Unfortunately, I've never played the Genesis or SNES versions. They look fairly typical for early turned-based console strategy games, but I've heard the pace is pretty slow. Then again, my introduction to strategy games involved Command and Conquer: Red Alert, WarCraft II, and StarCraft, so I tend to hold a very high standard for the rest of the genre.
Strategy games need to be smooth and fast because a lot of things are happening on the field at once. Often, they're best played on the PC, when you can use a mouse and keyboard.
Sorry for the length of this post. I always feel the need to complete a write-up about the games I add to the collection in case anyone else is interested in them. If you're not in the mood to read it all, just skip along and look for the titles in bold.
I received some more packages in the mail today, including one that was apparently held up in a sort facility for a week. While I was talking about Silent Hill 2, I mentioned that there was a GameCube game that reached for the same sense of psychological dread. The game in question is
Eternal Darkness, and it arrived today with a free strategy guide included.
The premise of Eternal Darkness is that an ancient evil has been unleashed, and the main character Alex must solve a mystery that links the death of her grandfather to a cursed book with a terrible history. The plot (which spans over two millennia) taps into supernatural themes, and to accentuate the weirdness of the narrative, the game will often play psychological tricks on the player. You'll hear noises, like chains jingling or children crying, and you'll see strange things happen to the main character or the environment. Some of the effects break the fourth wall: the game may occasionally notify the player that his or her memory card has been wiped clean, or that the controller has come unplugged (while getting mauled by zombies). The camera will sometimes flip over, or the screen will go black. All these tricks are related to the "Sanity meter," which drops whenever the character comes in contact with enemies or other hazards. The meter can be kept in check throughout the game by using magic spells or killing enemies, but I will admit that insanity is such an important part of the experience that it'd be a shame to get through the entire game without seeing strange things happen.
The rest of the games are for the PlayStation 2. First on the list is
Grand Theft Auto 3. We're all familiar with the game, I'm sure, and I know quite well that GTA3 innovated the genre that (along with the FPS) contributed to the eventual decline of modern gaming. But in 2001, the game was fresh. It's addicting to travel around the city and cause mayhem. The controls are tight and responsive, which is a must-have for any action game. (I think current-gen sandbox games tend to have clumsier controls.) The next game is
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Movie-to-game adaptations aren't always smooth, but EA hammered out a good effort for The Two Towers, which corresponds to the movie and book of the same title. My brother and I completed the majority of this game in Virginia, and I can remember unlocking bonus interviews with the cast. The interviews were just as fun to watch as the game was to play! Maybe I'll try to unlock them again on my own memory card.
Many people will point to the Ratchet & Clank series as one of Sony's staple franchises, but given my newcomer status to the PS2, I've never had the chance to play the games until now. So, I picked up
Ratchet: Deadlocked after hearing good reviews. Most likely I'll work my way backwards through the series and try to get a taste for the full spectrum. Next on the list is a title that Capcom originally drafted to be a Resident Evil game, but it became a project and a franchise of its own.
Devil May Cry is a hack-and-slash action game starring the famous sword- and gun-wielding protagonist Dante. I don't have much experience with the game, but I played the demo years ago and liked what I saw. Following the dark aesthetic of Devil May Cry is the next game on my list:
Twisted Metal Black. Though Twisted Metal is a fairly dark franchise, Black is by far the most sinister of all Twisted Metal games I've played. The gameplay is still similar to earlier titles, but the plot and characters are just
twisted. Aptly named, right?
I was excited to expand my Metal Gear library with two essential PS2 titles:
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. In MGS2, you learn how Solid Snake is caught up in a conspiracy going all the way up to the President of the United States. In MGS3, you control Solid Snake's ancestor in the jungles of (presumably) Southeast Asia during the Cold War. Since Metal Gear Solid, it has been know that Solid Snake is the descendant of a "super soldier." So, it's cool to have a chance to control this super soldier in his most famous battles. Last game in the haul is a joint effort by Square-Enix and Disney:
Kingdom Hearts. The game is essentially a combination of Square-Enix's game design with Disney's enchanted art style, and it's a fantastic pairing. I've heard it referred to as an action RPG game, so I'm really looking forward to giving it a try. I got it for a good bargain, actually, so on the off-chance that I don't like the game, it won't be a total loss.
I'm finding the best thing about PS2 collecting is that the complete-in-box games are quite inexpensive; most of the games sold very well, so rarity is usually not a factor. A lot of the games from my haul were as low as $0.75 USD apiece, and the highest I've spent so far on a single PS2 game was a little over $10. Most games fell into the $1 to $2 range, so it's fairly easy to rack up a quick collection without spending a lot of money. I think in general, more money went to shipping than the games themselves, but I deliberately sought out sellers who offered combined shipping at reduced rates. By the way, there are still three games left in the haul. So, more on them when they arrive.