I played System Shock 2 using the "SS2 Newbie Modding Guide" It's heavily recommended, it fixes a myriad of issues and very slightly improves the visuals in a way that doesn't clash with the originals vision. As for the game itself, It's a classic! Intriguing, scary and complex. The voice acting was a mixed bag in the beginning, but it did get better as it went along, seems they saved their best voice talent for the latter half of the game. The RPG mechanics are cool, complex and unbalanced. You can get yourself into trouble, so make sure to do a little research on what stuff means while playing, It'll help a a lot for a first time player. If you haven't already, go play it!
War is hell, and so are these two broken messes. World War II GI and NAM are interesting in premise, make war games based on the build engine, the Duke Nukem 3D version of the Build engine to be precise, in fact these feel a lot more like commercial total conversions than original games. Despite having a good base in Dukes gunplay, the game ruins it with aimless level design, hit-scan enemies and instant death traps. I can't get anywhere in this game without using cheats. Unless you just have to play EVERY Duke Nukem 3D or build engine based game, don't bother with this.
This game feels like like it's building up to something, and it does a great job at the buildup. The atmosphere is great at points. But the farther i got in the game, the more stale it became. The scares got more predictable and lame, and the voice acting is truly terrible. Whenever someone spoke I couldn't help but snicker a little. The end reveal just sucks, and made me feel dumb for putting in the time to finish this game. If it's really cheap and you are desperate for an point and click game, you can do worse than this, but there are better games out there as well.
Dracula 1 and 2 are decent little adventure games with good atmosphere, but they suffer from pixel hunting and getting lost. The third game I haven't put enough time into to give a thorough review, however it seems more focused on dialogue and reading than the first two.
The first game was a frustrating mess of poor puzzles and bad story. So you'd hope they'd improve in the sequel, right? Nope! The story in here is just as bad as the first game, just now it's no longer simple and uninspired, but nonsensical and absurd. None of the characters are memorable or interesting, just existing to give exposition or hints. All the puzzles are frustrating and illogical as well. The music has seen a downgrade as well, with only one of the two composers of the first game returning, and it shows. While never bad or unfitting, it feels extremely lacking in comparison to the first games soundtrack. I don't understand how this one sold well enough for a third game to be made. Stay away from this one, even on sale.
Atlantis: The Lost Tales is a great looking game for it's time, the pre-rendered graphics are diverse and detailed, and the music is a masterpiece of new age atmosphere! The actual gameplay and story is weak however. The story is simple and feels like something from a cartoon, the characters are flat and the voice acting is mediocre to bad. The puzzles are where the game fails hardest though. This game has the dreaded "oh i missed this item earlier, better hope i saved or I'll have to restart", along with puzzles that I honestly feel must have been designed with aliens in mind, it certainly didn't make sense to my human brain. It's a shame, but at least i got a nice soundtrack to listen to out of it.
Sanitarium is a breath of fresh air for me, the puzzles are all logical and can be figured out just given enough time. It's due to this that I recommend it to people that usually doesn't play adventure games. The story is well told, and rather crazy. I never knew where it would head off to next and it kept me intrigued. The voice acting was also surprisingly decent for a title of the era.
This game has it all: interesting story and characters, great music and nice graphics. It does suffer from important items blending into the environment, and sometimes overly confusing puzzles. But those are not exclusive to this title, nor are they especially bad here. I recommend it!
Movement is slippery, guns do more damage to yourself than your enemies and ugly graphics combine to make this deserving of it's reputation. The first episode is the worst, with the rest just being average at best. Not even worth it on a sale.
Thanks so much for the demo! It's a rare thing these days so It's greatly appreciated. I'll check out the full game during a sale!
