I would have to say that expedition 33 is easily in the top 10 JRPG style games ever made. Likely it’s even higher than top 10, but I have to account for recency bias given that the game is still pretty new. It features a compelling story, a well written cast of characters, cutting edge graphics with a beautiful art style that are well optimized despite being on unreal engine 5, a phenomenal score that will be talked about for decades to come and measure toe to toe with the best, And a very engaging and rewarding battle system. There are some minor net pics that I could put out such as some balancing issues with characters and progression, a steep, difficulty spike happening at a couple of points in the game, and a few bits of filler content that don’t really add to the experience, but no game is perfect. Then again, perfection is not art, and this game most certainly is.
Im sorry for those that like this game, but I have to be honest, this game is terrible. The graphics are kind of poor for its time (and it manages to have a worse framerate than the much superior Two Worlds 2 on my computer), the interface is convoluted and messy, the dialog and voice acting is so bad its MST3K worthy, the combat is clunky as heck and has good animation but no real flow to it, its just a bad rpg overall. The PC version is better than the 360 version if you have to choose though, but put your money on Two Worlds 2 instead, that game is actually a pretty good one and fixes many of the problems of the 1st and does so with vastly improved gameplay and graphics.
Retro City Rampage is a must play if you are a fan of the 80s era of gaming, or if you love references and humor. I also recommend it to those that like the old GTA games. The graphics are perfect, this game looks just like an NES game! But if that's not your favorite, there are several color options to make it look more like Sega Master System, Commodore 64, CGA or EGA DOS games, etc. The game took me about 9 hours to beat the game and side missions, and that's not including free roaming, minigames, arcade missions, etc. The soundtrack is stellar, fans of chiptunes will really dig the soundtrack. Even though it has an old school look, the game does incorporate some modern gameplay mechanics like cover shooting, waypoints, and hints when you fail. The game offers a good challenge, the difficulty is balanced, with a couple of exceptions where it spikes up some, but most gamers wont have a problem beating this. The storyline only serves to keep the humor flowing, but old school games arent known for story. The game is best with a gamepad, and is more than worth the $15 asking price with all that you get.
Miasmata is a different kind of game. Its certainly not for anyone, but for people who love adventure type games, lvoe games where you explore and can get lost, or just like survival games in general, I recommend it. The graphics are FANTASTIC given that this is a homebrew engine and made by 2 people. That said, the pop in for the graphics can be quite annoying. The game is quite easy to play as far as the controls, but the game has realistic weight to the movement, you cant just run up and down hills and through the forests without consequence, you have to move carefully when you can and madly dash when you must. Music is quite minimal in the game, but the sound effects do well to immerse you in the atmosphere. The storyline is barebones at first, you dont receive any exposition, you have to learn it all for yourself from what you find in the island. I normally dont like adventure games, they really aren't my cup of tea, but Miasmata is one of the more riveting ones for sure.
I used to play Might and Magic 3 back in the day, it was a great game back in the early days, as RPGs were generally for the hardcore, and these games required a lot of patience. Perhaps I am spoiled in giving such a review for this game, the RPGs back then like the Might and Magic games were the kings on the block so to speak, but this servedf better for me as a history lesson than a rekindling of fond memories past I had with the games. Simply put, the difficulty is TOO high in the beginning, that doesnt make this a bad game, actually for old school RPGs it has some pretty novel stuff, such as a built in map, which most games back then lacked, and relied on the player to make their own, inexpensive resurrection services if you happen to die, a stage of health where you can be knocked out but not dead, so you can actually be healed in this state, as well as an actual quest log to remind you what to do (but nothing fancy like WHERE to go that we learned to expect from RPGs nowadays, but this is much better than having nothing but vague clues found in dialogue or the game manual as games back then tended to use instead). However, whereas a similar, say Ultima, game back then may have been a lot harder to figure out overall than this game, there is one thing that has to be said that will make that series superior to this, and that is an easier learning curve. Its not uncommon in RPGs to die a lot at the higher levels, and this is to be expected, but its simply poor game design to make the initial enemies you encounter more powerful than your entire party, you can have a fight to the death just for a smattering of experience points, and often no loot on these initial enemies either. However, if you have the "Balls" to hang on through with this, a lot of persistence, and either some type of guide or some steadfast note taking, this is a great game, and was innovative for its time, and remains one of the best D&D to CRPG simulations I've seen, and it uses its own system and isn't based on any particular tabletop RPG. And the graphics for the time are very good, this is a computer RPG from 1991 and it probably was the best looking RPG out on the market at the time it was released (that is unless you prefer the animated sidescreen battles of stuff like Final Fantasy IV) It just makes me really mad, LOL. If you do wanna make it easier for you, you can go to the bank and the odd jobs and keep depositing money for about 20 or so years game time to build up enough money for some good starting equipment and some coinage that you can use to buy "experience points" for your characters so you can gain a couple of levels right off the bat. This might take you an hour or so to build up enough reserve for this, but if you are an RPG n00b, this will be the best way for you to start. This isnt a review of the other Might and Magic games, sorry but I haven't played any of the others, but I look forward to it, hopefully the more recent ones are easier to start off in. This is a great game for the hardcore RPGers out there, or those that find modern RPGs lack good depth and want something challenging. However, if you want a good oldschool RPG, I would recommend Ultima to others first, as it is a lot easier to get started in the beginning, you'll actually be able to kill the initial enemies without much trouble in those games.
I remember reading about Postal 2 and seeing it since the game was announced, and I was anticipating playing this game after it was released, but for one reason or another, I never got around to it, whether it was not having a PC capable of handling it well, or not being able to find the game. Anyway, time had passed and I had forgotten about the game, until recently when I seen it on gog's list. I decided to take the plunge, given that the reviews seemed pretty good on here, and the cost is decent. Now at the time the game was first announced, the graphics looked pretty nice for its time. The screens showed detailed looking areas like a grocery store where you could pick out things like chips, beer, etc. etc. in the scenes, and seemed to have a great level of interactivity. It basically seemed like it would play out like a non-linear version of GTA. Nearly 7 years after the game is released, some things on this would seem dated. For example, the graphics. They're actually not bad for the time, and they run on Unreal 2 engine, which has had its hand in some very nice looking games. Outside of the texture work however, the graphics are pretty bad. The character animations are laughable and poorly done even for this time, there was better animation in 1997s Goldeneye. The environments are sparsely detailed except for a few given areas, and they still feel kinda plain given that there's been shooters before this that have featured highly detailed environments. Heck, I would say that 1996s Duke Nukem 3D stages 1 and 2 featured a more detailed and believeable cityscape. The voice acting is terrible, but Im sure its on purpose here. There's no music, not a game killer but a disappointment. The sound effects are decent. The game has no in game tutorials of any kind to help you play the game, this game requires you to look at the control lists and memorize various buttons, most of which you'll never use. There's one button to yell "Get down on the ground" but the NPCs dont even seem to respond to this. I yelled this in a bank with a police officer there, and everybody just stood around and went about their business. The AI of this game is some of the worst I've seen for a game from this generation. People will just randomly kill each other. For no reason. If the developers wanted to communicate the idea of wanton destruction throughout the neighborhood, there should be rival gangs, there should be dialog between the NPCs, scripted sequences that can happen randomly and not predetermined cutscenes, something that actually would communicate this feeling to the player. Instead, to a player like me, it just demonstrates a failed sandbox module, which brings me to another point of the game. This game is actually very linear. Though from the onset it may not seem like it, it is. Every "Day" you are given a list of tasks. In order to progress, you have to complete the tasks. The game seems to offer freedom in how you do this, such as getting a gallon of milk. However, the "choice" is a joke. Its usually something lame like buying the milk or not. If you dont pay for the milk and just walk out with it, they'll complain for the police. This seems natural, except the police are a joke in this game. You can outrun them, and the bullets dont really do anywhere enough damage to be a bother, unless I guess you play on a very high difficulty, but then the game becomes an utter excercise in frustration since you can be mercilessly killed in one of these "Random fights that the player does not initiate". Finally, the game is not funny. The jokes in this game are something anybody over the age of 10 won't find funny. The main character keeps going on about being a crack addict, the game's punchline include Osama Bin Laden-based terrorists, Gary Coleman is in this game and repeats the same few lines, and the dialog in general is terrible. Since this game is supposed to be played for a good sandbox stress reliever and for the humor, and since it fails on both these parts, go play something like Grand Theft Auto instead for your sandbox stress relief, and watch the movie based on this game instead. Sure, its directed by Uwe Boll, but in his infinitely terrible movie adaptations of decent to good video games, he does a hell of a job on a movie adaptation of a terrible game, and its much easier to sit through the whole movie than it is to play more than the 1st day of this game.
