The tutorial was janky, but... passable - but the AI in the first mission is extremely buggy and non-sensical, I don't really understand how this title is consered to be a stealth masterpiece. What's fun about trying to guess over and over again what the broken and unreliable system of the game wants from you exactly? I guess I'm missing something, but I had no luck with the Splinter Cell titles either. I guess I'm just gonna stick with the good old Thief games whenever I'm in the mood for something stealthy.
Back in 2006 I played the hell out of the demo and fallen in love with the Greeek mitology setting and the beautiful graphics. After buying the full version here a decade later though... I had to realize how stockholm-syndrome inducing this genre is. Since then, I'm completely aware of how these type of games are grindy by their nature, but it was a genuine shock on my part, I hadn't played Diablo, or much of any other similar games at that point. I still admit though: I kinda like Titan Quest. The masteries are fun, graphics still look fantastic, the music and sound design is great, so... there are quite a lot of stuff here to praise. It's just disappointing how much the game can drag forever with its dull dungeons and clone trooper enemies. I guess I'm not from the core target audience... or just more critical in thinking(?) Either way, I enjoy starting a new character and seeing how a different mastery works, so... not sure. Anyway, Titan Quest is a fun game if you are a die hard fan of the genre, or just want a time killer that doesn't need too much thinking - just keep in mind that it's exactly as grindy and over-dragged (the campaign goes forever, and the story is pretty much bare bones) as other games from the genre.
Dishonored is a lot of fun gameplay wise, missions are different enough, but I found the overall writing... not consistently good. Lots of lore dump readables, everything related to the Outsider feels like an afterthought, and the twist around the 2/3 of the game is just too forced and even with the foreshadowings, seems illogical. The way the different characters constantly explain to you what, how and why happened makes it even more obvious even the developers weren't probably sure about it. Also, it's a little bit shame you'll have to use the Dark Vision ability a lot if you want to go the extra stealth route. These are my nitpicks, but I generally think Dishonored is a good time, I like to replay it every once in a while (the campaign is luckily not too long, you can easily finish it in a couple of afternoons). It has a pretty unique world and art design, lots of areas look fantastic even today. Maps are relatively small, but I like how focused is the whole experience.
Hexplore is a surprising gem, considering its age (the 360° camera is one of the highlights), but I think the party management is a bit clunky and cumbersone, which is a shame, because that's one of the most essential parts of the game. Also, since neither the story nor the setting are really interesting, it couldn't grab my attention for more than 1-2 hours. I still think it's a fun title, worth checking out when it's discounted. I'm a bit disappointed, but I didn't regret giving it a try.
The first Deus Ex game is a classic for good reasons, but I gotta say, many of its technical aspects (not the graphics, I don't mind them at all, the game looks charming) aged like milk - so from a pure gaming experience perspective, I think Human Revolution is much better: the mechanics are pretty polished and work really well. The game has its own distinct vibe and character, though perhaps takes itself a bit too seriously (completely lacks JC Denton's deadpan humor from the first game).I find the writing generally pretty good, but the overall story kinda struggles to make itself actually interesting. You may enjoy the sidequests much more. Last, but not least: I'm not entirely a fan of the art design, it works, so my main concern about the game is the terrible and unskippable DLC, Missing Link. It's one of the most annoying fillers I've ever experienced in a video game, completely murders the pacing. Overall it's a fantastic game, just take a deep breath when you reach the DLC (all of your augmentations will be temporarily removed, you can't miss it).
King's Bounty is an alright, competently put together game, but unless you're a die hard fan of this kind of title, it's quite boring. The setting is an extremely generic, post-warcraft 3 fantasy world (the assets and animations are nicely done though), and unfortunately the story and the dialogs offer nothing besides the bare minimum. I'm not really convinced a random free mobile game couldn't reach this bar today. Some players may have fond memories for good reasons, but I'm very skeptical King's Bounty is actually worth the time of any newcomers.
I genuinely admire the effort the team put into this game. There are lots of cool ideas here, but sadly, the end result is awkward and clunky at best, boring and hollow at worst. The whole stuff feels like an alpha build, to be completely honest. The quest system is painful, making any meaningful progress is nerve-crackingly slow, and let's not talk about the Benny Hill chasing scene generator world map. Later entries may be more polished, and I think I can understand if someone can overlook the problems here. Personally, I regretted all those couple of hours I invested into trying to enjoy this game.
