heywood on 3/12/2015 at 00:28
OK, I have another one. Solarix.
The AI isn't very good and the patches didn't really improve the situation. On my first playthrough, before the patches, it was too easy. But the patches went too far in the other direction, and random AI bugs/weirdness led to many frustrating and unwarranted deaths on my second playthrough. Which I never finished.
Several of the chapters have interesting looking level architecture, and some of the maps are pretty large, but if you explore them you'll find mostly nothing and there's too many geometry bugs.
But I liked it anyway. I liked the dark sci-fi look and the atmosphere. The story was interesting. There was minimal hand holding. I liked the maps which were just informative enough to assist you in visual orienteering, but didn't give away too much so you still had to learn the levels. The gameplay was (at times) a satisfying throwback to Thief 1/2 (when the AI was behaving). It helps that SS2 is a top-5 favorite game for me, and Solarix had enough inspiration from SS2 to trigger nostalgia.
Muzman on 3/12/2015 at 02:13
Quote Posted by henke
Mirror's Edge which has a metacritic score of 81, sold well enough to warrant a sequel, and which everyone loves? Get out of here Muz.
Ok fine, you're better at this. Still that does surprise me. Its reception on release was lukewarm at best and it was not a hit, particularly. It grew over many years and discounts to a big fan base worthy of a sequel. But what was hoped to be a big franchise starter for Dice basically ensured they were working off the debts with almost nothing but Battlefields for years after. EA made them drop sequel plans it was such a bomb (during some economic and management rough patches admittedly).
(Then after a long time I think someone pointed out it's ended up with 2.5 million owners on Steam alone. If you can't turn that into money, what the hell are you doing?)
We get into tricky areas with this stuff though. Even Invisible War is a pretty highly rated game and I think I heard it was even more financially successful than Deus Ex. But no one's going to really argue that it's not maligned and deserves it.
But you're right. We can aim lower. We can set our sights straight for the middle of the road!, the centre of the pack!, the tip of the bell! etc
Nedan on 3/12/2015 at 03:01
I'm also going to chime in on the following games...
Trespasser (I like this game for all the wrong reasons & still do. I have never laughed as hard & as long as I have with this game playing any other game before. One of my favorite moments was my discovery that the game actually had tranquilizer guns in it & that the enemies you shoot do not react the way they should when shot with one. Another had to do with a kamikaze flying raptor.)
Phantasmagoria (1 & strangely enough... 2 as well.)
Aliens:Colonial Marines (The game still has its moments, but you can take 'Nugget' O'Neal & kill him now please. I still think he is the actual main boss of the entire game geniusly placed as a supposedly friendly unit as he is more frustrating than any boss you encounter.)
Velvet Assassin (I loved the ambiance of this title a hell of a lot.)
But I also wanted to toss a few new games into the mix...
Heretic II (I still consider this game to be one of the best games raven software has ever made. If you've played Jedi Outcast or Jedi Academy, you'll see shadows of this title throughout those two. Still fun & you can still get it for cheap if you look around.)
Forsaken (Stupidly enough... it was called Forsaken 64 on the N64, this game on the pc was an absolute blast to play. Sure it was a Descent-clone & it didn't bring much of anything new to the table other than nice visuals & a great selection of weapons... but I enjoyed the hell out of it. I loved all the weapons & the singleplayer, but the multiplayer in this was brutal with a lot of style. Definitely worth picking up if you can find a copy.)
SiN (One of the best FPS's I've ever played. I always considered this game far more fun than Half-Life 1 &, in some ways, slightly better than Duke Nukem 3D.)
icemann on 3/12/2015 at 05:06
I'll forever remember Sin for having the best emulation of a DOS that I've seen in a game.
Nedan on 3/12/2015 at 05:31
Yeah icemann, I have to agree. I loved all of those little touches throughout the game that were detailed like that in SiN.
PigLick on 3/12/2015 at 11:09
Go Vacation for the Wii. This game was actually quite amazing yet got very little attention, as it was released at the end of the wii's era.
Aja on 3/12/2015 at 16:45
As is well documented on these forums, I enjoyed the new Thief way more than the fans or the critics said I would. I still think that some of those reviews were unduly harsh.
Harvester on 3/12/2015 at 18:36
I forgot one, and it's way bigger than Phantasmagoria, which many people agree was sort of fun to play through once:
Hexen is one of my favorite games of all time. Granted, its combat doesn't amount to much. Not a lot of weapon and enemy variety. But the puzzles, figuring out the levels, which switch does what, I know people hated it for that, but I loved figuring everything out. I think I've found every nook and cranny, every secret, even each of the 5(!) secret levels. And it was hugely atmospheric, comparable to Doom. By contrast, I think Heretic is a really dull by-the-numbers fantasy faux-Doom without any atmosphere. I finished Heretic once, out of a compulsory obligation, and didn't enjoy myself, where I think I have played through Hexen at least 4 or 5 times and loved it each time.
Raven Software games were hit and miss for me anyway. I disliked Soldier of Fortune to the point of never even trying to play the second one. I did like Star Trek: Voyager Elite Force, but then again I'm sort of a minor Star Trek geek. Even gave it a replay a couple of years back. If Elite Force 2 became commercially available again, I think I'd buy and play it.
EDIT: also seconding SiN, I wouldn't call it a masterpiece but I had some genuine fun with it.
EDIT2: speaking of Star Trek games, I also liked ST DS9: The Fallen. The Unreal engine behaved in erratic ways sometimes, the in-engine cutscenes could've been better and the combat wasn't as strong as with Elite Force. But it was a genuinely cool story within the DS9 universe and I liked using Star Trek staples like the comm badge and the tricorder and such. And it had some replay value, because you could play with Kira, Sisko and Worf, with different levels for each. I finished it as all 3 characters.
froghawk on 3/12/2015 at 19:02
Definitely seconding Hexen and its expansion, Deathkings of the Dark Citadel. Hexen 2 was a little different, still decent but not on the same level, and I hated its expansion, where they ditched the hubs and made everything super linear. And the Heretic games are both a bit meh, especially the first one. But Hexen was great.
Quote Posted by Thirith
Stalker, as well as
Far Cry 2 and
Mirror's Edge, I'd call a "Marmite game". You love it or you hate it. I can't fault people who dislike the
Stalker games, but for me it's one of the medium's true diamonds in the rough, lacking polish but doing something unique (well, doing that unique thing three times over). I'd absolutely love a current-gen
Stalker game that does the same things in terms of design but updates the engine to allow for more details, better lighting etc.
Oh the contrary, Stalker inspired no strong feelings in me. I never finished it, but I certainly didn't hate it. It was enjoyable while I was playing it, but not enjoyable enough to go all the way.
icemann on 4/12/2015 at 01:50
Hexen was disliked?
Sure Hexen 2 was disliked by some. But the first one? Come on.
