Game reviews and recomandations made by US, the AMATEURS

[Dan_N]

Hello.
This is another of my attempts to start a thread that's helpful in some way, so let's get down to the nitty-gritty.
In this thread, WE, the AMATEURS of games will (should) provide the rest of the community with recomandations and reviews for other games, amateur or not. This is to help guide the poor folks (like me) who wonder the web, in search for something to play from time to time.

So, I would like to establish some rules that I hope people posting will follow.
Oh, and here they are:
1. You may talk freely about anything else, but please specify that this is off-topic (like this: Off topic - and then write)
2. You may write multiple recomandations in one post
3. ALWAYS, if you're writing a recomandation, write a recomandation for an adventure game, either amateur or profesional, for example, you write a recomandation for Warcraft III, then you write a recomandation for 5 Days a Stranger.
4. DO NOT (and I mean DO NOT) write links to where the game can be downloaded as abandonware or warez, although I guess links to the demo, shareware, or freeware are Ok (mr. moderator please correct if I'm wrong).
5. ALWAYS write fairly and objectively, not just "PLAY IT CAUSE IT'S COOL!!!!!!!11111!", Ok? And don't write if you've never played the game.

Ok, now let's see how a recomandation must be written.

You must write about the following when making a recomandation:
Title: The title of the game
Genre: The genre of the game
Year: In which year the game was released.
Designer, Publisher & Professional Category: who made the game, who published it and is it amateur or professional. The publisher is optional, but a designer wouldn't hurt.
General Description: Here, you can write about the generals of the game. Only HERE you can praise the game.
System Requirements: Try to write some minimum system requirements, either from guessing or from informed sources.
Pros and cons - 1. Graphics: Here, you'll write one pro and one con about graphics.
Pros and cons - 2. Gameplay: One pro and one con about gameplay
Pros and cons - 3. Story: One pro and one con about the story
Pros and cons - 4. Feeling, Atmosphere & Immersion: One pro and one con about the general feeling and atmosphere of the game
Pros and cons - 5. Sound: One pro and one con about the sound
Bugs: Here, you must write about what bugs you encountered.
General score: Here, you must give it an overall mark from 1 to 10. And justify a bit.

Ok, any questions?

I'll start with a recomandation for my favourite game of all time:
Title: StarCraft
Genre: Real-time Strategy, SF
Year: 1998
Designer, & Professional Category: Blizzard Entertainment, professional game
General Description: Three completely different, but exactly balanced races battle it out for control of the galaxy: the techno-human Terrans, the rampaging Zerg, and the psyonic Protos, each with it's strengths and weakneses. It is a very advanced version of Warcraft II, not 3D (although a 3D RTS game was released in 1997) but beatifully done. In true Blizzard tradition, it features heros which need to survive each military encounter. And although it looks very high-tech, Blizzard managed to keep the system requirements to a minimum, thus even my computer can run it safely!
System Requirements: Pentium at 166 Mhz, 16 Mb RAM, about 160 Mb of HDD space. (yes, I have a Pentium at 166 Mhz with 16 Mb RAM)
Pros and cons - 1. Graphics: Beatifully drawn, but I guess the only con is that it's not 3D.
Pros and cons - 2. Gameplay: Quite easy to control, but for newbies, it might prove at times difficult to see the full "picture" of the game.
Pros and cons - 3. Story: Well thought, but the first Terran Campaign seems to Hollywood for my blood.
Pros and cons - 4. Feeling, Atmosphere & Immersion: The briefings are well thought, but too distant. Here, WarCraft III is better as briefing rooms have been removed.
Pros and cons - 5. Sound: The characters are funny, but it's sometimes to loud if multiple shots are heard at the same time.
Bugs: Actually, I haven't seen any bugs so far.
General score: 10, because of it's pioneering spirit and wonderfully thought out mechanics. Hats off!

And now, for an adventure game close to my heart.

Title: Beneath a Steel Sky
Genre: Adventure, cyberpunk
Year: 1992, perhaps, i'm not sure
Designer, Professional Category: Revolution Software, I believe, definetly professional
General Description: A man is kidnapped, and must now he must find out why, along with his side-kick robot, Joey, in a city underneath a poluted steel sky. He must venture from the top, which is actually the lowest form of society in the city, to a more cleaner middle, then to a patrician-like bottom. Up is down and down is up, ladies and gentlemen.
System Requirements: I guess a Pentium or 486 at arround 100 Mhz, with 8 Mb of RAM, about 10 Mb of HDD space (for the SCUMMVM version)
Pros and cons - 1. Graphics: Beautifully done, comic book-like, although it might give you vertigo sometimes.
Pros and cons - 2. Gameplay: Just the mouse, left click and right click, although you might be taken by surprise and die, and curse, and load or delete.
Pros and cons - 3. Story: Very well done, but too inspired from other sources.
Pros and cons - 4. Feeling, Atmosphere & Immersion: Yes, well it grabs you, but sometimes it might take you by surprise, kill you, and then you'll have to load or delete.
Pros and cons - 5. Sound: Cool music, but no sound effects (to my knowledge).
Bugs: None, so far.
General score: 8, for nice story, cool music, cute gameplay, and comic book-like backgrounds.

[Vince Twelve]

I recommend that if you're going to use the word "recommend" so many times in a post that you quickly check how to spell it.

I also recommend not imposing so many rules on a fun thread.

I also recommend DICEWARS for a good time waster.  It's exactly what a time waster game should be: easy to play, difficult to master.  Randomized everything makes sure that you'll never play the same game twice.  But the AI could be improved just a bit.

Sorry for ignoring your rules.

[Mr Flibble]

the only con is that it's not 3D.

...

You may have joined the wrong forums.

[Ali]

I think the rigidity of you're suggesting will limit the contributions you'll get. I also think a thread, while it's a potentially good place to collect recommendations will not be a good place to browse recommendations.

I also think that you should be careful with the term Genre. If it's going to mean anything at all, 'adventure' and 'cyber-punk' can't both be genres. They are of different kinds, one describes form and the other content, like 'comedy' and 'western'.

[Dan_N]

Whoops!
Sorry.

Ok, let's tare down the rules, but still, let's uphold some guidelines.

A genre and a theme wouldn't hurt, some info about the game wouldn't either. And of course, say WHY you like it so much.

I guess a new post should be something like this:

Caesar III, a city-building simulation game, with a Roman history theme, is the third installment in the series and, although i don't usually think that sequels are better than the original, I must say, hats off! It blends many elements such as industry, entertainment, religion, trade and city-planning into a whole. The demo (the only version i've played so far) allows you to build farms, prefectures, gardens, reservoirs, fountains, aqueducts, actor's colonies, theatres, temples for 5 gods, forums, schools, baths, the senate building, and many others. You must keep your citizens happy and secure, or else, fires may break out, buildings will collapse, or riots will rise. The demo features the first two missions, which are tutorials, of the full game. This is a keeper, i tell you. I give it a 9, overall, 'cause it's a sequel.

[Mordalles]

Beatifully drawn, but I guess the only con is that it's not 3D.

kids of today. 

[2ma2]

I'll just go on and recommend the best game I know namely;

Beyond Good and Evil which came out a couple of years ago. In this masterpiece you play a young girl struggling to take photos of all different animals in the world, but it doesn't stop there. No, the fusion of gameplay and storytelling is sometimes mindblowing, the story is enganging from scratch, and the characters are simply great. All this is is presented in a sci-fi world with a blend of human, extraterrestials and fableanimals, all very very much like a european comic. I started playing it 20:00 and stopped not until I had beaten the game 09:30 the next day. Five thumbs up!

[Dan_N]

Ok, it seems that my remark with the "it's not 3D" made everyone think I'm a young empty-head part of the sheep mass of today worshiping the corporate machine. I assure you, I am not!
I wrote that to keep in line with my own rules, therefor, I had to write a con, and because there wasn't any, I wrote the first thing that sprung to mind.
Anyway, you'll notice below that I've got some more recoMMandations and reviews. Here we go:

Imperialism is a TBS made in 1998 published by SSI (aka the strategic gods I worship) that has an intricate gameplay and graphics resemblimg Civilization. You are the new ruler of a 19-th century country and must either a) take over the world or b) win everybody's favor and get voted as the world's most loved empire at the council that occurs every 10 years. All this before 1915, when the final council will meet. You must balance trade, diplomacy, industry, technology and funds and resources wisely. Imperialism is truly one of the best strategy games ever made, standing 3rd in my all-time favorite games top and 2nd in my all-time favorite TBS games top, just milimeters from Civilization. It also has a sequel Imperialism 2:Age of Exploration. 2 Thumbs up and a well-deserved 9 for the gameplay alone.

RollerCoaster Tycoon is for kids. I know. But the gameplay is really neat. Chris Sawyer (known for making games all by himself and living after the gameplay-over-graphics creed) has done a wonderfull job with this one. Although he was working at Transport Tycoon 2 before given the offer to do this game, he managed to keep the TT2 engine and incorporate it into rollercoasters. You start out with a loan from the bank and must build your amusement park to fit all categories of people: the squeamish, the average Joe, and the thrill seekers. Build stalls to feed the hundreds of people flocking to your park, move them arround with trains, build paths to allow them to walk arround, build rides and most importantly: rollercoasters! Yes, you can design your own rollercoaster tracks and tweak the mechanics. But you can also make your own log flumes, boat rides, train rides, and many others. You can also manipulate landscape any way you wish and add theme buildings to your park to enhance popularity. 2 Thumbs up and a nice 8, for not making a sequel to Transport Tycoon that runs on my computer.

Blood 2. Oh my god! It's another sequel better than the original!!! I don't freakin' believe it! I thought after Caesar III, we'd be done with this stuff. But no! Well, after hefty games of Caesar, RollerCoaster Tycoon and Imperialism, I like to kill a little brain cells and some baddies with a shooter. Not just any shooter, Blood 2! Classical FPS players should be familiar with the original Blood made using a rather "tweaked" Build 3D engine. But now, Monolith (the creators) have themselves their very own engine: the LithTech engine. And not just any engine, an engine that can be compared with the Unreal, Quake 2 and Half-Life (1) engines and IT RUNS ON MY PIECE OF CRAP COMPUTER! Can you believe it?! Anyway, to the story, Caleb, an undead cultist that has vowed revenge on his former deity is back. And not alone, but with Ophelia, (his wife) Ishmael (a friend) and Gabriella (a man turned woman). These for form the Chosen. The chosen to fight CabalCo, Caleb's former cultist friends turned corporate. Ah but this is not all, for a dimensional rift has opened up, causing horrible monsters to appear. Now, what I liked about the first one were the weapons, which were very different from regular weapons used in FPS games (i'm talking about the flare gun, the Voodoo doll, the Life Leech, the Tessla Cannon and others), but now, pistols, sub-machine guns, assault rifles have been added, which really kills it for me. Another thing about the first one I liked was the dark humour of Caleb.(which is called "campy humour" i think in proper english) He was funny, and I played the game laughing my arse off. But now, I'm scared sh*tless because of the dark corridors (which allow the game to run faster, it appears) and screams of death (my death) coming from the walls. It spooks me out I tell you! But, Caleb still is kinda funny though. In the first level when he enters he says (and this is one of my favourite quotes): "It's howdy-doody time, kiddies. The bad man's here." or while shooting many rounds: "No-one can stop me!" or after REALLY putting effort into killing some baddy and finally succeseeding: "That'll teach ya!". Yeah, not that funny. Anyway, for the super graphics requiring so little hardware performance 2 thumbs up and a 7, for loss of funny-ness.

[Vince Twelve]

recoMMandations

Nope.  Try again!

Oh, and Cloud is utterly relaxing.

[Rincewind]

Oh well, just because I recently had a bit of SNES-nostalgia, I might as well tell you about one of the best SNES-games, and indeed best games ever of any console/genre/whathaveyou. Namely, Terranigma.
Being one of the last games ever made for the dear old Super Nintendo, Quintet and Enix managed to pump in some brilliantly good graphics for its time, with some amazing mode 7-animations and an overall high quality to both backgrounds and sprites.

The story starts out pretty typical for your action/RPG's of the time, centering around a teenage kid named Ark, who's a generally mischievous character, making life sour for his fellow villagers in the isolated underworld village of Crysta, until one day, when he opens a door in the elders house which was strictly out of limits, and by doing that also opens a sort of Pandoras box, resulting in freezeing all the other villagers, and is then sent upon a quest to defeat the five towers surrounding the village in order to bring them back to their normal state and save the day. However, that is just the beginning of something much bigger: The resurrection of the overworld; our earth, and all life upon it, from plants and birds to human life, and all the things that come with it: Civilized enlightment, but also corruption and cruelty.Ã, 

Not just boasting with impressive graphics/storyline/audio, Terranigma also becomes one of the best games ever beacuse of its incredible gameplay. The real-time-control of Ark is flawless, with not just one, but up to five different ways of attacking, instead of the single-hand-slashing found in Zelda 3, for example. Add that up to a superb inventory/weapons/armor system, which not only makes it incredibly fun to find new weapons and armor, but also adds to the overall feeling of the game.

If I'm gonna name one thing that makes this one of my favourite games of all time, though, I think it has to be the simple fact that I don't think I've been so immensed in any game the way I was immensed in this - Together with Grim Fandango, it's the only game that has made me cry at the end. Now I know there are some other Terranigma-fans on this board(Kinoko and Petteri, if I'm not mistaken... ) but to all of you others who haven't played it, I can only say that it is a must-play.
Truly awesome, in the original meaning of the word. (Not like a hot-dog)

[Dan_N]

Yes.
What rincewind just did a good thing, namely add screenshots.
I hope some other people will add screenshots as well, and I'd add some too, but I don't know where I can upload stuff that's not for AGS.
Anyway, I'm not goind to RECOMMEND (i looked it up in the dictionary and THAT'S how it's written, dammit!) three games close to my heart, the first one being also the first ever AGS game i've ever played. Two of them contain a character that most of us should love and the games are made by my hero.
(although this may prove useless...)
5 Days a Stranger. Yep, you know it, you love it and most off all you played it. Or at least you should have! A game that impresses by gameplay, story and graphics, and it is made here, in our own little corner of the world. The game is a horror game, though, and contains blood and gore (which is a trademark of Yahtzee inc. apparently) and therefor might prove unsettleing at times. But a must-play for all you would-be game makers. In fact, i'm downloading as I type these words, the game and it's two sequels. The story goes like this: the gentleman thief/cat burglar who is known only as Trilby brakes in the DeFoe manor, a place that should be filled with riches. Unfortunately, he is trapped in this house along with four other people, Philip Hardy, Simone Taylor, Jim and A.J. Strange things will happen to them. Play the game! I have to admit that the first time I played it, I was scared out of my wits, and threfor it is a must. 2 Thumbs up and a well deserved 10/10.

7 Days a Skeptic. The sequel to 5 Days a Stranger made by the ranty Yahtzee doesn't dissapoint, although it doesn't really keep you tense all throughout the game, but manages to scare nicely. The story goes like this: 400 years after the Defoe Manor, an old space vessel is being recomissioned. It's crew, formed of the captain Barry Chahal, first officer Angela Garret, helmswoman Serena Kyle, engineer Adam Gilkennie, physician William Taylor and counsellor John Somerset (you), finds a locker while on mission and then the game rolls on... It is a work of art that's what it is! The game is riddled with murders, plot twists and turns, chases which all fits nicely into place. Don't play it at night! 2 Thumbs up and 9/10 for that feeling that 5DAS and somehow wasn't here.

Trilby's Notes is a recently released game that is a direct sequel to 5DAS and the proper prequel to 7DAS. Tribly is now a government agent thanks to his "special" abilities. He one day discovers Simone dead and then he is sent to the hotel Clambrowyn to investigate some unusual phenomena. This game is scary, mostly by blood and gore, and also features a phase shift between two worlds, which kind of starts to bug you after a while. And also features a text parser for control (?). Anyway, a must-play for horror game fanaticts and Trilby fans. 2 Thumbs up and a 7/10 for not being all that scary like the first two games, for that nasty phase shift and the parser.

Update - today's date, erm... I mean... hold on... yeah, 24.0... damn! August!

Yeah, I'm seeing that this topic is dying.
Please don't let it die! That was a plee from the Please Don't Let this Topic Die Association (or PDLTTDA, becoming international conglomerate).

So anyway, I thought I'd post a new finding of mine...

Theme Hospital is a tycoon-style game from Bullfrog in which you must take care of a hospital. I believe it is a private one, because the prices are REALLY jacked up, but, somehow, houndreds may come to visit. Anyway, gameplay-wise, you must build and manage rooms for diagnosting... erm... diagnoscing... erm diagnosis, (yeah that's it) for treatment, for research and for general use (toilets, staff lounges etc.). The game is structured arround scenarios, or levels or whatever you want to call them, and although I don't generally aprove of scenarios, especially in economical games, these one's are ok. Why? 'Cause there's no time limits and you can continue even after you reach your objectives, but will be bothered by the "do you want to continue?" question a lot. However, if you advance, new rooms and facilities will be unlocked, but it'll be harder anyway. You must also employ staff (doctors, nurses, janitors and receptionists). Doctors are your most important people and thus, demand a healthier wager. Doctors can also have extra abilities in Surgery, Psychiatry or Research. Regular, plain doctors generally consult your visitors and can administer a wide range of treatments, but cannot perform surgery, or tamper with the psyche, or research (just look through old files). Surgens, besides having the abilities of a plain doctors, can operate on pacients that require it. Psychiatrists consult and treat your pacients mentality. Researchers... well... research the new treatments and diseases and document them for the other doctors. Nurses manage the pharmacy and generally tend to treatments that don't require a high level of expertise and also take care of the sick people in the ward. Janitors maintain and clean the entire hospital. Receptionists are the first people your visitors see so they receive and direct them to the different doctors and rooms. Besides all that, Theme Hospital also has an eccentric sense of humour, (not dark or kiddie, just eccentric) but I'm going to ruin that for you. So get the game and play it. Write it down on your Cristmas wishlist. Overall, 2 Thumbs up and a well-deserved 8, for humour, but buggy sometimes.

Oh, and PLEASE DON'T LET THIS TOPIC DIE!
(Signed the PDLTTDA)