The game is fun for few hours, maybe up to 20-30 if you're really into it for some reason. It's a homage to Wasteland in the form of a post apocalyptic hobo simulator. It has a lot of potential but there aren't that many items, interactions or overall variations. The fact that the game is written in Flash shouldn't be looked down as much as it is, but I feel it does make the UI interactions significantly less smooth than they could have been. The UI itself has mediocre design, separate from the Flash issue, which makes a lot of repetitive interactions in the game get tiresome much quicker. The main issue is that it's not even an eighth of the game Fallout 2 is, and you can get Fallout 2 for cheaper and while they are significantly different games, this comparison just irks me in terms of bang for buck. Get it for 5 USD if you're bored, 10 USD if you're extremely bored. I don't want to be too mean to the game, it's charming in a way, but, it is what it is.
I'll spare you describing the game since it's a cult classic with so many reviews and stick to a few very specific details. The game was incredible in 1994 and is decent today. Without any nostalgia (since I didn't play until 2020), I can tell you this game holds up today, as long as you have a medium tolerance for "what the hell am I supposed to do?" and initially clunky controls. This version can run in higher resolutions such as, 1920x1080, this is great because you can alt-tab really fast in and out of the game, I really liked this. Persistent mouselook lets you toggle between the mode where [your mouse moves your cursor] and the mode where [your mouse moves the camera]. I'm not 100% sure, but I think this was added in the Enhanced Edition - it's a godsend, as it makes the game much less annoying to control. In particular, cyberspace is borderline impossible to control if you're not in mouselook mode. The only major downside to the game (perhaps specific to this Enhanced Edition) are the ridiculous respawns, which is half the reason I'm giving it 4 stars. I'm not against respawning and I'm not being overly sensitive here, this is something that happened to me: I was in Corridor A and opened a door into Corridor B. Corridor B had two enemies, and I started shooting at them. While killing them, 2 enemies spawned behind me in Corridor A, in such a way that they could immediately start firing on me. Before I could finish dealing with them, 2 more enemies spawned in Corridor B. So essentially, 4 enemies spawned very close to me in a very frustrating and immersion-breaking manner. The game constantly respawns enemies in areas it defines as corridors as long as you're not in said corridors. This is somewhat frustrating but it's part of the game - it makes you plan and minimize your travel. But sometimes it just goes into overdrive and becomes rather ridiculous.
When I played PoE I was expecting Baldur's Gate 2 but improved. I thought this wouldn't be difficult since BG2's gameplay was wildly imbalanced and silly in many ways and some subplots could have easily been improved. Despite that, PoE delivered one of the most spectacularly mediocre plots I've seen in an RPG of this type. I don't want to spoil anything still, but I'll put it like this: the main and only plot twist of the game is something that is considered the default way things work in most D&D settings. Having characters be repeatedly shocked at it was borderline annoying. The game failed to make me feel invested in the wellbeing of the world and I felt minimally invested in most party members. Nothing in this game is badly written per se, it just feels very ineffective due to choices in topic and content. The game neither feels like engaging journey nor does it feel like it empowers you to make choices. The gameplay is definitely an improvement over BG2. Or at least that's what I said to myself repeatedly, because it seemed objectively true. It's absolutely the case that the system is more sane and well thought out than BG2's, but it just didn't end up being more fun or enjoyable. I chalk this up to substandard encounter design. 1999-2001 RPGs were much better at crafting engaging, difficult and/or interesting encounters and PoE simply isn't up to snuff. If you love this kind of RPG, I'd still consider buying this, but if you're looking for something with the story depth of Planescape Torment you should definitely give it a pass.
Dusk has solid gameplay, level design that fluctuates wildly between "ok" and absolutely excellent and doesn't let its retro roots impede it being very playable. It's a no frills, no fuss enjoyable experience. I can't stress that enough because I've been finding it hard to get into any games recently, but it was so ridiculously easy to get into Dusk. There's a lot of things Dusk could have done better, but almost none that are worth even writing about. Combined with its price point, it's just a very good offer.
I often describe Pathologic by saying "it's not even a good game, but it's the best game". I think this is the shortest way to capture the unique position this game occupies. It has artistic depth that is indescribable in a review. It electrifies my imagination and sucks me into an otherworldly atmosphere. One that is so rarely seen in video games. Much lengthier and more in-depth reviews have opined on it to the point of considering it the most important game in terms of its artistic caliber. But on the other hand the gameplay when judged coldly is merely mediocre. It can easily be boring. It doesn't even try to not be boring sometimes. It embraces being boring just to lull you into a false sense of security and then give you a hot load of existential dread and urgency. But that doesn't make a lot of the game not-boring. Or arduous. Not a good kind of arduous. If you're not the kind of person that gets sucked into the plot of games, these failures can be insurmountable and defeat your enjoyment of the game. But I'd like to make it clear that this is by no means a walking simulator or an "art game". It does what all good games should - which is that it uses gameplay to express itself. It is something that could never exist as a book, or an animation, or a movie. The feelings it gives you exist because of how it uses your interactions with the world and the stress of your decisions. It's rather masterful.
Despite some failed promises, Tides of Numenera delivers exactly on what Planescape left me hungering for - a deeply compelling and immersive universe that reacts to my decisions and makes me feel like I'm genuinely exploring something instead of being taken for a ride down a specific script. If you also have that kind of hunger, I _urge_ you to consider ToN with an open mind. Depending on your tastes in story, you might find ToN to be at the same level as Planescape or slightly lower. One thing is for sure - ToN is different in many ways and that's what makes it a true successor. A true successor to Planescape could never be a game that just copies the formula faithfully and expands on the story. That's not possible because the artistic fervor behind Planescape is something that cannot be replicated in the same way. ToN did the only logical thing and crafted its own rich universe with its own specific worldfeel to it. ToN's world combines technology with magic in a way completely distinct from standard magical sci-fi or steampunk-with-magic universes. It's almost seamless - a magical nanite plague is right at home here. The combat is definitely better than Planescape. The system is based on resource pools and the pools can be used on non-combat actions while exploring, which makes the experience feel more tightly knit together between combat and exploration. It's at times, I dare say, fun and interesting, but by the end I grew very bored of it, yet it was still significantly less painful than the boredom Planescape's combat can give. It definitely needed more abilities and more polish and it would have been genuinely good. There are still a few masterfully crafted encounters that are positively amazing in terms of the feeling they give you and the combat system shines there. The overall experience gave me exactly the feeling of _journeying_ that Planescape had given me. It is a majestic addition to the gallery of western "old school" RPGs.
