This game is oozing with action. It makes me want to go to watch John Woo movies all over again. As other reviews mention it, it is Max Payne in terms of gameplay, but not in terms of story. In terms of story, it's a classic 90's Hong Kong action movie. Its simple short plot that gives you that action-movie adrenaline buzz. Cheap as well.
A horror game that doesn't rely on cheap jumpscares, instead bringing tension and atmosphere to the full creep level. Gameplay is extremely fun, the levels are great and the story just keeps bringing you back. This is the true way to play Dead Space. To this day, the graphics still hold very well. Do not play the remake of this. Not only is it not DRM free (Denuvo) but they unnecessarily raceswaped an important character for racist reason, uglified some of the characters, added "non binary" bathrooms... Cashgrab for "modern audience". Screw that, get this instead.
Before Pandemic shut down, they made this game as a swan song. While it's not the greatest game ever made, far from it, it does however bring hours of fun. The environment, the characters, the music, and the overall atmosphere are great. The gameplay is fun, but it can feel repetitive if you play it for a long period. I think the main issue of why I can't give this game a 5 star is because it feels unpolished on some parts (bugs, glitchy animation) and... it feels like it's missing something. I feel like the game would benefit from more activities other than collecting, destroying nazi structures, and racing. Maybe if Pandemic had been given more time, we would have seen more things and more polish. For what it is, it's a good game, it's fun. For a low price, I recommend it. I got 40 hours from this game, so it's pretty good. Thank you Pandemic, for creating this.
Great game, but I can't rate this 5 stars due to being a bad PC port. No mouse support and lots of bugs and glitches, also the game crashed right before the ending cutscene, so I had to go watch it on youtube. So that's nice. Other than that, I had fun. Underneath the jankiness and bad PC port, the game is really good.
Legacy of Kain will hold dear to me as a series where while gameplay didn't age quite well, the story is quite well made and probably one of the best written fictional worlds. Why Square Enix decided to cancel Dark Prophecy is a damn shame to the series. With that said, this game is very good. The combat has had major improvement comparing to Soul Reaver (and ahem *blood omen 2*), which I always found the combat to be kind of... lackluster. Special combos are added, more than one different kind of weapon and best part of all, you get to play both Kain and Raziel! That's really awesome. The story is also great, I always loved the story in LoK series, and this is one of the few games that made me play from start to finish. When the game drives me to play every day, then I know it's a fun game. There is one issue with this game, which is the reason why I won't give it 5 stars, and why I think it will drive some people off: Camera. This has to be the worst camera in the game series, it's like developers played Devil May Cry and put really awkward and bad angles. What's so bad about the camera is that it usually switches your controls, which causes some platforming to be challenging, even though they aren't. I know some people actually quit this game because of this issue, but my advice is to persevere through this and you will eventually beat it. The game isn't terribly hard and checkpoints are frequent. Bosses are challenging, but not dark souls level hard. After playing through all Legacy of Kain series, I can safely say, this deserves the second place. The combat, the story, the ability to play both Kain and Raziel and satisfying ending are actually worth your time. Vae Victis!
I really wanted to like this game. I saw so many great reviews about this game, not just on GOG but on other sites as well. But alas, I couldn't, let me explain to you why. Let's start with the story. Comparing to other Legacy of Kain games, the writing is sub par. Those famous monologues from Kain in the original Blood Omen are almost non existant, and that was one of my favorite things in the series. Since this was separately made from Soul Reaver series, there is a lot of inconsistency with the plot, but even ignoring Soul Reaver, it still has contradiction with the original Blood Omen. Existing characters are more simplified and less interesting than previous games. Kain is no longer an ominous vampire that seeks power, now he is reduced to a mere lackey that follows orders. The in game story is full of plotholes and just bad writing. The graphics are okay. For 2002 they are nothing spectacular, my only complaint is that the human models look absolutely ugly. Environments range from okay to plain boring, nothing really memorable. Music is completely dull. Again nothing really memorable, just a 15-30 second loop. Controls are terrible. Even if you switch to a controller using a fan made patch, the main problem is that combat is absolutely attrocius. Extremely limited combat that involves parrying and sidewalking until you build enough rage to use a special attack, normally at the first few levels you can beat enemies easily, but later on your attacks are just limited to using special attack because enemies like to parry your every single attack. Dash is non existent in this game, which is kind of funny because Soul Reaver games had dash. Spells are also non existent. Remember how Blood Omen had variety of spells and consumables? Not in this game There was some effort put in this game, and it's not completely unplayable, despite some game breaking bugs, and for that I give it an extra star. Trust me on this, just skip it.
This game is a fantastic horror game when it comes to story. It doesn't rely on cheap jumpscares like modern horrors but rather the spooky atmosphere. The atmosphere as well as the story are very well done and deserve 5 stars. But why am I giving it 4 stars then? Because despite the good story, the gameplay is janky. I would give the gameplay a 3 star, mainly because it's janky. There are a few game breaking sections where it's impossible to progress without a fan made patch. Mechanics are a bit wonky and there might be some hair pulling for some people, but overall, it's okay. With that said, I fully recommend this game to horror and lovecraftian fans.
Divinity 2 Ego Draconis is the definition of an underrated and unpolished gem that didn't grab enough attention for people to care enough to fan-patch the game. It is an entirely different experience from divine divinity, in a good way and a fun story with Larian humor built in it, fun combat, and hours' worth of content. The only issue is that bugs, crashes, corrupt saves as well as some difficulty spikes can certainly ruin the experience, but if you overcome them, you have a fun game worth hours of gameplay. And hey, for such a low price, it is a banger. I think every western RPG fan should at least try this game, it truly deserves more attention.
The twin brother of Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. While similar in structure, it's actually more action-oriented. Inspired by ancient Chinese mythology, Jade Empire delivers a great experience to WRPG fans looking for that early 2000's story-driven RPG experience. This game is unique in that with so many different ways to play, there is essentially no "wrong" way. You can play the game in any way you want, there is no hard build as any build you build will succeed and bring you to the end of the game. The music, the atmosphere, and the general feel of the game are fantastic, I couldn't recommend this game more. For such a low price, this is an experience you will never forget.
