learn how to do anything and everything in the game, from fighting to reading and plenty more, with people looking down on you while you're still unskilled. As you become better at fighting, you can earn a full suit of plate armor, rising up from the ranks of peasantry to a skilled knight, with NPCs treating you with more respect in response to your accomplishments. It's a wonderfully realistic approach to role-playing that isn't afraid to make you claw your way up and improve your lot in life. See More

Top Con

Tiny world

The world is really small and in about 2 hours you can explore the whole map. See More

Top Pro

Vastly different ways to play the game

Depending on which skills you choose to master, your playthrough can be incredibly different from other players who chose to specialize in other abilities instead. There isn't much of a limit to how strong or proficient you can become in any one specialty, giving you the opportunity to be the best at whatever you set your mind to. You could spend most of your playtime perfecting your skills at hand-to-hand and sword combat, growing strong enough to storm enemy strongholds and kill anyone who crosses your path. Or you can become a master thief instead, improving your lockpicking and stealing skills enough to break into any store or building to amass tons of riches--on the condition that you also learn how to not get caught, of course. It's not likely that two people will have the exact same playthrough where they focus on the same specialties. See More

Top Con

Game-breaking bugs can corrupt your save file

The game is filled with bugs that could potentially cost you hours of playtime. Your save file could get corrupted, forcing you to start the game over from scratch. It's incredibly frustrating and has been an ongoing problem since release, keeping quite a few players from progressing. Thankfully, the developers are working on ironing out this issue through patches. See More

Top Pro

NPCs react differently to you under certain circumstances

With the many organic and grounded systems in Kingdom Come: Deliverance that mirror real life, how you present yourself to the world has an impact on how people react to you. If you haven't bathed in a few days and you smell badly, some female NPCs might find your manly odor attractive, while others will show their disgust with you instead. As another example, when you're a mere peasant at the start of the game, you won't have much stature or influence, so certain people will either ignore you or talk down to you. But as you grow strong enough to equip a knight's armor, NPCs will trust you more and reveal information to you that they otherwise wouldn't have. It's a great system that truly leans into the game's role-playing elements, making you feel like Henry represents you as a person. See More

Top Con

The game feels unpolished overall with smaller bugs and story pacing issues

Despite Kingdom Come: Deliverance's immersive and innovative systems, there are a bunch of other, smaller bugs throughout the game, as well as some pacing issues that ruin the flow of the gameplay. You're likely to come across invisible walls in places such as stairs that you have to jump over, and other issues like NPCs missing their heads, or being stuck in a T-pose as they float across the map. Story-wise, the last sections of the game are a slog; they really could have benefited from more work and polish dedicated to them. As a whole, the game could have used some more time in the oven before releasing, since all the bugs and pacing issues really degrade the whole quality of the experience. See More

Top Pro

One of the skills is drinking

And you can become an alcoholic. See More

Civilization V

Top Con

Most victories won by timed or military victory

It can be pretty difficult to win by diplomacy or culture which does add some challenge to the game but it can get tiresome if one keeps winning by only military or timed victories. See More

Top Pro

Fantastic tactical combat

Civilization V has a great combat system that feels very tactical over previous versions as there is no stacking of troops, but with the new hexagonal grid players can surround enemies as well as allow for better tactics when planning attacks. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Co-Op:2 to 21 Player Online / LAN

Controller Support:Steam Controller Officallly supported

Top Con

No steam workshop support on Linux

The Linux port currently does not support steam workshop, and as the mac port made by the same developers has not received workshop support despite having been out for several years, it is unlikely that it ever will. Though there are unofficial workarounds to get the mods working. See More

Top Pro

Customization through policies

Policies are used as a tool to gain a variety of customizations that benefit ones society. There is a branching tree of policies that will allow the user to pick certain aspects that will suit them best such as adding law or religion to ones society which will give gains in certain aspects. See More

Top Con

No stats on other Civ attitudes

Unlike past Civilization games there are no longer stats on the attitudes of the players surrounding Civilizations. This allowed one to see how each other nation felt about the player, but now that it is gone one has to guess, which is definitely not as helpful. See More

Top Pro

Endless scenarios and replayability

Civilization V has a large assortment of nation leaders to choose from that have an even bigger assortment of scenarios that are able to play out for said leaders. Each game can be quite unique in this way as each leader allows for a different nation to be controlled. See More

Top Con

One unit per tile

Civ 5 restricts you to having one unit per tile, but has an AI unable to handle that restriction well, and doesn't even have decent pathing for units. Late game becomes a slog of ordering each unit individually due to poor pathing. See More

Top Pro

Beautiful graphics

From the players cities and armies to the lush landscape, Civilization is quite a beautiful game for those with systems powerful enough to push the graphics to the limit. Even when on lower graphical settings the game looks lush and well animated. See More

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

Top Pro

Cool naval combat against other pirates out on the open seas

Naval battles with your own ship and crew are expanded here in Black Flag after they were first introduced in Assassin's Creed III. You're a pirate this time, so you get to explore the open world with your ship as much as you want. The bread and butter of the game involves you as the captain of your ship, navigating out in the open waters to get from place to place, as well as getting hands-on with the full mechanics of steering while firing off cannons at enemy ships. There's a full crew aboard with you, helping to give plenty of liveliness to your surroundings as they shout in anger, sing shanties, and cheer in victory as you go along, along with dynamic weather like raging storms that adds to the realism and intensity. It's a lot of fun and serves as a nice way to break things up from the usual stealth missions on foot. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Action-Adventure, Stealth

Co-Op:4 Player Online

Top Pro

Great graphics that allow exploration

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is an open world adventure game with some of the best graphics available, and many lands and seas to explore. See More

Top Pro

Intuitive controls that flow well and fit the theme of the game

A focus on free-running and stealth with easy, simple and interesting controls. Add on top of that naval combat which is in and of itself quite fun. See More

Top Pro

Huge interesting side missions that last for 40 hours

There is a lot of content in the game, especially when considering how much time can be spent in the side missions alone. See More

Civilization VI

Top Con

Learning curve

So many new features that it can be overwhelming. See More

Top Pro

Easy city planning

The new district system introduces sprawling cities for the first time in the series and makes city planning much more interesting. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Top Con

Bad AI

The AI is not very good right now, often building obsolete units and hating player in 9 out of 10 cases. See More

Top Pro

Civics and government system

Replacing Civ5s Social Policies is a system of Civics, researched with culture unlocking policy cards of several categories and governments with different amounts of policy card slots. See More

Top Con

Exploits

There are many exploits that still need to be ironed out, giving players a lot of ways to gain infinite money. See More

Hegemony 3: Clash of the Ancients

Top Pro

Seamless Zoom

Zoom in from strategic map view to tactical battlefield map and back in real time. See More

Top Con

Not enough DLC

Coming from an indie studio with other games in their portfolio, development of expansions is at a snail's pace. Therefore the core gameplay loop, although solid, can feel repetitive. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Grand Strategy RTS

Top Pro

Chill Supply Lines System

Nice implementation of supply lines and resource management. See More

Top Pro

All aspects of war

This game combines strategy, tactical maneuvring of armies and operational warfare. It's supply and logistics system enable expansion but also keeps it in check. Overextension is a real risk. See More

Top Pro

Period appropriate art and music

The art style and music support the setting in 500 BC and make it easy to immerse oneself. See More

Top Pro

Elegant design

Assassin's Creed Origins

Top Pro

Interesting stories make questing fun

Like in most RPGs, the quests in AC Origins can feel a little grindy, but this time you might not even notice it until you're deep into the game. Each quest is layered and wrapped in a different story, which adds to the overall lore of the game and hides the fact that it's still your basic "go kill the bad guy" or "get me this amount of that thing". A quite straightforward-looking quest might turn out to be anything but. See More

Top Con

Unreliable features may get in the way of combat

The fast-paced battles can be even harder due to some features not working reliably. For example, you can lock on a specific target in a group, and that works well for sneaky bow attacks, but in close combat there's an issue with switching between the targets. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Action-adventure RPG, Stealth

Controller Support:Partial

Top Pro

Challenging combat mechanics

The combat mechanics in this game require much more thinking-through than in the previous AC games. There's almost no chance to easily defeat multiple enemies at once, you need to block, parry, and know when to change your weapon. You have the ability to either deal a huge one-hit blow or supercharge your weapon by maxing out an adrenaline bar. See More

Top Pro

Choose from a variety of stealth tricks

While sneaking around in AC Origins is mostly simple crouching in the bushes and hiding behind the trees or buildings, the stealthy killing and distraction part is really varied and fun. For instance, you can get the Predator Bow that lets you remotely steer your arrows after firing them, even get them to turn around a corner. The natural day/night cycle encourages you to use the darkness to hide your approach and take on the guards when there are likely less of them awake. You can also use sleep and poison darts, or open the enclosures of the animals so that they create distractions and even attack your enemies. You can even take control of your pet eagle and scout an area beforehand, allowing you to mark enemies. When control returns to your character, you'll be able to see the marks even through walls. See More

Top Pro

A vibrant and enticing world

AC Origins story unfolds in a pretty rare setting of Ancient Egypt under the rule of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar. The world feels alive and atmospheric with its diverse scenery and it just begs to be explored. You can run through bustling monumental cities, traverse the vast sandy deserts on the back of a camel or a horse, get some rest in a lush green palm tree-lined oasis, float down the Nile in a little dinghy - all this moving around rewards you with breathtaking and sometimes unexpected views, be it a golden pyramid or a rampaging horde of hippos. The map is massive, but it doesn't feel overwhelming because the movement is fast-paced, so much so that you can easily choose to avoid fast-travel. The setting, especially in the cities with their marble palaces, hieroglyph-covered obelisks, and sandstone monuments, lends itself well to the usual for Assassin's Creed climbing and free running. See More

Detention

Top Pro

Balanced and intuitive puzzles

The puzzles are pretty straightforward and intuitive. Most items will serve practical purpose, rather than relying on the absurd logic that some other adventure games suffer from. For example, wire cutters are used to cut gates, paint thinner is used to dissolve paint, etc. Most puzzle items are used in the general area of where you pick them up, so there's not a whole lot of running around. While most of the early puzzles are fairly easy, some of the later puzzles can be quite tricky. However, they are still perfectly solvable with a little brain power. All in all, from an adventure gaming standpoint, it's certainly balanced. See More

Top Con

No auto saving can result in frustration

Saving can only be done at specified save points. Forgetting to manually save is quite common when you're wrapped up in the creepy atmosphere and story. When you die, it's rather frustrating to have to replay large sections of content. See More

Specs

Genre:Survival Horror, Adventure

Top Pro

Creepy horror atmosphere

Jump scares are few and far between. Detention focuses more on atmospheric horror through it's rather oppressive and bleak environment. To emphasize the dread, most of the game's artwork consists only of dark shades and washed out textures. Almost everything is depressing and bleak - the story, artwork, and sound design - resulting in a real horrific atmosphere. Roaming through the dark halls of a deserted school and its flooded grounds while being hunted by disturbing looking ghosts results in some downright terrifying moments. See More

Top Con

Some minor pixel hunting

Some items are hard to find, resulting in a bit of pixel hunting from time to time. While this is the norm for seasoned adventure gamers, some may be frustrated by having to repeatedly backtrack and search areas for missed items. See More

Top Pro

Dread-inducing sound design

The soundtrack isn't a typical soundtrack. Rather, it is purely environmental ambience and effects. There are no gentle melodies or soothing tracks at all. Rather, the audio itself involves a lot of screaming, scratching, moaning, humming, and strange otherwordly tones. Forgoing music for strange ambience was an interesting design choice, but it definitely pays off here as it makes you feel entirely uncomfortable, and the sense of dread is captured incredibly well. See More

Top Con

Very short

The whole game can be played in about 3-5 hours. See More

Top Pro

Horror elements incorporate Taiwan's real life history to disturbing effect

Detention takes place in 1960s, a time period in which Taiwan was under martial law. The story focuses heavily on the social struggles of the time. Much of the game's horror elements are heavily inspired by the atrocities committed during this time. The creepy and disturbing factor is amplified due to the fact many of the notes and items scattered throughout the game are based on real historical events. The hopelessness and despair is felt throughout, especially when experienced through the eyes of the young and innocent protagonist, Wei. See More

Top Pro

Tense gameplay

There is no combat or weapons in this game, making an encounter with the many ghosts a tense and frightening experience. Since you have no way of fighting directly or defending yourself, your only survival options are to use stealth and trickery. In order to sneak past a ghost, you will have to hold your breath and slowly creep by. You can't be detected when holding your breath, but managing your air supply while sneaking can be pretty suspenseful when a ghost is right next to you and starts to give chase. If you absolutely can't get past despite your best sneaking efforts, you can lure a ghost away from it's spot with a food offering placed on the ground. But, even in this case, you'll have to be very careful you're not seen when the ghost comes looking for the treat. See More

Top Pro

An altogether tense horror experience

Detention does a great job of ensuring a tense horror experience from start to finish. The entire atmosphere is just downright creepy, often washed in dark with very few light sources. The ghosts look absolutely horrific. Having to sneak by them can create some of the most tense moments in the game. The story intertwines pieces of Taiwan's tragic real life history with the in-game narrative which gives it a historically accurate, but disturbing feel. On top of all this, the screaming and otherworldly sound effects which play in the background give you a constant sense of unease. See More

Red Dead Redemption 2

Specs

Genre:Adventure

Assassin's Creed Odyssey

Top Pro

Your choices affect how side quests play out

There are some well-done instances where your decisions have real consequences with the side quests. Depending on how you interact with side characters, if you're polite to them, or if you choose to be mean and uncaring, this will change how they view you. If you cross the wrong people, it could have dire effects on certain locations, and some of the characters can outright die if things end up spiraling out of control. It's up to you to find out how everything plays out depending on how you role-play as Alexios or Kassandra. See More

Top Con

Other than with side quests, your choices don't mean much

It's cool that Odyssey offers plenty of dialog choices, but they don't have as much of an impact on the game as a whole. The choices you make don't fundamentally change what happens during the main story. It would have been nice to see the side quest variations on a bigger scale, with more drastic changes and consequences depending on how you handle things. Beyond those side quests, any other choices you make feel like filler: too many lost opportunities. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Action Role-Playing, Action-Adventure, Stealth

Top Pro

Massive open world set in Ancient Greece

The in-game map is absolutely gigantic. There are so many places to go and so much to do in the world, easily giving you over 70 hours of content. Exploring the rolling hills and ancient cities of Greece and the nearby Mediterranean Sea is such a joy because of how lush and beautiful everything is. Wandering around often surprises you with new side quests to find off the beaten path, with new characters to meet and history to learn about in whichever area you find yourself in. And there's just a ton of other mythological secrets and fun diversions to discover as you adventure throughout the world. See More

Top Con

Leveling up can be a chore, bottlenecking exploration

The one thing that may keep you from adventuring as much as you want: levels, including your own and your enemies. It can take a while to gain enough experience points to level up, cutting you off from that one area you want to explore that's filled with higher level enemies. Going on side quests is one of the best ways to level, but you may find yourself questing for hours just to gain enough levels, especially in the late-game. See More

Top Pro

Cool naval combat against rival ships out on the open seas

You get to navigate out in the open waters to get from place to place, getting hands-on with the full mechanics of steering your ship while firing off cannons at surrounding enemies. Using the directional indicators to line up the perfect shot is incredibly satisfying as you take down one ship after another, sending them sinking in flames. There's a full crew aboard with you, helping to give plenty of liveliness to your surroundings as they shout in anger and cheer in victory as you go along, with dynamic weather like raging storms that adds to the realism and intensity. It's a lot of fun and serves as a nice way to break things up from normal missions on-foot. See More

Top Con

Voice acting sounds weird at times

The voice acting is usually pretty solid, but when it isn't, you will probably notice. Some of the side characters' accents are really bad and obviously fake, to the point where you might not even understand what they're saying. Alexios' voice acting also isn't as strong and consistent as Kassandra's, with times where he sounds off compared to his sister. It can be quite distracting when someone just doesn't sound right. See More

Top Pro

Intense combat that relies on your skill and strategy

The combat in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is really up-close-and-personal. Wielding weapons and shields, your skill with blocking and parrying is as important, if not more, than landing strong blows. Enemies are relentless and aggressive in how fast they attack; parrying them is especially satisfying because of how tough they are. Chaining your defensive moves into attacks that take your opponent off-guard is great, rewarding you with some awesome finishing animations. Taking your time to read your enemies before going after their weaknesses pays off in the end. See More

Top Pro

You can choose between a male or female protagonist

For the first time in the Assassin's Creed series, you can pick whether you want to play the entire game as the male protagonist, Alexios, or the female protagonist, Kassandra. Alexios and Kassandra are siblings living in Ancient Greece -- they used to be spartans, but now they live out their lives as mercenaries, taking down mysterious plots or just killing whoever's necessary for the money. Through dialog choices, you get to choose their personalities: whether they're funny and sarcastic or more serious and to-the-point. While the main story mostly plays out the same no matter which sibling you go with, certain scenes read differently depending on whose point of view you experience them from, so you might want to play through the game a second time to see the changes for yourself. See More

Assassin's Creed

Top Pro

Impressive cities to explore with buildings to climb freely

The medieval locations of Jerusalem, Damascus, and Acre are beautifully done. The levels are massive for their time, with well-designed areas from the era such as towers, open plazas, and religious buildings. You can climb anything, anywhere, and run along the rooftops as much as you want. Scaling the tallest places gives you an amazing bird's eye view of the city and the mountain ranges beyond, along with a vantage point to plan out how to assassinate your targets. The realistic architecture makes Assassin's Creed feel like a true period piece set in the Holy Land. See More

Top Con

Altaïr isn't all that compelling

As the main protagonist, Altaïr is kind of boring. His voice acting is emotionless and he doesn't really grow as a character. He does what his superiors tell him to do and just goes along for the ride in the story. You won't get to know much about him as a person, only the things that revolve around his role as an assassin. Getting to see more of him beyond the main story would have helped to flesh him out some more. See More

Specs

Genre:Stealth, Action-Adventure

Top Pro

Excellent soundtrack

The game's soundtrack is top notch. It has a blend of medieval-sounding instruments with modern sci-fi synths, making the tracks unique. The echoing choruses and unsettling backtracks give a sense that you're on a tense, but mysterious mission to assassinate the templars in the Holy Land that the game takes place in. There's a measured thoughtfulness and caution that you pick up on as well, almost like the songs themselves mimic you as you stalk your targets while you blend in with the crowd. It's such a cool experimental sound that the composer, Jesper Kyd, manages to pull off well, keeping you engrossed as you play and listen. See More

Top Con

Confusing ending that lacks closure

The ending is weird. There's a sudden twist that happens with no real explanation, and it seems to happen just to shock you. The final wrap up also leaves out a lot of information about this twist, leaving things open for a sequel. You more than likely will end up confused by the whole thing. See More

Top Pro

Intuitive stealth gameplay

The stealth mechanics feel natural and fluid in how strategic they are. While tracking your targets, you blend in with each city's citizens or climb up to the tops of buildings to perch there and avoid getting spotted by the templar or their guards. You can either wait for the perfect opportunity to strike with a hidden blade up your sleeve that silently assassinates your target, or you can go all-out and have a sword duel with them if you'd rather take a more aggressive approach. After they're dead, you make your escape and become incognito again. Everything goes together nicely in a way that feels satisfying. See More

Top Con

Repetitive main missions

The main missions are all structured the same without much variety. You're assigned a target to kill, you go to the specified city, you get a few means of tracking them down, and then you assassinate them. It's the same formula for every single target until the final mission. The only thing that breaks the monotony is that you get to choose your approach on how to kill your target. Pretty much everything else falls into the same routine that drags on for too long. See More

Top Pro

Interesting story of Assassins versus Templars

The story in Assassin's Creed is full of intriguing ideologies and philosophies. It's a familiar tale of liberty and freedom on the Assassin side and law and order on the Templar side, but it still feels fresh. Playing as Altaïr, it's up to you to assassinate certain templar targets who oppress the masses and horde power for themselves. As you take them down, you learn about their views on controlling the populace, encouraging you to question if the assassins are truly on the right path. Thankfully, the game doesn't tell you what to think, leaving you to draw your own conclusions. See More

Dynasty Warriors 9

Top Pro

Flashy combat animations that feel like a power fantasy

Dynasty Warriors 9, at the very least, makes you feel like you're a powerful, skilled warrior with cool moves in combat. The animations look a lot like over-the-top action sequences from cheesy action flicks, except with more special effects like fire, ice, or wind auras surrounding your weapons as you take down enemy units single-handedly. You'll spin and slash your swords, lances, and more all around you as you devastate dozens of enemies in a single sequence of fast attacks. It's impossible in real life and lacks any realism whatsoever, but it's all part of the power fantasy that the Dynasty Warriors series is known for. See More

Top Con

Grappling hook trivializes enemy encampments

You can scale just about every single wall in the game with a grappling hook, making enemy forts pointless. Whenever there's a base that you have to get inside to find the next group of enemies, all you have to do is use the hook to get to the top of the wall. You're then free to run around and kill everyone without consequence, trivializing the whole mechanic of having enemy defenses in the first place. The enemies might as well stand out in the open with nothing around for miles, because it wouldn't make much of a difference and it'd save you some time. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Mixed

Genre:Hack-and-Slash

Top Con

Generic, low-effort voice acting

The voice acting in this game is so incredibly basic that it sounds like a mockery and a joke. It's as if the voice crew simply asked people out on the street to mimic how grizzled or noble warriors would sound and recorded the lines right then and there. You can hear how the actors deepen their voice on purpose and read out their lines without any spirit or personality whatsoever. It's a travesty that could have been avoided if they had left out the English voices altogether and stuck with the original language. See More

Top Con

Broken, buggy hunting in the wild

There's no excitement or thrill with hunting in Dynasty Warriors 9 because of how broken it is. You'll fire your arrows at tigers or wolves that won't respond--they'll keep standing there until you deplete their health, and then drop some loot for you to pick up. Or they'll crowd around you in gigantic packs without attacking you, leaving them wide open for you to kill them all one at a time. Even worse, sometimes they'll get stuck in the environment, again making them easy pickings for you to get rid of without a fight. Hunting is absolutely broken with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. See More

Top Con

Mindless battles that lack substance or challenge

While the animations in combat are flashy and cool, the actual battles themselves are trivial and dull because of how simple they are. As you slice and dice dozens of enemy units in the air or bulldoze ahead to kill them all at once, it looks fun at first, but it quickly gets old. Blasting through troops lacks weight or meaning, to the point where you might find yourself mentally checking out as you play the game. It's the same thing over and over again with no skill involved. See More

Top Con

Useless open world with too much empty space

The open world in Dynasty Warriors 9 is huge, but there's not a lot to do in it, and having all of this space cuts down on the quality of the game's combat. There's space for the sake of having space, with quests and battles often making you ride your horse for minutes at a time through empty stretches of wastelands and forests to reach your next objective. While the battles are spread out across the world to encourage player exploration and broaden the game's scope, this comes at the cost of not having the dense, action-packed fights that fans of the series enjoyed so much. This open world only thinned the game and diluted the battles without adding anything meaningful or innovative. See More

Assassin's Creed Unity

Top Pro

4 player online co-op

Assassin's Creed Unity features up to four player online co-op. See More

Top Con

More of the same

Like most of Ubisoft's cookie cutter games, the gameplay of Assassin's Creed Unity is just more of the same from previous titles with little implemented to set it apart from any other in the series. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Action-Adventure, Stealth

Co-Op:4 Player Online

Top Pro

Wide range of customization

From different weapon slots to changing outfit pieces independently there are quite a lot of customization options to utilize which allows for the player to feel that there character is individualized. See More

Top Con

Buggy

Has more bugs than an ant hill See More

Top Pro

Crouch walk finally implemented

Assassin's Creed Unity has finally added in a method for players to crouch-walk. Allowing them to remain hidden going from cover to cover. This was an often asked for mechanic and is now finally implemented into the game series. See More

Assassin's Creed Syndicate

Top Pro

Good graphics

This game has great looking textures and graphics which you will enjoy. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Action-Adventure, Stealth

Top Pro

Compelling 2 main Protagonists

The twin brother and sister and their interactions give the storyline a more vibrant perspective. See More

Top Pro

Wide range of customization

There are lots of options to customize your character. You can change your weapons and your appearance, down to the individual hood that you prefer to wear. The sheer amount of things you can choose from is pretty impressive, helping you feel like your character is really your own. See More

Top Pro

You get to play as two protagonists, the twins Jacob and Evie

Jacob and Evie are refreshing to play as, especially since you get to experience the story from both of their perspectives. The twin brother and sister are charismatic and entertaining, giving the story more of a lighter edge compared to some of the past games. They bicker and disagree a lot, but you can tell that they genuinely care about each other. Their playstyles are also quite different, with Jacob favoring a more aggressive, reckless approach, while Evie is stealthier and more strategic. These are all nice design decisions that help Syndicate stand out a little from the rest of the games in the franchise. See More

Top Pro

Intuitive stealth gameplay

The city of London is beautifully done. The level is massive and dense with detail, with well-designed areas from the era such as towers, open plazas, religious buildings, and recognizable landmarks like Big Ben. You can climb anything, anywhere, and run along the rooftops as much as you want. Scaling the tallest places gives you an amazing bird's eye view of the city and the mountain ranges beyond, along with a vantage point to plan out how to assassinate your targets. The realistic architecture makes Assassin's Creed Syndicate feel like a true period piece set in London during the Industrial Revolution. See More

Assassin's Creed II

Top Pro

Intuitive stealth gameplay

The stealth mechanics feel natural and fluid in how strategic they are. While tracking your targets, you blend in with each city's citizens or climb up to the tops of buildings to perch there and avoid getting spotted by the templar or their guards. You can either wait for the perfect opportunity to strike with a hidden blade up your sleeve that silently assassinates your target, or you can go all-out and have a sword duel with them if you'd rather take a more aggressive approach. After they're dead, you make your escape and become incognito again. Everything goes together nicely in a way that feels satisfying. See More

Top Con

Generic premise of a revenge story

The revenge story has been done to death, and Assassin's Creed II doesn't really add anything new here. From the beginning of the plot, you see some of the major cliches that often pop up in these types of tales. And while Ezio's cause is just, it's hard to care on an emotional level about his mission to kill Italy's high-level templars. But if you're not one to care too much about stories in games, then you probably won't even notice that anything's off. See More

Specs

Genre:Action-Adventure, Stealth

Top Pro

Interesting story of Assassins versus Templars

The story in Assassin's Creed II is full of intriguing ideologies and philosophies. It's a familiar tale of liberty and freedom on the Assassin side and law and order on the Templar side, but it still feels fresh. Playing as Ezio, it's up to you to assassinate certain templar targets who oppress the masses and horde power for themselves. As you take them down, you learn about their views on controlling the populace, encouraging you to question if the assassins are truly on the right path. Thankfully, the game doesn't tell you what to think, leaving you to draw your own conclusions. See More

Top Con

Repetitive main missions

Ezio's mission to kill a list of templars lacks flavor and variety. The gameplay boils down to the same formula of picking a new target, going to the city where they're located, finding out information on them, and then assassinating the templar. While it's cool that you get to explore new places and interact with a variety of characters along the way, it's easy to see behind this veneer to the boring and repetitive nature of the missions. It's one of those things that can kill your enjoyment of the game. See More

Top Pro

Impressive cities to explore with buildings to climb freely

The Italian locations of Florence, Forli, Tuscany, and Venice are beautifully done. The levels are massive for their time, with well-designed areas from the era such as towers, open plazas, and religious buildings. You can climb anything, anywhere, and run along the rooftops as much as you want. Scaling the tallest places gives you an amazing bird's eye view of the city and the mountain ranges beyond, along with a vantage point to plan out how to assassinate your targets. The realistic architecture makes Assassin's Creed II feel like a true period piece set in Renaissance Italy. See More

Top Pro

Excellent soundtrack

The game's soundtrack is top notch. It has a blend of religious motifs with modern sci-fi synths, making the tracks unique. The echoing choruses and unsettling backtracks give a sense that you're on a tense, but mysterious mission to assassinate the templars in the Renaissance setting that the game takes place in. There's a measured thoughtfulness and caution that you pick up on as well, almost like the songs themselves mimic you as you stalk your targets while you blend in with the crowd. It's such a cool experimental sound that the composer, Jesper Kyd, manages to pull off well, keeping you engrossed as you play and listen. See More

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