The Last Express Gold Edition
I think this may well be the greatest game ever made. Yes, the controls are clunky as all get out. Yes, for people used to today’s games the ultra-high-tech-for-1997-digital-rotoscoping technique looks extremely antiquated. Yes, you’re dropped into the game with no idea what to do, and you’re going to fail. A lot. But at the same time “The Last Express” includes:
- Probably the best-developed characters in any adventure game I’ve yet played (the weakest is arguably Robert Cath, who the player controls, but even he has an intriguing and irritatingly-largely-unrevealed-due-to-lack-of-a-sequel backstory). By the end of the game you know what they want and what makes most of them tick, and since certain bad things are more or less guaranteed to happen to a number of them the result is the equivalent of an emotional shovel to the face.
– Real player with 16.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Classic Story Rich Games.
Ahead of its time but stuck in the past
First read about this game way back when it came out, in a magazine I still have, where the reviewer was left in complete awe because of unique design for an adventure game. Ever since it occupied a small cluster of neurons in the back of my head, waiting for me to play it and its moment to shine. I should say I never played the original so my review will only address this 2013 port, with some inferior exceptions others have noticed.
It plays like Myst, from 1st person perspective with static scenes as you move around, but is set in realistic environment of an vintage luxury passenger train called Orient Express. The whole game takes place in the same 4-5 vagon carts with beautifully rendered backgrounds. You move by clicking edges of screen with mouse cursor that contextually changes functions to forward, backward and left or right turn, with interaction prompts for opening doors and object/NPC interaction.
– Real player with 9.8 hrs in game
Sacrifice
This is my favourite game of all time, and it’s not just a nostalgic feeling, I still play with this masterpiece. It has a magical athmosphere you cannot find elsewhere, the story, the characters are so well written that I know nearly all quests by heart, yet I still replay them ‘just one more time’ when I get the mood for it.
The story is about a banished wizard, who enters a new realm of magical floating islands that are controlled by five gods, who constantly fight each other for justice, dominance or just fun. All gods control a sphere of natural energies which are earth, fire, air, life and death. You can choose one patron god on every level to do quests for them, and in return you get new spells to cast and creatures to summon from the chosen god’s sphere. Keep in mind though, that if you serve the dark powers, you will soon lose the favor of the benelovent gods and vice versa, so choosing sides has limits according to your previous choices. All the gods have an interesting character that can always surprise you, as the good guys can become quite warlike, the bad guys may become just scared, the smart guys can act foolish and the simple guys quite resourceful, so everything and everyone turns out to be quite different than as they seemed at first.
– Real player with 54.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Classic Third Person Games.
A old cult classic. Very interesting combination of a 3rd person RTS with RPG elements for its time.
You control a your own playable character - a wizard - directly in movements with the WASD keys and you can summon creatures that you can order around by clicking on terrain or enemies much like a RTS.
Of course that isn’t the only commands you can give. They can also move in different formations or guard different objectives ranging from yourself to other creatures to buildings.
There are basically 2 resources in the game. Mana and souls.
– Real player with 48.4 hrs in game
Best Life Simulator
cant believe i paid for this .i must have been drunk because the mechanics of the game and flow and ill be polite here ……leave a lot to be desired… to the devs: how about making it easier to succeed at something instead of struggling to stay alive with just eating and buying medicine ?because chance alogirythm is way off ive played for awhile a cant achieve alot.but none the less ill change my review if you produce a manual on how to do anything .it just seems to me that developers are just throwing shit up on steam under the ruse of calling it a game….
– Real player with 55.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Classic Puzzle Games.
I really like this game, since it is refreshing. It’s a shame because I am stuck on level 9. This game keeps crashing when I try to do ANYTHING. Like… anything…… I want to give it a thumbs up, but until the crashes get fixed, it will remain a thumbs down.
– Real player with 20.7 hrs in game
Impossible Creatures Steam Edition
First of all, I’m biased– I’m one of those strange and twisted folk who kept playing this game after its original release fell into obscurity, and for years now the Impossible Creatures community has been fluctuating with an average of a dozen or so people at any given time, worldwide. But then, one day, Nordic Games approached us few survivors and told us of their plan to re-release the game on Steam; we jumped onboard as beta testers, and the day has finally come for release!
So yes– basically, I’m not the most impartial of sources. But it’s important for me to point out that Nordic has in no way asked or cajoled me to provide this review, nor have they had any input into its content. I’m just a fan of the game. In fact, I know the game inside and out, and that’s why you should listen when I say: holy shit, Impossible Creatures is amazing.
– Real player with 3336.4 hrs in game
Wow, this game. Where to start? Like many others here, I’m a bit biased, as I’ve owned this game pretty much since it was released and it was a big part of my childhood gaming experience. I’ve been playing this game near-constantly since I got it all those years ago. The ~540 hours on the Steam Edition don’t even touch the thousands of hours I’ve put into this game over the years.
IC is truly incredible and there’s just something about it that keeps bringing people back to it. Maybe it’s the super-simplistic RTS gameplay that’s easily accesible even to genre noobs. Maybe it’s the seemingly endless number of hilarious creature combinations possible in the army builder, even without mods. There has to be something, because I havent got bored with it, even after 13 years.
– Real player with 2644.5 hrs in game
Rise of Nations: Extended Edition
I am nominating Rise of Nations – Extended Edition {RoN-EE} for the 2020 “Labor of Love” award.
RoN-EE is the 2014 update of the “old” RTS from 2003,
when it won several GOTY awards for Big HUGE Games.
Despite its age, RoN has held up well, especially when I am in the mood for a quick Strategic War. A full-scale 1 v 3-or-4 game typically will run 60 minutes {game-time} or less.
Using ** pause /pause **can effectively make RoN-EE a TBS.
– Real player with 4981.4 hrs in game
Rise of Nations: Extended Edition
The game from my childhood and the only strategy that I love to play even now. This is a remastered version of the game from 2003 and one of the most popular strategic games. Extended Edition contains the full contents with the addition of Thrones and Patriots. Rise of Nations offers a lot of nice campaign where our goal is to lead our nation to dominate the world. During the game you have to take care not to be destroyed by other nations but also develop a number of aspects such as economy, science, technology, diplomacy and military power. Each of these aspects will give you the opportunity to develop troops, build new buildings and to develop new opportunities in old buildings, but also move to a new era. With each progression of the game is changing the look and statistics buildings, military units and other things. Each nation has its own unique army as long as the nation still exists. In the game to expand, we have to use wood, stone, food, science, and oil at a later stage of the game, not forgetting that each of these resources can run out of. There is also an advanced diplomacy through which you can contain very beneficial agreement with other nation. In the game you can also play scenarios and multiplayer, but only with friends because no one plays. The game in terms of gameplay has hardly changed, improved graphics and added more resolution size. I like this production and do not regret a single hour spent at the game. Great soundtrack, an old but still nice graphics and a lot of things to do while playing the game. In my opinion this is the best strategy game I’ve ever played, many hours of fun for me. The game I am able to recommend, however, the game also has a bug that irritated me at first because I could not change my resolution because the game was crashing. However, it was manageable change in a text file.
– Real player with 371.5 hrs in game
STAR WARS™ Galactic Battlegrounds Saga
One of the most underrated and under-exposed classic RTS games from the end of the 2D era.
Refined and rich in content, the best strategy game from the Star Wars universe, created by the masters of the genre - Ensemble Studios, under the care and support of LucasArts in full form and glory.
The quickest and easiest way to sum up this game is “Age of Empires II: The Age of the Kings” in the Star Wars universe. And even though it reflects the state of affairs quite well, it is worth adding that this is not an ordinary and simple AoE II reskin, but a full-fledged title built on a proven foundation and developed, as much as the ‘Genie Engine’ allowed, to best reflect the spirit of the battles in this universe.
– Real player with 198.8 hrs in game
“The Force will be with you. Always.”
-Obi-Wan Kenobi, A New Hope
Star Wars is a huge franchise with a lot of awesome games. Dark Forces / Jedi Knight series, Rogue Squadron series, X-Wing / TIE Fighter series… All those games (and more) are pretty much legends by now. But there are also games that aren’t that famous, but still keep a very special place in my heart. And Star Wars: Galactic Battleground is one of those games. Why? Well…
– Real player with 92.7 hrs in game
Stonekeep
While not as intricate and complex as the Eye of the Beholder series, nor as vast and grandiose as the Might and Magic series, Stonekeep is surely a great addition to the dungeon-crawler genre.
The motion capture technique still gives a little something extra to the game’s visuals.
Music is on point and follows accordingly.Nothing great but it sets the mood.However, there are some singing faeries midgame that will definitely make your day :)
This game does suffer from a couple of bugs that may halt your progress.So be sure to keep a different save at the start of every level.(You should be doing that anyway)
– Real player with 37.0 hrs in game
One of the best entries in a classic genre that has only recently seen a revival thanks to titles like Legend of Grimrock, and a piece of PC gaming history as one of the first titles to offer support for Windows ‘95.
Stonekeep offers everything one expects from a classic first-person, grid-based action RPG and more. The setting is interesting and well-fleshed out. The cast is full of wonderful and diverse characters – fully voice-acted, quite possibly a first for the genre. There’s even a nice recipe for muffins hidden in the game’s data files.
– Real player with 33.7 hrs in game
Age of Empires II (2013)
gameplay is excellent, community is psychedelic.
– Real player with 2675.1 hrs in game
very good i play this with my father every week.
– Real player with 909.9 hrs in game
Supreme Commander
Imagine a 6 year old boy just learning how play video games being sat down and shown this game. giant robots, lasers, cannons, etc… It boggled my 6 year old mind. I spent much of my early childhood playing this game on my brothers steam account. of course as i got older i moved onto other things such as minecraft because i had no friends my age who played strategy games like i did. as time went on i eased back into strategy games such as Civ 5, hearts of iron, men of war, planetary anhilliation. Then i met a friend in 7th grade that had the same love of strategy games like i did. He had just moved from florida to wisconsin and i was the first friend he had at school. Him and i were sort of bullied and we grew very close. I later learnt that he loved the game supreme commander as i did. i bought the game for my own steam account and the game that fostered my love of video games and strategy was soon remembered. He and i spent hours going home after school and playing this game. unfortunetly as i graduated i moved to california and he moved to virginia. Me and my friend slowly stopped playing video games as my friend had started switching to consul games. by the time i was in california i had stopped playing supreme commander again and played other games. then about 1 month ago i saw my supreme commander game in the top left corner of the screen. i clicked on it and the nostalgia came flooding in. this game helped me evolve into what i am today. I sat there thinking back to playing this game when i was little but sucking at it, but i remember having a blast. then i remembered my friend from middle school, how we came so close, the drifted so far away. I will always cherish this game, i will always remember this game for the true joy it gave me. i dont know if anyone will read this review considering it is 2019 now, but if there is someone out there who reads this, just know that this game is special and i want you and everyone else to experience it. if you want to play against me sometime add me on steam and send me a message or on discord Bashar al-Assad#8760
– Real player with 253.9 hrs in game
The spiritual successor to Total Annihilation. If you loved playing T.A. back in the day, then you’ll feel right at home.
9 out of 10 - A phenomenal RTS game that, in my opinion, is far better than other titans in the genre. It may not have the graphics or popularity that Starcraft does, but the overall mechanics, maps, economy, and general gameplay feel much more polished (please don’t @ me). Who wouldn’t want to watch 250+ tanks, submarines, gunships, bombers, assault bots, and warships obliterate each other in a tremendously satisfying fashion? Seriously, maybe check out a random ‘Let’s Play’ video on YouTube if you’re interested.
– Real player with 80.7 hrs in game
Warhammer® 40,000: Dawn of War® - Soulstorm
It is the 41st Millennium. For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor of Mankind has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth. He is the master of mankind by the will of the gods and master of a million worlds by the might of His inexhaustible armies. He is a rotting carcass writhing invisibly with power from the Dark Age of Technology. He is the Carrion Lord of the vast Imperium of Man for whom a thousand souls are sacrificed every day so that He may never truly die.
Yet even in His deathless state, the Emperor continues His eternal vigilance. Mighty battlefleets cross the daemon-infested miasma of the Warp, the only route between distant stars, their way lit by the Astronomican, the psychic manifestation of the Emperor’s will. Vast armies give battle in His name on uncounted worlds. Greatest amongst His soldiers are the Adeptus Astartes, the Space Marines, bio-engineered super-warriors. Their comrades in arms are legion: the Imperial Guard and countless planetary defence forces, the ever-vigilant Inquisition and the Tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus to name only a few. But for all their multitudes, they are barely enough to hold off the ever-present threat to humanity from aliens, heretics, mutants – and far, far worse.
– Real player with 541.3 hrs in game
Do you know when you truly love a game?
When almost 12 years after it’s launch, the giddy excitement of running home from work to play it never actually wore off.
Don’t let my playtime fool you, I owned the boxed versions of these games loooong before they were in my Steam account and have invested literally THOUSANDS of hours into this game. I was always kind of interested in 40K, having roomates who played the tabletop when I was younger and reading the odd comic here and there, but THIS was the game that turned me into a 40K fanboy and opened me up to the whole universe.
– Real player with 484.1 hrs in game