Playing on W11 mid-low tier laptop, I played the original (which comes with this) not the remaster, on DX9 graphics settings, not a single crash. Ran perfect beginning to end and looked as lovely as a UE3 game could from that era. Onto the game itself. Without getting into the story, from a gameplay/design perspective this is one of the best Single-Player campaigns I've ever played. Every grievance and peeve I had with the first game was fixed and streamlined. (Hacking, fighting, getting new Plasmids- vastly improved over the first game) Furthermore the combat-sandbox is plain better, being able to have a beefy weapon in one hand and Plasmid powers in the other, allowing for actual build experimentations and re-playability. Simply great design. Without spoiling the story, even though it starts off very heavy-handed in the intro, if you play as a Savior, you'll be in for a very satisfying journey if you also go out of your way to find the logs to form a complete picture. The overall tone of the writing isn't as nasty as the first game- which I understand rubbed a lot of people the wrong way- it irritated me quite a few times too. The overall vibe, playing as a Big Daddy, its amazing. If there is one thing I'd criticize it'd be the enemy roster getting samey by the end of the game. Despite that, it was absolutely fantastic. Also the Minervas Den DLC is also an excellent trip, seriously recommend it!
For years I had never been able to get into Quake 2, there was always something that felt off and for the longest time I've not been able to put my finger on why. It always stopped me from playing Q2 the whole way through and lose interest. I'm actually enjoying the game now and not gritting my teeth playing it. There are some serious quality of life changes they've made to the game with new enemy behaviours and restored animations. Putting the abilities on a wheel to be activated at an opportune time is such a good addition. It feels truly complete now. Well done!
What can I say, this is one of my favorite RTS' of all time. The Multiplayer component of the game is sadly dead but there's still a lot to enjoy. In terms of the games themselves, the first game is a good entry point to learn the ropes of DoW's style of gameplay. Winter Assault was good fun but it has a VERY HARD single-player, the last two levels have a monstrous difficulty spike. Dark Crusade is the banger of the bunch, a great sandbox campaign that's very replayable and just very good solid fun all round. Soulstorm is a bit of an odd one, the base game is alright but suffered from a rushed development cycle but despite this, its still worth playing. The thing that makes this one worth is the mods. Soulstorm is where all the best mods are. Ultimate Apocalypse to name one of them. They all lead to this point.
