Hello Malstrom
I love GoG, they provide games which would be near impossible to get these days and would have gone forgotten. I have bought quite a collection and some of these games are even older than me. It’s like going through an archive, or rather a museum of PC gaming history where all the exhibits are alive. I really love the lack of DRM, not just because I’m not dependent on some company once I buy the game, but also because I can run my games on whatever I want. I have a Mac and while I can install Windows (which I have), it is still more convenient to have the games on my main OS through Wine (most of these games run very well by now). If I wanted I could install my games on a toaster, there is no one stopping me. Another thing I like are the extras, things like manuals, reference cards, maps and soundtracks. It’s a shame Nintendo doesn’t provide the real manuals for their VC games, because many old games have very poor interfaces and require the manual to look up information. Of course it all comes down to the games, many of which I had never played before, so here are my impressions:
Tyrian 2000:
There is this Mac app called Boxer, it’s basically DOSBox on autopilot and the developer is providing some games wrapped up and ready to play, one of which is Tyrian 2000. That’s how I first played it, before it was on GoG, it was the last one on Boxer’s website I had not tried, mainly because I’m not really into shmups. I was bored so I figured I might as well give that one a try; I was hooked from the first level on. The controls are really smooth and the music is awesome. What I really like is how you can eat a certain amount of damage before you die, so you don’t need to play a perfect game. The colours can get a little too hectic and some of the levels are just plain too easy, even when playing on hard, because you can max out your ship pretty fast. I think what makes Tyrian work so well is the sum of all its components, strong graphics, the music and just the feeling of taking on an entire fleet over and over, rushing through their defenses, taking damage and then avoiding hits until the shields recharge. It feels like fighting, whereas shmups where you die instantly feel to me more like exercises in pattern memorization.
Duke Nukem 3D:
The reason I picked up this game is the “WFT is Duke Nukem Forever” video TotalBiscuit made, it got me interested in Duke 3D and I wanted to know why it could keep such a strong reputation for over a decade. I never got into FPS, mostly because I didn’t know about things like FOV, frames per second and especially mouse acceleration, so I could barely hit anything. So Duke 3D is my first real FPS, I play it using the eDuke32 port, and it is really great fun. When you start the game you pick a difficulty, an episode and whithin five sceonds you’re already shooting enemies. There are no cutscenes, just pure gameplay and all the weapons feel really great. Each level is really vast with tons of secrets and shortcuts. Duke moves really fast and there is no time where I’m not really doing anything. I really like the graphics, no joke. They are clean, there are no fancy particle and lighting effects, I can see the level all the time. In modern games the graphics are “too good” with tons of useless effects obscuring my vision. Duke’s graphics may be a pixelated mess, but it’s a mess I can see all the time.
There are several graphics updates out there, like high res textures, 3D models (which are really ugly in my opinion) and even voxel models (love those) and the controls can be remapped to WASD and mouse look, so the game is very well playable by modern standards.
Speaking of Duke Nukem 3D, that brings me to another great point: I can buy any games I want. In Germany there is heavy censorship and banning, so it would be impossible for me to buy a copy of Duke 3D here. I don’t know how GoG can do it, but Steam is tied to regional laws, so they cannot sell any games that are banned.
Ultima, first trilogy:
I picked up all the main Ultima games up to including seven, but I’ve only played through the first three so far. Well, I don’t think they have aged well at all. Aside from the interface, graphics and the lack of music, the content seems to be more about figuring out what to do rather than doing it. In Ultima 1 I pretty much knew all the steps, so it was essentially just a grind to increase my HP and gold enough so I could buy an air car, then increase my HP enough so I could visit all the signposts and grind up my stats and weapons, so i could grind even more. Go into a dungeons, defeat a few enemies, exit and repeat the process. Combat was pretty boring, just keep hitting A until the enemy dies and hope you won’t have to grinding for HP in the nearest dungeon. Knowing what I needed to do basically killed the entire adventuring aspect. I know the game has been written in 1080 by one guy in BASIC, so I cannot really expect it to live up to anything today and its influence on gaming is undeniable, but I would only recommend it to people who are curious about RPG history. At least it’s a fairly short game.
I skipped Ultima II, it seemed to have the same problems.
Ultima III on the other hand was actually more interesting, you could have four players, wander the world map freely for a reason and combat was more tactical. What I didn’t like was the food consumption and the low monster spawning rate. Often my party would nearly starve until a monster would spawn to provide me with gold to buy more food. In the end I resorted my mass murder, slaying the peaceful inhabitants of a nearby village for easy EXP and money, hich I invested in more food and better weapons for more mass murder. Truly a heroic game. Another thing that really annoyed me about the food was that you eat in cities as well, so in the beginning I found myself eating half my rations while trying to find the food store. This could have been fixed just by having a higer monster spawn rate and a lower food consumption. Gamers in the 80s must have had way mor patience for grinding. However, what really killed the game for me was that for some reasons boats don’t spawn, so I’m stuck on the main continent and I really don’t feel like starting the game all over and going through the stupid food grinding again.
Descent 1, 2 & 3:
After Duke I bought the Descent series, it’s pretty much the same kind of game, except here you’re some sort of spaceship. There are even source ports for Descent 1 and 2, I use DXX Rebirth. The six degrees of freedom give this game a really unique feel, it makes me feel dizzy, but in a good way. The corridor setting reminds me kind of Metroid Prime. I could just repeat what I already said about Duke. Really fun game and well playable. Maybe a joystick would be good for this one, I’m using just plain mouse and keyboard. I tried a gamepad but aiming was a pain.
Crusader: No Remorse, No Regret
I bought both and instantly regretted it, because the controls are so atrocious I couldn’t wrap my head around it. I came back to it a few months later and eventually found a control scheme that felt decent. Crusader really begs to be in 3D, it would make for a great FPS. The silencer controls like a tank and collision detection can be very picky at times. The game itself is great, you can be stealthy and take enemies out one by one or just rush in, roll around, or use you items. It was clearly ahead of its time in technical terms, a bit too much in my opinion.
Alien Shooter 1 + 2, Shadowgrounds:
I grouped these games together because they are pretty similar, they are dop down shooters where you blast aliens. It would be really fun, if it weren’t for one common problem: you cannot save during a mission. I understand that they wanted to make it arcade-like where you have three lives and cannot just hit F5 after each fight, but in an arcade game levels don’t last for an hour. I don’t want to play these games for an hour without a break, that’s the kind of game I want to play when I have fifteen minutes to spare. I played them a few levels, they were pretty fun and challenging enough, but I just lost my patience after a while.
Stronghold, Stronghold Crusader:
I played the original Stronghold quite a lot years ago, it was a pirated copy back then. It has aged quite well and I love the attention to detail (you can see the workers work in their buildings, pretty neat) and it’s really fun. Crusaders is more of the same except with a half-assed Arabian setting. I can understand they didn’t want to include many new units, but they could have at least provided extra sprites for the Arabs. Playing an Arabian leader and building churches and putting banners with huge crosses on top of your European looking castle is just wrong.
Baldur’s Gate Trilogy:
I played these games before they were on GoG (but still only a few years ago, that’s why I’m listing them here anyway), the BG series were the first western RPGs I played, The AD&D rules are a mess and make getting into the game rather difficult. The first one is easier to get into because you start a level 1, but that also means that the beginning is less exciting. At low levels your characters don’t have much they can do, so the entire first game felt sort of flat to me. It’s nice that you can wander around freely, but it felt more like walking across a map that has been only half filled. The story is OK, but it didn’t leave as much of an impression on me as the second one. Your party’s crawling speed didn’t help either.
The second on was more fun, your characters can do more and the adventure feels tighter crafted, at the expense of the openness the first game had. So in that regard it’s more like a J-RPG. The story was more important for this one, but it never felt like I was just following some predetermined plot. There are a lot of side quests and they are far more memorable than the fetch quests in the first game. On quest involved a beholder worshipping cult in the severs. Or how about near the beginning when I defeated those slave traders? Or those ruins of a temple to a forgotten sun god where I had to sneak past a shadow dragon. Speaking of dragons, this game has dragons and their fights are really cool, they are optional, but you just want to defeat them because they are there and they are dragons. The developers really nailed the balance between story and combat, it never feels like you are just doing one of those. I played Jade Empire, which was also made by Bioware, the combat was like something they just included because they kind of had to, not because it should be there.
Icewind Dale 1 & 2:
It’s like Baldur’s Gate 2 minus the story, which I actually like. The combat system in Baldur’s Gate was pretty well done and in this game they fleshed it out even more and created really nice encounters with tons of enemies. I like how you get to create your entire party on your own. Sure, the characters in BG were nice, but there is just something about a party *you* created as level 1 weaklings and watching them get progressively stronger over the course of the adventure. It doesn’t mattrer that there are no banters, in my imagination they are more alive than anythign Bioware could have written. I like how even though the game is set in the icy north you get to see a lot of cool places. First it’s all ice and snow, but then you get to visit a humid cave, a ruined tower, a dwarfen fortress, a fortress made out of ice, and even a volcano!
Planescpae Torment:
OK, I’ll be honest, I don’t get this one. Whenever i ask people why this is supposed to be the greates RPG ever they say it’s the story and the characters, but that’s not the *game*, you can get those from a novel or a movie as well. And that’s what PS:T feels to me like, walking though a novel someone has already written for you. Even the role-playing aspect is preset. While the rules let you play as any character, there is no reason to play anything but a fighter with high charisma, intelligence and wisdom. The fighter class so you an use the best weapons and the stats so you get the best dialogue options. Even in the dialogue options there is usually an ideal solution with the best reward. Combat is broken, just talk your way out of fights (which gives more EXP than fighting), run past monsters and when you have to fight just throw everything you have at the enemy and wait a few minutes, that’s how I beat the entire game with my non-combat skilled fighter. Even the world is inconsistent, for instance it builds up the difference between the brutish demons and the deceiving devils. When you finally get to hell, there is none of that, all the devils do is just attack on sight, just like demons. You can make some really evil choices, like sacrificing on of your companions at the pillar of skulls, but why would you do that when you can just give up five (or so) HP which by that time you won’t even notice (since fighters get the most HP for every level up). The game tells you that in the Planescape universe every being has great power, but you only have that power when the script tells you so.
I wouldn’t mind if Torment was just some point & click adventure, but it gives you all those RPG mechanis that slow the game down without making any interesting use of them.
Arcanum:
This is and RPG set in a typical fantasy world, but instead of the middle ages it’s the time of the industrial revolution. That alone offers huge potential, the game works around this conflict between technology and magic, the old way and the new way. There are may ways to play the game, as a lonely fighter, a mighty mage, a diplomatic talker, a stealthy rogue or a charismatic leader with a large group. Too bad the game is unfinised and suffers from retarded companion AI, balance issues, an awful interface and just in general a lack of polish. The unofficial patch takes care of bugs, but the other issues remain. It’s the little things that prevent Arcanum from becoming a true classic. If you have the patience it would be worth checking out though, it’s a fantasy hame with trains done right. The manual is interesting, it’s written in this victorian era style like it’s an actual book from the game world. It has over a hundred pages with quite some background of the world.
The Temple of Elemental Evil:
It’s by Troika, the same people who made Arcanum and it has the same problem: it’s unfinished. It was supposed to be really buggy, but the Circle of 8 mod pack makes the game playabe. The other problem are balance issues. Temple is not hard, it’s plain unfair, at least in the beginning before you get to the good spells. The modpack gives you some additional quests to help you level up, and they are pretty well designed, but the main campaign remains brutally hard. You can die just because of bad dice rolls and that’s really annoying. I was stuck at one boss and in the end I just used a cheat to give each character one more level. Yes, it’s cheating, but the game chates as well. Also, it’s just as non-challenging as braindead grinding, except it’s faster. It gets better though, as the game goes on and you get more spells and some good buffs and debuffs. It’s just the beginning that’s the problem.
Arx Fatalis:
This game was planned as Ultima Underworld 3, but Arkane couldn’t get the license, so they made it their own game. My initial reaction was very positive, but it kept slipping more and more as I played it. The developers nailed the atmosphere really well and made you feel like you are really in this underground city. Even the interface is immersive, to use things you just double click them and then you click on the thing you to use the object with, no menus or anything, it’s all real. The problems start as you keep playing and the initial wow reaction wears off. It’s all just show and nothing can rally harm you, you’re just walking through the stage set playin your role. It’s a shame, because the game really has protential and the mechanics are all there.
The Witcher:
Do you happen to have a physical copy of The Witcher? If so, you can type in you DVD key at GoG and get a digital copy for free. The Witcher was made my CD Projekt RED, a Polish company, and GoG belongs to them, that’s why this was the first new game on GoG. I have a physical copy of the Enhanced Edition, they re-released the game with a huge patch (which was free for everyone who already had the game) and the retail box came with the game, a map, several languages, an adventure editor for making your own campaings, two soundtrack CDs, a printed manual, a printed walkthrough book and a printed copy of the original short story the game is based on (the game’s universe comes from a series of short stories and novels), all for the regular PC game price of the time (40€). The structure is similar to Baldur’s Gate II, the path and story are more or less set, but you still have a certain amount of freedom how to act within these limits. What stands out is the story, which was written with the help of the original author and it really manages to be a mature story that treats its subjects with respect (well, except for the collectible sex cards). I really liked it, sometimes I even played until three in the morning, but after playing it once the initial spark wore off somethat. I know the story, I know the places, and while I can do some things differently this time or skill my character in a different way I just don’t feel like replaying it. Maybe if I was able to play it without Windows. There is a Mac version, but it’s Steam only, and I’m not buyin the game a second time on Steam.
Enclave:
This would make for a nice fantasy action game, kind of like an FPS, except without the perspective and without shooting. It’s nice to have a fantasy game that’s not an RPG. Unfortuanately the combat feels just meh, there is no meat in if. When my sword hits and enemy it just goes through and a number appears. Boring. Dark Messiah of Might & Magic is pretty much the same concept, except that one has the meatiest combat and action I’ve ever played, it gets better and better the more I play it. That’s quite weird, considering it’s made by the same people as Arx Fatalis.
Deus Ex:
I don’t really know what to say that not everyone else has said. It’s a masterpiece, it tells its story through my actions and I never feel like the game is playing me.
XIII:
After having fun with Duke Nukem 3D and Descent i wanted to give this one a try. You can clearly see that it’s a modern game. The shooting parts are really fun, the sound design is great, especially the minigun, which has some sort of deafening effect, and even the stealth parts are OK. The levels are pretty linear and straight-forward, but that’s OK. The cel shaded graphics are very clear and have aged very well. What really gets on my nerves are the cutscenes. Almost each level starts with a cutscene and you can only skip the prerendered ones (which are few), but not the ingame ones. Even worse, the checkpoints are right before the cutscenes, so if you fail you have to watch them all over again. It has these modern pseudo-cutscnes as well, where you are not in a cutscene, but you have to wait for something, follow someone or do some stupid tricks. I beat the game once, and my desire to replay it is really diminished by knowing I’ll have to sit though the same cutscenes all over again. The ending sucks too, they were either teasing for a sequel, or the entire game was just to market the comics. They really should have made this game as if it were their last, because it was (well, not really, but it was their only game with the XIII license).
Torchlight:
I got the retail version for about 6€, it’s an OK game. It’s fun to smash monsters, it’s fast and there is no modern bloat. Where it fails is the difficulty, I played the second hardest one, I didn’t thing about my skilling and yet I steamrolled over everything with my vanquisher (rogue) up until the last are where the game started getting challenging. That’s a major flaw, if the game can be beaten for the most part without any effort. The areas are pretty bland and there is only six of them, only three classes, some skills are underpowered, but I still have fun. Maybe I wouldn’t if I had payed more, but it’s a nice lightweight action RPG. I’m still interested in Torchlight 2 if they can fix the issues no that they have had more time. The game is very mod friendly, maybe there are some mods that make it more challenging. So far I only used minor mods for interface and textures.
Unreal Tournament 2004:
I bought it last week during the promo following you post. Unlike the other FPS I’ve played this is more like a sports game than an adventure game. I’ve been playing the single player campaign and I like it so far. The cool thing is that I can just insert the files from the GoG version into the Mac demo and I get my own Mac version. I can play a quick deathmatch if I feel like it. That’s quite refreshing compared to the other FPS where you have a continuous adventure. It suffers from the “too good” graphics problem, where particles and lighting can make it harder for me to aim. I guess other gamers are just used to it, but it makes these game less accessible. Not sure if that’s really a problem though.
King’s Bounty: The Legend
I left this one for the end, because out of all the newer games this one feels like it truly belongs to the DOS age. The original King’s Bounty served as a precursor to Heroes of Might & Magic and this is the first official follow up. You have a hero who commands an army and you wander around the world map. You can go pretty much anywhere you want, although you are limited to the continent first until you complete a certain main questb that allows you to travel to another continent. The world map is filled with randomly placed enemies and treasures and it gives you that thrill of being able to run into enemies too strong for you and they will start chasing you when they see you. You can either come back later or try to sneak around them. I have gotten myself into trouble many times because i wanted to pick up some treaure that was lying there but there was some monster in the way. Once you touch and enemy it goes into a turn based battle, your army against the enemy troop. Your hero doesn’t fight personally, but his stats get applied to the units and he can cast spells and summon rage spirits. There is no given way to play, you can play as anything you want. Want to have an army of fairies and unicorns? You can do it. Or maybe you’d like orcs and demons better? No one is stopping you.
It’s just that feel of freedom, of doing what you want and going where you want. Modern games tend to feel like someone is guiding you through the game and telling you what you can do and what you cannot. Here I get to decide myself, I can do the main quest, or I can just buy a boat and sail around, come across some treasure, fight some enemies, maybe even find a place where I can hire units that cannot be found on the main path. Plus it has really good music. Unfortunately it seems to fly under the radar of most media. Here is a trailer for the game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ALXhH5zFc4
A new King’s Bounty, Warriors of the North, is coming by the end of this year.
I love reading emails like these as it interests me to hear your impressions from someone who isn’t touched by nostalgia.
Tyrian 2000: I wasn’t expecting much out of it either and my reactions were the same. It is definitely a game everyone should try out. It’s also free on GoG.
Duke 3d: I haven’t played it in a long while so no comment.
Ultima 1: Yikes. I wouldn’t recommend any of the earlier Ultimas due to the aging issue. The only reason to play the early Ultima games is if you are a big Ultima fan (many Ultima fans emerge from the later games and play the games backwards) or if you are interested in RPG history. It is important to keep in mind that Ultima 1 wasn’t just written by ‘a dude’, he was a child of astronauts. I suspect Garriot received an education very few people got. Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the smartest and most cleverest of children gravitated to computers. The kids who liked business turned into Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. The kids who didn’t like business turned into video game developers. The things with gaming Origin did… Origin is to the gaming revolution not unlike how Xerox was to the computer revolution. As if fate has a sense of humor, the company name is very appropriate.
Ultima II: The game’s story is so wild and ‘out there’. It’s probably the most difficult Ultima to enjoy as it makes the least amount of sense.
Ultima III: Your experience sounds exactly how it was with many people. It was easier to slaughter the innocent people to get gold than the monsters. Everyone was doing it. This is what led to Garriot to making Ultima IV revolve around moral choices.
Descent Series: Been a while since I played this. A joystick is mandatory. Back in the day, Descent tournaments would be very popular. I remember trying to get a game with someone in Kali (how we played games over the Internet by tricking the network code), and he said he couldn’t because he was retuning his joystick for the upcoming Descent tourney. So the joystick was a big deal. I’d never play Descent with the keyboard or with a gamepad. It’s a flight game in full 360 degrees. PC gaming eventually dropped joystick games, but Decent games need them. Other great Joystick games would be the Wing Commander series and Freespace 1 and 2.
Crusader: No Regret: Not sure if I’ve even played this one. It’s been so long. I know Origin was reusing the Ultima 8 game engine for it. At that time period, Origin was re-using game engines to create new games or ‘part 2’ versions of games (like Worlds of Ultima or Ultima 7 Part 2). I think it is a fantastic idea, but we discovered something about how we consume gaming. Gamers consume more than the content, they consume the game engines as well. You can’t use one game engine and keep pouring content in it to last forever. This is what is causing the gradual deterioration in World of Warcraft’s playerbase and the Blizzard developers know it. (they’ve told me)
Alien Shooter 1 and 2: Have never played this.
Stronghold: Never played this either.
Balder’s Gate: Been a long while. I do remember when Balder’s Gate was being made. At the time, everyone was complaining and freaking out that RPGs were no longer appearing on the PC. Was PC RPGs going to die like the adventure games? The people behind Balder’s Gate started out opening up a message forum and inviting everyone’s ideas of what to make in a RPG game. My memory is hazy, but this is how I remember it.
Icewind Dale: Been too long.
Planescape Torment: I own this one. I don’t think I got through it all. I’ll have to give it another go. My reactions to Torment was like yours. There is a reason why Planescape Torment did not sell, and it is because you and I are more in the mainstream than the forum dwellers. Around this time, I could be considered a ‘game journalist’ (oh that term!), and I took my confusion to some friends I had who were ‘game journalist’ but also ‘professional beta testers’ (remember that I got into closed beta testing of almost every RTS game during the RTS boom.). I asked him why everyone liked this game so much where I didn’t seem to ‘get it’. One person replied, “How old are you?” I gave my age. “That is why. The game and its dialogue speaks more to the young.” If I was considered old at that time, then today I must be an ancient wizard with a flowing white beard. My impression is that Planescape Torment has a bigger impact on the younger mindset.
Arcanum: Haven’t tried it.
Temple of Elemental Evil: Haven’t tried it. Mostly I haven’t tried it or Arcanum due to people like you saying it is unfinished.
Arx Fatalis: Never played it.
The Witcher: This one is on my list of games I need to play. Collectible sex cards? Sweet!
Enclave: Haven’t played it.
Deus Ex: Haven’t played it in a long while. I’ll fix that shortly.
XIII: Haven’t played this. Your line “They should have made this game as if it were their last because it was…” made me laugh.
Torchlight: For the game’s price and the very short amount of development time, I suppose it is OK. But I found the game remarkably uninteresting. There is nothing memorable about the game. Except the stupid dog you send back to town with your weapons.
Unreal Tournament 2004: I’ve been playing this one a ton recently but stopped and switched to play the hell out of Unreal Tournament 1999. I love both. But the deathmatch in the 1999 version is more satisfying. There is less ‘graphics’, but the combat feels like it has more gravitas. Did you try some of the other modes in Unreal Tournament 2004? Try out Torlan in Onslaught mode. There are also Unreal 1 and 2 games that I actually missed and need to try out. Those would be more more ‘adventure like’ games. But Unreal Tournament 2004 never gets old. It is just one of those games you just feel like playing now and then.
A King’s Bounty: Haven’t tried this. Did you know that I haven’t played a Heroes of Might and Magic yet? “Scandalous!” you say. I hang my head in shame. I do plan on purchasing the third one from GoG soon.
Actually, I’m currently playing through Beneath a Steel Sky. It is that free adventure game you get on GoG. I can see why people like it. The narrative is well paced. and it isn’t the cliched ‘fantasy’ story like that awful Dragonsphere. But the game’s universe has serious cliche problems like the ‘space nazis’ and how the bad guys run a techno-world full of factories and girders and smoke stacks. In fact, the bad guys are so evil that they even have fire exits that lead nowhere and keep them locked (no, I am not making this up).
Maybe the adventure genre is not for me, but I am really annoyed there are so many free adventure games given away by GoG. I love Tyrian 2000, and I don’t mind the Ultimas. It’d be great if the free games were more diverse in their genres. How about a free pinball game such as Epic Pinball? I don’t think GoG would go to sell that but the game is good enough to give away. Oh, that music!
I’d recommend getting a cool joystick and retrying the Decent games. I believe the joystick adds a ton to the experience. The joystick would also be great for playing the Wing Commander games and Freespace (Freespace 2 is the last great space simulator).
There is so much great stuff on GoG, and it is cheap. These games cost as much as a virtual console game does, and you can get so much more playtime out of them! Not sure if you like strategy games, but the Master of Orion 1 and 2 is a tremendous value. Or if you liked Civilization, Master of Magic would be up your alley.