There was a time when a game did not need a huge open world, dozens of progression systems or cinematic presentation to make an impression. Alien Breed was one of those series that made an Amiga screen feel surprisingly dangerous, filling relatively simple environments with hostile aliens, limited resources and an almost constant sense that the next corridor could go badly wrong. Alien Breed 35th Anniversary Collection brings the six Amiga-era entries together in one package, covering everything from the original top-down shooter through to Alien Breed 3D II: The Killing Grounds. Antstream has clearly approached the collection as a piece of game preservation rather than simply throwing six old games into a menu, adding modern controls, save states, visual options, multiplayer features and an extensive interactive archive. The result is an unusually thoughtful historical package, although the games themselves inevitably reveal just how much game design has changed over the past three and a half decades. Continue reading “Alien Breed 35th Anniversary Collection review (PS5)”
Category: Classic
SiN Reloaded review
SiN was always an interesting case. Released in 1998, Ritual Entertainment’s shooter arrived with plenty of ambition, attempting to combine the fast-paced action associated with Quake-era FPS games with more elaborate interaction, branching objectives and a greater sense of place. Unfortunately, it was released only days before Half-Life and consequently struggled to receive the attention its ideas deserved – and the same can be said for when SiN Episodes stopped after a single episode. Almost three decades later, Nightdive Studios has brought the original game back with SiN Reloaded, a remaster that adds modern conveniences without attempting to disguise the age of its underlying design. The result is an unusual mix of genuinely forward-thinking ideas and unmistakably late-’90s game design, making it as much a piece of FPS history as it is a modernized shooter. Continue reading “SiN Reloaded review”
Thief: The Dark Project Remastered preview (Gamescom)
Thief: The Dark Project was already doing things differently when it first arrived in 1998. At a time when first-person games were largely concerned with shooting everything that moved, Looking Glass Studios built an experience around avoiding attention, manipulating light and sound, and finding your own way through complex environments. Nearly three decades later, Nightdive Studios is bringing the influential stealth game to modern hardware with Thief: The Dark Project Remastered. Based on an early PC build, this remaster certainly looks sharper than the original, but it is clear that Nightdive is more interested in preserving what made Garrett’s first adventure distinctive than turning it into something it was never meant to be. Continue reading “Thief: The Dark Project Remastered preview (Gamescom)”
Disney/Pixar Toy Story: Retro Roundup! preview (Gamescom)
There is something inherently appealing about revisiting licensed games that were once everywhere and have since largely disappeared from the conversation. Disney/Pixar Toy Story: Retro Roundup! is built around exactly that idea, bringing together a sizeable selection of Toy Story games from the 1990s and early 2000s, including several different versions of the same titles. With Digital Eclipse handling the collection, however, this is intended to be more than a straightforward exercise in putting old ROMs on a modern platform. During Gamescom, we got a closer look at the PC version and discovered a collection that appears to be just as interested in preserving the history surrounding these games as it is in making them playable again. Continue reading “Disney/Pixar Toy Story: Retro Roundup! preview (Gamescom)”
Defender of the Crown: The Legend Returns review (PS5)
Defender of the Crown: The Legend Returns is an interesting attempt to bring one of the more distinctive strategy games of the Amiga and Atari ST era into the modern age without completely sanding away what made it unusual in the first place. Originally released in 1986, the game put players in the role of a medieval lord attempting to unify England through territorial conquest, military management and a collection of arcade-like diversions. Forty years later, Black Tower Basement has approached that formula from three different angles: the largely preserved Retro mode, the substantially more accessible Classic mode and the completely new Kingdom mode. That makes this less of a straightforward remaster than it initially appears, although the quality and relevance of those three approaches vary considerably. Continue reading “Defender of the Crown: The Legend Returns review (PS5)”