Category: PC Gaming

Об играх

Iron Harvest: Operation Eagle

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date November 26, 2023
No Comments on Iron Harvest: Operation Eagle

Although sometimes I grow tired of a particular game by the time I reach the DLC content, I decided to give the Usonian (USA) campaign a go.
The biggest change is the introduction of aerial units. You can see though, that it’s a DLC, because most of the units are similar for all factions. But US has a few unique ones.

Usonians themselves feel faster than other factions. And their mech infantry doubles up as engineers.

Storytelling continues to be amazing. It’s a bit tongue-in-cheek, with US first “protecting its assets” (oil refineries) on Alaska, at the outbreak of the Revolution in Russia. Then cosplaying Lawrence of Arabia.

Arabia has just two unique units. Hashashins are close-combat ninjas, effective at countering enemy infantry, most of which weak in close combat. And war camels, as funny as they sound, are able to outrange and supress any infantry, and escape any enemy mech. In a game where all the units are slow, a fast unit is a game-changer.

Tags Iron Harvest

PC Gaming

Iron Harvest

Completed Iron Harvest.
Third campaign is dedicated to Saxony. As I mentioned, the storytelling is surprisingly good, so we jump back and forth in the timeline of events.
Saxony has the most interesting unique mech in the game, Brunhilde. Not because it looks like WW1 version of AT-AT, but because it’s the only mech more powerful while facing enemies with its side, due to a broadside row of cannons it has.
Eisenhans are fantastic as well. While mech infantry units of other factions are focused on hand-to-hand combat, Eisenhans are equipped with mortars.
The final mission reminded me of Dawn of War 3, which was a brilliant strategy game… until it wasn’t. Last mission, you end up chasing a triffid out of the War of the Worlds with all six of your heroes. At least this mission is not annoying.
So I consider the penultimate mission to be the best one, seeing how huge mechs duke it out.

Tags Iron Harvest

PC Gaming

Iron Harvest

I’m actually amazed that they implemented an armored train in the game. It moves on tracks, and you need to switch the tracks with infantry, and it also can carry infantry and has a Long Berta like artillery cannon, so it’s actually very useful.
After a few intense campaigns for Polania (Poland), we switch to playing with Rusviet (Russian Empire) forces. But those missions are mostly hero-based, which after you’ve already experienced the more strategical missions is slightly disappointing.
You do get to play one strategy-scale mission with Rusviet, at least. It’s a bit annoying, because there are Tesla Towers (sic) that only one hero can disable, and that destroy everyone else in a couple of shots. So there’s still plenty of micromanagement. But at least you get to experience the Rusviet heaviest mech, Gulyay-Gorod, which is an absolute blast. As well as their version of Katyusha.

Tags Iron Harvest

PC Gaming

Iron Harvest

After failure with Scythe, set in the same universe, I’m surprised how good Iron Harvest is. It resembles Company of Heroes, with it’s squads and cover. But in a fictional World War I setting with mechs.
The visuals are frankly amazing. While trails in deep snow aren’t new, I think it’s the first time I see them in what’s basically an RTS.

Infantry can hide in buildings, and capture heavy equipment, such as machine guns and howitzers.

What’s interesting, they can also switch classes by picking up weapons from the fallen enemies. Kill a squad of machinegunners, and become a squad of machinegunners yourself!

Tags Iron Harvest

PC Gaming

Descent (1994)

Completed Descent.

Out of sheer stubbornness, and my current inability to play anything remotely intellectual.
Pluto Outpost is one map I don’t hate in the bunch of maps after the 16th level or so. It has a nice design of recurring domes, it’s distinct and easy to navigate.
The game has just two bosses, the one on the 7th level which I mentioned, and then the final boss. I can say that I like the first boss, but not the second one. It’s basically the same design of the boss that teleports from place to place, but instead of firing cluster missiles (“smart missiles”, it fires nukes (“mega missiles”). And there seems to be infinite number of mobs teleporting all the time. Including the hitscanners I hate so much, and the bots the lie mines, that just add to the chaos. There are a few invulnerability pickups, but they don’t help much. So I just bruteforced it, as I had 25 lives left.
The ending is that the corporation doesn’t allow you to return because it’s afraid you were infected by the alien virus. Which leads to Descent 2, I guess?

Honestly, I wish I stopped playing after the first boss. The red enemies and the “minigunners” become absolutely annoying at later levels, as does the progressively complicated level design, and the game has very little to offer after that point, besides more enemies placed in every nook. I wouldn’t mind it if the armor drops were more frequent. But they way they are, it’s either save/load or trying to snipe enemies around corners at later levels. Both aren’t fun much.

Tags Descent

PC Gaming

Descent (1994)

Found a secret level. It’s surprisingly useful, as it grants you the Fusion Cannon, the last main weapon. It’s interesting, as this is the only weapon you can charge, but if you overcharge it, it starts to damage you instead. Also, it knocks you back when you fire it.
A problem with the weapons is that out of five weapons, four using the same energy ammo. Vulcan Cannon is the only exception. It’s also the only hitscan weapon you have.

I think the design of all the enemies in the first episode is simply brilliant. It is very distinct. Later enemies: not so much. Some look like a flying dildo.

And it’s not just how they look. They are also very hard to spot, and shoot at you a volley of three rockets. Even if you dodge those, you’ll probably get some damage from the splash. Prepare to die a lot to chip damage.

There are a few fresh ideas on the later levels. None of which is very good. One is the mining robots. Another is that keys are sometimes carried by robots as well.

Tags Descent

PC Gaming

Descent (1994)

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 31, 2023

The original game becomes a jumble of pixels quite often. There’s a source port, though, that addresses that issue:

DXX-Rebirth downloads

Also curious that the original game ran in 320×200 resolution. That’s why some of the DosBox screenshots look a bit off.
Think you haven’t suffered enough? 3rd level introduces a generator of enemies. Luckily it’s not infinite, it seems.
And on the 6th level, a new horrible enemy appears. A hitscanner. Prepare to die to its chip-damage.

The red hulks start apear more often here as well. And their homing missiles are almost impossible to avoid. I thought previously I didn’t know flares existed. But flares seem to have no effect.
7th level seemed easy at first. Until I reached the final room. I vaguely remember playing this game as a kid that there was some kind of invisible boss that shot homing projectiles at you, and I never managed to beat him. But I thought it appeared earlier in the game.

Death is not the end, though. Despite the game having a proper save/load, it also has a lifes systems. After being killed, you respawn at the beginning of the level, having left all your equipment where you died. Kind like MMORPGs. The only downside is that you loose all the hostages, if you picked any.

Tags Descent

PC Gaming

Lack of motivation

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 30, 2023

I got to admit it, these days it’s hard for me to find much motivation to do anything, really, including playing games. That’s why when I play, it’s mostly retro FPS now, that require mechanical skills, but not much thought or feel. I can do mechanical.

PC Gaming

Descent (1994)

Another game I thought impossible as a kid. Mainly because I thought you cannot save in this game. I could read English, so I didn’t know you save using Alt+F2, not simply F2, like in Doom.
Also, nowadays I can play it with a mouse, instead of just a keyboard. Which makes the navigation of the corridors much easier.

It is still a mindbending 3D-maze, I give it that. That vertical ring corridor on the 2nd level is still crazy. And the game is still brutal, with enemies placed behind every door, so they can land a shot on you as you open it, and being every curve. But at least the escape sequence is not so gut-wrenching.

As if just having a boss at the end of each level is not enough, you also need to remember where the exit is, and escape in less than a minute. And will there be enemies waiting for you on your way out? Sure thing.
One thing I couldn’t enjoy is the sarcastic tone of an intro. It is brilliant:

There are secrets in this game, hidden walls and such, but the gam doesn’t keep count of them, unlike Doom. For the completitionists, though, there’s an option to rescue hostages on each level.

Tags Descent

PC Gaming

Mega City Police

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 23, 2023

Completed my first run of Mega City Police, with an Engineer. It’s a nice game, it really is. Except the final boss, I’d say, that can one-shot you if you’re not careful. Unlike many other roguelikes, like Hades or Hammerwatch, where after each run you can upgrade your stats somehow, there isn’t much persistent progress, though.

Tags Mega City Police

PC Gaming

Outlaws

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 21, 2023

Completed Outlaws.

I planned to play this game for such a long time. After all, I greatly enjoyed Dark Forces, and I just finished Doom and Doom 2 without save/loading much. But this game is such a disappointment.
It has this mechanics of manually reloading your weapons bullet by bullet. But this is badly animated. Forgive Me Father had a similar lacking animation, but there I believe it was more a matter of style. But that’s not the real problem. The real problem is the shooting. Enemies can finish you in one or two shots. And since your weapons aren’t very accurate, you don’t have much health, and there are a lot of enemies, you end up dying a lot. And I mean a lot. The “Official Strategy Guide” even proposed to always crouch and corner snipe your enemies. Fun!
The game problems become even more apparent once you get the scope. It allows you to snipe out enemies alright, which for ’98 is quite something. But your bullets won’t fly where you want them through. Sometimes they would pass straight through an enemy, despite you having your crosshair right at him, while other times, you’ll kill an enemy right away, although your bullet should have been nowhere near.
Every level ends up abruptly with a cutscene, as you kill the next outlaw. The problem is, they are very hard to distinguish. And if you didn’t find all the secrets on that level – though luck!
The only two spectacular things about that game are the cutscenes and the music. The music is a clear homage to Spaghetti Westerns, and while the cutscenes mostly show you the death of your current enemy, and the appearance of the next one, at least they add some character to what otherways would be a subpar shooter.
The Sawmill is probably one of the worst levels I’ve seen since Redneck Rampage. They tried to implement a trolley puzzle, where you need to change tracks in order to find all the gears. But instead of tracks it’s a water stream, with a current. So you have to shoot the switches, with a janky shooting controls. Absolute disaster. I mean, the Mine is also bad, a multi-level maze with some not-obvious jumps. But I still think that Sawmill is worse.
Can’t believe this is a game from the same people that worked on Dark Forces. Who thought that having three different shotguns is a good idea? Speaking of Dark Forces, I’m surprised that the authors went back to the key mechanics. “Find a bronze key, open a door, find the silver key…”. I mean, they got it right previously, and now they ruined it. Whoever puts a key in the back of a warehouse?!
Now, let’s talk about the final level. For some reason, the authors decided to make it a “capture level”, that is, a level where you get capture and therefore start barehanded. But that’s not the issue. Nor is the issue that you need to shoot a haystack rope multiple times: there’s a slight visual queue of rope fraying, but not enough. Fair.
There’s a tile in the library. You need to step on it. And it opens a bookcase, which closes after a few seconds. And inside that bookcase there is a unlit fireplace, which you need to interact with to open a hidden passage behind another fireplace in the library. That’s it. That’s the problem. Had to check with the guide this once, because I was pretty damn sure some script bugged on me, or I need to blow something up with a dynamite.
And you get the final weapon, Gatling Gun, just before the boss. There are literally half a dozen enemies you can use this weapon on. Gatling is interesting, because with it, you cannot move at all. And you also can’t reload it. Once you run out of ammo, that’s it.

Tags Outlaws

PC Gaming

Borderlands 3

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 19, 2023

Gave Borderlands 3 a try.
Gunman class is… interesting. I mean, you start your game with a shabby pistol like everyone else, but then you can also summon a mech with minigun and a railgun to waste everyone, from the get-go. Character design is clearly stolen from Tank Girl, and mechanics are from Overwatch, but that’s besides the point.
After two hours, though, I still felt bored to death.

Tags Borderlands

PC Gaming

Heretic

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 17, 2023

I decided to give Heretic a go as well, since I never played it properly. It’s an interesting experience after Doom.

First of all, there are a lot of enemies. And I mean a lot. I think Civvie11 mentioned that in his retrospective, but a rare Doom map has over 100 enemies. In Heretic, every map has more than that. I don’t know if it’s an attempt to make the game harder/longer, or maybe they had more resources, or put those Tomes of Power to good use. But you get tired of killing all of them. What’s more, unlike Doom maps, that are quite “abstract”, Heretic maps have more of a “hub” design. That means all those monsters come at you at the same time, from different directions.
I didn’t notice previously that although you have inventory, not all items are persisted between levels. Seems like you can carry just one Tome of Power, and no Wings. Probably that was an attempt to balance the game.
Probably one of the biggest disappointments in the first episode is the fact that there are just 4 weapons available. Which is as boring as playing the entire first episode of Doom without a rocket launcher.

Interesting that the first episode of Doom put two Barons of Hell as the end bosses. And Heretic puts two Iron Liches. Speaking of which, the whirlwind attack that raises you is a neat trick. As well as the “explosive barrels” that can be moved on that level.

Tags Heretic

PC Gaming

Doom Eternal

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 15, 2023

Completed Doom Eternal.
In the end, I got into it. Even managed to collect all secrets, including assembling Unmaykr, the new version of BFG (taken from Brutal Doom?)
Khan Maykr is a trick boss in a trick game. I’m happy they added a few unique bosses, but still, it just shows how the entire game is build around very particular way of playing. You can damage the shields with any weapon, thanks at least for that. But then you need to pull yourself using the shotgun’s hook, and to punch her with the blood fist. And do that six times. What’s more, the only way to replenish your ammo is to headshoot infinite drones. As I said, a trick game.
Marauder is the one most annoying enemy in the entire game, because it’s the only enemy that has that repeated counter mechanic.
Icon of Sin is a great reimagining of the Doom 2 finale. But it’s also a complete chaos, with the screen flashing and shaking so much I could hardly understand what’s going on.

The game is a still a beautiful single-player shooter, quite rare. But they did try to milk it all the way, didn’t they? The online features are so annoying that I had to block the game in firewall to avoid them. And all the hints Samuel gives you are behind a paywall of two DLCs.

Tags Doom

PC Gaming

Doom (1993)

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 15, 2023

Completed Doom.
I don’t plan to play the extra episode, as I read it was mostly just bunch of levels hastily put together.
Third episode is even more hellishly designed than the 2nd one. But then some secrets are sometimes just doors. Not really a secret, are you?
My problem is that if I don’t play one game after the other, I forget the experience. But if I do, I get tired of it by the end. So, I got tired of hunting all the secrets without a guide in this last episode. First, because on House of Pain the door script got stuck, so I had to use IDCLIP cheat, but it annoyed me.
And then the secret in Mt. Erebus where you need to basically do a rocketjump in order to get in is ridiculous as well:

The secret level is fun, though. It starts same as the first level of this episode, but then there’s again that “fake exit” moment, and you need to fight a cyberdemon and backtrack to the start of the level.

Final boss battle isn’t particularly hard, but for two factors. It has a hitscan attack, so you’re constantly getting some chip damage. And there are no healing items on that level. Only later I discovered it takes just 2 shots from BFG to take it down.

Tags Doom

PC Gaming

Doom (1993)

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 11, 2023

Second episode is rather tight on ammo. Barons of Hell are now regular enemies. And there are also Cacodemons. And you get the plasmagun. So, there’s a bit more variety.

But the level design is somewhat hellish, with mazes for the sake of mazes, and endless amount of crates. Crate mazes:

And there are again some one-time-secrets. Containment Area is especially nightmarish in this sense.
“Halls of the Damned” is funny, because they added a false exit, that is actually a trap.
The cyberdemon was first introduced as the boss for the second episode as well. Which is a lot of investment, to have that huge sprite just for a boss. And as a kid playing from a keyboard, I would have been scared shitless by that. Although now it’s such an easy fight on a large arena with a lot of pillars for cover.

Tags Doom

PC Gaming

Mega City Police

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 11, 2023

Twin stick looter-shooter with permadeath, with strong 80s vibes.

The heroes are all vaguely based on the cyberpunk action heroes of that era: you can recognize Judge Dredd, Robocop and probably a few others.

We’ve seen this in Broforce and recent Huntdown. The twin-stick part is pretty self-explanatory by now. Game plays a lot like Hades, in the sense that you have randomly generated arenas, and after a fixed number of arenas you get to fight the boss. And if you die: you start from the beginning.

Everything drops weapons. And there are more than 100 of those, of different varieties and rarities. You can carry multiple weapons and multiple types of ammo, unlike some other games that force you to discard the previously picked arm.

Tags Mega City Police

PC Gaming

Doom (1993)

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 10, 2023

After my success with Doom 2, I decided to give Doom a try, since I never actually finished it. When I was a kid, I started with Doom 2.

It is definitely slower paced. But also it’s secrets structure is crazy. Consider the 3rd level of the 1st episode, Toxin Refinery. You find the yellow key, but you don’t need it to exit the level. Instead, the yellow door is behind a secret.
One element that I like more in Doom is how they show you progress on a map:

The first episode is rather boring. There are just a few weapons: shotgun, chaingun, rocket launcher. And only a few enemies. Two barons of hell are the final boss.

Tags Doom

PC Gaming

Doom Eternal

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 10, 2023

It’s a very weird design decision to first pit you against a boss, and then immediately throw you against two weaker versions of the same boss.
Also, those Purple Levels, whatever they’re called, pit you against enemies that you haven’t yet even met before. One pits you against two cyberdemons at the same time. This one was brutal. Then there’s a later one, that is mostly soldiers.
I don’t like the episodes where the researchers worship the Doomguy. But I’m glad that they didn’t try to voice him, and how his actions always show impatience: in cutscenes, he pushes every triggers multiple times until the turret fires. That’s a nice detail.

I’d be honest, the entire BFG episode made me smile, and like the game a bit more. The whole concept of Doomguy without asking anyone blowing a hole in Mars, then catapulting himself through that hole is hilarious, and so over the top it hits the tone perfectly.

Tags Doom

PC Gaming

Doom 2

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 8, 2023

Completed Doom 2.

“Citadel” has this feeling of abstract art. It’s not that you absolutely couldn’t build something resembling the real world with the Doom Engine. The creators of Doom 2 just didn’t want that.

“Gotcha”, the level where you’re pitten against Cyberdemon and giant spider at the same time, almost “got me”, as that last secret was super hard to find.

Turned out to be a hidden door near one of the teleporters in the winding tower.
And following “Nirvana” felt like someone didn’t have enough time to finish it properly. There are no secrets on that level, and you can literally pass through blue bars without the blue key.

I thought I remember that “Monster Condo” level had some kind of a crazy secret. And it actually does! In has a room that’s open only for the first 30 seconds of the level.
Interesting how in the pre-final level, Living End, you can just run past the final Cyberdemon.
When I was a kid, I thought that the final level is just a phylosophical message, neverending wave of demons. Once you know where you need to shoot, though, it isn’t that hard. That, and the mouselook.

Speaking of which, it’s easy to say how brilliant I am now, compared to how I was struggling with this game as a kid. But it’s important to remember that now, with the GZDoom, the game looks like this:

As a kid, the game looked like this:

And I was playing it on a shitty monitor, so it was even more blurry and dark and distorted. And I didn’t know about the Doom engines limitations, like the fact there are no rooms above rooms. And there was no mouselook, of course. Just arrow keys, and the strafe was on Alt.

Tags Doom