While he visuals seem dated and the gunplay doesn't boast the likes of ironsight, SWAT 4 is one of thhe most intense and smartest shooting games out there, with impressive AI that even has the capacity to be controlled by your voice commands (via Elite mod, which unlocks the unreleased feature) almost perfectly. It's almost entirely streamined after the mess of a control system in SWAT 3, which is very much a good thing, and controls like a breeze. his is one of the few games that actually plays better in single player than multiplayer, though. Not because the multiplayer is badly implemented, just that it's a lot more fun to almost directly control your squad mates.
Shadow Warrior is a prime example of how to take an old game and polish it up to have enough of the old in it to appeal to the nostalgia while having tons of new things to play with in the remake. Visuals are fantastic, with Asian architecture providing a nice change of pace from the classic Western City / Jungle / Derelict Ship in an FPS, and though the demons look bland, killing them is as much a riot as you can imagine. The worst complaints I have regarding this game are: Wang will actually constantly loop in one liners (the devs seemed to have spent more time writing (awesome) fortune cookie fortunes in the collectibles than Wang's jokes). The gunplay doesn't feel quite natural, especially regarding ironsight. The soundtrack is generic orchestral, not eliciting a sense of badassery, nor taking any Asian stylings inspiration for that matter. And the biggest one: Sometimes, levels have no indicator of where you're supposed to go: I've spent an hour in one section o the level finding only secrets, but never the actual path to continue. Which is weird, because the levels are actually very linear. Other than that, everything else is fantastic, between a limited but versitile set of skills and magic, and the ability to simultaneously shoot your weapons as well as cast spells at the same time with a little dexterity. Wang, despite his voice actor being a tad grating, is a great anti-hero, the sword play is really fun, and the enemies and encounters are varied.
Torchlight 1 didn't have me as hooked on it as long as I liked. It is an incredible game, but one that sorely missed any co-operative gameplay or mode, and thus, as a multiplayer-only gamer, I couldn't log in more than a mere 8 hours into it. But there was just something about Torchlight, mods aide, that opened my eyes towards RPG based combat. It never felt like a grind. I never had to backtrack to sell stuff and restock. Torchlight had me simply pushing forward throughout the game without ever stopping, and ever since then I've been a fanatic of ARPG games. As much as I prefer the sequel for its multiplier, Torchlight 1 will always have a place in my heart for introducing me o the genre.
