I have played Alien Breed back in the day on my Amiga 500+ so I knew what to expect, on the other hand I did not have the opportunity to play Tower Assault, this was my first encounter. These games are the products of a different era, they are not easy, they are trying to hurt you. The main difficulty is not even the shooting part - in both games you have to complete most levels by finding the exit in a maze under time pressure. If you can't find the exit, no matter how many lives do you have, it is game over immediately. You have to memorize the levels trial-by-error. There is no save option - only passwords to continue the game from a specific level. In case of Alien Breed you loose all your weapons, keys, ammo - but you will get a decent amount of money and you can re-arm yourself. Now let's talk about my main problem with Tower Assault. A big difference between AB and TA is that the latter is nonlinear - this might increase the replay value of the game, however, maybe it is my version, maybe it is a known problem, but I can grind through 6-7 levels without getting a password. So if I get lost in the maze and cannot exit a level it does not matter that I have zillion lives, it is game over, and I have to grind the previous levels as well. Besides that I consider this a serious issue, I simply don't have 2 hours straight to sit in front of Tower Assault. By the way, I can also get stuck on the store deck levels. It is possible to enter between two obstacles but then it is impossible to leave - hit escape, game over, grind again. Just no. I had no such problems with Alien Breed.
I honestly hate the switch hunt even on old-school fps games and therefore Hexen was a pleasant surprise because I have enjoyed very much the "puzzle solving" aspect of the game. I have enjoyed it so much actually that I have completed it with all three classes and I was really looking forward to this expansion pack, which did not meet my expectations. As you can see from the other reviews this game is a bit polarizing - some love it, some do not love it that much and I am part of the latter camp. I feel that the puzzles are simpler and the shooting aspect is more dominant - however, that was not the strongest side of Hexen and did not improve at all here. It is way more challenging than the original game and the level design makes it even more challenging. Monsters are continuously spawning on the map, typically the tougher ones and you often have to fight them in tight places where damage is unavoidable - this can be very annoying in case of the Stalkers, who cannot be hit until they attack. While the puzzles are simpler, they are still hard to solve and the more time it takes the more monsters you have to kill. I also feel that the expansion is more darker than the base game, I had to use torches more often - again, I don't really like if I cannot see in an fps game. Btw. there are no new enemies, weapons or classes - everything is reused from the base game. At the end of the day it may worth a try, if you prefer the shooting aspect of Hexen you might like it - but I will stick to the base game in future replays. The atmosphere, the level design, the puzzles - I think it is a much better game overall.
I have played this game in the mid-nineties. At that time it was considered to be a bright spot among the PC platformers. I think that the graphics and the music aged well and overall this can be a quite enjoyable game but the truth is that the gameplay can be really annoying (which was also true in the mid nineties). The main problem is the combination of Jazz moving fast and the camera being zoomed in way too much - sometimes there is simply not enough time to react to obstacles/enemies. The level design is also a bit meh, it happens more than a couple of times that you have to jump but you cannot see the landing area. Another typical problem is that you take some damage, but cannot really replenish your health because the carrots are not evenly distributed on the level - no carrots at all for a while and than suddenly four or even more. It can be also annoying that if a hit happens outside the screen it did not really happen - this can be problematic since enemies can shoot at you but you cannot shoot back unless you see them even if you know where they are. All that said I think it does worth a try even in 2023. Pros: - graphics & music - save option (not perfect, as you loose extra lives and weapons) - funny animations - lot of levels - "3D" bonus levels Cons: - gameplay can be tedious - level design could be better
...but at the time of writing they are free, so it is hard to compete with the cost-benefit ratio. I did not play this back at the day but I have played a lot of platformers and this trilogy is not particularly good even by the standards of the early nineties. The sound and graphics are passable and it has some interesting ideas but the controls and the level design are terrible. However, there are unlimited lives and a save option so it can be completed in an afternoon, just before it becomes really frustrating.
This is not a typical FPS because there is high emphasis on finding hidden switches ("solving puzzles") and if you are more interested in the shooting aspect, you might want to skip this one. Otherwise arm yourself with a decent walkthrough (just to prepare for an unfortunate case if you get stuck) and let's go! The good: - the dark fantasy atmosphere was already great in Heretic, here it is even better - soundtrack - considering its age the graphics is really nice - the shooting part is fun - sometimes even the switch hunting is fun - interesting items, cool enemies The bad: - level design: the puzzle solving element is so extreme that sometimes you activate something by walking to a very specific position somewhere else and if this sounds confusing, don't worry, it is, a walkthrough can be really handy - there are 3 classes but each class has only 4 weapons. It can get a bit monotonous... - ettins spawn random on the map. This is can lead to many annoying situations, but I especially hated this in the moving walls room, because the walls get stuck and you cannot really progress (as an added extra saving and reloading in this room is... well, try it and you will see what happens with the walls) Every review is a but subjective, this one is no different. I have really enjoyed the dark fantasy atmosphere and sometimes even the puzzle solving, and so I will rate it 4 stars out of 5. However, I can totally understand those who rate it lower, since this is not what you are expecting from an FPS. I recommend to watch some gameplay videos on youtube before buying...
For Star Wars fans this could be an enjoyable adventure but for people looking for a decent FPS this game can be a bit frustrating. Pros: - Star Wars feeling is legit, the soundtrack is a huge plus - there is actual story with cutscenes, which is a rarity for a mid 90s shooter - the actual action is quite good - decent variety among the missions Cons: - there is no save option - there are mandatory platformer elements, which is even more frustrating since there is no save option - there are some puzzle elements as well, often combined with the platformer elements - level design, it is really easy to get stuck You may feel that 14 missions is not a lot, but if you are playing without a walkthrough, it will be more than enough to figure out where and how to progress in some of the levels. It is also kind of hard, I typically play games on medium/hard difficulty but here I had to play easy. If you are up to solve environmental puzzles in an fps with added platforming elements this is a 5* game for you but if you are looking for a simple shooter you might be disappointed. For me, the lack of save option combined with the puzzle solving and platformer elements worth only 3 stars.
Overall, it is a quite decent old-school fps game. Why not 5 stars? - If you are playing with keyboard & mouse you will probably need some tinkering to turn of the mouse move. I have used ravmouse (check the forums) but even then, the controls felt a bit clumsy. - On some levels, especially in the second episode of the expansion pack, the switches and keys are literally hidden. This kind of keyhunt is really frustrating in a shooter. - Enemy AI is basically nonexistent and to compensate for this you often find yourself in situations like "look here is the key/weapon/powerup in the middle of the room with no cover I wonder what is going to happen if I touch it" and after a while it becomes a bit boring - This is not a real 3D game with flying enemies. It happened more than once that I have found myself blocked because there was something above me - There is an option to look up & down but it makes aiming a bit difficult All that said this is not a bad game at all, and while I personally prefer Ultimate Doom over this, I also prefer this over Doom2 (but this is of course all subjective). If you like old-school first person shooters, it is definitely worth a try.
I have played this game a long time ago and now that I have replayed it I have to admit that I have remembered better. Back then, I thought that this is the best part of the series - now I would say that this is the worst, but it does still worth playing. As the third Soul Reaver game this is the most combat oriented which might be a plus or minus based on personal preference. The save and checkpoint system is much better than in the previous installments. Unlike SR2 this gme recognized my gamepad and I was saved from the mouse+keyboard combination and I was quite happy about that because even with the gamepad the controls were still a bit awkward. The camera handling is the worst in the series and now that I am thinking about it, as the graphics became better and better in the sequels the camera handling became worse and worse. The game is also buggy (e.g. enemies hitting through the walls but no chance to hit back, dying without any reason with full health bar, simply quit to windows, etc). There were some cases when some key items were "nonresponsive", I could not activate them and had to restart the level to progress. This time the story is also a little bit meh, mainly because of the middle part of the game when the main characters have to explore the vampire citadel where basically nothing happens story wise and the levels themselves are quite monotonous and boring. Of course, the game has some quite interesting areas as well like Vorador's Mansion which is my favorite in the entire series. Overall, the game could be excellent, but due to its flaws, it is just simply "not bad".
I remembered this game as the best entry in the series. While SR1 is better what I remembered, this is a little disappointment now. The story and voice acting are both excellent, maybe the best I've met so far. Since I have played this when it came out I have remembered the plot twists and could focus on other things, For example, the annoying save system. When I was in my teens it was not a big problem that I could not save anywhere - now it definetly is. It surprised me that I could not use my gamepad, which is interesting because I had no such problems with SR1 (I mean the Gog version) and this game is not meant to be played with mouse and keyboard. Not impossible, but not as enjoyable. The puzzles are better then they were in SR1 but they are still kind of meh. The game is also a little bit short. You will either love this game or hate it, but you have to try it first to decide it.
