A great classic, way ahead of its time in many ways. I find the game engine very interesting, it is more advanced than the DooM engine for sure, it has nice looking Room- Above-Room/3D bridges, slopes and it is tile-based. Looking Glass had alot of creativity designing the maps and using slopes a whole lot in various ways, creating very cool map design and geometry. I advice to check the controls in options to get used to them and once you do the game plays like a dream. Mouselook is a god-send compared to playing the MS-DOS version. An IMPORTANT note here: The game defaults to General Midi which can't be changed on its own in the options. That soundfont is horrible and totally ruins otherwise a terrific soundtrack so dont play using that! I played through the gaming using a OPL soundfont, but its matter of taste what you choose for yourself but do change it! There is a guide to setting up VirtualMIDISynth here which i HIGHLY recommend :) : https://steamsolo.com/guide/soundfonts-midi-and-you-a-guide-to-improving-system-shock-s-music-system-shock-enhanced-edition/
First of i gotta say i always liked Powerslave, its one of those games i saw when i was young that i later tracked down to play and always liked. This is the european PC version and it is the most up-to-date version of the base game. However it is not without faults, strafing is slow (abysmal strafing speed in it's first release. ) The checkpoint system is also not something i been a fan of. I recommend playing it with PowerslaveGDX. Myself i played it using the PoweslaveGDX sourceport (a derivative of a Duke3d sourceport) which has a game menu just like Duke 3D with manual and quick saving at any time, a god send that made the game so much better! i also used a AI-enchanced sprite pack, i had a total blast. Powerslave is the best Under-dog game made with the Build engine by far. If Blood, Shadow Warrior and Duke 3D are the "Build Kings", Powerslave is the Prince. Other games, like Tekwar both is and looks horrid. Witchaven was a lazy release, Capstone didnt even bother using border textures so it makes levels look flat and uninspired. They had a good engine but didn't use the potential. Its sequel i haven't played yet. Powerslave/Exhumed might've had just one theme, the egyptian, alot of sand and orange colours, however it used it very well, levels are large and varied and the texture theme doesn't feel repetitive, in short its a game made with passion and the game was longer than i thought it was. So buy it, get a sourceport - an easy google search and have fun. And the soundtrack is amazing!
I grew up with the first games and played them a whole bunch. Just played through the third game at the start of this year. I had a great time, it left a atmospheric feeling in me. You enjoy it the best by just entering it with an open mind, sure its got smaller maps then the previous entries and maps themselves had to be divided by loading zones as the game was made for both consoles (at the time) and PC but its Unreal engine 2 still looks GREAT. Im not gonna get into mechanics or physics, visually i thought it looks great, it holds up. I actually liked the hub system, spent alot of time exploring the city hub thanks to that. Strange bugs like not being able to climb ladders can be fixed by some great unofficial mods. Its a worthy entry especially compared to the dull, faceless and very dark, muddy coloured 4th entry! Stay away from the 4th game and if you do want to play it, get it on sale, but just remember that lore and story and new characters are a bunch of bullshit drawn from thin air. Its a failed, dull reboot. Garrett in that game can't even jump, he can only get close to a edge to jump or get close to so, he did get his rope arrow back but could only be used on pre-determined wood poles... The 4th game made me bored after a while, i uninstalled and waited almost a whole year to get back to it again. The first 3 games never made me bored. Get this and get the previous 2.
I haven't played many stealth games apart from the original Deus Ex and the Thief series so i cant compare to much except those two. I own it on Steam, i had a really great time playing this, just like the original Deus Ex you get alot of places to explore within the hubs that you visit, side quests, there is alot to do. The game literally oozes a dark, futuristic brooding atmosphere, both in looks and soundtrack, starting from the brilliant menu music and forward. The Stealth system encourages non-lethal takedowns as they give more exp points but i didn't feel having to take the non-lethal route brought the gameplay down since if you are playing at the highest difficulty getting into gun-fights easily leads to death anyway. My advice is to take your time with it, my favourite method in these games is to go knock every enemy out i can find, loot any trashcan and hidden spot, sell it and then go on with my mission but everyone plays differently. Well worth buying!
I will keep this short. I played the fully patched version of the game, the game got it's bad reviews and reputation from the it's first sewer levels (or the first episode which is a bit bland) and the use of LIMITED saves in the form of save gems and AI teammates that got themselves killed or got stuck. All those complaints are justified however the latter 2 have been patched out. Playing it patched up, it plays like just any other shooter of its time, i turned my AI teammates off ( only to see them pop up in cutscenes) and it played great. Keep in mind its running on the aged ID-Tech 2 engine so the maps can be large but quite cramped, especially in outdoor areas (episode 3 is walled in by mountains) but despite that i think they did a great job and it's the most ambitious use of the Quake 2 engine as far as i know. Going from 4 different settings with new weapons, monsters and soundtracks, they certainly tried something new and it certainly has quite some variety.
I haven't played many racing games, with Carmageddon being my go-to one. I got Ignition bundled with some CD many years ago. Its a fun and easy to learn to driving game. Gameplay-wise it holds up quite well, but it never set up to be defining or revolutionary either, it does well for what it sets out to do. If i recall correct ( I could be wrong, it's been years) it had 2 launchers, one for a Windows version and one for DOS and im not sure which version this is.
