I vividly remember messing around with the sound card config for hours trying to trick it into not crashing back on our old PC in the 90s and the elation I felt at succeeding, only to discover an amazing game that has stuck with me for ages. The story of mercenary Kyle Katarn, who works in secret behind the scenes of the Star Wars original trilogy in shady bars and shadow ops. You'll get an assortment of Star Wars gadgets and weapons, of course, and take on a great selection of levels that will have you in criminal underbellies, secret imperial bases, and basically taking a tour of the SW universe. So good. This is one that doesn't get mentioned at all anymore and it's a real shame - very much a Doom clone in many regards, but with the Star Wars setting, weapons, and soundtrack. Everyone should give it a shot at least once to see what kind of high quality mark was set back in the 90s when this came out.
Had a decent time with this one, but some of the fights are unecessarily tough. It whomps to spend a long time on a fight only to have it fall apart on you. After one fight in particular had me die three times because my archer can't keep her feet, I decided to take a break on this one for awhile. Enjoyed the back and forth between the characters, some choices in how you approach dialogues and take on quests, and the cast is of course all "criminals." Also, be ready to not have any money for the first couple of hours. Try buying equipment with nothing.
Instead, it's all about crafting - all items in the game are created by you and then used to varying levels of success in completing tasks. Other folks seem to like this, but there are enough crafting games out there that do this a bit better. The game is unpolished - I managed to get my character stuck in the environment in the first 30 seconds and the there are some weird issues with cutscene transitions, like randomly showing two characters in an opening scene when there was only one talking. Not what I thought this would be at all, not for me.
The good will the first game built up with me was pretty much thrown out the window on this one. The story is interesting and fills in some gaps in the first game - with some serious implications depending on what they do with the bread crumbs dropped here - but this one is going to try your patience a little bit. Here's some issues: -The last hour of the game was padded with a lot of not so fun content, almost didn't finishe because of it. It's varied content, so I can appreciate that, but it wasn't very fun. -Enemy encounter rate was absurdly high with little to no room to avoid, so by the time we got to the last area (and had to trek it over again) we were maxed out and there was no point to fight. -A certain maze was obnoxious and should have been left in the 90s where it belonged. It wasn't fun then and it's not fun now. -Still issues with the last boss being cheap and really only having one way to defeat it. Would have really thought that would have been sorted out in this one (maybe not, it's DLC rather than a full game). The backstory of the bladebearers is intersting and why the swords exist/what they can do is a nice addition to what we learned in Old North. If you can really suspend your expectations, that's worth it. But if not...oof. It was a rough playthrough and I don't ever plan to revisit it. Has me seriously worried about going forward with this series.
Finally getting around to completing this one, and we clocked in at 7 hours total - for that length, I'm willing to overlook a lot of minor grammatical issues and story pacing. Here's what worked: -The story feels like Suikoden-lite: there is a larger conflict (I'd say more like an invasion) and your little band of plucky young upstarts is woven into the intrigue and fighting over time. -You don't recruit, build bases, or have the large siege battles, hence the "lite" element. And due to the runtime, stories are wrapped up quickly and no idea overstays its welcome. -The writing is decent, even if a few notes fall flat. Characters do reveal a lot in their arguments with each other, takes on specific happenings, and their relationships with other story characters do have some resonance. For a shorter game, this is pretty well done. Again, barring some minor grammatical/thematic missteps. -There are no side quests, but you can get collectibles in the form of hidden secret items, and weapons/armor types. -Enemies don't drop gold. Instead they drop loot you can sell for profit. This is apparently the first in a trilogy, the second is already out and takes place 10 years after this one. There is also a DLC Howl of the Ravager which tells the backstory of a major NPC (I need to get around to it myself). What didn't work (other than some writing) is the last boss. This fool is TOUGH and the game doesn't prepare you well for it. Try to be close to level 30 and pay attention to abilities that allow you to control the entire battlefield and you'll be fine. If not, there's always YouTube. So enjoyable, short, minor issues, usually on sale. I can recommend this as long as folks aren't expecting AAA quality. Nice way to spend my weekend.
Minimalist story, can be resolved in just about any order, light puzzles that aren't too difficult, plenty of little things to find, see, and read. Good little game, finished in about 3.5 hours due to just checking stuff out. Worth it. Love this art style. ONLY reason that it's a 4 instead of a 5 is that I want just a little bit more to do!
