This game is a simple Gauntlet-esque clone with bundles of charm. The main mechanics of Gauntlet are all there, with the notable exception of the timer, so you CAN take your time and explore while hoovering up all the goodies and slaying all the baddies. The game shows it's roots in several "bonus" levels that are taken right from Gauntlet itself. Nostalgia with a twist, this is a must for all fans of the hack 'n' slash genre.
DLC, on GOG.com?! I'm waiting for the bundle deal like I did with Omerta - because I disagree with DLC being so over-priced and awkward on GOG.com. I'm not against DLC, but I am against GOG.com not selling complete collections of games, just because those games are being updated. Sid Meier's Alpha Centuri - Alien Crossfire is a bonus thrown in with the original game. It took a while to get it, but many people paid for the original game and simply waited. The same should be done with the DLC. The main reason is convenience - GOG.com isn't just a place to buy classic and indie games, but also to store them. With almost 450 games from GOG.com, it's essentially on-line storage for a games collection I never really had room for. It's annoying having to install expansion pack after expansion pack, and even more so when you have to do it with a multitude of DLC that each add so little to the game individually. Until this time, I will ONLY by DLC from GOG.com as part of a bundle deal. That way, I know I am getting a good price for DLC, and that I am able to pick it up all at once. And, who knows, maybe one-day my dream of a game update to install all the DLC at once will actually come true?
This is one of those games which is supposed to be a AAA title, but ends up being more annoying than fun. The light mechanic is good on paper, but the shoddy controls makes this game much harder than it should be, and sucks the enjoyment out of this game very quickly. Plus, this game wasn't built to age well - the graphics are still good, but the game still runs way too fast, even with the mouse sensitivity reduced to minimum. Whatever fear value this game ever had is lost by the fact that it now plays terribly. You'd be better off watching a Let's Play for the story than trying to deal with this game yourself. It's practically a movie anyway!
I recently purchased this on GOG, and within moments I was hooked. Although the gameplay might be tame for some, it is really the adventure and exploration that shine out here. There are some great LOL moments in the game, when you discover some of the more obvious references to past CRPG classics, such as Ultima VII. Add in fan service from a wealth of classic fantasy sources, such as fighting the Black Knight from Monty Python's Holy Grail ("'Tis only a flesh wound!") and you have something that will keep you entertained for hours!
Tyrian 2000 is okay, I guess. I has it's merits and flaws, but is otherwise quite generic in most regards. The most interesting feature is Campaign Mode, where the normal arcade style shoot-em up is adjusted so that instead of gathering power-ups during the level, you collect credits which are used to improve your ship. This provides a more linear progression of power, rather than requiring the memorization and/or luck Arcade style seems to feature. However, Campaign Mode does have a few flaws, which makes it hard to play. The first of these is that while there is some choice on how to progress through the levels within each episode, this is quite limited. It is also easily overridden by finding a secret level, which doesn't just provide an extra choice of what level to play after the next one, but actually forces you to play the secret level, even if the level is actually harder then the level it replaces (and it normally is). With no way to go back to earlier levels, unless you are highly skilled or have a powerful ship - which isn't always the case - this can actually get in the way of a decent game, and force backtracking to an earlier save point - assuming you have one. Another flaw is that the game doesn't allow you to keep any of your progress, even if you fail a level, so you can't just brute force your way through each level. While this increases the difficulty level of the game, it renders any attempt which you die pointless, and some of the levels can be quite long, where a single mistake on the boss could make the whole endevour a waste of time. Secondly, it means that you can't just keep playing a level you are having difficulty with just to improve your ship, in the hopes of making future runs easier - so if you find you don't have the skill, power, or credits to complete a level, the entire game can be over. It's not quite a phyrric victory - completing a level never depletes your credits, but it is certainly possible to end up without the funds needed for a weapon or ship required for the next level, because of this factor. Hardcore shoot-em up fans will probably enjoy this, whatever mode they prefer. Others may find it's either too generic, or that the flaws get too tedious - but at least it is free, so many will give this a go at some point.
I love this game - I have this several time, so when it come up in the latest GOG promo, I couldn't help but snap it up again at such a low price to show some more love to a sorely missed genre that got it right. The second and third games in the UFO trilogy are better, however, but the original UFO is still very playable in it's own right, and a great way to get into the franchise and the genre without a lot of preamble. You don't need to know a lot of backstory for UFO, as the story is presented through the game itself, and a part of the game involves discovering what has happened. It is highly recommended you play the tutorial, just because this is also an initial part of the story - featuring Malcolm Mclean making his way across town to a nearby military base in a new post-apocalyptic world where aliens have dropped some form of biological agent over Earth, wiping out much of known life, and mutating the rest. In the process of learning the basics of the tactical gameplay, Malcolm also meets a second survivor - Brian Reynolds. From there, this two-man squad lead the Earth resistance forces, known as the Council of Earth to discovering what happened, and fighting off against the alien forces. Starting of with the two bases they have, they get to expand, gather new recruits, and research new technologies to discover what happened, what the aliens want, and how to deal with them. Although the over-archer storyline is the same, a lot of the details - such as the recruits and missions - are randomly generated, so it is never the same game twice. Plus, as well as training your squad, equipping them, and sending them on tactical missions, some of which will further the storyline and others will just expand or protect your territory, you get to see your fighters intercept UFOs, which your squad can then enter, while your research teams work on adapting alien weaponry for your own use, and even to enabling you to produce sophisticated weapons for yourself, rather than relying on whatever you can scavenge now that most of the weapons producers on Earth have been destroyed. All in all, I highly recommend this game to anyone who loves tactical strategy games. It may be the weakest of the UFO trilogy, but fans really do deserve to experience all three for the ultimate experience.
This is not a gem - it's a generic, half-assed FPS. I am not a big fan of the genre, and a bit reason for that is because I suck at FPS games. There have been very few FPS games I have actually enjoyed, because most take themselves far too seriously. I like to shoot things to reduce my frustration, but I am just not that good at not getting my arse handed back to me thanks to the constant hankering to the "hardcore" crowd. So, I tend to play play these on easy - I don't even bother trying the harder difficulty levels - I know that chances are I'm going to find the easiest levels pretty challenging anyway, and on the higher difficulty settings, I'm pretty much going to be wanting to throw my PC out the window by level four. I play these games to vent, yet more often than not, I find they are more a source of frustration than a means to release it. One source of this is when the designers, in their "infinite" wisdom decide that they want to reserve their unique schitch for higher difficulty levels. That's not going to make me want to practice to get better at the game - that's going to make me want to uninstall and never play the game again, because without your unique schtick, you are just a bland, generic FPS. The controls are clumbsy and awkward, and I have enough trouble as it is. The fact that the first level is filled with enough interface screws to drive a person complete mad is just sloppy design. All fun has gone out of the window, at least for me, in favour of the hardcore gamer. So, bodies drop souls for you to collect for health and become a killer demon - great! Except that you have to wait a few moments for them to appear, and are normally too busy fighting other creatures to collect them, and by the time you get them, they are gone. That makes sense. Between running around gathering souls, having my aim knocked off because I get hit - something which ALL enemies do, not just the big ones - and being blinded by the forementioned interface screws, I'm pretty sure I've spent more time in this game pumping ammo into the floor than into anything that can actually be killed. Add to the confusion the fact that somehow I managed to bring up the console, but I couldn't rid of it, while it blocked my game as the game was still playing in the middle of the fierce firefight with the floor. Yeah, I know I suck, but I think it might make a nice change if designers made a FPS that actually catered for people who aren't "hardcore" and helped them out a bit - not locked them out of the very features they could use to help them through the game because I suck at it. All that's going to do is alienate me further from the genre, and from the development studio... I'm so glad I didn't buy this when it first came out, and I really regret buying it now. At least it was cheap, right?
Myst is one of the icons of the gaming industry. It was a revolutionary game in it's day, one that is studied in video games design courses around the world for it's impact on the media. Unfortunately, it hasn't aged very well. This game simply isn't stable any more, and by being chained to Quicktime as it's main graphics engine, it is being dragged down as the format slowly makes it's way into oblivion. For all the immersion this game provided, the stability issues will drag you right back out of it, making this more of a chore than an enjoyable experience. Plus, there is absolutely no replay value - maybe if you can let it sit on a shelf and forget about it for a few years and then see if you can still solve it again, you might get some repeat satisfaction, but otherwise this is more for being able to say you own Myst than you actually play Myst.
