Battle Bugs
Game of my childhood. Still very good in 2021, a bit too easy, but super fun to play. And the idea of you being a general of an army of insects fighting another army of insects for cakes and pizza that some guy forgot on his dining table is very cool.
Game is made with a lot of attention to details wchich is common for 90’s games. Every insect has it’s own abilities and powers but also it’s own animations for moving, attacking, dying etc. There is plenty of humor here, it is not the top class humor, but it’s okay considering how old the game is. Overall very addictive and fun, I am so happy to play it again. If you are an old gamer and want to show somebody what games looked like in 90-s this is a good example of it.
– Real player with 15.9 hrs in game
Definitely bought this for the nostalgia. Its a great game though. Starts out really easy so you can understand the basic concepts then starts to get more challenging. Good game for a child to get an idea of how older games used to be. Its got childish humor and cartoon graphics and it will help build critical thinking skills without being overly complicated. You have to use the manual in additional content section in steam to get past the start screen guard rhinobugs.
– Real player with 0.6 hrs in game
Masquerada: Songs and Shadows
Masquerada: Songs and Shadows really took me by surprise, it really did. The game claims to be a RPG but there are very few elements to support that claim, especially given the fact that the story is quite linear and there are no choices for you to make, you’re basically just watching how everything unfolds. That said, there is a lot to say about Masquerada, both good and bad, and I believe it’s a game that went under a lot of people’s radar and I truly believe it deserves a lot more exposure and credit than it has received.
– Real player with 38.5 hrs in game
Once again, this is the type of game where the “Yes” actually means “Yes, but-”, as in “Yes, but only if you like linear story-focused games with lots (and I mean LOTS) of reading”. Let’s get this straight: any mention of this game being an “RPG” is very misleading. There are no choices in the story at all; the protagonist (Cicero) is a defined character with his own personality and backstory, which I don’t think is a bad thing. There is very little exploration, aside from a few tidbits of lore and equipment sprinkled about, and since the game almost never lets you backtrack, it’s easy to lock yourself out of getting a certain lore entry or mask forever if you’re not careful. Pretty much the only RPG-like mechanic is the skills, masks, and enchantments you can pick between, so if you consider XCOM an RPG, then sure, I guess this game counts, too.
– Real player with 27.4 hrs in game
Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition
Baldur’s Gate is truly a masterpiece. Despite it’s beauty, tactical depth and great story, the game does not take itself too seriously. This cannot be said of many other leading RPG titles, which I soon begin to find rather corny. If you like RPGs and have not played Baldur’s Gate, then this is an absolute must, you do not even need to waste your time reading this review but of course you are welcome to. If you have played the original BG and are curious about Beamdog’s boob job, I share with you my opinion.
– Real player with 425.6 hrs in game
Classics are often thought to be timeless for future generations to enjoy, but the same cannot be said for Baldur’s Gate—and it’s not because CRPGs are uncommon. To go blind into BG in 2016 is practically impossible because how modern expectations are at odds with the brutal accessibility of ’90s computer games.
Baldur’s Gate, simply put, is an sarcophagus; it is a coffin of a bygone time of design philosophies and of late ’90s player expectations, immersed in the counter-culture of D&D and of fantasy-fiction that is written in its code like hieroglyphics to modern eyes. The game’s reverence is both a nostalgic call-back as well as an appreciation of BG’s systems as a traditional role-playing experience.
– Real player with 203.9 hrs in game
Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness
Cant recommend this yet. I have no problems with the usual early access stuff; broken game mechanics, bugged quests, and balance issues. Those are all easy to fix. However, I do have some main concerns that the small dev team may or may not be able to fix for main release:
1. Performance issues. Long load times and poor frame rates on high end machines with SSDs. Not acceptable from a game that looks like 1998. Since you get a loading screen every time you enter/exit an area or building, long loading times severely impact the overall experience. Pretty much every streamer who streamed this said the same thing.
– Real player with 66.2 hrs in game
Party-based computer rpg similar to NWN, Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, et al. If you like those type this game should fit your needs. It is RTwP for those who only play one type of combat.
I think there is enough here to support for sure:
Pros:
Quite a large variety of stuff to find for the hoarder in all of us.
Melee combat is fairly robust and healing gets the job done.
The painted map backgrounds are mostly pretty.
Good variety in classes.
I will cover cons in detail since they need fixing:
– Real player with 23.3 hrs in game
Divine Divinity
After finally finishing this gem of a game I can only but recommend this game to any RPG lover out there. Beneath the now dated graphics lies a sound game with a complex world, rich lore and funny little gameplay gimmicks that made me smile a lot.
The good:
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Rich lore, decent story (if a bit cliché by now)
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Plenty of content (Took me appr. 70 hours to finish)
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Pretty extensive and flexible RPG elements (create whatever character you like as you go)
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Easy to get into, but challenges along the way
– Real player with 74.5 hrs in game
Divine Divinity
Date of this review: 15 March 2018
Update (25 April 2018): Formatting fixes
DISCLAIMER: I would like to point out that I likely achieved 100% completion in this game. Because it is so old, there are not achivements so I can’t be sure, but I did complete every quest that is listed in online guides, and I fully explored every map.
===Notes About Me===
Graphics/Animation: I usually don’t care about; I still play NES games occasionally.
– Real player with 71.7 hrs in game
Pillars of Eternity
I’ve always consider the progress of graphics and telling stories with well made CG instead of words are good things for game industry, I thought the stunning graphics could bring the game world closer to us than the classic literature did.
Yet I found myself totally immersed by Eroa ,in this game than I’ve ever been in other games before, the astunning details I read from these words,just makes me questioning if the game industry is on the right path consider all those games with great power of graphics but turn out to be a total nightmare.
– Real player with 94.0 hrs in game
The game is just inredibly boring for me, never played it more than couple of hours from the start. Comparing to old BG/IWD series and Planescape:Tormet the only advantage of PoI is the graphic.
Game mechanics like allowing to sleep only when you have camp wood or some enemy beetles opening a door you close a moment earlier to hide from it is just lame.
– Real player with 87.4 hrs in game
Serpent in the Staglands
A friendly reminder that taking on a pack of wolves with a kitchen knife, or single point in a first level spell is a bad idea.
Serpent in the Staglands is a modern ‘old-school’ style crpg in both look and feel. Gone are the arrows of patronization, the quest log, the terrible bland puzzles that a brain dead toddler could figure out, and in is a true return to form of open world crpgs bursting at the seams with love and attention to detail. For a game made by a team of two people, it is one of the gaming masterworks of this decade in my eyes.
– Real player with 39.6 hrs in game
Serpent in the Staglands starts of with you, the Moonlord, trapped in a mortal body.
With very little info you set out throughout the Staglands in order to put the pieces of what happened together.
From the get go the story pulled me in, I really liked the mystery and the continuous search for clues to figure out who trapped you and why.
Being in mortal form also strips you of your powers as a God and this is a very refreshing take on the genre: you’re not the typical hero which everyone asks for help, you’re just a peasant which most people ignore.
– Real player with 35.4 hrs in game
Holy Potatoes! A Spy Story?!
Holy Potatoes! A Spy Story?! is a quirky game full of puns and references of pop-culture. Despite the cheesy puns which can be quite cringyworthy at times, the gameplay and the interface is seemly well-thought of. Although I do like that it’s on PC (bigger screen), I believe the game would fare better on mobile too.
The art really appeals to younger audiences or people who prefer this kind of art style. It is one of the rare 2D art games that actually delivers in consistency and it looks much better that it’s previous titles.
– Real player with 42.9 hrs in game
I’m always on the fence about these potato games - they look appealing to me, but sometimes I can tell I won’t like them watching videos and I tried one and didn’t like it (3&4 below). This one was a winner for me for because:
1. No resource collection (3 woods + 2 stone to make an axe or whatever). In this game it just takes a spy’s time to make an item.
2. Creates good choices - do I want to make a lot of small investments in training my spies or save up for a big building upgrade?
3. The missions are generically fun enough that they don’t depend on choose your own adventure multiple choice which will lose its appeal once you know the right answers.
– Real player with 30.5 hrs in game
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
This game is awesome! I am replaying it after a few months playing other games right now and giving the turn based system a try. it is great. the combat is different if you play turn based or real time with pause so you can experience two different game styles. i think that it would be a lot better if you had both in one play-through but then again by not having it they make different stats more important for different modes. like dex is more important in RTWP and is absolutely useless in turn based mode, unless you just want to go first every round.
– Real player with 460.1 hrs in game
One of my all time favorite games. A true modern rpg masterpiece.
– Real player with 233.6 hrs in game
Aarklash: Legacy
Great title, considering the price. It’s sort of like Diablo and a turn-based squad game had a baby – Active pause lets you give orders to your squad of adventurers, and then things unfold in real time.
Pros: 1. GREAT atmosphere and novel setting. The STORY itself could be a bit more polished, but the characters have personality and variety. I thought not being able to create your own character (you choose from pregens) would be an obstacle but it’s NOT, the players are likable and learning their story is interesting.
– Real player with 50.5 hrs in game
Great game. I give it 8/10.
Pros:
-Puzzles to unlock goodies on about every level
-Awesome puzzles to complete storyline
-Good storyline
-Combat is intriguing and makes you think–must be very strategic.
-The number of companions that you can control and deck out with gear
-Pausing the game to plan out strategies
-Talent trees to cutomize for each companion; it adds a deeper level of gameplay
-Decent graphics
Cons:
-Game has some bugs–sometimes the abilities for a companion will not show up. Or, when you click on a companion, another companion’s abilities show up. When this happens, you have to restart the game to fix.
– Real player with 38.7 hrs in game