I remember I had a shareware version of this game in the 90s. I brought it to my sister's halloween party on a floppy, and it suited the occasion perfectly. But we never got very far in the game, not even myself who played it more on my own computer. But now, decades later, I managed to play through the whole game (on the easy setting). It was tricky but very enjoyable. Challenging but not frustrating. If you use the save feature you can return to start from the beginning of the level. So usually I played one level at a time and when I got to the next I saved the game to return later. The game becomes easier once you get familiar with the levels. There are new game mechanics introduced every now and then, like, bouncy sofas that make you jump higher, air fans that hurt you but you can turn them off by shooting at them, and stuff like that. At the end of the game you can even ride a broom and shoot bolts of lighting. The variety of level design makes the game fun and not repetitive. And of course the horror theme is a lot of fun. You got zombies, skeletons, pumpkins, Medusas, werewolves, eyeballs, witches, crawling hands, living bomber airplanes(?), electric monster that glitches the screen (that one was the most terrifying), even xenomorph alien, and Swamp Thing from the DC comic books. My favorite was probably the funny-looking fish that jumps on the ground. And all enemies blow to pieces of bloody pixel gore. This is a cartoony horror game done right, it has attitude but is also cutesy. The only negatives I can think of: Some levels have quite difficult jumps on moving waterlily pads or brooms that fly on the air. Also the final boss fight was a bit of a letdown. He looks terrifying but is too easy, compared to how difficult some earlier parts of the game were. Overall I must say this is one of the most fun games I have gotten from GOG so far. Played with: Linux Mint
I haven't played the Amiga version many people seem to be praising, so I have no problem with the DOS version. But I can't remember if it ran this fast in the old days. Maybe it was a bit slower because of the 90s pc's? The game starts quite fun, about first four missions the difficulty level stays reasonable. Mission five starts to get on the nerves, and after that each mission throws new dirty tricks to make you more angry. It is mostly due to the inhuman speed the game runs but also with all the unfair ways to die. Well, if you are stubborn enough you can learn to get good in the game. Levels that first seemed impossible become possible when you first die a thousand times and slowly come up with the best strategy. Then you have better chances, but random deaths still occur. For example: - Bazookas shooting from outside the screen. Even after you memorize the location of each one it's still difficult to shoot them before they kill you - Driving vehicles is a fun idea but the controls and the level design makes it sometimes terrible. For example you have to jump from bumpers inside a labyrinth and if you land on the trees you explode or get stuck in the edge of the treeline - One-pixel traps - Swarms of soldiers that run faster than you - Levels that start with cannons shooting you before you can do anything. This is basically pure luck if you happen to get out of the way quick enough - Helicopter that follows you and constantly drops bombs - Selecting weapons and grouping the soldiers from the side panel with the mouse is too clumsy when the battle rages so fast I've managed to reach up to mission 12 (out of 20-something) but I'm exhausted because even though this game is highly addictive, not boring, and it gets more fun the better you get at playing. But every new mission gets more unfair. This game fills my soul with gut-wrenching agony, defeat, anger, and insanity. Play only if want to be like The Angry Video Game Nerd. Played with Linux Mint
I used to play the shareware version in the 90s. It was ok but never my top favorite. Only now I played the full game. The good: Map design is well made and you won't get lost easily. A lot of different kind of enemies, maybe more variety than in some other games of the time. Weapons are also quite nice. There are some innovative things like the scientists who can be friendly or dangerous, an enemy that pretends to be dead and attacks again, and different kind of "containers" that can release an enemy - my favorite being hospital beds that can hide zombies! And if you run out of ammo or health you can backtrack with the elevator to the earlier levels to search for leftover stuff. Oh, and there are secret levels but I think I didn't find those, so there is more to discover. The bad: Well, it's the Wolfenstein 3D engine which means flat floors and no diagonal shapes. I automatically compare everything to Doom (my gold standard of fps) and that means almost nothing can top it. The levels start to feel a bit samey when you play long enough. Also, I thought the difficulty was a bit uneven. There are levels that are very hard and can take a long time to beat but after it might come a lot easier one. This seems a bit random. Some enemies can drain your full health with few shots which can be frustrating. (And I played the second easiest setting (out of four) and it was already hard enough for me.) Even though the game has a lot done right I started to feel like I'm just working through the levels and wish to finish and play some other game instead. Overall if you like old shooters it's a game you might want to try out. But don't expect constant run-and-gun style, this game you have to play more carefully like an agent.
This is one of those half-nostalgic games that I didn't have as a kid but I it was featured in a gaming magazine I read. Who could forget Victoria Venice? Now, I was actually surprised how good the actual game is. You pilot a flying vehicle in different kind of tracks - some in more open natural landscapes and some in claustrobhobic tunnels. Winning gives you money, and then you can buy better engines, weapons and stuff. I have some complaints: the weapons are quite expensive and they only give you a few shots and then you have to buy new. But if you buy a better turbo accelerator to give you more speed that will also last on other levels. The engine becomes more important in the game and the weapons seem like a novelty if you happen have extra money (especially if you play in harder setting). So if you want a combat game you better look elsewhere, this one is more about being fast and careful pilot. I managed to win tournaments in the medium difficulty setting but the hardest setting seem almost impossible because the computer pilots are so fast. I haven't tried a multiplayer game, I guess that might be even more fun too. I'd say it's not a perfect racing game but it has enough charm to keep you entertained for some time at least. Played on: Linux Mint
This is one of those games I had a shareware version as a kid but never played the full game. So what we have here is a pretty good classic platformer with a lot of shooting. The control is very smooth and it's fun to blow up enemies. The enemies come in all kind of shapes and sizes. The designers really used some imagination when coming up with these creatures and robots. Your main weapon is the gun but you can also find grenades and mines. Some levels are quite difficult but I managed to beat the game. I guess there is re-play value because it isn't too easy. Played on: Linux Mint
Ahh, Shadow Warrior, one of my favorite 1st person shooters. I think I only had the shareware version as a teenager but I played it over and over again. I also liked Duke Nukem 3D but the ninja setting of Shadow Warrior was even more my cup of tea. How revolutionary it felt to slice enemies with a sword! Imagine, that was a new thing in a game like this. Anyway, this was the first game I got to my new Linux system. It worked really well and I played through the original game plus the expansions. I have to say the Wanton Destruction and Twin Dragon episodes weren't as good as the original game, since the levels were more individual. (I liked how the original levels seem to pick up where previous one ended. That gave a nice feeling of journey.) There is of course some tasteless humor that someone might dislike. I didn't mind it, but I was overall more in for the action. The controls, weapons, and occasional vehicles just feel very satisfying. Since the classic version is free now, check it out if you want some action! (and if you like it but would like better graphics, then maybe try the redux version. I haven't tried that one yet.)
I vaguely remember having a shareware version of this game in the 90s but I had better games to play so I pretty much forgot about it. Also nowadays the game feels a bit clunky at first, but once you get the hang of the controls it's pretty good. The sound is not very good, I had to turn the sound off and listen to other music instead. I usually like old pc speaker style sounds but the sounds of this game got to my nerves for some reason. But it's entirely playable also without sound, so it's up to you. I completed the three episodes in a quite short time, even though some levels had some irritatingly difficult jumps and stuff that you have to do over and over again. You have to really learn to master the wall-jump tricks. But the more I played the more I enjoyed it. Probably not as good as Secret Agent (that was one of my childhood favorites) but if you like old Apogee platformers you might want to try this out too. Played on: Linux Mint
