I will treat both games as one for this review. They are basically the same apart from graphical updates and a couple of GUI changes. So, you wanna be a pirate! Well, this game remains your best bet (together with the later released second remake which however has more changes for better or worse). There is a backstory where you have to find and free the captive members of your family, but it is neither a prerequisite or at any point anything more than what it is, a back story. In the game you end up with a small ship, a small crew, and lots of ambition. It's up to you if you are going to work for one (or more) of the major colonial powers, mainly as a privateer, or focus on a more secluded career. You can trade goods and guns in towns, or raid them for them. You can attack enemy ships, or hail them for news. You can search for lost treasures with your land party, or visit towns on foot. You are free to do as you wish. The parts of the games are, the sailing in the main map, which is done in real time, the fighting on land with your pirates against town guards(if you attack the town on foot) etc, which is in turn based mode. The fighting between ships, which is very similar to the main map sailing only in a "zoomed up" area and again in real time. There are sword fights in real time, where you fight a major opponent, be it a captain, town guard, etc. The controls are super effective, still perfect after 25 years. The gameplay is top notch and even the now primitive graphics of the first game, remain in a strange way, realistic enough. For me the Pirates! series (and of course mainly the very first game) is among the classics of the video gaming world. Right next to Pac Man, Tetris, etc. If you are a gamer, you owe it to yourself to get this bundle. Stop reading these reviews, buy the game and play the game!
A good game, victim of having a famous father. If there was no Deus Ex 1,this would get more favourable reviews. It was unlucky it was the sequel to the almost (for many) godlike first game. On its own it is a good solid FPS game with some RPG elements upgrading yourself and having some options on how to proceed with each level. It's not as big or as sandboxy as the previous game, but it is not a rail shooter either. There is good action, good graphics, everything is pretty good with it and unless one is looking for an equal or better game to DE1, he/she should have a good time with this game too. A good solid 3 star game for me.
I still have the floppies and the box of this somewhere. I remember the day I bought it and it's beautiful box, opening the box and looking the blue 3.44 disks, 3 IIRC. One of my all time favourite games, not just turn based strategy games. A game based on the Civilization "engine", which IMO far surpassed its parents. You begin as the head of the colonial forces of your European country of choice (*out of four) and proceed to colonize the new world. Deal with the other powers and the various native American tribes. Bribe, fight, talk, trade, whatever you wish. The final goal of each game is to manage to gather enough populace support, and the economy and military to back it up, and declare independence from the nasty European royalty. When you do the Royalty will not just accept it, but send huge forces to teach you a lesson. You then need to fight, trade,etc till you gain the independence for good. How exactly you do it, it is up to you. Great graphics and music for its time, still good enough, though pixelated obviously, graphics. The music remains top notch. The game in general is IMHO perfect. Get it, I know I will get it again. Oh, if you haven't played a Civilization game (it's possible!), perhaps you have played Gold of the Americas by SSG. I am not saying they are very similar, but if you did and liked it, you are going to love Colonization!
One of the few open world FPS games. There is a central plot line you will need to follow if you want to finish the game, but you don't have to do only that all of the time. There are many side missions you can do which are not integral to the plot and they are not needed to finish the game, but provide various rewards, be it unlocking of weapons, extra diamonds (the currency in the game used to purchase weapons,equipment, manuals and upgrades for weapons and equipment, and a couple more things), etc. The setting of the game is an almost lawless country in Africa where senseless violence prevails all. You need to find one person and...deal with him. To do that you will need to find him and reach him. To achieve that you will need to complete storyline missions for one or the other main warring factions in this country. Most of the time of the kill/destroy variety. Doing so you get closer to your main objective and also get paid in rough diamonds which as I already mentioned, is the currency in the game. The missions are anything from not that hard to "are you kidding me? I can't possibly do that!" level of difficulty. There are always at least 2 ways to complete a mission. As you were asked by the leader of the faction, or as a buddy asks you to do it. Buddies are some NPCs who not only provide you with these alternative ways of completing missions, but also with what is basically a second chance when you are (almost) dead, saving you the time to replay the part of the game since you last saved. To explore the huge world you can use either public transportation, bus, or one of the freely available in various places vehicles. From ATVs to SUVs, to various 4x4s and trucks. From various engine propelled boats, to flying contraptions. There is no lack of ways to travel. The world is filled with patrols and checkpoints of troops. All of them hostile, no matter what. Depending on the section, they respawn every X amount of time as long as you are not in the area. This provides either an extra challenge, excuse to use your weapons, or something you will hate to have to do. I have gone through all phases, from liking it to hating it, to loving it lol. In the end, you will learn to accept it, or of course give up the game. For me, it is an unfortunate necessary evil which doesn't take away from the game that much to not want to play the game, most of the time. The graphics are superb, if your system can handle them, set them to max and enjoy. Better than Crysis IMO. The sounds are really good too. The weapon selection is good, though it could have been better. One minor issue is that each weapon falls into a category, and you can only carry one of each. The free DLC provides extra weapons which kinda help with this. You can play the game stealth, but you have to be seriously stealthy because once the enemy is aware of you, they will not stop looking for you. Oh and something that is not seen in most FPS. The enemy AI troops will try to flank you and surround you. Watch out! Overall a very good FPS, well worth the asking price of 9.99 here. I bought it full price the week it was released and I never regretted it. It has it's quirks, but as long as you accept them, you will have a great time. If not, then you are missing on one of the best FPS of the decade.
Very good quality FMV sequences, check. Wonderful characters and good script, check. Very Good music, check. Very Good sound effects, check. Very Good graphics, check. Very good gameplay, check. Feeling of being there fighting in space, check. Branching storyline, check. Stop reading this, buy it already!
It's been a long time since I was able to play this so the details are a bit off. It's a flight simulator, similar to Apache Longbow, only this time you fight with USSR equipment. The whole flight mechanic feels different, more fluid perhaps and while lower tech than the Apache games (I would say it is as complicated, controls wise, as Gunship 2000 was), it never feels like it is lacking. Your missions are usually of the close air support variety, though you get missions where you have to carry infantry to and/or from battle. Ah yes, you see the Hind, in case you didn't know, is capable of carrying a platoon of troops. Basically it was (still is) the BMP-1 of the helo world. :) Reliable, good enough armor, ton of weapons and such an ugly face, you got to love it. In the game you get to change position between the pilot and the gunner. Nothing too complicated, but a Cobra this aint. If you like other flight sims made in the 90's, you will have no problem with the audio/visual department either. The terrain remains good enough to be acceptable even today, and the rest of the graphics are passable, they retain a certain visual quality that some classic games do. A joystick is highly advised and if you have no experience with helicopter flight sims, you will need to read the manual to understand a few basic things regarding how helicopters actually fly. After a few tries, flying the missions will not be a problem, though winning them will since you will have to use your brain to beat them. Always remember, flying low makes you more difficult to detect, but you will become a target for regular infantry and small arms fire. Great game.
I don't know if this version is updated and fixed, but the original game had serious bugs issue and if I remember correctly problem with some missions. If this is the fixed version, and you don't mind the early modern age 3D graphics, go for it. If it is not fixed, and/or you have a problem with low resolution textures and polygon count you can count with your naked eye, don't buy it. The heart of the game is made of gold, but there is plenty of dirt around.
You are an assassin. You are a bad person. You kill for a living. You are very good at it. Third person shooter, with a more action-adventure approach than pure shooter. Options to play the missions as you see fit, stealthy and undetected, or with a killing spree. The game is very hard, and you will die often. You will get upset and you will blame the game. Yet, even if you rage quit, you will come back, again and again. You can use camouflage, avoid enemies, not allow yourself to be detected, and perform the perfect kill without anyone but yourself and the victim ever know about your job till you are very far away in a safe place. That is very hard. You can try to go guns blazing, but you are not that hard to kill, you bleed just like everyone else. That is even harder. If you want a hard third person shooter/stealth game where your mind gets tested by an unforgiving good game, get it. Just don't come back whining it is "unfair", "too hard", or any other excuse. When you fail, it's your fault. Apart from the great difficulty, the mouse aiming gets a little time to get used to it (similar to Deus Ex) and the graphics and animation is not the best in the business. Nothing to stop you from enjoying this game though.
Imagine if you will, a world similar to Blade Runner, only less optimistic. A world where there is in one way or the other constant conflict, not just between nations, but within too. A world where a terrorist attack is not the worst part of the day. A world where there is no clear good side. A world where you are a special agent trying to do your job and try to be objective, or not. A first person shooter with strong RPG elements (well, stronger than Oblivion anyway), lots of attitude, variety of problems/obstacles and more than one way to solve them. Plenty of dialogue, conspiracy theories, dark atmosphere and in the middle of it all, you. Play like a new Rambo, or Sherlock Holmes, or something in between, with specialization in a variety of fields and weapons. It's up to you how you play. The bad? Slightly off shooting mechanics (which you can get used to them after a while), graphics while fitting for the game, were never exactly groundbreaking. Not terrible, but not good either animations. The good? Everything else. Suggestions? Two. Buy the game, save often.
