Sample mini-reviews of some obscure games

[Ross Scott]

Here's some examples of some mini-reviews I did on some semi-obscure games if anyone's curious. I encourage people to make posts like this if there are any you want to praise or warn others about. Some of these weren't that obscure at the time, but I think most of these have faded off the radar present day:

 

Quadralien: [Puzzle] Old-school puzzle game, has one PC Speaker music track, but it's pretty cool. The game feels kind of surreal, you're controlling these robots on a space station that's going to hell and you're trying to clean up radiation and dump coolant into the system before everything falls apart. Sort of feels like a Space Chernobyl. This game doesn't hold your hand at all and gets pretty hard towards the end. I had to use a floppy drive emulator at the time so I could save my game. Pretty cool game if you're into this sort of thing.

 

Mage Knight Apocalypse: [Action RPG] I wanted to like this game, but didn't. The storyline isn't very interesting. The gameplay had distinctive classes and some interesting elements, but for an action RPG it felt awfully slow. I ended up using a trainer to make the pace go faster, which helped some. It's definitely a grind and not the most fun of them. Some of the map design was pretty good looking, but the whole game has a psychotic level of bloom which I hate. I ended up giving up on the game maybe about 60-70% into it. I doubt the ending would have blown my mind.

 

Revenant: [Action RPG] This game can be hell to get working properly on a modern OS, especially with 3D acceleration. I've only played the beginning of it, but I like the intro, it has good visuals, okay voice acting, interesting storyline, fantastic music, great atmosphere in general. The gameplay seems to have some novel features, though it may be one of those games that is trying to be "innovative" for its own sake. I plan to come back to this game and finish it eventually, but its compatibility is so poor it may have to be through a virtual machine. Reacts differently to ATI v. Nvidia hardware.

 

Overclocked - A History of Violence: [Graphic Adventure] This game isn't the best, but has a few redeeming features. It creates an incredible sense of anticipation, like things are going to get really really bad, but never delivers on it. The visuals and music are great, animation can be a little clunky. I remember the voice acting being good. What I like most about this game is the protagonist has a lot of personal problems, feels very human, and is kind of dysfunctional in general. He's having spousal problems, financial problems, drinks too much, yells at the help at the hotel he's at, breaks furniture by accident, almost gets in a bar fight, etc. I like seeing characters like that, but I have a dark sense of humor. I found the ending to this game funny.

[Snowflake]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Void_%28video_game%29 (wiki)

http://www.tension-game.com/index_en.php (game site)

[RPG/FPS] Well this one did not receive much attention, and is probably the most strangest/unique game I have ever played. Basically the plot is you died, BUT you kind of got stuck in the middle somewhere between life and the after-life and now are running around what to do next and you manage to survive by drawing different symbols using "Color" or "Nerva" to either kill off hostiles or to grow more color. Every female you meet acts like a deprived addict on hallucinogens and every "male" (you will see what I mean when you see them) gets pissed off at you for wasting color and sometimes even tries to kill you in his own unique way. Also, you have a time limit so the pressure is on.

I have played the game and almost beat it (needed to get the medium/easy patch otherwise very frustrating) and I still can't really rate the game. Its not like any other game you have played; very high in the WTF-factor.

I would recommend it to try and see if you like it, or if it makes sense to you.

[Ross Scott]

Yeah, this one's on my "To Play" list actually. Another one in the same vein is "The Path" you might want to check out.

[Alyxx Thorne]

BlackThorne

Not sure if it qualifies as obscure since Blizzard made it, but it's just that barely anyone I know knows about it or have heard about it. Basically a badass version of Prince of Persia with orcs in it. And you have a shotgun.

 

Eradicator

A decent FPS where you run around fighting alien robots on an alien planet in some kind of alien mining facility. Lots of alien stuff, that's for sure. And it has a woman who's a cat. Literally.

[J.C.]

Clive Barker's Undying

This game is one the most terrifying I've played. Taking place after the end of WWI, you play as Patrick Galloway, a former soldier who's coming to the aid of Jeremiah Covenant, one of his comrades from the war. Jeremiah lives in a huge mansion off the coast of Ireland and is the last reamining member of his family, his 2 brothers and 2 sisters having died as a result of an evil curse. It has incredible atmosphere, sound, graphics and gameplay and a disturbing lovecraftian story.

 

After playing this game, you'll be an expert in running full speed backwards while firing and hacking (with a scythe).

[GLaDOS]

 

Machinarium[Puzzle point-and-click]: "The goal of Machinarium is to solve a series of puzzles and brain teasers. The puzzles are linked together by an overworld consisting of a traditional "point and click" adventure story. The overworld's most radical departure is that only objects within the player character's reach can be clicked on.

 

Machinarium is notable in that it contains no dialogue, neither spoken nor written. The game instead uses a system of animated thought bubbles. Easter egg back story scenes in the same format can only be revealed by idling in certain areas.

 

The game employs a two-tier hint system. Once per level, the player can receive a hint, which becomes increasingly vague as the game progresses. Machinarium also comes with a walkthrough, that can be accessed at any time by playing a minigame. As with dialogue, the walkthrough is not in written or spoken form, but instead a series of sketches describing the puzzle at hand and its solution. However, the walkthrough only reveals what must be done in that area, and not how that puzzle relates to the game chronology."

 

As stated above (from Wikipedia), it's a mini-puzzle game that contains few features only. It received pretty good ratings from Metacritic and GameRankings, despite having only picture hints and absence of dialogue, it was a hit not to mention the awesome-ness of its soundtracks.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machinarium

Website

[Lord Sinister]

Mission Humanity (RTS): It's an abomination. It is an old strategy game from 2001 I think, but the graphics look far older. There is no Options or Settings button on the main menu, which made me intially believe that the screen resolution would not go above 800x600. However I later discovered that you could access an Options menu, but only from within playing the game itself. In there I could change the volume of CD audio, Sounds, and whether I wanted either of the two enabled or not. I could also change the screen resolution (up to 1024x768 I think).

 

There's no real story to speak of, although there is an intro video (there's no dialog though, but from what I can gather, it's literally 'we are humans and they are aliens, and we must kill'). There's no story told through the game either. There is a tutorial of sorts, but it doesn't explain fundamentals like travelling to other planets (see below).

 

I actually searched out for and purchased this game from Ebay on purpose not too long ago, having borrowed it from a friend years ago. I remembered it being as hard as nails, and it is. It's filled with numbers (Extract, Iron, Carbon and Titanium). You build your base from a main landing craft, and conquer the particular planet you are on, and then fly on to the next (and the next and the next and the next...). To fly to a planet takes resources just like building a base. In addition, the resources you collect from one planet are not simply stored on the ship (it's not clear where they are stored). This means that when you fly to another planet, you MUST manually store some resources on your ship. Otherwise you will fly to the next planet and not be able to return. That's it, game over (although the game doesn't tell you that). You can access your previous planet, but you cannot expand from it, only your main ship can travel between worlds. You can't do anything at this point, you simply have to restart.

 

On the second world I believe it is, once you have destroyed the entire enemy presence on the planet, it says something along the lines of 'Enemy troops landing' or some such. Suddenly the world is FILLED with enemy soldiers. My initial army was enough to destroy the base before, but not this larger army of enemy units. There was no prior warning, and I lost. I gave up at that point, but I might try it again in future.

 

Here's the ship stuck on the world it cannot escape from:

 

[Ratdog]

 

Myth I and Myth II

These games may have had a substantial following back in the day, but they seem to have little recognition now and days. They were created by Bungie during their pre-Halo days. It is best labeled as a Real-Time Tactics game. Aside from a stellar story and universe, gameplay is amazing, and unique. I have not seen another game successfully mimic its style. Youtube offers some good examples.

 

Besides, what other games all you to take hold of dwarves with Molotov cocktails?

 

Oh yeah, great soundtrack too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exbHYq9y78Q

[Ross Scott]

I haven't heard of Eradicator, not sure it's something I would play, how was the music in it?

 

Clive Barker's Undying I'm borderline on counting that as obscure. That one's definitely a milestone as far as scary games go.

 

Machinimarium does NOT count, that was on the front page of Steam for a while, it's had plenty of publicity. If you had mentioned Samorost I would have let that slide. This section is more for games that really never had a spotlight or have completely faded from mainstream memory.

 

Lord Sinister: Good job, I've never even heard of this one. The graphics look fine, but if it's weak on story, then I get less interested. You mentioned it had CD audio, was the music especially notable or was it just generic military shooter stuff?

 

I never played the Myth games, but heard a lot about them back in the day.

[Lord Sinister]

Lord Sinister: Good job, I've never even heard of this one. The graphics look fine, but if it's weak on story, then I get less interested. You mentioned it had CD audio, was the music especially notable or was it just generic military shooter stuff?

 

Weak on story, there was pretty much NO story.

 

As for the music, I honestly can't remember. I'll dig out the disc and maybe try and upload some of it to Youtube. You can't buy this game anymore except possibly off Ebay so I think it's okay to do that...

[rosswscott]

Quadralien looks pretty interesting, Another obscure PC game I'd like to mention would be A New Zero and if I'm going to mention this I may as well mention WW1 Medic.

[Alyxx Thorne]

I haven't heard of Eradicator, not sure it's something I would play, how was the music in it?

Dark and ambient. Very reminiscent of the music in Quake, I'd say. The theme song was very rock'ish though.

[Ian]

Total Annihilation (RTS): I've had this game since my parents first bought a computer. This is the predecessor to Supreme Commander.

 

http://www.rakrent.com/rtsc/rtsc_totala.htm

 

The story is about a conflict between Arm and Core that has lasted for thousands of years and decimated galaxies. The battle came about when humanity learned how to transfer consciousness into machine for immortality. Some did not want to just throw away their bodies and believed it was wrong, so they formed the group called Arm; those that wished for immortality joined Core. The war goes on with Arm cloning their best warriors and Core basically copying and pasting theirs.

 

The gameplay is amazingly fun. Coming in two discs, each hold a part of the game. On one, there is the campaign in which you play the last battles of the war for either side, while on the other there is a skirmish/multiplayer mode. No one played years ago, but the skirmish is well worth the time as well as the campaign's story. You already have a set amount of resources that recharge based on how much you're getting. You can make buildings that create bots, tanks, aircraft, and warships. I'd have to say, this may be my favorite game next to Rome: Total War and Minecraft.

[Ratdog]

Yeah, my enjoyment of Myth may have been due to nostalgia, but I still think it's still a great series.

It also still has a active community, though that may equal about 100 people. They still create mods, and there are some online games happening every so often. They work pretty hard to keep the game playable with different OS.

There is a demo (two campaign maps, a few multiplayer maps) that is compatible with the mac and windows computers at http://tain.totalcodex.net/search/?x=0&y=0&q=demo&for=any . I would recommend the demo to anyone.

 

If you enjoy games with story, you would probably dig it. It shows where bungie got their great storytelling skills.

[Lord Sinister]

Total Annihilation (RTS): I've had this game since my parents first bought a computer. This is the predecessor to Supreme Commander.

 

 

The story is about a conflict between Arm and Core that has lasted for thousands of years and decimated galaxies. The battle came about when humanity learned how to transfer consciousness into machine for immortality. Some did not want to just throw away their bodies and believed it was wrong, so they formed the group called Arm; those that wished for immortality joined Core. The war goes on with Arm cloning their best warriors and Core basically copying and pasting theirs.

 

The gameplay is amazingly fun. Coming in two discs, each hold a part of the game. On one, there is the campaign in which you play the last battles of the war for either side, while on the other there is a skirmish/multiplayer mode. No one played years ago, but the skirmish is well worth the time as well as the campaign's story. You already have a set amount of resources that recharge based on how much you're getting. You can make buildings that create bots, tanks, aircraft, and warships. I'd have to say, this may be my favorite game next to Rome: Total War and Minecraft.

 

I remember playing Total Annihilation years ago with my brother. It is indeed a great game, a forgotten classic.

 

Also, your image doesn't seem to load for me on this page.

[Ian]

Hm, I can see it now. It did go away for a second, however.

[Lord Sinister]

Hm, I can see it now. It did go away for a second, however.

 

The site might not like it being directly linked to. On this forum page, I think you need to hit ctrl+f5, it'll make your browser redownload all the elements on the page. Does the image still appear then? If it doesn't, I'd advise putting the image up on somewhere like imageshack.us and linking to that instead.

[Ian]

Ah yeah, it didn't Oh well, I'll just link it.

[J.C.]

Looking through my catalog, I found these two (I had to google a bit the storylines, it's been a while since I played them):

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fczpRaMVCho[RPG]

Very entertaining and long anime style RPG. You play as Maya, a junker who lives in a very special planet calle Septerra. From the intro: "Seven distinct layers of continents called world shells orbit the planet, each connected to the other by a giant bio-organic spine. At the center of all lies the core, an enormous bio-computer regulating the movements of the shells." The game revolves around the war for control of the "Core keys" that allow the winner to gain control of the "Legacy of the Creator" (the access to the "Kingdom of Heaven").

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLNVlfwjzhU[Adventure]

This game has particularly beautiful scenery. You play as Rynn, a dragon Ryder, who need to rescue her kidnapped brother from the evil sorcerer Navaros, with the help of an ancient dragon calle Arokh. I remember spending a lot of time simply flying, I was not used to such a degree of 3D freedom in a game.

[BTGBullseye]

Silpheed [Vertical scrolling arcade shooter]

Silpheed is the name of the spacecraft that the player controls. Like many shooter games, the story involves using the Silpheed as Earth's last effort to save itself from destruction by a powerful enemy invasion.

 

Was my favorite game back before Win95. Very fun, hard, and you actually get to choose your weapon loadout between levels.