Every once in a while, I have this urge to take a break from cs/sc and delve into some epic single player games. But its unfortunate that I never end up finishing them due to lost interest. I will blame the deteriorating quality in games and not my short attention span.
Anyways.. when I have this urge, I go googling for all kinds of games that arnt mainstream. You know, those games that end up in the shelf of some used book store. Most of them end up being terrible but the hidden gems are definintely there.
I will list some games I've come across (both well known and obscure).
Fallout series - I played the 2nd one. This series is popular for a reason. Gameplay is top notch. The freedom it gives the player is amazing. It might have been a little too much freedom for me though, because I lost interest after san francisco (getting imba guns with some tricks).
Neverwinter nights - Again, great game for rpg fans. I thoguht I was an rpg fan, but these days I get tired of reading so much text lol. I quit a third way through maybe.
Planscape torment - Haha, I couldnt play this game past the beginning cell that you are in. Too much reading and random clicking to find some wrench...
Space rangers 2 - Now here is a game that held my interest til the end. Its a fun as hell space adventure game. It has the same basic principles as most space games like diff alien races, trading, bounty hunting missions, etc. It has a great battle system that kept me interested, and I was always eager to find better weap drops from killed ships. Also, there is a decent RTS minigame when you try to liberate a planet. Another minigame exist inside wormholes. Your attack in the minigame changes as you equip different weaps on the ship prior to entering the wormhole.
Master of Orion II - Epic Epic game. Space rangers 2 got me into the space genre, and I stumbled upon this masterpiecee. Its the OG of games like Galactic civ. This differs from space rangers 2 in taht you dont control one ship, but a generalCant really describe the awesomeness, you just have to try this. I think its abandonware now?
Advent Rising - This was a pretty interesting game. Its a fast paced FPS game. The story was cowritten by Orson Scott Card (enders game. Overall, the game keeps a nice pace and isnt too drawn out. It was developed to be the first of a trilogy, but the game didnt do so well and ended up being dropped. Its still a good game, so might wana give it a try.
Throne of Darkness - This game is so lol. Its a diablo clone set in fuedal japan. Unlike diablo, you aquire 7 characters from the first mission. You can use up to 4 at a time and can switch them out anytime you want. You end up switching them out alot, which takes some micro because your chars get hurt FAST and the only practical way to heal them is to send them back to heal (chars only recharge when they are not in active party). Inventory management is a nightmare since all 7 characters will end up picking up various drops. This game might seem so wierd at first, but once you get the hang of it, its very playable. Just remember to pay special attention to wizard because that fucker cannot lvl up worth a damn until lvl 12 or something (get lava ring!). I may get back to this game someday, but right now I ditched it for
Freelancer - Space adventure in the same vein as space rangers 2. Its in 3d however. Not the zomg amazing graphics of today, but 2003 3D. Graphics are not bad at all though, and gameplay is what really counts right? Missions tend to get repetitive as fuck (go there and kill this), but combat doesnt get dull, and its fast paced. Oh and if you end up playing this, get the discovery mod which supposedly adds alot of content without disrupting the original feel of the game.
Games I'm interested in but didnt play yet(mainly due to antique computer):
Dawn of Magic, Mass effect, The Witcher, X3: Reunion, The bard's tale, Darkstar One.
Please share your opinions about any single player games that captivated you in the past o.O
I will end the post with this review of X3:Reunion.
Mass Effect engaged me a lot more than NWN, even though it probably has twice as much text/dialogue. I just couldn't get "in" to the NwN storyline, though I did finish one of the expansions and several user mods (most are better than the game itself). Apparently the sequel has now been patched to the point of playable, but I haven't played it yet.
Continuing the Bioware theme, I love Knights of the Old Republic. Great story, engaging characters and lightsabers. I had fun. The sequel's okay, if not incredibly buggy.
Oblivion was another game that I really couldn't get into that much. I'm not really sure why, but I didn't find it as jawdroppingly amazing as many other people have.
I'm a bit curious about the Witcher, so hopefully someone here has played it and can give some feedback.
I suffer from the same thing that you do, getting bored because of my constant engagement in the multiplayer experience, but Max Payne is a game (both 1 and 2) that I could get through and that I actually wanted to finish. It's super fun, you like shooters obviously, and it has a really nice feel to it. The storyline is awesome as well. Definitely play through them if you haven't yet.
Also, the single player campaign in Dungeon Siege 1 is awesome. Imagine Diablo 2 on steroids. A very similar feel with some awesome added extras. I am about to go through Dungeon Siege 2 myself.
If you appreciate DOS games, try Death Rally for racing, and Bolo for IMPOSSIBLE hardness in a simple puzzle game. Definitely 2 classics right there.
X3 is really good, lots of stuff to do... though it's really hard to start off since you get like no money, a crappy ship with crappy guns and crappy shields, and you don't have any rep... so you can't buy anything, pretty much. There are a few tricks to get set up and start making some money, and once you have a fairly steady income you can start making more money and eventually get yourself into decent stuff. Lots of micromanaging your freighters and stuff for a while, though, and combat isn't super awesome until you get some better stuff and can hunt tougher targets.
I absolutely hated The Witcher and couldn't even get past the first real chapter. My biggest complaint with the game was that the conversations were stilted. If you asked questions out of order, the characters would often act surprised to learn things they already knew, ask questions they already knew the answers to, etc. Even if you went through dialogue options sequentially, it seemed like all the lines were recorded independently of each other and with no emotion. The combat was exceptionally weak, and the game contained quests that even MMORPG designers would have rejected for being too boring. Apparently it has a good story, but good luck getting to it.
Mass Effect, on the other hand, was very good and definitely worth playing.
Gothic I & II -great setting, some good quest that can be done in diferent way (mostly in G2), 3rd person view, combat system based on timing attacks/blocking in the right moment. Game is not ridiculously easy like oblivion where you could kill everything from start.
I'm so annoyed they haven't made a sequel for Advent Rising yet. Biggest cliffhanger of any video game ever.
Like it's not really even a god damn ending it's like a 3 parter TV show, it ends right when something interesting happens. ARGH D: Anyway, I think the problem is the people who made the game don't own the rights to it and the people who own the rights to it are just sitting on them -.-
I'm actually playing Darkstar one right now.. it's, I dunno. It seems to be getting better but the characters/story started off just a liiiiiiiiiittle cheesy and the ship is kinda boring in the beginning (but as I said, it seems to be picking up steam ).
As for other fun single player games, well, if you like squad based tactical games you *have* to get UFO: Enemy Unknown, the first of the X-Com games. Brilliant game tbh!
Deus Ex was fun, although if you are crazy like me you'll end up reloading 500 times because you decided hey, I'm gonna go through this game killing as few people as possible (which lead to me doing several retakes cause stunning people with the prod can be difficult :D).
Escape Velocity Nova is pretty fun, it's kinda like freelancer/darkstar one etc but in 2D. It DOES have cheesy storylines (yes, there are a ton of them) IMO but fun all the same.
The White Chamber - short point and click adventure game with amaaaaaaazing atmosphere, I *LOVE* this game. So sosososo good. It's sort of a horror/sci-fi setting, very very very well worth playing. And hey, it's free! http://www.studiotrophis.com/site/home
Bioshock is totally worth buying if you can run it. Awesome atmosphere, pretty interesting story and characters (but I don't like the ending), fun gameplay. Very, very good game IMO.
Currently playing F.E.A.R and fuck me if the first mission isn't awesomely scary haha (I thought the first level in Bioshock, when you are exiting the bathosphere or whatever they call it, was suuuuuuper scary too btw, just the first 2 minutes of it). Anyway, game seems pretty good so far but I'm not very far in.
1213 is a sweet, semi-short, free platformer~ish game, http://reloaded.org/download/1213/171/ Very nice storyline and pretty good gameplay (although the controls CAN be frustrating when jumping over gaps and shit), old school graphics but I like 'em.
Deus Ex is THE best single player rpg/fps you'll ever play. Try it. Now. Just don't quit at the first two missions or so. They are quite boring compared to the rest of the game.
Morrowind (there's quite a bit of text/lore/background etc. but reading it is optional), Thief series, Bioshock, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Deus Ex, Jagged Alliance 2, NWN 2, Dawn of War.
If you like horror games then check out F.E.A.R. and System Shock 2.
These are my standard recommendations. Normally I also include BG and PS:T but you have to read quite a bit there.
On July 09 2008 14:58 Quesadilla wrote: Dude, straight up - Max Payne.
I suffer from the same thing that you do, getting bored because of my constant engagement in the multiplayer experience, but Max Payne is a game (both 1 and 2) that I could get through and that I actually wanted to finish. It's super fun, you like shooters obviously, and it has a really nice feel to it. The storyline is awesome as well. Definitely play through them if you haven't yet.
I only played to Max Payne 2 but i have to agree, it is THE 3third person shooter on PC ( first game to use the bullet-time i guess) and the ambience is awesome ( very dark / depressing ), i really liked the "dream levels" for example.
On July 09 2008 14:58 Quesadilla wrote: Also, the single player campaign in Dungeon Siege 1 is awesome. Imagine Diablo 2 on steroids. A very similar feel with some awesome added extras. I am about to go through Dungeon Siege 2 myself.
On the contrary i really disliked Dungeon siege. It was one of my worst experience in video gaming. I played it a lot during two days because i expected the story to improve. But it didnt, so i stopped to play this game. Gameplay is 10X worse than diablo 2, and design is as bad or maybe worse. Dull is the perfect adjective for this game imo.
Now about that the two games i enjoyed the most:
Baldur's Gate 1+2: Arguably the greatest RPG, i'm playing a bit Planescape Torment at the moment, and now i understand why i liked BG so much. I think it has a perfect balance between dialogs / fights, i think that Torment is too talkative and incredibly easy, moreover the fights are boring imo. ( nevertheless i havent completed Torment, i was bored so i did a break, maybe it become harder after the underground part )
Baldur's Gate even normal difficulty mode is a real challenge for a new player, not only because he wont know where to find the best items but also because you can find some really dangerous opponents really fast if you arent cautious. The storyline is also awesome, but i have a slightly preference in BG1 story, because when you start the game, you know nothing about your character, and that made me really eager to know why that Big guy in armor killed my father.
Deus EX: Another example of a game close to the perfection for me. Awesome music and story, some really cool characters, and the gameplay as Frozenarbiter said is so versatile that you can play this game in many different ways ( you can avoid to kill people and use stealth, you can try to hack computers and bots or you can play like a "standart" FPS ).
On July 09 2008 18:29 Boblion wrote: On the contrary i really disliked Dungeon siege. It was one of my worst experience in video gaming. I played it a lot during two days because i expected the story to improve. But it didnt, so i stopped to play this game. Gameplay is 10X worse than diablo 2, and design is as bad or maybe worse. Dull is the perfect adjective for this game imo.
Duller than Diablo is impossible. :p I liked DS 2. Didn't play DS 1, but 2 is/was certainly a fun game for playing through it once. Only redeeming point for Diablo 2 is that it's so simple that you can play it with casual gamer friends at any time. But this is about single player, so... DS 2 > D2.
Baldur's Gate 1+2: Arguably the greatest RPG, i'm playing a bit Planescape Torment at the moment, and now i understand why i liked BG so much. I think it has a perfect balance between dialogs / fights, i think that Torment is too talkative and incredibly easy, moreover the fights are boring imo. ( nevertheless i havent completed Torment, i was bored so i did a break, maybe it become harder after the underground part )
Torment is never hard... it's really all about the story, characters and immersion. Combat is like a fun addition to the game, not really an obstacle and certainly not what you're busy with most of the time. You should finish the underground ASAP, you'll find something... interesting in the Drowned Nations Catacombs. When I found that, I was really hooked and excited about finding out more. If you didn't meet Many-as-One or the Silent King yet, that's also fun...
EPT
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