This is one of the first games that provided a great balance between interior activities and open world exploration. Now, it's simply expected. The hand-to-hand combat was inspired by earlier pioneers like Assassin's Creed and Batman Arkham Asylum, which is a good thing because it makes very good use of them. I recommend this game for at least one good playthrough.
This is a very satisfying game to play if you are yearning for the seas and need to pick something up from the GOG catalogue. I personally haven't gotten too much out of Man O' War so I cannot comment on how much of a really deep game this is but many of the sandbox and diplomatic elements from Pirates Gold are in here including retiring as soon as you can click the button. One thing that will definitely turn a lot of people off is that on-foot combat is not very tight but at least the idea is there and won't be a problem for people who can easily overlook jank in favor of appreciating what's provided. Naval combat is obviously the bread and butter of this game and it works really well as far as I can tell. I don't write very many reviews but I just had to write one for this game as it has checked a lot of boxes for me.
Considering DUSK is not running on the same engine as the game it took inspiration from for the mechanics, it handles really well after you disable the wacky weapon swaying. I don't ever give a fuck about graphics as long as the gameplay is good because they are usually inconsequential, but the low poly models and textures add nightmare fuel to this game's atmosphere when no music is playing as you explore. Even the little rats scare the shit out of me. If you skip exploring, you'll find that the pacing is pretty good. DUSKWorld is fucking awesome by the way! If you're looking for LAN games on GOG, pick this beauty up.
I'm a huge fan of OutRun and love it when an OutClone passes along. Slipstream is very simplified in it's mechanics but enjoyable enough to pass as a fun game. Mainly love that it has a 4-player splitscreen feature allowing you to take up to three friends on a tour of Slipstream's roads. I also found the custom music option interesting which gave me the idea of converting VGM files into MP3 for that Sega Genesis feeling. My biggest and only complaint is that, as a CRT monitor user, there are no 4:3 resolutions available and I'm stuck with a letterbox regardless if I use fullscreen or not. Sadly, this has been the only game that I've come across on GOG that only offers 16:9.
Own it on Steam and I definitely endorse this game. While it's nice that it has online multiplayer, I feel this game's strength is in it's local multiplayer like the other games in the Gauntlet series. The random dungeon generation feature is actually pretty nice and extends this game's replayability for pick-up games.
