Well first it's worth noting that the gameplay mechanics are awfully familiar to anyone who's ever played the Diablo games, even down the frankly bloody annoying item/weapon/armor degrading/breaking mechanic that spoils many a crawl through a dungeon. The plot is a bit... shakey. Stuff just kinda happens and you roll with it because whatever (I just want my sandwich!) but generally the game play is quite fun. Or it's nothing brilliant and literary masterpiece this is not, but it's a fairly entertaining run around and smash stuff sort of game. I liked the occassional puzzle that took advantage of some of the mechanics but cannot really understand why the one or two pressure plate puzzles really required EVERYTHING in the game to be moveable. Hilarious as it is to walk into a church and fling pews around as you try to walk past them, a lot of the time the greased furniture just got in the way and annoyed me. Headbutting mages in the face was a lot of fun. the ending was not. I played a warrior and the end game that resulted was tedious and just flat out boring. Running around the map endlessly to hit the bad guy a few times before she teleported somewhere else on the map just frustrated me. And then the game just... ends. No fanfare, no prologue, it just... stops. You go home, credits roll. Er... A flat end to an otherwise pretty enjoyable if not a little cliche romp. Apparently if you play the two magic classes you get a different ending. I was annoyed that I was given the option to customize my character's appearance, but the cut scenes still displayed him as boring white, blonde guy. Why give the option then!? It could have been better, but I don't regret the few nights I spent headbutting mages and smacking ogres. Even if I never fully understood WHY I was doing half of what I was doing or why nobody else could help me out (lazy sods), it was pretty fun. Right up till the end at least.
So, I had high hopes for this based on reviews comparing it to things like Monkey Island. Sadly, MI it is not. Don't get me wrong, it's still a decent game, but it's never going to be a classic. The puzzle design is at times absolutely freaking nonsense and there were several cases where I either missed that something had TWO interactions associated with it (use item with and use on its own) or had to rub everything on everything else to work out what I needed to do. Some puzzles were logical, others were frustratingly obtuse or worse, the one thing you hadn't got right wasn't at all clear. There was a point where I had to use a dart gun and Rufus kept saying "yes, right distance." but not doing anything. I had to consult a walkthrough to learn I needed to go OUTSIDE. wtf? Why couldn't Rufus hint at that? It was funny in parts, but not laugh out loud funny. Rufus is a jerk but I don't mind jackass protagonists. I don't quite understand why Goal somehow "fell for him" after only 5 minutes though. What? Also the town's men all crowing to house the pretty lady in the tight jumpsuit was really uncomfortable and kinda creepy honestly. What was THAT about? "ooo pretty lady gimmie, she's mine" *puke* Hard to like a game that objectifies a woman like that and makes it out to be funny (A bunch of guys fighting over a girl like a piece of meat is NOT comedy, it's gross). I mean hell, she even has a chip in her head so you can knock her out and wipe her memories, how is that not super creepy? *shudder* Still, despite the unsettling subtext there, I found the plot interesting enough to want to play 2. The world is gorgeous and quite an interesting setup, i'd just like to see a lot less pervy bull and more intuitive puzzles. I like that you can skip the minigames, they're pretty tedious. I enjoyed the game apart from the pervy element, the rest was quite fun and end game was entertaining but goodness the puzzles... so unintuitive, so needlessly obtuse and random.
Okay so it's not BG2, but it comes pretty close to me. I actually really did enjoy this. The World Building is top notch, I love how as you travel around you learn little tidbits that flesh the world out more and really immerse you in the environment. You companions are generally entertaining and fun and combat is relatively simple and headache free. The plot though fairly generic is done well with some interesting twists and turns and I spent a good week going back to this wanting to finish which is a great sign. Now, it's worth noting a couple of things. Potential trigger warning, there IS a rather awful section in the dark roads involving where Dark Spawn come from which I was a bit unprepared for. It's handled pretty tastefully though, but could upset someone not expecting it in their fantasy hack and slash. Also the city elf story line had elements that made me reluctant to play through it for the same reason. Probably won't bother most people, just those who try to avoid such things in their escapism. Also the romance options are a bit... oddly written I found. As in, they just sorta start without any real buildup on your part and it's not always easy to tell you've actually started one. Oops? It's also way too easy to build your companions like for you, making them all love you doesn't take long at all which removes a bit of the antagonism there but does make for a calmer party. Still, I found myself a little disappointed that despite there being SO MANY items you could gift, you didn't really NEED to do so as your reputation with people generally got so high regardless. I also found myself wishing there was MORE banter between the npcs because I love npc banter. It was a joy to listen to them interact and brought back fond memories of long nights spent playing Baldur's Gate 2. Sadly, they don't have that many scripted interactions so if you use two or three companions regularly you'll hear them repeat themselves quite a lot. Still, a great game.
I love this game, it's just so much fun. Evil in indeed GOOD. gameplay is fairly straightforward, the humour is quite entertaining (I especially like the fluffy bunnies lol) and it's one of those games I keep going back to every few years because it's just really quite a lot of fun. The strategy for the various worlds is suitably varied that the gameplay doesn't get too repetitive and there's something wonderfully gleeful about dumping a load of maxed out monsters on your enemy heart and laughing as it's shrunk down to nothing and explodes. Ahh Dungeon Keeper. Challenging, entertaining, all around how you SHOULD do an RTS.
So, first off, I started this having played the first game and not really knowing if I had enjoyed it or not. All these games are rather Myst-like in that you just kind of meander around and stumble upon spooky happenings, but I found Lights Out to be somewhat more immersive and less "what the hell am I doing and where am I supposed to go?" than the first game. That said, I needed a walkthrough just to get the game bloody started. see, you spend a lot of time just clicking anything in the hope that doing so will magically unlock the next stage. First it's getting into a boat, and I can't even FINISH the game because it seems i've missed one "crucial" (read, not at all) pixel that I didn't click and so the stupid game won't allow me to complete it despite having the information I needed all there and plugged in. *headdesk* this sort of nonsense makes of a rather infuriating experience and breaks immersion massively. Having to go back over and over and click everything just to try to progress isn't fun at all, and having to redo every single door opening puzzle every time you want to go back through that door is STUPID and redundant. Gah. I don't like how hard it is to navigate. I kept getting turned around and lost and it was too easy to miss areas due to this. Now that said, I did find the lighthouse quite stunningly creepy. The sound design is excellent and the little spooky elements are quite effective. The plot goes off in a direction I didn't expect either, but I can't say it was a disappointing revelation. Just a weird one. My one problem with it would be the complete lack of explanation for a lot of what's going on, leaving you to simply speculate. I don't mind not having plot spoon fed but I would have loved to know HOW it was doing what it was doing and what precisely it was trying to do and why Parker was so special. That never seemed to be resolved or explained which was a bit unsatisfying. Still, a pretty odd, albeit rather flawed game.
