Save for a couple of small defects, this game does *everything* right ..... EXCEPT the most important thing - combat. This is the most stupid line of sight (LOS) implementation I've seen in *any* game. The manual says that the game is not using 3D for LOS (it draws some zigzag on the ground to show the bullet's flight path) and that the player will see some strange behavior. Well, it is not strange. It is idiotic. The developers KNEW the LOS was horrible but did nothing to fix it. They could have simply reduced the object clutter (such as trash cans, small boulders, etc.) but I am getting ahead of myself. See below. I am talking performance of top rank max stats soldiers who are alive only thanks to Quick Save/Load. - a soldier standing next to a waist-high barrier cannot toss a grenade over it (the barrier has a 45% chance to block) and half the time he drops the grenade under his feet; he can't reliably roll a grenade into a room while standing in the doorway; grenades in this game (no 3D remember?) fly straight, not on a ballistic trajectory, so every tiny thing on the ground is an obstacle to your grenade; when your strongest soldier has an 81% chance to hit with a grenade, half the time it will fly sideways, not toward the target; the same applies to firing RPGs and firearms; - tanks have about 20% chance to hit; and when the tank is towering over a 2-foot tall boulder (or an object like a highway divider), half the time the shell will *hit boulder*, explode and BLOW UP YOUR TANK; - firearms are no better; when an 7-foot tall alien is *standing* behind a boulder that barely reaches its knees, the boulder reduces your chance to hit by 45%; if there's a trash can to the side of the bullet's flight path your chance to hit is reduced further; And so on and so forth. I bought it for 6 bucks and I regret it. It is an exercise in frustration because you spend 80% of the time in combat which does not work.
(30 hours played. ln-game day 61) Read about the good stuff in the positive reviews. ALL of what they say is true. I will tell you about the bad stuff, and there's plenty to tell (not sure I want to continue playing Subterrain to see it to the end). First, you will die (A LOT MORE than… "normal") on ANY difficulty setting, AND (MOST of the time) it will not be YOUR mistake/blunder/error. Forget about playing on any setting other than 'EASY'. (Really, hurt yourself, try it on "Normal" difficulty a few dozen times before you switch to "Easy". Have fun time for a while and then start RELOADING A LOT... again). The game environment is set in such a way that there are inconceivable obstacles everywhere (their purpose being to make players' experience miserable – there is no in-game explanation or justification of those obstacles… things that you can't see most of the time but you KEEP BUMPING INTO ALL THE TIME, and they hamper your movement). And so…. …you will get STUCK A LOT), and your OWN grenades will slide back to you and kill you… and there is no feasible way to deal with the infested other than grenades. Period… as… ALL weapons are nearly useless. I repeat: ALL weapons are nearly useless (the best all around weapon is.... PISTOL) – your guns are the tool to finish off the Infested weakened by the.. GRENADES (and don't get me started on weapon durability… ) Subterrain almost made it to my personal top 10 list of the best games of all time… IT IS A GOOD GAME (better than 90% of the games I've played in the last decade) but at some point I got really tired of dying… on EASY difficulty setting… because.. infra-vision or not….. you will die. A-fucking-LOT.
NOTE: This game deserves a detailed review which does not fit here as GOG format is limited to 2000 characters, so here is only a part of my original review. The full review of Fallout: New Vegas - Ultimate Edition for PC is posted on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/review/R369KVEHZVOA9W?ref_=glimp_1rv_cl [...] EDITED: Added section on a DLC (Old World Blues); Added section on enemy AI. EDITED: Added comment on memory leak induced crashes (see CONS for details/fix) NOTE: This review is for Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition (PC), not any other version of this game. Content: I. Introduction II. Cons III. Pros IV. Enemy AI V. Final thoughts I. Introduction [...] Some years ago, when Fallout: New Vegas (FONV) first launched there were many reports that it was very buggy, crashed a lot and was downright unplayable, so I stayed away from it back then. Now I decided to give it a shot and I am supremely happy that I did. To find out why, read on. II. Cons The negatives of this game are few and far between, so let's get them out of the way from the start. [...] III. Pros (also see section IV on enemy AI) This is the best Fallout game ever made (yes, better than Fallout 4 too). It learns the lessons of all Fallout games that came before it, it also learns the lessons from other, non-Fallout games and incorporates them all in FONV brilliantly. LORE AND STUFF: FONV builds perfectly on the lore of all previous Fallout games and includes all of their very best features, including music and items. FONV takes place years after the events of Fallout 2 and 3 but you will encounter many situations which allow you to relive the most glorious moments and the most touching friendships of the past. I will give you a few "spoilers", but trust me, what I will tell you to illustrate the above point is just a drop in the bucket and will not ruin the game for you. First, nearly all bugs which existed in the original version of FONV are gone. [...]
NOTE: This game deserves a detailed review which does not fit here as GOG format is limited to 2000 characters, so here is only a part of my original review. The full review of Fallout: New Vegas - Ultimate Edition for PC is posted on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/review/R369KVEHZVOA9W?ref_=glimp_1rv_cl [...] EDITED: Added section on a DLC (Old World Blues); Added section on enemy AI. EDITED: Added comment on memory leak induced crashes (see CONS for details/fix) NOTE: This review is for Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition (PC), not any other version of this game. Content: I. Introduction II. Cons III. Pros IV. Enemy AI V. Final thoughts I. Introduction [...] Some years ago, when Fallout: New Vegas (FONV) first launched there were many reports that it was very buggy, crashed a lot and was downright unplayable, so I stayed away from it back then. Now I decided to give it a shot and I am supremely happy that I did. To find out why, read on. II. Cons The negatives of this game are few and far between, so let's get them out of the way from the start. [...] III. Pros (also see section IV on enemy AI) This is the best Fallout game ever made (yes, better than Fallout 4 too). It learns the lessons of all Fallout games that came before it, it also learns the lessons from other, non-Fallout games and incorporates them all in FONV brilliantly. LORE AND STUFF: FONV builds perfectly on the lore of all previous Fallout games and includes all of their very best features, including music and items. FONV takes place years after the events of Fallout 2 and 3 but you will encounter many situations which allow you to relive the most glorious moments and the most touching friendships of the past. I will give you a few "spoilers", but trust me, what I will tell you to illustrate the above point is just a drop in the bucket and will not ruin the game for you. First, nearly all bugs which existed in the original version of FONV are gone. [...]
The story is just as primitive as the rest of them. Back in the day, when Diablo and D-2 were.. fresh, kind of, in a video game it worked. I suppose the designers of Torchlight figured there's "fresh meat" out there, so they copied Diablo games to the letter for the uninitiated into the genre (except Warcraft-threeish art does not work - they missed the mark there). You can never see what you are fighting. All you see is bright explosions, regardless of what you do or the weapon you use. Inventory management is horrible, and, I imagine, you should just sell nearly everything you ever find. And yes, Torchlight encourages you to portal "to town" every 5 minutes, because your inventory is full of garbage… and in the end "gold" does not mean much. Socketing-shmocketing, growing weapons which develop new bonuses/abilities once you've killed a certain number of enemies. It is all just flare. Be my guest: Analyze your new find, waist brain power deciding how to socket it. Throw it away 3 minutes later. The game has no substance, no story to care about (some dude turned bad, now he is destroying everything on a quest of his own and you, the hero, must stop him – makes me want to throw up). It does not look particularly good (unless you have a fetish for anime/Warcraft hybrid kind of art). It is annoying in just about every way I can imagine… and I've seen games. I've played thousands of games since 1990. Had this game come out, say, in the late 1990 – early 2000s, I might have considered it a marvel. Unless you have nostalgic urges and happen to have misplaced your old discs, stay away from this time-wasting, boring, opportunistic (in terms of game design) crap. Really crave an action pseudo-RPG? Get Diablo 2 directly from Blizzard for like 9 bucks (likely less on sale). A far better game in every way (and if you do get it, play in Hardcore mode from the start *wink* -- that will give you a rush of adrenaline. Guaranteed.)
I am actually having fun with the special powers which many people hate. The SR-4 Virtual Reality city of Steelport (though completely recycled from SR-3) looks great (especially at night) - it is more colorful in every way. Overall image quality (I am playing on Ultra settings) is better than in SR-3. The story is not bad either (as SR series games' stories go :o) However, SR-4 has the same fundamental game mechanic problem as all its predecessors: Your only option is to... die. Yes, once any fight begins your only option is to die: The enemies, wave after wave, after wave, after wave, after wave, after wave, after wave, after wave... never stop coming. And each wave is stronger than the previous one complete with aircraft, tanks, and what have you. Eventually, you WILL be killed and there is NO way to avoid this. Even with special abilities it is almost impossible to ... run away from such a fight. Alternatively, you should start running immediately after your notoriety rating is just high enough to mean that more waves of enemies will arrive. EVEN AFTER you become invulnerable to all kinds of damage, there's just never a chance to walk away from a big battle, and, since you can no longer die, your only option is to exit the game. This problem manifests itself in SR-4 far more prominently than in previous games. In the previous games you had a dozen safe houses (cribs) all across the map, so you had the ability to run back home and just wait for notoriety to go away. In SR-4, at some point, you get the virtual "Avatar" kind of cyber portal which allows you to do just that... but the "endless waves of enemies" game-play element is still just as ill-conceived, stupid and incredibly annoying as before.
You can read about the good things in the positive reviews. I will focus on several blunders in this game's design that make me mostly hate it - the 'meh', the 'bad' and the 'UGLY'. Here it goes: The 'meh' 1. For 90% of the game, ALL burst weapons are useless unless you shoot at nearly point-blank range (which is unlikely because you will be killed, AND if not you will still miss a lot resulting in your toon being killed on the next turn); So you just use long-range rifles. And your rifles are FAR more effective than the enemy's, and most enemies will carry useless burst weapons, so you just equip your toons use rifles; 2. There are a few bugs with game saves (things missing on reload, Panzercleins, in particular) and some bugs with line of sight; The 'bad' 3. Both games have primitive story lines and very bad, unsatisfying endings (especially the first game's final mission where control are extremely convoluted because your clumsy Panzercleins have to make way in an very confined space of a missile silo - it is VERY ill-conceived); 4. I will not dwell on the Panzerclein problem - you can patch them out of the game, but then there is a reason why they are IN the game, so you will be missing out if you do; The 'ugly' (Turn-based combat implementation) 5. EVERYTHING IN GAME IS ANIMATED - an enemy drops his weapon and stuff, and you are LOCKED OUT of the game until the loot stops bouncing off the terrain and comes to rest, AND depending on terrain, this could take 10-15 seconds per EVERY DROPPED ITEM; 6. Each unit has 75 action points on average. On missions you have some 40-50 units on the map (enemy, allied, neutrals, + your guys). That's about 4400 APs total. It will take the animations up to 10 minutes to process a single turn! I literally could go outside, have a smoke, come back and the turn would still be processing! So, these games (each) require about 70 hours to finish... but NOT because of huge content.. due to BAD design. The 'UGLY' 5.
First, I did not play this game a the time of its release over a decade ago, so no "rosy" nostalgic glasses here. Second, I generally and totally do NOT enjoy or embrace the whole 'vampire' theme, so I have never watched any shows, movies or anything else related to the vamp theme, nor have I ever played any related games... (well, back in the day I tried Blood Rayne, and hated it). Third, I did not get this game back in the day (though it was a venerable Troika game) because CGW magazine detailed all the BUGS... and I hate buggy games. In this release all the bugs are gone with the patch that GOG applied. Finally, this is a TROIKA game (or did I say it above? -- so sad Troika studio is no more, all their games are in my top 10 list of all time, and I've been gaming for over 25 years). So, having read many positive reviews, in spite of my reservations about the vampire theme I decided to get it here on GOG. I will not bore you with details (read other positive reviews), nor do I want to give you any spoilers. Just get this game IF : 1. You have been feeling betrayed by all the shallow crap the gaming industry has been concocting in the last decade or so; 2. You want a mind-bending, well-told, high quality RPG with great voice acting, interesting quests and outcomes, good combat mechanics, completely different classes and, hence, great replay-ability; One last thing - the graphics are twofold: a) Environments have aged VERY well. They look very good; b) Character models are somewhat crude by today's standards but they look okay, and animations are BETTER than many 'modern' games of today, so LET NOT 'dated' graphics deter you, especially considering this game is NOT about good looks, plus it was state of the art in its time. ONE WORD OF CAUTION -- on the first play-throug, do NOT pick a Malkavian Clan character :o) Things are not very straightforward as they are, no need to torture yourself trying to figure out what your colorful Malkavian is saying :o)) GET this game!
As the title of the post implies, this game's gameplay system is overly complex (especially with regard to item properties) and at the same time the game is pain and, literally, undercooked. It is artificially too long and the plot twists feel forced. Yes, the skill system allows you to respec at any time, but it is of little use in the end (no room here for details). In short, I love the RPG genre, but in this game I never felt that my 'role' or my 'character' truly mattered in this game. None of it ever felt substantial or meaningful. The open world mechanics are the same as in your standardized (and now universally dreaded) MMO, except you play alone... Like... go kill 10 goblins or some such... *sigh* At the moment of the 'major' plot twist (when most of my gear and cash were taken away), and when I began to encounter excessive filler, uninspired fluff chat and text (which did not feel like they contributed anything to the story or ... to anything, really) I stopped playing. I still have the game installed. I tried to play it the other day, thinking that maybe it deserved benefit of the doubt... Then I hit another primitive (yet annoying) puzzle, lost direction once again, recalled why I had been bored and uninspired by it back in the day... and then I decided to share my thoughts with you. I never had enough inspiration to finish this game (well, I can't generate inspiration on my own, when I play a game I hope that it will inspire me to keep playing and finish it). Oh, and the dragon transformation? Please... Arcade games of 20 years ago did this sort of thing better and made it more fun. But, hey, for 2 bucks, you can't go wrong. Hell, an average cup of watered American down coffee costs about that much. So buy it for 2 bucks when it is on sale. It will keep you occupied for a couple of hours, in case you have nothing better to do... But don't expect any depth, involvement, engagement or lasting satisfaction from this title.
It does not have to be Fallout or anything else to be a quality game. I played Dragonfall first. Faced some bugs and BS in the first hour. Got mad, wrote a 1-star review here on GOG, uninstalled. Then, when I cooled off, I gave it another try. It turned out to be an OK game (brainwashing and propaganda aside - I have an anti-virus in my system that prevents infection of this sort). Decent enough game to make me buy and play Shadowrun Returns (which I did not buy at first because of mixed reviews, and negative reviews brought up some legitimate complaints). Returns is actually a MUCH better game overall than Dragonfall. The latter takes longer to finish but it is mostly due to unnecessary text filler which contributes little or nothing to the game or the story, but you are forced to read it for fear of missing something story related. Granted, it is written well, but still, it is just filler. Returns and Dragonfall share some common problematic design decisions (inventory management SUCKS!), but eventually one kind of gets used to them. In the end, both are decent games, and, I guess, between my 1-star rating for Dragonfall and my 5-star rating for Returns the average score is somewhere between 2-3 stars... Why? Because these are NOT games. These are mind altering, brainwashing TOOLS. I wonder if the devs are just mindlessly 'going with the flow' of zombie-cyborg TV crap or they are PAID to promote human organ harvesting, trans-humanism, GMO and meta-humanism, cannibalism, human sacrifice, corruption, betrayal, selfishness and, of course, the hopelessness of average men because 'great Dragons have always ruled', the 'haves' have always subjugated the 'have-nots' with the latter always succumbing to 'whatever drug' to forget 'for a day' just how pointless and miserable their lives really are. And that's the message: ACCEPT IT. Sure, you are out for justice, but the above messages are implanted in your mind. Try to stay human. Good luck.
