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

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I recall playing Manhunt for the first time a couple of years ago, and not getting the hype at all.
I didn't really get the hype back when it came out either. It was fairly violent at the time in a visceral and gritty way that most games weren't, but outside of that, it's a pretty barebones stealth game with decent atmosphere and nothing else. I actually liked Manhunt 2 much more, but they censored that one to shit, so it was borderline unplayable.

People still say it's too hardcore for today's crowd but honestly, games like RDR2 and various horror titles are WAY more disgusting, gorey, and violent than Manhunt.
 
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I didn't really get the hype back when it came out either. It was fairly violent at the time in a visceral and gritty way that most games weren't, but outside of that, it's a pretty barebones stealth game with decent atmosphere and nothing else. I actually liked Manhunt 2 much more, but they censored that one to shit, so it was borderline unplayable.

People still say it's too hardcore for today's crowd but honestly, games like RDR2 and various horror titles are WAY more disgusting, gorey, and violent than Manhunt.
I liked Manhunt when it came out, especially with the Xbox version where you could wear the headset and have the director talk to you through it. Also I'm a GTA nerd so I liked the little easter eggs. But yeah, the core gameplay has not aged very well. The enemy AI is so fucking random.

I got a Mortal Kombat II Midway Legacy Arcade1up a couple of months ago and I've really heavy into Bubbles lately. Very simple gameplay (just a joystick) but very addictive.
 
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Few more I've tried:

Syobon Action: I've been vaguely aware of this game for a while but never really tried it. It's funnier than I thought it'd be, it actually does humor better than most games. The humor stemming from the gameplay is actually pretty clever. I didn't even beat the first level yet but I like it.

CIMA: The Enemy: I was loving it for the first 5-10 minutes, the opening was interesting and wandering around on the train was fun...then the gameplay started. It went from a solid 8 or even 9/10 to a straight up 2/10. Combat was whatever, but you have to guide NPCs to safety and they're totally unresponsive, and it was slow as molasses. Very disappointing.

Cave Story: People enjoy this...? Story makes no sense, art is bad, gameplay is nothing special at all, boring level design. I quit after the first boss (decent boss tbh).
 
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 a wonderful game that seems to have flown under the radar when it was first released. Jon Shafer liked it so much that he (controversially) remodelled Civ 5's combat after it, but that was later obviously.

I don't think this game can be obtained legally anywhere, but there is a remake called Panzer Corps on Steam.
I think this is plenty legal.
 
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It's a wonderful game that seems to have flown under the radar when it was first released. Jon Shafer liked it so much that he (controversially) remodelled Civ 5's combat after it, but that was later obviously.


I think this is plenty legal.
There's also the spinoff Fantasy General for those that lean that way, it even got a sequel in 2019 by developers I'm sure had nothing to do with the first one.
 
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Played a lot of PS classics.

Spyro was good, but nothing special. Did not impress me.

Ratchet and Clank was decent. Nothing special. I grew up with Rayman 2 and it was far more interesting.

Crash bandicoot has not aged well at all. Genuinely terrible and ugly. Physics make no sense and controls are bad. I couldn't play it too long. It's absolutely terrible.
 
War Gods - Fighting game on the n64. Absolutely terrible controls, even by n64 fighter standards. Some interesting characters to chose from though

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - meh platformer on the NES. This would have been a decent weekend rental but a waste to buy. Played better, played worse

The Lord of the Rings - God awful in every sense of the word. Probably the worst SNES rpg I’ve ever played. Enemies take a ton of damage before dying, all the maps are the same copypaste bullshit and it’s very easy to get lost, and for some reason the game has permadeath for your companions.
 
Played the Ace Attorney trilogy recently. Overall enjoyed them but a few too many cases had tedious moments when you the player were way ahead of the the game in solving the case. Just think the best mystery/detective media have you and the character at least on the same track or maybe you're a little behind, which the better cases in the games succeeded at, but the ones that didn't overstayed their welcome.
 
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Not technically my first time playing it, but I got a lot farther than I did as a teenager.

Total Annihilation: Kingdom is on GoG for about six bucks. TA is one of those Golden Age of RTS games, back when people still expected any game to have a lengthy single player in case you didn't have high-speed internet. Total Annihilation: Kingdoms got pretty bad reviews in part because of how comically unbalanced the multiplayer factions are, but who cares in 2022? I have largely been enjoying the campaign. Besides, I was never any good at competitive RTS. This is a fantasy game with four factions. You've got two human factions, one of which is more dominant on land, and the other ruling the waves, a "beast" faction that is highly mobile and features a lot of air power and an undead faction with very cheap units.

Overall, it's pretty fun, if a bit slow. Defensive towers are insanely powerful, and your ground units have very low visibility, which makes taking over a heavily fortified enemy base and destroying it a tedious matter of throwing waves of enemies at towers to try and get them visible long enough for your artillery to take them out. It's pretty easy to end up in a stalemate in multiplayer due to how strong towers are, but the campaign is fun and has I think 40 missions.
 
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This was a few weeks back but I played through Vandal Hearts for the PS1 for the first time (on Duckstation).

Turn based strategy games are probably my favourite genre and I don't know why it took me so long to play it because its a pretty good game. Nice sprite based graphics, a decent story that isn't typical JRPG schlock and fantastic gore. Seriously, when you kill an enemy they literally explode in a fountain of blood
37766-Vandal_Hearts_[U]-1.jpg

My main criticism is that its a pretty basic and simple example of the genre. The classes are a bit generic and there isn't much variety between them and the game is not that challenging. There is one map for example where the game wants you to run away because they throw a load of strong enemies and bosses at you but a little bit of strategizing and unit placement and I absolutely creamed them all and I wasn't really trying to exploit my party or anything. I played a bunch of these games though so your mileage may vary.

A solid 7/10 I'd say. There is a sequel which I'll check out at some point but its supposed to be much longer and I find it hard to commit myself to a single 40+ hour game these days.
 
I was reading some strategy for TA:Kingdoms and remembered why I hated competitive multiplayer RTS. As with every other RTS, your strategy needs to be shitting out as many units as fast as possible so that no later than 120 seconds into the game, you can start hurling waves of minions in to the enemy base. The problem is, I don't actually like doing this. It's not fun. I like turtling in my impenetrable fortress of doom, building an army of the most expensive possible units, and crushing the opposition. This is a terrible strategy online, but AI is usually dumb enough for it to work on.
 
Minecraft for the nintendo 3ds
No cross-platform multiplayer, controls are complete doodoo

I'd much rather play minecraft on my nintendo switchAUGH YEAH
 
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Darkest Hour. It convinced me that instead of the Jews, any one race, or any one organisation, it's actually Serbia that's responsible for the evils of the modern day.

I also have Eador in my backlog (specifically the standalone mod for first one, not the 3D remake). From what little I played it seems to have an absolutely batshit insane story characteristic to the slavjank that it is while still being a pretty solid HoMM clone.
 
I recently played through system shock 2 for the first time
No psi abilities just used my wrench and my guns
Great game full stop. I wish more games didn't hold your hand when it comes to the objectives. I found myself immersed having to read notes and listen and re listen to audio logs to progress
 
I played Jade Empire two years ago. And i'm gonna replay again someday.
Damn, if there's more interesting in that game, is the phase; the concept of having multiple interesting skills, incluiding a drunken one and trying to deny the approach of the Princess and your childhood friend until near the final phase unlocks you a threesome ending in those plots.
Fucking based if you ask me.
 
Just tried Robot Alchemic Drive. Interesting game but having to control the mech from someone's point of view is just dumb.
 
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