Go into room, door closes, enemies spawn in all directions, endlessly - so you are left hopping through the arena finding a place to shield yourself from them while shooting mindlessly. Unlike doom 3, where when enemies spawn behind you, you get a clear indication of it through audio cues - this game has an annoying soundtrack playing when enemies are present, while not giving an indication of their direction. I mean its best to assume they are everywhere, not just behind you. It is very much comparable to doom 1 & 2, but clearly the level design is far worse, and those games were made in 1995.
The only reason this game gets 4 stars (instead of 5) is because of a particular level that requires you to backtrack too many times and kill everyone - 30% of the game is frustration, 70% of the game is pure stealth bliss. The frustrating part is where you encounter zombies, haunts, spirits and spend ton of time solving senseless puzzles or finding loot in obscure locations to complete your objectives. Stealth mechanics - 5/5 [Hide in darkness, use moss arrows to reduce your footsteps sounds, throw items to distract, hide bodies, remove fires to create darkness, etc] Treasure hunting - 5/5 [Solve puzzles in the level to find hidden treasures that are most of the times your objectives on expert difficulty] Nit picky treasure objectives - 2/5 [Spend 2 hours in some levels trying to find that specific 10 gold lying somewhere in the huge map] Level design - 5/5 [Awesome level design, filled with secrets and multiple paths to your objectives] Combat - 2/5 [No reason to play this game for the combat] Gadgets/Devices - 5/5 [Water arrows, moss arrows, lock picks, rope arrows and much more] Story - 4/5 [Pretty cool story considering how good its gameplay is] As good as it gets, unbelievable this released in 1998, most games these days aren't as good. Highly recommended.
Game is mechanically very impressive - good shooting mechanics, decent graphics especially considering its time, performance is decent, level design is good. Stealth is functional too, which I did not expect. However enemies are very buggy and I don't have the time to go around fixing a game that should be by default fixed. In my case I encountered invisible enemies (I think they were invisible...) who shoot me conveniently when I am at a particular point on the map. Either they are invisible, or they are always aware of my location and robotically shoot me when they see even a little bit of me, either way this is problem in a game where you don't have regenerative health, limited health kits and armor kits. I guess if you have the patience to either deal with the buggy enemies or to find a fix, there is a nice game here in far cry.
Note - this review is of the diamond edition, not of the enhanced edition. I found the game to be a chore. Had to force myself to play and complete the quests, found the quests very boring to complete, they generally only revolve around 3 steps - mainly finding a quest, killing the enemies, and then earning rewards. The quests themselves are not that creative and memorable. The culture in the game is very contemporary with a little bit of medieval hint (similar to other D & D games I guess) and by now I have gotten too used to it. As a plus the game runs magnificiently on linux using wine. I found myself falling asleep multiple times while playing this....
This game has terrible controls, but if you manage to get used to it (which takes a bit of time, and also you have to be forgiving), there is an interesting game underneath it all. I completed it and I still don't know what the story is, nor do I care enough to go and search for it. Meaning it has non-sensical story at face value at the least. I got used to the controls somewhere around 50% of the game and after repeated attempts at re-playing the game after giving up on it a few times. So it is not easy, but there is indeed a fun experience beneath the surface.
Resonance is a nice little adventure game whose main strength is its characters - I especially liked the journalist and the police. Voice acting is above par and puts most games to shame. I am a big fan of wadget eye games, this one is really good and comparable in quality to the blackwell series.
I really liked stacking's old-fashioned vibes and charm. The puzzles themselves are decent and probably not always that fun, but it has a nice hints system that allows you to continue the game and keep the immersion. The game is a bit childish and I liked it for that reason. However, its not a 5/5 groundbreaking game, so go in with that expectations - the puzzles might get repetitive, story is ok and might not be fun for everyone. I personally loved the no voice acting with text on screen movie style presentation. I definitely did not regret getting this game.
I played this game on linux. The experience was top notch - it has a great story and characters were very interesting. There were no issues on linux. I did need some walkthrough/guide for the best ending, but that was it and overall I still enjoyed the game immensely. I feel this is the best title from wadget eye games (between shivah, blackwell series, gemini rue and golden wake - all of them being point and click games).
Generally, I enjoy stealth games a lot. I like games where you can sneak upon enemies and there is that thrill when you manage to escape detection while achieving your mission. Hitman 2, is unfortunately not a stealth game. It is a 'learn by trial and error' game that limits your learning by limiting your save files per level. By the time you have reloaded the millionth time, you would have "successfully" completed your "stealth" objectives. It also has amazing issues on modern hardware. For eg, I had to look up why the AI is so unpredictable in this game and apparently it has something to do with the FPS the game is running at. Not a very fun experience, go in with low expectations (of both fun and its ability to function on your system). Not comparable to other stealth greats like splinter cell in any way.
Because game doesn't run on windows 10.
