This is a deeply affecting game, a real work of art. It's been slept on (pun intended) for whatever reason, but I'm sure it will someday receive the accolades and recognition it deserves. The amount of world building that went into the game is amazing. It really feels like accessing an alternate reality, with its own people and subcultures. At its core, it's a point and click adventure game. You'll be solving puzzles using clues that you glean from viewing different web pages, or emails, or personal chats, etc. The puzzles are logical and they aren't too difficult until the last few, but fortunately there's a built-in hint guide to help you if you need it. Honestly though, "beating" the game isn't really the point. You can miss 75% of the content of the game if you're just following the plot and trying to advance. Your time in game is best spent just browsing the web, downloading songs or virtual pets, learning about the different genres of music that are prevalent in the game world, getting to know the citizens of hypnospace through their web pages... I can't imagine anyone playing this game and not being changed by it somehow, even if it's just a change in their personal perception of what a game can be and what a game can do. I give it the highest recommendation possible.
I never played this when it was released. Personally, from what I experienced, it seemed like a good game but nothing I'd label a "masterpiece" or "art". I think people are a little off the mark with such high praise. Unfortunately, I couldn't bring myself to finish the game because of the constant crashes and other problems I had. The game would crash when opening or closing the map, it would randomly drop to a one-frame-per-ten-seconds frame rate, the screen would just go white sometimes. The audio would start looping all weird. It was a mess. Every time this happened, I'd have to force quit, sometimes have to restart my computer, and then I'd have to readjust all the settings and key bindings because each crash erased my previous adjustments. This happened at least once every play session, usually early on but sometimes it happened after playing for a while and I lost a bunch of progress too. I just checked out a list of all the levels and I made it to about half way through the game. I can't bring myself to keep dealing with all these problems for another handful of hours. I recommend staying away from this game. As I said, I don't think it really lives up to the hype and it's another case of rose colored glasses for a game that may have been more impressive in the past but honestly, there are other games that had been released before this one that I personally think are more impressive and interesting.
As of 12/24/2021, this game won't even launch, it just causes my computer to freeze. I'm uninstalling this garbage. I backed the Kickstarter, so I've been following the development for a while. I was optimistic even with all the art style changes, the name change, the long delay (original release was supposed to be 2017), the seemingly complete game play overhaul from what was originally promised in the Kickstarter... but this is ridiculous. I can't even play it. Hopefully I can try it again in year or two after some updates.
The comic book styling of the graphics is definitely cool, but the game itself is mostly boring and frustrating. Most of the time, this "action" game will have you sneaking around, repetitively sniping guards with your crossbow and then slowly hiding their bodies. It's so dull. You can't even load a quick save to try again immediately if you're spotted or something, because loading a save will always bring you to the beginning of a level. The weapon variety is boring, you'll have used almost all of them before you're halfway through the game. Using items like medkits, or your grappling hook, is inconvenient and just feels slow as you cycle through them and click on the "Use" key. The story is a confusing mess. None of the character designs really stand out, and their names are all generic, plus some of them are also just numbers instead of names, or both... whatever. There are intermittent cut scenes, sometimes flashbacks, that all serve to muddy things up even more. I have no idea what even really happened in this game. There are documents you can find that are related to the overall conspiracy, but they are accessed on the main menu screen and you can't read them in game. Great design decision. There are like five or six enemy models in the whole game. It's not even fun to fight them because you can't actually use most of your weapons on them, most of the time, because for some reason 90% of the game is stealth based. It IS satisfying to get head shots with the crossbow, just not for the entire game. I can't recommend this game at all, don't spend any amount of money on it, it isn't worth it. You can see the graphics on a Let's Play video, that's really all this game has going for it.
I typically enjoy first person shooters, and if you do too, you'll like Doom 3. It isn't a bad game, but it has its share of weird frustrations. It's too dark, too often. I understand that it's a design choice to make the game so dark, and it really does create a great, creepy atmosphere, but it also gets annoying really fast. At least in the BFG Edition, we can use the flashlight at all times, even with weapons. The experience is different from previous Doom games in that it's a slower crawl instead of an all out gun fest, although the last third of the game or so does bring the fast paced action back a little bit. The first two thirds are all about entering rooms, waiting for the "jump scare" enemy spawns, rinse and repeat. Still fun, but it gets predictable and the enemies seem like more of an inconvenience to your trip around the base than they do an actual threat. The color coded key cards of old have been replaced with different PDA's from dead UAC base members. The story is predictable and basically just a retelling of the original Doom. However, much of it is told through the video logs and emails that you find on the PDA's scattered throughout the base, or by finding one of the few remaining living members of the science team. Nothing groundbreaking but it does what it's supposed to do. I enjoyed my play through. I don't think it quite lives up to the Doom legacy, but it's such a different experience that it's not a totally fair comparison. The real star of the show here are the lighting effects and shadows and what not... personally, I don't really care about the technical or graphical side of things nearly as much as I do the basic game play, and that's where Doom 3 misses the mark. But it only misses it by a little, and it's still worth playing if you're a fan of FPS games.
This is offensive and unnecessary. It's disappointing that GOG would even put this game on the site. The developers have a note that a percentage of all sales during the months of May and June will go to one of Bill Gates' charities, but the release date is May 29th, so... there goes a whole month?
I didn't play this game upon it's original release, so I don't have any rose tinted glasses through which to view the experience. The city is large but it's meaningless. There's nothing to do save for the occasional side quest after a mission. The cars are all slow and clunky feeling. You pretty much have to drive the speed limit the whole time as well. That wouldn't be too bad on it's own, but 90% of the game is driving from point A to point B. It's just empty, wasted time in every mission. The controls are clunky and you need to customize them to make them as least clunky as possible. The game uses checkpoints so you'll often have to replay large chunks of boring driving sections just to get killed again and repeat the whole process. The story is the only bright spot in the whole mess, it really is captivating enough to keep you hooked for a while, even with the myriad game play faults. Unfortunately, the overall game isn't fun enough to warrant playing through to the end. I just looked up a guide and I'm only halfway through. No way am I playing the rest of this thing just for the story. I'll just look up the ending on a wiki and be done with this game.
Obviously, this game from 1988 is a little dated to our modern sensibilities. Once you get into it though, and the controls start to click, and you find yourself dreading the next time a Hexborg or Tronnosaurus pops out from around the corner, or you happen to bungle a quest beyond any hope of completing it, only to find that you can use one of a handful of your other skills to solve your problems... well, that's when you know how good this game was, and really still is. I think the only things that are almost unforgivable from a design point of view, even for it's time, are the fact that items that are dropped are gone forever, there's no way to store items other than selling them and buying them back (at a loss), and you only get one save slot, which the game overwrites every time you go to a new screen. These complaints can lead to situations where you have essentially ruined your game, if you happen to drop a necessary key card or you lose one of your main rangers. There's no going back to a previous save. Yes, combat is basically just choosing whether to attack with a single, burst, or auto shot. Yes, running in combat is ATROCIOUS. You can find yourself unable to escape, but also unable to be killed, so you just get pummeled indefinitely. The paragraph lookup system is archaic but standard for it's time, and the re-release comes with hyperlinks that bring up the paragraph and a voice over reading the text. That's nice. At least you don't have to draw your own maps! I used a guide for character creation and a few parts where I didn't know what to do next. I would recommend doing the same for the character creation at least, because there ARE a few useless abilities (and not just under powered... I mean abilities that have no use in the game because they were never implemented beyond just being able to pick them... old school!) Give it a few tries and once you get into it, it's a fun and not-too-long experience.
I first played this on the PS1 back when it came out, in fact it was the first game I got with my Playstation. I'll state off the bat that I prefer to use a controller with this game, although the computer keyboard isn't so bad that I couldn't get used to it. In fact, it may not be a problem at all if the PC is the first platform you play this on. Anyway! Abe's Oddysee is full of humor, weird creatures, evil corporate alien bosses, landmines, chanting... if you're a fan of the Another World/Flashback/Prince of Persia style game experience, you can't go wrong here. The puzzles always verge on being frustratingly difficult, but they never cross that line. The solutions always make sense, and you'll have that A-ha! moment as long as you stick with them. Sometimes it can be tough to get the timing of running jumps or rolls just right, and it WILL cause you to die and restart. In a way, that's just par for the course for these types of games; a lot of your experience is based on trial and error. I can't think of any area where the restart point was too far back. Definitely try it if you're interested in puzzle games or platformers. The world, the creatures and characters, the experience of the story, the sense of reward in figuring things out, it's all worth it! Kind of a hidden gem, unfortunately. Many people know the game or the characters but I don't hear it mentioned often.
I had seen a few reviews of the game before I bought it. I knew sort of what I was getting into, but I didn't think I'd enjoy it as much as I did! There's something satisfying about dodging enemies with the grid movement system, while waiting for different abilities to cool down. The story unfolds in an interesting way, giving you bits and pieces to string you along until the end. My criticisms would be that a lot of time, you're just watching the lower right side of the screen while you wait for the abilities to cool down. There are some abilities that are overpowered and some that are almost useless. Some of the puzzles are kind of illogical. I ended up using a walk through anyway, just to make sure I got all the secret stuff. It can be a pain to go around retrieving arrows and rocks after they've been used. Overall though, it was a lot of fun and I'd recommend it to most gamers interested in RPG's or dungeon crawlers.
