User Score
6.7

Mixed or average reviews- based on 210 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 88 out of 210
  2. Negative: 33 out of 210

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  1. Aug 31, 2023
    8
    I thought evoland was really fun, and the different stages of evolution was really cool. Some parts really felt like Legend of Zelda, especially the puzzles.
  2. Aug 15, 2023
    7
    The principle is fun at the beginning but is not made for a long game. A good game for a Quick experience
  3. May 22, 2023
    7
    Le jeu est sympa il n'a rien d'exceptionnel mais rien de mauvais non plus mais son originalité est assez unique
  4. May 20, 2023
    4
    Игра мне не понравилась.
    Причины: нет цели, нет почти никаких препятствий, игра зачем то, не начиная сюжет, добавляет его в конце и даже его не заканчивает.
    Итог: игра может вызывать ностальгические чувства, но она не совсем закончена, еще хотелось бы полноценого сюжета. Не стоит воспринимать игру всерьёз потомучто она просто расказывает нам о эволюции rpg, игровых клише разного времени
    Игра мне не понравилась.
    Причины: нет цели, нет почти никаких препятствий, игра зачем то, не начиная сюжет, добавляет его в конце и даже его не заканчивает.
    Итог: игра может вызывать ностальгические чувства, но она не совсем закончена, еще хотелось бы полноценого сюжета. Не стоит воспринимать игру всерьёз потомучто она просто расказывает нам о эволюции rpg, игровых клише разного времени и развития графики и визуальных эфектов.
    Игра просто ничего не делает чтобы быть интересной, например можно было поэксперементировать с жанрами, сделать все динамичнее.
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  5. Apr 30, 2023
    8
    Существуют просто Зло и Большое Зло, а за ними обоими в тени прячется Очень Большое Зло. Очень Большое Зло, Геральт, это такое, которого ты и представить себе не можешь, даже если думаешь, будто уже ничто не в состоянии тебя удивить. И знаешь, Геральт, порой бывает так, что Очень Большое Зло схватит тебя за горло и скажет: «Выбирай, братец, либо я, либо то, которое чуточку поменьше»Существуют просто Зло и Большое Зло, а за ними обоими в тени прячется Очень Большое Зло. Очень Большое Зло, Геральт, это такое, которого ты и представить себе не можешь, даже если думаешь, будто уже ничто не в состоянии тебя удивить. И знаешь, Геральт, порой бывает так, что Очень Большое Зло схватит тебя за горло и скажет: «Выбирай, братец, либо я, либо то, которое чуточку поменьше»
  6. Mar 3, 2023
    7
    It is fun.......................................................that is it.
  7. Feb 25, 2023
    6
    Just a Final Fantasy love letter from a NES fan.
    Yeah, you know, NES is being treated like "the only gaming platform ever" in USA for some years. And Evoland follows that trend by creating a game based on Final Fantasy series. There are a little bit Zelda, a little bit Mana, a little bit FF, just to combine a "history of gaming" for console gamers.
    We don't see anything related
    Just a Final Fantasy love letter from a NES fan.
    Yeah, you know, NES is being treated like "the only gaming platform ever" in USA for some years. And Evoland follows that trend by creating a game based on Final Fantasy series. There are a little bit Zelda, a little bit Mana, a little bit FF, just to combine a "history of gaming" for console gamers.
    We don't see anything related C64/Amiga/DOS games, only the games American NES fans know and love. And as I mentioned above, many aspects of the game - like character names, graphic design, combat mechanics, story concept are all dumbed down version of Final Fantasy stories.
    If you believe you are in the target audience, go for it. You will like this love letter.
    As a PC Gamer, I find it very lackluster.

    6: Average - Some may love and talk about it, but nothing more.
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  8. Dec 21, 2022
    7
    Fun and short RPG game. In fact it's a mix of RPG, JRPG, ARPG and a kind of tribute to well known games like Zelda, Final Fantasy, Diablo, ...
    The way you're unlocking gaming technologies, like sounds, graphics, features, while playing is funny.

    The story and game depth is not so good, it's more about enjoying the journey while the game evolved through decades of video games improvements.
  9. Apr 26, 2021
    10
    Loved every minute. Encapsulated all of the things I love about RPG's. Well done.
  10. Apr 5, 2021
    9
    A great game that you can finish in 2/3 hours. After that speedrunning can be quite fun, but even if you just want to play it once it will be a good experience
  11. Feb 19, 2021
    7
    Some games struggle to balance a couple mechanics or more than one genre and then you have games like Evoland that combine various mechanics and genres from the history of RPGs and somehow do it with ease and it just works. You at times have a real time battle system more like a hack and slash RPG but other times you have a turn based battle system more like JRPGs. The amazing part is thatSome games struggle to balance a couple mechanics or more than one genre and then you have games like Evoland that combine various mechanics and genres from the history of RPGs and somehow do it with ease and it just works. You at times have a real time battle system more like a hack and slash RPG but other times you have a turn based battle system more like JRPGs. The amazing part is that both are fun in their own way in the same game. You go from 2D with little in the way of graphics all the way up to a 3D world that is more like a really polished Ocarina of Time type of quality. You advance all this by finding various chests while you are completing objectives. You get upgrades to weapons; characters introduced to your party; explore various locations. You have some parts with random enemy encounters like Pokemon while other times you don’t and it is more scripted. If I can name one major flaw in the game it is that it doesn’t have enough time and content to flesh all of this out. Characters are introduced almost as quickly as they leave and you don’t get enough time to enjoy them or to have a proper story. Don’t get me wrong what story there is is enjoyable but there is little time for back story; lore; or really caring about much as it is over pretty quickly. Even the evolution in the game as you acquire new graphics and sounds happens so fats that you have everything by a third of the way through or less. A few minor gripes I had was that there is no objective listed anywhere so you have to remember or write it down. It is a short game mind you but a screen for current objectives would have been appreciated. Another gripe is you lose some of the weapons and skills you have once your out of certain areas for no reason. One skill specifically which lets you use a giant dragon to roast enemies is used for literally one mission and then the next mission was the final one and I wasn’t allowed to use it as it was part of the turn based system and the final fight is real time. Later in the game you get a mini map but it lacks much on it other than some dots that it doesn’t tell you what they are. A legend would have been nice. Enemies lack a health bar in both battle systems. The final boss fight was made a bit tedious as you can’t even pause during it even though I could pause at will at any other time in the game.

    Now that the griping is done and my chest is cleared let me say that despite all that the game is heavily enjoyable. The turn based combat and real time are both fantastic. The story while shallow is fun as are the characters. The progression system, while short, is a unique experience. There is also some good comedic moments and references.

    I played Evoland on Linux. It never crashed on me and I didn’t notice any spelling errors. The game works just fine with both mouse/keyboard and a game pad. I used the Logitech F310 myself with no issues. Alt-Tab didn’t work. There are no graphics options but due to the ever changing graphics in game I can understand why. The game does auto save at certain points but doesn’t tell you when so it’s best to use the save points scattered around the map. I would have preferred manual saving even if it would be an insult to the genre.

    Disk Space Used: 881 MB
    Input Used: Logitech F310

    GPU Usage: 2-18 %
    VRAM Usage: 443-552 MB
    CPU Usage: 9-22 %
    RAM Usage: 2.1-2.7 GB

    If you love old school RPG then there will be a lot to love about Evoland. I beat the game, finishing 81.5% of the content in three hours and twenty one minutes. It feels rushed and lacks depth but the content you are given is a lot of fun. I paid $5.49 CAD for the Evoland Legendary Edition so you could say I paid $2.75 CAD for Evoland and that is great value for it as I would say it is worth about $10. Considering that is about half the value of the current price for the Legendary Edition then so long as the sequel is as good or better then it is a good price overall.

    My Score: 7/10

    My System:

    AMD FX-6100 | 16GB DDR3-1600 CL9 | MSI RX 580 8GB Gaming X | Mesa 20.3.4 | Samsung 870 QVO 1TB | Manjaro 20.2.1 | Mate 1.24.1 | Kernel 5.10.15-1-MANJARO
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  12. Feb 28, 2020
    5
    Cute idea but the gimmick gets old really quickly. Once you get past the hour mark, the game just becomes a slog.
  13. Feb 11, 2020
    6
    Well its not bad but gets boring and repetitive but still a cool indie game with a lot of fan service.
  14. Aug 11, 2019
    4
    The concept and idea of this game is something fresh and briliant, but it kinda fails in delivery. There is no actual gameplay. Its just a 3 hours of jokes and poking at other things as LOTR, Zelda, League of legends, Diablo etc. I was smiling throughout the game at some of these things, but you dont even need to play it just look at some youtube letsplay and you will gain the sameThe concept and idea of this game is something fresh and briliant, but it kinda fails in delivery. There is no actual gameplay. Its just a 3 hours of jokes and poking at other things as LOTR, Zelda, League of legends, Diablo etc. I was smiling throughout the game at some of these things, but you dont even need to play it just look at some youtube letsplay and you will gain the same experince, This game is jsut a huge troll, i am giving extra points for the first part of game when you are actually upgrading and it keeps you kinda entertained after a while, huge downfall. Expand
  15. Aug 10, 2019
    5
    Es un pequeño juego que tenia muy buenas intenciones e ideas pero que la cagó con su jugabilidad repetitiva y aburrida, sistema de subir de nivel confuso, mala historia, poca evolución, gráficos horribles (al nivel de FF3 remake), mala optimización y corta duración.
  16. Mar 4, 2019
    5
    The idea of showing how RPG has evolved was fun and a great way to display a game. But underlying this, the game itself is kind of average. The character is kind of slow when it's in 3D. Combat is somewhat uneven. Some puzzles were interesting especially between 2D to 3D. The story isn't really sure if it should be serious or not. The game is extremely short, maybe 2-3 hours or so. I giveThe idea of showing how RPG has evolved was fun and a great way to display a game. But underlying this, the game itself is kind of average. The character is kind of slow when it's in 3D. Combat is somewhat uneven. Some puzzles were interesting especially between 2D to 3D. The story isn't really sure if it should be serious or not. The game is extremely short, maybe 2-3 hours or so. I give it a 52%. I applause the effort of trying something different but the game lack focus in many areas. Expand
  17. Feb 23, 2019
    7
    Un gran juego con referencias muy agradables para los jugadores, aunque odie mucho el sistema de pelea y la exagerada aparición de enemigos.
  18. Mar 15, 2018
    7
    Great concept but the execution is not so good, Evoland is fun and creative but at the same time feels limited and uninspiring.
    I really wanted to like this game, playing with different genres, graphics and styles scores very high with a player like me that is all around player, but the lack of a true story and the evolution of gaming being constant makes this game a little predictable in
    Great concept but the execution is not so good, Evoland is fun and creative but at the same time feels limited and uninspiring.
    I really wanted to like this game, playing with different genres, graphics and styles scores very high with a player like me that is all around player, but the lack of a true story and the evolution of gaming being constant makes this game a little predictable in what comes next.
    Although Evoland goes through decades of gaming history never really deviates of what it is, a kind of RPG-adventure game and that narrows the possibilities so much.
    Evoland feels creative enough to stand out but still not creative enough for what the cross-genre could accomplish, no real story and being a short game hold Evoland back.
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  19. Feb 25, 2018
    10
    задумка очень интересная. Побольше таких игр с изменением графики.
  20. Mar 4, 2017
    7
    Game: Evoland
    Genre: RPG
    Publisher/Developer: Shiro Games System: Steam (PC) Total Score: 70/100 Value Score: 7.0/10 • Story: 6/10 • Characters: 7/10 • GamePlay: 7/10 • Graphics: 8/10 • Sound: 7/10 • Music: 7/10 • Length: 4/10 • Replay Value: 7/10 • Player Value: 7/10 Pros +Unique progression evolves the visuals and gameplay the more you play +References from different
    Game: Evoland
    Genre: RPG
    Publisher/Developer: Shiro Games
    System: Steam (PC)
    Total Score: 70/100
    Value Score: 7.0/10

    • Story: 6/10
    • Characters: 7/10
    • GamePlay: 7/10
    • Graphics: 8/10
    • Sound: 7/10
    • Music: 7/10
    • Length: 4/10
    • Replay Value: 7/10
    • Player Value: 7/10

    Pros
    +Unique progression evolves the visuals and gameplay the more you play
    +References from different RPGs and anime series in both gameplay and during conversations with NPCs
    +Turn based like Final Fantasy, Action-Adventure like Zelda and Dungeon Crawler like Mechanics in certain parts of the game
    +Sidequests which are not important to the storyline are included which will help you make the game easier or get achievements

    Cons
    -Advertised as Full Controller Support however does not detect controllers automatically as it should, compatibility settings need to be changed on pad.exe and evoland.exe to windows 7. Also PS4 controller does not work at all, Xbox360 controller and Keyboard/Mouse works fine
    -Very short
    -Controls feel sluggish at times
    -Story not memorable at all
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  21. Nov 1, 2016
    10
    The first time I saw this game,I loved the idea of Evoland and I think the game looks also nice. The story was not the best,but for this game it is good enough.
  22. Jun 1, 2016
    0
    Evoland is basically every bad old RPG rolled up into one. Boring enemies, boring combat, excuse plot, character who dies who you just don’t care about at all (or indeed, care about any of the characters at all), ect.

    The game is meant to poke fun at old RPGs, including Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Zelda, Diablo, and others, but frankly, it falls flat. All of the “humor” in the game is
    Evoland is basically every bad old RPG rolled up into one. Boring enemies, boring combat, excuse plot, character who dies who you just don’t care about at all (or indeed, care about any of the characters at all), ect.

    The game is meant to poke fun at old RPGs, including Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Zelda, Diablo, and others, but frankly, it falls flat. All of the “humor” in the game is basically the game pointing and saying “isn’t this dumb?” It is basically explaining the joke, except there is no joke, just a reference to an older game which isn’t very funny.

    The game seems to suggest that you’re going to gradually move through various eras of games, but by about a third of the way into the game, you’re already up to 3D graphics, and it doesn’t really go beyond that. The game feels almost as if it has to rush through to unlock all the earlier stuff and then get to 3D for some reason, even though, quite frankly, the 3D gameplay isn’t very good (but then, neither is the 2D gameplay).

    Ultimately, the game is meant to be funny, but isn’t, and is meant to be fun, and also isn’t. The gameplay is as tedious as any old, poorly designed game with very little content; the JRPG overworld encounters happen every five steps or so and are pointless and tedious, while the dungeon Zelda-type movement is very basic, containing very little variety of monsters, none of which are particularly interesting to fight. The game contains three bosses, two of which are pretty boring; one of them is basically “stand there and hit it until it dies”, and another is a standard “dodge the charge and hit them” boss. Only the final boss shows any signs of real gameplay, and even there, it was kind of tepid.

    There’s just nothing here for anyone. If you’re looking for humor, the game isn’t funny; if you’re looking for a game which is fun to play, this isn’t. It doesn’t even feel original, as literally everything in it is referential, meaning any “originality” it might have from the whole idea of evolving into the modern day of gameplay is basically dead on arrival, buried under a pile of old video game references.
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  23. Feb 18, 2016
    6
    Very interesting game, formerly made for Ludum Dare. You start with simple 2D graphics and music which evolves while you progress through the game. Some parts are really repetitive.
  24. Nov 15, 2015
    4
    It's not as good as it presents itself.
    The main concept of Evoland is that every time you collect a chest, you upgrade the game itself, such as new graphics or different style gameplay. It's a really good concept, but the lack of challenges makes this game more of a reminiscent of games like Zelda or Final Fantasy. There is no story to this game, and it is super short, being only 3
    It's not as good as it presents itself.
    The main concept of Evoland is that every time you collect a chest, you upgrade the game itself, such as new graphics or different style gameplay. It's a really good concept, but the lack of challenges makes this game more of a reminiscent of games like Zelda or Final Fantasy. There is no story to this game, and it is super short, being only 3 hours long. The evolution idea is great, but the execution is not as good as it wants to be.

    Evoland gets a 4/10.
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  25. Jun 28, 2015
    10
    It's important to realise when playing this game that it isn't meant to be a true RPG - it's meant to be a pisstake of the RPG genre, wherein you have to unlock everything, right down to moving, saving and battling, and it does that absolutely brilliantly. I would reccomend this game to anyone who liked the old RPGs like Final Fantasy and the like - I for one found myself chucklingIt's important to realise when playing this game that it isn't meant to be a true RPG - it's meant to be a pisstake of the RPG genre, wherein you have to unlock everything, right down to moving, saving and battling, and it does that absolutely brilliantly. I would reccomend this game to anyone who liked the old RPGs like Final Fantasy and the like - I for one found myself chuckling heartily at the little references here and there. A brilliant little stab at the RPG genre, Evoland is so deliberately generic that it's hilarious, and any retro game fan should pick it up for its nostalgic and its comedic value. Expand
  26. May 21, 2015
    8
    This game, while it has plenty of flaws is a great example of the evolution of video games, it has great humor, good presentation, and to be honest, I would rather play a game detailing the evolution of video games than watch a movie, or read a book tbh.
  27. Apr 3, 2015
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Evoland made me really excited (when I saw it on sale on Steam...$10 bucks? Ha!) because conceptually, it seems quite exciting. Being able to play through an action-RPG that changes and evolves to match the different mechanics we've seen over the years would be amazing, provided the game itself was also there to deliver.

    The problem with Evoland is that it doesn't stand up alone as a game. They intended to create a series of references and then put them in order. It doesn't play like a game at any point, it makes no sense, and it doesn't try to engage you at all. Because the concept is so strong and the idea of nostalgia pulls at us all, Evoland neglected to make a challenging, entertaining, or even remotely fun game. It's these kinds of indie games that will bury a really great trend over the past few years when it comes to experimentation. If they had actually created a story and game and then simultaneously had you building the world, you might have had something here.

    I've played a number of RPGs over the year where you actually had to build up the world around you. They're not much different than Evoland, except that they still brought a story and gameplay to stand alongside their gimmick. Evoland will make you smile once or twice, not because you're enjoying the game, but because you'll go "Oh yeah, monochrome games were pretty fun" or "Yeah, Diablo is a great game." You're just smiling because you were reminded there are great games out there you played before and many of them are still pretty easy to get your hands on.

    There is a brief moment in Evoland where you have switch between "time," and in doing so, you change between old 16-bit gameplay back to 3-D, and it changes how you can interact with the map. This is ingenious. This is the kind of thing that the game should be doing. Puzzles based on its gimmick. Early on, when you switch from monochrome to colour or from no health to hearts, there's no reason and no bonus to your progression. It just happens. So the gimmick isn't actually doing anything to boost the game, to pull you in, or to make it fun, it's just kind of happening in the background. You go through one forest, now it's a more detailed dungeon, now it's a 3D forest, now its an "HD" final boss fight. It doesn't change the gameplay much.

    As many have mentioned, the evolution pacing is terrible. For me, most of the greatest RPGs I Played are going to be from a 2D era. So when I started in monochrome, super excited to explore in this throwback world, and was almost instantly booted to colour, I was incredibly disappointed. The rush to 3D happens pretty much right away as well, meaning you play half the game as monochrome/16-bit/2D, and then you just flatline at 3D. The game also forgets there are modern RPGs that didn't have pre-rendered backgrounds, but apparently that's where evolution stops here.

    So, moving past the disappointing gimmicks is combat. It's awful. Any of the Zelda-esque levels have almost no puzzles, and if you were playing Zelda for the thrilling combat...look, nobody plays Zelda for thrilling combat. You play for puzzles and level-design and awesome bosses. When you play the FF-style stuff, you deal with incredibly frequent random encounters, and for a while, it's just your one character, and the only action you have is Attack. That's it. Pile on the excitement though, because the second character you get brings the first spell in the game (Heal) and does no damage when attacking, so you're just going to hit attack and heal between your two party members. That's all. Later in the game she learns a new damage spell, but it doesn't do much either. That's all there is to it. The Diablo sections also strip you of any skills, leaving you with only attack. That's all you'll do the entire level. Careful not to break your space bar.

    This game frustrates because it had so much potential, and they really only get one shot at this. Nobody had done this specific gimmick before, and now anyone trying it in the future will have Evoland's taint hanging around it. Plus it'll be a "Yeah, we saw it" feeling, so we'll never get a really interesting RPG that is both a throwback, and modern game at the same time, while still being original. Instead we got a demoreel for a game these guys could probably make if you gave them money. You're pretty much just watching the code be read and that's all.

    And don't collect things. Anything. Don't. Those chests don't contain optional evolutions. All the stars doesn't do anything. All the cards doesn't do anything. The card game is fun, and would be kind of nice if you had any additional say over your deck or anything, but its basically evolved tic-tac-toe, so I guess you can pay some money to get your hands on that?
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  28. Aug 29, 2014
    7
    Good idea, and a very nice execution.
    I think that whoever gives a negative review to the game tries to review it as a game of its own, and that's not entirely correct, in my opinion.
    Yes, as a game of it's own, this game is average at best and I'd give it maybe 4.510 or something like that. Its own graphics aren't spectacular, its own soundtrack is kinda dull, the story is a pretty
    Good idea, and a very nice execution.
    I think that whoever gives a negative review to the game tries to review it as a game of its own, and that's not entirely correct, in my opinion.
    Yes, as a game of it's own, this game is average at best and I'd give it maybe 4.510 or something like that.
    Its own graphics aren't spectacular, its own soundtrack is kinda dull, the story is a pretty lame save-the-town-from-evil kind of thing.

    And maybe I've got it all wrong, but I don't think that in any way this game tries to be any good on its own.
    The idea here is to bring the evolution of video games in one product, with great emphasis on the RPG genre. And that it does well, in my opinion, and I don't remember any other game doing that as good as Evoland does, I don't remember any developer even trying out this idea, which is actually a pretty good and interesting one!

    I really enjoyed this game, and really enjoyed seeing the old good 2D 2-colors graphics turning gradually into a nicely done 3D HD manymany-colors graphics.

    It's a short experience, but that's the way it should be, and it costs accordingly (10 bucks is alright for this).

    Also, you'll probably enjoy the game more if you're familiar with the old-classic RPG's because this game has many specific references.

    One thing that annoyed me, to make the game more interesting the developers added achievements. They're pretty cool actually, and added a lot to the game, and I even wanted to complete them all. That's until I realized you don't really have any way to track your progress...UNLESS you own Evoland on Steam. Because Steam has an achievements system. The game itself, doesn't. So, if you're like me, and bought the game on GOG, and wish to track your achievements, you can only do so by manually check the list on Steam, or simply purchasing the game again on Steam.
    Does it worth it? naaah. It's a shame there's no achievements tracking in the game!

    All in all, the game is nice for a one-time playthrough. Give it a try if you're familiar with the old time of video gaming.
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  29. Jun 19, 2014
    9
    Just really enjoyed the game and found it very interesting. Would definitely recommend this game to anyone. some parts become frustrating and drag on a bit but very much enjoyed it overall
  30. Jun 5, 2014
    7
    Definitely a joyful travel through time! Though it's not as long as usual RPG's are, and replayability is highly questionable; it's still a lovely adventure and presentation of the evolution of RPG genre. If you think it's overpriced, you can still get it on sale and think of it as an interactive RPG documentary to avoid disappointment. Though, I believe, it's more than that.
Metascore
61

Mixed or average reviews - based on 27 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 27
  2. Negative: 4 out of 27
  1. Pelit (Finland)
    Jun 13, 2013
    70
    Evoland is a frustrating affair. Its premise is great and it has potential to spare, but instead of an inspired retro journey all you get is a combination of lazy jokes, bland Zelda-esque gameplay and numbingly tedious JRPG battles. [June 2013]
  2. Jun 10, 2013
    40
    As an introduction to old-school classics, Evoland is just too boring, and most veterans are not that nostalgic to blindly forgive its shoddy attempts at game design.
  3. PC Master (Greece)
    Jun 5, 2013
    74
    The old-school approach of the gameplay is not that fresh anymore and the steep price cannot justify the overpriced sentimentality. [May 2013]