Seven Kingdoms II (PC)

Have you ever heard hard-core history nerds start debating which civilizations could have kicked which civilization’s butt? It starts with military technology and tactics but inevitably spills into what someone saw on Deadliest Warrior that one time. This game is the end all be all of which civilizations could have kicked with civilizations’ butt. Complete with war machines certain civs never discovered and playable monstrous races. I’m certain this game will put all those arguments to rest!

History

Seven Kingdoms II was developed by Enlight Software, designed by Trevor Chan, and published by Ubisoft. Trevor Chan was a programming consultant for an airline sales system when he started his game development career with Capitalism and Seven Kingdoms. Chan and Enlight are still making games today, with a new Seven Kingdoms being planned and a new Capitalism game in development right now.

Seven Kingdoms II: The Fryhtan Wars was released on July 31st, 1999. It’s competition was Dungeon Keeper 2 (PC), System Shock 2 (PC), and Croc 2 (PS1).

Experiences

It’s difficult to imagine a world before commercialized sequels. Where sequels were meant to represent the success of a good product instead of an inevitability of the industry. I adored the first Seven Kingdoms when it came out and the idea that there would be another game that was bigger and better blew my mind. The only sequel series I had experienced was through Super Mario All-Stars pack, I didn’t even know that Super Mario World and Super Mario Bros looked that different. In short, I was completely unprepared and surprised by the graphical update between Seven Kingdoms games and the idea that games could be refined and improved for generations to come… yaaaay…

What is this sequel wizardry!?

Gameplay

Seven Kingdoms II is a real time strategy game in the vein of Ages and Empires. Your goal is to vanquish your enemies via conquest, diplomacy, and/or cloak and dagger spying. To this end you manage resources such as food, gold, people, and reputation — and hoo boy, is reputation important. If you run out of any of those then you’re gonna have your bad time. Human civilizations can also discover new technologies to improve soldier stats, create war machines that take less time to train than soldiers, espionage abilities, and industrial capabilities. Your goal is to be the last kingdom standing, in most circumstances.

The big innovation for this game over the previous installment is that the monstrous Fryhtans are no longer simply marauding creatures, they’re now playable kingdoms or Kwyzans. If all that diplomacy and spying junk didn’t interest you then you can Conan this shit and crush everyone. In ways including but not limited to, sapping natural resources, killing civilians, and enslaving towns — I did mention they were literal monsters right.

With giant spooky lairs, and bizarre structures the Fryhtans offer a completely different way to play.

Shockingly, the latest editions being offered by Steam and Good Old Games still have functioning multiplayer so it’s totally possible to comp stomp with your friends or go toe to toe with them.

The Gush

The learning curve in this game is pretty steep — it’s not Dwarf Fortress or anything — but the tutorials, hints, and scenario editor give the player enough room to experiment and learn. It takes some time but you’ll get the hang of it.

You can actually deploy your spies now! In the original Seven Kingdoms if you tried to infiltrate an enemy kingdom with spies they’d typically get apprehended and executed before they even took their first step… somehow. Now they’ll get as far as the gates of the enemy fort before there’s even a chance of them being discovered. So have fun bribing and backstabbing your way to victory.

The bizarre Fryhtan tech might seem unwieldy at first but once you learn how it works you can unleash your inner monster. Fryhtans don’t engage in diplomacy they only extort and destroy. Playing them is a total rush.

The Kvetch

The campaign for this game is overall unenjoyable. Every campaign is randomly generated with randomly generated scenarios. You have to face down a bunch of Fryhtan Kwyzans and a rival human empire. The effect of randomness can change things immensely and it makes the campaign feel arbitrary. I just wish my actions could snowball my empire and give me mounting power. It certainly doesn’t help that it’s super freaking hard.

Some Fryhtan missions can begin and end with getting completely overpowered and crushed.

I don’t know what’s wrong with the Fryhtan pathing but it’s a huge problem. Your monstrous armies will generally meet defeat because half of them were back at the lair picking their nose or just bumping harmlessly into each other.

These pathing problems are alleviated by ranged attacks but not all Fryhtan species can attack from a distance.

A minor quibble but why do my counterspies dying count against my reputation? It makes sense to be disreputable for infiltrating an enemy kingdom but having some secret police-men keeping an eye out for enemy spies dying in an earthquake should not mar my good name — I mean, I do have 11 assassins ready to kill the enemy’s king but no one needs to know that.

The Verdict

It’s an older game but it was state of the art for 1999 and it’s cheap now. You can get it on Steam or from Good old Games for $10 — GOG even offers a bundle for both Seven Kingdoms games. I started playing this game around 2004 and I’m still playing it today so I would say that it’s worth a look-see if you’re into this sort of thing.

Next Week: The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth/Afterbirth.

Shogun: Total War (PC)

The year is 1467 and the place is Japan. The Emperor has lost his political power and serves as a largely ceremonial religious figurehead. He rules through a great lord known as the Shogun who issues orders through the regional leaders, his Daimyo. However the Daimyo from the far provinces will not obey his commands because he is not the Emperor and there is conquest to be had — what a lark, “we won’t listen to the Emperor because he’s not really in charge and we won’t listen to you because you’re not the Emperor. I didn’t just steal all this land. Pics or it didn’t happen.” You play one of these Daimyo in his bid for domination of all Japan. Battle, negotiate, and backstab your way to the top of the pile.

History

When they were done making sports games Creative Assembly created Shogun: Total War. At the time Command and Conquer was really popular so they thought it’d be keen to make a similar game. They settled on Sengoku Japan as the setting simply because it was cool and because there were many warring factions that could have potentially been victorious. Utilizing the new 3dfx technology that was becoming available they would make a 3D game. It started off as just a series of battles but Creative Assembly thought the battles were too short to create a substantive game so they created the campaign map which then lead to all the accoutrements that go with it. Shogun: Total War was released on June 13th, 2000. It’s competition was The Misadventures of Tronne Bonne (PS1), Diablo II (PC), and Daikatana (N64).

Experiences

My cousin and I would play this game a lot when we were young, stupid, and fascinated by samurai. We also, naturally, thought ninja were the coolest thing evar and therefore employed far more than was useful. It soon became a lesson in frustration as we struggled with the UI, were disappointed in how much our ninja were dying, and utterly unable to find victory in battle or commerce. We kept playing it though because we knew that samurai and ninja were cool and therefore this game had to be cool. We still had fun but we never really got anywhere.

Gameplay

If you read my article about Medieval II: Total War then you basically know everything you need to know about this game. Shogun has even fewer tactical options, diplomatic options, or other things to worry about. It’s still split between civil administration and battles but there’s not much more to do than that.

The stars represent the skill of commanders and the red bar indicate the size of the army (not the strength).

Your armies don’t actually march across the field they just sort of teleport between friendly provinces with ports or any adjacent provinces. This is how all units travel as represented by pieces on the campaign map.

The battle system is very similar to medieval’s except the models look like they were made in 2000 and everything seems less responsive.

The Gush

The music in this game is pretty solid. It’s sweeping with decent throat singing and fine but simple instrumentation. It’s accentuates but it doesn’t distract. It makes me feel pumped and ready to try to think strategically or think, “If my center could just hold. If it holds then the day is won,” as I start sweating buckets.

The Kensei is a mostly mythic but nevertheless awesome unit. It’s not a squad of men, it’s just one swordsman who has the strength of a squad. It’s incredibly difficult to build up the infrastructure to support one and they’re generally not practical but they’re the best when it comes to holding choke points or other vital areas. Personally, I usually end up giving them silly pet names and keep count of the heads they collect.

Put some Kensei on a bridge like this and they’ll mow down the enemy. But beware of enemy gunfire.

The Kvetch

It’s incredibly frustrating that you can only engage the enemy Daimyo in diplomacy. If you don’t know where he’s gone then your diplomats will have to scatter to the four winds to find the bastard. If his lands are vast that will make it that much more difficult — and vital — that you find him and if he’s on the move then sometimes it’s just not possible. I guess that’s realistic but it’s super frustrating that his giant army is able to outrun your single traveling diplomat.

Let’s Play FIND THE DAIMYO!

Ninja are borderline useless. It’s either they assassinate their target or they die. There’s no middle ground, no failure followed by escape. Because they die so often they’ll never gain the skill they need to assassinate higher skilled targets and then they will never be able to gain it because all the available targets’ skills are too high. What really irks me is that the reward for building the top ninja training facility reward the player with the Legendary Geisha who is a ninja that cannot be killed for failing. They can only be killed via assassination — but I wouldn’t try, I trained 20 ninja to kill one and they all came at her in the same season and they all failed. It’s just frustrating that the investment takes so long to pay off. I just want my ninja to be cool, man.

Sieges don’t work the way you might expect. When your province is attacked your men can defend the field or flee to the castle. But castles can only house so many soldiers. So the AI will choose what soldiers make it to the safety of the walls and the rest die without a fight. How about this? I can fight in the field and my survivors can run to the castle after they get their ass kicked and try to hold out or I can keep 120 guys back their for safekeeping and have the remainder try to win the field.

Also the castle design is awfully… um… sparse. I know that’s just a small castle but… it’s just some walls.

I have no idea how retraining or restocking units works. I’ve got this badass five swordsmen who have been forged in the blood of their enemies and their friends but how can I keep the legacy of their unit going? What’s even worse is when my army is composed of 20 units which all contain fewer than 20 men because they’re all so thrashed.

If a general reaches a certain level of skill he may unlock the ability to employ Katana Samurai but that’s two ‘ifs’ right there. IF he reaches that skill it MIGHT unlock. I don’t know what the exact unlocking mechanism is but there are some games where I’ve gone in-game years without it triggering.

The Verdict

 Shogun: Total War is finally available on Steam for $10 and I’m not sure it’s worth it. Shogun 2 is available for $30 and to me it’s just the better deal. There’s more to do in Shogun 2 and it’s just more fun and interesting. I would definetly say that it’s interesting to look at as a piece of history. It’s only really playable before you play Shogun 2. There’s no going back, Shogun 2 just has so many more quality of life improvements.

Next Week: Tales From the Borderlands

Iji (PC)

The Earth has been attacked by a highly advanced alien race known as the Tasen. They’re shielded by nano-molecular fields and armed with special nano-weapons using the smallest of particles to perform actions impossible by current technology.  You were caught up in their initial attack and should have died. Thankfully it was bring your family to work day at the government superweapon science lab or wherever your father works and his colleagues took your broken body and put you back together — If it weren’t for holidays like this the Portal series and this game never would exist. It was a risky procedure turning you, Iji, into a cyborg nano warrior. But when the subject is dying and death is the worst case scenario then the decision is clear, put a pile of science into this young girl and turn her into a nano-machine fueled human weapon. Iji and her nano-gun are the only weapons that can stand against or even adequately damage the Tasen so it’s up to you. Walk, jump, kick, hack, shoot — or maybe not so much with the shooting because, seriously, Iji is 16 and isn’t mentally trained to deal with the rigors of interstellar war and battle.

History

Iji was developed singularly by Daniel Remar and made in Game Maker. It’s only available on PC but is playable through Windows emulating software. There was a plan for fans to port it to all operating systems but, unfortunately, things fell through. He was inspired by the the animation of game’s like Another World and made a game similar in visual design.

Another World vs…

… Iji. The visual similarities are vague but present.

Remar started working on the project in 2004 and finally released it on September 1st 2008. It’s competition was Stalker Clear Sky (PC), Kirby Super Star Ultra (Nintendo DS), and Megaman 9 (Wiiware and PSN).

Experiences

This is the first game I’ve ever played that considered the mental state of a character in a way that’s irreversible and potentially incredibly damaging. Blasting away hordes of anything wouldn’t be good for anyone’s mental health much less someone so young and shaken already. The three ways to play the game are as an Innocent, killing no one, as a merciful, killing very few, or as a warmonger without regard for the lives of your enemies. Iji’s emotional state will change through dialogue and gameplay. Her first few kills are punctuated with apology and her last are filled with furious shouts and taunts, mocking the dead. Her sanity is really in your hands and it’s a fragile thing that needs to be handled carefully.

Gameplay

Iji is a Platformer-sidescroller-shooter with Metroid-vania elements and partitioned levels so there’s no going back if you go to the next sector. Iji begins with a simple shotgun weapon but can find more Tasen and Komato weapons. Certain weapons can only be made by combining others at weapon stations like the spread rocket which is made from a rocket launcher and your shotgun. The platforming in this game may seem simple but Iji doesn’t have a lot of horizontal mobility, she can jump up super high but not so much left or right. As such, you’re gonna have to get really creative with how to get her from A to B when it comes to secret hunting — and this game has a shit-ton of easter eggs and hidden things — like getting blasted by enemy rockets or firing your own explosives to propel you just a little further.

The game’s also got a functional and useful map screen, unlike some other games.

Iji can level up and get points by collecting stray nano which is dropped from defeated enemies and scattered around the map — the enemies don’t have to die at your hands so scrounging is encouraged. Iji’s got seven stats you can level up at certain stations by spending these points. The different stats are Health, which obviously increases her maximum health, Attack, which increases the damage of Iji’s weapons, Assimilate, which allows Iji to carry more ammo, Strength, which allows Iji to kick down stronger doors and larger enemies, Crack, which allows Iji to “crack” — i.e. hack — doors, enemies, and herself, and Tasen and Komato, which allow’s Iji to carry better and more powerful weapons for each of the alien races. Each of these stats also give Iji a special power when she reaches max rank in each stat. Powers such as Cybernetic Endurance which gives Iji extra invulnerability time and less weapon recoil which is unlocked by having 10 Strength.

To the next section.

The Gush

There isn’t as much music in this game as I might like but what it’s got is fantastic and employed perfectly. The musical changes are like a guiding hand for the player’s emotions. They’re also usually super punky or quasi-experimental.

The choices in this game go above and beyond to make them seem as if they offer real choice and not just the illusion of choice. There are lots of things you can do and some of them have legitimate game changing consequences, not just slightly altered dialogue.

Holy secrets, Batman. This game has hidden posters, an alternate costume, special items, lost ribbons, rare weapons, The Scrambler, Sector Z, and a literal game breaking item hidden in nooks everywhere. Keep your eyes open and try thinking outside the box to reach these things.

Must… get… EVERYTHING!

The Scrambler gets its own section because it’s one of the most brilliant things ever put into a videogame. If you can find the mythical Cracker known as Yukabacera and if you can reach him and defeat him in single combat you will get his scrambler. This thing, when enabled, scrambles all the dialogue into an incomprehensible mess becoming more incomprehensible the long the dialogue goes on. If you don’t see the comedic potential in such a thing then you simply do not have a soul.

BEHOLD THE POWER OF THE SCRAMBLER! TURNING HIGH TENSION STAND OFFS INTO SILLINESS IN THREE WORDS!

The bosses in this game are an absolute pleasure to fight. They take what you know and make you learn new tricks to beat them. There’s also a fair share of emotional tension to get me really involved in the fight.

Just look at the size of this guy.

 

The Kvetch

Iji’s walking speed is abysmal. Backtracking is a massive pain in the ass exacerbated by how slow she moves. I understand that it can’t be too fast or she’ll just speed past enemies but there could have been some sort of sprint move that makes her take extra damage or something.

The Verdict

This game is phenomenal and for the low-low price of totally free there’s no reason not to pick it up. Go here http://www.remar.se/daniel/iji.php download it and enjoy.

Next Week: Civilization V

Medieval II: Total War (PC)

The year is 1080 AD, the time of knights, crusades, and high chivalry. Across Europe men are dying in droves for their kings and lords. You play one of these kings and control the nation — , no queens though, no girls allowed (Well, unless you have a pope who’s secretly a woman but I’m getting ahead of myself). As a king you’ve got to perform administrative tasks like commissioning buildings, recruiting troops, and assigning agents like merchants, spies, and diplomats. Oh yeah, and you command those troops and DESTROY EVERYTHING THAT LAYS BEFORE YOU! BURN ALL THAT BURNS, STEAL ALL THAT SHINES! Or… maybe you could do that whole chivalry thing if that’s your bag.

History

There’s not much gossip or incident about this game but I can offer some basic information. Medieval II was designed and created by Creative Assembly, who worked on sports games until their breakout title Shogun: Total War, sparking off the Total War series. It was published by Sega, of all companies, who purchased Creative Assembly in a bid to maintain a presence in the North American and European game markets.

Medieval II: Total War was released on November 13th, 2006. It’s competition was Gears of War XBox 360, Final Fantasy XII (PS2), and Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II: Rise of the Witch King (PC).

Experiences

Medieval II’s trait system guarantees that you’ll eventually have the most ridiculous king or lord ever in the history of the game. From Faradoc the Fat who died 8 years into his rule after going hopelessly insane. Or a general of mine in the Britannia campaign who’s name escapes me. A man who faced and killed William Wallace in single combat, who’s health was so immense that he became brutally scarred which further increased his health. The trait system is one of the most fun parts of this game. Priests can secretly be women, and if she reaches the rank of cardinal, and if she’s voted for pope, THEN THE POPE CAN BE SECRETLY A WOMAN! Factions can be held aloft by the extreme Chivalry or Dread of their King and when he dies things might fall to pieces. It’s just awesome.

Gameplay

The game is basically split between the administration section of the game that takes place in the overworld map and the real-time combat. When your governing you can commission building projects, adjust taxes, have agents like spies and assassins perform actions, and move your armies and navies around. Every county has a city in it which is either a town or a castle the difference being towns make oodles of money and castles (generally) produce superior military units.

Behold the starting map position and county names.

Your armies march around and generally stomp your enemies. You can support these troops with family members who will command them, their command stat adding to your troops’ attack, defense, and morale. Your lords aren’t just for fighting though. They can govern your towns increasing their income and decreasing their building and troop costs — unless they have garbage traits. And traits are everything. Your most level-headed general might charge without command if he hates the French and he’s fighting his hated foes.

When your armies clash the world map will give way to randomly generated but terrain influenced combat map so try to fight someplace that works to your advantage. Combat in the field is all about shocking your enemies and breaking their morale at which point they’ll run and, unless they have a truly inspiring or terrifying commander, won’t turn back.

If your playing a Christian faction then you’re gonna have to deal with the Pope because he hates it when everyone’s fighting and being all non-Christ-like. If you work with the pope then you can call crusades on religious cities and get some free passes to attack other nations. If you don’t listen to him then your faction might get excommunicated and that’ll make your people really upset — It can also make you a target for enemy crusades. Muslim nations don’t have to answer to anyone but can only use their Jihads to re-take cities they’ve lost.

If you’ve got cardinals you can control their votes to elect a new pope and if you’re faction controls the pope then you can do just about whatever you want.

There’s also a multiplayer component to the game but you can only fight over the internet. If you want to run a campaign with your friends then you’ll have to do it hot-seat style — and have a gentlemen’s agreement to only autocalculate combat between player controlled factions because the AI isn’t as good as you are.

The Gush

I love a siege. Nothing gets my blood up like defending some walls. None shall pass says I. No matter how grim things get defending troops have a morale bonus and will flee to the center of town instead of abandoning the field. The larger the city is the more defenses it has and it may even have an inner set of walls. The siegers will be hard pressed to get their siege engines that far into the city.

Come and get me.

I love seeing what crazy pile of traits I can have on one character. I already mentioned the pope being secretly a woman but there’s nothing like my Danish king who was accompanied by an old war buddy and an classically trained Berserker.

Nothing like playing Milan. Milan gets their best military units from towns instead of castles so they have both economic power and military strength.

Sometimes things from history will happen in the game. I was playing as Egypt and born to my king was a son with the trait Born to Command and the boy’s name was Saladin. Naturally I threw him into every battle that I could and I couldn’t help but keep his chivalry high.

The Kvetch

There’s no real naval combat in this game. All you can do is auto-calculate naval battles so there’s no real skill involved. I also don’t understand exactly how they work. I don’t know what makes a good navy.

In this image is all of the game’s naval combat. You can auto-calculate or run.

The fog of war in this game is your worst enemy. If you’re marching your army and it runs into another thing be it another army, a merchant, or a princess — doesn’t matter — they’ll get stopped dead in their tracks. They also lose all of their movement until the next turn. It’s just annoying for normal armies but it can kill a Crusade or a Jihad because if the army stops moving then the soldiers will desert as they doubt your devotion to the cause. I generally cheat to disable the fog of war because I can’t deal with inching along to avoid it.

Does anyone know how merchants work? Could you drop a comment? Because I’ve been playing this game for 5 years and I have no fucking clue. I know that if you put them on a resource they’ll earn you extra money and they can try to acquire assets from enemy merchants. But enemy merchants typically have such high skill that mine fail to acquire their assets and are often destroyed in retaliation. It just feels like a waste of 550 florins.

All of the non-English voice acting sounds incredibly awful and maybe even a little racist. I keep it on just to laugh and cringe at.

The Verdict

This game gives me “one more turn syndrome” so badly. I’ll turn it on play 50 turns real quick but why not 51? Oh, wait, I really want to finish this siege. Ope, a Crusade? I’ll just finish that up real quick and then I’m done. It continues like this until my weekend gets destroyed. This game is fantastic. It’s 25 dollar Steam price tag is just a testament to how well it’s aged.

Next Week: Iji

Mob Rule (PC)

You are an up and coming capo in another man’s mafia given the dubious privilege of commanding the Don’s forces. If you succeed, he takes the credit, if you fail, you take the fall. The big man’s got plans for you though, plans that will take you far. You’ve got to build businesses and organize your subordinates in order to destroy rival families and keep your ledger in the black. And whatever you do, never disobey the Don.

History

Made by Studio 3, the internal development branch of System 3, Mob Rule was meant to be a more combat oriented version of their previous game, Constructor. Mob Rule recycled the engine and a lot of the mechanics. It received worse reviews than Constructor at the time in large part to its UI change and mission goal restrictions.

It’s been picked up and distributed by Good Old Games these days and their port is competent and flexible but missing a vital aspect from the original, multiplayer. For whatever reason they removed the option to get a multiplayer game going. The multiplay format is no longer supported by modern Operating Systems but savvy coders have found ways to get it to run with a few downloadable programs. So I’ve got to ask GOG, where’s my mafia based multiplayer?

I mean, that’s the UI on the bottom panel. It’s not exactly intuitive.

Mob Rule was released on September 30th, 1999. It’s competition was Rollercoaster Tycoon (PC and apparently this game had an XBox port.), Dungeon Keeper 2 (PC), and Baldur’s Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast (PC).

Experiences

This is one of the first RTS games that I ever played and the first time I did it was on a demo disk. You remember, demos, those things that don’t exist any more where you play a little bit of the game to see if you like it — yeah, those. This demo was unlike any other I had played because it incorporated its ending into the mechanics of the demo. Lemme unpack that. So, most demos ended because they just told you that you’d played enough and would have to cough up the cash if you wanted to keep going. Mob Rule’s demo unleashed a giant enemy force on you that was too strong, who The Don ordered you not to harm, that wreck your businesses and kill your dudes. Then, when you get wiped out, the game says that if you want revenge that you could get it by buying the full game. Cheap, efficient, brilliant, and dastardly.

Gameplay

This game is not your average RTS, there’s no real base building, there isn’t really a diverse arrangement of units, and everyone is using the same tools. Since there’s no multiplayer anymore it’s all about the main campaign. The campaign is split into missions where The Don will give you various tasks, some of which put the hurt on your enemies whereas others are just there to create a challenge to forward progress. To achieve these ends you’ll have to employ workers, the low health/low damage guys who build buildings and perform menial tasks — but have strength in numbers. Fixers, who literally repair buildings, can hold their own in combat, and can take over enemy business. And Gangsters, who are the fast moving, hard hitting, well dressed, gun-toting, enforcers.

You build businesses on your available land that can either produce units or money, but not both at once. Each building can be upgraded twice, and lead into higher tiered businesses that produce more money and better units — ie. you can convert workers into fixers or gangsters but higher level businesses produce gangsters instead of workers. You upgrade buildings by installing gadgets from your gadget factory. There are also gadgets with more practical uses like the dog house that will provide a given property with a faithful — if glitchy– hound who will try to defend it.

Low class businesses are things like Soup Kitchens whereas high class business are Night Clubs.

If you’re still having some trouble crushing your enemies then you can hire the Undesirables to apply the hurt-lock by destroying their businesses or stealing their resources. And if your enemies are throwing these low-lives at you then you can bribe the police to aggressively patrol and arrest them. The game is like a giant Rock Paper Scissors game where everyone is trying to buy bigger tools. Just make sure you’ve got enough cash to keep the train going.

 The Gush

I love making a well oiled and self perpetuating machine in games and Mob Rule provides. There comes a moment when your security is tight, your businesses are in order, and you can just crank up the speed on the game. All pretense of micro-management thrown out the window — until that one prick builds a haunted prison and starts haunting your buildings.

Very rarely does the game put a time limit on you. You’re free to fart around as long as you please as long as you’ve got the cash to keep it going. You can build up your businesses and forces as long as you think you have to. With timed sections thrown in to increase the dramatic tension.

The game does a great job at teaching the player neat tricks to get an edge over their enemy especially through the missions. From focusing your gangsters and police at the choke points of your empire, putting buildings near your opponents businesses and letting them burn down and explode, or dumping bodies on your opponents property to inspire the police to raid the business. The game’s missions actually inspire the player to think laterally.

This game is silly as fuck. The 3-D sections and intermission cutscenes are pretty funny. I mean, I always wanted to command a giant, sentient, bipedal, walking cockroach and this game has given me that opportunity.

The animation and design is just totally goofy.

The Kvetch

The mission goals are sometimes poorly defined. About once per campaign I was given a mission where I didn’t know exactly what I needed to do or worse yet, thought I was doing the right thing and either the game wasn’t counting it or I wasn’t doing it correctly. It’s a real pace killer when it happens.

This game cheats. It’s form of difficulty is measured in how much the AI is allowed to cheat. They don’t have to worry about producing people, running out of money, or running out of undesirables. I know this is there to compensate for their AI, they’re not as good as a player, but there’s something unsatisfying about how they and I are not even playing by the same rules.

Sometimes the AI will just crap itself and you suffer because of it. There are plenty of mission scenarios where there’s someone you’re not allowed to attack or a building you’re not allowed to destroy. Sometimes though the AI will just start neglecting this building or character, they get destroyed, and then you lose.  And it happens once every time I play through the campaign so always keep an extra save file around.

A small quibble but sometimes the game doesn’t keep its terms straight is. The Don says that electric lights improve trade but they do nothing but allow you to upgrade your buildings. Sometimes its confusing when a gadget has a different name in the factory and in text that informs which gadgets are required to upgrade buildings.

The Verdict

This game is quite flawed. If the game didn’t catch your attention as soon as you heard about it then it probably won’t. The game is twenty years old and predates common RTS user interface. I’m pretty nostalgic for it so I keep going back but I think the real quality is finding ways to abuse the game and make a perfect machine. It’s 8 dollars on Good Old Games so I recommend it only if you think it sounds cool.

Next Week: Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3

Tetris Attack (Super Nintendo and Gameboy)

Yoshi is just hanging out on Yoshi’s Island, as he does, with all of the — presumably reformed villains– when Bowser — with his incredibly ill defined magical powers — enchants them to become Yoshi’s enemies once again. The spell also creates a torrential downpour that will flood the world — you see what I mean by poorly defined. Yoshi must now defeat his friends in a puzzle game to break the spell. You know what? Just… don’t overthink this, don’t think about it at all actually, it’s a tetris-esque puzzle game. Just play it.

History

Tetris Attack is a game being torn in three directions at once. It started off as Panel De Pon, a game about fairies trying to defeat the Devil King, Thanatos, who casts a spell to make the fairies fight among each other. Only Lip is able to resist the spell thanks to her magical stick — hence the Super Smash item Lip’s Stick. Nintendo knew that a puzzle game about fairies wouldn’t sell well in the states so they changed the graphics and made it about Yoshi and the cast of Yoshi’s island, which had been released earlier in the year. They couldn’t call it Panel De Pon and in order to increase the approachability of the game Nintendo asked Tetris and it’s then CEO, Henk Rogers if they could use the name. He agreed, but looking back on it regrets the decision because this game isn’t like Tetris at all, quote from Rogers, “In retrospect, we should never have done that. I don’t think that’s a good idea. It dilutes the brand”.

Tetris Attack was released on November 28, 1996. It’s competition was Diablo (PC), Twisted Metal 2 (PS1), and Donkey Kong Country 3 (SNES).

Even the walls are happier in Panel de Pon!

Experiences

I can say that as a young child renting video games from Taylor Brook Video I was completely drawn in by a game that was Tetris but HAD ATTACKING! I knew I could play Tetris so I figured I’d be able to play this game, I figured wrong. I couldn’t get very far in the main campaign because I couldn’t figure out how to execute combos or how to organize blocks to eliminate more than three at a time. Like many of these games, I came back when I was in my late teens and was able to finish it. But those unlockable characters would always taunt me, I would never beat very hard mode.

Gameplay

Tetris Attack is… well it works like… I mean, it’s sort of like… and you… nevermind, lemme just show you.

There, that’s how the game works.

The game actually presents a large variety of ways to play the game. There’s endless mode, which is most like actual Tetris. The player plays and accumulates points until they lose. In this mode combos freeze the game so you can get a few seconds of breathing room. There’s puzzle mode which presents the player with a game-state and a certain number of moves. The player’s got to use those moves to eliminated all the blocks. Then there’s VS mode! Where you get to play the campaign style game but against another player. With each player getting the opportunity to adjust their own boards difficulty. And then there’s the main campaign in which you face down 12 computer controlled opponents.

Endless mode also gets larger, more flavorful stages.

The Gush

Once you get into this game it can plunge you into a state of pure flow. It’s not about seeing the blocks, it’s just moving them — I love it. Although when things would get rough I would lose it though, me and my friends would call this, “losing the sight.” One of us would just say, “I’ve lost the sight,” and then they’d soon lose.

The game looks really kiddy, and I mean that in a good way. If the game wasn’t so difficult it would be pure joy. It’s all fluffy and and edgeless until Yoshi reaches The Cave of Wickedness. And come on, how much more punch can you pull calling it the Cave of Wickedness.

Cute overload.

The music in this game is also cutesy and I really like it. It’s not as iconic as Tetris’ A-theme but it suits the puzzling aspects of the game well, even growing more excited as the blocks rise higher. I’m personally fond of Blarg’s, Raphael’s, and Bowser’s theme. I will say though that it’s a little lazy that three bosses all use the same music.

The Kvetch

If you want to unlock the bosses as playable characters then you’d best buckle yourself in for a bumpy ride. You’ve got to beat the game on the hardest difficulty. No, not hard mode. I mean the hardest mode. After you beat Hard mode without using a continue Yoshi says that you’re gonna have to hold up and the L button on the difficulty select screen with Hard highlighted to unlock really freakin’ hard mode. Then you’ve got to beat really freakin’ hard mode without using a continue. Then you’ll unlock the bosses as characters. I just want to play as Kamek because he’s a koopa Wizard.

KOOPA WIZARD! Look at that goddam robe!

A game like this needs the tightest of controls and yet sometimes I feel like the cursor goes further than I mean it to. Maybe I’m just REALLY good at hitting the button quickly but making a misplay can be costly and undoing it takes up valuable time.

The Verdict

You can get the game these days on the WiiU virtual console for eight dollars. It’s a decent enough title but it was really a creature of its time. The big reason I spent my days learning how to play it was because it was the only game I had and I was bored as hell. It’s not a game you and your friends can pick up and play because the handicapping in the VS mode leaves things a little lopsided, and there’s only local multiplayer. You can’t just pick it up and mash buttons like you would be able to in a game like Mortal Combat. The games got a really slow burn and no real focus. I don’t think this game can replace the sheer zen of Tetris but I keep getting drawn back to it every once and awhile. I’m nostalgia blind, and I don’t think I can see past that.

Next Week: Mob Rule

Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition (PC, OSX, Linux)

 

Faerun’s west coast, known as the Sword Coast, is no stranger to peril, war, and upheaval. Far from it, these things love to rear their heads like uninvited guests on a regular basis. The latest trouble is an iron shortage. No problem on its own but the situation is made worse by frequent — one might almost think scheduled– bandit raids on ore shipments. You play as the adopted child of the sage Gorion (Because they needed there to be a reason you could play any race.) living in the library/castle of Candlekeep. Gorion has become more and more agitated of late — even given his humorless and private demeanor. One day he tells you that you must leave Candlekeep behind. With some gold for your equipment you prepare to face the world outside wondering why Gorion is in such a hurry.

History

Baldur’s Gate was developed by Bioware, as a matter of fact it was THE FIRST RPG THEY EVER DEVELOPED — do you like Mass Effect? This is where it all started! And it shows. They also made the Infinity Engine for the game. At this point Bioware was 60 people and they were so green that none of them had released a game by this point. They worked together with Interplay, creators of the Fallout series, because they had experience adapting a role-playing system to a video game and were a veteran company of the time.

Fun fact: Fallout was meant to be based on the GURPS roleplaying system.

Baldur’s Gate was released on December 21st, 1998. It’s competition was Starcraft (PC and N64), Fallout 2 (PC), and Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven.

Experiences

This is a game that demands to be played correctly. It might seem like an open world but that’s an illusion, a dangerous one at that. You CAN play it your way but it’s bound to leave you destitute in the gutter without two gold pieces to rub together. At this point you’ll be pawning your equipment to rest at the inn or try to get enough cash to bring your allies back to life at the local temple. Get a guide or make a plan because it’s the only way to get the stuff you need to adventure properly so you can start taking risks. It’s an utterly merciless experience. But! The Enhanced Edition comes with the benefit of highlighting important areas of your world map. I guess your character has adventurer sense — which almost makes sense in the fiction.

No longer is a fan-made map like this NECESSARY to figure out where to go.

Gameplay

Baldur’s Gate runs on the same rules as 2nd edition Dungeons and Dragons — as such it’s a bit of a confusing mess. What you need to understand is that you want to keep your hit points high and your Armor Class low. Now the dungeon delving is pretty simple; go in to the camp/cave/ruin, kill everything that looks at you funny, and then loot the bodies. The problem is in figuring how to destroy the monsters and, oh yeah, fucking traps. There are goddam traps everywhere — I mean, there are so many traps that I seriously question who built so fucking many and who fronted the money for all these god forsaken lightning bolt spells.

Lightning Bolts are literally hell. They will kill you and your whole party in one go.

It’s your job to create a party of fighters to fight, clerics to heal, rogues to find traps, and wizards to cast spells in the right combination to handle the traps, wizards, ogres, armored thugs, and hoards of gnolls. Unfortunately your party is more likely to be made of the other adventurers that you’ll find and some of these guys don’t generally get along — I thought the paladin and the sadistic murderer would be fast friends!

The Gush

The plot is genuinely compelling, especially for the first time experiencing this sort of story, even if you know nothing about Faerun. When I was playing it as a kid I was reading books in game to figure out more about what was going and — this game got 14 year old me to read fake books. It asks a pile of questions and then drip feeds you answers IF you dig a little.

This game oozes with charming characters. Between Khalid’s anxiety, Erwin’s blatant evil, and Minsc’s pet miniature-giant-space hamster I’m more than content to interact with everyone just to see if they’re cool people. All of these important characters are marvelously voiced and if they start to grate on you just mute ’em.

Behold Minsc and, his adorable companion, Boo

The only Advanced Dungeons and Dragons based game better than Baldur’s Gate I is Baldur’s Gate 2. And it would just be untoward to play the second game before the first. It’s not just untoward, skipping this game will leave you in the dark pretty hard.

The Kvetch

Luck should have nothing to do with whether you complete a quest or not and Baldur’s Gate has got dice role quests. A 50/50 chance between 500 and 2000 experience points based on the roll of the dice is just bad design. There’s not even anything you can do to effect the outcome and it’s just lame.

Almost every fight at the higher levels include a spellcaster, usually of the arcane variety, who will typically cast all of his defensive spells before you even walk through the door. You’ve got no chance to interrupt them and they never seem to run out of spells. I don’t know what level they are but I’m level 8 and they’re casting spells I’ve never scene and that I don’t know how to avoid or overcome.

Ah yes, I remember the days when winning a boss fight meant simply summoning as many skeletons as possible.

For some, plot based but otherwise unexplained reason, if your main character dies they are dead forever and the game is over. Reload from your last save and do it better. As such it’s really fucking hard to play as a wizard or any other class that doesn’t come with buckets and buckets of hit points. It’s possible but it’s an uphill climb on a sheer cliff.

I really wasn’t a fan of the music. It felt dull, repetitive, and undynamic. I eventually started playing my own music and muting it for character dialogue or to read something.

The Verdict

If taking a trip down Second Edition based memory lane sounds like a keen way to spend your time then I recommend giving Baldur’s Gate I, enhanced or not, a look. The game may begin with the illusion of an open world but after a few chapters of linearity it DOES make good on its open world promise. The enhanced edition even has multiplayer so you can play this game with a friend if you don’t want to rely on the less optimal NPCs. I recommend Baldur’s Gate to anyone with an interest in roleplaying games and a firm knowledge of D&D.

Next Week: The Wolf Among Us.

The Twisted Tales of Spike McFang (Super Nintendo)

The vampire kingdom, the zombie kingdom, and the… human(?) kingdom have lived in peace for a long damn time. The Zombie lord Von Hessler has broken this peace, declaring war on both of the other kingdoms. No one can figure out why he’s invading nor can they figure how he’s winning! The vampire lord and lady send their son, Spike McFang, to adventurer camp — you know, where you send the kids for the summer– to get ready for the impending invasion.  When Spike returns his family’s castle has been conquered and he won’t take that lying down. Join spike as he liberates the conquered kingdoms, walks at an awkward pace, spins, and uses magical cards to thwart his enemies.

This fairy riding on a tooth is the instructor of Adventurer Camp. No, it doesn’t make sense in context.

History

The Twisted Tales of Spike McFang was developed by Bullet Proof Software. A company most known for porting Tetris a dozen goddam times — and making the slow, awkward, barf-fest known as Faceball 2000 (but that’s for another day). This game had small differences between the US and Japanese releases. For example Spike no longer fully heals upon leveling up and monsters have more hit points, making the game longer by forcing the player to backtrack and use more items. The shopkeeper’s visual design was also changed.

From a cute girl to a mummy squid thing.

The Twisted Tales of Spike McFang was released in June of 1994. It’s competition was Super Metroid (SNES), Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega Genesis), and Final Fantasy VI (SNES).

Experiences

This game was the one that got away for me. I rented it once when I was a young and impressionable child and loved it — but you know… kids are stupid. I got stuck before I finished the first chapter but that just made me want to beat it more. There was only one word that I remembered from the title, ‘Twist’. Before the internet’s day it was hard to find but as the compilation of useless information grew in size I was able to find the game at last, play it, and finish it. It all went downhill from there.

Gameplay

The Twisted Tales of Spike McFang consists of a Vampire in a blue onesie and a top hat on an isometric plane jumping around and beating up sentient onions and other weird monsters. He can attack by throwing his hat and spinning his cape — but if he spins too man times he’ll lose his balance. Spike also explores dungeons avoiding traps and searching for keys — Legend of Zelda style. Spike can also buy and find cards that can do all sorts of stuff like healing him or helping him deal more damage.

The Gush

The music is pretty good. It’s memorable enough that I still have a few of the tunes rattling around in my noggin — I still remember the Batland theme. The boss theme always got me pumped and ready to dish out some damage — whether that was strictly possible or not.

I don’t know why the world is populated by golems with Easter island heads but I like it. It certainly doesn’t hurt that they’re almost always around to help.

I will admit that I’m a little weirded out by their stony stares.

The Kvetch

I just figured out that there’s a two player mode. It’s only available if Spike has a companion with him, which is only during certain parts of the game. But it’s only unlocked BY PUTTING IN A SECRET FUCKING CODE! It’s not in the manual, no one knew it when I was growing up, no one had even heard of this game. You’ve basically got to buy a cheat book to play with a friend in this game.

Spike’s main attack is his cape spin. It’s incredibly cool but totally impractical. It immobilizes Spike so it’s more than likely that the bosses –as they jump nimbly-bimbly– will knock his fangs out. Spike’s hat throw also immobilizes him but has the benefit of attacking from a range.

That white flash there is the total range of the cape.

The plot, that which it exists, is weak as hell. I’m not really rooting for anyone and the only reason I’m willing to play Spike is because he’s a vampire wearing a top hat and a blue onesie.

When you get to the end of the game you’d best have everything you need because there is no shop and no going back. To boot, the final boss is a tough sonovabitch which almost requires cards to defeat so if you used them all reaching him then you’re in for a tough fight. A fight so tough that I restarted the game and stockpiled cards instead of facing him.

The final area is also a jungle maze. If you go the wrong way you get sent back to the beginning.

Spike’s walking speed and jumping speed are so abysmally slow that you’re probably not going to be able to get out of the way enemy attacks.

There’s a sort of invisible experience point system, when Spike vanquishes an enemy he gets XP and can level up. But all leveling does is increase Spike’s health and damage. With no other features it just leads to a lot of grinding because you gotta stay ahead of the curve.

The Verdict

This game is lame overall. The gameplay is weak, the design promotes unfair difficulty, and the story is nonexistant. I was totally nostalgia blind when I went back to it and I was taken aback at how simple and hollow the experience was. This game is at the same time too short and too long. There’s not enough exporation of the world and at the same time I’m so glad when it’s over. Avoid The Twisted Tales of Spike McFang.

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines (PC)

Have you ever had a nightmare? What was it that was chasing you down the halls of your mind? Was it a vampire, a horde of zombies, maybe a werewolf, the ghost of a bitter relative, the Boogie Man? The World of Darkness is a place where a bad dream of these things would not be ill-founded. A world where all of these monsters are quite real in the modern day — well the jury’s still out on the Boogie Man– and they hide from humanity while preying on it. You play as a newly turned Vampire, thrust into a world of generations old politics, rivalry, and violence in the city of Los Angeles. You’re a pawn in a greater game to the elders, just trying to survive. Fight, feed, use your sweet vampire powers, and figure out what is going on in Bloodlines.

History

Strap yourselves in because this one’s a doozy. Bloodlines was published by Activision and developed by a little studio called Troika Games, development began in 2001. Troika wanted to make a first person RPG, thinking that the genre was going stale, and Activision wanted to make the most of the Vampire license they had acquired from White Wolf in ’98. Development began with 5 developers, 27 others, and no head writer — they wouldn’t get a writer for about 9 months.

And the writer paid off with dialogue like this.

Troika began debating whether to make the game 3D or not. At the time Valve was working on their Source Engine for Half-Life 2. It would be fully 3D and have all the bells and whistles but it wasn’t done yet. Despite it’s incomplete nature Troika gambled on using it. This lead them to finish incomplete sections of code themselves with only Valve to go to for technical support. Because Valve was making Half-Life 2 in the Source Engine, Troika was forced to put off Bloodline’s release until Half-Life 2’s released. Further delaying things, Valve suffered a security breach that lead them to put more security into the engine. Leading Half-Life 2 to delay, which lead Bloodlines to Delay.

The scope of the project continued to grow. Every new system introduced additional models and animations for the characters. Most games have a static 10-20 models whereas Bloodlines had over 150 characters and almost 3000 animations for them put together. Levels were designed and then scrapped. The game planned to launch with a multiplayer mode but that was also scrapped for time. The game’s development dragged for so long that the team put off finalizing things because they didn’t know when the deadline truly would be. Things were further slowed as every decision had to be approved both Activision and White Wolf.

When Activision put their foot down and set a deadline Troika hadn’t even begun testing yet.  Troika also didn’t respect the deadlines because they knew that Activision wouldn’t let this money go to waste. The money Activision offered to finish wasn’t enough to pay the whole team and some employees took pay cuts while others worked for nothing to push the game as close to completion as they could. The game released on November 16th, 2004 in an incomplete, untested, and unpolished state. Creative Director, Jason Anderson said that only 2 months of its 3 year development wasn’t spent in overtime.

It’s competition was Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (PS2), World of Warcraft (PC), and Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (Gamecube, PS2, and XBox)

Experiences

I can’t think of a game that I put more into, from a technical perspective. I can’t think of another game that was so broken that I also refused to abandon. I was playing this game when it chugged on my 1999 Compaq and I gave it another go when I finally upgraded to my next machine. Giddy with anticipation at the bug-fixes that came with the latest patch. Every time I play through it I play as a different clan and keep notice more dialogue differences. I struggle to differentiate between patch added content and stuff I just missed my last time through. Whenever I relate to someone about this game we have completely different experiences from our in game choices and it leads to a, “I wonder what happens if I do this,” marathon.

So many options and I want to see what happens for every one of them.

Gameplay

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines is a first person/third person (your preference) action RPG game. Every vampire is defined by their clan, whether they want to or not. A characters clan determines their attribute points, skill points, and what abilities they can use — wanna dominate someone’s mind? Not as a Toreador you won’t. Every clan has also got a certain strength and a crazy weakness. Some weaknesses are as benign a losing more humanity when they do something untoward to looking like a literal monster like those of the Nosferatu Clan. Every character has feats scores which determine how effective they are at actions. Each of these feats is the sum of the relevant attribute and ability scores.

I.E Strength + Brawl = Unarmed or Dexterity + Security = Lockpicking.

By ancient law and tradition everyone you meet will make you do something before they help you. I’m totally serious on this one, not only is it written into the rules of the table-top that all newbies have to work for the higher ups but they implemented that into the game. And I mean every-fucking-body will tell you to kill someone or find something before they’ll give up the goods.

If you thought no one would send the Mac-10 toting raver on a fetch quest, you’d be wrong.

The real meat of the game is exploring, wandering around, and messing with people’s lives for good or ill. And there’s something brewing in the Heart of LA, something that mixes together all the clans and supernatural into a giant pot that’s at risk to boil over. Naturally as the chose one — or whatever– it’ll lie to you to deal with it.

The Gush

I guess all of that content made but unimplemented paid off eventually because the programming in this game is really robust. Every character will remark on the character’s clan, attributes, and actions. Some things are effected by a characters humanity, preventing them from using their social graces if they grow too inhuman. Playing a Malkavian completely changes the game’s dialogue into nearly indecipherable babble that only makes sense in hindsight.

Complete with talking televisions and arguments with stop signs.

I’ve never played a game where I was more interested in speaking with characters. Usually I troll around, trying to find someone with a quest or something interesting to say but Bloodlines lead me to talk to everyone. Sometimes they would say crazy things, sometimes they would have cryptic hints about the crazy stuff going on, but they always had something interesting to say.

Speaking of characters, the voice acting in this game is really good. With VAs like John DiMaggio, Steve Blum. Phil LaMarr, and Grey Griffin they really knock it out of the park. The performances create characters I come to care about and really want to listen to. Combine this with Brian Mitsoda’s character driven writing and it creates an experience that’s oozing with charm and style.

This is THE White Wolf RPG game, accept no substitutions. There are no other games with the White Wolf license that are better designed or more well known. If you want to play Vampire but can’t get an RP group together, then this game will scratch the itch.

The Haunted Hotel. That is all.

The Kvetch

This game will not run or operate well without an unofficial patch and maybe a few mods. It’s almost absurd to purchase something with the knowledge that it won’t run on purchase but it’s something that comes with Bloodlines. The patches are easy to find and free (And the latest update was on April 20th, 2015) but it means plugging and playing isn’t an option. It’s a wonder to me that the distributor doesn’t just bundle the patch in with the game.

Sometimes the animations and textures are just downright ugly when I don’t think they’re supposed to be. I played a Toreador my first time through and they’re all a bunch of vain art divas so I checked myself out and I looked pretty good — especially for a dead guy. I went to open a lock and BOOM, I’m looking at one of the grossest hands in video game history. Then there are cinematics which include hoodlums shooting recoilless uzis into the air while the most stock sound effects I’ve ever heard for gunfire blast in stereo. It’s rough and blocky and breaks my immersion something fierce.

This game is pretty glitchy and crashy even when it’s been patched. I’ve seen bosses freeze, dialogue get skipped or misfire, and certain quests become broken for completely unknown reasons. This is just the stuff I’ve seen, mind you, there are horror stories out there about glitches in this game.

Unless my character has obfuscate, the power to go invisible, I can’t stealth. I don’t know what’s up with the stealth system but it seems like no matter how many points I cram into it it’s never enough. Normally it’s not a problem but there are some quests that can only be completed stealthily.

The fucking sewers. That is all.

The Verdict

This game has got its ups and downs but as I said, it is THE White Wolf RPG bar none. If you want to play in the Vampire setting or you want a satisfying Vampiric gaming experience in any variety then it’s either this game or nothing. It’s still being patched today and let that be a testament to how good this game is and how much work people are willing to put into it to help it flourish. I would suggest at least grabbing it on sale and then seeing where the night takes you.

Next Week: No Time to Explain

Sacrifice (PC and Mac)

 

In another world there was once a man, a wizard named Eldred. He was not a hero, he was more a villain in truth. Wanting to destroy his enemies he summoned a creature that had a hard time differentiating enemies from everything — perhaps it was a cruel bit of irony as Eldred saw enemies everywhere. In any event Eldred fled across the astral void to another world. This world had five gods vying for power and would appreciate the service of a capable wizard. But… history has a nasty way of repeating itself. Run, cast spells, endure death, and choose your deity wisely in this third person Real Time Strategy game.

History

Sacrifice was made by Shiny Entertainment, the makers of Earthworm Jim and MDK. David Perry directed the project with music by Kevin Manthei and creature design and modelling by Joby-Rome Otero. The total team was around 25 people. Sacrifice also had stellar voice acting. With performances by Brad Garret, Tim Curry, Jennifer Hale, Tony Jay, and Paul Eiding — this game has got a near dream team of talent voicing it.

Sacrifice used the same engine as their previous game, Messiah which drew a lot of fire from expectant fans and people who opposed its religious connotations. These attitudes lead Shiny’s director, Perry, to make Sacrifice in total silence only breaking it months before release to advertise the game.

Sacrifice was released on November 17th, 2000. It’s competition was Megaman Legends 2 (PS1), Banjo Tooie (Nintendo 64). and Tomb Raider Chronicles (PS1 and Dreamcast).

Experiences

When I played through the game I was a goody-lil’-two-shoes 12 year old so naturally I chose to follow Persephone, the goddess of justice– justice spelled in all caps while decapitating something–, because I’m a good guy and that’s what good guys do. I played through the game and beat the big bad and felt accomplished because I saved the day but then I wondered what happens when I play someone else. As it turns out, the story is exactly the same but there’s so much more going on than any individual god is aware of. Playing through every campaign is the only way to get the full story. Some of the events and betrayals and backstabbing blew my mind.

Gameplay

Sacrifice is an odd game. It’s a third person real time strategy game and it’s just as weird as it sounds. Instead of playing an omniscient commander who has full knowledge of the battlefield who orders things around, you play as a spell casting ground commander with no combat capabilities — soooo you’re Gandalf without the swordplay. Every wizard serves one of the five gods of the realm except for a few who are freelancers or mercenaries.

The wizards have such interesting designs and the altars are so spooky.

Wizards can summon creatures, cast spells, and order troops.. A wizard can only produce as many troops as it — and there are some wizards that are ‘its’ and not ‘whos’– has souls. Wizards can purify souls captured from enemies in order to add more souls to their supply and some creatures are worth more souls than others. Contrary to popular adage wizards do not die when they are killed, they are merely rendered incorporeal and incapable of casting spells until they get enough mana shoved back into them. As such the goal of most missions is to desecrate your opponents altar which banishes them from the realm.

The Gush

It should come as no surprise that the voice acting in this game is super good. Tim Curry’s voice is delightfully sleazy while Tony Jay’s is appropriately wise and yet off in some way. Everyone delivers an absolutely amazing performance — except some bit parts and peasants which sound like they were recorded from across the room.

The Good Old Games version of this game comes with a digital version of the manual and each of the sections concerning the gods is written in that deity’s voice. It also includes an abridged history of the world which sheds some light on situations in the game. If you get the game get it through Good Old Games.

The creature design is really great. Even the palette swapped creatures look incredibly different from their counterparts and it’s explained that all the palette swapped creatures are the same creature but raised in a different environment — nice save developers, nice save.

The way the textures slide over things makes everything look alike but not the same.

Everything in this game is oozing with character. From the gods and the wizards with their taunts and incidental dialogue to the creatures and their descriptions and actions in the game.

The Kvetch

There are some situations where I wish so dearly that the wizard had a melee attack. No matter how weak or useless or utterly crappy it would be I wish they could do something besides getting punched in the face. Naturally, wizards have attack spells but the cooldown on them is so long that there’s usually not enough attack spells to go around. What really irks me is that some wizards even have weapons — the Hachimen have a sword — and they make no use of them.

SWING IT! SWING THE SWORD! IT’S RIGHT THERE!

Melee attacking creatures are typically not very good. It stands to reason that they’re meant to take out weaker ranged attackers but enemies can move out of the way and sometimes they do so seemingly out of reflex. The only thing Melee units are really good at is destroying structures but if they’re something guarding it then they’ll usually die before they can rush the gap.

The main mechanic of a real time strategy game is selecting units and ordering them around but the 3D environment makes this really difficult. It’s usually best or easiest to order a unit to guard you or a structure and let them make their own decisions.

This game has got multiplayer but I’ve never been able to get in a game. The community’s probably too small to support a multiplayer atmosphere. So it’s just this bizarre vestigial limb or redundant organ that no longer serves a purpose.

The AI is really predictable and gets easy to counter.

It’s really difficult to select and order units without using control groups. If you don’t keep on top of what creature is where then it’s really difficult to get things in order. The minimap is useless for controlling multiple units because everything on it is just a colored square. Are those my melee guys or my ranged guys? I don’t fucking know they’re all just white dots! This game demanded that I be more organized than ever and it was a real chore.

The Verdict

This game is rock solid. It’s well worth the ten dollar price tag. It’s an experience that wasn’t recreated until Brutal Legend did something similar. It’s got a compelling story and just enough character to keep me wishing there was a sequel.