Ancient Enemy is a rather pretty game. However that's about it when it comes to it's strong points. The story is well written but rather bland, oozes pathos and frankly overstays it's welcome, despite being short. The RPG mechanics feel undercooked, or like an afterthought. The gameplay itself is decent. Though the combat felt like a lost opportunity to be engaging and feel like a combat. It's sad, really. The game shows it has potential to be something much better. As it is now it isn't bad, as I had some fun, but it isn't good. Hence, I'd grade it as a solid 3. (This is a summary, you can find the full review here: https://drejzer.wordpress.com/2025/01/05/my-thoughts-on-ancient-enemy/)
Despite it’s age Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain is a damn good game. With solid story; great atmosphere; enjoyable music and stellar voice acting. While it is somewhat hampered by its age when it comes to some aspects it isn’t that big of a deal. It’s still fun for a good dozen hours. I can definitely and wholeheartedly recommend this tile. (This is a summary, full review can be found on my blog: https://drejzer.wordpress.com/2024/12/27/my-thoughts-on-blood-omen-legacy-of-kain/) This is one of the cases where I wish GOG allowed for .5 scores. 4.5 would have been perfect, but as it stands the issues don't warrant dropping it down to 4.
(This is a short summary, full version can be found on my blog) (Do note there have been several updates to the game since I last played it, things might have changed) It's a solid fun, and pretty looking side-scrolling action-adventure roguelite. Unfortunately it pales in comparison with Dead Cells, of which it is heavily reminiscent. However that comparison is not quite fair, as Dead Cells has seen much more work-hours and feedback poured into it than Trinity Fusion. Would I recommend it? Yes. It's a solid, fun and enjoyable title, with a potential to stand among the titans of the gene. It has it's flaws... but It's still actively being worked on, so it is quite likely some of the rough edges will be polished off, and more content will be added down the line... Though Dead Cells "killer" it is not.
The game is a fun Roguelite FPS, the music is really nice and I’m enjoying it quite a lot. I do recommend it with clear conscience.
Jade Empire is a fantasy RPG, with demons, ghosts, martial arts, magic, firework-propelled aircrafts and huge dose of "vaguely oriental" themes. It still looks and sounds beautifull, even if the graphics ar erather dated. The game runs on the same engine as kotor (And, from what I've heard still uses turns "under the hood"), but is more real-time action oriented. Theough it is much *much* lighter on the RPG elements, Uses 3 stats, which determine a buch of stuff, the equipment is "pick 3 items that grant me bonuses I want" (later on you can equip more of them) There are multiple "styles", each having a light attack chain. a heavy attack and an AoE attack. Styles are separated into: physical straight up damage dealing (they also finish "combnations"); Support - debuffs and opening "combinations"; Magical - ranged attacks using up chi (which also can be used to heal or deal more damage); Weapon - they use a weapon bigger damage, attacks use up Focus (bullet time you can use basically at will), as well as Transformations, which let you well, transform into one of several forms. The combinations can be used to spawn health/chi/focus pickups on killing the target, which is their only use. Also, now you have only one companion at a time, in one of 2 modes: attack or support, attack is rather straightforward, they will fight together with you (and they ar erather useless), support on the other hand makes them buff the player, some regenerate resources, some increase damage dealt with certain styles. It presents a unique moral framework, based on the martial arts philosophies described in the tutorial... but almost immediately shallows it into old "good" and "evil", which is a tremendous shame. The game is also linear, at few points allowing you to choose in which order to do the current selections of subgoals. It is a fresh breath of novelty between all the typical western fantasy settings. On a side note: I recommend using the "Jade Empire in Style" mod
