So I love this game, its easily my favourite Raven Software game, and just now I've posted a comprehensive steam guide to all the weapons, levels, enemies and locations in this game so would I recommend it? HELL YEAH! I initially posted a negative review but a dev cleared up one of my major problems about the multiplayer being removed, and the fact it is reversible by deleting the dplayx.dll file so props to the rerelease team for giving us that option. I hugely appreciate that the game includes the awesome CD music now in .ogg format without the need for a CD and presumably functional looping which you can't get from a virtual CD drive. My only issue is that this version is using cnc-draw which forces the game to use the 8 bit rendering method that only goes up to 640x480. I would recommend downloading DgVoodoo2 and using that for Direct3D rendering instead. The in-game resolution will only go up to 800x600, but if you edit the user config file you can set the resolution to "D3D 1680x1050x16" which will give you a great, modern looking experience. So why do I love this game? Its a non-linear 2.5D action game with an emphasis on exploration and problem solving. It does not hold your hand, it sets you free into this post-apocalypse with a shotgun and a colourful array of enemies with plenty of satisfying weapons to use against them. It feels almost like a proto-imsim in some ways. Mechanically dense in some ways which kinda takes inspiration from the complex games of the early 90s but functionally more accessible. Also for 1997, this game has (after some tweaking and a vps tunnel) fully functional co-op multiplayer where you and 3 other players can play through the whole game from start to finish. You can even save and load the game, with each player having their positions and inventories retained! This was unheard of for that era so it was really ahead of its time. So yeah, buy this for sure. Its amazing.
Story time! My dad used to get a bunch of zip discs from a friend way back when (obscure tech right?) and three of the zip discs had games: Take No Prisoners, Settlers II Gold Edition, and Uprising. I used to play with all the cheats on which were hilarious (still remember TUFF ASS SUPER CHUMP!) as you could literally spawn an anvil from the sky and crush enemies and buildings. A few years back I wanted to play it again so I had found a version online. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to get it to run. I tried various ddraw hacks that would try and make the menu appear, and different voodoo renderers that ultimate all caused the game to crash as soon as it got to the gameplay. That is, until I open up GoG today and see this game. My heart skipped a beat, and I instantly bought it, because I knew that if anyone could make this game work on modern systems, its GoG. Thank you guys for making this happen, I adore this game and I'm so glad I can get to play it again, and legit this time! As for the gameplay? Its a striking precursor to Battlezone, which I think I played a few years after I played this. It's a hybrid FPS/RTS where you control a badass tank that can call in giant Citadels with turrets on them. I imagine the 6-7 year old kid I was didn't understand how the RTS mechanics worked, but opening it now its pretty simple stuff. Your objective is to wipe out all the enemy bases on each planet by way of using your tank, some epic circle strafing and then caving in and calling in backup units because you realise that your dinky laser can't destroy buildings. Calling in units requires the appropriate building to exist on a base you build a Citadel on, and the power on each site can be harvested with a power plant. The power is needed to call in units, build stuff and if you have a surplus you can use the stuff to upgrade your tank and weapons. Its a really neat mechanic, which has the unfortunate side effect of frugality. I absolutely adore this game.
Holy crap, this game. The most requested game on GOG and with good reason, it is a fantastic game. Why is it a fantastic game? Because it sets atmosphere straight in a sci-fi horror setting. This game made me legitimately terrified in every turn as the wrong move can end you up dead as the crew of this ship. The inventory management and weapon degradation system made this game an absolute joy to play as I would spent countless hours roaming every nook and cranny looking for supplies of ammo and med injectors to keep myself alive long enough to progress through some more. Whilst dying doesn't mean a game over, it can still be very frustrating, especially on the higher difficulties. Now, people will probably disagree with me but I think the multiplayer is one of the best parts of this game, as broken as it was in the retail release. The reason for this is because I have a huge interest in roleplaying games in which you can survive with a friend and rummage around for supplies, relying on your friend to bash that hybrid round the face with a wrench to keep it from killing you whilst hacking a particular crate for more supplies. 5 stars, it deserves it.
This game scared the crap out of me when I was younger, I'm not gonna lie. But when I look at it now, I see this game has a brilliantly dark atmosphere to it, something which quite a lot of games today are lacking in. The music is brilliant, the gameplay is smooth and solid, and this game is just a true thrill to play.
If you are a hardcore Ultima fan, you will hate this game. It is loaded with so many continuity errors it will make your eyes burst.
After seeing Outcast on here it reminded me of a lost classic I played a while back called Silver. I was horrendously bad at it to begin with, and gave up around the time I was fighting an acid dragon. Recently, I reinstalled the game and came back to this, using someone else's savegame to pass the now impossible "bell-timing puzzle" and found the rest of the game to be an epic adventure with amazing music, a fantastic story with brilliantly done dialogue, and tough as nails boss battles that make you want to curse at the screen, but give you that amazing sense of achievement when you finally beat them (HA! TOOK ME ONLY 10 YEARS FUGE!) Hopefully GOG have fixed the bell puzzle, as I remember that being impossible to do due to a programming error which never scaled the timer to the speed of the processor. Its a must buy, and I loved every minute of it.
I got this game for Xbox thinking it would really good, being a sequel to what I think is the best game ever made. Unfortunately, I was completely disappointed. Even if you remove Deus Ex from the title, the game still is horrendously bad, with incredibly linear and small environments with a story so laughably mediocre it makes Michael Bay look like Francis Ford Coppola. This game completely scarred my childhood, to the point where I can't even look at the game any more or even acknowledge its existence when brought up in conversation. Invisible War, avoid.
