"war...war never changes" -ron perlman, 1997 back in the good old days of good old games dot com, the all-time best sellers list was dominated by the witcher games, and 1990s dnd crpgs, with two notable exceptions - this game and fallout 2. While it has aged (this was from the era when you read the manual to learn how to play while it installed) this was a relatively unique setting that built its own cult following and IP - Bethesda wouldn't have picked it up if it wasn't good. If you ever get bored of being a wizard and throwing fireballs at dragons you can't go wrong with this game and the sequel
[x] it's roller coaster tycoon....2 [ ] wheeeeere is my fast forward button ---- more rides, more locations, branding tie-ins where they got the Six Flags company to give them some maps based on their real-world parks, the only problem with the game is the same from RCT1 - coasting to your victory over a long time period (you otherwise got the objectives in year 2-3, why wait to the end of year 4?) and it's even less fun when there is no fast forward button - I went and prepared food at one point waiting for one of the most basic parks to finish, having achieved all the do-by-year-2 objectives at the end of year 1. Just like 1, the game is fun to watch all the little visitors run around, but not THAT fun. also this game takes several seconds to quit when that first game was INSTANT due to sawyer's skills with assembly
Is it perfect? of course not. The open world random encounters particularly are a drag (you can easily lose 100+ hours into chasing down question marks), and the game progression is the type where the hardest part is about 1/3 of the way through before your power fantasy abilities start, if not trivialising fights completely, make them significantly easier. We're talking spells going from "can save you in a pinch" to "keep pressing the magic button until they die", or sidestep-dodging going from a small window of expert timing to "you have i-frames now". However, the story and set pieces are fantastic in a way that few other games can do. Even the side contracts are good, and offer little twists on the regular formula. Side characters show up later based on your choices, to thank you or jumping out of a shed for revenge. Large parts of the metaplot rely on one man's plan succeeding, yet you don't need to do these to make the story progress. get it now, get it on gog
who needs bile demons with their epic farts and trolls when you can swamp the big knights with cheap imps :D
