Before Ubisoft acquired Far Cry and turned it into an open-world cash cow, the first game had its humble beginnings as an old-school, linear FPS campaign—reminiscent of titles like Half-Life or Doom 3. The story and characters feel like something out of a classic action movie from the macho era of 80s cinema. The gunplay is satisfying, and the jungle environments, along with some interior areas, are highly immersive. Unfortunately, the game's biggest drawback is when it forces you into stealth sections. This wouldn’t be a problem if you didn’t die in less than a second, even with full health and body armor, from just one or two guards. The issue persists even on the easiest difficulty, despite using the unofficial patch that fixes the enemy AI. That said, the game isn’t so hard that it becomes discouraging. With some persistence, you can push through. I definitely think it’s worth playing, as it offers one of the best FPS campaigns I’ve experienced. Just make sure to download the AI fix patch for version 1.4 before starting—unless you enjoy enemies spotting you through walls.
Warcraft 1 walked so 2 could run. Great graphics and music, nice qol updates like being able to click+drag 8 units, and the addition of navy battles adds an extra layer of depth. This one is my personal favorite because of how big your armies can be, and I prefer the simpler days of when warcraft's lore was just about fighting orcs before it got all watered down with dumb comic book/sci fantasy elements.
The game is pretty fun, its your basic RTS of base/army building and then raiding and destroying the other army. Its a lot slower due to having to manually micromanage each unit individually rather than being able to group them together, but if you adjust the games speed to "faster", its not too bad. I much preferred the simpler time when orcs were nothing more than just a monolithic hivemind of demons from hell rather than just being humans with green skin, and when the humans and later alliance were simply the heroes standing up for their nations. For the prices its worth it, and going into WC2 after this one will feel much better due to all the QOLs that one added.
Before Call Of Duty 4 defined modern war based FPS game, this was one of the gems before it that did it pretty good. The action is nonstop, the first mission literally throws you into battle without any hand holding tutorials like its a real war. The difficulty is pretty high since you're going to be taking shots from everywhere, and there is no save function during missions, but the levels are short so you never feel like you lose too much when dying. The story is very much a product of its time where you play as a special forces soldier going on black ops missions to retrieve WMDs from terrorists, but it has such a likable charm to it like an old school action movie from the 90's/2000's.
One of those games that ages like a pharaoh's tomb. On the surface it might look really old and dusty, but on the inside its still solid gold treasure. This game I think strikes that sweet spot of games becoming more cinematic where even though it tries to feel like Saving Private Ryan, its still a game first and it gives the player enough of a challenge with enough agency to tackle it in more than one way whether its stealth or guns blazing Rambo style. The music and the atmosphere are still great, and the vairiety in the missions keep the campaign feeling fresh at all times, its one of those games where the second I finish a mission I'm ready to jump right into the next one. The D-day mission is still one of the best moments in gaming imo, it manages to be both fun gameplay wise while capturing the horrofic feeling that the brave soldiers who fought and died on that beach went through.
This is a prime example of a licensed adaptation, even if the movie is crap, mediocre, or just okay, that doesn't stop the game from having to be awesome. The game feels more like Controid then Metroidvania, because you play as a special forces soldier with a wide arsenal of guns and blast the heck out of everything your way while dodging various enemies and projectiles that move in all different directions, combine that with the Metroid style of maze exploration with powerups and secrets scattered abroad, and you have what I call a Controid game. Killer soundtrack, amazing pixel art, smooth gameplay, and good pacing make this a worthy game for all Metroidvania fans. Its just a shame its overlooked for being based on a bad movie.
Played it on Steam but want to give impressions here. So the game itself is not the most amazing thing ever, in fact i'd say its just okay to good. What makes it better is if you're a fan of the franchise and hate how bastardized its become with the latest awful movies ruining the lore. Ever since T3 was first announced, I just wanted a good future war setting movie since imho there was nothing more to do with the story after T2. Terminator Salvation was meh, never watched the show, and the last two movies were Star Wars prequels/sequels levels of bad. This game however gave me the future war story I wanted, and best of all its portrayed as if only the first two films happened. As for the gameplay I enjoyed it. It was a typical FPS with some fun RPG elements like levelling up your lock picking or hacking skills, the weapons were satisfying, especially the laser guns, and the stealth segments did a good job imitating the tension we felt for the characters in the movies. My only problem(and this may be related to the difficulty i played) was that it could have used more of a survival feeling like the early RE games by making ammo more scarce and the T800s being tougher to kill. Overall I'd say its worth checking out if you're a fan of the series and you want a light FPS to kill a day or two. There is not much competition since every other Terminator game besides Future Shock and maybe the Midway arcade version of T2 are not worth playing(see the AVGN reviews for reference).
Warcraft 1 aged a bit badly due to how slow it is and the limited options you're left with, but it still blazed the trail for the genre. Warcraft 2 will always be my favourite RTS. The speed and simplicity of the game make it one of the best time passers.
Pros: - Great resource management system - Pumping out armies is fast - Graphics - Music Cons: - No voice acting - AI is a little too tough
