Played Baldur's Gate I/II and Icewid Dale I/II? Want more? Well, here it is. A sprawling old school CRPG with a few conveniences here and there, some interesting new lore and some more reactivity when it comes to NPCs and quests. Of course it's not based on D&D but it does its own thing and does it well. Also the pre-rendered 2D background really look gorgeous and with modern tech they have a bunch of effects that make them look even better (also the ability to zoom in and out in real time).
So, here's the thing: gameplay-wise this is an Igavania knock-off (no attempt to be a souls-like or make a caricature of a NES title) and it's rather fun if one doesn't mind some jank. The art style of the environments isn't super readable (a few times I couldn't tell if an element of the scenery was a platform or not) the interface for the upgrades is also not the best and in general has a lot of little issues that nevertheless never detracted from the enjoyment. However unlike its roguelike predecessor Tower Hunter this game has a lot more story with cutscenes animated in-engine. And that's bad because... Well, the game engine is pretty basic and they are not well animated or directed but that's not the worst part, at least for me. No, the worst part is that half are boring exposition (which really would have been much better with the classic dialogue boxes) and half are bottom-of-the-barrel anime cringe (I know the devs are Chinese but they should really look at media other than animes for their humor) mostly sex jokes involving the lesbian sidekick trying to grope the protagonist and similar stuff (and given how the engine looks I doubt those that appreciate would be particularly thrilled about them). And said sex jokes aren't limited to the animated cutscenes as some of the dialogues you can hear while playing between the characters are also basically sex jokes when they aren't exposition, of course. They are spaced out enough that I did finish the game as I enjoyed the gameplay enough but frankly they should have put the effort for the in-engine cutscenes into improving other aspects of the game. PS: there are a couple of shooter sequences during the first half but the game abandons these attempts at gameplay variation quite swiftly thankfully. PPS: the English localization from Chinese is better compared to the first game but not by much, being Italian I gave a look at that localization and it was quite abysmal which doesn't bode well for the rest.
Unlike the sequel this is a roguelike but since the gameplay is basically Castlevania/Bloodstained/Igavania the game is much less prone to killing you for slight mistakes which makes it more bearable to me than all the other roguelikes I played (even those that apply the formula to genres I actually like a lot normally). Be warned though that there is some jank and the English localization is not that great, some item descriptions are downright incomprehensible and some of the dialogues in the story bits are really dire. After the first time you beat the game several harder difficulty levels unlock which should culminate in a bonus boss (thus far I've only seen it on YT) which would probably be more gratifying for those that look for something difficult, but as someone who's not really into challenging games beating the game once took me about 8 hours which is a fair length for something that can be gotten really cheap on sale.
This is old school arcade dogfights with space magic powers. Yes, the story takes itself a bit too seriously but boy if I had fun with this. The demo gave me a horrible first impression because it throws you in the middle of the game without really explaining how to play or what's going on but the complete game is much better in that regard. The game is made to be played with a gamepad but there is partial HOTAS support (that's how I played it) up to four peripherals at the same time just be warned that the game doesn't deal well with mode knobs or other switches that send continuous presses and that interface buttons are fixed which means that if button 2 on your stick is the second stage of the trigger you won't be able to exit menus or refuse missions so you'll need to reach for the keyboard or just prioritize another peripheral for interface control (it's always the first listed in the options). Flight controls are completely remappable in the options and even have a few alternate bindings (dodges can be either bound to buttons or axes). The powers are loads of fun and if you do enough side missions you might end up extremely OP, teleporting behind your targets, shorting them out and then ramming them or use them as projectiles. The game has also enough checkpoints inside and between missions to allow even for people with no reflexes like me to have a chance. Just bear in mind: this is first and foremost a free roaming third person shooter, there is no trading or mining, it's just you and a bunch of enemies to shoot down in the context of a sci-fi b-movie about space wizards that yap about DESTINY and POTENTIAL while learning cool powers like teleporting. There are a couple of plot choices initially but by and large the story is linear. I ended up finishing it 100% with full achievements, it's not perfect but I had a blast.
The FMVs are better, the gameplay is better and the story is much more interesting. There is still the classic B-movie vibe from 90s FMV games but it works nonetheless. The mission design is more integrated with the story bits and less repetitive. If Wing Commander 3 was the prototype this game is the pinnacle that the next sequel doesn't have any hope to match. You'll still probably get a bit more from the plot if you played the first three games but it can stand on its own and I think it plays better than the first three and maybe even the next one I think.
There is a lot to say about retro revivals, some just go full retro because their genre was tied to the tech used at the time like most 2D platformers. Some like spacesims chafed under the reduced resolution and the compromises of running on a 286 CPU. Privateer was one of those games, while it fared incredibly well to the point I find it fun even if I didn't grow up with it (X-wing kid here) it still had a lot of limitations. In many ways this feels like a full 3D engine remake of Wing Commander Privateer, the look is intentionally grungy and colorful to emulate that particular look of the old Wing Commander engine but without the limitations. The basic gameplay is very similar but improved in basically everything: money-making activities are more varied, combat is more in line with Freespace or X-wing, some weird limitations and jankiness are gone. There are also a few more basic ship types compared to WCP with some variants unlockable through a sidequest (listen to the GTA-style in-game radio, there's an ad to guide you to it). The game has also more options for controls, while mouse and keyboard controls are apparently iffy (note: I can't play a spacesim M+K to save my life in general so I can't really judge those) the game makes extensive use of radial menus to allow for a gamepad but has also a more than decent HOTAS support with plenty of optional bindings to bypass most menus. Note that the game can be unabashedly retro in many aspects, the difficulty only influences the availability of control aids (third person camera, auto-pursuit and autoaim) and the starting equipment (will your starter radar have color coded friends or foe indicators? Not at the highest difficulties for sure!). The indie nature of the title is only betrayed by a few things here and there like the small cast of voice actors, overall this is a really polished game that set out to do its thing without losing sight of the goal and succeeds: if you grew up with these games in the 90s give it a try, if you didn't it's still a nice romp through retrofuture space USA that can be over in about 45 hours if you do everything.
I usually like old style FPS games a lot, I don't really feel they aged that much. This game is an exception. The feel of the weapons and movement is really weird and the feedback from enemies is really, really bad. When you shoot someone he often doesn't budge (and I'm referring to common mooks not the big bad bosses) or falls in a death animation that is really a stun animation (they are the same animation or similar enough they look the same) so you'll often get hit by enemies you would swear they were dead. The protagonist is also very, very fragile compared to other FPSes of the time, even common mooks will completely destroy you sometimes, and I say sometimes because sometimes weapon damage (bot yours and the enemies') seems completely random: at times the exact same mook will withstand a couple of shotgun shots to the face while another he gets gibbed with a sneeze. Let's just say that it tends to get frustrating quickly. The style is really 90s, something out of an Image Comics book or a heavy metal album cover which does have its charm but the gameplay is really not up to standard with other games of the same era but it doesn't quite have the kind of athmosphere of something like Quake, of which it feels like the no-budget direct-to-video sequel at times.
This game is a bit weird in that it might appear like a Privateer-like but access to new solar systems is locked behind story missions (later missions often make you visit a single system of a large cluster and do multiple back and forths before the other systems are finally unlocked), single missions are useful only at the very beginning of the game, same for the weapons in shops since you can just consult the news for information about pirate gangs and when you take one down you get a special weapon that's better than the one sold there. Also for some reason the in-flight menus are often mouse-driven which means that if you play with a joystick you still need the mouse and if you fly with a mouse you can't move your ship while selecting a specific target or doing most of the mouse-driven stuff (same with the stick) fortunately it's not necessary that often but it can be problematic in certain circumstances. Said that it's not irritating like, say, Privateer 2 but the story in comparison is rather bland. You have a sort of RPG-like mechanic in upgrading the ship with the "artifacts" you can recover with the secondary missions or just laying around some of the systems which is potentially interesting but space combat is rather bland too. Trading is done by towing containers which weigh you down so you need to drop them in case you get attacked, which is irritating enough that I never bothered with it outside story missions that require you to carry containers. Graphics are fine and support high resolution in 16:9, the game on my win7 system was overall stable but I occasionally got crashes while shopping on space stations. It's fine if you want a space-shooty thing without even the slightest pretense and a story that is a bit brainless but it's a bit too long for its own good and it can get repetitive. It's no classic for sure and probably you are better off playing something with more personality in both gameplay and story.
Combat in a RPG is a double-edged sword: on one side it's exciting and challenging on the other it can get a bit ridiculous how you can't basically draw a step without having to stab or blast your way through a trash mob. A RPG is a way to tell a story, only it's often a story that could be some blockbuster action movie given the amount of combat there's in it. "Planescape: Torment" tried to be an exception by putting more enphasis on dialogues and statchecks rather than combat but there were indeed still quite e number of trash mobs and compulsory fights, especially in the far less polished latter half of the game. While the main story of Numenera isn't as strong as the one in the original that statement in RPG gameplay has been brought further along. There are no trash mobs, most of the "crises" can be avoided and the ones that can't rarely can only be solved by fighting and some don't involve combat at all (one is literally a "diplomatic crisis" for example). The only trouble is that the movement interface during crises is not good, it would have benefited from a grid system for greater clarity in my opinion. The stat pool system can be a bit irritating at first when the stat pools are limited and the money to find a place to sleep and replenish them is scarce but after the first level-ups doing sidequests (which are nice little microstories that sometimes tie in the main quest or in the final destiny of your companions) it becomes more sustainable and basically a non-issue in the late game. Of course there are still plenty of options for combat but I don't think that challenge is the main point of a game like this but to immerse yourself in a weird story in a weird fantasy world filled with evocative purple prose and dialogues that convey high concepts and some drama and this game delivers in that sense.
