Diablo is a timeless classic masterpiece. Yes, it's a little bit clunky, but still fun to play even today - the atmosphere is out of this world, the music is bonechilling, and the lore is interesting. It spawned a whole new genre of games, and a sequel, which is one of the best games ever made. If you somehow missed this, do yourself a favour, and play it.
This game is so bad, that killed Core Design, and almost the whole franchise. It's not that they were not ambitious, or didn't have any good ideas, but the game shipped simply unfinished. Well, the new engine looks quite good for the time - it's a huge improvement over the old one. The music is decent, but that's it. Everything else falls flat on their asses. The worst thing are the controls. They revamped the original, familiar controls with the most unresponsive, glitchy and awkward controls ever made in a video game. It's torturous, and makes every simple thing a chore. Top that with the new "progression" system, where I can't jump far enough unless I train my legs with some idiotic manner, or cannot pull a box, because "I'm not strong enough". The story is boring, full of plot holes and overall nonsensical. It had potential though... They wanted a more dark and sinister plot, but everything turned out ridiculous and uninteresting. In one point I have to control another character, Kurtis, who is... just some dude. It would be cool, if I could use his awesome spinning, floating thingy in fights, but no. The game is full of half-baked ideas and missed opportunities like this. For example the stealth. It's there, but it's utterly pointless. There is no punishment if anyone sees me, and it's much easier to just shoot everyone, who are a threat. Or let's talk about the RPG style speech "system", where I can react to NPC-s in a different manner. Overall, doesn't matter, only makes little to no difference in the gameplay, and none in the story whatsoever. Or the boss fights, which are either laughably easy, or frustrating. Oh, and don't get me started on the glitches. They everywhere, from minor to game breaking. You can easily skip this game, unless you are a completionist, or really want to know, how the Tomb Raider franchise have fallen from grace.
Redneck Rampage uses the Build engine, like Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior and Blood. I have to say this game is the worst of the bunch, but still worth playing. I really like the hillbilly theme, the music, the one-liners are funny, and I dig the health system too - you have to consume alcohol and food to increase yer health, but you have to balance them out, or either you get too gassy, or get shitfaced - in this case you literally cannot control your character, so it's kinda annoying. But there is a huge problem with Redneck Rampage: the shooting. It doesn't feel smooth at all, more like awkward, jittery and unprecise. And this is a shoot-em-up game, so you'll shoot 95% of the time. The other problem is the levels (I'm talking about the base game now): they are kinda hit and miss, there are a few great levels (for example J. Clucks or the Mortuary), but there are horrendous, neverending mazes too (like the Sewers or the Mines). The first level took me like 50 minutes to complete, because I just could't find that first key. A walkthrough is very handy for these situations, but I don't think it should be necessary for an FPS like this. Also, the game is way too hard. The enemies do bullshit damage, and a lot of time they just oneshot you (Vixens), and can shoot you with deadly precision from the other side of the map. They can also shoot through walls because of the clipping problems. Oh, and you barely get ammo for your better guns. Wonderful. BUT, this package contains the two expansion packs too, Suckin' Grits on Route 66 and Rides Again - they add 11 and 13 new levels respectively. And I have to say, these are much better games than the base one. All have great levels, that flow much better, better enemy placement, more ammo, usable vehicles (they control like ass, but hey, Build engine...) and much more. I think its worth to buy this collection just for the expansions.
Deus Ex is considered one of the best games ever made, and creating a worthy sequel to it is almost impossible to achieve. Well, Deus Ex 2: Invisible War failed to do so, but the standards were so high, that is kinda expected. But is it really a worthless game? Let's find out! The main complaint about the game that is dumbed down to fit into the consoles, so expect tiny maps with frequent load screens, horrendous HUD, small inventory, and overall simplified gameplay. The skills are removed, and there are less biomods with less upgrades, less items, and much less freedom, that made the first game unique and awesome. The game uses the Unreal 2 engine now, so it looks better (escpecially the shadows and lighting - Tier looks exactly like Thief - Deadly Shadows, another game they made), but the textures are low-res and blurry (thank god for the Visible Upgrade!), and the ragdoll physics are ridiculous. The music is OK, but nothing memorable. The story is kinda uninteresting at first, but it gets better. The last third of the game reminds me of the first one, where you get bombarded from all sides to do their bidding, and you can choose which faction you wanna side with, if you want to side at all. This is the best part of the game - the story. The dialogues are well-written, the voice acting is... acceptable (it wasn't stellar in the first game either, except for a few characters), and you can choose from four endings now. So is this a terrible game? No, but a terrible sequel. So I think you should play it for the story and the endings, but don't expect the same level of aweseomeness as the first one.
