by frobos
Showing 1-10 of 41 items
Played the first five missions on January 1st Homeworld has been on my Steam wishlist since in was remastered forever ago. I remember reading about how good this game was at the time of its original release. I was not a PC gamer at the time so playing it wasn't possible at the time. I tried the game today and after playing it for about three hours, I can say that it's not for me. Between the super slow pace of the combat and the constant struggle with the camera, I wasn't having much fun at all. It's too bad because the music was very engaging and the story seemed very promising right from the start. Maybe back in 1999 I could have been more patient with the game.
Completed on January 23rd I finally did it! I've had my PS1 copy of the game since the early 2000s. I had started the game a few times, but never got very far because of the difficulty of the combat and the puzzles. This time, I gave it a good effort and I wasn't that bad at all! The game was still challenging, but I was almost always making progress and the combat was never a problem. Every boss can be easily beat by learning its attack and movement patterns. The puzzle were a blast to solve. I thought I was going to hate the strange isometric perspective that the game adopts, but the game designers really use it well. It rarely felt frustrating or awkward to jump from platform to platform and it allowed for some really creative puzzles for a 2D game. The overall plot was very standard JRPG stuff, but the game still touched on a few serious subjects with the events unfolding during the story. It took me a lot more time than I thought to play and beat this game, but it was very much worth it in the end. 9/10
Completed on January 29th What an amazing experience to play a Kojima game for the first time in 2022. Like many, I had never played Snatcher before and had even almost never heard specifics about the game, so I went in the game almost blind. This game must have been incredible for its time. The world building is rich and intricate, even if even unfolds in just a few lines of text. The synth-heaver soundtrack makes the game feel like an 80s movie thriller. The gameplay is where the game fell a little flat. I was often confused between the "LOOK" and "INVESTIGATE" actions and the shooting sections felt a little unresponsive. That being said, the puzzles were fun to uncover and never felt too cryptic or out of place (like they often do in point and click adventure games). 8/10
Completed on February 8th I really enjoyed piecing together the crime puzzles in the game. The solutions felt organic and even the plot twists never felt out of left field. Some of the more literary qualities of the game really went over my head though. I feel like I wasn't smart enough or didn't pay enough attention to understand the game universe's history, geography, geopolitical order or even metaphysical anomalies. The gameplay was mostly solid and it was a lot of fun tweaking your character's clothing style to try a specific action or line of dialog. The art style was truly unique, like playing in a painting. It fit the tone of the game perfectly and greatly enhanced the experience. 8/10
Completed on February 12th Unpacking was a very enjoyable meditative experience. The different objects that you take out of the boxes all have a great amount of interactivity and it was fun to explore all of the possibilities. The games does a perfect job telling a story without any words. I felt excitement, sadness, anger and joy through the implied life of the moving person through the years. 8/10
Completed Final Fantasy X on March 12th I had wanted to replay this game for a long long time. When it came out for PS2, I devoured it in a couple of weeks and then never played it again. My memories of the game were very positive, but also pretty vague. Playing it again today, I understand why I loved it so much at the time. The story feels more personal than previous entries in the franchise and the combat system if very satisfying to use. I love having all of my characters available to use whenever I need. It means that no bosses are cheap because you always have tools to use against any situation. The scope of the game and the size of the adventure felt way larger in my head than what it ended up being. I knew that the game was linear, but I didn't expect it to be THIS linear. Most "dungeons" are actually just a big line that you have to go through. I enjoyed my second playthrough of FFX and I am looking forward to finally playing FFX-2 for the first time soon. 9/10
Completed on April 3rd I've been reading a lot of 90s game magazines lately and I was surprised to see the overwhelmingly positive reception that the original Tomb Raider received in 1996. I had played the game through demo disks during the PS1 era but I never understood the appeal. The levels seemed confusing to navigate and Lara controlled like a tank. So, for historical curiosity, I needed to know why this game was almost named GOTY 1996 instead of Mario 64 by Ultra Game Players. Again, to my surprise, the game was very good and a lot of fun to play. The elements that were the most annoying to me at the time (the level design and the controls) were the aspects of the game that I appreciated the most. Each level feel different and the game finds a way to provide a lot of variety from very few game mechanics. The combat is simple but satisfying and never gets in the way of the exploration. The controls take some getting used to, but it exists in service of the game design and works in tandem with the way the levels are constructed. Even the water sections were fun to control, which is something I don't think I've ever said about another game. The story was barebones and wasn't very interesting, but there also wasn't a whole lot of it. I know understand what was so special about this game at the time. Tomb Raider asks a lot of commitment from the player, but it also rewards it handsomely with secrets and progress. I'm looking forward to see where the developers took the concept with the rest of the PS1 games. 8/10
Completed March 21st Overcooked! 2 feels more like an expansion to the first game than a real sequel. The mechanics are all there and it's still great fun to play in multiplayer, but I couldn't tell you what was added and wasn't there in the first game. The story and overall campaign structure was disappointing and felt even more disjointed than the original. It was an okay sequel. 7/10
Completed on April 7th I never owned a Sega console when I was a kid. Not only did I only play Nintendo games, but I didn't even think that there were any good games on Genesis or Saturn. I was obviously wrong and missed on a ton of awesome games. These last few years I've been trying to go back and play the Sega classics that I missed on. So it's with that mindset that I embarked on Mickey's journey in Castle of Illusion. For an early release in the Genesis library, it was a pretty good game. The levels were varied and the challenge was just right. The controls didn't feel great however. With the way Mickey jumps, it seems like this game takes place on the moon. Thankfully, the game design accounts for this and nothing moves too fast. The graphics were okay, but some of the animation were somewhat choppy. I can't help but compare this game to Capcom's Magical Quest Starring Mickey on the SNES, which hold a very nostalgic place in my heart. It's just not as good, not even close. 6/10
Completed on April 14th I remember playing and loving Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance back when it came out. The gameplay was fluid and fun and the RPG mechanics were just deep enough for this kind of game. Playing Champions of Norrath in 2022, the game felt paper thin in terms of depth, storytelling and even gameplay opportunities. The quests are all super linear and you never really have a choice in terms of what objectives you want to tackle. It seemed like all quests were mandatory, so no side quests either. The core gameplay was still great, and it is really the only redeeming quality of this game. It felt fun to play in minute-by-minute but the overall experience wasn't very fulfilling. 6/10