Blood Omen 2: Legacy of Kain
!!important note!!
This game has crashed a hell of a lot on my windows 7 PC; it’s just something to keep in mind.
What I liked about the game
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Likable characters, like Uma, who are well voice acted.
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I like how Kain draws blood from his victims.
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Awesome boss fights.
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I liked the Victorian/industrial setting of the game, especially at the start. I liked seeing the chimneys and the steam powered or magic powered machines.
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The puzzles aren’t too head exploding.
– Real player with 23.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Classic Third Person Games.
I used to have this game for the PS2, very fun, shorter than the other Legacy of Kain games, but fun. Most people seem to ignore it though, and/or dislike it, but that’s mainly because they probably don’t understand it. It is said this game is not necessary to play to understand the Legacy of Kain story. But it actually is significant, if you pay close attention. There are 2 ways to look at it; Kain’s purpose in this game after the first blood omen game, but before Soul Reaver 1. Then what it means after the events of Defiance. So in a manner of speaking, yes, Blood Omen 2 occurs twice, but seen differently after certain events.
– Real player with 21.7 hrs in game
Disciples II: Gallean’s Return
!!!!! ON WINDOWS 7/10: !!!!!
Run with Direct3D turned on, stretch to fullscreen, and 800x600 res. Trust me btw, the 800x600 res looks INCREDIBLE b/c of the awesome textures in this game.
70 hours in at the time of this review, I just finished the 2nd campaign (there are 4, and this isn’t even the expansion set) on Average (normal) difficulty. This is a game that will challenge you, but also reward you. Whether you build massive armies or put all of your time and energy into one unit, you will be surprised how difficult it is to stop moving those little bastards around. Buy this game if you have the opportunity.
– Real player with 213.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Classic Great Soundtrack Games.
One of the all times favourites games : Diablo2, Age of Empires 1&2, Disciples 1&2. Special mention for Civilizations 3 Heroes of might and magic 3. There was nothing like them at that time, and there still isn’t.
For fans of the genre and disciples 2 in special, i recommend checking Atlantica Online (cashgrabber and if you are not in an active strong guild there is no way to have the top mercs and craft top equipment, but the game itself is so much like Disciples 2, only mmorpg)
Disciples 2 had lots of room for improvement, but is a fantastic game, simply amazing. Disciples 3 unfortunately turned away from the style of the game, moving units in battle ruined the tactical pre-battle arrangement of troops.
– Real player with 135.3 hrs in game
Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders
When I first played shareware version couple of decades ago I simply thought of it as yet another Doom clone the market was spewing out at the time. Played a few levels and didn’t think much of it except it being inferior to Doom. So I quit shortly thereafter as was the case with half a dozen other clones and thought nothing of it for a long time. Then couple of years ago I saw a LP on YT of a guy raging like a madman because the was getting killed in epically hilarious ways. Thought to myself to give it another shot with a different set of eyes this time.
– Real player with 51.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Classic Shooter Games.
Ever wanted to play a game set in one of the Frank Frazzeta paintings? Then look no further than Heretic. Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders is the first game in the Heretic & Hexen series, and along with ID software games, have been the main force of evolution in the first era of first person shooters. Each game from Heretic & Hexen series have introduced a design concept that all other FPS games have followed ever since. Heretic SotSR remains the most accessible and action-packed title in the series, set in a dark fantasy universe with 54 complex levels which will guarantee you 20 hours and more of pure hectic and frenetic fun.
– Real player with 26.7 hrs in game
Arx Fatalis
Highly recommended for those that have played and liked games like Ultima Underworld or Dungeon Master (Legend of Grimrock).
The developers wanted to created Ultima Underworld 3 but were unable to get the license from you know who, which is a shame. With stronger resources this game could have been very special indeed. For an old game (2002), the graphics are pretty good and sound in some instances quite amazing, the game engine has aged well. I played the game of Steam and in Windows 7 and it was more or less playable apart from some memory crashes - I learned to save often using all the save slots - you need to do this too, especially when you move between levels. It is best to play the game without any background noise such as the TV/ music or radio - believe that. Not only will you get immersed in the game world, beautifully crafted by the designers, you won’t miss key information said aloud by your character and then never repeated!
– Real player with 44.3 hrs in game
Anyone who has played Dishonored 2 will have trouble believing that the same company that made that game also made this one, a few decades ago, and I mean that in the best of ways (in the best of ways for Arx Fatalis, the comparison doesn’t favor their later projects). And just to be clear, this was the first time I played Arx Fatalis, I had no nostalgia goggles to affect my judgment.
Arx Fatalis is a metroidvania First Person action-oriented RPG, that “can” be played entirely as a First Person Stealth game, similar to the Thief series, but equal focus has been put into its other playstyles. The medieval fantasy world of Arx is an underground network of caverns and tunnels, as the world goes through an apocalyptic winter above-ground. Goblins, Trolls, Humans, sexy Snake Ladies and recently genocided Dwarves call this place their home, and somewhat coexist.
– Real player with 37.7 hrs in game
Disciples II: Rise of the Elves
Introduction
Disciples II:Rise of the Elves is my favorite game but I will try to give it a fair review with pros and cons. I have spent about 400 hours on the game on GoG and started to play on Steam a bit. I will be referring Disciples as D to shorten it. Also, I will try to give as much details as I can about the game.
Review
Gameplay
D:II is a medieval dark fantasy game with 5 playable fractions.
| Faction Name | Simplified |
– Real player with 109.4 hrs in game
TL; DR Disciples 2: Rise of the Elves is a really good game and a fun turn-based strategy-RPG that will last many hours if or when you get into it. This version adds further variety to the base game both in terms of playstyle, balance changes, and in neutral enemies. I highly recommend it; however, the game did not work without a fix so be aware of that.
Note that Disciples 2: Rise of the Elves is an expansion that takes place after the events of Gallean’s Return. Not all campaigns are included in Rise of the Elves therefore Gallean’s Return should be played first unless you just want gameplay and the custom maps.
– Real player with 63.9 hrs in game
Disciples Sacred Lands Gold
be me
have a semi-decent stack
decided to attack a stack with a medusa, and some random enemies
fail to kill the medusa
proceeds to get para-locked to death
Don’t forget to (de)buff fellow boomers.
Disciples Sacred Lands, is a turn-based fantasy strategy similar to Heroes of Might and Magic. Like the good HoMM games it also a bit old, and as such the graphics in particular are dated. If you are willing to look past that this game might be for you, if not maybe Disciples 2 is more your thing. I’d even go as far as to say Disciples 2 is the better game, but I still think Sacred Lands is worth playing.
– Real player with 190.9 hrs in game
Recommended for fans of Turn-Based Strategy, Fantasy, and games from this era (1997-2004).
Great gem of a game. It’s likely you are here after playing either Heroes of Might and Magic series, or Disciples 2 in your younger days. Disciples 1 is exactly like Disciples 2, except graphics are about 5yrs younger. Literally, 90% of the units, heroes, and characteristics are the same - just the graphics changed. So why play D1 instead of D22? That Old School Charm I guess. The game does hold up really well on its own - IF you like 1999 graphics. Note you can get a fan-made “HD mod” to improve them.
– Real player with 38.8 hrs in game
HeXen II
Another Raven & id collaboration project but whereas Heretic was a modification of Doom, Hexen II is a modification of Quake. Or more precise - their engines. Seems history repeated itself in terms of quality ratio between the “re-skin” job and the original game. Almost everybody can agree Doom is a better game than Heretic, although I gave my respect to level design of the latter which was notably more advanced. The exact same thing can be said about the Hexen II and Quake relation in that regard.
– Real player with 32.1 hrs in game
HeXen II is a testament to how Raven software was the bees knees back in the 90s and on through the early 2000s. While not perfect and definitely not for everybody, HeXen II is still enjoyable.
First off, there is a very good patch in the community guides that uses the Hammer of Thyrion source port and the game runs flawlessly on modern systems (with music) with that installed. With that out of the way, in the presentation department, we have the Quake engine firing on all it’s fully 3D, fantasy-world-spewing cylinders. Today, this might not look like much, but in days of yore this was jaw-dropping stuff. And to be fair, the environments themselves are very detailed and a lot less cartoony than HeXen or Heretic. Raven nailed the feel of old, eerie, long-forgotten places and walking around these levels really immerses you into a hostile, dark fantasy world. Sound design is also great, the music is atmospheric, the weapons and spells feel meaty and impactful, it’s just all there. It’s dated, yes, but that doesn’t automatically make it bad.
– Real player with 15.0 hrs in game
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
(Ignore my time on record as I’ve spent most of my playtime offline)
Easily one of my most favorite games of all time! I remember playing this on the original Playstation like it was only yesterday. In my mind this game set the bar very high for what video games were capable of. Wonderfully written script and rich dialogue, Extremely clever puzzles that make you consider all possibilities. A unique and large open world game that managed to pull off one of the first concepts of streaming data directly from the disk, cutting out loading screens from area to area. Crystal Dynamics had outdone themselves when making this game, and it’s a shame that we don’t get games like this more often.
– Real player with 33.2 hrs in game
Soul Reaver
“Tumbling, burning with white-hot fire, I plunged into the depths of the abyss. Unspeakable pain… relentless agony… time ceased to exist… only this torture… and a deepening hatred of the hypocrisy that damned me to this hell. An eternity passed, and my torment receded, bringing me back from the precipice of madness. The descent had destroyed me… and yet I lived.” ~Raziel
This game, to me, was the start of the Legacy of Kain series. Although, technically, that was actually Blood Omen. As a matter of fact, the first Blood Omen unknowingly set the stage and essentially serves as the backdrop for all of the Legacy of Kain games. In Soul Reaver however, you do not actually play as Kain. Instead, you play as one of his vampiric lieutenants, Raziel. But almost immediately, things immediately go bad as when Raziel approaches Kain and shows that he has evolved by gaining a set of wings (the first evolution of all of Kain’s vampiric brood), Kain considers this a transgression against him. In an act of rage, he rips your wings from you, and then has you thrown into the Lake of the Dead. Burning, trapped in the abyss, Raziel reaches the bottom but he is lifeless, his body practically destroyed.
– Real player with 20.4 hrs in game
Gothic II: Gold Edition
The Gothic series and Gothic 2 (w/ addon) has a cult following in both Germany as well as Eastern Europe. Developed by a tiny indie studio it featured absolutely fantastic storytelling in a fantasy world without any of the usual high fantasy bullcrap. The entire Gothic series is low Fantasy, similar to the Witcher series, but not as grim. What makes Gothic 2 really shine, isn’t grittyness, but roughness. It is an unique RPG in the way that there is a difference between knocking someone out and actually killing them, meaning that bashing in a few heads is a viable strategy for many quests, without actually having to become a mass murderer. This allows for very intricate quest design and many memorable moments. It also spoils the inner child in me when I once again have the ability to verbally announce that the player character is going to plant his fist into the face of someone and most of the time, for good reason.
– Real player with 342.1 hrs in game
With most of the games what you see is what you get. But this isn’t the case. Gothic is a great game but Gothic 2 takes it on a whole new level. The amount of content, creativity and how much work the devs put into it is amazing. Another reminder that quality world building is important in games. Majority of devs don’t realize that having shit world design is a gamebreaker, so they just copy and paste same locations in a huge but empy world, make quests with obvious outcomes and no variety and dumb everything down. With this game though the bar was set so high that the devs from PB never managed to get close again. And likely they never will after Risen\Elex.
– Real player with 196.4 hrs in game
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2
Its Soul Reaver lite
While not a bad game, its definitely not as good as it’s predecessor in a lot of respects.
The Good:
Superb voice acting, nice story, the puzzles are more complex and involved yet overall pretty good and offer a bit more clues to solve them, which is a marked improvement to the previous game.
The Not-so-good:
-The combat - In comparison to SR1 it feels distant, with little weight or consequence behind your punches, making it rather unsatisfying.
Furthermore, by the endgame, when fighting 4+ opponents, they will ALL attack at the same time, and while realistic and “challenging” it really comes out as cheap, specially when
! some of those enemies would naturally attack each other, but as soon as they detect you, ALL of them go for your ass instead. . Your Soul Reaver blade can be used from the start of the game and is a bit OP, that however is countered by a bar which fills the more you use the blade and kill with it, and once filled takes away some of your health, thus forcing you to mix its use with regular weapons, which at least brings some depth to an otherwise humdrum combat system. Speaking of the blade, it can be infused throughout the story with different elements (light, dark, wind & fire) but disappointingly only come into play in puzzles; yet another sign that the combat is undercooked at best.
– Real player with 20.1 hrs in game
I was finally able to get the game working courtesy of this excellent patch right here .
“But suppose your throw a coin enough times – suppose one day it lands on its edge.”
The opening to Soul Reaver is seared into my memory.
No matter how many times I watch the introductory cutscene, the booming synth pulls me right back into the Gothic tableau of the Legacy of Kain universe, as if I were discovering it anew. With slick narrative efficiency, it sets in motion a tale of vengeance that spills out across time, daring its protagonists to challenge the apparent indomitability of fate.
– Real player with 17.4 hrs in game