Good Old PC Games: PRE 2003

[jcj94]

Okay, my game for this, then the rules.

Strike that, Reverse it.

Rules: Game MUST have been made BEFORE the year 2003
The game does NOT have to be Freeware
The game does NOT have to be particularly fun to members of other genre's.
Sell it to us how it got sold to you, i.e. if you like certain features, point those out, and please, be fair when pointing out the bugs.


OUTPOST 2

So in this game, your the commander of one of 2 Colonies on the planet of New Terra. You can choose to be the overly science dependent baddy of the game, Eden, or the planet loving 'we'll tough it out' good guys, Plymouth. Depending on which colony you chose, you'll follow one of two linear story lines, each with separate endings. Eventually, each colony goes to war, and for Eden, they flee from 'The Blight', a parasitic bio-germ that they create to terraform the planet into a new earth. Plymouth just flees from the Volcanic flows and earthquakes being emitted from the bio-weapons waking of the tectonic plates. Eventually, you get shoved into a closer and closer area, and end up battling it out. At this point, I sincerely hoped you picked Eden and researched (yes, you actually have to do REAL research, not star-craft style either) the Thors Hammer weapon and Tiger chasis. These will make you absolutely invincible to everything but Plymouth's Spider units and EMP Missiles. However, the gameplay is NOT simple and you DON'T Just order units around. Instead, you sitting in command ensuring that your people don't starve to death, your units are repaired, your buildings have power, that you have enough Common and Rare ore to support your building habits ( Eden being the resource hog), and that your people are happy. Oh, did I forget to mention that you have to have a nursery and a University to get children and workers, then use the university to train scientists. There are several forms of resources in the game. The list including Power, Morale, Food, Workers, Scientists, Children (to turn into workers, which, in turn, are trained into scientists), Common Ore, Rare Ore, and Research, which by itself isn't a real resource, but you need it to improve the rate at which you get a lot of these resources. This game was not designed to be easy, and even some of the veteran players cheat a little at times, cutting corners where necessary. You also have, in the Outpost2.net release/ fix of the game (because lord forbid you actually find the game in a store somewhere anymore, yay freeware), multilayer that functions somewhat well. Somewhat well being that you need both your friends IP and no routers, or Hamachi to do a virtual server. Downsides about the game, well, the AI is bloody retarded, and the sneak mechanic really only works well against blind or stupid multiplayer or AI players. Other then that, and the fact that the game is from 1996, its not half bad.

 

[Savagezion]

Side Note: OP, you really should check out Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri if you haven't already. There is also an SMAC mod for Civilization 4 called Planetfall that is pretty good if you want something a bit more graphically up to date. However, the game I will mention is the predecessor.

Civilization

Most of the games from back in that time, I didn't have sold to me, but instead I ran across them. About the only one I was "sold" was Civilization on the SNES. I played a lot of Simulation games like Sim City and Theme Park. I liked having a library of games where I built something along side my games where I destroyed anything anything that moved or anything the game let me all in the name of saving the world or something. Rob, my "video game guy" at "my video game store" at the time told me all about Civilization and that I needed to get it because I would start back at the beginning of mankind and found a nation. I would lead this nation through time having to orchestrate multiple cities into an empire and appease the mases, all while balancing diplomacy. It wasn't as simple as risk world domination either. You could win that way, but you could also win by being the first into space, or by simply having the best empire (score) by 2050 or something. This combined both of my game genres into one and I officially owned my first strategy title which soon became one of my favorite genres.

 

[Neverhoodian]

Tie Fighter (1994) is quite possibly the best Star Wars game ever made bar KOTOR. The sequel to the critically acclaimed X-Wing (1993), Tie Fighter was the first Star Wars game that had the player fighting for the Galactic Empire. Throughout the course of seven campaigns (and three more in the expansions), you embark on various missions to crush Rebel resistance, eliminate pirate scum, and thwart acts of treachery by power-hungry Imperial admirals.

Gameplay manages to toe a fine line between accessibility and depth. While the game allows you to blow through the missions with invincibility and unlimited ammo, you'd be cheating yourself of the true experience and challenge of properly managing your starfighter. Basically, your ship's power plant can only do so much, requiring frequent adjustments to its power levels. Need more firepower? You'll have to either drain your shield and/or engine output. Have to get to a location quickly? Dump your laser and shield energy into the engines. Need a quick shield boost (assuming your ship has them)? You'll have to sacrifice firepower and/or speed. The rapidly-changing circumstances of each battle means you'll be constantly on your toes juggling energy outputs. Fortunately there's hotkeys for some of the more common layouts.

Upon starting your first campaign, you quickly realize that accolades in the Empire are earned, not given. This is hammered home by the first ship you have to fly, the standard Tie Fighter. It's essentially a lightly armed tin can that explodes if a Rebel fighter so much as sneezes at it. If you manage to survive your early missions, you gradually begin flying slightly better ships, such as the fast and nimble Tie Interceptor and the shielded (but slow) Assault Gunboat. Eventually you'll impress your commanders enough that they'll start letting you fly the latest and greatest designs, like the Tie Advanced and the fearsome Tie Defender (to say nothing of the warhead-tastic Assault Missleboat). These cutting-edge ships are truly a joy to pilot, as they can fly circles around any Rebel starfighter.

One of my favorite things about Tie Fighter is how it introduces "shades of grey" morality into what was a very "black and white" setting. It's the only Star Wars game I can think of where you play from the perspective of the "bad guys" the entire way through without switching sides. Rather than being viewed as a tyrannical regime, the Empire is cast in a more sympathetic light as being guardians of order and justice in the galaxy. The Rebels on the other hand are portrayed as lawless anarchists seeking to spread chaos wherever they go. It's a surprisingly compelling approach that makes me see the Star Wars films in a slightly different light. I find myself wondering if the Tie Fighter pilot that crashed into the asteroid while chasing the Millennium Falcon had a family, or if the buddies of Stormtrooper #83 will have a memorial for him after Leia shot him in the chest.

You also realize that the Empire is more fragile than it lets on. Practically the entire second act of the game revolves around stopping rogue Imperial admirals who cause severe damage to the Empire's military infrastructure with their traitorous fleets (and of course the Rebels try to capitalize on this). Hell, one of them even manages to

Spoiler

kidnap the Emperor, and it's up to you to stop him.

In short, it's a game with great gameplay, an immersive story, and it even manages to explore some relatively complex issues of morality. Even people who don't particularly like Star Wars should at least give it a look.