Great memories from the late 1990s and the gameplay in Resident Evil 2 still holds up today. The remakes are a fun and take the series in a more "modern" direction, if that's your thing, but there's no replacing the old survival horror style of the original series back on the Playstation.
Hell, it's the best tactics game I own as well. It's really difficult to describe quite how good a game Jagged Alliance 2 is: it seamlessly blends fast paced, tactical combat, an interesting and meaningful strategic layer with a well written CRPG story, bolstered by excellent, over-the-top voice acting. I think it's best enjoyed with the v1.13 mod, which adds more of everything with plenty of options to tailor the experience to your hearts content, adding challenge and content and with plenty of bugfixes for the base game.
This is what we've been waiting for. Master of Magic was bugged on release, causing the AI to struggle to play it's own game. It was still fun but it took decades for community patches to fix it. Seravy's Caster of Magic mod isn't just a bug-fix, it has completely overhauled the game to remove, change and balance redundant or useless spells, abilities and features without drastically changing the original game. The changes are too numerous to list here. There are loads of new spells, changes to map generation, changes to the way certain tiles work, a change to roads and the number of units you can field meaning that you can no longer just defend your territory with one big army, forcing you to build more armies and hold them in location to fend off theats. The biggest change is that Caster of Magic is now built so that the AI can beat you with the new set of tools it has. Suffice to say, the game is now BRUTALLY difficult on the higher settings: the AI can not only play it's game, but it plays it well. The main complaint about MoM, that it's AI was bad, no longer applies. The other changes just pump this game to the highest level possible, and Master of Magic finally retakes it's crown as best fantasy 4x even 25 years after release.
This is my new favourite game, and after really struggling to get excited by Paradox's titles (CK2 aside) I really think this is a step forwards for the genre. The cyclical, rise and fall nature of your empire, forced by the culture/decadence system is unique, works well and honestly, is a breath of fresh air in a genre prone to endless recycling of the same tired old tropes. The way combat is presented is superb. Much has been written about the Field of Glory 2 integration. Just note, you DO NOT NEED FOG2 to enjoy this game! RNG is handled in well: you'll notice that the random rolls in each combat duel phase are totally transparent and they're often settled within just one or two points: it's easy to see what you need to do in order to stack the odds in your favour, and with that minimum roll mechanic which is affected by unit veterancy, the actual range of RNG is smaller than in most games. The decadence mechanic totally destroys the old 4x trope of the game becoming boring and pointless once you've hit a certain level of development and conquest (and hence most games going unfinished). The random building chain ensures that trade system will always be varied because it's not economical to keep re-rolling for the building you REALLY want. You can, and that's a strategic choice to make, but often you might be better off building something else. The trade system is excellent. You don't set your direct supply routes. You pick the regions you want, and the natural trade resources there, then you build buildings you want in order to attract a supply according to what is around you. Your trade acumen score and trade distance are all relevant and you might need to make an alliance or a conquest or two to get the things you need. The manual is a must-read, including the design notes, all of which is very well written and full of tips on how to play the game well. Highly recommended for fans of turn based strategy games and the grand strategy genre.
