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Titan Quest (2006)
Atmospheric Game with worthy Extensions, but it is a little to repetitive for most players.
Titan Quest is a Game that can be fully understood by the first play through. You run around in ancient, mythological times and kill monsters. I have something like a special bond to this games, because i used to play it when i was 10 years old. It never really revolved around gameplay for me. I was just interested in the world, the design of the monsters and the atmospheres, created by great music and settings. And it excelled at that.
Many dont understand the magic of this game and thats ok. The Gameplay can be very repetitive. The principle underlying TQ does not change over the course of the game. You beat up Monsters, get stronger with more EP, you beat up bigger Monsters, get even sronger. Die at several occasions ... And so on.
However it has a great replay-value because of the Skill System. There are many "Mastery", that allows the player to use various kinds of magic attacks. Every character can have two Masteries at once. There are countless combinations -- I used to play with "Defence" and "Warfare".
It makes sense to rate each Campaign separately:
1) Greece (Basic Game) -- My Score: 9,5 / 10
2) Egypt (Basic Game) -- My Score: 6,5 / 10
3) Orient (Basic Game) -- My Score: 8,5 / 10
4) Hades (Immortal Thrones Expansions) -- My Score: 8 / 10
5) The North (Ragnarök Expansion) -- My Score: 9,5 /10
For me, the North was the only Expansion to TQ, i consider to be "perfect". It captures the magic of the old games, adds new things. Finally a campaign revolves around northern mythologies (greatly missed in the Basic Games imo).
6) Atlantis (Atlantis Expansion) -- My Score: 6 / 10
Atlantis is the third expansion and the one i was most keen to play. After all the Developers have the most freedom to create something, because mythological wise the City of Atlas is mostly a unwritten page. The sad Thing is, it is not a fully grown Expansion, just a bunch of new maps and a collections of side quests in them.
This DLC suffers from three weakpoints:
i) It is to short. Ragnarok and Immortal Thrones was, if i had to guess, probably three times as big. The Maps are smaller, Exploration is faster.
Ii) The Maps and Levels are way to linear. Backtracing was a integral Part of the Titan Quest Series. In here the Maps are almost like a straight line.
Iii) The story is not coherent and elements of foreshadowing would have been appreciated. Better Writing would have been a great addition to the game. I know TQ is not well known because of the story. But the other Part had a story, that was much more fun to follow. Here you find Atlantis and when you are there, a new antagonist is suddenly there -- Spoiler: A fourth Telkin shows up. There is however no connection what so ever to the earlier story lines. That was a little frustrating. At the end the Story didnt really told the backstory of Atlantis.
7) The East (Eternal Embers) -- Didnt played it yet.
Outer Wilds (2019)
One in a Million Game
Rapidly became one of my all time favorites (maybe even Top 2)
This Game has a cartoony charme like Spore had back in the day without being cheap or ridicioulos. And it does what i expected from "No mans sky", what said game could not live up to: It has a fresh perspective on the universe and tells it in a way that reignites my fascination with space, science and the obscure/unknown.
Pros:
+ Exploration ist the core of Outer Wilds. Great gameplay that revolves around gathering information about the world -- not about collecting stuff or loot or Experience. You learn about the world and that alone is the progress in the game.
+ Dense atmosphere, the score is perfection and fits every situation brilliantly.
+ world is so memorable, that you never run out of ideas, what you could try next.
+ many other things regarding the gameplay-elements and story i cannot talk about because of spoilers.
+ absolutely fascinating world design.
+ Twists and Turns, every piece matters.
Cons:
- Once its finished, it is hard to experience it like you did when everything was new :)
It is a beatiful scifi Story that includes many phenomena (like Comets, Supernovae, Time-Travel, Quantum-Objects) in a creative way. May not be the most realistic game regarding Space an Space travel -- but then again it does not aim to do so ( for instance: Planets in here are a kilometer or so in diameter. That is not realistic at all, of course.) If you understand a little bit about physics it will come as a surprise, that the creators included many things.
Yes it is stripped down, cartoony and stylized. But how they are using these thing to tell a connected story is brillant.
And the end is as great as it can be. In the middle of the game i was worried, that it promised too much. But no, it does not dissappoint.
It is very hard to describe the quality of the game without spoiling the experience. I think one has to play it in order to understand why this is such a special thing.
The sad thing is there may never be another game like Outer Wilds.
Obduction (2016)
Underappriciated Adventue Game
May contain mild spoiler (depends on how sensitive the reader is)
Obduction is a slow but atmospheric game. Very original and intriguing story.
It can be a bit hard to understand the backround story at first because the only bits one get are through books and notes of ingame characters and through environmental storytelling, latter is very confusing in the beginning. That being said, once the central idea behind the story is communicated to the player, much more suddenly makes sense. It does not get boring after that, quite the opposite, because if you wander through the worlds, you will make more and more connections. Things you registred and didnt understand at first, suddenly shine in a new light ...
The pros:
+ Game design and environments are of a mystical beauty.
+ The plot is original.
+ It is very satisfing to finally solve a puzzle.
+ Mechanics do not get too repetitive, riddles are hard but not unsolvable.
+ There arent really "fail-states" in the game beside obvious ones. So it is possible to get things strait afertwards.
+ Connections in the world(s), world building and almost everything regarding the story is mostly very good.
The cons:
- Frustrating controlls: Even if you solved a puzzle, it can be very hard to put in the solution in the mechanic.
- The End: Story ends rather abruptly, i was expecting a chapter more to it.
- Backtracking and going from Place A to B to A to C and to B again can be mildly annoying.
The comparison to the myst series is obvious, since they are from the same developer. But Obduction is not a new Mystgame. It has in my Opinion a very different philosophy behind it, some simliarities are undeniable there though. What Obduction shows is that the people behind Cyan are still capable of creating a fantastical setting and a well thougt out world.
My conclusion: It is a great experience but not a perfect game.