great soundtrack – Klardendum

O tempora: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty – Master Collection Version

24/03/2025 24/03/2025

O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

For the longest time I’ve considered Metal Gear Solid 2 to be my favorite entry in the series, from the mechanical perspective. Not the most popular opinion, to say the least, given how much controversy surrounded MGS2 and how much more beloved MGS3 usually is. But in many ways, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty was the final evolution of what Metal Gear was up until that point and a glimpse into what it turned into for the next couple of entries. And because of how much I liked that simpler stealth action approach of the earlier titles, it was very nice to see the idea taken to its logical conclusion. Still, it’s been decades since I’ve played the game so I was a bit worried if I will like it again, as it did before. I did. But it definitely didn’t age as well as I’ve remembered.

Few notes on: Videogame music 2024

19/03/2025 19/03/2025

Fourth year of me writing about wonderful soundtracks in gaming while listening to Ukrainian Air Force protecting my life from russian missiles and killer drones behind the windows. I’m starting to get slightly angry at games that include air raid sirens in their soundscape, which is somewhat funny, but also a bit sad.

But speaking of games like that, Silent Hill 2 remake from last year is not even going to be included in the list because the original had a better soundtrack and was included last time. Plus, Akira Yamaoka composed one of his best soundtracks last year for a different game you will find listed. Anyways, as usual, I am listing the games and their soundtracks that I’ve played or re-played since the last time I’ve done this type of an article last year. This time it was about the same amount of new titles and re-releases. And while re-releases do win in numbers, a few of the new games had soundtracks that are bound to become instant classics.

O tempora: Metal Gear Solid – Master Collection Version

13/03/2025 13/03/2025

O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

Geez, when was the last time I played Metal Gear Solid?.. It’s been at least 20 years. This is a bit strange, because out of the entire franchise, I always had the warmest feelings towards the first two MGS entries. Apart from MGR: Revengeance, of course. Last time I’ve played MGS1 was with the interesting but flawed PC port of the game that is still available on GOG… but I’ll speak on the different versions of the game later. The main reason I’ve decided that it was finally time to replay a classic was the release of Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Volume 1. Yes, it has been released back in 2023, but the original release was highly flawed, so I’ve waited for some time for it to get patched and it seems like the game included in it are at their potential best by this point. So it was time. And Metal Gear Solid, originally released in 1998, is still really cool but also far more flawed then I have remembered.

O tempora: Clock Tower: Rewind

03/03/2025 03/03/2025

O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

Discussing Clock Tower is a bit strange. On one hand, the original game is still incredible in many ways and at the time was highly influential. On the other – it never figured out how to become a franchise, despite 3 further attempts. The latest entry in the franchise was released back in 2002, but several other attempts to re-create the experience were made since then… only for all of them to mostly fail as well.

Clock Tower: Rewind is the first official international release of that inventive original game. And it’s a mixed bag of a release, with a lot of good and some very bad.

O tempora: Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered

15/02/2025 15/02/2025

O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

Legacy of Kain has been one of the most important franchises for me personally. While it has not been a series I replayed very often, unlike a lot of survival horror classics, it has remained a benchmark of worldbuilding, character writing and storytelling. The incredible work Silicon Knights did when creating the world of Nosgoth for Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain still holds up. As do the stunning writing and cutscene direction of Amy Hennig and her team with later entries, as Crystal Dynamics became the owners of the franchise. There has been only one dud in the main series (Blood Omen 2), and even that game had its moments. Franchise consistently had incredible music, some of the best voice acting in games and one of the most cleverly written storylines… That to this day remains unfinished. Legacy of Kain: Defiance, the final “proper” entry in the series was released in 2003 and was an ending, but not the ending to the incredible tale started in 1996. And since then only cancelled projects, including some incredibly misguided ones, followed. By now, with almost all of the original team spread across the industry (or sadly not among the living) getting a sequel is not just unlikely but may even be preferable. The industry is too different and Legacy of Kain requires a strong vision and choices that development studios and especially publishers would simply not risk to make.

So, given that getting no future games in this wonderful franchise might be the best outcome possible, let’s look at its past with the recently released Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered.

Happy about: Sonic X Shadow Generations

06/02/2025 06/02/2025

Sonic Generations from 2011 was a solid game, elevated by the almost consistent failures of other entries in the Sonic franchise. As despite some positivity with Sonic Colours and even early positive reactions to Sonic 4: Episode I (which became quite disliked in retrospect), Sonic as a series was in a pretty bad spot. In 2024 the situation has changed quite a lot as while there’s still a lot of criticism directed to first party developed Sonic titles, fans finally got some great entries as well – Sonic Mania (2017) possibly being the biggest highlight. Sonic X Shadow Generations is an expanded and enhanced version of Sonic Generations that contains the original game with some updates and changes and a completely new game called Shadow Generations. And as such, it provides a look at what people called a good Sonic game in 2011 and what might be considered a good Sonic game in 2024.

Thoughts on: Sorry We’re Closed

31/01/2025 31/01/2025

With the wave of true classic survival horror revival that’s been happening over the past five or so years, I’ve always been more excited about games that don’t just copy the existing formula but try to do something different with it. Yet, most of the attempts at doing that so far have been quite poor, usually due to the relative inexperience of the developers preventing them from realizing their big ambitious ideas. Sorry We’re Closed gets very close to doing things well. But it doesn’t stick the landing.

O tempora: Half-Life 2 (20th Anniversary)

18/01/2025 18/01/2025

O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

For how influential, important and beloved Half-Life 2 is, I always struggled replaying it. I’d start, go through several opening chapters in a blink of an eye, loving every second of it and then stop somewhere in the middle of Ravenholm or right after. I dunno, the original Half-Life, despite also having weaker segments, always felt more exciting to me overall… Not that I disliked HL2 – I still felt that it was a great game, just, not quite as good as the first one. Which is funny, because at the same time I did love Episode Two a lot and even though it had horrible grindy achievements, first game to add them back in the day, I did all of them.

Except, it’s been around 14 years since I’ve played them last time. And after revisiting the original Half-Life with its expansions and later the fan remake Black Mesa, I was meaning to revisit the sequel as well. What stopped me was the state of the game – HL2 has been somewhat broken for years, having lots of visual issues and some logic bugs too. In 2023 Valve has brought a fantastic update to the original Half-Life, which got me excited about the possibility of getting the same treatment for Half-Life 2. And now that the 20th Anniversary update is out, I’ve decided to finally revisit the game and both Episodes, as they are now part of the same package.

Disapprove: Final Fantasy XVI (with DLCs)

12/01/2025 12/01/2025

As I was going though Final Fantasy XVI, struggling not to fall asleep, I kept asking myself – how could this happen? How did they manage to make a game that has genuinely good writing and premise, yet such a boring story? How did they finally nail the mix of hack and slash and turn-based combat in Final Fantasy VII Remake only to then go back to the Final Fantasy XV combat and make it even more uninteresting? How did they make a game with so much potential to be fresh and exciting to be so much of a slog to play? Yet I continued my playthrough, as I always do with Final Fantasy games, and wondered if the game will end up being something that can be recommended or not.

In love with: Slitterhead

02/01/2025 02/01/2025

Right from its initial announcement, Slitterhead was promising to be something special. The first title from a new studio formed by some of the key personnel who previously headed the original Silent Hill, the Siren series and Gravity Rush series had very little chance of being a “typical” game. I expected it to be at least a little bit jank and sometimes frustrating – and it is, – but I also expected to be amazed and excited. And I was. So while I can safely assume, Slitterhead might not “click” with a large amount of players, it is something to be experienced nonetheless.

Read more“In love with: Slitterhead”