So whoever was in charge of game preservation / compatibility at GOG did a really poor job with this one. For me it would just keep crashing straight after startup with none of the commonly suggested workarounds changing that. Ultimately, it was this thread https://www.gog.com/forum/simcity_series/fixed_these_problems_using_dxwnd_map_scrolling_speed_high_cpu_usage_small_textui/page1 combined with a plain lucky observation that enabled me to finally get it stabilized, but dear lord was that a journey to get there. Maybe I'll update this review once I've actually played this game for a while - for now I just want to warn people that this product, despised advertised for modern systems, will probably NOT run out of the box and requires a lot of special attention that may or may not get it to run the way it should.
I expect most people who buy this who already know what they're getting, so this review is directed to those who don't. Because yes, the original Diablo was revolutionary back than, but how does it stack up today? The answer for me was ... not all that bad, but very hard to recommend. I found it to feel rather janky and surprisingly light in content. And that is including the DevilutionX community patch that adds a bunch of bug fixes and QoL improvements to the game. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad game. But each class only has one unique ability and the different stats primarily affect their ability to learn spells, which are the same for all of them and the key to survival. The game is divided in 6 sections with 4 layers each, which you can get through in a casual week, including 2-3 restarts for loot grinding. The game's first boss, the Butcher, is practically impossible to defeat on the first go unless you abuse his limited pathfinding or skip him for later. The expansion's Bone Demons are immune to virtually every viable damage spell, so sorcerers have to defeat them with a good ol' clubbing. Due to the tile pathing, most monsters walking straight at you will still zig-zag, making them frustratingly hard to hit at times. No inventory management or reading time while paused. With all that said, the ARPG foundation is definitely there and it is interesting so see many systems that I used to think were modern innovations (town portal, transparent overview map, unidentified items) already present in this ancient pillar of gaming history. But at the end of the day, it is still a relatively small game and I don't think another class playthrough will be all that different. Which is why Iin my opinion that 10€ is a pretty hefty price tag for what this game actually offers and the main reason why I'm rating this article with 2/5 stars - the mileage for people with no nostalgic connection to Diablo 1 is simply not there.
Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance is, so far, the best large-scale scifi ground RTS I have ever played. I knew the sequel, Supreme Commander 2, was being considered a much weaker game, but after hundreds of hours in FA over many years and it being cheap in a Steam sale, I was curious to see for myself if maybe it couldn't be a fun diversion on its own, just to get some variation. I tried not to compare it to FA, but I genuinely could not believe what the devs did with this game. The problem is not that SC2 is different, the problem is that it is worse than FA in almost every way. Even the graphics, for pete's sake! Instead of the four tech tiers (where T1 to T3 are "regular" units and T4 is experimental super destructobots), each with their own units and buildings, T1 to T3 are now mashed together into a single homogenous, rather uninspired roster that can be upgraded a bit, but ultimately rather unsubstancially with research. Furthermore, the maps are no longer huge (bye bye, grand strategy), the campaign story is hogwash and the degenerated aesthetics have little in common with what made the predecessor so slick and distinctive. The only reason I'm rating this thing with 2 stars instead of 1 is that it has a few inventive experimental designs and unit group collision is not as much of a cluster**** as before. Overall though, so much of what made Supreme Commander excellent has been stripped away that what remains is almost *the* quintessential generic RTS. If you like this game or think it looks interesting, buy Forged Alliance instead and maybe add some mods on top. You might also want to take a look at the L.O.U.D. project, which fixes many AI-related performance issues. But you should definitely steer clear away from this dud because it is quite possibly the worst large-scale scifi ground RTS sequel I have ever played.
