Random thoughts on various new and old games (indie, classics, abandonware)

[Binky]

Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive (2001)

It must be mounted on a tripod!

Cmdr. Mohr, The Wild Bunch (1969)



Lead a team of bounty hunters in pursuit of the villainous gang leader El Diablo.

My original plan was to replay Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood. I would steal the Coronation spoon, recruit the Merry Men, amass cash, knock everybody out with Little John, and run around with Friar Tuck's fat ass. Alas, I've been on a Western binge, so I went and replayed Desperados instead. Long story short, I've Wild Bunched my way through the game. Still fun, still has awfully pretty locations. It has a cast worthy of the United Nations: Asian girl, black dude, Latino gang leader, cranky mature gentleman, busty temptress, and Cooper (the strong, not-so-silent type). Since I was going the kill 'em all route I mostly just used Coopah and Sanchez. Coopah has that sweet knife to chuck around. Sanchez has rocks to knock out foes, can empty out buildings by throwing out evildoers, a shotgun that can blow away several dudes at once (including your guys if you're not careful), and can strut around with a goddamn gatling gun. Yessir. Cleared the entire cave entrance mission all by himself in a few minutes.

The mission where you play El Diablo's gang and the US cavalry against each other is a favorite of mine, don't remember if there was anything like it in the rest of the Commandos-type games. Should be more than one mission that forced you to go the non-lethal route, though. Then again, your opponents are mostly criminal scumbags, so it makes sense to blast them away. Whereas Robin Hood is forced to kill only a few dudes during that game, and could punch out and tie up the rest. The Merry Men approve.

OST
Cutscenes

Caramba

Spoiler

Una bonita muchacha

Spoiler

A magnificent weasel.

Gringos

Spoiler

Sanchez going full General Mapache.

Two knockouts for the price of one rock.

El Pollo Diablo

Spoiler

Das ist falsch!

Also, the bad guys being smitten by Kate's assets, getting close, and then punching her out never gets old. And they say romance is dead.

 

[zool]

Ah Desperados, one of the prettiest games ever made.

The mission where you play El Diablo's gang and the US cavalry against each other is a favorite of mine, don't remember if there was anything like it in the rest of the Commandos-type games.

If memory serves right, there was one such mission in Shadow Tactics: Blade of the Shogun. And I think there was one in Desperados 3 too but now I'm having doubt.

Should be more than one mission that forced you to go the non-lethal route, though.

True. Last time I replayed the game, I only allowed myself to use lethal means against bandits and the like. So, in addition to the Marshall hacienda, I also played missions such as Southern Comfort (where you recruit Sam), Hang'm High (where you rescue Doc from being hanged), High Stakes (where you recruit Kate in New Orleans), Escape from El Paso and The Walls of Fortezza (where you rescue Sanchez from his prison) non-lethal, since the enemies you face are either men from the sheriff/marshall or members of the US cavalry.

I remember the Walls of Fortezza being particularly hard this way and I almost gave up before finding the solution.

 

[AdolfSatan]

Did you have to jump through many hoops to get Desperados running on a modern computer? I'm on win10 and it's laggy as fuck. I figure it must be something related to DirectX, since compatibility modes did nothing, but I hope I don't have to spend more time configuring shit than actually playing.

 

[Binky]

Played my GOG version on win10 and it gave me no grief. I checked the forums and maybe some of the solutions will help you:
https://af.gog.com/forum/desperados_series/desperados_1_unplayable?as=1649904300
https://af.gog.com/forum/desperados_series/besteasiest_way_to_run_deperados_on_win_10?as=1649904300
ttps://www.gog.com/forum/desperados_series/desperados_fixes_for_slowchoppy_gameplay_and_widescreen_windows_10
https://af.gog.com/forum/desperados...indows_7810_a_brief_quick_guide?as=1649904300
https://af.gog.com/forum/desperados_series/windows_10_lag_fix?as=1649904300

 

[zool]

THQ Nordic released a patch in 2018 to make it work on modern OS. The patch only works for the GoG and Steam versions through, not on the old CD version.

I tried it on my GoG version and it did run flawlessly on Windows 10.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/desperados-wanted-dead-or-alive-windows-10-crash-fixed

Desperados: Wanted Dead Or Alive updated after 17 years to work on modern Windows

News by Alice O'Connor News Editor
Published on 10 Jul, 2018

Hot diggity dawg! After years crawling the digital desert lower than a lizard, real-time tactical stealth murderer Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive now plays nicely on modern systems. Publishers THQ Nordic last week released an update making the 2001 game support modern Windows along with Mac and Linux, to fix the problem of it crashing like a horse full of rotgut. Desperados is a tip-top tactics 'em up about a rootin' tootin' squad of mercenaries combining their powers of distraction, evasion, exsanguination, and explosion on missions in the Wild West, similar to the Commandos games, and well worth a look - especially as it's on sale now too.

The update launched last week for the Steam and GOG versions of Desperados, bringing support for Windows 7, 8, and 10, plus Mac and Linux. For years, playing this game on modern systems involved downloading rando files off the Internet, installing a tool, and poking around with all sorts of settings.

The update also rolled a mission from the demo into the game, closing a loop on those days when demos would often contain unique slices. Language selection options are in too. Decent update for a 17-year-old game, that. And it's still a decent game.

Resident simulated man Tim Stone has praised it and our former Adam even once declared it one of the best stealth games. Adam (RPS in peace) explained in 2015:

"Desperados is the pinnacle of the stealth-strategy genre represented elsewhere in this list by Commandos 2. Across beautifully drawn levels, the heroes of the piece move through a hit parade of Western locations and scenarios, sneaking by, shooting and subduing the outlaws who stand between them and their bounty.

"The various player characters have a diverse skillset and several abilities can operate in combination to unleash new tactics. Explosives expert Sam Williams can plant a barrel of TNT as distraction or weapon, for example, and then gambler Kate O'Hara can use a mirror to direct just enough rays in its direction to light the fuse. Daft? Yes. Enjoyable? Absolutely."

If you still have an old copy on CD (and an optical drive to put it in?) you're probably out of luck for this patch. But THQ Nordic--who didn't even publish the original release--do have Desperados on sale for another week yet, down to £0.89/€0.99/$0.99 on Steam.

THQ Nordic have been good stewards for many of the games and brands they've nabbed the rights to, also updating games including Titan Quest, Darksiders, Sine Mora, and Red Faction Guerrilla in recent years.

Oh, if you dig this sort of real-time tactical squadmurder, you might well dig 2016's Shadow Tactics: Blades Of The Shogun. It's doing Desperados/Commandos sort of things in Edo period Japan, and Tim Stone's review will tell you it's a good'un.

 

[Binky]

Daughter of Serpents (1992)

Who would want to ram a ship into this cute little fella?

In Alexandria in the 1920s an ancient cult seeks to bring back the Old Ones. The promise of Lovecraft goodness drew me to this game. Starts out great. You create your character, choose gender, age, nationality, etc. Pick one of six professions: traveler, Egyptologist, mystic, occultist, sleuth, and private eye. Each of these professions have four or five skills you can pick and increase. You can choose to be an Egyptologist who also dabbles in the occult, speaks Arabic, and has some knowledge of forensic pathology. I was practically salivating at this point. The actual effect in the game? Negligible. Some dialogue. "Why yes, I do know who Ramses II was." Occasionally, a skill was useful. The seal of Solomon allowed me to bark orders to a djinn and bypass one of the few puzzles in the game. There are three paths through the game, depending on which profession you pick: sleuth/PI, traveler/Egyptologist, occultist/mystic. Of these, the last is the most interesting one and the first the most boring. The two possible companions are a Greek woman or a British cop. It's very short. Even without Lovecraft the setting alone is great and it has some nonlinear gameplay in the beginning. Then it all fizzles out. What a waste. As short, easy, and almost without puzzles as the game is, I was surprised that you could actually die in it.

I also tried the 1995 remake named Scroll. It's even shorter, has voice acting, has some new scenes & is missing some of the ones from the 1992 version. Instead of creating your character you can only pick two already made ones: an Egyptologist or an occultist. Why this remake was a good idea I'll never know.

Welcome to Alexandria

Spoiler

Necromancy

Spoiler

Nyarlathotep cometh

Spoiler

Miss Egypt

Spoiler

Stargate Spirit door.

Curiosity killed the Arab.

The Daughter of Serpents™ herself.

Guess Shadow of the Comet is still king of the Lovecraft games.

Yes, that is so, fat man.

 

[zool]

Nice, I had never heard of this one. I assume this is abandonware but does it work easily on modern OS? I see it's not on GOG.

 

[Binky]

Got the original from Abandonia. Worked nicely on Dosbox. Zomb's Lair has both the remake and the original in one pack, made to run on a modern OS. It also has all sorts of cool and obscure stuff there, in case anyone's interested.

 

[zool]

I see Zomb's Lair recommends Nightlong: Union City Conspiracy. You should try it, I remember playing it as a kid and it was good cyberpunk for the most part.

 

[Jigby]

Did you have to jump through many hoops to get Desperados running on a modern computer? I'm on win10 and it's laggy as fuck. I figure it must be something related to DirectX, since compatibility modes did nothing, but I hope I don't have to spend more time configuring shit than actually playing.

The game runs at ~25fps (eh, can't remember the exact number) so it is laggy even in vanilla. If you're having more severe lags related to directdraw, you can always use some ddraw wrapper like https://github.com/elishacloud/dxwrapper/releases and copy ddraw.dll dxwrapper.dll and dxwrapper.ini to the folder with the executable and set d7tod9 to 1 in the ini file. Or alternatively, https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Desperados:_Wanted_Dead_or_Alive suggests using DgVoodoo2.

On top of it, there's the newer "HD remaster" which has mods that raise fps -> https://www.gamepressure.com/download.asp?ID=58387

Mind you, the game logic is tied to the fps, so you get smoother scrolling but everybody moves faster.

 

[Binky]

Sacrifice (2000)

Five gods, voiced by Tim Curry, Tony Jay & friends, all with different spells and creatures. And then there's you, a newly arrived wizard in search of a patron. You can stick with one god and get their spells and beasties. Or you can mix and match and end up with a wide variety of spells and beasts. Hell, sometimes you can backstab a god and switch sides during the mission. It's not a hard game, but it is addictive. Only wanted to play a single campaign to refresh my memory. No dice, had to beat it with every god. The easiest campaign is if you stick with James. His beasts are tough, he's got nice spells (including a falling cow that obliterates any creature), and the Boulderdash just obliterates everything in large numbers.

Then there's magic. The belly dancing manahoars fill you with mana and eventually you can rain fire, summon tornados, volcanoes, heal with rainbows, channel lightning, summon death itself, and cause all sorts of damage. Prolly most fun is when you're attacked by two or three wizards at once, all with a large amount of beasts. And then you wreck them all and harvest the souls of the fallen. Aw yeah. Three of the gods domains are too dark for my taste. I prefer the bright Glebe and Empyrea.

Shame there wasn't a sequel or anything like it. I'd love to see their voice acting bill.

Flam, kenketsu, domine

Spoiler

Harvest time!

Vermithrax, barada, pejorative

Spoiler

Klatau, nikto, animus

Spoiler

Got milk?

Carpe, elorum, nathrak

Spoiler

 

[asper]

High quality thread, great game selection!

You touched upon so many of my favorites and also showed some gems unknown to me, proving yet again that old games have so much more to offer....!

A thousand brofists to you good sir!

 

[Binky]

Operation Stealth (1990)

I quite liked Future Wars by Delphine and this one had secret agents and the promise of gadgets to play with. A top notch stealth plane has been nabbed, so secret agent John Glames gets called to the CIA hq in Washington to recover it because the US prime minister is worried.

CIA hq in Washington... US prime minister...


Anyway. Pixel hunts abound and you can screw yourself many, many times. Forgot to give the bank teller your cash twice? You'll be stuck. Gave coins to the florist twice? You'll be stuck. And my personal favorite: forgot to pick up the tiny rubber band? You'll get killed at the very end of the game. Ohohoho, you bastards! This wouldn't be a problem if a lot of the game didn't consist of action minigames - including one segment where you must navigate dark rat-filled mazes four times. Gadgets were my favorite part of the game. Alas, you only get to use them a few times. They should have been the focus of the game instead of minigames. Was released as James Bond 007: The Stealth Affair in the US, but I don't think there's any difference between the two apart from the main character bellowing JAMES BOND instead of JOHN GLAMES all the time.

Glames. John Glames.

Spoiler

Briefing gone wrong

Shaken, not stirred

Spoiler

No, Mr. Glames, I expect you to escape unharmed

Spoiler

The spy who gave me syphilis

Spoiler

Naturally

Kniark?

 

[DwarvenFood]

Law of the West (1985)

A Clint Eastwood simulator.

You can be a hero and prevent robberies. A tough guy who intimidates folks into surrendering or getting outta town (or forces a cheating gambler to give a quarter of his winnings to the local orphanage). You can insult and blow away every person you meet. Or you can skip the insults and just blow them away.

Game has romances:

• Invite the local school marm to a hoedown or a picnic. How quaint.
• Try to shack up with the cattle rustlin' Belle.
• Maybe the buxom Rose is more to your liking.
• Or you could try your luck with all of them.

Pick the right lines and people will tell you when and where the robberies are going down. Then you go there and shoot the varmint!

Love is in the air

Spoiler

Smooth operator

Spoiler

The quick and the confused

Spoiler

Law and order

Spoiler

Hey! Aren't you a little trigger happy?

Spoiler

And watch out for those fake surrenders!

"The doctor is not in town."

 

[Jarpie]

Operation Stealth (1990)

I quite liked Future Wars by Delphine and this one had secret agents and the promise of gadgets to play with. A top notch stealth plane has been nabbed, so secret agent John Glames gets called to the CIA hq in Washington to recover it because the US prime minister is worried.

CIA hq in Washington... US prime minister...


Anyway. Pixel hunts abound and you can screw yourself many, many times. Forgot to give the bank teller your cash twice? You'll be stuck. Gave coins to the florist twice? You'll be stuck. And my personal favorite: forgot to pick up the tiny rubber band? You'll get killed at the very end of the game. Ohohoho, you bastards! This wouldn't be a problem if a lot of the game didn't consist of action minigames - including one segment where you must navigate dark rat-filled mazes four times. Gadgets were my favorite part of the game. Alas, you only get to use them a few times. They should have been the focus of the game instead of minigames. Was released as James Bond 007: The Stealth Affair in the US, but I don't think there's any difference between the two apart from the main character bellowing JAMES BOND instead of JOHN GLAMES all the time.

Glames. John Glames.

Spoiler

Briefing gone wrong

Shaken, not stirred

Spoiler

No, Mr. Glames, I expect you to escape unharmed

Spoiler

The spy who gave me syphilis

Spoiler

Naturally

Kniark?

I remember getting pretty pissed off in the sewers with the rats when I played it in the 90s, and quit there, beside those labyrinths, I remember Operation Stealth being pretty fun point'n'click adventure game.

 

[Binky]

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver (1999)

Fight bloodsuckers with a soulsucker. Travel the realm of Nosgoth and dispatch vampires with Raziel on his quest to kill his brothers and destroy Kain. Vampires can be killed either by giving them a bath, setting them on fire, or impaling them. Impaling them by throwing a spike is the most satisfying option, in my humble opinion. Thankfully, vampire lairs are full things hazardous to vamps - from olympic-sized swimming pools, bonfires, campfires, torches, and braziers, to all sorts of spiky things. I mean, who doesn't have spike pits, pools of acid, landmines, and whatnot in his home? I know I do.

After Raziel kills an Abel, he gets a new ability like learning to climb or swim. Kinda like a baby learning to walk, speak, and not crap itself. Speaking of Raziel, I much preferred the vampires of Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. Vorador was a cruel and decadent monster, and Kain was a sneering, sadistic prick. Whereas Raziel is whiny and self-righteous.

The spectral and material worlds are nice, but would be better if you could kick someone's ass first in the material one and then again in the spirit one. Missed opportunity. They really went overboard with the block puzzles, should be able to kill the last brother Turel as well, and the cliffhanger ending sucks. Then again, it keeps the fate, destiny, time travel, and coin-tossing horse crap of the sequels to a merciful minimum. Apart from making vampire kebabs, finding the glyphs is a fun part of the game - you have to explore all sorts of completely optional areas like the human citadel (humans with flamethrowers!) and Nupraptor's retreat. The glyphs themselves are kinda useless, since the vamps rarely attack you in groups.

Intro
OST

Toasting marshmellows

Spoiler

One of my favorite menu screens.

Vlad the Impaler

Spoiler

Souls taste like chicken

Spoiler

Turel MIA

Spoiler

 

[Ninjerk]

early 3D is so ugly lmao

 

[Riskbreaker]

TACTICAL BLOCK-PUSHING ACTION
(Tho, with this handle, I'm the one to complain am I.)

Anyway, I do so love the feel of Soul Reaver's gameworld. The barrenness, the emptiness works and fits for once. Landscapes and ruinous architecture straight outta something like Arzach. None of the sequels come close there, they lost it.

 

[Hag]

I remember this game being featured in the same guide magazine we'd bought for Rayman 2 and Tomb Raider 4. They were saying it was a blast, but by all accounts it seems it did not age so well. Thanks for the memories anyway.

 

[Binky]

Nightlong: Union City Conspiracy (1998)

A cyberpunk adventure made by Italians (huh?). Special thanks to Zool for the recommendation. As an favor to an old friend, PI Joshua Reeve, who reminds me of Bloodlines' Strauss, investigates a series of terrorist attacks on a corporation. But all is not as it seems and greed, experimental VR technology, corporate lack of ethics, betrayal, and manipulation are part of the show.

Visit metro underground, explore strange zoos/museums, electrocute children & zap robot dinosaurs, enter cyberspace and tour horror-medieval amusement parks and shoot werewolves, sneak into terrorist warehouses and electrocute guards, and break into high security prisons. Oh yeah… and use a dead rat on a roller skate to get very fine wine. I'm not kidding. There are some pixel hunts, but you can't die or get stuck, so it doesn't really matter.

Kinda weird. Reminded me more of Broken Sword than Blade Runner or Dreamweb, really.

Hello, neonate

Spoiler

"I wanted orange. It gave me lemon-lime."

Fun fact: you can take this poster with you.

Children should be fried, not heard

Spoiler

You're all heart, pal.

Pop-a-Joshua

Spoiler

Gee, I wonder what you have to do to get past the secretary.

"It's a Zergling, Lester. Smaller attack Zerg."

Piranhas again?

Flintstones, meet the Flintstones.

My vision is augmented

Spoiler

After years of pixel hunts, you can put me in any house or apartment and I'll find all the hidey-holes.

 

[Ahnx]

Zeliard (1990)

You've probably never played it in its full sound glory. Yes this is the same version for PC from 1989.

 

[Binky]

Nice. Definitely haven't experienced that. Hell, the first time I played it was on the 386, pc speaker, black and white monitor.

That run ended here.

 

[Agesilaus]

I got a lot of fun out of Zeliard, it was like a version of Kadash that I could play at home on my PC.

 

[Binky]

Sid Meier's Covert Action (1990)

Operation Stealth jogged my memory of this game. Scumbags from the Corsican Union, the Colombian Cartel, the Mafia, etc. plot to steal, kill, destroy and otherwise sow chaos. Secret agent Remington to the rescue! Place wiretaps, decode messages, tail suspects, sneak and spy, kill flunkies, and arrest suspects. There are four minigames, but I quickly found out that the only one which really matters is the break-in. The other three can be safely ignored. The difficulty goes from "I, Diego Delarosa, mastermind of this operation, shall tell you everything on the phone." to scrambling for clues. Computers are the MVP of the spy game - once you enter the password, you can find info on people, hideouts, etc. Probably the only way to find the mastermind on higher difficulties in the same mission. You check the names you find elsewhere on the computer. If it's a red herring, it simply says not involved. Or you can find your guy and his location. And then you can break into his hideout and nab him. This is easier said than done, however, as the guards become numerous and ridiculously dangerous on higher difficulties. They open the door and chuck a grenade into the room before entering. They'll also riddle you with bullets before you can blink. The only way I could beat them is by setting booby traps with grenades. Double agents are a cool thing in the game. If you arrest a suspect, the rest might go into hiding. But if you manage to find compromising info on them, you can strongarm them into becoming a double agent - the plot continues, the agent feeds you info, you get the opportunity to nab all the suspects, prevent the crime, recover any cash and/or data, and arrest the mastermind. Time is of the essence. Each and every action takes time, waste too much of it and the nefarious plan could succeed and/or the scumbags could go into hiding and escape justice.

Arrested about seven masterminds before I got bored. To beat the game you gotta arrest all 26 of them.

I spy with my little eye

Spoiler

Uh-oh.

Gotcha, twerp!

For my eyes only

Spoiler

Death Squads' office. Open 9-17. Closed on holidays. No loitering or littering.

Bingo. Gonna visit you real soon.

The clock is always ticking

Spoiler

From Tehran with bombs

Spoiler

Sweet success.

Ignoble failure.

 

[iqzulk]

Nevermind.

Point of KSF / Killzone Shadow Fall.

1) Planet was habitable.

2) Echo returned in the framework of the system - last mission is no contractorship.

3) Having no relation to actual Donbass conflict - see aircrash-toy photo - KSF heavily reminisces with its media imprint, that is predatory journalism. KSF narratively is stitching newspapership on modern conflicts together requiring finding every each media file putting together the web of delusion.

4) Sun melts through the windows yet does not melt the protagonist floating away from the ship, occupying majority of the screen, that is self-contradiction on the web-of-delusion level of abstract meaning journalism is simply sect exploiting others with verbiage.

5) Such journalism is no war correspondentship the latter being indiscernible in the press. War correspondentship is a guild doing no favors for trinkets, it requires indirect but stern affiliation for thereafter.

6) Being unaffiliated war narrative KSF does NOT have the tools to get to the answer of what the protagonist did much wrong.

7) Protagonist was seemingly survivable, got to survival point with partner and died. Whatever the fuck went wrong, KSF does not provide tools to analyze the possible mistake in the topsy-turvy world depicted with KSF.

8) In journalist world people do simply die.

9) Following this thread of thought through newspaper immersion leads to conclusion follower oneself might simply die. That is unbenefitial.

10) The game depicts no journalist being projection beyond the comprehension of half-wit.

11) All those people are simply impenetrable the method journodocumentalism being inherently flawed at their depiction photorealism or not.

Non-P.S.: Interactive long story building on Konung part 1.

12) This closes KSF