Look, there is no denying Nightdive did a lot of their own work and created many of their own assets for this game. But it is still built upon the shoulders of what the SS2 community created before them. I have seen both players and some reviewers assume all changes and assets are Nightdive's doing, and not partly the work of the SCP and SHTUP. The rebalance and level changes are, in particular, largely SCP’s doing based on literal decades of accumulated knowledge. Yea, sure all of this is listed in the credits and in the mod menu, two places a good 85% of casual players will never see. I just wish Nightdive was more upfront about their use of community content. Especially since these mods, a labor done only out of love for the game, Nightdive were given free permission to use by their creators. I think it is rather crappy Nightdive goes and pretends this is all only their work on the store page.
Under \Phantom Fury\Phoenix\ there is a file entitled Changelist.txt which states: "Bug Fixes and General Tweaks [*]Fix entire game" Phantom Fury is the very definition of a minimum viable product, shippable but just barely. Published out of apathy more than passion, and it shows big time. I have enjoyed many other "janky" FPSs and I generally like games with interactive environments. Not this game. In the very first area I go to stack two boxes on top of each other and they collapse instantly, the physics will not allow for this kind of interaction easily. Almost immediately I notice the hud does not consistently display pickup messages – pickups only sometimes display in the corner. Imagine playing Doom and picking up ammo or health only sometimes displays a message (how the hell does a bug like that even happen?) Enemies stand, shoot and die in incredibly unsatisfying ways. They are both stiff and weightless in a way I have only ever seen in cheap unity asset flips. I pick up and start using the bowling bombs, THE most iconic weapon in the Bombshell series, something that was perfected in Ion Fury, and they feel *awful* to use and are difficult to aim – lacking any sense of momentum or destruction. Everything I have encountered so far with this game has been just frustratingly unpolished and thrown together. It is not worth the price even at a 50% discount, I highly recommend to skip this one until a very steep discount. Even if you are like me and really like Ion Fury. It is overall a very disappointing experience.
Do I agree with every change Deus Ex Revision made to the original design of the game? No. Instead I find it better to view Revision in the same way as other map-centric TCs like Nihilum, Zodiac, and 2027. A mod to be played after having experienced the original. An alternative version to contrast against vanilla Deus Ex. A lot can be learned about what makes Deus Ex work by comparing the vanilla maps with Revision. This modification is just a different experience, not something to be seen as a replacement for the original game. Despite this I do appreciate the amount of work that has gone into Revision. Since its initial release Revision has received many updates adding a large amount customization to the game along with continued changes to the various maps. For instance, if you are like me and cannot stand many of the HDTP weapon models, these individually can be switched back to their original vanilla versions. This process of adding customization and tweaking the maps is still ongoing. A big point of contention for some is that the "normal" gameplay setting is actually a modified version of the Human Renovation patch/mod. However I have read that they plan on adding an even more faithful vanilla gameplay setting in the near future. Personally I actually prefer Human Renovation when playing the vanilla Deus Ex maps. It alters gameplay in small ways that make sense and features a lot less radical changes than what you will find in mods like Shifter. Some seem to forget that Revision was released for free. The mod was locked into Steam for so long due to the original deal that the modders worked out with Square Enix. Aspects of this mod required the team to actually work with Square Enix for legal reasons in order to get the mod released at all. It should be noted that the GOG release is 100% DRM free. GOG Galaxy is only needed if you care about achievements, the game and mod can be installed separate from GOG Galaxy and do not require it.
Gog.com released STALKER! This is the one series I have most wanted to see a DRM-free gog release of. For the uninitiated, STALKER does not fit nicely into any one category of game, if you come expecting a Half Life 2 or Call of Duty and the like then STALKER may disappoint, because it was never that. Even the Metro series is far more conventional then STALKER. So why play STALKER? Atmosphere. These games, even in there vanilla builds, manage to create such rich open environments of urban decay the likes of which I have never again experienced. Wear headphones, set the graphics to max, and enjoy. My only recommendation is to do a little reading on how to play, both the manual and Dawnrazor73's excellent Zone Survival Guide can really help you grasp the somewhat foreign mechanics of these classics. Beware of spoilers in the latter though. Finally, I do not believe there is any "true" way of playing these games, between the bugs in the initial releases and the incredibly diverse mods out there -- just pick something and run with it. If you do not like it, pick something else. The Zone calls...
