I never understood thehigh ratings and endless praise for this title, there are a LOT of areas in the game that are just tedious. I played through it once, I will never do so again because of these three sections in particular: 1) the Fade. If you play a mage and want a certain outcome/specialization you will be forced to go into the Fade 3 times. These sections overstay their welcome and you're on your own 2) the entire chapter in the Tower of Mages (with a mandatory extremely long Fade section) is way way too long, tedious and boring 3) the Dwarven city and tunnels I also do not like the combat system at all (realtime with pause, passive combat) which plays kinda like Warcraft. The AI can be either set to on or off. You'd better switch it off, because your companions will run off into certain death, requiring you to micromanage them, so the devs should have gone turn-based the ONLY way for a party-based RPG. For a one time playthrough the game is pretty decent (there are far better titles out there, and no I don't mean Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 with the same garbage combat system). The story is quite good, the characters for the most part really lovable, but I would never ever play it a second time, even though the origin system gives you a different start based on your race & class selection.
Deathkeep is downright terrible on PC. The mouse is locked to use weapon (left mb), use magic (right mb) AND movement (literally moving the mouse in any direction). This makes playing the game with a mouse impossible as you jerk around like you have Tourette Syndrome. As for graphics, it was badly outdated when it came out (1996), it's an eyesore now for sure. Buy Witchaven instead, it's so much better in every way!
I never got to play Thunderscape when it came out. As a kid with a limited budget you had to choose your games wisely. I picked this one up on GOG. Back in the 90s I used to like the AD&D games. Unfortunately SSI, who had the license back then never really got on top of the technical game. A year before they released this they botched Ravenloft with a horrible graphics engine. Eventually they released Thunderscape after losing the Dungeon and Dragon license. Thunderscape has an interesting setting: steampunk combined with sword and sorcery. Sounds great on paper. Completely new races, a new character system. I love the combat system which is turn-based. The story is pretty fascinating too. But did the graphics and sound department sh!+ to bed! Thunderscape came out at the end of 1995, around the time of Witchaven 1 and after the likes of Dark Forces and System Shock. It manages look worse than all of those! It sounds terrible, too. So bad that I muted the sound. The 90s techno music ain't even that bad, but the high-pitched screeching sounds you get when you slay the first enemies (giant flies from what I can tell) will literally make your ears bleed. If you are lucky you can spot enemies and items (brown on brown), the automap in 3D is useless, they should have just left it out completely. Close quarter combat will sometimes trigger with enemies behind a wall several yards away. It's a real shame. Had SSI gotten capable artists for graphics and sound this might have been a decent or even good game. Unfortunately I could not sit in front of it for more than 40 mins. without getting a headache.
This is an audacity! These DLCs should be part of the base game, but here we are being sold classes, races and assets for the dungeon editor for extra $. The Warlock is a base class and a popular one, too. If you want to play an orc, you'll have to fork out more $ for yet another DLC. The base game costs $40 - which is overpriced. $30 MAX. There are 3 DLCs with additional classes and races: two cost $8 each and one costs $13. THAT'S $69 for a C-class game!!!! This is outrageous! For that price tag I expect a triple A game. What is offered is not even a B-game . Graphics, especially the character models are just terrible and butt-ugly. The UI is terrible and looks like Windows 8. There is some voice acting here which misses most of the time and is barely acceptable some of the time. Now I really like the tactical combat here, it's a shame it's wasted on such an ugly game. WHAT A RIP-OFF!
BETRAYAL AT KRONDOR, based on the fiction of Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar saga was an excellent game when it came out. It was far superior to other RPG's at and around the time it was released (1993). BaK is a story-driven RPG with premade characters (no character creation). The graphics were amazing for 1993, the characters a digitalized photographs, the 3D semi-open world looks pretty darn good (definitely better than ULTIMA UNDERWORLD II or RAVENLOFT). But be prepared to do A LOT of reading - there are no voiced dialogues. Of course BaK looks very dated nowadays and it will take some getting used to. It has good tactical combat and a very good skill system. It also is quite difficult. BETRAYAL IN ANTARES however has NOTHING to do with Feist's work. The developer lost the rights to the source material and created a world of their own. Why this is sold as part of the BETRAYAL OF KRONDOR pack instead of its real sequel RETURN TO KRONDOR makes no sense. BiA as I remember it was inferior in every way. Unfortunately it always crashes during cutscenes, so I didn't bother trying to replay it. It came out in 1997 and was badly outdated on a technical level (for some inexplicable reason the two unrelated main characters use the exact same character model with different hair and clothes, very odd). This pseudo-sequel retains the premade characters, the UI, the combat and controls but misses the great story of the original. While the original was pretty impressive graphically when it came out, this one looked atrocious. Overall I recommend BETRAYAL AT KRONDOR if you are into older RPGs and don't mind reading a lot. If you've read and liked the Riftwar saga (at least the first 3 books) even better. Don't bother installing BETRAYAL IN ANTARA though, it's just a grifter.
I played this years ago. It ran fine then. Now, years later it *ALWAYS* crashes during combat, making it impossible to get past the first combat encounter with the wolf. The story of PILLARS... and the world building are great. I also liked that the devs developed a complete rule system of their own. I really hated the combat system though: real-time with pause is the worst combat system ever conceived. Combat in RPGs should always be turn-based. This is like COMMAND & CONQUER, it just doesn't fit with this type of game. If you play the game properly (higher difficulty setting) you will have to pause the game every second anyway to micro-manage your idiots - uh I mean "heroes" - because they will constantly "forget" your orders and run off into certain death (mages). You'll be playing in turn-based anyway! Enemies will always break through your ranks - something you can better counter in turn-based combat but is a painb here - and your magic user will constantly run into melee where they will die in one hit. This is why I *hate* BALDUR'S GATE 1 & 2 as well. At least later games (PILLARS 2, PATHFINDER) allow you tu turn on turn-based mode, albeit it clearly shows that those games were designed for rtwp. No, PILLARS... is nowhere near as great as DIVINITY ORIGINAL SIN 1 & 2 or BALDUR'S GATE 3 (EA). And for some reason the latest version *always* freezes during combat, thus being unplayable. REFUNDED.
Shocker! This DLC is GOOD! After 2 atrocious DLCs I had given up on Owlcat and already regretted buying the season pass. I still regret buying the season pass, but the final DLC is actually quite good (good, not great). The Treasure Of The Midnight Isles is the equivalent of Kingmaker's Beneath the Stolen Lands, meaning it's a rogue-like dungeon. If you don't like this type of experience you will probably not like the standalone part of the DLC. There is a "Story version" of this DLC weaved into the main story, but this ditches the rogue elements and is shorter. The Treasure Of The Midnight Isles seems to be the last DLC which you get with the season pass, apparently there are more DLCs to come which will require purchasing the second season pass, but given the track record (2 complete bombs, 1 good DLC) I won't be buying that one.
After the terrible free addition of the dwarven inventor I was skeptical but the Witch Hunter is the most fun class. Especially dual-wielding guns is fun. WARHAMMER: CHAOSBANE has has some major improvements, including a few added tile sets in the first chapter and some additional enemies (still lacking variety though), but overall I'd say CHAOSBANE is finally a very good hack & slash. Just a pity that the Witch Hunter hides behind a $10 pay wall. It would have been a 5 star DLC if it had been free like the crappy dwarven inventor.
DOOM 64 feels like the "real" DOOM 3 - it still looks very much like the original and HELL ON EARTH and plays like those, just a tad darker. ID's DOOM 3 was an outstanding game - it took cues from SYSTEM SHOCK (lite) but it just wasn't DOOM anymore. Nightdive has brought DOOM 64 to the PC, never thought this would happen (apart from mods) but they did. They added modern controls, modern resolutions and a save/load function which is the only way to play. All these features make this my person favorite in the series. It has the best atmosphere (minus the cheap jump scares of DOOM 3) with better looking enemies. It sure beats the newer DOOM games DOOM 2016 and DOOM "SUPER MARIO" ETERNAL and is a lot cheaper. 5/5 for sure!
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. Yes, the story might be good, the characters might be good, too, but what good is it when the game is garbage?
