I'd definitely recommend playing 1, 3 and 4 as well if you can. They're all fairly distinct games, but they definitely share a common "feeling" which you don't get in many other games.
I'll keep that in mind. I also have 6 and 7, so I was thinking of playing those first. I guess it'll be a while before I finish all of those.
Yeah, it was a pretty immersive game which is probably what kept me going on my first playthrough. Remembering parts like Oneiros or that hidden cove definitely get me tempted to play it again.

Hello bluethief and all the other time travellers!

Thank you for continuing this line of threads!
Despite me not having been able to participate (nor contributing as much as intended in the former ones) I do appreciate these both for some cosy nostalgia and some inside an hands-on experience by others on games from their corresponding release year.

2000 and 2001 really was a very strong year with respect to game releases on PC and hone consoles alike!

Like Cavalary, for 2001 I am taking advantage of two games from this period that I have been playing (on and off) relatively recently already, namely "Silent Hunter II" and Sonalyst's "Sub Command"--two submarine simulations depicting two very different time frames and approaches on naval submarine activities.

There are so many great games for this year! Unfortunately, my recent circumstances do not allow me to 'dive' into them currently.

But for anyone who is still in doubt which one(s) to choose, I can wholeheartedly recommend some examples:

- "Anachronox" for its likeable cast of characters and personal stories in a creative mixture of genres from the so-called "JRPG" to point & click adventure.
- "Gothic" for its fantastic world building and unique atmosphere despite the unusual controls.
- "ICO" (on Playstation 2 or remastered on newer Sony consoles) for a tight interconnected small game world that almost touch on impressionism, while telling a heartwarming story about the relationship of the young boy and a defenceless girl. Maybe the only game where I was not bothered by the escort gameplay, which is actually the majority of the game!
- "Independence War 2 - Edge of Chaos" for its great newtonian flight mechanics and open gameplay, but diverse missions. Unfortunately, it sufferes from some puzzle-like mission requirements and sudden peaks in its difficulty curve.
- "Myst III - Exile" is not my favorite game in the 'Myst' franchise, but my favorite performance of actor Brad Dourif. His playing of the antagonist accompanied with the great soundtrack is worth alone to experience this tale at least once! (The final puzzle of the game was also very well embedded in the original concept of 'Myst' and 'Riven'.)
- "ONI" is one diamond in the rough, and a fun action game that does not shine by its (low) technology, (poor) graphics nor (lack of) in depth game world, but by its implementation of fluent hand-to-hand combat and fire fights which it handles much better than the later "Advent Rising" or similar games. The combo system is not so in depth, however it does make the fist fights very engaging.

Have fun playing great games of this year!

Kind regards,
foxgog

Welcome :)

Signed you up on op for Silent Hunter II and Sub Command, and added the latter on the list of games, thank you.

That's amazing

Tribes 2 came out that year. It was a jump up from Tribes 1 then I think some of the development team went on to planetside.

You can get it and others here free. https://www.tribesuniverse.com/ There were also a lot of mods in the past for the game.
This group is keeping multiplayer up but I haven't tried it.
https://www.tribesnext.com/

Chiming in with others,the PS2 had a lot of good games at the start(as well as the end) of it's consoles cycle.

I completed the first three chapters (which means half the game) of Runaway: A Road Adventure. So far I like it. When it comes to the graphical style, it reminds me a lot of Broken Sword and even the story has some similarities. Characters are not so well written though.

Most of the puzzles are quite logical, but not too easy. Sometimes the game suffers from the typical adventure game flaw: you know exactly what to do, but you can't do it yet, because you haven't done a certain dialogue or haven't triggered a certain event yet. But it doesn't happen too much.

Twice I had to look at a walkthrough. In both cases I missed an object and probably wouldn't have figured it out in a million years. But that's obviously my fault. I should be more careful when I look for hotspots.

Will continue with chapter four now.

Unfortunately the first one never came to PC.

I think I played a little of 3, but remember nothing of it. Never played 4, but since it's available here on GOG I might get it in the future.
Added Tribes 2 to the list. Thank you.

I kinda hated the PS2 back then. I've always been a PC gamer, and remember back then lots and lots of games being PS2 exclusive. Also Sony PR claimed the PS2 was more powerful than PCs and it was threatening the PC space, which at the time triggered Microsoft to act and create the XBox. Funny how Microsoft made decisions that hurt PC gaming too.
Fast forward to today and you see both companies releasing their games on PC. How things really change!!

Today I was able to beat 4 levels of Blade of Darkness.

I'm really liking this game more than I expected. I think it has the right kind of difficulty where it's not too easy, but also not too hard where I get frustrated. It's really satisfying getting that final blow on the enemies.

The levels are fun to explore and their atmosphere continues to pull me in. However, there are certain areas where they can be really dark, to the point where not even bumping the brightness helps.

Can't wait to continue the journey.

I've played a few hours of Anachronox. I can tell it's one of those games that takes a while to get properly started. Not much has happened in the plot so far to make me care about it. I am enjoying the cyberpunk atmosphere and the soundtrack though. I'd probably complain about the way the game is laid out, which forces you to go back and forth down a (mostly) linear city several times. There's no fast travel system that I'm aware of. There do seem to be more routes opening up though, so maybe it's not as bad as it seems at first. The combat reminds me of old ATB JRPGs, which I don't mind too much. It keeps the pace fairly fast. I also like the party member specific skills. Better give it a few more hours to see where it goes.
4 is actually my favourite in the series, believe it or not. It has a very strong plot once everything fully develops. Not to give away too much, but it's slightly tied to SH2 as well.

Console games generally were exclusive to consoles back then and the same with the PC games.
The PS2 was competing with the Dreamcast at the time and it was the xbox that screwed up PC gaming and might have been responsible for the early demise of the Dreamcast from behind the scenes..

Some of the other games that came out then were The Bouncer,Shadow of Memories and Streetfighter EX3

Here is the intro for Zone of Enders.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK1YBmFTa-8
and The Bouncer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guj1bw7AqwE
and Shadow of Memories
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcSda4Xq3IA

Now I'm more interested in it!!
I think Playstation was putting Sega in danger since the Sega Saturn. Playstation buying exclusivity was a big blow. The Dreamcast was ahead of it's time but the lack of big third party support was the end of it. I think by the time Xbox came out, Sega was already out of the console bussiness.

Added The Bouncer and Shadow of Memories to the list, thank you. As for Street Fighter EX3, it says that it was originally released on 2000 on Japan and NA. 2001 was only for Europe.

I've Completed Runaway: A Road Adventure. Have to say that I liked it very much. It might not be as great as the real classics like Monkey Island or Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, but it's a pretty good adventure game.

Characters were likable, story was interesting and most important the puzzles were good most of the time. Sure sometimes it suffers from the usual adventure game logic or from items that are quite well hidden and easy to miss, but as a whole, it was a very enjoyable game.

Awesome, congrats!!

OP update accordingly.

Blade of Darkness is oficially completed!

The last couple of levels step up the difficulty quite a bit. They are darker and full of enemies. Fighting 2 or 3 foes in tight corridors with not much room to evade is tough.

Overall I loved the game. However, it has a few cons, namely:
- The story presentation. The story itself is not bad, but it relies on a narrator telling things and some texts for each level on the inventory menu. I don't mind narration, but I prefer when things are also shown. Having the narrator say a bunch of things while the cutscene playing is of our character arriving at the beggining of a level loses all the impact, imo. When things of past are shown, you can correlate names, places and events between what is saying and what is showing. Otherwise, trying yo follow the lore becomes much more difficult.

- Lack of sync between the subtittles and the narrator voice.

- Some levels have places that are too dark, even whem bumping the brightness up.

Nonetheless, and despite these cons, I think the game is great and if you're a fan of hack&slash, dark fantasy games, you should definately check this one out.

Hello again bluethief!

Congratulation on finishing "Blade of Darkness"!

Your experience and impressions do match a lot with mine, when I finally picked it up not so long ago. I consider the game a quite fascinating experience, and am especially fond of the majority of its level design.
Exploring each level, which both expand and loop back in neat ways, is very entertaining. Quite quickly, I forgot the fact that the level geometry has very few polygons. The gameplay mechanics are engaging despite the rather clunky controls.

Only the 'dry' narrative part of the story telling (nowadays, I prefer "show and don't tell") together with minor errors in (lack of) synchronization and some glitches in transitional cut scenes (animations) once in a while caused some annoyances.

Since I could get hold of a second hand copy of the original european retail release ("Severance - Blade of Darkness"), which still runs relative fine on WIndows 10 (aside from a little mouse cursor jittering), I did not encountered an issue with too dark areas where brightness (gamma) control could not solve the problem. Maybe an issue due to the reworked or modified lighting engine of the new re-release?

My first playthrough was with the Knight (=allrounder), but I did like the different game feel and strategies necessary for playing as the Dwarf, too.
Each character (I only tested the Barbar and Amazon briefly) encourages the use or focus on very different equipment and approaches. And the amount and variety of (new) equipment overall was very well balanced, although everything can be found (actually in the same places) by each of the character. On one hand your choice of character class rendered a lot of things that you find on a playthrough less than optimal up to completely useless. But on the other hand I never felt like I was lacking an upgrade nor that there was a too large gap in between two upgrade opportunities.
It did not gave me the sensation of wanting to quit and start all over with one of the other characters instead, but rather an encouraging one of curiosity for when I am going to play again with the next one. The varying opening levels helped, as well.

Do you plan on trying another character in the near future?

Kind regards,
foxgog