Raein
1992
A profoundly strange game that touches multiple genres. From SimCity/Civilization style management, to graphic adventure elements, and the real time ship to ship combat, this is one of the most bizarre games to come out of Silmarils' already unique library. The various game elements work well enough here, from performing religious rituals to harness the wind, to customizing your aircraft, as well as sending assassins to eliminate enemy politicians, there's a cornucopia of little tasks to tool around with as you work to destroy your neighbor. Definitely worth a look for fans of multiple genres, but especially those looking for a breath of fresh air.
1992
A decent tile movement based puzzle game, but gets repetitive after a handful of stages.
1992
A generic and simplistic vertical space shooter.
Just as good as its predecessor with a deeper focus on telling a longer story, and relegating the ship battles to being optional which was probably for the best.
It only took about 20 years of attempts, but this was finally a genuinely good Star Trek game. The voice acting and sound design added a wonderful layer of nostalgia to the game which really helped immerse you in the various missions that played out like mini episodes from the original series. While both the ship combat segments and the graphic adventure bits were on the simpler side, they were both serviceable and evoked the spirit of the show properly.
1992
A more streamlined experienced than the first game, but I still think the combat here is awful and many of the immersive gameplay components are rather tedious instead of fun or interesting. That said, the plot kept me more engaged than the first game, and the various species interactions and general dialogue trees were probably the best part of the game.
A unique one-off in SSI's Gold Box series of D&D games. I've never been a fan of Tolkien fantasy in space, so this was always going to be an uphill battle for me, but the scenario isn't the only issue here. The ship to ship combat is clunky and repetitive, while regular combat just devolves into the typical action seen for the last five years of Gold Box games. The visuals aren't much improved here either, and the digitized characters just look dumb against the flat, cartoonish backgrounds. This one is a miss for all, but the diehard D&D fans.
The spellcrafting is a neat idea, but the execution in the game is clunky and dull, and the rest of the game looks and feels like a standard CRPG of the time.
1992
A top down squad based shooter with neat strategy elements baked in with a nice variety of missions to complete.
1992
A Defender derivative in a sense. The gameplay is too simplistic and repetitive to keep your interest for long.
1992
A solid conversion of the board game and technically the first Warhammer 40,000 video game. Great interface, good generic game design with the only annoyance being the random quality of the combat which can cause some extremely annoying and uneven results.
1992
While it's obviously a retooled SimCity, these early simulators from Maxis were so intriguing and unique that each change in theme brought new chances at experimentation. In this case it provides you with ample room to play god with different types of creatures and ecological systems.
Does exactly what it says in the title and does so with a high level of technical accuracy. The only problem is that once you've had your experience, there's very little reason to do it again for most people.
I'll give the heavy use of FMVs a pass here since I can appreciate the novelty of incorporating them into the gameplay, but I've never been a fan of games that veer too far from the core tenet of interactivity. If I want to watch a movie, I'll go watch a movie. If I want to read a book, I'll read a book. I play games to interface with them and spending half your time watching pre-recorded live action footage fails the spirit of the medium. That said, it works decently enough here to convey information for the cases and the acting certainly isn't the worst.
I'll give the heavy use of FMVs a pass here since I can appreciate the novelty of incorporating them into the gameplay, but I've never been a fan of games that veer too far from the core tenet of interactivity. If I want to watch a movie, I'll go watch a movie. If I want to read a book, I'll read a book. I play games to interface with them and spending half your time watching pre-recorded live action footage fails the spirit of the medium. That said, it works decently enough here to convey information for the cases and the acting certainly isn't the worst.