In a nutshell: great graphics for its era, mediocre story, absolutely ridiculous battle system, lots of sex that doesn't even fit to the story, and a very boring gameplay. I give it 2 stars for the graphics only. You play as Geralt, a walking dead with pale skin, long white hair, and a crooked nose. Still, your guy attracts women as poo attracts flies. Every single female in this game wants to have sex with you, even in the most inappropriate situations: you make a potion to save a unconscious girl, she wakes up, and she immediately wants to have sex with you; or you are in a cave with a witch, her chasers are waiting outside to burn her, but guess what - she wants sex with you. Etc etc. You may think that developers have a very poor sex life, so they added a lot of it in a virtual world. But no, the reason for all that is the fact sex in games is trendy and sells well. And what makes it more ridiculous is the fact there are not even sex scenes in the game. You just collect cards for every girl you 'had sex' with. So I guess even youngsters who would buy this game for the sex will be disappointed. Putting the hilarious sexism aside, the game has great graphics that stand well even today, but that is all. The story is bland and won't make you wanting to see what happens in the next chapter. Crafting system is just alchemy: you can make potions from ingredients you find, but only a few of them have some practical use. The battle system is ridiculous. You have to pick from 3 different fighting styles, depending on your opponents. When the battle begins, all you have to do is click the attack button, wait for the cursor to become a flaming sword, then attack again to make a attack chain, then repeat. Boring and repetitive as hell. It's basically a quicktime event. Oh, and you have a few spells at your disposal, which are rarely necessary. There are also a few mini games, all of them boring and basically a click fest. All in all, it's not worth your money. Stay away.
It's "The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind"... what else do you need to know? Now seriously, the game is already 13 years old, but it aged very well. With dumbing down sequels, namely Oblivion and Skyrim (which were simplified again and again, just to attract more casual players), Morrowind easily stands as the best of The Elder Scrolls series, and one of the best RPGs ever made, if not the best. And no, this is not nostalgia talking. I actually played Morrowind after Oblivion and Skyrim. Morrowind treats you as a real RPG player, not as a baby that needs hand holding. You are thrown in the world of Vvardenfell and you have the freedom to go wherever you want, do whatever you want. Impossible to even name all the possibilities here. Suffice to say, I finished the main quest more than 15 times now, and I still find things I didn't know. Morrowind is the definition of freedom. This may scare casual players, because of the countless options the player has. And yes, this is not an easy game. Some people complain about the battle system. Although it could be better, it's not bad at all. Knowing how to use a given weapon changes the battle drastically. Now, if you stand still and try to slash with a spear and zero skill on that weapon, you will fail to even touch your opponent. And that's not the game's fault. Morrowind is extremely moddable. With literally hundreds of mods already made, and a mod community still alive and kicking, you can change the game in almost any way: quests, graphics, music, sound, leveling system, NPC reaction, are all moddable - to name a few. The vanilla Morrowind graphics, music, and ambient sounds manage to add that atmosphere more recent games fail to achieve. But you can replace them with overhauls if you wish. There is also OpenMW, a game engine replacement that runs natively on Linux/MAc OS (you need the data files from the original, of course). In a nutshell, a real materpiece and an absolute must for everybody interested on RPGs.
Soulbringer is a cRPG, but it's not the usual cRPG one would expect. The beginning is harsh, and the exact opposite of what modern "AAA" titles do: You start with a knife, no armor at all and a low-quality compass that barely works. That's all. Death is very cheap and just a wrong move away. However, if you have patience and you use your brains, you will soon realize the game is not that hard. Forget about automap: you need to remember your way, or draw a rough map. The lack of automap may sound frustrating, but it actually works very well: it makes you feel like exploring a hostile land instead of chasing a mark on your automap - the cheap and easy way that many other games adopt. Combat system is not perfect, but will still put most cRPGs into a shame. This is not the usual "click-fest" found in "AAA" games. You can (and should) use the terrain to your advantage, pick the right weapon for a specific opponent, and use your attacking moves or combos as appropriate. Unfortunately, there is no way to control when your character will try to block an attack (it blocks automatically depending in a specific skill). The game features five skills, and you get six skill points every time you level up. How you distribute those skill points has a vast impact on how your character performs in battle. Quests actually make sense, and most are part of the (long) story the game has to tell. This is a lengthy game, and the story takes its time to unfold. "Quickies" wanting a brainless playing time over an afternoon would be kicked away right from the harsh beginning of the game, anyway. Graphics are decent and nice. Yes, the game is old, but the fact is, everything you see on the screen is well-drawn, and definitely serves its purpose very well. Sound effects and music are also nice. Overall, this a very nice game. Highly recommended for people willing to use their brains, even when playing a game. You will love it or hate it, depending on just that.
Graphics aren't everything in a game, that's for sure. What really matters is the gameplay. But this sort of a "game" fails in everything. What you get is this: (1) A crappy story that even a 7-years old child could do better in a matter of minutes. Compelling? You must be kidding. (2) One-dimensional gameplay that simply fails to deliver the slightest feeling, other than you wasted your money to buy this thing. You basically move from room to room (which is viewed from the side so you just move left or right), avoiding battle and solving silly puzzles. (3) The worst graphics ever. Over-pixelated on purpose, or because the developer couldn't do anything better than that. I was never a fan of eye-candy, but the graphics are so bad that you can barely read the text on your screen, or figure out what that 7x7 pixels item in your inventory is. The "pixel" on your screen is basically a huge square, so big that reminded me the "graphics" of Sinclair ZX-81, back in 1981. (4) Apparently, the developer thinks he made a masterpiece, and sells it for an exorbitant price. He even recommends to play this game with dime lights to "enhance the experience". What experience? Playing a crappy game? Scary? Give me a break. How huge pixels, bland story, primitive gameplay, boring ambient sounds and almost non-existent music can deliver anything scary is beyond me. How THIS thing could get positive reviews, I don't know. But the fact is, we are talking about pure garbage here. And at a price that's just ridiculously high. I wouldn't have the motivation to finish this "game" even if they paid me money. The only reason I give it one star is because the review system doesn't let me rating it for 0/5 stars, which is exactly what this thing deserves.
