The bugs people were complaining about appear to be nearly all fixed by CDPR. In all the time I spent playing this, I only encountered one bug, and the game didn't crash at all. The cyberpunk setting is a bit depressing. Dialog & characters were a mixed bag. Occasionally you have a line of dialog from Johnny that had me laugh a bit even after I stopped playing, but there were also times I wanted to skip some dialog from other characters who were often much less interesting. The dialog included satisfying options similar to what you may have experienced in other RPGs that allow you to intimidate/persuade others to change dialog outcomes. The FPS gameplay was nothing amazing, but it was a refreshing change compared to the usual medieval fantasy RPG. The level of character customization in the game was truly outstanding. The game even lets you choose if you want your character to be circumcized! Story: 8/10 ... a bit thought provoking at times Dialog: 7/10 .... mixed bag, some good some bad Gameplay: 7/10 Characters: 6/10 Johnny was entertaining, but a lot of the rest were boring to listen to Graphics: 10/10 ... nice showcase of what you can do with ray tracing Considering it's a sci-fi RPG, there aren't many better options available released in the last several years despite the flaws this game has.
People who like this game often rave about how they love to explore the large "open world." But are we really getting more content? It seems more like they took a typical amount of game content and then spread it out over a larger area, reducing the density of content and making players waste time running across large mostly-empty areas to find it (what Fallout 3 players call "exploration"). While running across these vast distances between towns (which themselves are not very interesting) in the mostly-empty "wasteland," you encounter the same types of enemies over and over again. Sure, you can fast-travel, but only after arriving in a town once previously. It's monotonous, repetitive, and boring. And the story (what story?) is also bad. The game almost feels like it's an open world full of side-quests. If you were hoping to find some epic story like in the original three Mass Effect RPGs, you are going to be very disappointed. KOTOR 1, KOTOR 2, or Mass Effect 1-3 were much better.
I just want to point out that metacritic greatly underrated this game. It was rated "overwhelmingly positive" on Steam by actual players, yet the metacritic score is only 86/100. This is THE game that got me into the Tomb Raider series. I never thought it would be good, but I got it for free with a graphics card I bought a while ago, and couldn't believe how fun it is. I enjoyed it so much I bought several other Tomb Raider games as well after I played it. The gameplay is fantastic. I don't usually like puzzles, but most of the puzzles in the game were actually fun. And the shooting gameplay and RPG elements were both delightful as well.
This game has top-notch gameplay and one of the best single player campaign stories of any recent game I've played. It has outstanding game art, graphics, and aesthetics that have aged like fine wine. And it has an imaginative and unique new game world that is a pleasure to explore and learn about. I would especially recommend this to gamers who enjoyed BioShock or for gamers who enjoy first person stealth action games. This game is very similar to BioShock but with an emphasis on stealth gameplay. The story is delivered in a very similar way to what we had from the BioShock games. This is classic, and almost every gamer should play it.
After the older Heroes of Might and Magic 2, this is my next favorite turn-based fantasy strategy game. Like the previous game, this game has fantastic music and aesthetics, and incorporates a variety of magical creatures from different myths and religions of the world such as Greek Titans and Minotaurs, to Genies and other creatures from middle eastern cultures, as well as other magical and medieval creatures like wizards, druids, crusaders, etc. This game also seems to bring in creatures from the Christian religion like Angels and Devils as well. I would recommend playing Heroes of Might and Magic 2 first if you are new to the series because it's the best and will familiarize yourself with the game world before moving on to the newer game, particularly if you're playing the single player campaign (which isn't that great imo). The way I most enjoy playing this are the single player skirmish scenarios vs the AI. This is old, but it's a classic. This is the sort of game I still play with friends who used to play this with me in decades past because it's still quite fun even decades later. People will argue over which is the best in the series, but I think the general consensus in my experience is that Heroes 2 and Heroes 3 are the best (by far). If you like medieval fantasy and turn-based strategy games like Civilization 5 or something like that, don't hesitate to buy this! I strongly recommend it.
This is an easy game to recommend for anyone who likes fantasy games and turn-based strategy games. I love the unique fantasy world they created with many creatures that seem to be inspired by Greek myths like the Titans, Minotaurs, etc. The campaign story isn't that great and doesn't have the seriousness required to tell a good story, but it's fun to play single-player skirmish mode vs the AIs. I highly recommend this game if you can get over the aging graphics. Heroes of Might and Magic 2 and 3 are the best in the series, and both should be played. I suggest starting with this game (Heroes 2) if you are new to the series.
Crytek's experience with making the first Crysis game shows here as this game does everything better. The pacing, story, and gameplay elements are all superior in Crysis Warhead. This game feels a bit like playing a hybrid of Half-Life 2 and Call of Duty. And it's every bit as outstandingly good as that comparison implies it is. The outstanding quality of the graphics has made this game age very well, and there were still many moments where beautiful explosions in action-packed scenes made my jaw drop. If you enjoyed any of the Half-Life games or the Call of Duty games, this is a must-play game!
I wouldn't say Crysis is a classic game because the main contribution it made to PC gaming in its time are probably going to be the game's fantastically beautiful (for its time) graphics. However, it is certainly well-made overall even aside from graphics, and has fun gameplay and a decent story as well. I would certainly say the gameplay in this is quite a bit more interesting than the gameplay in conventional action shooter games like Call of Duty 4. And the fact the company put so much work into making graphics that were incredible and industry-leading for its time means Crysis still looks halfway decent even today -- even if it is showing its age a bit. Enthusiast gamers who have been gaming since the time of Crysis will no doubt recall the numerous "Can it run Crysis?" comments whenever a new graphics card came out, demonstrating the game's history as the benchmark of supreme PC gaming graphics (for its time anyway), and the game's historical role in pushing PC gamers to get ever more powerful graphics cards so they could run this. Thus, apart from playing a highly rated and well-made game, new players are now given the opportunity to experience some serious PC gaming history here. I was surprised to see Crysis on the Steam store has SecuROM DRM with a limited number of activations/installations of the game. It seems ridiculous to me that EA and the developer didn't patch it out of the game by now considering Crysis is 14 years old as of when I write this review. Fortunately, I was delighted to see this version of this historic gem is available on GOG so we don't have to put up with that nonsense to enjoy this fantastic game! The game has a bit of a Half-Life feel, and shares many similarities with games from that franchise. If you enjoyed games like Half-Life 2 and you never got around to playing Crysis, you should definitely give this game a chance.
I went into this game expecting something mediocre considering it was made by Obsidian and I didn't really like Obsidian's work on Neverwinter Nights 2, but this was actually surprisingly good. I would even argue it is a classic. The storytelling was arguably every bit as good, if not better than the previous Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic game, and this game brings several other nice improvements with it as well. One downside of this game is that it didn't include the dueling arena minigame the Hutts offered in the previous game. However, this downside is more than made up for by the high quality characters and storytelling this game has to offer, as well as some helpful conveniences the original KOTOR game lacked, such as the ability to cast a group of buffing spells with only a single action, making the game far less tedious considering the buffs wear off so quickly (just like in the previous KOTOR game). Regarding the characters and story, I'm not going to name names, but there were two characters in particular that kept me guessing about what faction they were on for much of the game because of the intriguing dialog and plot, and there was one in particular that left me utterly surprised with how things turned out. The characters and writing quality are both superb... particularly for a Star Wars game. I would also like to point out how fabulous the music is in this game. The developers did an outstanding job using music to augment the storytelling and set the mood for the game. For those not familiar with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, this game is basically very similar to the games from the original Mass Effect trilogy. The dialog, gameplay, roleplaying elements, and dialog options are all very similar. So if you liked the original three Mass Effect games, I would highly recommend this game as well, but you should certainly play the original Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic first.
