Have this game since its release, in the early 2000s , and never managed to finish it , despite going back to it every once in a while. The game is a kinda 'long' JRPG made by western devs. I say 'long' because the 'lenght' is basically backtracking and doing the same fights multiple times. Overall i do appreciate the game and remember good times with it and its story ( sort of original, at least at the time ) but cannot deny the fact it can get tedious.. i think it's more about the genre than the game itself though.
Ignition is one of those games i played for a long time in my childhood and have a good memory of it. I hoped for this to pop up on gog and was just looking for it the other day. Now here it is and is always fun like the first time. I can't give 5 stars just because of the software rendered graphic and not 3dfx better version, but the game is good and provides lots of fun. Also, it is very cheap now at release , which is a plus.
Hitman is a great serie ; i enjoyed every single chapter of it, even Absolution. This is the beginning, the first entry in what will be one of most known videogame franchises. The game is difficult ; there is no saving in middle of the missions and so you have to complete them in a single shot. This brings the game to a "brutal" trial and error mechanism ; which is typical of the serie but here you can't save progress. Though i like Hitman, the first chapter didn't age very well ; in graphics yeah , but in gameplay too. Playing this today feels too clunky and constricted for me. for many gameplay choices. This doesn't happen , for example , with hitman 2 , which is ( obviously ) a more mature product. I think that if you liked Blood Money and want to try an early chapter of the serie, Hitman 2 is the way to go.
I am writing this little review because i think that many people could ask themselves the same question as i did ; "i like impression city building games, but which one should i try ? " The best answer would be "Get both" , because either is fun , especially if you like this kind of game. But here i would like to explain the main differences between the two, hoping to help someone. Overall, i would like to expalin why i think Pharaoh is a bit more challenging game compared to the next in the serie. The first big difference is how food is managed ; in pharaoh you have several kind of different foods ( game, figs, lettuce.. etc ) and every single one of them is sold separately at the bazaar. To advance the housing level, at some point you have to provide multiple kind of them . In Zeus instead, you have just the "food" vendor.. which sells any food he can get as a single entity. This first difference makes it harder( and more rewarding ) to organize a delivery chain in Pharaoh. Other big difference ; the fact that in Pharaoh you have the "headhunters" that recruit people for jobs acting like your normal random walker. This makes it harder to separate housing districts from industrial one and having at the same time an efficient road system, which is what these games are all about. The "headhunter" walker needs to have access to the housing district, so you can't just roadblock him out. On to the next one ; mythology ( Zeus ) vs Religion ( Pharaoh ). One could prefer either but the two system are very different. Mythology in Zeus is very cool and is actually one of the best aspects of the game. In Pharaoh you don't have heroes ,mythical beasts and sanctuaries, just patron gods and local ones.. which grant benefit related to how much they are worshipped. The big thing in Pharaoh is the Monument system anyway.. that part is what makes me come back continuosly to this game. There are certainly other differences but i think these ones are the main.
If SK and SK II are to be compared i think the best thing one could say its that they are .. different. Technically, SK2 is an improvement both in graphics and gameplay elements ; the possiblity of playing as Frythan, more kingdoms and other cool stuff. But in the end, it just doesn't feel the same ; i don't know why but the game just doesn't feel right.
I actually found it hard to believe at first but this game works perfectly on windows 7 and never crashes. I always tried to find a way to play this classic from my childhood but never managed to. Now here is your chance if you are in the same situation. For this price i would advice anyone to buy it.