1. Front Mission: Gun Hazard (SNES)
- I'm going to give it to Gun Hazard for my favorite retro game in 2018.
I wasn't expecting to see
Gun Hazard so high on your list. Everything about it sounds pretty amazing. I suppose I'll always have unfinished business with the
FM series as long as I don't give this one a shot, main series or not. Consider checking
FM4 out if you get that SRPG itch, though. Also, you reminded me I need to go back and finish
Metroid II eventually - I know me, it's not like I'm ever letting myself play the remake before I beat the original.
Pretty cool seeing
SH,
Heretic,
Doom and
Koudelka up there, too.
-
First person games I've beaten in 2018:
1.
Wolfenstein 3D (PC) 8/102.
Doom II: Hell on Earth (PC) 8/103. Maken X (DC) 6/10
4.
Final Doom (PC) 8/105. Catacomb 3 (PC) 5/10
6. Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders (PC) 7/10
7. Chex Quest 1-2-3 (PC) 6/10
8. HeXen: Beyond Heretic (PC) 6/10
9. Strife (PC) 6/10
10.
Doom 64 (N64) 8/1011. HeXen II (PC) 7/10
12.
Quake 4 (PC) 8/1013. SWAT 3 (PC) 6/10
14.
Doom 3 BFG Edition (PC) 8/1015.
Soldier of Fortune (PC) 8/1016. The Operative: No One Lives Forever (PC) 7/10
17.
Thief Gold (PC) 9/1018. Return to Castle Wolfenstein (PC) 7/10
19.
Thief II: The Metal Age (PC) 9/1020. Thief: Deadly Shadows (PC) 7/10
21. Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix 7/10
22. SWAT 4 (PC) 7/10
23. Judge Dredd: Dredd VS Death (PC) 5/10
24.
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay (PC) 8/1025. Chasm: The Rift (PC) 7/10
26. Dark Arena (GBA) 6/10
27. Metroid Prime Hunters (NDS) 7/10
28.
PowerSlave (PS1) 9/1029. Ecks vs. Sever (GBA) 7/10
30. Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever II (GBA) 7/10
31.
Medal of Honor (PS1) 8/1032. Disruptor (PS1) 7/10
33.
Perfect Dark (N64) 8/1034. GoldenEye 007 (N64) 7/10
35. Medal of Honor Underground (PS1) 7/10
36.
Duke Nukem 3D (PC) 8/1037. 007: The World is not Enough (PS1) 6/10
38.
XIII (PC) 8/1039. Shadow Warrior (PC) 7/10
40. Dementium: The Ward (NDS) 4/10
41. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (PC) 6/10
42.
Condemned: Criminal Origins (PC) 8/1043. The Hunt (PC) 7/10
44.
Clive Barker's Jericho (PC) 8/1045. The Penumbra Collection (PC) 7/10
46. Area 51 (PC) 6/10
47.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (PC) 9/1048. Blacksite: Area 51 (PC) 6/10
49. Hellnight (PS1) 6/10
50. Echo Night (PS1) 7/10
51. Echo Night 2: The Lord of Nightmares (PS1) 7/10
52.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl (PC) 8/1053. Far Cry (PC) 7/10
54. Far Cry 2 (PC) 7/10
55. Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie (PC) 7/10
56. SAS: Secure Tomorrow (PC) 5/10
57. The Royal Marines Commando (PC) 5/10
58. Mortyr 2093 - 1944 (PC) 7/10
59.
You Are Empty (PC) 8/1060. Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason (PC) 7/10
61. Marathon (PC) 6/10
62. Marathon 2: Durandal (PC) 7/10
63. Marathon Infinity (PC) 6/10
64. Soldier of Fortune: Payback (PC) 6/10
65. Silent Debuggers (PC-Engine) 7/10
66.
Shadow Tower (PS1) 8/1067.
Shadow Tower: Abyss (PS2) 8/1068. King's Field (PS1) 7/10
69. King's Field II (PS1) 7/10
70.
King's Field III (PS1) 8/1071.
King's Field IV (PS2) 9/1072. Eternal Ring (PS2) 6/10
73.
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (PC) 8/1074. Turok 2: Seeds of Evil (PC) 7/10
My 9/10 games:
Thief Gold [1999/PC]
An uncompromising yet incredibly rewarding game with some of the best world building and most intriguing and mysterious fantasy settings I've ever come across. The good story, dark ambient OST, excellent voice acting and beautifully-made cutscenes are there to enhance and support the gameplay but never steal the spotlight from it. It takes commitment from the player, but once you manage to get into it,
Thief truly rewards the player for sticking with it.
Thief is everything an immersive sim should strive to be, it is not afraid to give players the tools and see what they can come up with. It also refuses to stick with one genre and despite being a stealth game, its gameplay is also reminiscent of dungeon crawlers, platformers and adventure games - it takes the best from each and delivers something truly unique.
Thief II: The Metal Age [2000/PC]
Thief II dives deep into the steampunk elements which were merely hinted at in the first game - as a consequence most of the new enemies are mechanical and there are even some security cameras of sort you'll have to look out for. While you're given some new tools, the game looks and plays mostly the same as its predecessor - albeit a tad more challenging. The story takes a bit to get going, but eventually it does and it builds well upon the events of the first game - even with some returning faces. The final mission manages to be both memorable and maddeningly difficult - as well as time-consuming. Uncompromising as ever.
PowerSlave [1996/SAT/PS/PC]
Coming out as a Saturn exclusive in 1996,
PowerSlave combines old-school shooting à la
Duke 3D - it is no coincidence the PC version was powered by the Build engine - with
Metroid-like upgrades which actually require you to travel back to old levels and uncover passages to new areas of the map with your newly gained powers. Some of the later levels depend completely on your upgrades and would be outright unplayable without them. Expect tons of platforming as well. Suffices to say I wasn't surprised to find out that the developers - Lobotomy Software - were all former Nintendo of America employees. Even if
PowerSlave were a traditional shooter, it'd still be absolutely worth playing with its tight controls, good music, impressive looking Egyptian and alien environments, gory death animations and weapons that are stupidly fun to use.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines [2004/PC]
Developed by the CRPG veterans at Troika Games,
Bloodlines delivers a gripping storyline, witty dialog and a plethora of skills you can choose from - letting you play the game and interact with NPCs in many different ways. Speaking of which, the game can also be played in either first or third person. For a CRPG, the gun reloading animations were surprisingly good and the gunplay felt decent enough. The atmosphere and music make for most of the game - in spite of what you might expect from a vampire-themed game, the world felt gritty and authentic, but never trying to impress the player by being overly edgy, but actually having a lot of humor in it and only dwelling on the more serious and horror-tinged elements when it felt appropriate. Memorable characters, non-linear gameplay à la
Deus Ex and interesting conversations. That's what I expect from a CRPG and that's what I've got from
Bloodlines. I'll add that it's always interesting seeing a game running on the Source engine which doesn't follow the conventions set by
HL2.
King's Field IV [2001/PS2]
KF4 abandons the fairly ambitious storyline and
Zelda-like game design from
KF3 - which was actually pretty great - and delivers everything you might wish from a dungeon crawler. Focusing equally on exploration and combat and set in a mysterious and hostile world,
KF4 doesn't have much in the way of an actual storyline but
offers a fair challenge and respects the player, while never leaving them wandering aimlessly for hours but always providing them with just enough directions. Highly-polished, no-nonsense gameplay coupled with an engrossing and dark game world make
KF4 a riveting experience. It's a long game (25 hours) but never did I want it to end, as I felt there was always more to explore, new loot to find and new challenges to overcome just around the next corner.
As my biggest disappointments I'd probably mention
Maken X because I really liked the concept of a melee-based first person game - especially back in 1999 and on the Dreamcast - but it's too barebones and ended up feeling more like a tech demo.
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth started off great and had all the markings of an excellent survival horror game but as soon as it abandoned the source material, it turned into a mediocre shooter with a few obtuse, time-consuming puzzles. Very bugged game, too
. Also,
Marathon Infinity. While the gameplay is exactly the same as in
Durandal - meaning it's pretty solid - I despised its maze-like level design, as well as the ridiculous difficulty spikes and its cryptic, bordering-on-pretentious storyline.