I feel the same way about the movie Blade Runner, and it is in no ways a bad thing really. If you're looking for a challenging *game* you're not really gonna find it here. If you're expecting a great story with clever writing, witty dialog, engaging characters and a well realized scifi with humor that seldom fails to amuse you've come to the right place. Anachronox is fetch-quest city with some pretty basic JRPG style combat you can practically coast through. Honestly, the fetching never got tedious to me. You can really unwind with Anachronox and enjoy a great adventure without much getting in your way.
Myst was my first introduction to video games and it swept me away like few other experiences ever have! Myst is truly a phenomenal work of art. An innovative masterpiece of video game entertainment. A surrealistic adventure that must be experienced to be believed! Turn down the lights, crank up the volume and let your world drift away as you are swept into an experience like few others. realMyst expands and improves on its predecessor in almost every respect, while still maintaining the charm and atmosphere that defines it. See the ages of Myst in motion like never before! The puzzles are some of the most ingenious and fiendishly wrought challenges ever conceived, but are grounded in clearly understandable logic and reason based on context. realMyst is fair, challenging, nuanced and beautiful.
Certainly one of the best, if not arguably the greatest Role Playing Adventure ever played! - Near perfect adaptation of the DnD ruleset. - Engaging narrative featuring multifaceted characters and two of the most memorable nemesis' in video game history. - Tens of hours of play time. A direct shot through the main narrative will net you 15-20+ hours, and that's not counting side quests and expanded content packs. You'll not want it to end any time soon! - BG2 *really* rewards diligent adventuring whether through experience, equipment rewards or just another thrilling encounter. - Outstanding interface design makes micro-managing your adventuring group and tactical combat a breeze. The challenge is in the adventure, *not* layers of cumbersome sub-menus. - Ultra-challenging combat and engaging questing. - An expansive game world chock-full of monsters, dungeons, quests, and all manner of magical apparatus means there is *tons* to do and discover. The only cons I can think of are minor drawbacks at best. - The story doesn't lend itself much to narrative roleplay. This is not a 'choose-your-own-adventure' RPG. The narrative is mostly fixed. What few options there are either have a specific optimal choice or are superficial at best. - While the cast of characters and NPC companions are stellar, I was disappointed at the relative lack of diverse NPCs to add to your adventuring party. There are relatively few to choose from, and some of those aren't really worth having.
Shadowrun Returns looks and reads great, but the way it plays leaves a bit to be desired. - Overall solid production values for a Kickstarter funded project. - No voice acting - Creative art direction and well written narrative & dialog. Vibrant 2D backdrops make environments pop and levels come alive. Detailed character portraits bring characters to life. Dialog and narrative is spicy and engaging. - Annoying, repetitive music. Can be muted. - Less than stellar turn-based combat gets rather stale, really fast. Encourages creative thinking, but a reliance on same basic mechanics and tactics renders it mildly repetitive. Also involves a bit of trial and error to beat out an almost scripted AI. - Linear story and level progression. - No real opportunities to roleplay a character or impact the narrative. - No manual saves. Game saves at end of level checkpoints. No way to abruptly quit without losing progress. - Wide variety of unique character builds that differ from standard RPG character archetypes. - Free-form character progression system allows players to build a character to their liking unrestricted by arbitrarily enforced templates. - A cast of unique characters in a highly unconventional fantasy science fiction setting. - Good sound design makes combat exciting. As much as can be expected of a good honest creative endeavor on a limited budget, but the game design and mechanics could have been more thoroughly fleshed out.
