Just finished this thing with completionist rating and no help from a walkthrough (ouch), and had an absolute blast. This game has its flaws. It is a bit too spread out for how empty it is, and if you get stuck you have a ways to travel just to try to comb over the locations again. Its has an ending sequence that was a bit forced and wacky. The voice acting a sub par..... Yet this is still a five star game in my heart. You really get to know the interesting cast of characters, and the drama just keeps unfolding and unfolding until the whole world seems mad - which is nice. The puzzles are very solid, they all make complete sense, just be sure to take notes constantly and lots of pictures (they start you off with a nice camera) and everything should go well. All in all if you love this epically underappreciated genre, please give this thing a whirl. I adore Scratches, and this game had me in the same state of bliss. Thank you EQ Studios
As reviewers state, this is a groundbreaking game that changed everything. Yet this is also a game that has been epically overshadowed by the games that follow it. All of this can be put aside for a moment though. The Normandy sequence is absolutely epic. With a basic knowledge of history sprinkled over, this section of the game embodies the anti modern-AAA hold your hand whatever style of gaming that rules the day. Drive forward, at all cost.
I used to play this back when it came out, and loved it. Seeing it here, I bought it with a cringe, knowing it must have aged terribly, but wanted a taste of nostalgia. Oh how wrong I was. The hyper simple, deadly gameplay has aged extremely well. With complexity, it would just be overshadowed by the decades of games that have upgraded all of the aspects of tactical shooters. Since it has no complexity, it basically plays like the Doom 1 of tactical shooters. Short missions, go in there like Chuck Norris in Missing In Action 3, take care of business or die trying. Gonna have to go through all these missions again, and am looking forward to it.
Oh my, this game was like Mechwarrior shining a light into the vast emptiness that is the void of Mech combat games... Not story driven, which for me is usually a problem, but this mech game loop is outstanding and a few of the dlcs really add some meat to the bone. It is sad though, as the next title was a finacial bust, they tried to sell MechWarrior to that masses and low and behold.... half the studio just got fired and the party seems to be over. So this stands as a great moment in time for MechWarrior.
These games are ridiculous, which is exactly why I recommend this bundle so highly. If your a young buck and have never played Doom 1 or Duke Nukem, go check those out to see the height of retro goodness. If you grew up with those classics and want to see some over the top B-Sides from the same era - look no further! These are all flawed, but equally hilarious and entertaining. My personal favorite is Operation Body Count, which is just gunning down giant rats, and aparently 7 foot tall terorists who disintegrate into bones and guts as you scale the 40 level tall United Nations building, Die Hard style - high five bro.
What a great experience here. While I am a big fan of the original, this game didn't need a bit of nostalgia to stand on its own two legs. Wildly charming, truly funny dialogue. Great cinematics, with almost Dreamcast esque aesthetics with its beautiful cell art. It can be a bit clunky at times with the controls, but nothing that hampered my enjoyment. It is interesting as it has a point and click type approach to game flow, but with controls rooted in console gaming. Highly recommended for any lovers of adventure games, old or new.
As some have said, this game is clearly the successor to Panzer General 2. A tight, small quarters puzzle strategy game with little room for error. It's sequal, Panzer Corps, was much broader and more forgiving - allowing for looser strategies, and adding more detail to command. This game is the perfect balance of the two. It has dragged its foundation back to the tight puzzle like feel, but added and expanded on much of what Panzer Corps brought to the table. This game will certainly not be for everyone - while it has been a bit overstated, this game is not as forgiving as so many titles these days. You will need to fight through some bad situations and start from square one on many occasions. For those up for the task, it is well worth it.
This game is going to get a fair amount of negative press, as it will draw in a lot of people with its artistic style and fans of the developer, who may quickly find themselves deep in no mans land. This game looks and feel like it's from the Into The Breach and Advanced Wars realm. Very acccessible, a bit cartoonish, small scale. But as you get into the gameplay it is far from it. While those were rather open and agressive in how you could approach each level, this is more of a conservative grind. Attempting to embody a slightly more realistic approach, like what you find in more serious hex based grand strategies. Which lands this game in a bit of a tight niche - perhaps not serious enough for those looking for Gary Grigsby, and perhaps a bit too unrelenting for those looking for more casual gameplay. If you enjoy both ends of the spectrum, I think this game is definitely worth taking a look at. Though I do hope that further updates and perhaps a dlc can open up the viable tactical approaches.
I would have to put LoG as a 3.5, but have no problem rounding up as this genre is intensely under represented these days. I'm a huge first person dungeon crawler fan, so without a doubt I was happy to play through LoG, but it does have some glaring problems, that largely seem to stem from being made by such a small company. Character developement doesn't really fill out, if you intensely speacialize, putting all your points into literally one skill, you will have only made mastery in one field with a few points to spare. So there is really no room for exploring more nuanced character builds (in vanilla that is). My other problem is combat, while it starts off quite fun, by the end you are just doing the same little dance with every single monster, over and over - move to the left, turn, strike, move to the left, turn strike, move to the... right (ohh), turn, strike. This becomes quite tedius, and it is really a shame that each new monster, even the final boss, is limited to this little dance. With this said, if your a fan of a genre, you have to go through LoG, it is a true throwback dungeon crawler with a lot of fun to be had, and some decent puzzles. There is also a rich modding community, which adds all sorts of dimensions to it if you choose to go down that path. Cheers!
Primordia stands almost alone in the last decade of retro point and click adventures, and is one of the few that could have come out during the mid nineties and really stoodup to and in ways surpassed its peers. The world building is wonderful, from the color palette to the personalities and writing, the outstanding pixel art. The puzzles are highly logical for a point and click game, which is a rather notorious aspect of the genre, and there are choices to make that do impact the flow of the game. With all that said I am not so foolish to say that this game is for everyone. The nature of these games require some puzzle/item grinding at times, and there will likely be moments where the people putting the puzzles together don't necessarily think in the same trains of thought as yourself, and of course you have to enjoy retro graphics and post apocalyptic settings. But for what it tries to be, it trully exels in, and I I couldn't recommend it more to fans of the genre.
