For those who played newer iterations of this genre such as D2 (MXL), D3, PoE among others, the game is almost unplayable without mods. With mods such as belzebub it is a better experience but still not enough. It is a shame that D1 has the best story and atmosphere in the series, slightly better presented than D2 and leagues ahead of D3. The dark colour palette and the tomes narrating the story are quite immersive. At a significant discount from this price point, I would recommend giving it a go with a mod like belzebub, hell 2 or devilutionX but not at its full price or the typically offered modest 25%.
Death of the outsider is an okay sequel and a nice wrap-up for the whole story. Gameplay-wise the game struggles a little with less skills, less choices and less mechanics compared to D1 and D2, but the story is pretty good if a bit short. For those who liked D1 & DLCs as well as D2 I don't see much wrong with also playing this sequel. However, unlike D1 and D2 I don't think I will be replaying this iteration.
Dishonored was an important milestone in the immersive sim genre, my favourite in gaming. The story is captivating, the powers are creative, the level design, the world and the lore are all great too. Replayability is also very high with the chaos system and its effects on the world as well as the character progression diversity that is possible with the different playstyles. Highly recommended.
Dishonored 2 has a weaker story than the first game + DLCs but makes up for it in better gameplay mechanics, better graphics and a higher gameplay diversity owing to the two selectable characters & the new game + mode unifying the two characters. The level design overall is great. Especially, the mission "A crack in the slab" is absolutely brilliant. Just for that alone, I'd recommend a full playthrough of the game. A minor inconvenience was the unoptimized nature of the game engine pushing my system to its limits, not in terms of performance but rather fan noise. This is not something I'm accustomed to and found very off-putting at times.
Prey offers a wonderful combination of a great story, brilliant gameplay mechanics, good graphics, and a rich world with a lot of small background stories of each character dead and alive and so much replayability with many choices. Some immersive sims such as system shock 2 or deus ex of course have a higher historical significance but Prey's whole package takes the genre even further. I replayed Prey many times and do not regret having done so. I just wish there was a worthy sequel especially considering how the game ended in such an open-ended fashion. For those who want to play the game, I'd recommend playing it your favourite way on your first go and then also get some help from guides to discover the game's full content. The game is massive and I am confident that most players would not be able to explore it fully without some additional reading.
SOMA, as you can read in many reviews, has a very interesting story. One can even call it deep in comparison to most video games. However, the gameplay is a letdown: The story is too linear Puzzles are trivially easy Map design is confusing and not creative The story, despite being good, is not unparallelled in its subject or complexity. I am not going into aspects like lack of inventory, skills etc. because that would be a criticism on the genre not the implementation. However, whatever type of game SOMA attempts to be, it fails at it. In the end one ends up playing the game for its story and I don't think it is good enough for me to recommend it to others. For a much deeper, more immersive and creative experience you can check out Prey, System Shock 2 and other similar games. If you like the story and not the gameplay, maybe Talos Principle could be a good choice.
I loved playing this game. I still think the original Deus Ex had a stronger story, but this one came close, with obviously much better graphics and mechanics. It was a blast to play. With discounts, I consider it an absolute must buy if you are even slightly interested in the genre.
First, I played the game with the immensely useful instructions here https://www.gog.com/forum/heretic_hexen_collection/portal_on_praevus_cd_gog_hexen_ii/post8 With this setup the controls and graphics are much better than vanilla. I think the game was a pleasant experience overall. I think the puzzles are mostly smartly designed. It's too bad that the objectives feature did not work on my system, and it was hard to keep track of progress. The general experience is unsurprisingly fitting for a very old game. It takes some patience and tolerance to play it due to almost non-existent quality of life features. Still it was good fun for the few days it took to finish the game. I was curious about it since my childhood, and it was cool to play it.
Games of the Deus Ex series are always a grand experience in terms of storytelling and gameplay mechanics. This particular iteration has better mechanics and a weaker story compared to human revolution. I had a lot of fun playing it, but the story was not as engaging. A game bridging the era of this game with the background of the first Deus Ex game is still needed, pity it has not happened all these years.
Cleverly designed puzzles, fun and creative mechanics, engaging music, a very well written story, great voice-acting. The only issue I had was how the endgame experience for the most exhaustive exploration was underwhelming. Collection of the stars takes a huge effort whereas the reward was an unsatisfactory ending.
