Hi everybody!
First of all I'd like to make clear that this post, while being in some part critic about the review, is generally meant as an inspiration for discussion. All statements are purely my own opinion, even though I know I tend to express them as being written-in-stone facts.
Rating this game 3/5 is IMO judging by today's standards. Those standards suggest that a game is merely the sum of all its comprising media, as opposed to being appealing AS A GAME. It has become pretty rare nowadays that games are designed to reflect their setting in their game mechanics. Most of the time what we get is "RTS in Star Wars setting", "FPS in Carebears setting" or something similar.
As my nickname suggests, I am a great fan of post-apocalptic fiction. Visions of Aftermath (VoA) provides little outstanding "classic" media and thus isn't the most "classically" atmospheric title in this setting. Apart from the manual, which is at least "pretty well" written, the only other thing that really transports the feel of a post-apocalyptic world is the game mechanic itself. But, and I am putting it as a question although I am clearly of the opinion: Aren't the game mechanics in and of themselves a medium? Can they be? Should they be?
Which this leads me to the point I'm trying to make: VoA, for me, is a purely great game. The emphasis here is on "game". If compared to other titles in the same setting, VoA does not offer much in respect of text, graphics or sound to put you in the mood of a post-nuclear wasteland. But take for example the Fallout series: You could exchange all graphics, texts, sounds without altering the game mechanics in any way, and substitute it with a completely different setting, while maintaining a similar grade of immersion. This being hardly or not at all possible for VoA is the reason why I think the game deserves the 5/5 I gave it.
Hopefully I accomplished my goal of starting a deeper discussion. And well, I also hope I didn't tread on anybody's feet. And thanks to the reviewer for his work, although I disagree with him about VoA being a mediocre game. =)
Regards
~W