Nice atmospheric black screen after startup. Not sure it's worth $35 though...
I do love me some olde games but these are just too old. Ear-piercing horrible sound effects best turned off, graphics that make your eyes bleed. No thanks.
Baldur's Gate 3 is a masterpiece - Rogue Trader mops the floor with it AND craps on Starfield. Finally a Warhammer 40,000 RPG that lives up to the source material. It does feel familiar to anyone who played Wrath of the Righteous - with the major improvement being they finally ditched the terrible Command & Conquer-style realtime with pause combat in favor of turn-based tactical combat, the only way to make an RPG. The setting is what sells this game, and it nails WH40k. Combat is satisfying, character builds are complex and game mechanics are hard to master. This is not for RPG newbies. My *only* gripe is the graphics. The engine Owlcat uses is the same as in Wrath of the Righteous - which is only servicable, no match for BG3's. With a better engine and graphics it would have been even better. Not a fan of the cartoonish portraits either. Bugs are present but unlike the "professional" game reviews write none are game-breaking but rather minor nuisances.
After New Vegas, this is several steps back. Like Skyrim they stripped down the RPG elements to a bare minimum. Quests are generic, the open world huge but boring and bland, and the Creation Engine his hopelessly outdated. Want a great post-apocalypse simulator? But S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl, install the Autumn mod and forget you ever heard about Fallout.
Get the original Quake instead. This is the budget knock-off which lacks the atmosphere and quality of the original Quake 1.
The Original System Shock was a MASTERPIECE. The Enhanced Edition was a MASTERPIECE. This remake is GOD TIER. Ignore the stupid critics giving this 70s, complaining that it is too outdated. It is a faithful remake of the original and right on par with the Dead Space or Resi 2 remakes. We, the fans of the original wanted a faithful remake, not a Saints Row remake trash game. Sure, the graphics aren't top tier but it's better than replaying the original (or System Shock 2). For me personally this already is the GOTY 2023.
The only reason this game gets 2 stars instead of only 1 is because of the great story and setting. Unfortunately Planescape: Torment is completely ruined by the shi++y Infinity Engine and its terrible gameplay: - prepare to read a lot. Only the first line of each novel-like dialogue is voiced and you'll be talking (reading) a LOT. When I want to read I'll open a book - not a PC game! - combat is the same as in Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 which means it's the terrible realtime with pause which is a terrible design decision. Luckily you can avoid combat for the most parts. Unfortunately this means you have to read a lot and choose the right dialogue options. You also need to have the right "configuration" (brains instead of muscles) This game needs a remake (with turn-based combat and fully voiced dialogues and LESS talking). But the OG and the "Enhanced" version are not good.
Wow, they managed to take a really good game and make it literally unplayable with the "next gen" update. The game will crash all the time now. There are graphical glitches galore with lots of flickering. And more crashing. Next Gen my a$$!
What kills the game for me is the terrible combat system (realtime with pause) which plays pretty much like Warcraft. Unfortunately the AI is braindead and has your party members running brainlessly into traps and mages into suicide by trying to melee heavy hitting enemies. You give your party members orders, which they briefly follow before doing something stupid. You're going to be smashing the pause button every couple of seconds to micromanage your dummies anyway, so why WHY realtime??? The ONLY way to go with party based RPGs is turn based. Luckily Baldur's Gate 3 is made by competent developers who realized that making BG 3 the ONLY part of the series to recommend. D & D early levels are a nightmare, especially if you are a spellcaster which cannot fight and only have two or three spells before they need rest (and they won't be doing enough damage to end the combat encounter with those few spells). That limits your choices of classes you can select. Coupled with the horrible combat system playing this game on anything but story mode is annoying as hell.
It wanted to be Ultima Underworld 3 and it brought some great ideas with it, unfortunately the execution is abysmal. The worst offender are the controls. You'll get used to the complicated switching back and forth between two modes with the right mouse button (movement and interaction mode) but the magic system breaks the game: you cast by pressing control on your keyboard and drawing runes while holding said button. For the love of God some of these runes would just not register! I can overlook the somewhat dated graphics (weren't back for 2002 standard) with the low polygon count since the atmosphere is pretty good but the controls are simly unforgivable and completely ruin what could have been a solid 5-star dungeon crawler!
