Story 1 star - Disjointed, confusing and boring. The ending is about as clear as mud. I've played the game all the way through 3 times to make sure I didn't miss anything in the story. It's still boring, disjointed, confusing and has an ending that made me say "Huh?!! What the hell was that? What was it supposed to mean? Geez total waste of my time." Gameplay 2 stars - Pacing is way too slow. Mechanics to interact with the game environment are simple enough. Standard first-person walking sim controls. Audio 1 stars - The voice actors chosen for the English version are not good. Carter's voice and acting is B-grade movie material at best. The other voice which is supposed to be creepy or something sounds like an old man who's trying to be dramatic but is just boring. Ambient audio is not creepy. It's just generic. Mood/Atmosphere 1 star - The vibe is definitely NOT horror at all. It's not scary. It's not creepy. It's certainly not horrifying. At best it's feels like a poor man's Cyberpunk 2077. Ending 0 stars - I don't have any idea what the ending is supposed to mean. I've watched it three times. Also, I've watched the alternate endings on YouTube. Still not clear at all. Probably I'm the one who's slow, and the endings make perfect sense to everyone else. But in my opinion, they all suck and make no sense. Graphics 4 stars - This is the only thing done well. The environments, textures, lighting, etc. are excellent. However, the people (i.e., Carter, the villain, NPCs) are absolutely terrible. I mean really bad.
DO NOT BUY THIS GAME IF YOU USE AN XBOX ONE CONTROLLER!!! The game does not work correctly with an Xbox One controller, and therefore is unplayable for me. First, under the Controls menu it's impossible to navigate to the various control options. The left and right sticks do not work in the Controls menu. The only way I can change options is using the mouse. Then when trying to set options using the mouse it's looking for input from the controller. At this point it does accept input from the controller. So, I complete this process to set my controller options, and I started the game. But in-game when I press the left stick forward it goes backward and vice versa. Also, pressing left stick left moves right and pressing left stick right does nothing. So, I tried all possible options in the Controls menu (tedious as that was). But literally no combination of Control options ever worked. I assume this is unique to XBox One controllers. Regardless, this game is totally unplayable due to the serious bugs in the controller support.
Selecting and shooting enemies rarely works in this game. Repeatedly when playing the game doesn't allow me to shoot enemies that are plainly in sight and in the team's line of fire. I move mouse over enemies, and the cursor doesn't turn green. Repeatedly right-click enemies, and team doesn't fire. Meanwhile team is taking fire and damage. Couldn't finish even the first training mission due to this issue. Alway loose one or more team members and fail the mission. Used dgVoodoo, and it didn't fix the problem. Tried all the Compatibility options under Properties for the EXE, and it didn't fix the problem either. C'mon GOG!! Test app before selling them!!
This game really shows its age via horrible controls. The online help only covers some of the controls. The manual covers more of the controls. But there are controls I only discovered by pressing every key on the keyboard. Also, there are basic actions the manual and online help do not cover. Like how to use a medical kit on an injured merc on the Tactical screen (had to Google to find the answer). Another example is where my mercs were traveling on the Map screen. They had an encounter and one of the mercs was injured. So naturally I wanted to use a medical kit on him. I literally spent an hour trying to figure out how to apply a medical kit on the Map screen (or how to get back to the Tactical screen since I knew how to apply a medical kit there). The merc kept dying and I had to keep reloading. I never did figure out how to apply a medical kit from the Map screen or how to get back to the Tactical screen while traveling on the Map. Regarding gameplay, it's very tedious and boring. Double-clicking to run, only worked about half the time. So, I spent a lot of time waiting for the mercs to leisurely get to where they were going. I get older games are slower paced than more recent games. I've played and enjoyed classics like Fallout, Fallout 2, Arcanum, Divine Divinity. Septerra Core, Siege of Avalon. But Jagged Alliance 2 is a big snooze-fest. I've had this game for over and year, and during that time I've tried several times to learn to enjoy this game. Finally after the eighth try, I uninstalled it and gave up. I appreciate that this game has a lot of strategic depth, but its ancient and poorly documented controls combined with boring gameplay just ruined what I hoped would be a fun game.
I wasn't expecting much from this game given the low price, but I thought give it a try. You know, help support indies whenever I can. But this game is absolutely terrible. In fact, I couldn't move beyond the first 5 minutes of the game. You start out on the ground flow of the apartment building. The game helpfully says, "Press Tab for your next task". Press Tab, and it said, "Replace fuse on fourth floor". And I see a fuse in my inventory. So, I proceed up to the fourth floor and find what appears to be a door on my left. I look at it and the cursor changes to a hand. Oh, okay just need to open the door. But the problem was that it wouldn't open. I tried left-click-and-dragging, right-click-and-drag, double-clicking, pressing both buttons and dragging, tapping middle mouse button, and click-and-drag with middle mouse button. Nothing worked. So, I thought, "Okay I missed something on the way up." There were boxes on a previous floor which I'd moved out of the way on my way up the stairs. So, I tried to maybe stack them better. I also went back to the ground floor and pixel-hunted everything in sight. There was nothing to interact with except the door that would open on the fourth floor. So, I thought, "Okay I'll try exiting and restarting the game." Nope. Exactly the same thing. Even if there is something I missed that will get the door open, the game design is REALLY bad. And it made me think how many other situations like this will I encounter during this game. I mean a hand cursor means you can interact with something (it's been that way ever since Myst), but obviously not in this game. Honestly, I'm surprised GOG allowed this piece of junk to be sold on their website. The low-end graphics and sound doesn't bother me. I mean it is only $2.99. And the slow movement doesn't bother me. Annoying, but not a show stopper. But for goodness sake I expect the game to frickin' work!!
PoE looks, sounds and plays just like BG1 and BG2. If you're looking for something to play after BG1 and BG2, then PoE should be a great choice for you. Of course, the graphics and sound are better in PoE. I loved BG1 and BG2. Truly great games. Both allowed players to dig as deeply (or not) as they wanted in regard to all the subtleties and complexities of the D+D rules. I opted to jump in and create some characters and start playing. I created balanced parties (i.e., tank, wizard, thief, ranged, etc.). But I didn't try to get as sophisticated as many players did. I just played the games, and they were a blast!! PoE is the same. There's a ton of depth, if you want it. But it's easy to build a party and start playing. A key reason this is possible is the "Story Mode" (which BG1 and BG2 Enhanced Editions also have). But for those who love a challenge and like to delve deep into the intricacies of D+D, there's plenty of difficulty levels. Only reason I don't give PoE (or BG1/BG2) 5-stars is minor annoyances like tedious inventory management, sometimes it's easy forget where to go on a quest because that info often isn't included in the quest description, can't click and hold the mouse to keep the party moving, etc. I know Larian Studios is working on Baldur's Gate 3, and I'll definitely check it out when it's officially released. But in the meantime, if you're looking for a chance to experience a new classic, PoE would likely be a good choice.
If I could rate a game zero stars, I would rate Blade Runner Enhanced Edition zero stars. I see no significant difference between the graphics in the original version (which runs on ScummVM) and the so-called Enhanced Edition. None at all. Also, no noticeable improvement in sound quality. I use headphones with full surround sound support, and it basically sounds like the older version. The only way I could recommend purchasing the Enhanced Edition is the fact that GOG currently includes the original version with your purchase. If GOG ever stops including the original version with the Enhanced Edition, then there's no reason to buy it. Unfortunately, GOG no longer makes the original version available as a separate purchase on their website. GOG - PLEASE FIX THIS. RESTORE THE OPTION TO BUY THE ORIGINAL BLADE RUNNER SEPARATELY.
To save time I'll get right to the point. This game's controls and spastic camera are its weak link. Graphics are good, sound is good, and story seems to be good. I played about an hour into the game, and I had to give up in frustration because of the horrible controls and absolutely terrible camera. So readers can understand my background, I've played PC and console games since the late 90's. I've played games on PC, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo Wii, Xbox, XBox 360 and XBox One. I've played games using a keyboard and controller. I've also played some PS2 games including the Metal Gear Series, Shadow of Colossus, and Final Fantasy games. In short, I've been playing games for a while, and not on just one platform. This game's controls felt like an old PS2 game with a spastic camera that bounced around so much it made me dizzy. Once I'd played games with well-done controls and cameras (i.e., Splinter Cell, new Tomb Raider games, Thief Series, Deus Ex series, Final Fantasy, etc.), it was painful trying to play this game. Graphics were good. Sound was good. Voice acting was good. Story, at least as far as I got, was good. But the bad controls and horrible camera ruined the game. If you're used to old PS2 games with wonky controls and a bad camera, then you'll likely enjoy this game. Otherwise give it a pass.
I really, really wanted to like this game. I love Norse mythology. I try to support indie studios whenever I can. I love games with hand drawn animations. I love games that aren't just running around shooting and blowing stuff up. And I LOVE games with stories. But although Jotun can click off all these checkboxes, it just sucks. There's no manual for the game, which is not uncommon, but most games that don't provide a manual do provide an optional tutorial level. Not Jotun. It drops you into the game with no context and no explanation. Yes, there's a very short cutscene at the beginning of the game, but unless I'd read reviews, I would've had no idea the goal of the game was to redeem Thora by defeating the Jotun's (or big bosses). God Powers are absolutely critical to defeating the bosses. No explanation is given. Just trial and error. The camera is awful in this game. User has absolutely no control of the camera, and 99% of the time the developers have it zoomed in super close to Thora. And since they reused the same trees, plants, and other elements over and over, it all looks very much the same. So, the results are (a) it's easy to lose your bearings and get turned around, (b) you often walk into hazards because you don't have a decent field-of-vision, and (c) when you do run into trouble you have great difficulty figuring out where in the hell is the path you used to get here in the first place. Thora's attacks are pitifully slow, especially the strong attack. Wouldn't be a problem is she was nimble, but she isn't. Yes, she can do a roll, but she doesn't roll very far, and there's a slight delay before you can roll again. Which usually means you're going to take damage as you're trying to roll away to get out of trouble. And Thora isn't very tough. Even weak opponents like tentacles that pop out of the ground do an inordinate amount of damage, and the bosses do an insane amount of damage. So, expect to be replaying the same sections over and over again.
![Event[0]](https://images.gog-statics.com/d4896b846c2d4ce873108363f48b2cd1496dc5abf27e35dbcd16e1d0d4e746f2.jpg)
The premise of this game got my attention. My first PC game ever was Zork, and and I loved it. After that I played many of Infocom's text adventures in the 1980's. The gameplay mechanic of solving "conversation-based puzzles" can be great, if it's done well. Unfortunately Ocelot did not do well at all. In fact what they delivered was horrible. In my opinion the AI in Event[0] is only marginally better than the one from Zork and Infocom's other text adventure games. It was pitiful how limited the AI was in the vocabulary it understood. Countless times the AI would keep saying the same thing over and over in different ways. I would enter things as clear and as simple as possible. I would carefully tweak the words I used trying to get the AI to understand. I would always use the simplest sentence structure. Over time I got better at being able to figure out what exactly the dense AI wanted to hear. But it was VERY frustrating and essentially ruined the game experience for me. I mean the key selling point that was supposed to set Event[0] apart from the competition was the chance to interact with a highly intelligent and temperamental, AI. Oh they got the temperamental AI part right. They just forgot to include the high intelligence part. Honestly I think if Ocelet would just remove their language processer and replace it with the one used for Zork, then this would be a much more enjoyable game. Don't waste your hard earned money on this game.
