Wasteland Remastered
Originally released in 1988, Wasteland is a pioneering game that established the post-apocalypse genre for computer RPGs. Its success led to the creation of its spiritual successor, the Fallout series. Over the years, Wasteland became a cult classic. This remastered version brings the original Wasteland with updated graphics and audio, plus some quality of life improvements to the current generation of players.
This is a faithful remaster, not a remake. It preserves all the quirks and even some of the bugs (like super loot bags) from the original. Whereas the original game made you reference a “paragraph books” with real and fake paragraphs, which is where the plot is, plus doubling as a primitive anti-piracy measure, the Remastered includes cut scenes and voice-overs by a narrator. All “paragraphs” are now voiced and the paragraph book has become your journal. Another improvement is the auto-recording of found passwords so you don’t have to write them down yourself.
– Real player with 208.1 hrs in game
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I did not play the original Wasteland back in 1988, so this was my first experience with the original. I was playing video games in the 1980s and do enjoy similar games (e.g. the SSI Gold Box games, the Bard’s Tale trilogy), so I am not put off by older games. However, as this game has been remastered, I do feel that it is fair to hold some aspects of the game to modern standards, in particular: the graphics, sound, UI and mechanics.
First off, the game does do a good job of updating the graphics and sound. If you are just looking for the original Wasteland with better graphics and sound, then they did a good job with it. The graphics look clean and crisp while still maintaining the vibrancy and style of the original graphics. If I do have one complaint about the graphics, it would be the reused graphics for the monsters. It was okay in 1988, but for a remastered game a bunny and a rat should not be using the same graphic. The game does not have such a huge number of enemies that unique graphics for each monster would have been prohibitive.
– Real player with 53.4 hrs in game
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura… oh, this game…
In spite of my low ownership, I am more than familiar with this bizarre, wonderful masterpiece, a game I sometimes thought was a complete fever dream from the depths of my imagination, among a strange number of other games including an action game involving Skittles and a dark knight. I’m still not sure that one still exists, though.
Arcanum is NOT a fever dream, however, and does in fact exist and is a masterpiece of a forgotten era where computers had the ability to deal with the unique and antiquated graphical features on their own. Because Microsoft doesn’t know how to keep good features from previous operating systems, it is imperative that you look up a tutorial on how to play this game, and while on your way, pick up an unofficial patch and maybe a few mods; one of which being Virgil’s Debug Menu. You won’t regret it.
– Real player with 684.3 hrs in game
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In my ongoing and likely futile effort to write a Steam review for every game in my library (#450 out of 612)… it’s time for Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magicka Obscura.
Arcanum is one of the finest CRPGs ever made, and arguably the most impressive product legendary (if somewhat infamous) developer Troika Games ever built. It’s a massive,, brilliantly open game in the vein of Fallout that offers players an unprecedented degree of freeom with regard to how they build their characters, how they play the game, and how they progress through the world. It’s difficult to overstate just how deeply engaging Arcanum can be—this one is a classic roleplaying game for very good reason.
– Real player with 124.4 hrs in game
Sea Dogs: Caribbean Tales
I like the freedom to just do what ever you like in the game as far as pirating/trading/missions. And the open world aspect and the way you can capture ships to upgrade/sell or add to your own fleet.
– Real player with 123.4 hrs in game
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a nice game, good game play. i really enjoyed it. I cannot confirm the bug reports. The game was stable at all times.
– Real player with 26.6 hrs in game
Sea Dogs: City of Abandoned Ships
This is the perfect pirates game. i spent years trying to play this game but my computers never allowed me. now i have had the chance to fully play this game i have to say it has given me hour of fun. do you want to be a merchant and become the wealthiest man in the Caribbean and trade your way to power, or become a privateer and attack your nations foes and bring riches and glory to your nation or do you want to be a feared pirate who will attack anything on sight for wealth and reputation and be the most fearsome man in the Caribbean sea. THE CHOICE IS YOURS. I LOVE THIS GAME!!!!!
– Real player with 125.3 hrs in game
This game is not “good.” It has an extremely high learning curve, no tutorial, a clunky interface, poorly laid out and unintuitive quest objectives, sub-par writing, semi-frequent crashes, and is heavily dependent on the community “Combined Mod” to smooth out its rough edges.
That said, it is the best pure Pirate RPG available. But that probably says more about the gaping hole that exists in the market and less about this game itself. Aside from the brief but very welcome tangent that the Assassin’s Creed franchise took with Black Flag we have not seen a good single player pirate RPG in a long time; probably since Sid Meier’s Pirates. So if you need your pirate fix and are willing to take the time to learn this game, then you will be satisfied. But I can’t help but wonder why we haven’t seen a better Pirate game made.
– Real player with 75.9 hrs in game