My suggestion for a little known oldie RPG.

[Fenril]

BLOODNET by micropose.

You can get it here : http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/201/BloodNet.html

Works fine with DOSBOX.

This was the first rpg that really captured me in terms of atmosphere in a setting that had nothing to do with classical fantasy.

The premise is interesting and is fairly well explored during the course of the game,
vampirism and the supernatural meets cyberpunk in a dystopian future Manhattan.

You start as a street hussler and hacker recently bitten by a vampire.

The game, while having detailed character stats ( that you have very little control of after generation) and turn based combat has a very distinct adventure game feel, overall the puzzles, dialogs,riddles and object hunting will take up most of your focus during the entire game.

What may make this game frustating for some, as well as a reload fest is the limitations in time and resources the game imposes, a blood counter and a humanity counter will keep you on a rush to visit all the different game locations as fast as you can, unlocking more and doing everything in the right order as fast as possible.

You will either love or hate this aspect, and you will probably restart the game a couple of times before finishing, but if you accept this aspect of the game it will reward you with surprisingly interesting characters,plot and interaction and a very distinct cyberpunk atmosphere.

The combat is turnbased but with a twist that was rarely used in games, you plot out the actions for all your characters first and then the next turn begins, which requires a slightly different sort of strategy.

Other than that its a pretty straightforward combat system based mostly on ranged weapons and implants, and while you will end up reloading a few times during the more tricky battles chances are you will get stuck not because of a battle but for not being able to solve a puzzle, get an item or unlock a new location.
You will rely mostly on special items and cybernetic implants to enchance your statistics, but they occasionaly increase after a battle.

The game has a cyberspace "dimension" and some puzzles are solved in cyberspace. Some quests and situations allow for different approaches with consequences later in the game but there is only one ending.

So if you are looking for a brand new oldie rpg, chances are you missed this one, if you dont mind trial and error and like vampire and cyberpunk settings you may find yourself hooked on what I consider a very unknown and underrated gem.

 

[OccupatedVoid]

I bet Jasede has played it.

 

[pkt-zer0]

Hah, I remember playing that one when I was a wee lad. Got murdered horribly in the first battle since my English was pretty lacking back then and had no idea how the heck the game worked.
You can never go wrong with vampires + cyberpunk, anyway.

 

[Binary]

I bet Binary has played it.

Fixed it there for ya

I don't remember much about this game, the dark atmosphere didn't catch my fancy when I was younger. I do remember the combat being unforgiving and being ownd a few times in the first or second battles

I think it's worth a try for cyberpunk fans

 

[RK47]

i finished the game after finding out the best way to make money is to combine a bunch of trash that cost less than $1000 into a flamethrower that I could sell for $15k.

After that I bought the best gears and hacking software I could afford + recruit the best mercs to take me to endgame.

Guaranteed not everyone's cup of tea but the game's quite unique in a way of time-limit and blood consumption. It even hints at a sequel that never came.

 

[Mareus]

When I was a kid I used to play this. It was too hard for me to finish and back then I didn't have internet to help me solve some puzzles. I remember going back to this game many times, but it was just too hard. I tried it again when I have grown up a bit, but I just couldn't get back into it.

 

[mondblut]

I didn't like it, too adventury.

Curiously, the very same combat engine was used in RPG Challenge of 5 Realms and in tactical sim Twilight 2000. One combat engine for games of 3 different genres, speaks a lot of its versatility.

 

[ghostdog]

This game is great. More of an adventure than an rpg, but I don't care since I like both genres. The game's atmosphere is fantastic and it has a lot of depth especially with the cyberspace feature. I never managed to finish it , but I think I was close.

 

[Binary]

I didn't like it, too adventury.

Curiously, the very same combat engine was used in RPG Challenge of 5 Realms and in tactical sim Twilight 2000. One combat engine for games of 3 different genres, speaks a lot of its versatility.

The same happened for The Summoning/Veil of Darkness/Dusk of the Gods

 

[Jasede]

Someone else but me knows Veil of Darkness!?!?!?!

I finished it all by myself as a kid.

 

[Binary]

Someone else but me knows Veil of Darkness!?!?!?!

I finished it all by myself as a kid.

Haha I played maybe 15 mins of it tops. Not impressed with the game itself (even though I almost finished The Summoning) and not a fan of the setting in particular.

 

[Trash]

I loved both bloodnet and veil of darkness. To great horror games, and both are hard as hell. I never got very far into bloodnet because it just overwhelmed me, that and every combat I entered spelled my doom. Still, it really intrigued me as a kid.

The great thing about vod was the setting for me. Exposing werewolves, dealing with the undead and an isoloted valley wher eit all takes place. I loved it.

If you people like these games I can heartily recommend dreamweb. Perhaps the most disturbing adventure game ever made.

 

[Jasede]

Dreamweb has a kickass ending, but the game is pretty gut-wrenching, and wants to be. It really shows at when you need to enter the TV studio, and the way you do that. That's when it clicked for me; and hence I loved the ending.

 

[ghostdog]

Dreamweb also had incredible music. An yes the ending was awesome. The story had some cheesy moments , but the intriguing atmosphere made up for it. And the same goes for the Veil of darkness , great setting and atmosphere, although the rpg elements somehow weakened it.

 

[Kz3r0]

Anyone knows where is possible get the cd version of Dreamweb?

 

[JarlFrank]

Someone else but me knows Veil of Darkness!?!?!?!

I finished it all by myself as a kid.

I know it. I loved it. Combat actually was horrible, but somehow I really enjoyed it back when I was younger. It was an awesome blend of RPG and Adventure, my two favourite genres, even though back then I didn't really know what an RPG is. Good old times.

 

[Binary]

Dreamweb has a kickass ending, but the game is pretty gut-wrenching, and wants to be.

 

[ghostdog]

There was a diary of the protagonist that was included in the game box of Dreamweb. The diary gave some hints about the game , but the interesting thing was that as the days passed the writing became more and more irrational and the protagonist started showing signs of madness. Damn, things like these really enhanced the playing experience those days...

You can find the diary here

 

[mondblut]

The same happened for The Summoning/Veil of Darkness/Dusk of the Gods

Hm, weren't all 3 the same kind of pre-diablo isometric RT clickfests? Well, Veil of Darkness being a bit on adventury side too, but other than that, pretty much the same gameplay.

 

[Binary]

The same happened for The Summoning/Veil of Darkness/Dusk of the Gods

Hm, weren't all 3 the same kind of pre-diablo isometric RT clickfests? Well, Veil of Darkness being a bit on adventury side too, but other than that, pretty much the same gameplay.

Far from it. They all had RT combat but far from being clickfests. In fact, The Summoning (the one I played the most) focused mostly on puzzles of the "pull lever, push block, dodge boulder" type. Combat wasn't such a big part of the game as Diablo

Anyway my point was they used the same engine basically

 

[Jasede]

How good is Dusk of the Gods? The Summoning?

 

[JarlFrank]

Dusk of the Gods was a lot of fun for me, especially since I *love* Norse mythology, and that game represented it pretty well. Character creation is really different, you send your character to different places while he/she is alive to train certain skills or pray to one of the gods, and in the end you die and go to Valhalla. If I remember correctly, you could also die before you reach old age by dying in battle, and thus trying to raise your combat skill comes with a little risk.

The combat isn't any different to Veil of Darkness, and exploration is a lot of fun. Once I found Grendel the dragon and he pwned me, even though I didn't have the quest to kill him yet. So, there's many things to find while exploring. You should make your own maps though as I can't remember the game having an auto-map feature, and it has no quest journal so you should write down all the quests given to you.

It's a pretty good game, and has a nice athmosphere. Definitely worth downloading.

EDIT:
The Summoning was pretty good, too, although the beginning is rather unforgiving. You're in a dungeon and it's pretty long until you find any friendly NPCs, it's pretty easy to die. Never got far in that game, but it's still worth trying if you liked Veil of Darkness and Dusk of the Gods.

 

[Binary]

Dusk of the Gods was a lot of fun for me, especially since I *love* Norse mythology, and that game represented it pretty well.

You have to play this one then
http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?gameid=1399

In the end Ragnarok is decided depending on your actions during the game... it's ace.

The Summoning was pretty good, too, although the beginning is rather unforgiving. You're in a dungeon and it's pretty long until you find any friendly NPCs, it's pretty easy to die. Never got far in that game, but it's still worth trying if you liked Veil of Darkness and Dusk of the Gods.

It gets better near the end. I couldn't finish it due to a bug but got really really close. There is a choice that leads to multiple endings (of little consequence iirc)

 

[Pussycat669]

Thanks for pointing me towards Dreamweb. That was a fun little game albeit a bit depressing.

 

[TheLostOne]

Yeah, I wasn't planning on trying any of these, but I read the Diary of a Mad Man and couldn't resist.

It's pretty cool so far, now that I finally have it working. I jacked around with my Autoexec file to get some other game to run and totally forgot about it. Dosbox was giving me a shit fit.