Playing Old Games For the First Time - Give a Short Review of Some 10+ Year Old Game You Played For the First Time

[Calandrino]

I've been playing the Contra collection, only one I grew up with was Contra 3/Super Probotector so muscle memory can carry me through that. But I will fully admit to using save states in the other games as it makes it a lot more manageable and they still play well. I can see why people like Contra Hard Corps so much, but boy does that game live up to its name, the only one where I found it's a job keeping track of what is going on.

HC is the fan favorite but I'm not especially fond of it. 95% of the game is memorizing when you're supposed to do a slide. There are bosses you can kill by standing motionless in the right spot and scrolling sequences you can finish just by holding right. Even so the game is pretty brazen about auto-murdering without warning if you don't know exactly what's coming next. I honestly like NES Super C the best.

I recently beat Castlevania 1 on the nes. Really I beat it three times: once with save states, and two more times without them.
[...]
Overall, a very fun game to learn and I will definitely be playing through it again this Halloween. Trying to decide on either Cv 3 or Rondo of Blood to learn next.

Well congrats. imo the bosses are the only big weakness of CV1, although they don't occupy much time if you're doing well. I think using holy water (or boomerang) on Grim Reaper is probably the dev-intended strat... if you try to fight him with the whip it just sucks to be you I guess.

All the classicvanias are pretty good (except for the ones that obviously aren't like the Gameboy ones). If you try CV3 you probably want the Japanese version.

 

[The Penultimate Warrior]

HC is the fan favorite but I'm not especially fond of it. 95% of the game is memorizing when you're supposed to do a slide. There are bosses you can kill by standing motionless in the right spot and scrolling sequences you can finish just by holding right. Even so the game is pretty brazen about auto-murdering without warning if you don't know exactly what's coming next. I honestly like NES Super C the best.

Managed to beat HC, but only with judicious use of save states since as you say if you don't know the patterns the slightest mistake will kill you. It does feel like it was designed around the Japanese version's hit points and they didn't bother to rebalance it when they took those away.

 

[Coffee Shits]

You hit the nail on the head. Blue Shift is a nice side story, but Opposing Force, while it has some cool ideas, feels really bloated and padded, especially towards the end (fuck that munitions dump level).

Speaking of Half-Life, while Half-Life 2 was groundbreaking when it was first released, it hasn't aged terribly well in some respects. The vehicle sections go on for a little bit too long, especially that stupid dune buggy thing. Also, the enemy variety is basically nonexistent. For way too much of the game, you're just fighting the same Combine soldiers over and over, with the occasional diversion into headcrab land. My biggest issue, though, is that the weapons are terrible. The pistol and SMG are basically useless once you get the magnum and the pulse rifle, and there's no great long-range weapon except the crossbow, which is way too slow when you're in a firefight. I really wish the pulse rifle didn't have such insane spread.

Oh yeah, it's a mess. I wonder if the developer's focus was on multiplayer at the time rather than single player, trying to be more like Unreal Tournament or something. There's a bunch of servers still running but maybe a total of 4 players among them, so I don't think we're going to get that answer.

Turns out that BS was made by Gearbox, too, Valve just published it. So they can make a good Half-Life but OF wasn't it.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Speaking of Half-Life, while Half-Life 2 was groundbreaking when it was first released, it hasn't aged terribly well in some respects. The vehicle sections go on for a little bit too long, especially that stupid dune buggy thing. Also, the enemy variety is basically nonexistent. For way too much of the game, you're just fighting the same Combine soldiers over and over, with the occasional diversion into headcrab land. My biggest issue, though, is that the weapons are terrible. The pistol and SMG are basically useless once you get the magnum and the pulse rifle, and there's no great long-range weapon except the crossbow, which is way too slow when you're in a firefight. I really wish the pulse rifle didn't have such insane spread.

I don't think it's an age thing. My main two issues with the game are the long unskipable talking sections, and the combine don't really react to being shot. One problem often cited with the weapons is the sounds. The pistol's "paf paf paf" and the SMG can be grinding ear poison once you play it enough. The combat in general is kind of mediocre. There's a mod called M-Mod that overhauls the combat to make it more impactful.

At the time, the fanbase would shout down any criticism of the game. That's still true today, though I think more people are aware of how autistic the HL fanbase is today (Tyler McVickers/VNN has a thread here).

 

[Action Orange]

HC is the fan favorite but I'm not especially fond of it. 95% of the game is memorizing when you're supposed to do a slide. There are bosses you can kill by standing motionless in the right spot and scrolling sequences you can finish just by holding right. Even so the game is pretty brazen about auto-murdering without warning if you don't know exactly what's coming next. I honestly like NES Super C the best.


Well congrats. imo the bosses are the only big weakness of CV1, although they don't occupy much time if you're doing well. I think using holy water (or boomerang) on Grim Reaper is probably the dev-intended strat... if you try to fight him with the whip it just sucks to be you I guess.

All the classicvanias are pretty good (except for the ones that obviously aren't like the Gameboy ones). If you try CV3 you probably want the Japanese version.

Thanks bro, I appreciate it. The jap version of CV 3 is supposed to be way easier, right? Are we talking like different enemy placements or just lower damage allowing for more mistakes?

 

[Calandrino]

Thanks bro, I appreciate it. The jap version of CV 3 is supposed to be way easier, right? Are we talking like different enemy placements or just lower damage allowing for more mistakes?

The main thing that makes it easier is that enemies do less damage, but there are lots and lots of differences. The Japanese version's soundtrack uses more channels, most agree it sounds better.

Managed to beat HC, but only with judicious use of save states since as you say if you don't know the patterns the slightest mistake will kill you. It does feel like it was designed around the Japanese version's hit points and they didn't bother to rebalance it when they took those away.

Could be, but Contra 3 on highest difficulty still feels way harder than the western version of HC imo.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

Oh yeah, it's a mess. I wonder if the developer's focus was on multiplayer at the time rather than single player, trying to be more like Unreal Tournament or something. There's a bunch of servers still running but maybe a total of 4 players among them, so I don't think we're going to get that answer.

HL2 didn't really have any kind of thought out multiplayer mode from what I remember, it amounted to gravity gun jank and I can't remember if it was even available at launch. iirc there was also a problem with Gordon not having a 3rd person model and the player character was typically the default multiplayer character at the time. But they didn't have any specific multiplayer models either. It was like they put in minimum effort on actual HL2 multiplayer while waiting for CS and TF2. But before all of that that Garry's Mod happened and being an unruly multiplayer jank fest was suddenly a cherished feature.

I don't think it's an age thing. My main two issues with the game are the long unskipable talking sections, and the combine don't really react to being shot. One problem often cited with the weapons is the sounds. The pistol's "paf paf paf" and the SMG can be grinding ear poison once you play it enough. The combat in general is kind of mediocre. There's a mod called M-Mod that overhauls the combat to make it more impactful.

The worst gun sounds I've heard in a mainstream game is old Far Cry. A weapon with a silencer just had the regular firing sound sloppily turned down really low. "BANGBANGBANG" didn't turn to "paf paf paf", it turned to "bangbangbang".

 

[Soycast Guy]

I played FFVII two years ago and it’s now my favorite game of all time. I’m not really a graphics whore, so it’s blocky characters didn’t bother me.

Silent hill 2 is one of the few games that made me cry.

MGS3 and MGS2 are classics that will always be the best of the series.

Thats so funny man, i have a friend who *adores* the shit out of that game, keeps recommending it to me citing the battle system and the story as it's strong points. Might try it someday cause, well... I'm the kinda guy who enjoyed FFXIII and loved FFXV (then again, my first experience with it was the Royal Edition with all the dlcs and patches in there, dont know how the bare game is like)

I’m a guy who liked 13 and 15 but playing 12 so far, it’s not very good. They really should’ve stuck with a turn based battle system and the whole idea that you need a license just to use weapons and armor (ha, Europe the game) is absolute ass.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

This is my first time playing it. I play precious few traditional JRPGs, and beat even fewer of them, since the average JRPG is nothing more than a tedious farming game. I'm 10 hours in, and that's all FFXII is. When it actually lets you off the rail for a few minutes, you need to head to the killing fields and farm loot off random enemies so that you can equip your party with all the best shit at the local town so that you won't get your ass kicked by the wash-rinse-repeat enemies in the next battle area.

There just isn't much of an underlying game. Plus the story is absolutely insipid. At this point, the story consists of, "There's an Empire that defeated a kingdom, and their rule is...not particularly heavy-handed at all. In fact, they just don't seem all that bad. But anyway, the true princess is alive, isn't that great?" There's nothing interesting whatsoever about any of these characters.

I remember following its development as a teenager and hating every single thing I read about it, every update it seemed worse and worse. I still enjoyed playing it a bit though, because I was a lot more forgiving of a game's flaws in my youth. I mean it still sucked but I played a decent ways in before getting stuck and kinda forgetting about it.

When I went back to the remaster on Switch I didn't get far at all. The first couple hours it seems alright but shit hits the fan pretty quick. I remember exactly where I began to get fed up with it, some bullshit stealth section before you team up with Balthier.

Are you still hate-playing it?

So, I played a couple more old games. I got through a match in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (Genesis). It was very mediocre, probably wouldn't have been a bad rental back in the day as a kid, I guess, but that one match was plenty for me.

Amazing Tater is a really bland looking puzzle game. The music was kind of irritating, so after a couple puzzles I had had enough. I wonder if Atlus made or simply published this.

I don't like "shmups", so I shouldn't have tried Star Hawk. Guess I'm a sucker for a cool title. I liked the stage design, with gross eyeball monsters and waves of sperm-looking enemies, all taking place in some kind of giant creature's insides. I predictably got raped though.

I can't believe I haven't already tried Adventure Island II: Aliens in Paradise. I knocked out a few levels and it's badass. I don't like the timer which carries over from the first game, and the skateboard is still shit, plus I hate getting the boomerang instead of the axe, but you know what? It looks and sounds good, plus you get to ride a Yoshi-esque dragon that shoots fire.

I'll definitely be playing through more of this one. Apparently there's an NES version (with a different title, I guess?), I might try that too.

 

[Drag-on Knight 91873]

I enjoy Front Mission 3. Kinda wish I could preview enemies like in Fire Emblem. Otherwise, I have to watch the cutscenes to know what kind of armor to equip (e.g. Anti-I, Anti-P, and Anti-F). In the future, China is still communist and I do feel a bit sad that the Japanese decided to go in the Gundam direction instead of the Mechwarrior direction. Sure, FM3 has a plot that's like Gundam 00, but the aesthetics and execution is more like Battletech.

Didn't really care for Parasite Eve or Symphony of the Night. Don't have anything bad to say about them, they're just not for me. Interesting thing about PE1 is the Action ATB combat system is baked into more modern games like FFVII Remake.

 

[Picnic_Boy]

I recall playing Manhunt for the first time a couple of years ago, and not getting the hype at all.

 

[John Washington]

I really liked playing MGS2 on pc. While the port is really bad, with the patch that fixes a lot of things it's a really fun game.
And when it comes to old pc games i can only recommend the original Deus Ex and the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series. Both amazing games for their time.
Currently i want so start playing MGS; Peace Walker on the RPCS3 emulator but can't find time to actually play it.
Still thinking if i should start playing the Ace Combat games because they look fun and they have a quite interesting story. (I only played Ace Combat 7 though)

 

[The Ugly One]

I remember following its development as a teenager and hating every single thing I read about it, every update it seemed worse and worse. I still enjoyed playing it a bit though, because I was a lot more forgiving of a game's flaws in my youth. I mean it still sucked but I played a decent ways in before getting stuck and kinda forgetting about it.

When I went back to the remaster on Switch I didn't get far at all. The first couple hours it seems alright but shit hits the fan pretty quick. I remember exactly where I began to get fed up with it, some bullshit stealth section before you team up with Balthier.

Are you still hate-playing it?

I think I'm done. It's been in Farming Mode now for a few hours, and in middle age, I just don't have the patience for crushingly boring games like I did in my teens and twenties.

One of the things I always disliked about JRPGs is that items & gear had no visible effect on your player. This means getting something like a full suit of bronze armor only changes the way damage numbers are generated. This makes the farming even more boring. There is just no fundamental challenge whatsoever other than challenging my ability to not get bored out of my mind as I farm up enough wolf pelts or whatever to buy equipment for my party so they don't get wiped out by the next dungeon.

 

[Mooger Meng]

I think I'm done. It's been in Farming Mode now for a few hours, and in middle age, I just don't have the patience for crushingly boring games like I did in my teens and twenties.

One of the things I always disliked about JRPGs is that items & gear had no visible effect on your player. This means getting something like a full suit of bronze armor only changes the way damage numbers are generated. This makes the farming even more boring. There is just no fundamental challenge whatsoever other than challenging my ability to not get bored out of my mind as I farm up enough wolf pelts or whatever to buy equipment for my party so they don't get wiped out by the next dungeon.

Fran can only carry the party's visuals for so long.

 

[Road Work Ahead]

Finished Koudelka last night.

Overall the atmosphere was good, the pre rendered backgrounds look great, and I enjoy the story quite a but, but the actual gameplay really lets the game down.

The battles are slow, and take a while to load in and out. There isn't much enemy variety. I did like that you have to cleanse all the save/healing points by defeating a boss before you can use it

The game was really easy right up until the final boss who was a bit bullshit to be honest and I'm not sure how I actually won. She has 22k HP and a healing spell that heals about 5k. My spells and attacks only deal 1-2k damage. While you can cast reflect to reflect some of her spells, I swear I didn't actually do enough damage to kill her, but I'll take the win anyway.

Overall, the game was worth checking out, but I'd probably only rate it a 6/10.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

Fran can only carry the party's visuals for so long.

Fran and Balthier and Old Narrator Man have some great voices, the voice acting was generally good with the exception of the brutal compression on the voices. Or maybe it was something else they did to give it that Shenmue feel.

 

[Serbian Peacekeepers]

Playing through the Brothers in arms series , The sights in 1 suck ass.

 

[Amerikaner Teddybär]

I was a little tense playing System Shock 2. That game had some great sound design.

 

[Lunete]

I waste so much time playing old school SimCity it's almost embarrassing.

 

[The Ugly One]

Panzer General is an old turn-based strategy game from SSI that came out in the mid 1990s, where you play as the German Reich in WW2. Why? Because the guys who made it had an autistic love of Wehrmacht tanks, it seems like it really is that simple. This is not my first time playing it, but my first time playing it past the second mission.

It's an absolutely excellent game. It has some QoL features that are unusual for a game of that era, like being able to turn off animations to speed the gameplay up. The difficulty can be unforgiving, but never patently unfair, and it has plenty of little details that make it more realistic. For example, if you win a scenario in a Pyrrhic victory that results in half your army getting annihilated, you will not conquer the Soviet Union. No way, no how. Can't be done. Units can entrench, the RNG always means there's some risk in an attack, and you'll need to learn how to combine infantry, artillery, armor, and air to win decisively.

There's a reasonable effort made to model WW2 combat units accurately within the game's RPG-like stats framework. T-34s and Matildas are unstoppable with early German medium and light tanks---better rely on antitank guns and Stuka dive-bombers until the bigger Panzer IVs come into production Infantry will kick the crap out of tanks in a city. Variants of older hardware become available as the campaign progresses, and it costs you way less to, say, refit a BF 109B as an BF 109F than to move all the pilots over to the fancy new Fw 190A. Honestly, I would say this game is flawless. It's not that better games have never been made, it's that I can't find a single thing really wrong with this. Everything it does, it does well.

I don't think this game can be obtained legally anywhere, but there is a remake called Panzer Corps on Steam.