Definitely worth playing if you have time on your hands (if you want to investigate literally everything, it can take around 90-100 hours, took me 96 hours). The positives: 1. The world of Septerra. The game is set in a very unique, mystical world with its own myths and prophecies. 2. The story & likable characters. Heroes are heroes and villains are villains - although some switch sides or are a delicious shade of grey... I absolutely love Selina's character arc, Maya is a good protagonist as well. 3. The Card system. The magic system in this game is based around 20-25 blocks, called Cards. Cards have combinations that range from simple to ultramax doomsday strong (but not unbalanced). Fire Card burns one foe, simple. Fire Card + Barrier Card protects from fire-bases attacks, simple. But some Cards have very interesting effects (Mirror, All, Chaos), especially if combined with other interesting Cards. This system is also steeped in the in-game mythology. Very cool. 4. Character variety is nice. You have a party of 3 characters out of 9. Some are better with Cards, some have lots of HP or are better against robots. You can choose what better fits your playstyle. The kinda-bad: 1. There is one bug that keeps plaguing the game (it was there in the original version as well). Save often on Shell 7 in the mountain caves as it might save you some time if the game crashes due to this bug. Apart from that, if the bug appears 3-4 times in a row, just use a cheat code to kill the mini-boss, it's an easy fight anyway. 2. You sometimes wish the labyrinths had a bit more to it. Especially towards the endgame, some of them can be a bit of a slog. What kind of saves this from being a real issue is the good pacing of the story, the graphic design and the character progression, simple as it is. You can tell a lot of thought and effort went into making this game and most (not all) systems are well-designed and enjoyable. GOG version works fine (exception is the lava spider bug).
Taking some ideas from Dwarf Fortress, simplifying them and adding new ones, Ludeon created a very compelling mix that combines colony management and some RPG elements. The premise is simple - three random people crashland on a wild frontier planet. They have different sets of skills out of 12 available (Shooting, Melee, Construction, Mining, Plants, Cooking, Crafting, Animals, Medical, Art, Social, Intellectual). They have different personalities. My first successful colony started with an iron-willed engineer, a jealous research-smart a**hole and a pessimist botanist/medic. By endgame the colony had 26-27 people, a herd of tame dromedaries and a prize alpaca. It scratches my Age of Empires/Civilization itch (making a perfect base takes tens of hours of playing - though all colonists have something unique to them and aren't just noname soldiers) as well as my Morrowind/Star Wars KotOR itch (you grow attached to your colonists after seeing them through hard times AND there is progression - getting better equipment, bionic upgrades, genetic upgrades etc.). Lots of customisation options available (different biomes, different starting scenarios etc.) Each DLC provides nice content and you don't feel milked like with some AAA games nowadays. On top of that, there is a massive modding community (you can get a 3rd part app, RimPy, to get mods from Steam - easy and has some important functionality that Steam doesn't even provide so you're not losing anything by buying on GOG). Great OST, feels partly inspired by Firefly series.
Worldbuilding in Morrowind is unparalleled. I find myself coming back to this game from time to time and favourably it comparing to tens of other games, old and new. The intricate web of relationships between the climate, natural resources, native customs, politics, trade, religions, historical conflicts, human (humanoid) passions and forgotten mysteries is something you can only find in "Lord of the Rings" or "A Song of Ice and Fire". While the combat system for melee/ranged is a bit dated, the spellcasting system is top tier. You can make your own spells out of close to a hundred base effects. Alchemy and enchanting are cool too. GOG release is very nice as well, with all official add-ins. I can honestly give 5 star reviews to 4-5 games out of 200. Morrowind is the best in its class, surpassing every other installment in the TES series.
I did play all five episodes immediately upon release that happened back between 2014 and 2016 (2017 if you include the Final Cut), but the technical problems back then are not relevant now so I'll focus on the current shape of the game. Pros: - nice graphics - nice area design - nice soundtrack - most of the voice acting is good - the idea to have character's thoughts in dialogue choice menu was neat, I liked it - GOG release solid as usual Cons: - this is the 3rd and final installment of a very good series of games (The Longest Journey and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey)... and it is like The Rise of Skywalker put next to The Empire Strikes Back... reasons follow below - storyline makes no sense, either when put together with two previous games or on its own - character dialogue often ruins the feel of the scene - too many sarcastic quips during dramatic moments - 90% of the game is running around, doing things irrelevant to the main plot (running through nicely designed locations, listening to nice OST, but still), ignoring facts learned in previous games The two original games were never loved for the graphics. The main focus was always the story and the characters. TLJ (1st game) is a classic hero story, set in interesting parallel worlds. Dreamfall (2nd game) is a bit darker, subverting a lot of the previous game's ideas and adding new ones, plus a brilliant cliffhanger ending that I remember even after playing it more than 15 years ago now. This game doesn't have any of the good elements of two previous games unfortunately. What stuck with me the most wasn't the technical issues on release of every episode, the shoe-horned changes to the established characters to make the game more in line with current political climate or the lack of character's depth. It was the very bad writing that is best summarized by the resolution of the primary plot: "Because that's how the story goes, and it's been written, and we can't change that. Now shush." Really?
