Let's start with some honesty: this is far from the best shooter of its era. The erratic behavior of the enemies, their resistance to bullets, as well as the mediocre accuracy and/or rate of fire of most weapons make for a gunplay that often borders on clumsiness; and as it is often the case in FPS games, the stealth mechanics are unrefined, which would be okay if you were not forced so often through stealth sections. Which does not mean that XIII is not fun: despite all its faults, the gameplay is usually fast, well-paced and varied enough to keep you on edge until the final level, managing to have many satisfying gunfights. Some mechanics like the use of improvised weapons to stun enemies or the possibility to take hostages are innovative, and a few weapons are surprisingly fun to use: when this game slaps, it slaps HARD, and this is probably why I came back to it several times! While the models and textures are really simple even by 2003 standards, its artistic direction strongly inspired by comic books is what makes XIII so unique: the cel-shaded visuals, the bright colors, the on-screen onomatopoeia, the clever use of comic boxes to underline important details or brutal headshots... It looks pretty awesome, and this style is a big part of what makes this game memorable. The story, while a bit cliché and unsubtle for a conspiracy thriller, is decent enough - even though it's kind of dumb that all of the hero's allies never take the time to tell this poor amnesiac what is going on. Sadly, the campaign ends on a cliffhanger: since there will probably never be a sequel, you will need to read the original comic to see it resolved (I have never read said comic and don't know how faithful the game is, although it does seem a lot lighter in both tone and visuals). Overall, while it could definitely use some efforts in the gameplay department, this is a fun and stylish shooter which I would very much recommend to FPS addicts and art direction enthusiasts alike!
VtM:B is barely finished. The graphics are uneven, the mechanics are unrefined, and it's full of bugs even when patched. It's also one of the best RPGs you'll ever play. The game is great at making you go through everything you would expect from a blood-sucker trying to hide from the human world: you will drain people's blood, get involved in vampire politics, fight thugs, cops and monsters alike, and explore haunted houses! A great emphasis is put on atmosphere, with most places exhaling a new flavor of spookiness or gloom. Besides the awesome game world, based off a famous pen and paper RPG, what truly shines here is the overall writing. Every single character you meet feels like a living person, and interacting with them feels great, courtesy of awesome dialog: the voice acting is fabulous and facial animations are rock-solid! The main plot and sidequests are equally complex and full of twists and subtleties. The game is full of alternate paths, often letting you choose how to approach the situations you're confronted to. Violence is almost always an option, but negotiating or sneaking up can just as well get the job done. The skills you can choose tend however to vary widely in usefulness, with some totally outclassing others or proving almost indispensable - like hacking. The combat is janky as hell, but satisfying, whether you use melee weapons or firearms - guns suck at first, but make the last levels easier! Some magic powers totally rule, allowing you to transform, summon animals, and use bullet-time! The main flaw, for me, is that the game starts losing steam in its last fourth: from your arrival in Chinatown, there's less annex content, environments get blander, and a greater emphasis is put on combat instead of alternate solutions. It is still fun, but it's clear that the developers were running out of time and resources at this point. Still, despite its lack of polish, VtM:B is an awesome experience where each playthrough is different from the last!
In Torment, you play as a man who is unable to die and roams Sigil, a city at the center of the multiverse, to uncover his true identity and recall the past lives he has forgotten all about. I can't dissect everything PS:T's narrative offers based on this strange premise: let's just say that it's an epic journey full of memorable moments and great, unconventional characters. The world and story are wonderfully weird and insanely creative, constantly throwing strange creatures, improbable situations and mind-bending revelations at you, all of this in service of a surprisingly deep plot that tackles themes such as the worth of life or how our identity is formed. It's also bloody hilarious at times! The visuals still look good, and their crazy architecture and great details do a great job of depicting this strange world: if you're into bizarre fantasy, you HAVE to play Planescape: Torment. Period. But to be honest, the same level of effort was not invested in the gameplay: while the controls are easy to handle, the game is full of okay-ish mechanics that work fine, but kind of tarnish an otherwise fantastic experience! PS:T is at its worst when it forces you into combat, which always consists in chaotic, confusing melees, and despite being based off Dungeons and Dragons, it sadly never made me excited for character upgrades and new equipment. On occasion, it can also be tricky to advance the plot, since many quests are not very open-ended and demand to be solved in one very specific manner, such as talking to a particular and seemingly unrelated NPC. Otherwise, this “enhanced edition” does not seem to alter the original content, allows you to run the game in hi-res, and adds options that make it slightly more player-friendly, which is what you'd want from it. While a bit more would have been appreciated, it is a good way to experience this for the first time: if you can get over the more half-baked elements, you have here a true gem that will leave its mark on you!
Gameplay-wise, Neverwinter Nights is basically a direct adaptation of the Dungeons and Dragons system: so far as I can tell, most mechanics, abilities, spells and equipments are taken directly from the 3rd edition. It thus has a ton of content and complex character customization, allowing you to create a wide variety of heroes, but it is all well-explained and easy to get into: in fact, one of the perks of NWN is that it is much more approachable than earlier CRPGs, courtesy of well-made tutorials, intuitive controls, and fast-paced gameplay. Most things in the design of this game are well thought out! The story has exciting moments and its share of fun characters, but the main campaign is not the best seen in a CRPG: it's basic fantasy stuff, and most of it consists in exploring and fighting your way through hostile (although varied) environments. It sometimes feel like an extended demo for the multiplayer component, and the last chapter is kind of lame. Still, I think that the way it alternates between combat, exploration, and quests that can be solved in multiple manners makes for an overall really fun and well-paced adventure. Both expansions are good, and even better in some regards! Graphically, the 3D environments are great for 2002, but I think they lack the charm of the prerendered 3D of earlier CRPGs – plus, the performance was uneven for me. Otherwise, most “flaws” of the game are more nitpicks: some encounters feel tougher than they should (especially in the expansions), you are limited to having one or two companions, the combat can get chaotic, the inventory system could be improved, and like in the base game a lot of alterations your character can suffer are annoying. Also, like many others here, I don't think this version “enhances” much: I would rather have paid 10 bucks less for only the Diamond Edition, which seems to work fine on modern systems. Still, if you can get it for cheap, NVN is a lot of fun and a great way to get into classic CRPGs!
In Armed and Dangerous, you play as a freedom fighter trying to put an end to the tyranny of the king: the story is told through cutscenes, all of which are full of humor and improbable characters that give AaD a unique and wacky tone. Each level consists in a wide open space in which you have to complete one or several objectives with the help of your two teammates. And for the most part, it's a lot of fun! The environments are huge, the buildings are destructible, the movements are fast, the weapons powerful and crazy (even though the restrictions on ammo usually force you to stick to your SMG), and there's usually a lot of action happening on screen, as you try to avoid shots and explosions coming from all directions! And yet, while this game does not lack soul, it really feels like something holds it back from being great: there seems to be an accumulation of small issues and a global lack of things on offer that makes AaD feel kind of subpar and repetitive. For instance: the pre-rendered cutscenes look somehow uglier than the rest, there are only 3 or 4 types of objectives that are recycled throughout the campaign (blow something up, rescue hostages, take control of a gun turret...), your companions are mostly useless, and no new enemies or guns are to be seen in the second half of the game, making for somewhat tiresome gunplay. You're also likely to give up on the game on the stupidly hard 18th mission. As a lot of people have said, this game is very much a spiritual sequel to the developer's previous romp, Giants: Citizen Kabuto, which shares its graphic engine, huge levels, improbable weaponry and sense of humor, but overall has better and more varied gameplay. I would thus recommend checking out Giants first, and then buying Armed and Dangerous if you want more of the same and can handle a drop in quality. Otherwise, this is a decent and well-priced shooter, but not exactly a must-buy if you're not into weird late '90s / early 2000's third-person action.
At first, Mafia seems similar to games like Grand Theft Auto or Saints Row: basically, you play as a gangster, thrown into a huge open city to explore on foot or on vehicle, and your task is to complete story missions for the benefit of the mob – generally involving illegal activities, gunfights, car chases, and some civilian casualties. Sounds familiar, right? Except that, through its enticing storytelling, Mafia actually plays out as a deconstruction of this type of games. Unlike other “GTA clones”, it does not whitewash its subject matter, being a serious story that portrays the life of a mobster as a series of increasingly vicious crimes and life-threatening situations. This realistic approach is also conveyed through the gameplay, which is a lot less “arcady” than what you might expect. The game mechanics are surprisingly down-to-earth: even minor infractions like going through a red light may attract cops, you lose ammo if you reload a gun before emptying the magazine, and all vehicles have manual transmission! Due to that, the game is a bit cumbersome to play at first, but getting used to it does not take long. Besides its clever twist on the genre, Mafia is overall a lot of fun to play: each mission feels different from the last, and, while the main campaign is surprisingly linear, the open world can be explored in free-roaming mode. Please note that this game rarely goes easy on you: you're often thrown in hard gunfights with a crappy gun. Still, I think there are only a few real gameplay flaws: you can't play in first person (I feel it could made the gunplay less awkward), the driving physics make it quite easy to send your vehicle flying in the air, and I found this version to be a bit unstable. I should also mention that Mafia makes a great job of recreating the mood of the thirties, notably due to visuals that look really good for 2002 – the animations, character models and cutscenes are top notch! In short: this game is pretty much a masterpiece!
Arcanum can be described as “Steampunk Fallout”: faithfully recreating the feel of a pen and paper RPG, it allows you to create a wide variety of heroes and to take part in an adventure where situations can often be solved in a number of ways, through violence, dialogue, or else. Be mindful of what you do: your choices have consequences! Gameplay-wise, it is not a perfect title: it's easy to permanently botch quests, improving your character is a slog since you get only one XP point per level, and while you can alternate between turn-based and real-time combat, the latter is cumbersome. Dungeons are filled with enemies of uneven level: you may often be forced to grind levels before being able to overcome some encounters way tougher than they should be. Cue the first dungeon and its ore golems... However, the great thing about the game is its writing: you play as the sole survivor of a blimp crash, thrown into a plot involving ancient evils. Not only is the main storyline rock-solid, but every secondary quest has its own intricacies and twists, its share of unique characters, and explores different aspect of the lore: in Arcanum, the power of steam has recently been harnessed and is quickly changing the world, giving us a story that deals with themes of technological transition and dying traditions. The dialogues are well-written, often having a lot of humor and a very classy ring to them. The game looks like it's from 1997 instead of 2001, but the graphics do a fine job of making the world immersive. Each new place you explore has a surprise for you: you really feel like going on an adventure! In typical Troika fashion, Arcanum is a solid game, undermined by weird design choices and some lack of polish: it can be hard to shake off the “great, but could have been fantastic” feel it gives. It is mostly fun to play though: if you're willing to forgive a few missteps and are a fan of old school RPGs with great writing, you should definitely add it to your collection!
Made by a Russian team, Zombie Shooter is clearly a budget title: it's short, it does not have a lot of content, its isometric graphics look straight out of the nineties, and it does not even try to have a story or any kind of narrative substance. As the title suggests, all you'll do here is shoot zombies, without interruption. Fortunately, this game is very good at what it does. Similar to other horde shooters like Serious Sam, the game is all about getting trapped in large areas with hundreds of hostiles and slaughtering them all. The strategy is mostly simple: stay mobile, don't get cornered, kill the most dangerous enemies first, choose the gun best adapted to the situation, keep an eye on your ammo and life meters... and never stop pulling the trigger. The gameplay is entirely comprised of mowing down entire packs of undead (and braindead) monsters, some of which can be pretty tough to fight, and it's great: the amount of action on screen is just insane. It also gets absurdly challenging: it's common to fight a certain enemy as a boss, before facing ten of them at once in the next level! It is thus vital to take advantage of the upgrade system, which allows you to improve your character and equip them with better gears and weapons - a neat, satisfying touch. What really makes this game for me is its sense of detail and effort: the graphics were outdated even at launch, but the environments make for cool sci-fi visuals, and the amount of havoc you can cause is wonderful: everything explodes around you, filling rooms with hundreds of corpses and splattering blood everywhere! The engine renders it all effortlessly, even on low-end computers. Unfortunately, the graphics and controls are not very customizable, and the game suffers from a lack of content and extremely short duration: less than 2 hours to finish the campaign, only two additional game modes, no multi or coop... Still, a fun little game that I wholeheartedly recommend. Get it on sale for a few cents!
Soldier of Fortune was a magazine infamous for, notably, running small ads for murderers-for-hire. Weirdly enough, it also spawned this absolute banger of a video game. In SoF, you play as John Mullins, a mustache-sporting mercenary tasked with retrieving nukes. Efforts were clearly put in the plot of this game, but in the end, its sole purpose is to justify sending you in different countries to kill tons of bad guys. SoF is not the most mentally taxing FPS game of its era: levels are linear, barely requiring any key or switch hunting. What matters is: they're full of hostiles for you to brutally murder. Knives! Hand cannons! Automatics! Shotguns! Sniper rifles! Rocket launchers! White phosphorous rounds! This game has them all, and they feel great to use, courtesy of a surprisingly advanced dismemberment system: each gun has its own way of ripping limbs off, often leaving poor, mutilated foes agonizing on the ground. If you can handle the sordid nature of it all, there's an undeniable sadistic pleasure to shoot, explode and burn your way through levels. The gunplay itself is rock-solid: it's fast-paced, mindless fun that rarely fails to get your blood pumping. It has its share of flaws though: I felt the hit detection to be a bit off at times, which is weird for a game that relies heavily on targeting body parts. The “medium” difficulty is a tad too easy, but anything above it is tad too tough. Plus, the difficulty can be inconsistent, since it often alternates between throwing harmless goons and hard-hitting enemies at you. Still, it's worth noting that the difficulty is very customizable – you can choose yourself how tough you like your foes, your number of saves per level, your weapon limit... A great idea! In short, SoF is a great game for when you just want to slaughter tons of bad guys in brutal, gory fashion. Despite its simple presentation, it's one of these shooter you can play over and over again, with the same level of enjoyment for each playthrough!
Hotline Miami 2 tries really hard. It is bigger, crazier, and more ambitious than the first, but it also kind of forgets what made it so fabulous. The plot itself is great: it's a complex, twisted, non-linear tale about a large cast of unrelated characters whose fates intersect in unexpected ways. It differs widely from the first game, which may be disappointing to some, but the constant twists, switching of genres and quotable lines are really awesome! And in theory, the gameplay sounds great too! The levels are much bigger, more complex and varied, they have a lot more enemies, and they often let you chose between several characters / gameplay styles. But... that's kind of the problem. While HM1 lets you get crazy with every weapon you can find and strategy you can think of to finish levels, HM2 really tends to give you limited options in that regard: characters are often handicapped by some sort of arbitrary and cumbersome gimmick (melee only, cannot drop your firearm even if out of ammo...), which feels lackluster compared to the freedom HM1 gave you. Having bigger levels also generates greater frustration: you get sniped by enemies out of your field of view, and since levels take longer to finish, dying often means losing a lot of progress. Levels tend to feel like brutal puzzles you need to approach a certain way, unlike HM1, which was more of a “combat sandbox” type of game. To be clear: these are not bad design elements, it's all clearly deliberate... but it makes the game feel like it was made for people who had gotten really good at the first one and longed for a more hardcore sequel, not for those who wanted more of the same. Should you still play it?... Absolutely. It's a solid continuation of the storyline, a good game in itself, it has a sweet level editor that allows for neat fan-made content, and the soundtrack rocks harder than ever. But there's little chance you'll prefer its gameplay to the original's if you're not into hardcore difficulty...
