Serious Sam - The first Encounter

Genre: FPS | Players: 1-4 | Developer: Croteam

Note: the version reviewed here is the classic PC version, not the HD remake of 2009.

The best way to describe Serious Sam is to say that it is to Quake likes what Duke Nukem was to doom likes: It's his unhinged, degenerate cousin. the one that hops naked on the table at the wedding of your sister. and starts to write his name on the tablecloth with his piss. 

Only he does it with a perfect gothic font, in  ancient Latin, and his piss smells like Channel N°5. this is what Serious Sam amounts to. The game is stupid, linear, doesn't require much strategy (only in how you're going to handle the inhuman mass of enemy he's throwing at you, sometimes up to more than a hundred at a time.), it's obnoxious and quite impossible to take seriously. 

But it's fun, the controls are as good as it was possible back then, and on top of that, for a game of that time, it was beautiful. forget gloomy corridors, even if there are some, you'll spend a lot of time in a gorgeous, colorful recreation of ancient Egypt. At the time, Serious Sam was a breath of fresh air between the corridors of Unreal, Return to castle Wolfenstein or Quake 3. 

All in all Serious Sam is nothing new, but a damned good and well made nothing new. 

Similar games (some are more serious *wink wink*): Serious Sam the Second encounter, Soldier of Fortune, Duke Nukem 3D, Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast.

4 YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAWW!!!!! out of 5.

Buyer's guide : PC/PALM OS/Xbox/Xbox 360. FPS on Console are Heresy.

Chrono Trigger (1995)

Genre: RPG  |  Players: 1  |  Developer: Squaresoft

Chrono Trigger is arguably one of, if not the most, refined and polished RPGs ever released by Square Ltd. in the 16-bit era.  A game so perfect for its time that it gave the impression Final Fantasy VI was made years before, while in reality only a mere eleven months stand between both releases.

The game puts you in the shoes of Chrono, a young boy from the town of Truce, in the quiet kingdom of Gardia.  On the first day of the millennial fair that commemorates the thousand years of the kingdom he will encounter Marle and start a journey across time to save both the past and the future, making new friends on the way, among which are a frog-knight, a robot from a post-apocalyptic future, and others...

The technical aspect of the game is really great: the graphics make use of all the abilities of the SNES, giving us the abilities to explore a vast and colourful world, and the chara-designs by Toriyama Akira, full of mirth and winks to his career, are very well-rendered on screen.

The music (always one major cool point for Square's SNES games) is very impressive.  Yasunori Mitsuda and Nobuo Uematsu outdid themselves, as it may well be the best SNES soundtrack by Square's team.

Gameplay-wise, the game is excellent; putting you at the head of a team of three that you can select more or less freely, the difficulty is well-balanced, the combat system is an evolved version of the Active Time Battle system that allows for a bit more strategy in using zone attacks and offers the possibility of making collective attacks.  The gameplay also uses the time-travel aspect of the game, requiring you to sometimes perform an action in the past to unblock something in the future.

Finally, the story is exceptionally well-written, full of humour, and explores quite nicely the various aspects and implications of time travel, both good and bad, in a very intelligent and coherent manner.  It's also, at times, pretty emotional and will make you feel involved in the story and the characters' destiny, which is the mark of great RPGs.

If you have to have only ONE RPG on SNES, get this one.

If you liked it you might enjoy: Final Fantasy VI, Lufia II, Dragon Quest VI.

5 luminaire followed by Dark Matter out of 5.

Nutted by Docrate1.

Broforce (Brototype version) (2013)

Genre: Platformer / 3rd Person Shooter |  Players: One or 2 player Bro-op
Developer: Freelives

Broforce is, as the developers say, "a ridiculously violent platform game about being awesome action heroes from the 80s and 90s while slaying satanic terrorists and aliens while unravelling an evil plot to destroy the planet while dealing with being awesome action heroes from the 80s and 90s."

Imagine Metal Slug with destructible terrains as in Worms, minimalist graphics, a very precise maniability and instinctive handling (one button to fire, one to fire a special weapon, one to use a close combat weapon, and press UP to jump).  Then add lots of explosions, and an insane amount of enemies who are sure to end up as meat pieces sprinkled all around.

And then add the characters. no, sorry, the Bros. Brominator. Rambro. Bro Norris. Mister Bro. Bro in Black. Bro Hard. McBrowen. Robrocop. Bro Dredd. Bro Plissken. Indiana Bro; all of whom are unlockable as you progress through the game.
It's still just a prototype, no sorry, a brototype, but it's fun as hell, addictive, and, in a strange way, very soothing.  If you like it, don't forget support them in the Steam greenlight.

4½ nothing soothes me more than blowing shit up out of 5.

WHERE TO GET IT:
You can play online HERE or download a standalone build HERE (Direct DL).

Nutted by Docrate1 (He's a Bro: First Class).

Fallout Tactics (2001)

Genre: RPG | Players: 1 + Multi via Lan / Online | Developer: Micro Forté

I was once told that every game series needs its turd.  A few escape relatively unscathed, like Baldur's Gate or Elder Scrolls, others get... well... something of Fallout Tactics calibre.

At first sight it's interesting: a tactical, squad-based adventure game that explores a bit more the Fallout universe.  The only problem was that the game development was obviously rushed, and in a pretty bad way.  Some designs are atrocious, and the general look of the game looks like a few steps BACKWARD when compared to Fallout 2.  Still, it had some strong points: squad based combat is a perfect fit for the Fallout universe, and the game offers a lot of possibilities in terms of characters, gameplay and equipment.
That's all.  The A.I. is flawed; its main behaviours akin to a constant zerg rush: send its entire troop at you, not bothering with things like subtlety, and often putting its men in a nice column that you only need to shower with lead.  As I said, the designs are bad but the worst injury comes from the game system; it's neither turn based nor real time.  Basically, it's a mess.  A buggy mess which smells like "unfinished product" to me.  And I'm right, as the following shows:

"If Interplay had allowed more time (and money), MicroForte would have been in a position to deliver a better game.  That's fairly typical of the publisher/developer relationship. [...] Keep in mind that the amount of testing on Fallout Tactics was tragically short.  IIRC, Interplay received the first full beta/fully playable to the end on a Saturday.  The following Wednesday, after one - maybe two - revs, it was sent off for mastering.  That's an amazingly short amount of time (most projects have at least a month between fully playable and gold mastering, RPGs usually have longer).  Myself and a few others asked for more time to do more testing and we were denied.  There was a strong desire to get the game out as fast as possible by someone at Interplay.  I don't think it helped that I had walked out of a marketing meeting a month or so earlier, so my opinion towards the end wasn't well received.
Additional testing time would have allowed: more bug fixes, better balancing (especially in Turn-Based, since the limited amount of testing time, most of QA was testing in real-time) and more tweaks to the game system."

Who says that?  Chris Taylor (RPG Codex forum), Fallout lead designer and a producer on Tactics.  In other words the game release was rushed, released with close to no testing, and knowing it had rather poor gameplay (hell, it's a slaughter-fest even worse than Icewind Dale, with nearly NO role-playing), very little humour (keep in mind Fallout and Fallout 2 were full of easter eggs and funny little things found here and there) and ugly designs.  Gameplay-wise, the game isn't balanced at all (enemies are either too strong or too easy for you, some missions are close to impossible, and a few are downright impossible), and finally Inon Zur was obviously uninspired as the music is quite bland and forgettable...

So yeah. Fallout Tactics is the bad egg of the Fallout family.

Buyer’s Guide:
Available on PC, Mac, Steam, and GOG.com.

½ don't rush your game release or they'll end in the toilets like the piece of shit they are out of 5.*

*The ½ point is for that monstrous heavy machine gun that can one-shot nearly anything, and for which you find TONS of ammo.

Nutted by Docrate1 (who won’t be campaigning for a Fallout Tactics 2 any time soon).

Icewind Dale Complete (2000/2001)

Genre: RPG / Hack’n’Slash |  Players: 1- 6 (via TCP IP/Lan)

Developer: Black Isle Studios

First and foremost: if you came to play Icewind Dale to delve back into the intrigue and mysteries of Faerun... forget it. While its forefather Baldur's Gate shone with enigmas, twisted puzzles and little quests that had to be solved, Icewind Dale is more or less devoid of all that making it more Diablo-like than RPG.  The story is as linear as humanly possible, the game is one long slaughter-fest from start to end.  The secondary quests are often limited to "find object A and bring it to Character B to obtain object/reward C" which is a far cry from some BG quests.  Probably because Bioware didn't develop this one, Black Isle did.  Still, as BI developed Fallout 2, which is a masterpiece in terms of storyline and accessory quests, questions could be asked as to whether they worked seriously on Icewind Dale or not.

In terms of graphics, the game uses a refined Infinity Engine and offers really beautiful sceneries, as well as very nice music by Jeremy Soule.  In terms of gameplay... well... it's the same as Baldur’s Gate but with lots of new classes, character options, and equipment (prefiguring BG 2 that would be released only a few months later).
The only originality is that you don't recruit any characters.  You create your whole party at the beginning, from 1 to 6 characters, with the classes you wish.  Don't forget the basic: one thief, one wizard, and one priest.  Then add a few tanks.  I mean warriors/rangers.

Now the add-ons.  Yes, plural.  First Heart of Winter: Well, Heart of Winter continues a bit the story of Icewind Dale but doesn't add anything like subtlety or puzzles.  The game is still a slaughter-fest, only with more experience levels and more powerful tools for your heroes to slaughter their enemies with, hear the lamentation of their women, blah, blah, blah...

And then there's the free expansion, Trials of the Luremaster.  It offers some tough enigmas, although not that hard if you compare them to the hellish difficulty of some in BG2, a series of REALLY tough dungeons and some incredible loot, all spoiled by the most annoying end boss.  Still, a good challenge for an advanced party.  I would advise people to play these dungeons when you're mid-game in Heart of Winter.  Yes, TotL is an expansion to an expansion.  And that was a decade before Inception.

All in all, a good game yet miles away from the genius that shone in Baldur's Gate and light-years away from the pearl that is Baldur's Gate 2.

Buyer's Guide:
Available on PC, Mac, and GOG.com.

3 "this game is expansionception" out of 5.

Nutted by Docrate1

Fallout 2 (1998)

Genre: RPG  |  Players: One  |  Developer: Black Isle Studios

Roughly 90 years separate the original Fallout from its sequel.  Visually, the game hasn't changed much.  One could even say it hasn't changed at all, which isn't true.
New environments (with a lot more life in them), new NPC skins, new companions (robots, cyber dogs, mutants), new weapons, a lot more secondary quests, and many, many easter eggs to find: references to Star Wars, Buck Rogers, Star Trek, Mad Max and, if you are imaginative enough... Hokuto no Ken (take the right perks, don the black leather armor, go hand to hand and bam... you'll make people explode with your bare hands, Hokuto No ken style!) etc.  Hell, even the final boss is a wink to old man Eastwood.

All in all, the game is better balanced than the first one, less buggy, and provides a compelling story with lots of adventures, gunfights, and bad mistakes to be done in the grand Fallout tradition but above all this game provides you SO much more freedom.

Fallout 2 was one of the first games to give you the opportunity to be either an angel or the worst asshole in the wastelands.  With a good management of reputation you can be considered a monster in one town, and a hero in another, which makes the game all the better.  There are lots of moral choices, each having consequences at the games end.  There is no real need to play the game in any order.  Missed a location?  A quest?  You'll have time to do it AFTER the game.  Yep, you heard me.  Fallout 2 is probably one of the first games that allow you to continue playing after the ending.

Buyer's Guide:
Available on PC, Mac, OnLive, Steam, and GOG.com.

5 War... War really never changes out of 5.

Nutted by: Docrate1 (The Wasteland Veteran)

Fallout (1997)

Genre: RPG | Players: One | Developer: Black Isle Studios

The post nuclear Role playing game.  That's what I call a tagline.  Back in 1997, most PC  RPGs  meant dragons, elves and orcs.  Fallout barged in full of gun-toting raiders, criminals exploiting the nuclear aftermath, and the shadowy force that's threatening the survivors.  Fallout was damn innovative, and not only by the fact it had a REAL RPG system backing it.  Your character is more than a skin, it's, as in  Pen and Paper  RPGs, a set of attributes, skills, and perks.

Another innovation: tired of playing a goody two shoes?  Play an asshole for a change (sadly, the game really punishes you if you do so but it'll be extra extra hard to finish it this way when every damn person tries to shoot you down).  The story is quite simple: your vaults water purification system is down, and the replacement part is missing.  Guess who has to go outside and find it?

You'll meet communities that survived and organized themselves after the war: the Junkyard, the Hub, Shady Sands, etc.  Each offer various "job" opportunities and info on where to continue your mission.  Speaking of which, the game is fairly hard, of course; you can recruit allies, from a simple dog to a hardened mercenary, but still.  One of the game's problems is that it's mostly sand and asphalt.  In other words, the backgrounds are a bit lifeless and repetitive but that would be corrected in the next opus.  Another problem is that the game suffers from a few bugs, some of which can hinder the completion of the main quest.  Still, Fallout is a damn fine game that spawned 3 sequels, and renewed interest for post apocalyptic games.

Buyer's Guide:
Available on PC, Mac, OnLive, Steam, and GOG.com.

4 War... War never changes out of 5

Nutted by: Docrate1

Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal (2001)

Genre: RPG | Players: 1-6 | Developer: BioWare

The official add-on to Baldur's Gate II, it adds a few new locations (including a massive dungeon) to "Shadows of Amn" (hereafter referred as "SOA"), and a big quest happening a few weeks after the end of SOA.  A quest that could lead you to godhood... or damnation.

The whole cast of NPCs from BGII is back, plus one massive surprise, on a new game.  First problem: being a standalone, you're cut from all the other towns previously visited, and from your base.  Say goodbye to anything that wasn't in your inventory, although most of the NPC come equipped with top notch stuff.

Yet this add-on has one big problem.  It’s linear.  Of course you choose in which order you'll do the dungeons, but that's pretty much it.  Much less side quests, and often related to the main one.  It would have been better if the player still had been somewhat able to get out of the area, or if he had been given a little more liberty in how to deal with some of the quests.  That's a big bummer after two games where you could in some occasions literally bullshit your way out of a fight.  Here, it's a splendid example of the D&D archetype: Door-Monster-Treasure-Side quest leading to more doors-etc, etc. bummer.

Other than that... new enemies, new items (including a fun feature to create very nasty little things by combining stuff. fun and useful.), new dungeons and new sights.  Although the environments are far from being as beautiful as in SOA.  All in all, good but not great.

Buyer's Guide:
Available on PC, Mac, and GOG.com.

3½ "I'll stick my poleaxe in your bottom and turn you into a battering ram!!"

Nutted by Docrate1 (If he comes at you with a poleaxe... abandon all hope.)

Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000)

Genre: RPG | Players: 1-6 | Developer: BioWare

The game begins a few months after the ending of the first game. Abducted by a crazy wizard, you are about to embark on a journey to discover even more about your past and yourself.  And make yourself new enemies.  Lots of new enemies.
Heck, it seems all the bad stuff happening on the sword coast is falling on one poor schmuck: you.

BG2 takes on the strengths of its predecessor, and enhances them tenfold.  Better graphics, much better environments, lots of new items, classes (which open the way to class quests, a fun thing that sets you on a few quest available only if you play a certain class of character.  The reward is reaaaally worth the crap the game will throw at you).  That and the game is huge.  I'd say twice of three times as long as the first one coupled with its add-on.  Lots of new places and literally hundreds of side-quests, and secrets to find.  I've played this game for close to 10 years now and I still discover secrets.

The game still has flaws, but many corrections have been applied since the first one.  First, it's easier to survive.  The AI of NPCs and enemies is much better, and easier to customize.  Then, lots of NPCs to choose from to assemble your team, with more versatility than in the first one.  Third, it's easier to find protective objects, which were really rare in the first.  And fourth... hell... it's supposed to be a challenge.  Forget the first one.  Compared to this, Baldur's Gate was a warm up.  On top of that it's still available.

Buyer's Guide:
Available on PC, Mac, and GOG.com.

5 "This time I'll shove my mace up your bum & turn you into a popsicle!!" out of 5.

Nutted by Docrate1 (If he comes at you with a mace... run faster than before.)

Baldur's Gate (1998)

Genre: RPG | Players: 1 - 6 (multiplayer available) | Developer: BioWare

Set in Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms, you play a young orphan with mysterious abilities, hunted down by a mysterious organization, for mysterious reasons and who goes on to become one big pain in the ass for said organization.  Seriously, no way to sum up the plot without spoiling like a madman.

Back when Baldur's gate was released, it was one of the first games in that new generation of computer medieval fantastic RPG / Hack'n'Slash games, with Diablo and a few others.  BG offered a freedom of action completely new at the time, with choices that had real impacts on the story, along with great graphics, a compelling story and beautiful music.  Drawbacks were the AI of both your companions and enemies, and the overall difficulty, as it was quite easy to get killed multiple times in the first 2 hours.  The game was hard.  Really hard.  And boy was that a challenge.

An extension was released afterward ("Tales of the Sword Coast"), with new quests, new stuff and new shitheads to kill.  A great game, still available, and an HD remake seems to be in the works.

4½ "I'll stick that sword up your ass and turn you into a brochette" out of 5.

Buyer's Guide:
Available on PC, Mac, and GOG.com.

Nutted by Docrate1 (If he comes at you with a sword ... run.)