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This is like a relic from the time everyone thought adventure games were dying. The old foibles are here in force: weird dubbed voice acting with bad lip sync, moon logic puzzles, lots of wandering around, arbitrary places you can't go until someone tells you you can, pixel hunting, gauge sense of where to go...etc. But what keeps this game from slipping into redundancy is the very creepy atmosphere that only a certain time in graphics could provide: uncanny expressions, whispery music, a sense of claustrophobia even in wide open spaces. Nobody wants to talk to you or investigate deeper into the secrets you've stumbled across which is very faithful to the works of H.P Lovecraft. There's this sense the team behind the piece were strapped for time and money but believed in making this game accurately reflect that cosmic horror sensibility they clearly loved. So nowadays it is doubly nostalgic: the last vestige of the worst but also the most creative and best of the genre arguably. You won't find games like this made again: ambitious, slightly janky, but undeniably disturbing homages to weird fiction.
I remember the idea of the interlacing, camera jiggle, deliberate mosaic censorship of violence and nudity and the harsh lens flare was often brought up as detriments to the game. Maybe I've seen way too many crime movies but it felt less jarring and sickening and more intriguingly grounded: like a found footage movie of a series of gun fights. This feel of realism is present in the patented bullet spread, the really beautiful and subtle terrain deformation when you blast a surface with buckshot or automatic fire, and the fact that explosions are sometimes deliberately garbled as the peak volume goes beyond whatever cheap microphone is supposedly recording the action. I love it: it's very unique, creative, and immersive! As for the story, it's the same cloak-and-dagger underworld yarn as the last Kane and Lynch game but I challenge you to find another game featuring an overweight balding anti-hero with severe mental difficulties. It's less John Woo and more Cops does Shanghai. The writing is terse and feels natural. Even the swearing only really ramps up in high stress situations, like Kane and Lynch themselves are trying desperately to crawl out of their seedier past, but they just keep getting pulled back in. I had one weird problem where a level loaded without sound and a completely white screen. I had to restart the game a day later, but after that it worked fine so I'm not sure what happened there. Also one star goes for the sheer randomness. You don't feel like a SWAT team guy so much as a regular joe fighting odds you really should not survive so you are constantly getting pelted from enemies you can't see but can see you and shoot you with pin point accuracy. It's a little frustrating at times when you get killed but you're not sure by who and not even sure what you should have been doing, and sometimes you can get lost (although there is a hint key thankfully). Solid, gritty, grungy, and even beautiful at times. Well recommended.
This game is so edgy it verges on parody but at the heart of it is a chaotic but competent shooter. Mechanics are a little dank compared to later games with some bullets punching through walls and crouch shooting usually hitting the barrier you're hiding behind, but there's something visceral about literally hundreds of enemies swarming your position and blasting away while you hurl smoke grenades for cover and pick off who you can while allies scurry around shouting and covering you. You have Lynch to back you up most often and his A.I is decent, although thankfully you can order him around fairly easily. You can even provide him with firearms and backup weapons you find so he carries his weight. It takes awhile to get used to guns with REALLY wide spreads but again it adds to the general impression of chaotic bullets and bodies and frantic running each level has. There's a variety of missions in the campaign with different urban environments to fight cops and crooks in equal number. There's no real good guys here (although your character Kane is technically trying to save his family) but it adds to the Scorsese feel to the whole deal. Music is minimal. Voice acting is great. Not many surprises in the story department but it keeps things moving and changing to hold interest until the final mission. If you enjoy more realistic (to a point) third person action and don't mind pitch dark hardbitten noir crime tales, this is not a terrible choice at all.
There's real passion in this game. You can tell from the dynamic finishers to the highly detailed and atmospheric environments! The budget here was lower than, say, a gigantic open world game but things don't feel slipshod. Fighting is fun, there's some exploration and discoveries off the beaten path, outfits to collect, lore to find. It's not as complex as an RPG or as nuanced as a fighting game but sits squarely in the middle. The voice acting is decent, the translation a bit wonky but nothing deal breaking. It's all very user friendly. Tons of healing items nearby each encounter. Button prompts and a mini map to guide you. But it doesn't feel like this was a cash grab or a weekend job. The environments are pretty and varied and the sound design very solid. There's a lot of historical attention to detail here and the story isn't afraid to delve into the ambiguities of the time period instead of lecturing people from a modern position. You want someone rescued and they're surrounded by soldiers from a different region? Knights do what knights do: fight and kill if necessary. Templars are neither super heroes nor villains in this: more like samurai who live and die by the sword and oath as well as their faith. It's surprisingly immersive and I for one wish this team had more resources for a deeper RPG experience. Still what is here functions perfectly well. Switch between companions at the touch of a button. Learn new skills by spending experience. Go on side quests for additional information and rewards. Just a nice tight solid little slice of action with RPG elements.
This is old school art design at it's finest. You can't zoom in but you can appreciate the sheer amount of work that went into the enormous structure, verdant landscapes and teeming armies. It's a pretty generic plot all told for the most part (no spoilers) but what keeps it fresh is the scope. You're commanding scads of units against legions of enemies, tons getting cut down with arrow fire in short order in a more cinematic way than a lot of RTS games that drag on the fights with lengthy health bars. You have your central hero who is taller than the other units and can buy and collect items to improve themselves. Building structures and training units is speedy, reminding me of Spellforce. Everything streamlined to get you to the battlefield and play with the strategies of kiting enemies into tower range, flanking clusters of foes, peppering them from afar and rushing in to attack them with melee units...etc. It's a bit of a tower defense game given the speed of base management and death of units but I honestly prefer this to tinier squat hitting each other forever until one falls over. It's a curious hybrid that clearly had a lot of work put into it.
It's a strange hybrid of The Settlers and Lemmings: side scrolling micromanagement with crafting, digging and even fighting! There's some jank here as the concept was a bit too ambitious for the time, but a couple animation glitches, some misinterpreted commands, and some somewhat stale translation can't destroy the enjoyment of just watching these little dwarves going about their business, animatedly interacting with their pint sized norse world. They dutifully change hats when they take on different professions, install torches and braces as they build tunnels, and during leisure time hold spirited conversations or do push ups or play hacky sack to keep themselves amused. You tend to have a mission on each level to pursue but in the mean time you're collecting materials to research new buildings or tools and keeping your diggles fed and occupied. Each one has their own schedule where they work and have leisure time. Thankfully you can adjust their schedule or even command them to do what needs to be done but they'll get grumpy if they work too long without any time to themselves. It's a SLOW paced game at times but there's so many little touches to admire in the way these creatures move it's a bit like watching an ant farm. There's some humor lost in translation but the moment to moment interaction and expanding list of options and tasks kept my interest. I'm glad I rediscovered this unique game!
This is an interesting combo of the combat of Civilization with the unit management of Heroes of Might and Magic with some Warhammer tossed in for good measure. I was expecting a fantasy style base building RTS at first blush but I noticed this was all turn-based and that sealed the deal. I love tactical turn based games if they're done right, and this is one of the most comprehensive experiences in one package. Apart from some wonky English translation, the game runs great, looks great (much better than Warcraft 3) sounds great with full voice acting in the campaigns performed with appropriate enthusiasm. If you zoom far out you can see your units represented by single animated placeholders like the troops in Crusader Kings games, but uniquely zooming in allows you to not only see exactly how many of each unit type you have but watch them fight other clusters of units in elaborate battles. It's turn based with RNG elements, but it mostly comes down to positioning, gauging the enemy, and making sure you do things like avoiding enemy archers who can fire into melee combat in range of their weapons getting in free hits, or maneuvering the enemy so they fall victim to the same ambushes. Wizards and heroes rule the field and they like regular units level up with experience in combat and can acquire unique perks based on race and profession. You can rest units to recover their remaining health, but you need to replenish your ranks with volunteers using recaptured towns and castles. You can use gold you collect to buy units from towns and such up to a level cap which increases with each town you liberate so your forces are always growing, falling back to regroup, and looking for things to interact with in each map. Very fun, very entertaining! I heard not so good things about the sequel but I had to pick it up too since I enjoyed this one so much.
This game has always fascinated me since I saw it on a shelf as a kid. Like the Still Life series this is such a grim, noir production: like wandering around inside of a thriller film. There's times when the interaction is a bit spare and the dubbed voice acting can be shaky, but the atmosphere is thick and the story has twists and turns. You get the same dread feeling as a Silent Hill game at times with sheets of rain, troubled seas, distant thunder, cries of anguish. Is it for everyone? No. It's less of a puzzle game and more of a series of inventory gates and conversation trees to navigate during an investigation. But there's so quality to earlier adventure games that feels so uncanny: the earlier animation with a kind of charm to it, the unbridled brutality that the game provides without censorship. It doesn't feel like a game you could make today.