I had always heard that Alone in the Dark was the grandfather of my favorite genre (survival horror), but I had never given any thought to playing it until I saw it so cheap here on GOG. Let me just say that it was worth the money. Since the package includes all 3 of the original Alone in the Dark games, I'll metion each seperately: Alone in the Dark: It's definitely earned it's title as "The Grandfather of Survival Horror". So many tropes that later appeared in Resident Evil and Silent Hill started in this game. Not only that, but I was surprised to find that the voice acting was decent (something rare for older games), and the controls were bearable (something rare for Survival Horror). On top of that, it's genuinely interesting, and the puzzles usually aren't TOO difficult or nonsensical. 10/10. Alone in the Dark 2: Alright, this one is a bit sillier. It's lost the Lovecraftian theme in favor of pirates. However, the combat has been polished, and the controls are much better than the previous game. The whole game carries an atmosphere of whimsy and fun, something most can appreciate. It's not as good as the first, but it's fun. 9/10. Alone in the Dark 3: I didn't like this one as much. The controls and combat were just as they were in AitD2, but it's just not as good. It lacks the disturbing solitude and darkness of the first game, and it doesn't have the fun of the second. Not only that, but the puzzles are really, REALLY ridiculous. I had to consult the walkthrough multiple times because I didn't know that I had to use a playing card on a tombstone to activate an elavator, or use a bottle of ammonia on a door in order to not get impaled. However, it does redeem itself by featuring a boss fight with a cyborg-ghost-cowboy. Play it if you like, but don't feel shameful if you have to look on the internet for a solution. 6/10. All in all, though, definitely worth your 6 dollars. You won't regret it.
Brilliant, stunning, genius, excellent, I simply can not name off enough words to describe how great Sanitarium is. Unique plot and gameplay, a colorful array of characters and settings, and something one could call "taste". The initial premise makes Sanitarium sound like any other point and click adventure game. You wake up in [insert location] with amnesia, and you must travel through [insert location] to uncover who you are and how you got there. However, Sanitarium ditches this almost 10 minutes in when you touch an Angel statue and she comes to life, transporting you to a strange little town where there are no adults, the children are all horrifically deformed, and there is constant word about a figure named "Mother". This is just one of the many colorful locations you will visit in Sanitarium, and part of the game's appeal comes from the feeling of "What's next?". I won't give them away, because they never fail to impress. Sanitarium plays from a sort of isometric view, and everything is controlled by the mouse. You move by holding down the right button and moving it in the direction you want your character to move. It sounds frustrating, but it really isn't, and it actually makes for a few action/combat sequences that work surprisingly well (and even if you die, you simply respawn at the begginning of the sequence with no consequences). You move around the enviornment, collect items, talk to NPCs, and solve a variety of puzzles. It does feature that bizzare 90's adventure game logic that expects you to think a lot differently than you normally would, and some items blend in REALLY well with the enviornments, making them difficult to see. Sanitarium isn't too long of a game, but that's not a bad thing considering what you get. I only experienced a glitch or two, and those I fixed by fairly simple means. All in all, Sanitarium is a brilliantly written and beautiful game, with ideas, people and places so strange that you'd think the developers created a machine that turns the musings of a derranged subconcious into a game. And what a game it is.
Blood II has a reputation as "The disgrace to Blood" or "The sequel that nobody liked", and at first I thought I would share this mindframe. However, this is not the case. It's not worse than Blood, it's just different. If you were a huge fan of the original Blood and thought that nothing should change, yes, you'll be dissapointed. However, despite how much I loved Blood, Blood II's approach appeals a bit more to me. Most of the Lovecraftian themes are gone (although references still remain), and Blood II seems 100% intent on doing what Blood did in smaller parts: being sort of a tribute to the good old 90's horror films. It does this in many ways, in the words of Caleb (who is still as awesome as he's always been), the enviornments, and even the weapons. Have you ever desired to be able to recreate the fate of Frank from the original Hellraiser on your enemies in a game? Well, Blood II's got you covered. However, it's definitely not without flaws. First off, the difficulty. Blood was difficult in a challenging way, one that involves finding the best solution to each enemy encounter. Blood II however, recreates this in a much more frustrating manner: A.K.A being incredibly cheap. I just want you to know that I shall hold nothing against you for cheating to get past some of the more ridiculous parts in the game. The enemies act weird at times, performing acts such as standing on your head while spinning around in circles, running straight into deadly traps, etc. Also, the arsenal isn't as creative as Blood's. You get a knife instead of a pitchfork. However, as generic as some of the weapons are, many of them are extremely fun to use. The level design can be a bit weird at times, and so on, but really, if you want that, play Blood again. Blood II does what it desires to, and that is to be extremely amusing. Caleb's one liners are vast and humorous, often involving bouts of maniacal laugter or film quotes. And yes, like in Blood, it's easy to laugh along with him, and then go cry yourself to sleep because you're sharing laughs with a video game character. This game does include an RPG element, in which you can pick which of the four chosen you want to play as. However, it's a little bit worthless, because why on earth would anyone play as a sassy redheaded sniper when you can play as an undead one-liner spamming gunslinger with the creepiest voice ever? All in all, Blood II will offer frenzied fun offput with bouts of frustrating difficulty and counter-intuitive level design, and while the fun may make up for some of the other stuff, it really all comes down to your oppinion.
I write this review as a modern player of games. There is no nostalgia bias in my voice when I say that they just don't make FPS games like they used to. Look at FPS games from Doom to Half Life. Now, look at every FPS on today's market. I'd estimate that there would only be a handful that could hope to compare to the likes of Duke 3D or the other classics. The thing about these older FPS games is that they all had style. You didn't just have linear corridors filled with the same 4 terrorist models with different colors, you were running through labyrinths of creative enemies, deadly traps, dead ends, and more. With Duke Nukem 3D, you can add one more thing to the list: explosions. Yes, Duke Nukem 3D's Explosion Density can be compared to that of watching a Michael Bay film in the center of a carpet bombing (speaking of which, you can do in DN3D, all you need is a devastator and a jetpack). The story of Duke 3D isn't really the point, but here it is anyways: A race of aliens with horribly defined motives take over earth and kidnap all of the women, and it's up to the avatar of Machismo, Duke Nukem, who has a fondness for heavy weaponry and snarky comments, to save our chicks. The game refuses to explain why only cops become pig mutants, or how Duke can breath on the moon without a helmet, or why there's a keycard to a strip club on the roof of a soon to be demolished building, or why you can kick with both feet walking backwards up a ladder, except giving the unspoken answer "Because it's funny". The gameplay is fast paced, fun, and energetic, full of fun weapons such as shrink rays, freze-cannons, and akimbo rapid fire rocket launchers. Oh, and Duke's feet. Yes, you can kick people in the face whenever you like, and yes, it's as fun as it sounds. The only issue I can really complain about is the same complaint I have with all non-linear games: "Where do I go!?" Yes, more than once you'll probably end up in some situation in which you can not figure out where to go, and you'll end up running about aimlessly until you figure something out or you get lucky. Other than that, the only thing I can reccomend is to play it on a source port like EDuke. Trust me, it's a lot easier to set up, and it supports a free High Resolution pack that updates the sprites to full 3D models and the textures into higher resolution textures. All of this is $5.99. If that's not a good deal, than nothing is.
I played this so called "Blood" and frankly, I was sickened. Let me break it down for you: *A main character with an actual personality? What is this game, creative or something? *The weapons aren't generic enough. I was expecting a knife, a pistol, 5 different machine guns, a shotgun and a rocket launcher. Instead, I was treated to pitchforks, voodoo dolls, soul stealing skulls on sticks and napalm cannons. *The game is non linear, so it allows you to actually choose your own course of action. Oh, ok, sure, make me do all the work Monolith. *Atmosphere!? Who wants good atmosphere!? *Enemies range from zombies and cultists to fish people and dark gods. I'll stick with my bland generic terrorist organization enemies, thank you very much. *It's FUN!? Absolutely propostorous! *Blood takes a lot of inspiration from two things: 80's-90's horror flicks and the fictions of H.P. Lovecraft, which is silly, because nobody likes those! Too much flavor! *Intuitive level design and enemy placement? Oh, what next, Blood? No cover based combat? Overall, Blood is a serious dissapointment. Spend your $5.99 somewhere else, preferably on something more bland and generic. The only people I would reccomend this to are people who enjoy creative gameplay, witty/dark humor, people with taste in good things, or people who don't like generic boring cover based FPSes, in which case, you shouldn't buy it anyways, because you don't deserve to have posession of currency. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to play an FPS with actual class: Call of Duty: Black Ops. It's better than this creative rubbish.
