Gaming, like politics these days, seems to be full of extremists. HH makes HOMM seem like a dumbed down mobile game. AI cheats and the game will crush you if you aren't playing optimally 100% of the time. But instead of turn based actions it's real time, sort of like an autobattler. It appeals to a very niche, hardcore type that seemingly could solve all of humanity's problems with their apparent level of mental capabilities but instead choose to play this game. A lot of it boils down to just playing so much or looking up a guide to figuring out the perfect composition... if RNG is on your side as well. The graphics are extremely basic, no real character to the game visually or with audio. It's a spreadsheet with a thin veneer of colorful pixels overlaid on top. Seems novel at first, but probably won't appeal to most people.
It sucks when companies demand a game get removed when what they offer is not the same product. If you're looking to get the experience of 1994 then you'll have a little novel fun. WC1 has not aged well at all. And is actually a step down from Dune 2 which, IMO, was better and more complex despite coming out 2 years before WC1. However, without WC1 there would be no WC2 which was ahead of their competitors and paved the way for Starcraft and WC3. Yes I played WC1 as a kid, but I took off the nostalgia goggles and it's just not that great. WC2 is still quite playable, though feels quite primitive even for its time. Consider Red Alert came out a year before in 1996. Westwood was just better than Blizzard, but they found their niche in characters which WC2 helped to start focus on and blossomed in WC3. So if you're looking for fun, don't expect it. This is a museum tour that makes you impressed how much changed over the years.
There are plenty of old games that hold up today like Deus Ex and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic with the latter being a good example of what can be done on the Source engine. I don't think VTMB is one of them. For all the raving about being a hidden gem, it is honestly pretty tame and janky to play. It does have some strengths: Voice acting, characters, and atmosphere. Those all still hold up. But I don't see the flexibility fans claim is there. Stealth is pretty much a must have, pacing is weird and I ended up with so many quests on my plate at once. Most of the side missions were not engaging and resolved themselves so quickly. it reminded me more of Postal 2 than anything from DX or classic RPG. And whereas Dark Messiah's combat still feels revolutionary today, VTMB feels even older than it actually is. I think most of the appeal has to be the fact it is centered around vampires and werewolves which is a relatively niche fandom and lacking decent games. It's playable, but is very rough around the edges (even on release that was a big criticism) and it hasn't aged well. The 5 star reviews that also mention the bad combat and rough gameplay really aren't being honest.
Starts with a bunch of platforming in the dark that goes on too long then a COD action sequence, and then a snooze fest of more random quests. The hype from fans is ridiculous, it is nowhere near as good as they are describing it. Some of the missions like Balls to the Wall are just plain impossible and goofy. There really isn't much content here either, it's a few decent missions in a tiny area. The best parts are the interactions with Johnny which help flesh him out a little more and he's got more endearing backstory revealed. But that's about it. I feel like I got ripped off.
I can only imagine how much better this game would have been if not for the annoying fanbase and feature creep. The core of the game and main narrative is fantastic. If it stuck to a more linear, polished experience similar to Shadowrun or Deus Ex it would have been a memorable work of art for decades. Instead we got a broken mess at launch and more and more crap content and untested mechanics that make the original experience even more annoying. But that's what happens when you try to cater to the mass market- things get reduced to the lowest common denominator. A story and universe about being punk is lost to a bunch of toe-the-line mainstream NPCs who want their dress up dolls, their loot skinner box, their virtual sex simulator. Pathetic. There is a silver lining though on a silver hand deathgripping a story covered in dirt and worth the slog. It's almost a meta experience.
I understand why SC did not gain significant popularity in the past after playing for 18 hours and finally beating the campaign. This game just eats up time and is utterly tedious for 90% of a match until you get to the point where you can churn out units. If you aren't starting with structure for a decent economy already then a good amount of time is spent simply waiting for it to get rolling. One hiccup at this stage is pretty much game over and you might as well restart. FA is a little better because of the expanded roster, but it's not too different. Once again the game loves to waste your time, you can't even skip cutscenes! The campaign is just so tedious, especially the levels where you begin with nothing and the CPU enemies have established bases. Is there anything compelling about the story? Not really. Pretty generic for the time. Management is tiring. In most RTS if you want to be efficient you need good micro like Starcraft or good macro like Wargame. Here you need BOTH, all the time, don't even blink. Sounds exciting? Well how do you get to enjoy the spectacle the game focuses on when doing so can suddenly result in a loss? Even on normal the CPU is brutally hitting you from all sides. The graphics still look pretty great though. So why do people like it so much now? It does scratch a unique itch. Once you get past the long, tedious investment stage you get to see the spectacle. Massive units, massive armies, lasers and explosions everywhere! It is challenging, so maybe the more experienced RTS players finally feel like they have a challenge. I think it's a much better multiplayer game than single player, but I've primarily played the campaign and I don't think it's not a fair review from others who ignore the SP. They often use mods. But I'm not rating it on that, because any game gets better with community mods. As the game stands alone, vanilla, it's not up to the hype. If the game simply sped things along I would consider it top tier.
Absolutely beautiful music, artwork, and interface. But the game itself is rather boring usually with a rapid ramp up into difficulty with many mechanics you have to juggle, resources, and hoping for a good map RNG for resources. It's just not very clear what you're supposed to be doing. At first that helps it feel like an adventure, but after a few restarts it loses the charm. It definitely feels like a niche game where you have to appreciate a combination of RPG, survival, and card game mechanics.
I can see why city builders don't really copy the same style as the Impressions games. Emperor is said to be the pinnacle, but it's mostly buried in unclear tutorials, mediocre UI, and lots of hidden mechanics that you won't understand without a guide or lots of trial and error. At that point it becomes unfun and frustrating. Often I find myself having what is often referred to as a worker death spiral, or there aren't enough stores of something, or some other seemingly innocuous metric. Not a fan either of balancing the Heroes happiness either, it's more tedium that if ignored can wreck your city or just one important industry and once again you slip into a death spiral. It's ridiculous. It's still pretty, the music is still enjoyable, but I think any great experiences playing is likely due to nostalgia.
As with BG2, BG1 is a classic and in my opinion the best of the entire series. BG2 is more like a typical DnD session, a bunch of adventures grand and exciting, but lack the cohesion of everything in BG1. Because I love the game so much it was painful to play through the EE by Beamdog. They utterly ruined the experience by injecting their own agendas, characters, and revisions that break immersion and it's very obvious because their writers are so poor next to Black Isle's. In addition they add in sprites from BG2 and other later games that stick out from every other model and it looks terrible. Do yourself a favor and get the real experience by finding an original copy. You won't regret it and it will probably be less buggy than the EE version.
Beamdog is an awful company as evidenced by their recent games that they had to make themselves. BG1 and BG2 are great games and Beamdog basically took that and claimed success while injecting their own awful characters and revisions that not only are poorly written, but break immersion as they stand out from the rest of the setting. What's worse is they've pushed the original GOG version off the site because they were afraid of anyone going back to the original and seeing how much better of an experience they'd have. Somehow the EE manages to be buggier too. If you're fortunate you bought the original and still have access to it.
