It works on modern hardware without fiddling with anything. But should you play it? No. Even if you're aching for a classic hack and slash, make sure you've exhaused literally any other option before you even think about trying this. This game is tedium incarnate. The only way you will be able to get any enjoyment out of this whatsoever is if you bring a really big dose of nostalgia into the play. And even then it's probably going to crumble before your eyes.
If you have the patience, this game will give you about 100 hours of good enjoyment and about 40 hours of annoyance, frustration, cringe and eyerolls. Pro: - Interesting, handmade world that makes Oblivion and Skyrim look like canned spam in comparison. - Exploration actually feels fun and rewarding with fairly little "trash loot". Instead, you get interesting looking gear and even semi-worthwhile set boni. Don't let those distract you from upgrading your gear, though, they're not that grand. Just pick the ones that look best to you. - Notable improvements to combat and especially the magic, as well as much better balancing. - Small number of sidequests, so they won't get in your way. You are mostly encouraged to just go out and explore the world on your own. The game even locks off quest related dungeons so you can't sequence break. Really good game design there. Contra: - Bad techical state. From the unwarranted FPS-drops to the frequent crahes, this game is a mess. Game can run for hours just fine or crash every 30 to 60 seconds, with a whole bunch of crash triggers. REALLY puts a damper on the experience. - Massively overblown story setting to the point of ridiculousness. You WILL roll your eyes on a regular basis. - Incredibly hammy dialogue and characters, somewhat salvaged by the good to very good voice actors. I still celebrated every death of my companions just because it would reduce the future cringe. I couldn't get even a little attached to a single one of the annoying buggers. - Awful main quest design. It starts out fine, but after about the first third you start getting teleported all over the place without having any say in it. Then you will have to follow NPCs that run way slower than you and then stand still until you get behind them if you overtake them OR fall behind. One sequence of follow-the-NPC with nothing happening lasted 20 goddamn minutes, yes I watched the clock. You will BEG to get the teleportation nonsense back, trust me.
I'll start out with the summary: If you want to (re)play this game, this is hands down the version you want. Why? Well, if you've tried emulation, you already know that the Snowblind engine does not work well with emulators whatsoever. And you certainly don't want to play a game in muddy 480p on decrepit ancient hardware. Pros of this port: - Crisp, fluid framerate without any dips whatsover (unlike the original) - Properly scaled up resolution and the dimensions were changed to accomodate the fact you have the monitor right in front of you unlike the TV during console play. Frankly, it's a joy to look at what was achieved in this port. Great to see a remaster done right for a change. - MUCH faster load times. - Full controller support and customization, or play with mouse and keyboard - no idea how well that works, because why in the world would you not use a controller for a PS2 game? It's mildly annoying that the button prompts are exclusively for the Xbox controller, despite this being a PS2 game. Oh well, it's not rocket science to map the buttons as you want them and then it doesn't matter anymore. Cons of this port: - Very minor clipping errors and graphical glitches in the inventory. - Price may seem steep for someone who doesn't know the game. For fans of the game: it's absolutely worth the upgrade from the original. So why only 4 stars after raving about it? Well, because while the remaster is fantastic, the game itself definitely isn't for everyone or without flaws: From a sore lack of move variety to the difficulty swinging wildly to the point of being absolutely unfair at times, this is one of those games that you will either fall in love with or that will bore and/or frustrate you out of your mind. My advice: Check out a playthrough and if it seems down your alley, grab this. Refunds are an option after all and you'll know within a few horus whether this is a game for you or not.
Interesting game concept: a shooter with magic instead of guns. Also, there's trap-room tower defense levels. Unfortunately, the game has aged pretty badly. The game would be enjoyable if not for several poor design choises that add up to make it outright annoying for me: - Everything moves fast, but your spells don't. Some enemies have insta-dodges. Get used to missing your target frequently. - More powerful magic is usually stuck with low velocity and can't be used at close range due to splash damage, so it ends up being rarely useful. - Health drains really fast, so be prepared for unexpeted deaths even if you have full health and shield. - Frequent encounters with fog snake enemies that creep up on you from behind, above or through walls. They are hard to hit without hurting yourself, drain your health in no time flat and seem to respawn mere seconds after being fought off. No, just No on this one. - Escort mission through all of the stuff above. Yeah, this is the point when I uninstalled the game. Someone who remembers the game fondly or has a lot more patience than me (or a less absurdly mountainous pile of shame ahead of them) could find enjoyment in this game. I didn't. At all. I don't usually abandon games, especially short ones like this, but this one made me quit. The payoff is not worth the hassle for me.
Just like the first game: Interesting concept, executed very poorly. Better left forgotten. Fast melee combat and platforming in a 2.5D environment with godawful depth perception. Recommendable only to people that played this in their childhood. Everyone else is better off picking another title from their pile of shame. You will not regret passing this one up.
An attempt to bring melee combat into the old Doom gameplay. But not a successful one. Low-durability weapons, erraticly moving enemies, poor depth perception and hit registry plus high enemy damage, highly damaging floors in a 2.5D environment with dreadful depth perception and poor plattforming, low enemy variety, clunky inventory system. The game is not absolutely dreadful but I'm sure you'll find something more worthwhile to play in your pile of shame with ease, so you can avoid this game with a good conscience. Try the new Arthurian Legends if the concept of the gameplay seems interesting to you. Buy this game only if you played it as a kid and want to relive old memories. Everyone else better stay clear. Even as a die-hard classic gamer this one is better left in the past.
This plays like an arena shooter (what a shock!) where you and your enemies have devestating weaponry that can kill in seconds, especially with the rocket launcher and grenade spam. That would be fine, except you move at a snail's pace while the enemy movement isn't just faster but also pretty erratic, so you have to lead your shots while not being able to predict where the targets will be. Expect plenty of cheap deaths, so you'll probably be playing this in short installments to avoid frustration. Story is alright for an old game, so is the sound but the visuals take the cake. Especially in the earlier levels I kept wandering off even though there's absolutely nothing to find in the wild just to look at the scenery. For a game that is almost 2 decades old that is quite impressive. Movements is slow, somewhat floaty and generally a bit of a nuisance all around. Hands down the weakest aspect of the game. Weapon variety is pretty good and the weapons are for the most part sufficiently beefy in looks and sounds. The keybinds for them, however, are stupid. Every hotkey number has 2-3 weapons on it that you have to cycle through to get the one that you want in a game where you die in seconds. Just, why? All in all a decent old game but I could've really done without the FPS tower defense sections (No, I am not pulling your leg, they are in here.) and the insufferably slow movement speed of the protagonist.
Lands of Lore 2 was a huge part of my childhood. I don't remember how many times my brother and I played this up and down. Love the gameplay, love the story, love the characters, love the freedom of choise, love the look and variety of the world and items, love the abundance of secrets. Hell, I even loved the voice acting in the German version, though it's often really oddly timed due to the specific format of the conversations. Plattforming was awful, though. And varying difficulty. Ah, the glorious golden age of gaming when you were allowed to explore a dangerous and fascinating world at your own pace without constant hand-holding and objective markers. And now even without the maddening need to constantly switch CDs. Thank you for bringing this back to me dear GOG team. This game was the very reason why I came here in the first place. God I miss Westwood.
Funny quips, decent variety of 'em, too. Could be a little more fluent in the load times for turns but eh, it's an old game. Love the AI's behaviour as it's surprisingly hard to predict. At times you can see a bluff a mile away, other times you'll call what appears to be an obvious bluff only to get dunked on. If you care about texas hold em in the least, give this a go. Not like you can go wrong with that kind of laughable pricetag. Only thing I can criticize is the dealer. Then again, maybe it's just my rotten luck. Also, give us the Poker Night at the Inventory games already. I know, I know, licensing fees for borrowed characters are expensive. Just crank up the price, not like modern games are worth wasting money on anyway.
