Good: - Yes, it's HD, and yes both game (?) included. If you owned the originals you can have this for free. Some pickup feature got a minigame (I hate those) And that's about the good news. Bad: - The original game has maybe TWO hours of gameplay. 14 levels every one 5 or 10 minutes. Some demos give you longer game time back in 2000. With the second game (which came out 2 years later still looks like exactly just the first, more like an expansion than a sequel) you can have a 4 maybe 5-hour gameplay, which is still short, but at least something. - Repetitive gameplay, never worth the price in the first place. - The characters look very goofy and wooden, Woody not loveable at all. - In the old one, the music goes smooth and quieter when you start sneaking, now nothing changes. - The game now very simplified, you have 3 lives instead of 1, the time, not decreasing but increasing so the pressure is gone. Also, you don't have a limit which you need to achieve to reach the next season. In other words, the game lacks every challenge. Ugly: - And as some people already noticed they omitted some levels. The three tutorial levels (which really not a big deal) BUT three levels from the first game, (I think no levels missing from the second, but I'm not replaying the old Holiday episodes yet). And why? 14 levels really short, now you only have 11. Because in one level there was a pig and you could feed it with nitroglycerin and this considered in 2020 animal torture. On the Laundry day, you can fed guppies with washing powder. And the last level there is a GUN on the wall, and Rothweiler turned to be a hunter, oh my god! What a violent man! - Also, they censored the nude girl's picture in the toilet. And in the first level, he wasn't only looking at the sites but the girl next door cause he was a Peeping Tom. I don't like these standards nowadays. And this game want 20 dollars? Are you nuts? Go back to Hell PC Neighbours.
Okay I had to admit, Hexplore has maybe the cheesiest opening ever... period! When I first saw it I burst into laugh wtf???? This game looks like very terribble back in day one. But these kind of games (you know Septerra Core etc.) you really don't care about visuals, because Hexplore has many opportunities below the surface. Gameplay - If you like RPG but not a hardcore fan of tha genre search no more. hexplore is your game. There are 13 characters, and four cast, archers, mage, warrior, and YOU your robotic face adventurer. There are womans, some with better skill, some gerater health, and unique dialogues, and voice over. Back in the day voice over was something which appeal to you, beacuse most of the games, especially RPG-s was only text based. You know when you find tons of books, with background of your kingdom, and you eagerly read the first two or three... but there are at least 506. So the gameplay is simple, hack & slash, or should I say point and slash, but you need to work together the four character, if you like Trine you know what I talkin about. The characters are fixed you can't adjuste them, but there is a replay value if you want to try every one. Heck I played at least five times this game when I was a kid. The story is the key here, cause the world is a crossover our real world and history (The First Crusade) and magic and fantasy. So we start somewhere in the Carpathian mountains all the way to the Holy land to find GOD himself. Hexplore has one mindfuck ending for sure. You will be thinking on it at least days. There are tons of traps, treasures, and cool weapons each of your characters. And secrets, I think I never find all of the secrects (so maybe I give another go). And this game looooong. I think 20-25 levels, and they are very looong. I remember when I finished level 4 I thought I played through the whole game. So Hexplore welcome back soldier, you maybe not the best, but enjoyable as hell.
Knight's Chase I promised back in 1999 -when I bought not when it published - I will live long enough to play you once more.... Well 20 years has passed like a minute :D I think I can't play this game on Win 7, maybe on Win Xp, so as soon as I switched from Win98SE this (and many others) went done to the trash. Actually it's not a good game. I mean it's not triple A but has some elements you might like. If you like the Alone in the Dark series (I mean the first 3) definetely give it a go. Actually it's pretty the same, minus charismatic protagonist, Knight Chase hero just an empty shell for you, most in common the hero from Another World, T-shirt and sneakers. But the gameplay pretty much the same. You need to use your brain if you want to comprehend your advesories. You mostly have no weapon at all. But you have your knowledge which you brought back from the future, fixed camera angles, and improved visuals (compared AitD). Knight Case was an interesting attemp from Infogrames (I think one of the last publishers who really care about storytelling and gaming) to start a new spin off trilogy and see this enhanced engine is enough for the new AitD. In every part you go back another part of History, thats why the Time Gate title. So this game has some educational attemps, and more children oriented than the horror elemnt AitD titles. But sadly the game sucked hard, next year Resident Evil come, and Infogrames went bankrupcy. So the other two part never finished. But at least we have Knigh's Chase. I think its time to go back.
No reviews this super game yet? Ever since I finished Max Payne 2 I searched for the same experience, the immersive, non stopping action packed TPS shooter. AND not a single title bring me this just fairly close. Until THIS game. It was like a unique experince, and my smile just growing with every level of this succulent chinese food. Altough I still think Max Payne 1&2 better, but this game easly got the bronze. Remedys games much more fluent, and their story far better. But who cares while John Woo himself coordinated the development, Chow Yun-Fat back in his peak at the 80's and everything is so authentic. If you like oldies Hongkong action movies like Hard Boiled, The Killer or the Better Tomorrows, this game is a must have, actually its a direct sequel to Hard Boiled. If you pay attention of the controls it can be very easily handled, but get use to it anyway. It also have a Bullet Time effect, called Tequila time, you know "bullets fly thorugh in the air, slow motion" and you unlock every special moves from the film, pure coolness belive me. Main problem of this game was the feared Games for Windows vista DRM, which makes unplayable quiet some time, until now. Big thanks GoG to bring this game again. (Hell GoG lately bring some pretty good game, XIII, Curse of Monkey Island, Diablo, Warcraft). And if you never play this game, just buy it on blind and you have 6-8 hour hot taste of China. Cause yeah this game is pretty short, but believe me, these kind of games need to be short, and preferably played throug in one go.
I had to admit, I hold a very BIG prjudice about Kheops, and all these Myst-clone nonsense. Then I get bored some days ago the other Sherlock Holmes games, so I give it a go Jurney to the Moon... and it just sucked in. Never imagines that will be the best Verne adaptation. And actually start to think: maybe Kheops games not all that bad after all? So immediately start Return to Mysterious Island, and its also a quite good game. Maybe an easy one (after the super hard 7th Guest I really need some relax) BUT I already played through at least 5 times in a row, and I need the ultimate 401 points so I will make a 6th playthrough. Altough I have some issues: First this Mina character maybe the most ugliest girl I must controll (frenchies cant draw girls stylish ways? I thought Kate Walker maybe the ugliest, but surely its Mina). The game is super short. Idk why, the hardest part the photo-like paintings where you need to hunt the pixels. After you find the things its easy of corse, but the first playthorugh hardest part was when you need to feed Mina, and she eat everything to get back her strength. Then you did it agai with Jep, the did a little alchemy, then kill all the sentinels, final you answer questions... and then the game abruptly ends. I really like to search the Nautilus... altough thats another game... But I like very much the setting, the theme, the music, JEP he was a very likeable monkey boy. I never forget the drawings when Mina take care of his wounds. It was so touchings. I thought maybe he could have died without Minas help. The Inventory system is super good. If you just stuck, you quickly scroll one things with all of the other. And its very good not only one solution exists. I love this in Journey to the Moon, and they developed for this game. Its really sucked the sequel so screwed up nearly everything. But hey this doesent explain why every other Kheps games missing from GoG. so come on guys buy the brands!
Can I give this piece of shit just a half star? Please? There are people here who constantly hitting The 7th Guest for this and for that, BUT that game even has some flaws has an atmosphere, a style, and yeas dated much but GOD LORD what a masterpiece compare to THIS. I don't know what I expected BUT this is just too much. It started the sound glitch. You either has no sound, or the music so loud you cant hear a thing what old man Stauf said to you. But I really like the the opening music from Fat Man, maybe the only positive thing about this garbage. Then you get a 10 minutes FMV crappy film (I hated when a game thinks its a movie, and even its a boring one, I want to play its so hard to understand?). Then it turned out you have to return the old mansion, just everything is deteriorated, what an Idea. Are you nuuuuuuts? Who wants this? And at least 3-4 years passed from the first one, and the looks not even better really. Only positive thing Carl moving very fast (maybe some processor problem). The puzzles even more silly and unthinkably stupid. And when you solve one, you need to find things in this house. And every room has at least 20 rubbish, maybe this one is the good one.... WRONG AGAIN CORAAAAAL! And whats with all these anagramm puzzles? I always hate it, and every clue has at least one anagramm. Maybe if you a native english you can solve this easily, but many people not born in the USA or the UK. And lastly one thing the developers not responsible it, but since then the Walking Dead meme hit the internet old Stauf every taunt is hilarious. If You miss simething, if you click something this old prick feel must say something. OK Coral??? So final verdict, skip this game, its just really plain bad. The 7th Guest has at least some freshness. And anybody said to you this game has better performance or acting in the FMVs either blind, or stupid. Maybe both.
Where shall I begin? Im an avid adventure player, and time to time (when I realized the game business just in a sorry state as the modern movie business) I go back to the 90's because it has really good game. Hack most of my best game experience in 2018 are from the 90's again (by GoG). And I nearly 3 or 4 years said to myself, why am i not started finally the 7th guest? Its one of the few adventures which I skipped back then, also it got remastered, so give it a go. 25 years has passed from now on, and I must say. Altough Im a bit dissapointed, it was a great fun (most of the time, just skip the microscope puzzle for god sake!). First of all, I need to comparison this game with Myst, I dont like that. Not one bit. And I truly not understand why that game has such a fame. As for 7th Guest maybe I dont like this much, BUT I totally understand the impact it made. I think this game responsible all the FMV crap back in the 90's. Someone said the acting is terribble, well I think for this game maybe has the best performance I ever saw in a game. And for tech issues, this game looks superb. Better then Alone in the Dark, or Resident Evil. The Music is very earie, but the story is well developed, and the setting is also very good. Who not like a haunted mansion, where every ROOM has another puzzle to solve. Also I dont give adventure game title to this because its really a mystery puzzle solving game. No need to pick up things, or you really can't interact anybody. The main thing with this game, you need to discover what happened. Like a whodunnit detective story. So we have 21 mostly different puzzle, some of them really hard (IFECTION is not a puzzle, its a game in a game, worst idea ever), and you only get movies if you solve these by your own. Very clever indead! But its not an adventure game, not a from a first perspective one. I wish you much much patient to this game, and a second playthrough where you already know what to do and you can understand the story.
So many 5 stars, and I know it why. I only gave four because... this... game... is... oh my GOD dated! Actually Im fond of the 90s I love these games (thats why I start buying games on GoG) but on the other hand I saw this game could be much more better back then. I only heard about this, never had the chance to actually try it, so actually this was may first walk in Prof WindleNUT Amazing Museum. First the postives: I like the spooky atmosphere, most of the puzzles was a great fun, every room was very unique, and the place was huge. I like how the story built together. You read something a book, added another thing from a letter, then a newspaper, until you actually understand the opening video. It was very good. And the Negs: the Museum is terrifyingly complex. I am not joking, its a fucking maze. You need at least the first 1-2 hour just to navigate in this monstre building. And the info also very huge, you maybe get 60% all of the readings from the library and the from the office. I spent actually 3-4 hours just read everything... over, and over. And since its dated, and the resolution so small, I neraly cant read key information. Some of the puzzles just to easy, or not making sense, or way too hard (chinese box, pinball fucking machine, each consumed at least 2 hours of my life, the ywere the real shivers), and Im not sure how I had guessed the correct word at the tower, by pure chance/luck. I hate the backtrackings, the animation of the shivers (even I really frightened from the first one, when I still belive this game was a horror stuff). But my greates issue with this game, the fucked up inventory system. I dont really get why they did this. Why don'T you have all pots which you find? And not just when you capture the pokemons. They even created a sanctuary for them, but you can't use that. Thank god you at least read all of your clues you already find. So this pottery business was a real adventure bugger. All in all I beat the game like 20 hours.
I rarely write reviews, but I read that 2 star complaint, and I want to say; Im not a nostalgic player. I just heard this game a long time ago, try the demo some 15 yeras ago (or even more, I already forgot even to did this) but because Im a die hard adventurer I always want to try this. So when I saw on GoG instantly buyed it, not waiting for sale. Thing is I just played the original Myst about a month ago, and Im was very disappointed. Im not a big fan to this genre, but Myst was the first of these kind of games. And maybe this is the only reason people talking about it. Beacuse it was the FIRST. Its story not so well written, you hardly use anything from your inventory, and literally you only picked up one thing at a time, (a blue, or a red page). WTF? You actually can play trough Myst in 5 minutes. Yes, you can read right: FIVE. In Myst the best part how on earth you can get to the Ages, and come back, and the best scene is the center island. But the Ages are huge disappointment. You hardly do anything. So yeah Lighthouse stole the idea, go to a paralel world, and go places and return. But is has a superb atmosphere. and finally there are some characters. Not mention the 16 different endings. I also love the mechanical wehicles. My absolute favorite was the driller train. You can reach each destination at least 2 differnt ways. There isnt just one route. This game really branches, and you can solve one problem in many different ways. The guy complains about the Birdman stole things from you? So what? Its not a fault. Its a way. Like the real life, you cannot win every situation. And its from 1996, now 2018. This kind of design was so refreshing. Not many games did this. Heck I even missed the kidnapping at the first time, because I was minding my own business, but Im not realizing I was missed something. Because I solve the problems on my own way, at my own pace. And yeah thank GOD this game has tons of items. So I recommended Lighthouse.
