I originally purchased Enclave because there's a lot of rose-tinted nostalgia behind it. Well, this game is exemplary that just because it's old, doesn't mean it's good. This game ran well on my machine (AMD 7840U APU) after I had applied the dgvoodoo wrapper to it. However, there are notorious technical issues with it: both running the game at 60 fps and the mouse affects the game speed. Since I couldn't change the polling rate on my mouse, I was forced to beat the game using a wired 360 controller. The main issue with this game is the atrocious combat.. and that's all there is to Enclave. The story is some boring "ancient evil" trope that's been done before. I'm no stranger to unfair mechanics (From Software games anyone?) but this just takes the cake. The hitboxes in Enclave are incredibly awful and inconsistent: you can get hit by a sword distance away meanwhile you can't even land a hit with a sword even if the enemy is right next to you. In addition, enemies can stunlock you very easily. This makes the game much harder and after awhile, it gets incredibly old. People on the GOG forums have resorted to modding just to beat this game. Having completed one class, I will never revisit this again just because it's that bad. Highly don't recommend Enclave to anyone, especially if you don't have any nostalgia for it.
Non-verified owner reviews should always be taken with a grain of salt for many reasons, and my review is no different. Especially those with zero gameplay reviews. The asterisk is not a typo btw, it's a conditional quantifier which I close my review with. I've had this game on Steam since September 24th, 2011 (had to verfiy my purchase history) and Alpha Protocol has always been a diamond in the rough. It's a game that has good concepts with very flawed executions. Basically, it's a typical Obsidian Entertainment game. I've clocked 34 hours in it within 2 playthroughs. What has those hours has taught is that no matter how you play Alpha Protocol, it's a janky, buggy mess. But it's a highly entertaining mess. It has an interesting dialogue system and story, with the "choices matter" standard mechanic of the era. However, the game really falters with the gameplay. Higher difficulties (hard and up) means the enemy AI is too infuriartingly good. You can be detected in the most stealthiest of settings (full camo, crouched, and sneaking) that it feels really cheap. There goes your stealth run. Some skills are downright useless. Just like Fallout NV, the Alpha Protocol has its quirks you'll love or hate. I'm giving it a 3 because it's not worth the current price. I bought it for 2 USD on Steam, minus achievements (which are new to the GOG version). If it goes down to that price or very close to it then it's a buy. Hell I might rebuy it here then.
I saw this game was on sale for less than a dollar so I figured, hey why not? Well, it turned out to be worth those 59 cents. Curse: The Eye of Isis is a rip off of old Silent Hill and Resident Evil games, and it lets you know immediately. At face value I wouldn't bother with such a game but turned out to be fairly fun for what it is. If you played SH and RE then you know what to expect gameplay wise: inventory management, puzzles, simple combat, backtracking, cheesy story, etc. There really isn't anything special to say about it: it's just a heavily discounted and shallow SH/RE game. However, the controls in this game are atrocious. Movement is limited to left/right/up/down arrows and there is no WASD mapping. I beat this game with a controller.
This review is from the perspective of a recent first-time player. If you've played Commandos before, this game is just an artificially and unnecessarily more challenging version with a different coat of paint and new mechanics. The difficulty wasn't as much of an issue as the awful overall design. NPC behavior is bad: dead bodies won't trigger alarms but peanuts or a playing card lying around sets the map on alert. The Wild West setting is excellent: it's fun, engaging, and the sole motivation to complete the game. Yet it simultaneously brings the setting down by having characters be stereotypes seen in old Westerns. Technical issues were present immediately: severe mouse lag, double-clicking, and actions in general weren't always registered correctly. I eventually experienced this weird lagging issue that I haven't seen in the GOG community but is present on the Steam side. This game has cascading technical issues that absolutely matter in a real-time game. Having recently played and enjoyed Commandos before trying Desperados, go for Desperados if you want a game that feels like a subpar fan mod of Commandos. Otherwise, this game has too much nostalgia flattery that drowns out its criticisms.
