Rage of Mages is one of those games that pulls no punches and expects you to play to the best of your ability and have a firm idea of game mechanics before you even think of beating the first couple of levels. Should you be strong enough; brave enough; foolish enough; to press on through the first half of the game, you'll encounter the great filter: The bandit camp! Legends are whispered about those who can beat the level on hard as a warrior! Try thine luck!
Elite Force 2 is a game of its time. You can feel the early 2000s game design of info dumps, useless dialog options, and the flanderization of character personalities from the original. Still, Elite Force 2 continues on with Activision's take on Federation marines with pride! Much like the first game, its a good series of mini adventures coupled with an over arching mission of dealing with a certain alien race. They played it safe when dealing with the romance options and side characters; and put their creativity into the story, weapons, and gear. No other Star Trek game goes as hard as Activision did here!
Hidden Evil is like a cereal box game that you found when opening a box of pops from your local grocery store. Controls are strange and clunky; environments are actually pictures, like those of myst; and its short. As a trek fan, I can over look the controls and environments, but I really wanted more of this unique experience!
As the first installment for the Army men series, the game has it's highs and lows. High points being the story, you play as a Sergeant in the green army fighting the invading TAN; atmospher you're overwhelmed in every mission, some missions are dull; and the feeling of playing "real combat" with plastic men. The lows are the joystick era controls, which are fixed in later additions; and the terrible AI ally controles, which continues throughout the first three games and is only fixed in Army Men RTS. Coming from beating the second and then playing the first, there are no human weapons like the magnifying glass, bug spray, or M80s; instead you'll be forced to work with flamethrowers, mortors, explosives, and tanks to beat the tan army.
