The first thing everyone always says about Star Control 3 is that it's not as good as Star Control 2. Fine fine fine, but that doesn't mean it's terrible. SC3 takes place with the humans possessing just one interstellar ship. You travel the universe making friends and foes, forming a giant intergalactic alliance while you search foreign worlds for lost artifacts. When you encounter an enemy, you will have a brief conversation. The result of the conversation could potentially lead to a friendship if you have found the right technology or piece of information. Otherwise, you jump into a very fun game of Asteroids. You pick a ship from your league of ships and they pick a ship and you duke it out. When not in combat, you're managing your star systems in order to produce more ships and technology and ground troops. You'll be taking over the enemy and discovering the secrets of an ancient interstellar civilization. You don't need to have played SC1 or 2 to enjoy this game. The music and voice overs are decent. The graphics are actually quite good for an old game -- everything is 2D. The characters (species) in the game can often be a little funny. The game likes to put a small spice of humor over everything. Overall, it's a good game. There's better out there, certainly. But you can have an easy 20-40 hours of fun with this title. And the learning curve is much lower than many other space strategy games out there.
There are so many games in the world and so little time to play them that this one just shouldn't be on your list of "to do"s. You will get to swing a sword at baddies and cast a few magical spells through levels that are poorly designed. You will get to hear sound effects that belong with an RTS, not an RPG. The music is bland and unengaging. The monsters are repetative and rarely a challenge. What will be a challenge will be finding your way across poorly textured terrain as you look for that one switch you need to find to progress in the level. Or you'll find yourself lost because the world looks like it is repeated every few steps. The story doesn't follow the other Might and Magic games. So don't bother with that. If you really really really want to play this game, wait for a sale. If you want to play this game that is updated enough to become remotely playable and enjoyable, try Warriors of Might and Magic instead. It has about the same feel, is still quite crappy, but is good enough to play at least a little.
Even with its dated graphics and ancient release date, Dungeon Keeper from the old Bullfrog group is a new type of game. You play the evil dungeon keeper and you get to lure the heroes of the world to their doom -- and take their treasure. The graphics are good enough to see what's going on. The sounds and music are fun and fitting. And there's enough moxie to keep you laughing, hideously laughing, at your enemies' demise. If you like RTS games and you're looking for something new in an old game, you'd do well to pick this one up.
Demon Stone is great at what it does, but it's not what folks often expect. So knowing what to expect is crucial. You won't have the greatest character customization. You won't have great interactive dialog or massive plot shifts that arise from your actions. You won't even play a character of your choice. No, this is a straight-forward, linear, hack-n-slash game with a moving story, engaging battles and a spectacular cinematic feel. You sometimes get to pick a character to play, sometimes you are forced to play a specific character -- sometimes not even a character that you are following. But the variety is great. The story is really quite good fantasy. And the game presents a beautiful flow of challenging fights and completely owning a mass of enemies. I originally bought this game for ten bucks and didn't feel cheated. You can get a whole lot more bang for your buck with other fantasy games. But if you want to spend a few cinematic hours knocking down ogres and goblins and worse, then you can't go wrong here.
