While Goodbye Deponia's ending left people divided and disappointed, it worked for the most part. Because ultimately it's irrelevant whether an ending is happy or sad, as long as it makes sense, has some emotional weight and is memorable. Enter Doomsday, which takes the original ending, turns it on its head and... well... does nothing with it. The game leads nowhere, it doesn't develop anything, and most definitely doesn't offer any creative gameplay and riddles its predecessors became famous for (especially Chaos on Deponia). It really feels unnecessary and forced, flat and uninspired. The only redeeming qualities of Doomsday are its audio and visuals. Voice actors did fantastic job, as always. Locations and characters are beautifully drawn and animated. I wish writers did half as good job as graphic and sound designers, because maybe then the game would be at least somewhat entertaining. If you're a fan of the series, pick Deponia Doomsday up when it's significantly discounted. Otherwise stay away and buy a good point & click game instead. Maybe the original Deponia, maybe A New Beginning? These are great and by no means try to jump the shark.
I think HoMM doesn't need an introduction - its 3rd installment is considered to be a masterpiece, beloved by fans all around the world, still as alive as ever, and ever growing thanks to their projects, like Horn of the Abyss and HD Mod. It all began here... well, technically, it did with King's Bounty in 1990, but this particular game is the official chapter one of the franchise, setting the groundwork for everything that came later. The game, mechanically, resembles its successors, albeit it's more barebones, primitive, which shouldn't really surprise anybody. It's where HoMM started, and because that, I would highly recommend you buying it, if you're a fan of the latter installments, and are curious how the series looked before Restoration of Erathia made it a worldwide phenomenon. It's quite surprising how little the core gameplay evolved throughout all the years, and even Ubisoft HoMM (V onwards) were all built on what we can see here. Truth is, Heroes were never completely reinvented - just successively improved and experimented with (which usually didn't do any favours - look at reception of IV and VI). Few tweaks here, few there, a couple of additions and fixes, and a once primitive game has become its way more engaging, playable and diverse sequel. No big shake-ups turned out very well for HoMM - fans love it for what it is, for and what it always was. Should you buy the game, if you're not familiar with the franchise, though? I honestly have no clue what to advice you here. Maybe. But in this day and age, I could see a solid portion of the playerbase being discouraged with overall simplicity of the experience you get from it. It can be fun, be there's no denying NWC learned their lessons and improved next entries in the series. While H3 is one of the games you should very much be ashamed for not knowing, H1 feels more like a trait for dedicated fans, who want a quick history lesson, or to kicked in the head by nostalgia. And then return to H3.
The bae game's story is pretty good, and there's no doubt it's the game's selling point. That being said, technologically, it's a very disappointing entry, and one I have no intention replaying ever again - gun mechanics are simply awful and if you play it with mouse (it's a shooter after all, duh), you're not going to feel any weigth of your equipment, no recoil either. It's just point and click shooting kind of game. Magnetic hook you have feels like a gimmick most of the time. Sure, it's fun twice, but few times later it becomes an annoyance. What's the biggest deal breaker to me are the terrible DLCs - that's nothing new if you know 2K's history with downloadble content addons, they usually are laughably bad, but aside from being short, gimmicky and done as quickly and cheaply as possible, they're also nonsensical. You see, I'm a sucker for universe building, and Infinite added the concept of multiverse and time travel to the series. Too bad it's all contradicted and straight up ruined with DLCs. Yes, DLCs' plot directly opposses the main game's events. That's simply inexcusable to me. Don't recommend this one - if you want a shooter, look somewhere else, and if you want something with ambitious storytelling, well, there's plenty of better choices out there as well. Ones that don't retcon themselves.
There's few games that shaped what we know today as first person shooters. Of course Doom, Wolfenstein and Quake, not mentioning newer titles like Counter Strike and Duke Nukem series, are commonly mentioned by masses, but . "Unreal" name is unfortunately synonymous to casual players today with a game engine per se, which is a shame, because the game that started it all sure should be experienced with your own eyes, offering more that one could assume at first glance. Unreal may seem pretty archaic compared to modern shooters, but don't forget it was released in 1998. Yes, 1998, and back then, it was a technological milestone for the entire industry, not only using actual 3D graphics like Quake 2 years earlier, but mastering them, and being able to build genuinely tense, terrifying atmosphere around them. That's a giant accomplishment, and the fact you can still dive into its world and become one with it, only solidifies its status as one of the most important games of the genre. Ever. Definitely recommend it - it's quite an adventure to play - the more, the more you know about gaming history, which allows you to fully understand and appreciate how much Unreal has changed with its release.
I still remember how excited I was when The Witcher came out. I bought its day 1 release, as well as the additional Extended Edition box set. It was a huge deal - so much so, even Vader recoded a single to promote the game. Today, all these years later, being more knowledgeable about gaming, I have to say, while it sure was a huge release, it's also one that didn't age very well. Don't get me wrong now - I liked, and still like the game, but it's long overshadowed by the second and third installments in the series. Especially the third, which turned the RPG world upside down for a long time. Gameplay feels clunky - not as much as in, let's say, TES: Morrowind, but it's far from being comfortable. For an RPG game, The Witcher also suffers from linearity problems - it's not just the story that pushes you in one particular direction, even maps themselves are constructed to be as limiting as possible. There's little to no room for exploration and freeroam, which can be a pretty big problem to those who enjoy having absolute freedom. What didn't age is the story - it's still very strong, and as a more mature player, I enjoyed it way more than my teenage self from all these years before. Characters are fleshed out, and do pretty good job introducing you to the game's setting. Sure, it's better if you know Sapkowski's works before you play, but it's by no means required. Do I recommend the game? Absolutely - for that price, come on, it'd be a shame not to give it a try. While dated, it's still a fun adventure, especially to someone who focuses on the story aspect. It was a humble beginning of The Witcher series, and a true piece of gaming history. It may not be as timeless as Heroes of Might and Magic 3, Gothic 2 or Diablo 2, but I can confidently recommend it to any fan of fantasy games. It may not be your cup of tea, and surely is not as accessible as its successors, but it's a game worth knowing.
When it comes to games based on personal choices you make during your adventure, all that matters is the illusion of freedom. You're a puppet dancing on the devs' strings, but good games, like Life Is Strange or the 1st season of The Walking Dead, give you enough room to believe you actually tailor the story, and actually matter. Both as player, and protagonist. The Enemy Within, sadly, feels very shallow, due to rather poor writing and even worse character development. It's bad, because you actually can feel you're the puppet. The story involves some of the most well known characters from Batman's mythos, some reinvented, others pretty faithful to their comic selves. The biggest changes were made to Joker, who is the second most important character in the game, after Bats, and Harley Quinn, who in this version was turned into an evil manipulator (and I truly hate that). Bane, Mr. Freeze, Catwoman and Riddler, are pretty much what fans would expect them to be. Now, as I said earlier, your illusionary choices are a bit on the nose, and you'll quickly realize they hardly matter, and you can't build actual relationships with characters. That's noticeable especially in episodes 4 and 5, where the story comes to an end. Everything revolves around John, the proto Joker. Your decisions will affect him, and the game wants you to believe he learns from you, but the narrative may have been way tighter. TTG accomplished that in the first season of The Walking Dead, which was truly emotional, personal and well crafted. This game isn't, your role in it feels like a sisyphean task, which is especially noticeable with side characters, whom you can hardly impact. They are pre-determined to act certain way, and end in certain place. Maybe you'd like to reason with them, find their inner good side and reform them? Nope, no chance. Dance as you're told to. Overall, I'm quite disappointed, especially since I know what TTG was once capable of. I sadly can't recommend this game. 2.5/5
