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

[The Ugly One]

I just played Metro 2033 Redux. This game is now 11 years old, and original Metro 2033 is 15 years old. It's a pretty famous game, based on a novel, and set in a post-apocalyptic Moscow where mankind is hanging on by a thread by living in subway tunnels, as the surface is saturated with radiation and vicious mutants. Visually, it's top-notch and holds up very well, nothing I can say there that hasn't been said. Weapon sounds kind of suck, though, and are reminiscient of 00s-era guns. The story is stereotypically Russian. You are a depressed dude in a depressing world, caught in a no-win scenario where the only outcomes are bleak.

Unfortunately, there's nothing positive I can say about this game aside from the graphics, voice acting, and atmosphere. It's very, very, very boring. Most of the game is in-engine cutscenes or walking around, listening to dialog. In the rare even there is something to do, you are usually trudging down a literal tunnel level, shooting the occasional monster that jumps out at you, or standing in one place, shooting waves of giant rats. There are a few stealth sections that are just as easily gunned through. To get the good, non-canonical ending, you need to avoid killing anyone, which is typical for stealth games. Oh, and there are jumping sections. These can be especially aggravating, as it's not clear what is jumpable and what isn't, so I did a lot of jumping, dying, and reloading as I tried to figure out which icy piece of trash was the one I could actually land on. These all blur together because, by and large, the levels are so claustrophobic that you really are just walking in a straight line, with hardly any room to go left or right.

There are a variety of interesting weapons, but you spend so little time shooting anything that they don't matter. You'll spend very little time with the iconic junkyard-style weapons from early game before you get the much better weapons that will see you through to the end.

I finished the game in about 9 hours and uninstalled it. I can't really recommend it as anything more than a glorified tech demo for PS4-era hardware. At the end of the day, it's a walking simulator in constrained tunnels with boring shooting sections.

 

[CabbageTheSnackThatSlaps]

Recently played Might and Magic - Book 1.

Very confusing at first due to minimalistic data usage and visuals, but it's a fun fpp dungeon crawler. Short if you know where to go from the start, but a party full of knights is kinda meh. I'm going to start playing the rest of the series soon. I'm skipping the Ubislop entries, but not Crusader.

 

[jeff7989]

Playing Quake 4 for the first time, Had to edit config file for native resolution and to fix transparent textures. Linux port
Mandatory vehicle sections are my least favorite so far, also enemies are fucking bullet sponges, it wouldn't be so bad if those two issues weren't present. I wouldn't mind being a glass cannon if it wouldn't take so much ammo to kill anything in this game, shotgun is nice. Fucking hate berserkers for eating my ammo.
ID4 looks like crap on the outside maps, it shines in dark areas thanks its shadows and lighting system.,Same issue I had while trying to play FEAR Perseus Mandate, that game also looked like ass when action was taking place in big open areas.

 

[BradeRunna]

I have had Skyrim since 2015. I got the Special Edition for free, and I bought the anniversary upgrade for $20 on Steam. I just recently started playing it. It's not a bad game and I actually like it. It's not Morrowind but it's fun if you don't spend your time comparing it to other games.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

Been playing Capcom Fighting Collection 2. It's a very good collection of games but the options are crappy like every other recent collection, you cannot bind controls so you're forced to press 3 buttons at once like a retard sometimes just to do a move.

The game looks fantastic, even over 20 years later

It looks almost like a 360 game, pretty impressive. It may even have been able to pass as a launch title for it.

 

[The Ugly One]

It looks almost like a 360 game, pretty impressive. It may even have been able to pass as a launch title for it.

The rendering engine can run on a Gamecube, although it's a bit much for 24 MB of RAM. It eventually came out on the original Xbox:

The 2010 HD remake came out on the 360:

There was a spinoff game on the PS2 & GC, using 4-bit textures due to the PS2's hardware limitations. I don't think most people realize just how much the PS2 held back visuals on the Xbox and Gamecube. Just about any game with the PS2 as the lead platform was designed to use 4-bit textures. In the case of Next Encounter, though, the Gamecube got a few visual effects the PS2 version lacked.

Still looks pretty good.

 

[Chuck 'n Geck]

Speaking of console-exclusive FPS'es, uh... I've played Black not too long ago, since I've remembered it's a thing that got praised by the magazines at the time, and... well.

This game is one third pre-COD4 modern military shooter, one third deliberate mutant gun porn and one third Soviet Strike without the intentional comedy.

I mean, really, from the first mission alone, you get bombarded by all kinds of 'murkan Russian language tropes, short of pseudocyrillic letters: English words typed out with Russian keeb layout, words typed out in all lowercase, entire phrases typed out without any conjucted words, actual Russian words but severely mauled (like the "masculine" graveyard gate in mission 3), English and Russian mashed together into a single sign, and of course, all of that uses generic-ass sans sarif fonts. At least they've managed to get one bog standard Russian VO dude to voice every soldier you kill in there, so that's accurate, at least.

Oh, right, and it also shares the same publisher as Soviet Strike, not to mention OCD cutscenes, long and labourious missions with a few checkpoints to spare, a bit of artistic license on geography, a plot that was basically an afterthought in favour of the gameplay, and a conspiracy involving a villain that you never see outside of the FMV's. Now, I'm pretty sure no one from Criterion worked on Soviet Strike, but I know that Black was Sean Murray's first big project. Yep, that Sean Murray. Now I'm no longer gonna ask why he's genuinely more ambitious than fucking Peter Molyneaux.

...right, now for the gun porn. I'm not enough of a gun nut to know how fictionalised the armaments have become, but if you leave the game running on the title screen, or the main menu, you'll immediately know what the devs were going for.

That said, I don't think they've exactly nailed it, even if they've put the effort into making the COD boys coom. Despite being based on, and even named after, SPAS-12, the Italian shotgun doesn't really deliver the kinda punch its' off-brand cousin from F.E.A.R. does - and VK-12 feels devastating even if you don't shoot it point blank, and even if it'd take two shots to take a motherfucker down. The Magnum's better, by a country mile.

There's also a smattering of SMG's anx assault rifles, including the AK-47, and... I was gonna lead (heh) into the shooting feedback with SPAS-12, but this is a better sendoff point. So, in general, the pew-pews don't feel particularly nut-inducing to use - and it's not because of the audiovisuals, it's because the Russian troops can tank (also heh) a dozen shots before they go down for good. As in, a crowd of five will likely turn you into a strainer before you nail two of them down - even if you use cover. Which is destructible in quite a few places.

Honestly, if you're gonna go through all of Black on Hard difficulty, do yourself a favour and use the mouse injector, for one reason in particular: headshots. You can "modernise" the controls to a degree, but there's not one ingame setting to make you not turn like a tank turret, and not aim like one - and headshots are the only reliable way to OHK a trooper. Which, with a controller, is only viable on a standing target.

The game is, in fact, quite brutal. I've made the mistake on playing it the intended way, - on a controller, and also on Hard to unlock the most goodies, - so savescumming followed soon after. The RPG soldiers will be the source of many a death - likely on the first level, as it happened to me. From Tivliz Asylum onwards, there will be spots with infinitely spawning soldiers, which may or may not be a problem depending on whether you've got enough grenades to destroy a sniper nest. The final battle is a combination of both, with scripted soldiers spawning from out of your ass and - you guessed it - no checkpoints in the middle of the arena.

It's kinda funny how Black has had such a huge budget, with Ntropic and The Hollywood Symphonic Orchestra featured in the opening credits, and yet it feels really, really jank at times, with low-res textures laid right next more hi-def textures in places, collisions that don't really correspond to level geometry (like the two barn rooms at the start of Tivliz Asylum that have invisible hills) and many, many, many, many small empty rooms that serve literally no other purpose other than just to be there. Or to be monster closets, hard to tell with the PS2's resolution.

Oh, and there's also semi-hidden collectibles scattered around every level. They don't do anything cool, other than serving as something that could potentially waste two hours of your playtime if you don't collect enough of them. Well, okay, there is one hidden weapon on every map, but you get limited ammo for it throughout - and you can only carry two armaments at a time, because console FPS.

Now, on normal playthroughs, these extra objectives are fairly easy to come by, and you'll be unlikely to miss 90% of them - but as soon as you unlock the Black Ops difficulty, along with permament unlimited ammo, the game immediately turns into a point-'n-click, richly seasoned with pixel hunting: on top of having to find ALL secondary objectives, you also need to destroy every destructible model on the level (or, at least, those that make your crosshair turn, ahem, black).

Black was already a bit of a slog, with how slowly you move, how you can't jump, and how every map is lowkey designed like it's Serious Sam: many open/closed arenas and many points of no return. So the Black Ops difficulty only exists for those who really have nothing better to do with their time, spending an extra hour on every nook and cranny, ogling every object that looks explodable - and all for what, to get an M16 A2, and beat the game one more time with that?

...yeah, about that, it's supposed to be an unlock specifically for when you do the whole thing again on Black Ops - but by some miracle, I got it the first time I've tried that difficulty out, so uh... thanks, game?

Yeah, I'm probably not gonna play Black again, not the way it was designed to be played. It was an interesting experience, sure, but man, it's not three-to-four playthroughs interesting!

 

[The Ugly One]

So the Black Ops difficulty only exists for those who really have nothing better to do with their time

Back in the PS2 era, a lot of games did stuff like that to pad the length and justify that $50 price, what with no endless battlepasses to grind. I never did unlock Site in Timesplitters 2.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

I've been playing Capcom Fighting Collection 2, it's got some old games I've never played before. Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001 in particular is fucking great, but I like Capcom Fighting Evolution too. They feel a lot like Street Fighter 2, which makes them easy to jump into, but I'm still learning what all the systems do.

I've briefly played a version of Street Fighter Alpha 3 before (MAX for PSP) but not Upper. It's way too hard, I don't stand much of a chance against any good players in it, I can't get a feel for the flow of combos and the inputs are incredibly difficult.

The rendering engine can run on a Gamecube, although it's a bit much for 24 MB of RAM. It eventually came out on the original Xbox:

The 2010 HD remake came out on the 360:

There was a spinoff game on the PS2 & GC, using 4-bit textures due to the PS2's hardware limitations. I don't think most people realize just how much the PS2 held back visuals on the Xbox and Gamecube. Just about any game with the PS2 as the lead platform was designed to use 4-bit textures. In the case of Next Encounter, though, the Gamecube got a few visual effects the PS2 version lacked.

Still looks pretty good.

Yeah, that does still look pretty good.

 

[Jack Burton]

I played Arx Fatalis for the first time since I wanted to kind of go down the road with Arkane Studios games from begining and ending on Prey. Arx is a fucking mess, but it was a good mess. The unique mouse spell casting where you need to remember the symbols and draw them was actually fun. Even tho like 40 percent of the time it didn't work. I also like how the game just lets you loose, obviously you could eventually tell you dont have what you need to progress to some areas, but I like it when games just do that. I was very early in the game and I just kept walking lower and lower into the dark tunnels and kept asking myself, okay where the fuck am I even going and questioned if this was even part of my quest.

Arx was just a mix of really good fun. Even had a chase sequence. I was also surprised it had different endings depending what you do closer to the end of the game. However, the end boss was not very fun and he even glitched out for me, so I just kept hitting with the sword 50 times till he died, I think the game just felt bad seeing me die a bunch and stun locked him for me. Thank you game. I would recommend playing with the Mega Mega Mega fan patch, since it fixed a lot of the bugs and even the spell casting.

I did play Dark Messiah after words, even tho I beat the game multiple times, the fact that it was going to be an Arx Fatalis 2 project makes the game make more sense now since I have played Arx and can see certain connections and similarities. However, this made Dark Messiah look even more of a mess then it was lmao. The jump from Dark Messiah to Dishonored is insane.

 

[Womble of Wimbledon]

I can still enjoy most older games but that is probably because I played them when they were new. I find it a lot harder to get into games from before my time because they operate on an entirely different set of assumptions of the gamer. I tried to play Ultima VII a year or so ago and stuck with it for about ten minutes. Maybe I will really commit to trying it one day but that day is not today.

 

[Chuck 'n Geck]

I never did unlock Site in Timesplitters 2.

I didn't even know it was a thing lol

 

[Buttigieg2020]

Suikoden 1:
Worst UI of any game I have ever played.
Story is cool though.

6/10

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

Suikoden 1:
Worst UI of any game I have ever played.
Story is cool though.

6/10

I don't remember having an issue with the UI, and I'm pretty picky about it.

 

[Chuck 'n Geck]

I've been playing Capcom Fighting Collection 2, it's got some old games I've never played before. Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001 in particular is fucking great, but I like Capcom Fighting Evolution too. They feel a lot like Street Fighter 2, which makes them easy to jump into, but I'm still learning what all the systems do.

I've briefly played a version of Street Fighter Alpha 3 before (MAX for PSP) but not Upper. It's way too hard, I don't stand much of a chance against any good players in it, I can't get a feel for the flow of combos and the inputs are incredibly difficult.

Yeah, a lot of pre-SF4 fighting games are really sweaty - especially since most of them require your inputs to be precise (as in, if it wants a diagonal in QCF, it has to be there) and well-timed.

There's plenty of manuals and videos (most of them Japanese) on how to combo good, but without the food fundamentals (i.e. keeping distance, knowing how long your pokes are gonna be, blocking etc) combos won't be quite as practical... and me fighting against the AI 99% of the time is why I've never learned the fundamentals and why I still play fighting games like a nooblet.

That said, focusing on one character/(aut)ism/groove helps quite a bit - for obvious reasons; as well as having a good controller, something that would allow you to feel the diagonal inputs better. The chinesium gamepads that come with most consoles nowadays (and put most of their budget into the pizzazz and not the buttons/sticks/D-pads) are not that - and modern fighting games are usually simplified for this exact reason, which is something that's been happening since Marvel vs Capcom 2. Just saying, if you decide to jump into an SNK fighting game, or Rainbow Mika in SFA3, you'd really need to whirl that penis with a balltop/clicky d-pad/hexagonal gate analog stick every which way.

EDIT: cvs2 grooves explained by a normie fightan streamer (spoilers: all are inspired by SF and KOF, and once by Samurai Shodown)

...also, minor nitpick, but Capcom Fighting Evolution is probably the most MUGEN a Capcom fightan would ever get. This game had to be glued together from the ashes of Capcom Fighting All-Stars: Code Holder, and boy does it show. Disproportionate everything, barely animated backgrounds, unanimated Midnight Bliss sequences, a team system that might as well be a two-way character selector (Justice School also has that, but that one comes with assists) and the thing that reminds me of MUGEN the most: every character coming with their own system and super meter.

Like, sure, it has Ingrid (the most animated new feature in the game) from CFAS and an unironically banger soundtrack, but again, you could probably recreate the entirety of Capcom Fighting Jam in MUGEN, with those two things intact, in 20-ish minutes, and not notice much of a difference structurally.

 

[The Ugly One]

I didn't even know it was a thing lol

It was a small 1v1 map that could only be unlocked by beating the game on hard. Since the missions typically only had a single health pickup and maybe 2 checkpoints, it was nearly impossible. I couldn't beat the cathedral mission.

 

[Retarded Weeb]

I beat Phantasy Star III. It was certainly one of the game I've ever played. But seriously, I'm struggling to think of something say about besides that's pretty boring and tedious. The generation thing is kind of cool and ahead of its time, but the final generation is 90% the same regardless, and the story and setting doesn't really have anything interesting going on. I literally did nothing in any random encounter the entire game except use the auto-battle to spam regular attacks. I never used any attack spells, buffing spells, or items the entire game, only the party heal spell during the games 4 boss fights. The final boss was the only fight the entire game that had even a bare minimum standard level of thinking required. The dungeons are bad but not in any particular unique way that would be fun to complain about, they're just blandly designed to waste your time with needing to walk around in roundabout paths. Also, insane levels of backtracking.

It kind of feels like what people who hate JRPGs are imaging in their head when they complain about them. Like when someone goes off about JRPGs being braindead and just mashing A until you win, they're thinking of Phantasy Star III even if they don't know it. Even the plot and setting are super generic.

Final note, I've seen games where the name of a status affliction covers up a character's max HP, but this game has Poison cover up a character's current HP. Which is certainly a choice. It's the only real problem caused by the status effect too since the damage from it is basically nothing. Just being mildly annoyed by not knowing how low someone's HP is.

 

[Chuck 'n Geck]

It kind of feels like what people who hate JRPGs are imaging in their head when they complain about them. Like when someone goes off about JRPGs being braindead and just mashing A until you win, they're thinking of Phantasy Star III even if they don't know it. Even the plot and setting are super generic.

That was me with Dragon Quest 1, but that game's even more barebones - and the magic is such a coin toss it really doesn't matter as much as just... literally mashing A.

 

[Book Thief]

It was a small 1v1 map that could only be unlocked by beating the game on hard. Since the missions typically only had a single health pickup and maybe 2 checkpoints, it was nearly impossible. I couldn't beat the cathedral mission.

I recently did a Hard Mode run using a mouse injection via Dolphin. This assessment is being incredibly optimistic. Being an FPS made by the same boys that did GoldenEye for the N64, there are only armor pickups through out 99% of the game. There is precisely ONE health pickup in the entire campaign, and it's in the Robot Factory level, attached to an enemy, meaning it's entirely possible to kill your only health pickup during the longest level in the game. Oh, and there's only ever ONE checkpoint in any given level.

Honestly, be glad you didn't suffer through TS2 on Hard. You think Notre Dame is hard? Try beating Atom Smasher, where crappy starter weapons, limited ammo, tanky enemies, and dickish turret placement force you to take your time, but a strict time limit forces you to rush, meaning you will take a lot of hits before you can defuse those bombs. To make matters worse, the checkpoint is maybe two minutes into the level, after you defuse two of the five bombs, and just before the most brutal section of the level. Meaning if you die during your confrontation with Khallos (which I did once), you are going back to defusing those fucking bombs. There is ZERO room for error. Only memorization and perfect play will see you through it. It is a fucking nightmare.

Robot Factory is also pretty hard, but it becomes much easier once you realize that you can backtrack to that area with the laser scanner and bait enemies through it, or to areas with remote controlled turrets to shoot enemies instead. This is a totally viable strategy, though considering how slow the Sentry Bots are, I spent quite a bit of time with my finger on my emulator's fast-forward key.

 

[Chuck 'n Geck]

I recently did a Hard Mode run using a mouse injection via Dolphin. This assessment is being incredibly optimistic. Being an FPS made by the same boys that did GoldenEye for the N64, there are only armor pickups through out 99% of the game. There is precisely ONE health pickup in the entire campaign, and it's in the Robot Factory level, attached to an enemy, meaning it's entirely possible to kill your only health pickup during the longest level in the game. Oh, and there's only ever ONE checkpoint in any given level.

I'm very afraid now.

I've been doing the Arcade mode most of my playtime, and I'm too weak to actually get through the entire dam level without getting lost for two hours.