Unlike what you might hear out there, this game is not dated at all. Proof being that there are games being made on the same structure (albeit with a tutorial) and still get to be indie hits (ATOM, Underail etc) enjoyed by a wider audience.

To avoid any anoyance while trying to play this game, consult with the pcgamingwiki page for the latest way to wriggle past any technical issues, for the actual tutorial read the PDF or printed manual, because that's where the tutorial is for this game (there is no in-game tutorial whatsoever).

But yeah, with the caveats out of the way, this is a gem, a true pre baldur's gate CRPG that stood defiantly against its own publisher and the videogame market of its own time. Make no mistake this is a game about strife and was made on an enviroment that is weirdly comparable to what you see in the game.

The game is short, for a rpg, getting close to 30h on a full run with most side content done (not counting for all special random encounters). The thing here is how tight it feels, everything leads to something, with it's mysteries being very rewarding to uncover, it is a sad game, with the dark humor reliving some of the pains you can feel while playing it. Good stuff! Play it before watching any spoilers.

Blizzard had a deal to make a Warhammer 40k RTS that fell through the gutter, they said fuck it and made a copyright-dodging facsimile of the same setting with many of it's original iconography still intact, that's where starcraft came from.

The game is good, but simple, probably is greatest complexity is the 3 faction structure that makes all of them seem exotic in comparisson to one another. But the deal here is that that complexity is explored very well on a solid narritive campaign spread through 3 acts, one for each faction.

Although it is more famous for it's modding scene nowdays, the main campaign is worth you time, even if it becomes repetitive to the end of it's narrative run, with nothing other than "destroy your enemie's base" type missions with just more stuff to blow up.

Nostalgia can blind just about anybody that played it back when it launched, so it is safe to say that the story isn't realy all that special, with so many film references that you can actually number in the hundreds the ammount of stuff that was borrowed outright from other media material.

So yeah, good, but only for the RTS afficionados that are by themselves a dying breed in the videogaming community.

This game is like watching a K-drama with a third world war setting, has the potential to make you cry and is beautifully scored. On top of that asthetic of war and geopolitical chaos, therein lies some of the best designed mission structure to date. The actual hands-on gameplay is simple; you fly a plane that can shoot way more ammo and missiles than anything remotely real, but narrative and mission structure are so interwooven, that, even though you may be doing the same actions, they FEEL very different.

Good characters, relatable struggles and SO MUCH DIALOGUE, you might actually miss much that is happening your first time through it since you'll be shooting so much stuff you won't be paying attention to what is happening on the radio.

If you are iliterate and can't read or understand dialogue, this action game is not for you.