Unheard Screams - King Leopold II's Rule Over The Congo

Despite being very interested in the subject and having high hopes for this game I can't recommend it. The gameplay itself is forgettable and repetitive: Go to each territory, recruit whomever is ready to join you and fight the enemy. Always picking the weakest enemy guarantees that you will win. There is no character development or any choice, aside from who you recruit and fight. There is no dialogue with the other characters, they will just give you a quote (which is sometimes cut off mid-word at the end as if there is a character limit) But then again this game, like other games from Locomotivah is not about gameplay, but about the story and about reflection. So does it deliver on this front? Well, as stated before I was pleasantly surprised at seeing the title but my excitement was replaced with worry as soon as I saw the protagonists name as Miala is not a Congolese name. It made me worried about the research behind the game and unfortunately this worry proved to be justified....

Positive things first: Good intent in the story and selection of topic. Yet the game leaves the impression that the historical issue was only scratched on the surface. The choice of the actual gameplay mechanic, which is quite simplistic (build up army, fight, repeat, repeat, watch your fatigue) and that of the protagonist seem both quite out of touch with historic realities. I might have rather played a text adventure as E. D. Morel in the «Congo Free State Propaganda War» or anything from a western perspective that touches well documented reality, than as Miala, a fictional very vaguely defined native African rebellion leader in his early twenties. Spoiler: [spoiler] He dies after winning the final Battle against King Leopold II himself (seriously?) at age 31? Just Why? [/spoiler]. The gameplay almost exclusively consists out of grinding through battles and increasing the strength of your army by beating the easiest opponents first (conveniently labeled «very easy»). The Campa...

The story suckered me into it, but the gameplay ruins it. The story seems like it's just a series of quotes and a few slides of text after a successful battle. The battle system itself quickly becomes repititive and lacks any variety. The game itself isn't that long, and hour or two and your done, and that's if you carefully read everything. Save your money and get something with more meat and sustenance in it.

Well... it's a nice little role-playing novel, I enjoyed it. A lot of supplementary material and a bit of imagination can make you feel the spirit of the revolution.

This is basically a text-based RPG that tells a revisionist history of colonial Congo, in which the Congolese rise up and overthrow the King of Belgium. (Picture [i] Inglorious Basterds [/i] in text form, stripped of verbal pizzazz, and with Leopold II taking the place of the fuhrer). I'll concede upfront that it's not a particularly good [i] game. [/i] The basic mechanic involves clicking on various villages, recruiting any of the locals that feel like joining your army, and then attacking whichever colonial official is labelled "Very Easy" at that moment. (The game calculates this automatically, depending on how many soldiers and weapons you've got with you at the time). The battles themselves require a bit of quick-thinking resource management, as various options pop up while the two sides trade attacks. Increase your defense, or call in reinforcements? Make yourself invulnerable for four rounds, or take a chunk out of your enemy's stamina stats? This is pretty much the only part o...

While it's 'gameplay' is questionable, I certainly found it worth my time and money for the writing, which gave insights on a piece of history hitherto completely unknown to me.

its pretty good for its price

Usually, I really like this type of game: text-based stories or adventures with some interactions (and usually a cheap and fair price). But, I'm sorry, the final product fail to impress: the base for the story is very interesting (and I didn't know that, so I cheked it), but the game itself fails to deliver any real emotion and the more "gaming" part of the game is too simple to amuse anyone. On the other hand, the game is priced really good, and I think you can "spare" 2€ for a game like this. So, this is the classic problem with Steam review: this is a 6/10 game, and I don't feel to do not recommed it, but also I have to notice how it fails to be... a game! And, at the same time, the story is to thin to "grab" you. So... 6/10 (also for the fair price).