Robinson's Requiem Collection

I remember seeing an interview with Silmarils on Micro Kids (a French video game show) back in 1994 where they were explaining the essence of Robinson's Requiem. I was quite impressed by the complexity of the world not to mention the attention to detail. Never before was your character able to contract all kinds of diseases and ailments. Sadly enough, the game wasn't all that great. It was often more frustrating than fun not to mention very demanding. And the world you explore is pretty boring to say the least. It's definitely not a game for everyone. I'm a hardcore RPG fan but Robinson's Requiem just didn't do it for me. Deus is an improvement, though, and corrects many of the mistakes made in the first game. The graphics are a big improvement too - much better than RR's brown shades - and the interface feels a lot smoother. For this low price, it can't hurt giving them a go though but don't expect a walk in the park. These two games really are demanding and you HAVE to read the manual if you don't want a world of pain.

Original. How many games can claim to be that, these days? But Robinson's Requiem pulls it off... though its peculiar, voxel-like terrain may take some getting used to, along with its complex simulation of your body's health and ailments, I dare say that those who persevere, who take the time to read the manual and the white booklet from the extras section, and who are willing to learn by trial & error how to survive in the game's challenging environments, will find out just how satisfying it can be. On a slightly less praiseworthy note, a walkthrough may be advisable for the game's later sections, which I found rather far-fetched at times. Saving frequently and in different slots is essential as it is easy to die or (sadly) get stuck. Despite these shortcomings, this is an experience unlike others, in an overall very good way. I had some trouble starting the game on my 64-bit Vista, but retrying a few times, or rebooting, will fix this issue. One important character's speech was crackly and unintelligible, but you can restart the game, turn the movies off and read his dialogue in text instead. As for Deus, the game's story seemed strangely disjointed from its gameplay. Its predecessor had quite an appropriate plot, with twists and intricacies as well as a solid basis for the events of the game; Deus on the other hand, sets the stage for some pulse-pounding action and infiltration, but what does it give you instead? Well, for the first half, the game is sort of a Robinson's Requiem Light with many of the more satisfying elements removed; add to this some even more illogical puzzles for which you will almost certainly need a walkthrough to avoid wasting hours and hours of your life running around in circles, wondering what to do. Following this is an excessively protracted underground section wherein the game does pick up some speed and deliver more of what it promised to begin with, but is still marred by confusing and far-fetched gameplay. Many of the weapons are interesting and fun to use, but most of the enemies seem more appropriate to fantasy than sci-fi (dwarves with laserproof platemail, anyone?), and seldom have anything to do with the antagonists mentioned in the story. I experienced a number of bugs and glitches as well, such as polygons being rendered as solid blocks of color instead of with the proper textures, trees and sheds turning invisible, or your campfires teleporting in front of you when you load a game with one still lit. These naturally hurt the immersion one was so privileged to feast on in the first game... All in all, the original game alone is well worth six dollars to anyone who feels intrigued by the prospect of a Robinson Crusoe-inspired game of adaptation and survival. If you end up enjoying Deus as well, then that's an added bonus.

I've had no previous experience playing either of these games but I've already put five hours into playing Robinson's Requiem and I'm impressed by the level of depth for a game from 1994. I'm surprised that, up until I purchased this pack (during a sale), I had never even heard of these games, especially considering the overwhelming amount of consumer interest in survival/crafting titles. Another reviewer panned this game with a one-star rating for being too much about "trial and error" but the plot of this game revolves around your character's attempts to survive on an entirely foreign "prison planet" -- it's not supposed to be a situation that is easily navigated. This game is out to get you as soon as you touch ground (after crash-landing your ship). It immediately becomes a race to, at the very least, find water and food. The very first instance of readily accessible food (via fruit on a tree) isn't even edible, it will give you food poisoning. It's the same story with the water -- it has to be purified, either through the process of boiling, which involves finding the means to start a fire, or purification tablets which you don't even have in your possession unless you go to investigate the nearby crash-site to recover a bag of medical/survival supplies.

I played this back in the day. I was a memorable experience to say the least. It's truly a "sandbox" game, in that you're dropped off in the wilderness completely unarmed and basically wander off to hunt and explore. Calling this an RPG though is somewhat misleading, as I don't recall there being much if any storytelling to his. The crazy part about this game is that's you're realistically fragile: you break a leg, and you'll be hobbling around on a splint. Like you may notice in the screenshot, you develop into a walking bandaged mess as you battle the terrain and wildlife. It's an extremely challenging game because of this and hence I never got very far in it. Still, although intriguing, this game suffers alot from the technology of its time. It tries to be Daggerfall in it scope, but suffers from a game engine that predates Doom. This gets especially ugly as you spend the beginning of the game with only melee weapons. Realtime first-person melee combat is fairly clunky (although far from unplayable) given today's standards. If you're a conoisser of innovative and rare games, give this one a spin.