I love the Kain series and I have a lot of love for this game specifically. The twists and turns the story takes are very entertaining and I love the voice acting. This particular game lacks on thing that I enjoyed in the first soul reaver however. They pretty much removed all boss fights. I loved the boss fights because really they were puzzles. You couldn't just hack the boss to death, you had to look around for its weakness. Now the game itself added a lot more puzzles to its gameplay through use of the usually block puzzles, gliding puzzles, and light reflection puzzles. All fun, but I still miss the boss fights. If you enjoyed soul reaver you should enjoy this game though. I have replayed this game a whole bunch of times mostly because I just love the feeling I get when you finish and watch the ending movie.
Myst is the first game I played that felt a little more grown up. Before Myst I was mostly playing simple arcade style games which fun never really challenged my mind at all. At the time my computer could barely handle the game and crashed a lot on me which is hilarious looking at the system requirements now. I give Myst a 5 out of 5 because it was a game that I truly enjoyed on every level. The visuals are a little dated now but at the time I thought it was one of the best looking things I have ever played. As you go around from age to age the surroundings really set the mood. A place or two was even eerie enough to scare me into not playing alone (I was a lot younger then mind you). The gameplay itself was very simple. You just walk around and move your mouse over things to manipulate them. Puzzles required some thought and a little research by having to read a journal about that age you were going into. The replay value is a little low because once you understand the puzzles it doesn't take much to remember them. I am sure I can now beat the whole game in under an hour even though it took me much much longer the first time I played it. Oh, one other things about the Myst series I have always loved and I hope other people are able to have similar experiences is to play with someone else. My siblings were playing the game too and we each had our own save file but we would watch each other play. Then we would bounce ideas off of each other to figure things out. Myst opened up a whole genre of gaming too me and I only wish that most of the Myst clones out there were able to live up to the same standards.
Psychonauts was one of the few games I bought as soon as it came out. I like Tim Schafer's games and this one looked like it would not disappoint. Well it didn't. I laughed a lot with this game. I also love the visuals. It reminds me of characters from Tim Burtonsj book The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy. The level designs are very well done as they seek to represent the mind you have entered. I do remember at the time that reviews suggested using a gamepad as it was hard with a keyboard. I never tried the keyboard so I can't actually verify that. It was fine with a gamepad and I just had a simple one. Oh, and I belive the main characters voice is done by the guy that did the voice for Invader Zim which is a nice bonus as he does a good job at cracking me up! BUY NOW!
I had never actually heard of this game before but I decided to pick it up with one of the promo things gog had. I have never even really considered this genre before either. Having played the game I can say that it was pretty enjoyable but still a little forgetable. The first game: I did like the graphics which have a sort of claymation/stop animation look to them. The problem the game has it that is wasn't really hard enough. I almost got a 90% and above in each show on the first try. As you play and unlock new seasons they will allow you to go to more rooms. The inclusion of more rooms and more pranks made the game become more interesting as it progressed but right when I was really liking it it was suddenly over. I was just able to beat the game too quickly since I only had to redo 3 or 4 of the episodes for a better score. I did not go through and get everything at 100% but I did have a lot of 97% and there is no added bonus for getting all perfects. The second game: I liked this one better. There are much more locations so the game stayed more interesting. Finding all the pranks wasn't too bad but it took a little more planning for me to get the complete rating by making the neighbors rage fill up completely. There are also more people in this one which made it more interesting in general. You aren't on the ship the whole time as cruises always stop at different ports to let people be tourists. Overal: The game has a lot of humor and I did enjoy myself. If this was just game 1 or game 2 I would be more upset at the shortness, but by including both it has a much more decent lengh too it. It is a good game for when you just need to kill time. I no this is just a casual game but I would of liked a little more story. Like why does your character hate his neighbor so much. He is supposed to be the hero but you never really see the neighbor being nasty so really your guy comes across as a jerk. This game has made me more curious about similar games and I do recomend it it, just be aware it is not the greatest thing out there.
I liked Dark Fall. I'm giving the game 4 stars but really I think it is more 3.5 but I can't choose half a star. The game gives a nice creepy atmostphere and as you explore you slowly start to figure out what happened here. The main thing I was happy to experience iwth Dark Fall was that there are some actual puzzles. So many adventure games just have you find an item and take it to the correct place and call that a puzzle. A real puzzle involves finding clues to solving a puzzle where there are things you have to move around. The graphics are pretty decent. You aren't running into people so the game doesn't have to try and make life like humans as much as it is just making a 3d room to explore. Like I said before the game does give a nice creepy feeling as you explore but I don't think your character is any actual danger. Be sure to have some paper handy for note taking. I'm also happy to see this on GOG since I believe it was released by DreamCatcher Games or the Adventure Company in the U.S.A. and their older games seem to always have problems running on newer operating systems.
I remember hearing about this game when it first came out but for one reason or another I just ignored it until I found it in the bargain bin sometime later. I wish I had just bought it when it first came out because it would of been worth every penny at its full price. I am going to break this review into three catagories of graphics, game mechanics, and story. Graphics: The graphics were very well done for this game. You character was 3d and then you moved around in a static picture world. The only thing is the typical static pictures were not actually static. Things moved around like waves of water. This all just gave the world a much more lively feel too it. Game Mechanics: If you like adventure games then you should like this one too. It is the typical style of finding the correct item and taking it to the right place to solve something. This does mean sometimes you will be moving your mouse around the screen to find things, but it really wasn't a problem for me. Overall things went logically enough too that you could figure out what your items in your inventory were used for when you came on a puzzle. We are not talking complex puzzles like in the Myst series, but few games seem to ever actually reach that level. Story: This really is the best part of the whole experience. The game really has a good story. You'll move back and forth between your world and a magical world. Each world also has a different feel to it. The "real" world is modern and a little blah and then the magical world feels like some medieval fantasy world with talking animals and bright colors. The other great thing about the story is that your character seem to actually grow. So many games has your character being the same person as the end of the game as he/she was at the beginning. The Longest Journey has your character grown and discover things about herself. The game just had a more mature feel to it then a lot of other ones I have played. In closing the game uses the old adventure game style which you will know if you like or dislike already, has nice graphics that has motion in the background, and has a great story that makes you care about the characters and what will happen to them.
I decided to give this one a go while buying a lot of interplay games thanks to the anniversary sale. Having now played through it I have to say that I did enjoy myself. There are definitely better games to buy first on gog.com but it still satisfied my adventure game urge. Essentially the game mechanics work like this: You go to a location, watch an animation, and then if you have the right item you use it. You also die a lot for going into the wrong play unprepared. The death over and over did annoy me at first as I prefer a game that lets you walk around, explore, and just try things to see what happens. This game gives you three lives before you get a game over although there are spots were you can regain lives. Once I stared to get a hang of it and really listen to the clues things did go much smoother. The animations weren't super great. If you returned to the same spot and there was new information it usually showed you the same animation with a different speaking line put over it. The main problem with the animation is that I don't think it was meant to be shown on big computer screens like we have now. It just gets very pixelated. I know because of the animation people like to compare this to Dragons Lair but really that isn't fair. Dragons Lair was more of an action game were you pressed up, down, left, or right at the correct moment in order to advance to the next room. This game comes across more as an adventure game were you get items to obtain more items and get past obstacles. The length of the games wasn't as long as I would of liked. I didn't keep track of exactly how long it took me, but I did play it over the course of two evenings. In the end I enjoyed myself and I don't feel like my 5 bucks was wasted (one less trip to McDonalds) but if you are an adventure game fan there are a number of better choices to buy first.
