Perfect games

[DraQ]

People who complain about the difficulty in Homeworld 2 suck at video games.

An interesting POV, especially given how more skill is apparently less in this context - I didn't have much problems after restating the game and purposefully sucking more at missions.

If a mission auto-finishes (including all the resources being automatically collected) with you having almost no ships, not giving you opportunity to build any, then right at the beginning of the next one your fleet is steamrolled by humongous wall of frigates scaled to your crapload of resources, it's obviously all your fault.

Yeah scaling is a cheap mechanic, but in HW2's case it made for some truly large scale battles by the last few missions that took concentration and skill to win. Beating those last few missions was one of the most satisfying gaming experiences I've ever had, and the missions themselves were the only times I've ever thought epic truly deserves to be attached to a video game. You were outnumbered and outgunned by a large margin, making victory a true accomplishment.

Last missions had you flying around in a nigh-invincible spaceship and "BRINGING SAJUUK TO BEAR!!1", so no.

Latter missions were actually fairly easy, after your fleet has stabilized and the danger of rape-by-scaling subsided.

Unless you somehow confused the games and think about HW1 and it's wave upon wave of capships throwing themselves at your mothership and disregarding defenders, then yes, that was epic and keeping the mothership from getting torn apart was quite a feat.

HW1 also had some scaling, the difference being that it was really unnoticeable unless you played the game more than once with wildly different skill - sort of like Morrowind's scaling compared to Oblivion's one.

HW2 did have some highlights - most of the ship design, and large part of it's general mechanics weren't bad, modules were spiffy, galactic core or dreadnaught docked in the remains of the progenitor ship made for some breathtaking sights, but balance (auto-harvesting, auto-ending plus scaling), creativity (LOL let's asspull missile platforms instantly recognizable T-MAT outtakes), and plot cohesion (if I didn't know better, I'd dismiss HW2's plot as particularly atrocious attempt at bad HW fanfic by someone evidently fapping to Silmarillion too much and feebleminded enough to allow even the most gaping plot-holes sneak up on him) were not it's strong points.

 

[GeneralSamov]

Age of Empires II (+ The Conquerors)

(and before anyone mentions multiple AIs steamrolling you at max population resulting in lag, if you allow that to happen, you're doing it wrong.)

 

[dr. one]

Turrican 2

Not perfect. Both Turricans had this collision bug, where you sometimes phased through scenery and ended up in some unreachable place.

I´ve played T2 quite many times and honestly don´t remember something like that ever happening to me. I remember one level when you could go through walls but that was actually intentional shortcut.
Maybe that´s the version thing, I´m speaking about the Amiga one which I consider to be a perfect game in its category.

 

[Phelot]

Marathon > Q2 & Unreal.

Most def. :D

 

[DraQ]

Turrican 2

Not perfect. Both Turricans had this collision bug, where you sometimes phased through scenery and ended up in some unreachable place.

I´ve played T2 quite many times and honestly don´t remember something like that ever happening to me.

On C64 it sometimes did.

Marathon > Q2 & Unreal.

Most def. :D

If you're a kind of person that uses mac, definitely.

 

[MetalCraze]

@DraQ I haven't played Homeworld 1. Should I?

Yes. But you will fucking hate Relic for not including time compression like Barking Dog did in the spin-off (play a spin-off too if you haven't)

 

[DraQ]

@DraQ I haven't played Homeworld 1. Should I?

Yes. But you will fucking hate Relic for not including time compression like Barking Dog did in the spin-off (play a spin-off too if you haven't)

Spinoff wasn't that bad, it introduced modules, after all, but it was chock full of retardation:
- homing "energy cannons" later on rendered dedicated anti-fighter weaponry obsolete
- Support Units mechanics combined with former, meant you generally did best spamming the heaviest units you could afford.
- storyline wasn't particularly fresh
- my inner nerd still hasn't gone over the stupendously, breath takingly moronic animated backgrounds
and his stretched out at the hearing threshold has accompanied me ever since I first played cata. Seriously, people have been put to death for less.
- lack of cohesion between astronomical surroundings most of the time in different missions.
- lack of "standard" combat units - sure all the multibeam-, ramming- and hive-frigs were interesting novelty weapons, but cata fleet looked as if it was entirely composed of the members of one of those "top # most out-there weapons of all times" lists.

 

[dr. one]

On C64 it sometimes did.

get a zx :wink:

anyway, with genres more complex than action or puzzle games, perfection as laid out by the OP is unreachable imo and thus, rpg genre as a whole being the most complex of them all, chance of a perfect crpg ever seeing light of the world is really slim.

i agree with the poster who said that when certain aspect(s) of a game are truly excellent, imperfections (and sometimes even huge flaws) don´t really matter.

anyone played Oxyd Magnum? that´s another example of perfection i have no one mentioned yet - a very eclectic puzzle/action romp that held my interest for all its 100 levels.
eclectic being the key word here - even by level 90 there were still new mechanics introduced.

 

[deranged]

Intriguing thread....

I'd say Pacman and Space Invaders. No bugs also a big plus...

 

[JarlFrank]

Monkey Island 1 and 2.

 

[DraQ]

anyone played Oxyd Magnum? that´s another example of perfection i have no one mentioned yet - a very eclectic puzzle/action romp that held my interest for all its 100 levels.
eclectic being the key word here - even by level 90 there were still new mechanics introduced.

Clicky.

 

[dr. one]

haha, sorta touché.

imo, Enigma pales in comparison with Oxyd Magnum severely, but still, pretty cool clicky anyway

 

[Callaxes]

- storyline wasn't particularly fresh

It was awesome. The Beast were one of the best enemies in gaming history, they managed to make a strategy game feel scary.

The pacing was also great. The opening was quite dynamic and the first half of the game felt very tense. You just kept losing allies left and right, their ships turned into mindless mutants that charge in waves and you had to KEEP A DISTANCE! What little help you did receive came with a price. Even if the game was easier then HW1, you were still kept on your toes because of the story alone. Towards the end you see the evolution you've made from a simple mining vessel to a full war ship. It was just rewarding.

 

[DraQ]

- storyline wasn't particularly fresh

It was awesome. The Beast were one of the best enemies in gaming history, they managed to make a strategy game feel scary.

Bio/nanomatic microbial Borg. Seen better.

The pacing was also great. The opening was quite dynamic and the first half of the game felt very tense. You just kept losing allies left and right, their ships turned into mindless mutants that charge in waves and you had to KEEP A DISTANCE! What little help you did receive came with a price. Even if the game was easier then HW1, you were still kept on your toes because of the story alone. Towards the end you see the evolution you've made from a simple mining vessel to a full war ship. It was just rewarding.

Yes, this was cool.

Energy cannons, lack of balance, fleet made solely of museum of war oddities and fucking animated backgrounds, however, were not.

 

[Paula Tormeson IV]

The correct answer is Dark Omen.

 

[shihonage]

Exolon was the perfect game, followed by Zynaps.

THRAED OVAR

 

[Zeus]

Master of Magic. I wouldn't remove or add anything to that game. Heck, when I found out some guy had created a fan patch, it felt like borderline sacrilege.

Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures is pretty high up there, too, though probably for other reasons. Like how you just can't stop adding stuff to it, via the modules that continue to pour out from the fan community. A great game on a great engine (D&D Goldbox) that allows you to crank out an infinite number of new modules? Give me that over NWN any day.

And this is kind of random, but how about Mortal Kombat II? I always loved that game's music, vivid atmosphere, excellent balance and memorable cast. They kept trying to add things to the series, but as each new incarnation grew more silly and bloated--peaking at MK Trilogy--only to be scaled back again in MK4, it just never regained the magic. I love Street Fighter II, but it'd be hard to pin down a favorite version--Championship Edition was nice, Super added Cammy, etc. With Mortal Kombat, there's just no doubt that II is the perfect game in the series.

I'm not sure if Diablo II qualifies, only because of that !@#$ jungle level, but one lame maze does not a "flawed gem" make, so I'll throw that into the mix. Hell, I didn't even buy the expansion, I still only own the vanilla game. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is on the list, too, even thouh my save game got fragged right before I could win, so I'm not 100$ certain it's perfect from start to finish, but what the hell.

 

[bhlaab]

a lot of people are saying Fallout, but the AI and follower things keep it from being a perfect game. I love it to death, but it's not perfect.

I was going to say Doom until I remembered that most of its timelessness is thanks to source ports

 

[DraQ]

I'm not sure if Diablo II qualifies

It doesn't. It failed utterly at atmosphere compared to it's prequel and had retarded MMO mechanics.

 

[shihonage]

I was going to say Doom until I remembered that most of its timelessness is thanks to source ports

Now you need to ask yourself why people spent all this effort on the source ports