Even though I prefer Baldur's Gate 1 because I feel the first half of it are more of a sandbox than Baldur's Gate 2, the second game is an amazing game that takes the story in many directions, and leaves some major decisions to the players.
Dark Forces 2 has so much creativity for its genre,
A creative setting, fun platforming challenges, and beautiful music make this really enjoyable.
I don't remember how I ended up with this game on my family's PC back in the late 1990s but it was an amazing tactical experience. Based on the book and film A Bridge Too Far and the actual events that inspired them, you must reverse history. The Allies tried to parachute in soldiers to capture bridges in the Netherlands ahead of their tanks advancing from Normandy in order to end the war earlier. The Germans surrounded and crushed many of the paratroopers and the operation was a failure. Your goal in the game is to win where the Allies failed historically. It's a brutal nigh impossible task. You will lose battles and win battles. But it can be done. You control units at the squad level. For the most part you can't control individual people, except for lone snipers and when a unit has lost all but one member, in which case that member is likely to be terrified or shell-shocked and less able to fight. They will flee the battle or hide behind cover too panicked to fight. You must use every unit to it's full potential to win. Depending on how well you do in earlier battles, you will received more or less reinforcements for later battles. If you succeed in securing a bridge, you will have armor support in battles leading up to the next bridge. Units have morale, ammunition and, if I remember correctly, exhaustion. They will hide and take cover when possible. Their morale is bolstered by nearby allies. One mortar shell could destroy a whole squad. Your squads might try to cross a street only to be mowed down by a machinegun you hadn't seen. Also, in many ways the Germans have superior equipment. They have access to tanks in battle after battle. Taking one down is a major accomplishment for your infantry. Many of their standard infantry have anti-tank weapons while only your specialized units do. By the end of many battles the cities of the Netherlands are in ruins while bodies litter the streets. This is a different kind of war game than what you have probably played.
