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[El Quia]

Isn't CD Access already discounted? O_o

[red_avatar]

Originally Posted by Acethor

So you are saying that the copies sold at purplus were taken from a bundle? We should discount the whole site altogether?

I made a topic in the Staff forum. Nearly ALL their cheap games are from collections. I have bought many collections in the past and at least half of them are taken from collections. You know as well as I do that selling separately is illegal. The boxed copies are sold at ludicrous prices as well.

Anyway, dibs on Thunderscape and Entomorph.

In fact, I'll write a review for Thunderscape right now (I got a rip and CD version).

[red_avatar]

Originally Posted by El Quia

Isn't CD Access already discounted? O_o

Yes, CD Access was discounted for similar reasons - selling shady games. Any source that can't follow the rules should be discounted I believe. Why count a source that is selling unpackaged games?

[Acethor]

Hmmm... I guess you may be right about this. We'll see what others think

[red_avatar]

Originally Posted by Acethor

Hmmm... I guess you may be right about this. We'll see what others think

Take a look in the topic in staff - you can reply there . And I'm 99.999% sure I'm right so you can take it that they ARE selling those games 'illegally' by splitting them up. The argument to be had is whether we discount stores that do this or not. In any case, I think we should definitely discount the games themselves since we can hardly say they're selling legal copies.

[red_avatar]

Review: (WIP)

If you had entered a store in the mid 90s and seen the box of Thunderscape among other games, the colourful and powerful cover art may have caught your attention. But if you had decided to buy the game, you'd have discovered that, unlike the cover, the actual game is far from colourful. If you asked people to visually describe Thunderscape, they'd reply with "dark" and "brown". And yes, it IS very dark. Really dark. Really really dark. When you first start the game, the darkness and browness of it all may even overwhelm you but persevere and you will uncover quite a decent game.

Thunderscape was part of the generation of "new" RPGs which let you turn 360° and walk in any direction i.e. it had a 3D engine. More so than its rivals, it really used this engine, as well: you had caves in mountains, bridges, elevators, stairs, ramps, etc. As good as this may sound, the inability to easily look around made it a burden at times - falling off cliffs and getting lost were two unpleasant consequences. Luckily, the game gives you an automap to navigate!

The game itself is quite standard: very similar to the old grid-based RPGs like Eye of the Beholder, it requires you to create a party (you can pick up new members along the way as well) which includes archers, mages, fighters, etc. When you encounter monsters, your party members take turns hitting them. It's all very predictable. You can also buy and sell gear in stores you find along the way, and the rest of the time is spent exploring, killing and solving puzzles.

These puzzles can be pretty tricky as well. Unlike the usual "pull lever, push button" puzzles, you were given ... riddles! And unlike modern games, you're not given multiple answers, oh no. You got to TYPE the answer. Can't solve the riddle? Whoops, you're stuck. This happened to my friend on any number of occasions when he bought the game. Of course, thanks to the wonderful invention called the Internet, this is no longer a big issue, but it's still a rather poor decision considering not all gamers mastered the English language so well as to be able to solve remarkably hard puzzles (and often ones that had several potential answers that fit).

So, thus far we have a very dark and brown world, standard combat and devious puzzles. So does the game have a saving grace of some kind? Well, yes. What I didn't mention, is that the dark atmosphere works! As dark as the game may be, and as depressing it may be to some, there's a strange symbiosis between this darkness and the game's music (which uses CD-audio). Just like its 'sequel' Entomorph, the atmosphere of the game is vastly boosted thanks to the power of the CD-ROM. It makes the dark game come alive and actually makes it enjoyable!

Still, don't expect too much of this game. It didn't get great reviews back in 1995 for a reason and while it doesn't really make any critical mistakes, there's just not enough to really get you hooked. If they had focussed on adding more diverse locations, it may have worked a great deal better but the repetitive world really does not help. Got to love the music though!

3/5

[rabadi]

Well, Entomorph is already in the ISO Cellar. Of course it will be great if a review can be put up, along with good instructions on how to install and play the game. After all the troubleshooting here, I am still having trouble with it. In the end I resorted to playing it in Linux under Wine.