I already own the GOG versions of the original editions of BG, BG2, and ID, and they are beloved classics of the RPG genre. Unfortunately, I rushed out and bought the "enhanced" versions of these same games without doing my due diligence, and so I refuse to believe that that 4 star rating is an actual representation of player satisfaction with the "enhanced" version of the games. "Enhanced" -- it turns out -- doesn't mean "patched to fix bugs" or "updated to run on modern machines" -- it also apparently means "bland graphics and shoe-horning in characters and writing that never existed in the original games and were never meant tod". Couple that with the fact that you must now buy the bundle just to get the original, and the whole thing is a deal breaker for me. Look for the original games on other stores if they're available, or find a CD version on eBay or at the flea market, but don't buy it here if you can avoid it. If you're playing the original game, then you might enjoy the experience of playing it on the original hardware and media, too. Plus the physical box and manuals were cool to have. I wish I still had mine.
PROS: Gorgeous retro graphics and gameplay. Just enough story to set the mood, to draw you in, and to keep you guessing what's going to happen next. (Very much in the vein of some of the Russian science fiction from the 1970s I read in high school.) Easy enough to master while challenging you to balance your resources (ammo, food, and med-kits) to keep yourself and your passengers alive. CONS: Enigmatic and ultimately unsatisfying ending. Short (about four hours). Could use some polishing (especially the dialogue). Very linear, with little replay value (mainly just to see if I could keep all of my passengers alive, which I did). CONCLUSSION: Neat little game to fill a few hours that had the potential to be part of something bigger, but not worth full price -- wait 'til it's on sale if you really want to play this.
Frostpunk is one of the very few games I've bought that actually lived up to the pre-release hype. The game is gorgeous to look at, easy to learn, runs beautifully on my machine, and is full of drama and tough choices. The only complaints I have are 1) no manual (at least that I can find), and 2) after restarting a couple of times, discovered that the beginning layout of your camp never varies: the exact same resources start out in the exact same places at every startup. I definitely recommend this, and would like to see a sequel, or at least an add-on or two.
As a big fan of "Dungeon Keeper" and "Dungeon Keeper 2", I've wanted to try this game for a while now, but held off due to its lackluster reviews here on GOG. GOG gave me the core game for free, and I picked up the DLCs at a steep discount at the same time, so I finally had a chance to try it out for myself. And it's not for me. The art, sound, and voice acting are all very well done, but the story needs some serious polishing, the gameplay itself just doesn't feel right, the controls are not as intuitive as I'd like, and this thing is constantly listening for an internet connection, even after uninstalling GOG Galaxy (which installs itself when you install the game, with no way to opt out that I see). I'm constantly being bombarded with "player available for quick game" notices, and the game freezes any time my internet connection drops out, even though I'm only playing single player. It's technically solid, but it just feels wrong to me, and anyhow, I don't like software that keeps trying to phone home.
I had a lot of fun in the early 2000s playing this game on my old Pentium 150 running Win98 SE, and I've been looking for another copy ever since. Thank you for making this available again. A word of warning to anyone who hasn't played it before, tho': make sure you've researched everything you possibly can and have built up an overwhelming fleet before the final bad guy aliens show up, otherwise they'll stomp you flat.
That's basically it: "Lemmings" done with zombies in a "Leisure Suit Larry" art style -- and it's AWESOME. The story isn't exactly original -- it's basically stitched together from pieces taken from just about every zombie movie every made -- but the pieces fit together nicely, and it's darkly hilarious. There's really nothing new about this game, but everything it does, it does well and makes it all seem fresh again. I definitely recommend it. PRO: Simple, effective, and highly evocative art and music with a retro look and feel that you won't need the latest high-end (and expensive) gear to play. Fast-paced and engaging game-play. A great story and characters that make you want to see what happens next. CONS: No remappable controls (at least that I can find -- I may be wrong). No mini-map, which I feel is necessary given the size of some maps and the need to scroll back-and-forth to check on your units. Soundtrack is a separate purchase, but it's worth the few bucks GOG is asking. I haven't finished the game yet, and already, I'd love to see a sequel.
Just last week, I was looking around to see if any of these titles -- particularly PoR, CotAB, SotSB, and PoD -- were available through any of the online game distributors, and was disappointed but not terribly surprised that they weren't -- and now here they are at GOG. I first played Pool of Radiance 'way back in 1989 on a Commodore Colt with a 286 processor, 640 KB of RAM, CGA graphics, and two 5 1/4" low-density floppy drives (no hard drive). I made my way through the series on my first 386 and 486 systems, and at one time had the entire collection on a specialty collectors CD (long since lost). These games will probably have little to no appeal to today's gamers, due to the chunky lo-rez graphics and clunky game mechanics, but for old school gamers like myself, thank you very much for making these available again (even if they do require DOSBox). If you DO decide to give them a try, tho', use the clue books sparingly -- a little help when you need it is fine, but they'll seriously ruin the games for you if you rely on them too heavily.
The game apparently only provides a single pre-defined keyboard layout, with no way for the player to map one that better suits them. (In other words, if you wanna play the game, you're gonna have to do it with a keyboard setup the designer chose, whether you like it or not -- not my idea of user-friendly.) The art and music look and sound great, but I'm so torgued-off about the lack of key mapping that I can't even begin to play the game.
