I played Shadowrun Dragonfall a decent while back, and loved the story. Afterwards I read that the general order of preference for most is (in ascending order): Shadowrun Returns --> Hong Kong --> Dragonfall. With that being the case, I was worried I wouldn't enjoy Returns all that much. I'm happy to say that's not the case. It's story is not as in-depth as Dragonfall, but it's still a fun Cyberpunk-esque story linking all the missions together. I'm at the tail-end of it, and will be looking forward to seeing how it ends. From there...on to Hong Kong. It has been a great series thus far! :)
I've never played any of the previous Wasteland games, but have played a good number of RPG's with turn-based combat... ...and aside from Baldur's Gate 3 -- I think this is my favorite! BG3 is great, but sometimes the conversations can go on a very long time. This has a bit more combat mixed in, so it may actually be a better fit for a good number of players. That being said...it has good dialogue and well-developed characters. Only way this would have been better...is if I was playing co-op this first time through!
I played through Dark Alliance 1 three or four times with various friends, and always loved it. This more of the same, but with more classes and a bit more freedom to explore. My sister is home visiting from Japan, so we bought this and fired it up. We're about 4 hours in, and having a blast. Yes, the price is high. I had waited for it to go on sale for a very long time...with no luck. That being said, we've already gotten our money's worth & we still have a long way to go. It is solid fun. The graphics definitely are sharper (you can adjust it), though the textures on a lot of things are still very pixelated. A main gain is the MUCH faster loading times. The first game had the same problem and, even if you emulated these games like many suggest, the load times are still as if you were loading off of a DVD. Is is pricey perhaps beyond what it should cost? Yes. Is the fun-factor there if you have a friend to go on the ride with, though? Absolutely. :)
I had played through D:OS 2 on Steam...and ended up with 127.8 hours. It was one of the best RPG's I had played. A week or two before BG3 released, I decided I should play through D:OS 1 (which I already owned on GOG) before considering BG3. 127 hours and 55 minutes later -- I just finished D:OS 1 EE tonight. It was every bit as fun as 2, and I thought the game held up remarkably well: Art style is great, music is FANTASTIC, and the story I enjoyed. If you're wondering if this game is as good as the second... ...overall I enjoyed myself every bit as much -- and got almost EXACTLY the same amount of playtime out of the two! Definitely enjoy this one. :)
These games are, even by 2023 standards, very solid adventures to enjoy. Some specifics worth knowing: The series really was ahead of its time as far as having a 'coninuing adventure', since you can import your character from one game to the next. Mass Effect and other series have done this since then, but this is my first memory of it...and is still rare even today. Quest for Glory IV, at least for me, is my favorite installment. The art, music, story and overall FEEL is amazing. I play a good chunk of it, if not all, almost every October. It also features some amazing voice acting by film and gaming legends! While you might be temped to brush it off due to the EGA graphics...Quest for Glory II is a really, really great game. There's something magical in the text-parser interactions of Quest for Glory II, as it makes it feel like you are really having a conversation and coming up with questions...instead of just clicking dialogue options. Great music, too (set it to MT-32)! The only game that I don't revisit in modern times is QG5, mainly because it just felt like too much of a departure from the rest of the series. It's not a bad game though, and should be tried during your character-journey. I recall the sound effects work to be stellar. Great series...and definitely worth your time!
I bought this game way back when it first released, enjoyed it...but never finished it. Now, all these years later I'd been thinking of revisiting it for a while. I had known about the "X-wing Alliance Update", which is a team of people who've continually updated / revamped the game over the years, and always had that in mind for when I returned. Low and behold...not only have they continued to make the game look VASTLY better -- since 2020 you can PLAY THIS GAME FULLY IN VR!!! This, for me, is a dream-come-true...something in the back of my mind I always hoped for, but didn't think would actually happen. You just have to download a couple auto-installing patches, run their configurator, and 'switch on' VR -- and that's it! Oh, and you might need to remap your joystick / HOTAS buttons too...but there's a utility for that as well. Playing with a HOTAS, I just am so incredibly pleased playing this. I still have a long way to go in going all the way through the game, but the missions I have played have me ultra-excited to play a few missions [for what I am expecting to be] nightly. Definitely worth a buy, considering the expertly crafted mods. Rogue Squadrons was fun (and *does* look better than this patched), but it didn't have nearly the depth that the older games like this have -- so it's absolutely worth playing. Enjoy!! :)
I missed this when it released long ago. While I (oddly) recall it being discussed on the news on TV, I wouldn't see Blade Runner the movie until years later. I also didn't recall that Curse of Monkey Island was released on the same day -- which I DID buy at the time. Long story short: I had been waiting to play this game one day, and now that I got the opportunity & finished it, I can say it's one I really wish I had played long before now. The technology and trouble Westwood went through to make a stellar game holds up amazingly well. I can only think of a few games that have as diverse and varied endings as Blade Runner -- King's Quest 6 and Quest for Glory 2 the only two that are coming to mind. The randomization of replicants & their own 'agendas', however, is pretty much unique -- especially for the time period. While I love the look of Sierra and LucasArts games, seeing these pre-rendered 3D backgrounds -- completely fitting to the movie's world -- is astonishing. Aside from compression artifacts, they hold up far better than other beloved games that used 3D pre-rendered assets, even that were done far later (ie: Final Fantasy 7, etc). That this game is getting a 'remake' now as well, is amazing. That being said...I think it's well worth playing the original. I'll likely at some point buy the remake as well, as the variety of endings and randomization makes it worth playing again. There are a few spots where the frustrations of Adventure Games to show up. In the last act that hit me far more, but since this is the internet era, don't let that frustrate you -- look up a hint if you need, and just enjoy the atmosphere and story. Do yourself a favor and snag this. Some games don't hold up well over time -- but this one does.
