PowerSlave (DOS Classic Edition)
This game is fun…at times. This is a classic I guess. there are a lot of good things for this game honestly, but all of it is bogged down by absolute bullshit level design and difficulty. This game also seems to “trap” you sometimes by making you use magic, but oh bad decision you now can’t use any more magic cause the only way to replenish magic is in a room full of fireball turrets that kill you in two hits, and it is the only way to continue the level, and so far dying in this game is absolute BULLSHIT. you die and yeah it is cool they show your character’s arm and the type of damage it took before you died, but now you have to wait god knows how long to respawn, it is just best to reload your game after you die and start the level over from the beginning, some of the weapons are useless or not worth using cause sometimes they backfire and murder you. I haven’t beaten the game yet and I want to, but it is gonna be so SLOW because of the ridiculousness that occurs in this game, so I will be honest and say this game is sometimes fun, but it will drain fast due to the traps this gmae hurls at you, so I would say wait for PowerSlave: Exhumed when it comes out
– Real player with 10.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best 1990's Violent Games.
An absolutely fantastic game and one of my favorites! Sadly, largely unknown. The setting is very unique, the maps are huge and detailed, the soundtrack is one of the best I’ve ever heard and the game is just fun to play. Try it if you like old school fps games, exploration with occasional platforming and traps or are into Indiana Jones type of stuff.
For smoother gameplay and optional controller support (works extremely well), I recommend running this with BuildGDX.
The console versions of this game released back in the day were pretty much rebuilt from scratch and are quite different as a result (in a good way). Hopefully we’ll see those on Steam as well at some time in the future!
– Real player with 7.5 hrs in game
DOOM 64
Like most people, I passed on Doom 64 back in 1997 and assumed it was yet another port of the PC version.
Nope! This is a totally different game, and it’s now considered to be the canonical sequel to Doom 2 and the prequel to Doom 2016.
Doom 64 goes for a more unsettling style of horror, with creepy ambient music and a colorful gothic atmosphere. It does a good job of putting you on edge and creating a sense of dread.
The level designs are elaborate and labyrinthian, and very much in the spirit of the original Doom games. They’re a joy to explore, but some people will be put off by the game’s ample use of switches and trigger events, which are sometimes unclear and can slow down gameplay.
– Real player with 12.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best 1990's Violent Games.
Never played the original on N64 and was worried it would feel like a cheap knockoff, but it feels like a real followup to Doom 2. Feels just like old-school DOOM with the graphics and sound polished up.
– Real player with 11.5 hrs in game
Inferno - Beyond the 7th Circle
Inferno - Beyond the 7th Circle is a first-person RPG with a horror theme that’s a sequel/spiritual successor to The 7th Circle - Endless Nightmare. Plot-wise there’s no connection between the two games–in the 7th Circle you played a man’s subconscious fighting his inner demons, and in Inferno you play a human survivor fighting literal demons who have all but conquered Earth.
It’s hard to review Inferno without comparing it to the 7th Circle because the two games are so similar. Both are first-person dungeon crawlers, and the basic gameplay of the two games are identical. Nearly all of the enemies are identical too. (there are only 7 or so new ones not counting palette swaps) If you liked one you’ll probably like the other, and vice versa. Where the games differ is that The 7th Circle was restricted to a single dungeon with 20-odd floors and had a permadeath/metaprogression mechanic; Inferno is more of a sprawling open world and abandons the permadeath model for a more traditional RPG.
– Real player with 50.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best 1990's Grid-Based Movement Games.
Finished the game
Pros:
-Enjoyed character customization and the control given to me for said character growth.
-Enjoyed RNG rolls for gear.
-Enjoyed combo build up in combat.
-Enjoyed utilizing spells and status ailments for a varied combat experience.
-Enjoyed the 1st 2/3rd of the game in terms of difficulty.
-The setting is very unique and I feel it will likely become the new sensation as cyberpunk dies down.
-Enjoyed punching out demon lords and the duke of hell with my bare hands 10/10 would fist hell spawn again~
– Real player with 40.4 hrs in game
Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour
This port of Duke Nukem 3D is like rereleasing a classic movie like Casablanca on a 240p resolution. It ruins the smooth, crisp movement of Duke, makes a 25-year old game lag from vsync and ambient occlusion, and replaces the expansion packs from the Megaton Edition with a fourth episode. The best way to play this port is not to, but to install eDuke or BuildGDX and play Duke Nukem 3D that way. While you install them, be sure to install the expansion packs and play them on said ports.
Bring back the Megaton Edition.
– Real player with 24.6 hrs in game
Protozoid fear is a real thing
– Real player with 14.7 hrs in game
The 7th Circle - Endless Nightmare
This is a simple and straightforward but compelling first-person dungeon crawler RPG for fans of the genre with a horror aesthetic. The setting and plot are unique–you play as fragments of an insane man’s subconscious as he lies delirious in a pool of his own blood after a suicide attempt. Your goal is to fight his inner demons to unlock his repressed memories and discover what drove him to the edge.
The game has a great aesthetic and a fun improve-skills-as-you-use-them character building system, but what really sets it apart from other games of the genre is its permadeath/metaprogression mechanic. The 7th Circle is designed to be played in multiple runs, with each successive character getting a little stronger and/or inheriting perks and items from previous ones. It rewards experimentation with different builds and playstyles and there’s lots of well-designed dungeons to explore and content to find.
– Real player with 51.5 hrs in game
A rare instance of a VERY well made dungeon crawler game, this takes me way back to when I used to play Mordor: Depths of Dejenol with my father in the late 90s. The ‘Perma-death’ style to the game should NOT be a turnoff for anyone looking to play, as a matter of fact, death just makes you stronger in the long run, death also allows you to change your attributes, class, and an ‘alter ego’ buff to help carry over some perks through death.
Ive only got a few nit picky issues, such as not being able to sort out my inventory (maybe we can get some tyhpe of paper doll system to keep things organized), or having traps that ive defeated still being on the ground, but other than that, im loving this game
– Real player with 46.8 hrs in game
Cult of Dawn
Experience the story of two characters attempting to survive as a mysterious event strips away the bounds of reality itself in Cult of Dawn, a third person horror adventure inspired by classic survival horror titles of the 90s and early 2000s. Featuring tank controls, fixed and over the shoulder camera angles, old school inventory management and more.
- Fight off mysterious entities while exploring a variety of locations, from an abandoned mansion to ancient catacombs, desolate woods, an old apartment complex, dark, urban alleyways and more
DOOM II
What I liked:
-
Amazing modding community
-
Fast paced, pick up and play with secrets for those that search
-
Gameplay that may seem simple, but offer great challenge and variety that feels badass too
What You Need to Know:
-
Like Doom, this game needs to be modded to play for anyone that is used to mouse and keyboard controls. Otherwise aiming with keyboard and no looking around will turn you off from the game.
-
With mods like project brutality,brutal doom, doom 64, brutal “insert old fps game” mods are all really great and offer tons of variety and fun, along with tons of maps and you can never run short of mods to play
– Real player with 80.5 hrs in game
Should YOU play DooM 2?
First off you’re expected to be a 90s guy.
-You’re expected to be a filthy masochist. You’re punished for things that aren’t really your fault.
-You’re expected to not have learned controls of such a game. VERY SIMPLE CONTROLS
-You’re expected to be playing your first fps game ever and be amazed by everything.
-You’re expected to like the 90s aesthetic, so American exaggerations over realism.
-You’re expected to replay this. The second play through is more fun than the first.
– Real player with 32.1 hrs in game
Carmageddon Max Pack
Carmageddon is an amazing, unique game and one of my all-time favourites. For that alone, I have to recommend it. That being said, the version being offered here is frankly quite terrible.
You get to choose between software mode and 3dfx mode. Software mode is visually outdated even by 1997 standards, so most people will play the 3dfx version. Both options run in DOSBox - and while I think there are good DOSBox ports out there, this is not one of them. The menus and cinematics tend to be completely broken. With some config modifications, you can get the 3dfx version to run in a decent resolution (and without stretching) and improve the terrible sprite pop-in, but I’ve been unable to fix the framerate in any way - and it is awful. These are “only” technical issues, but they’re serious enough that I can’t honestly recommend playing this specific version of the game.
– Real player with 48.5 hrs in game
Intro
The original Carmageddon is nothing short of a blast to play. However, the Steam port is absolute dogshit. The game only runs with DOSBox and if you choose to play with NGlide, no matter the resolution or graphical detail, you will
not be getting a solid 60fps with drops down to even 20fps regularly. I have a GTX1060 and an i5 4460 and it doesn’t matter. It runs like trash. I would only recommend this on Steam if you don’t mind very low framerates or don’t
care about using DOSBox. It’s unfortunate that Stainless hasn’t decided to update the compatibility because if they did I could easily wholeheartedly recommend this fantastic game.
– Real player with 36.0 hrs in game
Phantasmagoria
I think Phantasmagoria surprised me the most out of the FMV games I’ve played recently, partly due to the fact that it was always reviewed as “meh” compared to other classics like “The Beast Within”. It did appear to be pretty mundane at first glance and I didn’t like the idea of puzzles in spades as I’m no good at them. I actually played Phantasmagoria 2 before this one and, though I did have a blast with it, it’s a joke in comparison to this one. The 2nd one just seemed to be a vehicle to show off the technology of the time with a ridiculously goofy story that insulted B movie horrors. This isn’t actually as campy as I expected (with the exception of a couple of ridiculously overacted scenes in the final act, it’s actually quite a serious horror). This is a dark game. Found myself feeling a bit freaked out at various points throughout and the musical score is tremendous.
– Real player with 126.8 hrs in game
So I might be a little bias to this game given that it was one of the very first point and click adventure games from my childhood and I’ve always had very very fond memories of this game.. Now that I’ve gone back and played it a bit, I remember why I loved it as much as I did when I was a kid.
To start off this is a point and click adventure game that features a actors over a green screen in a 3D rendered background. It’s got a strangely charming feeling when I go back to play this game at nearly anytime with the way the actors need to interact with the enviroment around them.
– Real player with 11.1 hrs in game
Emerald Lake
I must say, I like this a lot. It has one of the best scenes I ever saw in an fps creator game. I really appreciate the effort the developer has put into this! The Levels are looking great and the game got me good on some spots lol… I was actually scared. The game could also use some more ambient music tho, it would thicken the atmosphere even more!
Didnt play through yet, because I got stuck, but I will try again very soon.
Great Job Dev!
~Duchenkuke
– Real player with 2.3 hrs in game
Emerald Lake is the best overall FPSC game I have ever seen.
It manages to include dynamic and interactive environments on a scale never before seen in an FPSC game within the dire limitations of the engine. Its visually extremely well crafted and manages to keep you interested with enough variation on the “find the key” mechanic and enough well made scripted encounters to fill its run time. If you enjoy these hobbyist horror adventure games, this one is certainly among the better ones. For an FPSC game, this is just legendary.
– Real player with 1.1 hrs in game