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RPGDot Game Rating Machine |
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GhanBuriGhan
has rated the following games:
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Arx Fatalis: 8/10 points |
A good game, but not quite one of the greats for me. The story is captivating enough, but the lackluster journal and the simplistic dialogue make it very hard to actually know what one is supposed to be doing next, which is bad considering the rather linear nature of the game. The number of non-plot related quests is rather small, so free-form exploring is not as exiting as it could be.
The graphics are good, very good texture work and good lighting, however the level design is short on truly breathtaking sites. Some levels capture a lot of mood though, e.g. the goblin towns and especially the crypt, which is actually scary.
While the rune-drawing magic system is interesting and I did enjoy it it is also difficult to use in the heat of battle - mostly I had to use my three spell slots, which admittedly was enough for most fights. |
Baldur's Gate: 8/10 points |
A good RPG, and we owe a lot to it for reviving the genre after some very slow years. Unfortunately the german version I played had some very awful voiceovers. Personally I beleive the game would have been better without the D&D rules. Also the NPC interaction was a bit basic, mostly all possible answers ended up with them fighting you anyway. Still a must-have title. |
Bard's Tale 1 - Tales from the Unknown: 7/10 points |
My first CRPG (played it on the Amiga), I enjoyed it immensely to run around in that city. I remember hating the slow text based fighting reports though, especially when I attacked some 100 skeletons and for minutes the messages started scrolling down:
A skeleton swings at you and misses...
A skeleton swings at you and misses...
A skeleton swings at you and misses...
ad infinitum... |
Bard's Tale 2 -The Destiny Knight: 9/10 points |
Even better than the first part. This was the first game I played with a 3D outdoor area to run around in - although it was still very basic and you could only move in steps I found it amazing at the time. |
Diablo: 7/10 points |
A great game in its own right, but as a RPGer I found it severely lacking in story, NPC interaction, unique locales, etc. |
Elder Scrolls 2 - Daggerfall: 9/10 points |
Actually post patching this game ran very stable (at least on the three system I had it installed on). The game was groundbraking in its attempt to create a huge, living, open ended fantasy world. Th goal was only partially achieved: The world was repetitive, NPC interaction basic, many features obviously not finished. Still one of the few games I still come back to again, to test out a new character, try to find a new secret etc. That shows what a great game it is at the core and enough reason for me to give it a high rating. |
Elder Scrolls 3 - Morrowind: 10/10 points |
To me this is the best game I have ever played - but I know from the discussions here ar RPGdot that this is certainly not everybodys opinion. I love the absolute freedom this game gives: to create (and later to form) a character to my liking, to go where and when I please, to set my own goals, and finally the freedom to change and edit and add to almost every aspect of the game with the construction set (or the thousands of published mods). I love the depth of the background that was created for this series, and that shines through in the hundreds of books in the game and in many quests. I like the presentation, the graphics are beautiful, music and sound at least decent, almost every object can be taken, every barrel or chest opened. There are hundreds of quests there and an intersting main quest. Hundreds of dungeons (here a bit more variety would have been good - but then there are mods that add that). If the NPCs were a bit more alive (scheduled like in Gothic) it would have been perfect. Well, I am still playing, and probably will for a while. |
Faery Tale Adventure: 9/10 points |
I loved this game in my Amiga days. I drew huge maps for it and remember how fascinated I was by the huge landscape and the many different terrains it offered. |
Gothic 2: 10/10 points |
A wonderful game with a beautiful and detailed world to explore, an intersting (although not terribly original) story, and great technical execution. Only major critique goes to the non-existant techsupport from Jowood, that cost me several hours of gameplay. I was a little surprised that the NPC shceduling (for which the first part was already famous) has not really been improved in this second game - in fact there were more characters that did not have a full schedule than in the first part.
The game is a bit more of the RPG-adventure type and does not offer the freedom in character creation that you may be used to from other RPG's, the amount of armor is very limited, and while free-form adventuring is definitely there you will find yourself much more forced to work on the main quest than e.g. in Morrowind. Another minor niggle is the lack of larger dungeons (with exeption to the endgame dungeon). But Gothic 2 more than makes up for all this by presenting you with an intersting and living world to adventure in. This is a game that is almost as much fun to watch someone else play instead of playing yourself. |
Gothic 2: 9/10 points |
A very enjoyble game. The visuals are great, especially the landscape, and the "living" NPC´s. The game is very story driven but offers many side-quest and areas for exploring on top of that. If it has any shortcomings its the absence of character creation and the limited way the character can be formed, although the different guilds do offer a lot of replay value nonetheless.
Game was very stable except for one bug, obviously created by a corrupt gameworld save file, that would not allow me to get back from the mine valley to Corinis. Loading an earlier save this did not happen again though.
All in all a must-have (especially considering there is now an add-on to make the game-world even bigger). |
Gothic 2 - Die Nacht des Raben: 9/10 points |
Adds a lor of value to an already great game. The new areas are varied and truly beautiful, even better landscaping than the original areas. The new story is interesting and nicely integrated into the original game. I think the developers overdid it a bit when they changed the difficulty settings and the minimum stats for the better weapons are just outrageous now. For people who havent played all three careers yet its a must have, but the new adventure is worth playing even if you don't want to play the whole game again. |
Jagged Alliance: 8/10 points |
Jagged alliance was great fun an very innovative. The mercenaries had real character and slowly advancing through the forest or approaching a building was always quite exciting. the landscape could have used some more variation, and the "quest goals" always seemed elusive for me (which eventually stopped me playing it), still I had a blast. |
Realms of Arkania 3 - Shadows over Riva: 7/10 points |
A strange game design: A rather beautifully rendered 3D city and some landscape to run around in, first person style. But no NPCs or monsters there. Events were shown through text boxes, and fights switched the interface to a isometric perspective and combat was then turn-based and a lot less impressive to look at. Despite this weirdness it was quite fun to play, the fights were quite exciting and the story progressed nicely. |
Return to Krondor: 6/10 points |
An OK game, but it felt somehow limited, walking around could be a pain because it was slow. Some weird bugs with arrows hitting you through corners in dungeons and awkward camera control made combat less enjoayable than it could have been. |
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: 10/10 points |
This is a great game, one of the most enthralling I played in a long time. It excels mostly through the engaging story it tells, which is very much what you would expect from star ward, and yet manages to surprise and keeps up suspense throughout the game. Also on the positive side: nicely fleshed out characters, dialogue choices really matter, a lot of ethical decisions throughout the game bring the concept of light/dark side to life. Excellent voice acting. Beautiful visuals and a fighting system that keeps a successful balance between a nice presentation, real time viuals and (a few) tactical elements - a system that really allows you to enjoy the action but also to do micro management when necessary. Great variety of locations. Force powers look and play great.
Negative things: Having played Morrowind and Gothic before this one I couldnt help but feel the limited size of the worlds, and the invisible walls that abound in the outdoors levels were a dissapouintment. Also a lot of faces are reused, adding a lot of deja vu. There is also some voice glitches (this is the german version) including missing dialogue, humans sppeaking Twilek, and a movie in french. Sometimes fighting AI isnt great - One important encounter with a gan of bounty hunters I could have bypassed just by fleeing - the gang wasn't following me!
So I was tempted to give only 9 points - but considering how much fun I had and how it captured my imagination I give it a 10. |
System Shock: 9/10 points |
This was such a wonderful game. I got it late, as a freebie on a gaming mag CD. Not knowing anything about the game I expected a lame shooter and I was completely stunned when I started playing. This game really sucked me in and had me walking on my toes like no others until "Dark Project".
Balance was awesome, there was a great sense of place and purpose and Shodan is such a memorable viallain! If you have never played it, this one is worth spending some time with a bit of retro gaming. |
System Shock 2: 8/10 points |
Great game, but not near as good as the first part. It could have been one of the greatest games ever, but I think it failed a little in the level design department - I just never felt like I was really on a spaceship, the thing felt more like a futuristic maze. I remember searching for hours for some stupid quest item, until finding it in a place I had already passed three times before. |
Thief - The Dark Project: 9/10 points |
Great game, more or less invented the "sneaker" game. If it had had more of a continuous story and a few more RPG elements it would have been a little better yet. |
Ultima 8 - Pagan: 5/10 points |
I didnt like the "feel" of the world in this one, nor did the graphics impress me much. The dungeons seemed long and uninspired and if I remember right I sorely missed an automap feature. The magic system was cumbersome and I soon gave up on it. Never finished it. |
Ultima Underworld 2 - Labyrinth of Worlds: 9/10 points |
Still one of my all-time favorites: Great interactive world, great graphics (at the time), interesting NPC interactions, the "worlds" with their distinctive feels... A true classic. |
