Bard's Tale is a classic RPG - a must for any fans of the genre. But, like many games of its era (1985) it's not very accessible for modern audiences. This remastered version totally nails the sweet spot between making the game more accessible without losing the essence (and, importantly, the difficulty) of a mid-80s RPG. You cannot call yourself an RPG fan if you have not played this game. And this is the best way to do it :-) (And bonus - Part IV is about to come out!)
A bright, colourful and easy-to-play SHMUP that reminds me of happy days gone past with R-Type and other 90s games in the genre. The difficulty level is good for people (like me) who are not twitch-fiends or bullet-hell enthusiasts. Tough enough to be challenging, not so tough you give up. If you're a bit fan of this genre, I imagine you'll find it very easy. You can change your load out each level, which gives you variety of strategies to try. There's a wide range of enemy types that forces you to switch your playstyles from time to time, and a few bonus objectives in each mission that allow you to stretch yourself. My one criticism is that the plot doesn't make a lot of sense. Apparently the idea was to only tell you part of the story, so you had to piece things together from your little perspective in a grander war. But I found it too confusing to follow. Not that it matters though, this is a shooter, not Mass Effect. Well worth a try!
This game is not as good as it's cracked up to be. You'll command a team of up to 4 - and you're supposed to guide them in an RTS-style strategy style with elements of X-Com. What you will actually do is click like you're playing Diablo. The game moves too fast and the interface is too clumsy for any more strategy than "everyone open fire" (or "charm all the other characters on screen". So allright there's two strategies). Yes there's new weapons and upgrades and so on and they add a bit of variety, but the strategy is essentially the same. Fun for a few missions but rapidly gets very dull. Also you'll unlock all of the upgrades by halfway through the game. So once you've got a team that works, you'll barely change your loadout. So...yeah. Interesting in that I now know what everyone was talking about, and it's not bad. But not as good as it's cracked up to be.
(Wing Commander is famously "cinematic", but I'm going to just talk gameplay) WC1 is a game that works that really shouldn't. It is insanely frustruating. You will die. A lot. And for the longest time you won't know what you're doing wrong. That should make for an awful game, and I was within minutes of demanding my money back. But if you perserve you start to realise - your craft can't take much damage, and the game world has strict rules that it will applly even if it's unfair. So unless you know what to avoid, every now and again enough opponents shoot you from outside your field of vision at the same time, and you'll suddenly die. Once you unpick the way the game works, it's a blast. You learn to work with the game's rules and you can destroy hordes of enemy craft. But still, WC1 can be very frustating. Your wingman might die through no fault of yours, or you'll dodge into another starcraft you couldn't reasonably have seen; and if you die it takes ages to get back into the action. Also considering how easy it is to die, they really should've had checkpoints. But the tension - wow. At the end of a few missions my hands were shaking - because while you can fail through no fault of your own, you will earn every success. It's a rush that explains why this game has such a cult following. WC2 fixes some of the issues in WC1. Two big improvements - your wingmen can't die in-game, and there's a "try again" button when you fail. They also mix up the formula enough with the addition of tailguns that you have to update your strategies, it's not just more of the same. So if you're thinking of buying this, my advice is this: - it will be frustrating, but that's part of it. You'll get better, and there's a reason this is a cult classic. Check forums for tips. - get a non-fancy joystick. They're quite cheap now, and it's basically impossible without it. - if WC1 is driving you spare, skip to WC2. But the story is better if you play them in order.
I thought I knew all the D&D CRPG's, but I'd never heard of this game. I should have. Someone at Troika LOVED D&D, there's a lot of effort poured into this. There's a lot of customisation and the detail of the D&D system is (I assume) faithfully recreated to the last painful dice roll. You can tell it was rushed though - for example, it looks like the spell list goes all the way up to level 9, but you won't find any spells scrolls above level 6. TOEE apparently has a vibrant modding community with a site called the "Circle of 8", I didn't use their mod but I'm told that it removes a lot of the bugs and adds a lot of content. I spent WAY too long playing this game and yet it felt oddly light on content, it's a game crying for DLC in the days before they had DLC. Overall - 4 stars.
There's no doubt - as far as pure stealth gameplay goes, this is the best stealth game of all time. Big ticks on stealth gameplay: - there's no doubt about when you'll be seen - eyelines, sound and light are clearly represented. - there's a lot of checkpoints, so if you're determined to go through the level unseen, you don't have to go back very far if you're spotted. - genuine variety in how guards can be dealt with - the rules of Mark of the Ninja are quite simple but can be combined in an interesting number of ways (dragging bodies, using items, using distractions, etc). There's no "one path". Beyond simply looking at the stealth gameplay - the game is definately fun, with an engaging story and great visuals that really nail the "modern -v- ninja" vibe. My only grips is that it's about 2-3 levels too long. There's 12 levels, and by the time I finished level 9 or 10 I was officially at the "I'm only playing this to finish it" stage.
If there had been no StarCon 2, StarCon 3 would probably have die-hard fans instead of die-hard detractors. StarCon 2 was a truly great game - and #3 carries on some of its best parts: good range of aliens with a decent level of depth in their structures and cultures, good plot development, great exploration as the world and sub-plots unfold and ultimately intertwine and (of course) fun and varied ship combat. It also removes two of StarCon 2's annoyances - the tedious ship travel and resource-gathering (which was only fun in short bursts). Unfortunately it adds its own problems, which ultimately make it worse than #2. It introduces its own resource-gathering mechanic which feels underdeveloped (and is even more tedious), and the new exploration mechanic can be both confusing and annoying (you click on a star system to go there, but the star systems are whirling around in mock-3D simulation, which really doesn't work when the screen is a 2D plane). It's also rather prone to "now what?" moments so common in 90s adventure games (although this game was early 2000s). But overall, if what you liked about StarCon 2 was finding and talking to aliens, an interesting sci-fi plot and ship combat, then StarCon 3 has got you covered. Oh - and (1) Yes, Mass Effect 3's plot is almost entirely a Star Con 3 rip-off; and (2) Star Con 3 obviously ran out of budget at some stage. I suspect that's why the resource-gathering is so poorly implemented.
