I wish that I could like Project Eden more than I do. I like all of the individual elements of it. I like the dystopian sci-fi future setting, I like the vaguely British/Oceaniac vibe of it that makes it feel like a Liquid TV cartoon imported from one of those regions, I like the Lost Vikings-inspired gameplay and the idea of progressing deeper into the world through contextual puzzle-solving and uncovering a sinister mystery. When I played the demo in my late teens I always desperately wanted to get my hands on it. It has a pleasing interface and the characters are easy to understand and navigate between. In execution it's unfortunately repetitive, anemic, and was ultimately a long chore to finish. It also abandons any gravity there might have been in its story and the ending is a stupid one-off joke. I think the developers clearly knew this, and I still admire the hard work they put into the game. It seems to have been a concept and idea ultimately much too large for them to realize that was ultimately shaped into something that only just worked as a full release. I'd like to see it better executed now, but it wouldn't have any of the 2000's charm that ultimately carried me through it. Still, to my eyes it looks fairly pleasant once you turn off the God-awful texture filtering, and I was ultimately interested enough in its world to see it through to the end, some breaks notwithstanding. Recommended on a sale, particularly if you were a teen or 20-something in the 2000's. Like it or not, it'll definitely come across as being of 'your era' of gaming if that's the case, and I suppose that's worth something these days.
So I would have rather seen the version of this as an RPG that John Romero originally envisioned. I'd venture to guess that's true of a lot of us, although I'm certain not all. The 3D tech Carmack programmed for this can't be undersold in terms of how influential and important it was, and it's not a tech demo the way Quake II is because Romero was at least still sort of around, but I certainly don't go back to it as often as Doom or Doom II. It ultimately lacks the longevity and versatility and community of Doom because of lacking the heart. As well as a generally poorer monster roster. Still, you don't have Half-Life without Quake, and without Half-Life you essentially don't have modern narrative video games as they now exist. And it's certainly still a lot of fun, although as I progress through the episodes I get a little bit overdosed on the dinginess of the color palate and the sameness of the environments, and the few bosses that there are, not counting Vores, are profoundly disappointing. To me, even a basic circle-strafe to win boss like in Doom or Duke3D would be preferable to the anemic final encounter with Shub-Niggurath. Despite it being a tech demo, I kind of enjoy Quake 2 more. The atmosphere is just better, in my opinion. Still, it's an important part of gaming history, and you should play through it at least once. Even on Nightmare, it's pretty fun. Oh, and that Trent Reznor is a pretty talented musician. What's he doing now?
This is what happened before Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2. I mean, it's fine. It's great even, as Doom clones go. The story is much better than Doom's, in that it exists outside of goofy text inserts. It has animation and voiceover and a cool main character. Established characters from the Star Wars canons that are now almost nothing but ironic memes are introduced and occupy the game world in a cool, non-cringe manner almost lost to in the current era of Star Wars. But how can you compete with the game in which we all finally got to go Full Jedi? Although the archaic lives system is a little galling, I guess it also was in Doom at the time, and there was plainly just no better option in terms of that special Star Wars pew pew feel in 1995. So if you can stomach old man games and are looking for a title that bleeds that classic Star Wars style, pick it up. But you'll probably still enjoy the sequel more. It isn't Dark Forces' fault, it's just that much better.
Never has there been a more delicate and considered balance of jank, 90s irony/satire, calculated bad taste, and considered, careful implementation of meticulously thought-out gameplay mechanics. Despite essentially having operated at varying levels of functionality over the years and the updates, from 'barely working' in the beginning to 'mostly operational' now, Postal 2 has nevertheless always been a blast to play. It sets you loose in a fun open world and encourages you to explore and have a good time through breaking it. It's less edgy than its isometric predecessor whose name really isn't important anymore, possibly due to being released post-Columbine, but that's essentially to its credit. Although it can get a little dark and brutal depending upon how you choose to play, it never has too much of an impact to it and I always feel like it takes place in the same universe as say, Married With Children, so I can never take it too seriously. The gunplay works, the hit point loss/restoration mechanics are easy to understand, and the weapons and mechanics that break functionality at least do so entertainingly. And it always seems like some new weird thing happens every time I go through it. The devs have also made almost every piece of additional content they've ever released free as of this time, and as of me writing this the game itself is being given away for free on GOG. So what's to lose? I know I regret nothing.
Devil Daggers might disappoint you if you think of it as an FPS game, since its aspirations are more in line with classic arcade games like Tempest or Missile Command of Battlezone than with the 90s FPSs to which it may or may not bear more superficial similarities. It seeks to be an unsettling, heavy, macabre experience as those games did, both in term of the stark minimalism of its visuals, its not quite identifiable software-rendered aesthetic, and its oppressive sound design. Like those arcade greats, it's not really about fighting your way through levels or towards a boss as much as seeing how good you can do, which is probably not very, against the relentless and ever-increasing challenge and unpleasant atmosphere. If you manage to be among the relatively small group of players who can get to the end of the sequence, you can even try and keep doing it. Although to be honest, that's also the source of my only disappointment with it. I love the graphics, I love the sounds, I love the world and the situation it implies and how it fuels my imagination. I'd love to one day see more from Sorath in this engine, perhaps a proper entry into the booming throwback FPS scene, or a methodical dungeon crawler. But I keep coming back to this, and have way more hours in it on Steam than I should in any game in which my play sessions are so generally brief. So if this is what we've got, then so be it.
Emulate it. If you're one of those weirdos who won't do that, then this is a close as you're going to get. It really needs the supplemental DLC/Sequel Keepers of the Dark to even approach its intended status of jank Indonesian PC Fatal Frame, since that has all the combat in it. If you can stand the ragged edges, it's sort of entertaining I guess. I'll stick with emulation.
