Tim here, and I am going to defend a game that may not be clear to anyone who only knows stealth through modern stealth titles such as Hitman or Metal Gear Solid. Thief: The Dark Project was not a friendly game. Thief did not label enemy locations on your mini-map. Thief would not save your game automatically after 30 seconds. As someone who missed this game when it first came out, I had to unlearn…
Look, I’m just going to be honest with you about Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun. It sundered our community when it was released on 27th August 1999 (Wikipedia), and, like, we’re still arguing about it to this day. Joe believes it’s the peak of the series’ ambition, Tim thinks it betrayed everything that made the first one special, and my feelings lie somewhere in the middle where I admire what Westwood were trying to do…
“`html A few years ago I realised that the last twenty years of stealth gaming had seen some incredible developments and in my mind there was one title that stands above all others for its innovative design and overall excellence – Hitman 2: Silent Assassin. Released in 2002 (Wikipedia), this was not simply a stealth game with added stealth elements. It was a fully-fledged murder puzzle that required players to use their analytical skills and…
I am Carl and I wanted to write this review to help us resolve the argument going on in our group chat for the last 6 months. Joe has always said that Civilization II is the best game in the series. Sam always raves about how great he believes Alpha Centauri is, it is part of a totally different series, Sam, whilst Tim says the new games are always better because they look nicer. John…
I am John, and I need to make a statement prior to this review. Whilst the rest of my teammates are arguing ad nauseum over whether Monkey Island or Day of the Tentacle represented LucasArts at its zenith, they are all forgetting the true masterpiece. Sam and Max Hit the Road didn’t simply perfect the adventure game format. It demonstrated that American developers could create something with a true subversive edge, whilst still producing content…
John’s working on that one so we won’t have to deal with Sam ranting again about how point-and-clicks died because they never implemented save states correctly. Gabriel Knight is not simply another old point-and-click adventure title sitting in Sierra’s archives. It proves that the way the Amiga treated story and atmosphere would utterly destroy console gaming if done right. In 1993 (Wikipedia), Jensen produced her magnum opus, reminding everyone that computer gaming was far superior…
RIGHT, LET’S GET THIS ONE RIGHT FROM THE START. Tim thinks modern adventure games can’t understand how to make puzzles and whilst he’s right, he’s missing the point as to why the classics worked. Beneath a Steel Sky is not just another point-and-click adventure from the 1990s. Beneath a Steel Sky is the cyberpunk adventure that proved you could merge serious topics with accessible gameplay. Whilst developed in Australia in 1994 (Wikipedia), Beneath a Steel…
Beginning as a young gamer and now as an adult, I will write this review for Tim to show him why Age of Empires II is the best Real Time Strategy (RTS) game ever produced. As he continues to tell me that Command & Conquer is better than AOE2, I will show him why the engineering decisions in AOE2 are the basis for all RTS games today. Not just nostalgia, but the design of the…
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory is a stealth action video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. Released on 21 March 2005 (PCGamingWiki), Chaos Theory represents the series reaching its creative and technical peak. Whilst the original Splinter Cell established Sam Fisher as a legitimate alternative to Solid Snake, and Pandora Tomorrow expanded the formula, Chaos Theory perfected it. Ubisoft invested heavily in this vision, with development and marketing budgets of $10 million each…
Day of the Tentacle Review: A Space Shooter That Made Pac-Man Look Easy My name is Marcus. Whilst the rest of the world is debating if modern adventure games can compete with the classics, I’m diving into the source code of Day of the Tentacle Remastered to find out exactly what made the original so innovative in terms of both creativity and engineering. The original Day of the Tentacle was released back in 1993 (according…