O tempora – Page 3

O tempora: The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay and Assault on Dark Athena

16/01/2023 28/06/2023

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

I’ve replayed The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, in its PC “Developer’s Cut” release, back in 2004-2005 quite a few times. At the time and to this day, this game felt like an experience unlike anything else. Being an action adventure with stealth, quests, FPS, multiple solutions to problems, constantly changing situations it wasn’t quite an “immersive sim”, yet it wasn’t just a simple action adventure either. And I’d say that ever since then, the only other game that attempted to be something as varied and unique was The Darkness, a game also from Starbreeze Studios released 3 years after EfBB. A lot of the members from this team later went to form MachineGames that started with something more unique, the game being Wolfenstein: The New Order, but even that title has never been quite as varied as EfBB and all of their follow ups have been more and more primitive and generic.

The game was a critical success, remains to this day an example of how good tie-in games can be (this title was released to coincide with The Chronicles of Riddick movie) and in 2009 an extended version/sequel was released – Assault on Dark Athena. This new release contained almost the entirety of Escape from Butcher Bay content, but now on the updated engine and with some tweaks and rebalancing, and an expansion-sequel campaign that was about 2/3 the size of the original game. It wasn’t received as warmly, later had several strange attempts at digital release, including the DRM-Free GOG version which I’ve bought back in the day and replayed right now, but now it remains completely unavailable for purchase digitally. And since I’ve not played this game ever since 2009, I was curious to see just how much my opinion on it might change today.

O tempora: Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth

18/10/2022 01/07/2023

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

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth has always been janky. Released in 2005 on the original Xbox and half a year later on PC it looked outdated, it had tons of problems and was ridiculously hard at moments. Nonetheless, it was also beloved by many despite its issues, because it created a genuinely fantastic atmosphere and was full of memorable moments and ideas unlike anything else in videogames. I liked the game when it got released, but always dreaded returning to it due to countless frustrating elements it had. But it was the time to finally take the dive and see how the game feels in 2022.

O tempora: Final Fantasy VII

05/10/2022 05/10/2022

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

After revisiting the first 6 entries in the franchise due to fantastic Pixel Remaster re-releases, I decided that it was finally time to revisit the PlayStation 1 era of Final Fantasy. Starting with the game that is incredibly influential and possibly still most famous and successful entry in the series – Final Fantasy VII.

Thing about FFVII is that while it has been my introduction to the series, as it had been to many, it was still years after it originally launched and after the experience with other jRPGs. And my original copy of the game was used with a highly scratched disc, so I had to postpone the completion of the game several times because my PS1 would occasionally stop reading the disc correctly and freezing during scene changes. It wasn’t the best possible experience and for a long time I thought it was the main reason why I didn’t care about this title as much as many others do. But upon revisiting it again, I have to say that FFVII is just not quite my thing, even if I got to like it far more this time. I can’t say the experience with the current PC version is pleasant, however.

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O tempora: Red Faction and Red Faction II

23/09/2022 23/09/2022

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

It has been a very long time since I’ve played Red Faction last time. So much so that I’ve actually remembered the game being about twice longer than it actually is. Luckily, it isn’t and it still plays surprisingly well. With the help of a few mods, this title is still quite exciting. Unlike its sequel, but we’ll get to that.

O tempora: Chrono Trigger (the PC port)

11/09/2022 16/01/2023

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

Chrono Trigger doesn’t need an introduction. If you’ve ever been interested in jRPGs, you’ve heard of it. If you’re not interested in jRPGs, I’m sure you are aware of it anyway. It is often called to be one of the greatest videogames of all time and, in my opinion, that title is rightfully deserved. And while I will continue on talking about what makes the game so great, I’ll spoil it right away – absolutely worth playing, fantastic soundtrack, great characters, exciting story, 10 out of 10 would time travel again.

But there’s a catch. For whatever reason, ever since its original release in 1995 on SNES, it has never gotten a re-release that a game of this greatness truly deserves. And this current PC port, despite numerous updates that fixed most game breaking issues, remains a rather poor, yet somehow the only, way to get and play the game nowadays.

O tempora: Blade of Darkness

17/08/2022 17/08/2022

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

Back when Demon’s Souls was first released internationally (which is already almost 13 years ago), I, among some others, compared the game to Blade of Darkness. Because at the time, that title from 2001 (also known as Severance: Blade of Darkness internationally) was the benchmark of hack and slash action adventure games with a more “methodical” approach to adventuring and really “meaty” combat. Now that Blade of Darkness have been re-released with some much needed quality of life improvements, it’s interesting to revisit the title again and see just how much of it still holds up and how much of it hasn’t aged well.

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O tempora: Final Fantasy VI (Pixel Remaster)

28/03/2022 28/03/2022

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

Well, the Pixel Remaster journey ends with Final Fantasy VI. It’s almost a shame, really, as this collection has been so wonderfully made that I can only hope more classic titles are given this treatment. But at least this collection ends with one hell of a game.

O tempora: Final Fantasy V (Pixel Remaster)

06/02/2022 06/02/2022

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

Back when I was going on my Final Fantasy spree in the early 00s, trying to play all of the titles in the series, being late to the party myself, FF V left me conflicted. On one hand, I remember enjoying the vast majority of the game and the way the Jobs (character classes of FF series) were handled. On the other, I also remember serious difficulty bumps, most notable one being the final boss that I simply could not defeat no matter how hard I’ve tried, which lead to a long and exhausting grinding session, before I was finally able to finish the game. Yet, with recent years Final Fantasy V has become a very popular entry, leading to really cool charity events like Final Fantasy Four Job Fiesta, and I was curious about replaying the game myself.

Now with the Pixel Remaster version available, I was happy to see that my opinion on the game became more positive.

O tempora: Syberia I & II

23/01/2022 23/01/2022

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

Twenty years ago in 2002 when Syberia was released, the point and click adventures were on a decline. It wasn’t like the genre didn’t have any recent fantastic examples, The Longest Journey being from a few years before. But otherwise, it felt as if nobody really knew at the time what to do with the genre and how to approach it. And to be absolutely frank, Syberia itself often times felt like it didn’t really know how to approach the genre either, yet it so elegantly stumbled through its beautiful locations with its wonderful magic realist story that it pretty soon became a critical darling at least in some circles. And also started a short, but pretty decent run of adventure titles made by Microïds that ended around the time of the Sinking Island.

While I have played both Syberia and its sequel when they were new, and did enjoy them (the original more than the second game), I haven’t replayed them ever since until now.

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O tempora: Final Fantasy IV (Pixel Remaster)

13/01/2022 13/01/2022

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

Final Fantasy IV has not been the first Final Fantasy I played. But it is the only title in the franchise so far that I’ve played more than twice. In fact, this Pixel Remaster playthrough has been the… fourth playthrough, I believe. As I’ve previously played through the original “Final Fantasy II” release, the unofficial translation of FFIV, the Final Fantasy Chronicles release on PS1 and the Final Fantasy IV Advance version on the GBA. I’ve also attempted to play the 3D remake for DS, but extremely disliked the visual style and changes to the game. Hence, why I was so excited about the Pixel Remaster version coming – hopefully the “ultimate” remaster of the original version of the game, available for generations to come. And this version is pretty much exactly that.