*Really* Classic Games

[stormlord]

Originally Posted by Aenor [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

This:

http://www.gog.com/game/darklands

One of the greatest games ever made before Everquest. I still think the combat system in this game is revolutionary. You control four characters and you hit space to pause, give those characters orders (i.e. click on a place for them to move to or an enemy to attack), then unpause and the combat happened in real time.

I'm not sure if this was the first game that moved from stupid turn-based combat like Pool of Radiance (you move your character across the screen while everybody else is frozen in time, then once your turn is done, you sit there motionless while each NPC moves one at a time) to real time/simultaneous. But it's the game I remember it for. So it incorporated real strategy because if your wizard was about to get attacked by some plate-clad enemies, you needed to move him back and get your mele character in the way.

It's not open world ... you move about cities through dialog screens and only go into the 2D isometric view during combat. This was a DOS game. Old school. Yes, I'm old. Fuck you. I had a Commodore 64.

According to the description on GOG:

One of “The Greatest Games Of All Time” according to Gamespot®.

Yes, easily.

After Darklands, the next major game for me was Myth II: Soulblighter. This game took the concept of real time action and giving orders to your troops and expanded it to a small army. The game's realistic physics combined with one of the best game soundtracks ever plus voice acting to make it extremely immersive. If you put your archers on top of a hill to fire down on your enemies, their range is greatly expanded. When the enemies close, your have your archers run like hell and move up the ground troops. Fucking phenomenal game lovingly updated and preserved here:

http://projectmagma.net/what/

I'm going through GOG looking for a game to buy, something I missed (which isn't hard because I never bought a lot of games, just found a few that I liked and played the shit out of them). Torchlight looks pretty cool as does Gothic. Mount and Blade looks fun but it has so few votes. Recommendations?

I played darklands years ago and recently bought it on GoG. It's definitely open world, in terms of you being able to do choose your own path. There's a story, but I never followed it. The main story is like a big quest added onto a open world game and how you do it, given you observe the mechanics, is your own choice. In fact, many things happen during the game which're not predestined, and you can influence what happens by your actions. I remember reading a post about all the things which can happen on their own and being impressed - it's almost like a sim.

I have Myth The Fallen Lords from like 1940 but have never been able to get into it. It's a very tactical game and maybe even strategic, as far as I know. How you win can be non-linear. Thing I didn't like is the game is campaign-based. It has no skirmish mode. I typically only like these games if htey have a random map skirmish mode. It's mainly a combat sim with some story tacked onto, far as I can tell. You play through a campaign and the game is over unless you play online or try to win it in a new way. Like you say, its sequel and itself both sport great physics.

A game I recently got on GoG (for like $4) and is also fairly new (~2010) with good gfx:
http://www.gog.com/game/risen

Risen is linear somewhat but also kind of open world too. It's semi-sandbox. It has very good gfx. Compared to Gothic 1 and 2, it has lost the epic open world, but it's very much a more modern game. Combat is hard at first. The real beauty is the game keeps a lot of the npc behavior in Gothic games. It also has that "realistic" feel absent in some games. The game really tries to imprint on you the notion you're in another world, not playing a game.

Risen reminds me of another good old-but-recent rpg:
http://www.gog.com/game/the_witcher

Some games I didn't get around to buying, but may someday:
http://www.gog.com/game/silent_storm_gold
http://www.gog.com/game/icewind_dale_complete
http://www.gog.com/game/starflight_1_2
http://www.gog.com/game/pirates_gold_plus
http://www.gog.com/game/master_of_magic
http://www.gog.com/game/realms_of_arkania_1_2
http://www.gog.com/game/arx_fatalis
http://www.gog.com/game/the_temple_of_elemental_evil
http://www.gog.com/game/earth_2150_trilogy
http://www.gog.com/game/master_of_magic
http://www.gog.com/game/commandos_2_3

Some newer ones offered on gog:
http://www.gog.com/game/faster_than_light
http://www.gog.com/game/star_wolves#
http://www.gog.com/game/inquisitor