For a 3 in 1 bundle, 15 bucks is not a bad prize. That said, I'm not sure if all these games deserves a 5 dollar tag. If any. Let's go through them: Planet's edge- it's a more or less freeform space exploration game. A light RPG, with a moderately well realized gameworld. I played it a couple of times back in the day, but found it rather confusing and dull. It's no Starlight or Star Control. The CRPG addict covered it in crazy detail. Zephyr- a vehicular arena-combat game. You fly all over the place but in a weird, 2,5D engine, where you can't really look up or down. It's frantic, but hard to control and honestly a mess. ADG made a full video on it. Wetlands- of all the three, this one's the one I managed to finish playing through. It's a very standard scifi railshooter in the vein of Microcosm, or even moreso, Cyberia. The cutscenes look brilliant, they have a beautiful, cartoony style, but the gameplay itself is merely fine. Perfectly playable, but you really just grind through it to see the story unfold. I salute GOG for bringing these back, as all three are rather rare games. Noone talks about them anymore and they're really hard to find. Rare doesn't necessarily mean good, though. I'll definitely buy it sometime for nostalgia's sake, but if you haven't encountered any of them before, I don't think you'll find hidden gems here. This pack's mainly for collectors.
Bought this one two times already. Once on a disc, and once when it came out on GOG. Because sure, I'm going to buy something AGAIN when it comes out DRM free on GOG. Because when I buy a game, I want to have a safe copy, FAR AWAY from the grubby hands of later publishers. AND developers. The same way Scott never seems to be done with his Blade Runner editing, sometimes developers don't seem to be satisfied with their older games - which can be understandable. The main difference here is that they only made a couple of changes in modelling, animation and lighting, which is good, I guess (though, honestly, who cares), and a couple of changes in their jokes, because they want to dial back on their french characters (?) and some of their puns (?). Again, I'd say "who cares", but they clearly do. And I don't. If this was a plain graphical update, I'd give this 3 stars. The game itself is rather good (a 4 stars game on it's own), but you really don't need any updated as long as it runs on your machine. And it definitely didn't need to change the writing. And I definitely didn't need to know about it. Seriously, If I didn't read about it, it wouldn't realise any of the changes. Because, I guess, bad press is press as well. I'm done. I'm not buying this again, I'll just cherish the games I already have.
On paper, this is the ultimate "heartbreaker" rpg game. Based on the "Dark eye" tabletop roleplaying game (Germany's answer to Ad&d) the whole thing seems as generic as it gets. Yet, somehow it clicks. I think the respect the devs show the source material makes this one a pretty unique experience. The Dark eye is your typical oldschool, heroic rpg. On one hand it means almost incomprehensable rulesets, but also a lot of freedom to do whatever you wish to do in this well realised, lore-rich fantasy wolrd. And the world is really endearing in it's oldschool ways. It has zero pretentions, zero edge, not a spec of cynicism. The whole thing is shamelessly, lovingly nerdy. It's not perfect unfortunately. As I wrote above, the rules are rather messy. If you're not familiar with the mechanics of the Dark eye games, you'll be scratching your head a lot. The interface also doesn't help much, as it is quite convoluted. The inventory and skill pages are super easy to get lost in, and leveling up can be very confusing. Also there's practically no fast travel and the maps can be a little vague. Also, the story is a little impersonal this time around. All in all, it is a little rough around the edges but if you're looking for a lovingly made, old fashioned stat-heavy heroic rpg, definitely give this one a try - or wait a little until GOG releases the sequel: The River of time. Which is very similar to this one, only better in every way.
The main idea about the game is that it's basically Heart of Darkness (or Apocalypse Now) again. It is, as it's said by others, a righteously angry anti-war shooter, where your character is faced by impossible odds, and makes horrible decisions - so, in order to keep playing you have to contor this horrible person, who becomes even worse by the minute. But hey, you want to keep playing, don't you? For shame!!! But seriously, you probably wouldn't. The game itself is not very good. It's your bog-standard, early 2010's cover based military shooter. It's not enjoyable at all. It's clunky, dull, stiff, and barely interactive. It's hard to feel conflicted about a game which is actively scorns you for playing, but you don't really want to play it anyway in the first place. In thje end, while I agree with it's sentiments, mechanically it's way too weak - so much so, I never get around finishing it.
Superliminal is a first person puzzler in the vein of the likes of Portal 2. This time the name of the game is PERSPECTIVE. Small things turn huge if you go close enough, seemingly unrelated shapes come together into a single object from a certain angle, ect. The "story" is really simple and I'm not going to spoil it. The setup is that you, the player, is at a dream-therapy session, hence the weird, surreal otherworldly places and puzzles (if you're into the "liminal places" craze, then you'll love the setting). Unlike most games of similar nature, the "opposition" is a little more mysterious and a little less ominous. But that doesn't mean the game doesn't have it's forboding moments. My only gripe would be the game's length. I don't mind the fact that it lasts only for a short while (though really, it can be completed in an afternoon), but i do feel some of the aspects and puzzling-posibilities of this world remains unexplored. All in all, a very well designed, compact and clever game with a well thought out and constructed story that has a nice arc and slowly built up tension - and quite a handful of extremely fun puzzles. Highly recommended.
... just reinstalled it about a year ago. At that point, I haven't played it for 15 years at least. But folks, this game holds up. I'm pretty sure all that's need to be said have been said, I just wanted to add, that it's not the rose tinted glasses that give this one a 4/5 average rating.
