Well... the game might have been a novelty back in the day but it'ssimply boring now. Unless you cheat and go guns blazing, there's just one way of passing the mission and your task is not to fulfill the contract as such but to guess what the devs thought will be the way to do it. Thats... boring. I appreciate the idea so one bonus star but apart from that, not much fun.
OK. I know that it's really the first "big" game that kickstarted CDP to the level that eventually brought us Witcher3 and CP2077. I bought the pre-order launch edition in that big box (and got it delivered later than the game was available in stores but that's another story) and I had loads of fun with it back then even though before one of the patches loading times made it really a test of patience. I tried to come back to it now in 2024. And just couldn't force myself to deal with the weirdness of the UI, controls and mechanics. No jumping, no climbing, no swimming... You can feel the age. Even GTA3 was less limiting. The combat system is clunky. Yes, it can be mastered, it is liked by some people but for me it's mostly annoying. And some of the "plot devices" - like Vesemir standing in the only doorway from a room so that you cannot pass (because every time you approach him a dialogue with no real options except for "see ya later" opens) and simply must do the thing that script writers said you must do to continue. Well, it feels the game is relatively old and much simpler than modern ones. So yes, the memory is sweet but it didn't age very well. Maybe not like milk but definitely not like wine. It's worth remembering as a significant step in the long way to the masterpiece that Witcher 3 was but for me that's it - worth remembering, not really worth replaying.
In "just" 63MB fit a game which back in the day should have been about 1/100th that size. Also - make "retro" graphics which means you can't be bothered with designing something aesthetically pleasing - just pretend it's still early eighties. I just don't get all those "pseudo-retro" games.
I remember having played that back in the day and being drawn in hard. So I thought I'd relive the experience. OK, I expected an old game with 16-bit aesthetics and so on but honestly, it got me bored quite quickly. Don't know why but I don't recall the game as such a chore. Maybe I'm too old and impatient. Maybe it's that I'm too used to modern games where exploring the world is a reward in itself because the world is rich, which obviously couldn't be done back 30 years ago so you're stuck with the stock walls and the flat world. Maybe. Also, experience of running the game in DosBox is a letdown - the game is unresponsive, the controls are clunky and the overall feeling is a big mess. So yes, it's a big step-up from, say, EotB games but I'd rather play me some Ultima Underworld.
Someone already pointed out that the game is CPU-speed sensitive and with dosbox emulation it plays differently than it used to on plain... well, dos box. Also it seems to be way worse performing than it used to. Maybe there is something in the way it was programmed that doesn't play very well with dosbox. But there is also something else I don't recall back from the day - there are several missions where your opponents appear out of nowhere very close to you, sometimes even directly on your tail. In some spots, for example, they always appear some 2-3 kilometers directly in front of you regardless of which direction your airplane is pointing. Every single time as you shoot one pair, the moment the second aircraft of that pair crashes another two airplanes are conjured out of thin air directly in front of you (and facing you of course). Sometimes you can "cheat" that by predicting that and pointing your nose down so they don't spawn since they'd have to spawn underground. But there are also points where you use autopilot and it disengages in a point where you have two airplanes in front of you and two on your tail. Ridiculous. And that's a pitty because I remember that I loved this game back when it came out.
Really, it's mostly most of the same. The abilities were a bit reorganized, the controls were a bit improved, the graphics is much better (2 years is a big difference in that field). But apart from that - it's still a console port with all its annoyances - very linear action, quirky camera, frustrating controls and those bloody quick time events. Can't say much about the story since I'm only some 2h into the game. So if you liked the first one - chances are you'll like this one as well. If not - it's not that much of an improvement.
[Mild spoilers ahead[ Since I've never played it before or even seen the game being played I was pretty curious especially that some reviews praise the game as being one of the best in the whole SW franchise. Well, that didn't go that well. First the good - the story isn't all that bad even though it's non-canon. The ending however is kinda anti-climactic. The graphics didn't age that badly considering the game age (but the real actor's models are a bit funny looking). Of course the SW music is there. The overall premise of playing "the bad guy" is interesting at first but quickly wears off as you're progressing to the good side (even if for all the bad reasons). The action is also quite entertaining at first but again - gets tedious and boring as you progress through the game. Since your only weapon is the lightsaber, the enemies are more and more resistant so it's getting several hits to kill one stormtrooper. Silly. Even more silly it gets with tougher adversaries - you pound AT-ST walker for half an hour only to split it open with one clean cut at the end. Kinda inconsistent, isn't it? And the worst part - it's a console game port and it feels and shows throughout the game. The controls are clunky - for the most of the game you're throwing stuff around and controls for that are based on a two-joystick gamepad scheme and are poorly translated to the mouse+keyboard controls. The camera is unsteady and choosing your target is not as obvious as you'd want. And controls in the 1-on-1 fights are really annoying. And of course you have those frustrating quick time events - you got your enemy to zero health but you still have to push your buttons in a specific timed sequence or you're stuck in trying to finish him off. Stupid ad hell. And of course the save system which is actually a checkpoint system. Of course it doesn't matter mucn since the game is linear and you have no choices to make (except for small level of freedok when advancing your character). Disappointing
OK. It looks better and feels better than two previous ones in the LAU trilogy. Unfortunately I got stuck very early due to a bug - where you're supposed to place two crates on a pressure plate, the crates simply jump off the plate and you cannot progress any further. So no love here even though it looked as it had some potential.
OK. After trying out the Legend (and not being overly impressed) I hoped that maybe next installment polished out some flaws. Well... it didn't. Firstly, if you got used to controls in the previous game - you'll need some getting used to this one since the default bindings changed. A minor issue since you can redefine the keys but annoying nevertheless. The progagonist model is still an absurdly unrealistic overly elongated "fit" woman which is more a zitty teenager's wet dream than any realistic person. I can understand the appeal for younger male audience but for a grown-up it's just ridiculous. The controls are annoying, swimming is clunky, the camera has a life of its own and since your moves depend on the actual camera angle, it's very often than you misjudge the proper jump direction because the camera just flipped somewhere else in the last second. That's one of the most frustrating parts. I'm not very fond of the linearity of the main adventure but that's me. Others may be OK with it. The manor part seemed to be a more "exploratory" part of the game and at first was fun but quickly turned into a chore consisting mostly of running back and forth across the whole estate and trying to nail the jumps (see remarks above) in the gymnasium. And it seems to be much more bugged than the Legend. So overally - maybe it was worth the time if you had been a fan of the original game and got this back in 2008 as a remake of the original TR. As for the game from 2008 it didn't age that well graphics-wise compared to some other games released around that time. So it might be worth giving it a try even for the reason of being one of the few original "3d platformers" (I'm still to try out the "modern" Prince of Persia) but don't set your expectations too high.
OK. I played the original Tomb Raider loooong ago and didn't like the perspective much so I skipped next ones in the series. Out of curiosity I bought this one with a healthy discount and decided to give it a go. Of course it looks dated for today's standards but that was expected and I'm not judging the game for that. It's the edge of what I find acceptable in "classic 3d game". So it will do. But there are too many thing that won't do. First and foremost - it's a console game ported to PC. And it shows. From the controls, through those annoying "push the right button" action scenes to the save system. The save system is atrocious and similar to the one in XIII - you can save any time in the game but... it will save the last checkpoint, not your actual progress in the game. And the checkpoints aren't separately saved so while you can do "resume game" at the beginning, if you load any other "save", your original checkpoint is lost forever. It's not saved anywhere. And that was the last straw. But before that was the annoyingly jerky camera motion and relatively annoying riddles. They can be fun sometimes but they seem to be the 3d equivalent of pixel-hunting in good old point-and-click adventure games - you must guess whether the developers wanted you to be able to jump to that rope or not; whether you should jump to that ledge or not. Whether you should drop down here or if you'll die if you do. And so on. Oh, and the model of the main character is over the top - it's the pimpled teenager's wet dream. I understand that Lara is supposed to be relatively attractive sporty type but this one is really made to excess - it's ridiculous. Especially the evening dress version. I'm apparently too old for this.
