Top 10 Polish games

[Maxie]

now that I think of it, Książę i Tchórz has a candle sequence in the finale straight up lifted from Monkey Island, only more annoying

 

[MasPingon]

please don't play Książę i Tchórz it's actually not a very good game

It looks cool on screenshots though.

Yeah, it looked cool in magazines screenshots but only that. It's Adrian Chmielarz failed child, the guy was a prodigy on polish scene(later he made Painkiller and Bulletstorm, now Witchfire). Back then he was a big fan of Lucas Arts adventure games, his Teenagent was great, in style of Secret of Monkey Island/Indiana Jones and Fate of Atlantis. Książe i Tchórz was an answer to Curse of Monkey Island, you can tell it by an art style, but it was lacking in any other departments - sense of humor, riddles and atmosphere. And what Maxie said.

it's a purely Polish gripe, but you can also tell it based on Piekara's prose and co-written by Piekara quite easily and to its detriment

I've never been interested in Piekara's work. If he writes prose as bad as reviews in Gambler nothing of worth was lost.

 

[Maxie]

please don't play Książę i Tchórz it's actually not a very good game

It looks cool on screenshots though.

Yeah, it looked cool in magazines screenshots but only that. It's Adrian Chmielarz failed child, the guy was a prodigy on polish scene(later he made Painkiller and Bulletstorm, now Witchfire). Back then he was a big fan of Lucas Arts adventure games, his Teenagent was great, in style of Secret of Monkey Island/Indiana Jones and Fate of Atlantis. Książe i Tchórz was an answer to Curse of Monkey Island, you can tell it by an art style, but it was lacking in any other departments - sense of humor, riddles and atmosphere. And what Maxie said.

it's a purely Polish gripe, but you can also tell it based on Piekara's prose and co-written by Piekara quite easily and to its detriment

I've never been interested in Piekara's work. If he writes prose as bad as reviews in Gambler nothing of worth was lost.

before he became a full-on edgelord with his laughable Inkwizytor stuff, he's mostly written fantasy in the vein of Książę i Tchórz, "Ani słowa prawdy" is his seminal work from that period

 

[Jvegi]

Książe i Tchórz was great when I was 10, and I've finished it multiple times.

With a walkthrough, no doubt. I don't remember using it, but there is no fucking way i didn't.

I like Call of Juarez 2 a lot.

 

[Hydro]

1. Being annoyingly butthurt

 

[Black]

Run or rape

 

[Gandalf]

Cool topic, Polish bro!

I have a bad memory as of late, oh and I just remembered that I can't count really well, so I'll just post the 10 games I remember playing and suspect that are Polish (in random order). Its that OK? (YES, it is!).

One. DoomRL
Two. Starmageddon
Three. Earth 2XXX (forgot wich one, maybe it was named 2140, but I think it was the first one from 1998 or 1997)
Four. Age of History 2
Five. Polanie
Six. Polanie 2
Seven. Kangurek Kao
Eight. Xpand Rally
Nine. Chrome.
Six. Earth 2XXX THe Moon Project
Seven. Hellish Quart
Eight. Painkiller
Nine. Call of Juarez (forgot wich one, maybe the secon one?)
Six. Call of Juarez 1
Seven. KARATEKA (I hope that was a polish game)
Eight. Rooster
Nine. Liga Polska Manager
Nine. Target ( or Sniper?)
Nine. Robocop Rogue City
Nine. mortyr
Nine. Książę i Tchórz
Eight. Jack Orlando
Nine. Clash
Nine. Crime Cities
Ten. Kajko i Kokosz

Honorable mentions:
Maybe look above.

 

[Dr Skeleton]

Not top anything, just thoughts on what I’ve played, sorted by year for clarity:

Franco (1994) – Beat 'em up. I played it for maybe 30 minutes total, felt very basic and stiff, can’t say much about it.

Teenagent (1995)– adventure game, it’s alright. Basic stuff, but most puzzles make sense if I remember correctly.

Kajko i Kokosz (1995) – adventure game. I never got far.

Polanie (1996) – RTS. Can’t remember a thing about it.

Fire Fight (1996) – shmup/action game. Good, gets repetitive, but it's a fun game.

Wyspa 7 Skarbów (1997) – platformer. Mediocre. I never finished it. Looked pretty good for the time, I think?

Wacki, kosmiczna rozgrywka (1998) – adventure game. Gameplay is typical adventure game stuff with occasional moon logic (do the same thing 3 times in a row, with the first two times giving you the generic “this doesn’t work” response) but it’s fun for the crazy animations and cutscenes.

Earth 2140 (1998)– RTS, it’s alright, very basic. Never played the sequels.

Clash (1998) – turn-based strategy. It was ok, I think? I can barely remember it, hard to compete with HoMM and Warlords.

Crime Cities (2000) – you fly a futuristic car in a city and do stuff. I remember it looked good, but controlled and played wonky, I never finished it.

Kurka Wodna (2001) – Shovelware. Playable as a mindless time-waster. It’s very easy to “mod” it, all graphics are just pictures (bmp files, I think) in the game’s folder. I know a guy who changed all enemies to dicks and swastikas he drew in MSPaint, so there’s that.

Polanie 2 (2003) – RTS. it’s alright, but nothing special.

Chrome (2003)- Shooter. It’s pretty good. There are some vehicles, some stealth sections, you get slightly different missions depending on your choices.

Frater (2006) (aka The Chosen: Well of Souls): Diablo clone. Barebones mechanics. The only thing that it has going for it is that it’s difficult, as opposed to most modern Diablo clones where you faceroll 99% of the game and die of boredom. Not a good game, but playable if you really want to.

Witcher 1 (2007) – Janky combat with respawning enemies, but it’s a mostly good, atmospheric game otherwise.

Witcher 2 (2011) – Much like the first one, but feels smaller and more fragmented, I guess? Has more flashy sequences and you can see the bigger budget, but I was overall disappointed with it. It’s not bad, but I’ve beaten it once, and never returned to it since. Haven’t played Witcher 3, and I don’t want to.

Hard West (2015) – tactical game. Has some issues, but it’s pretty good.

Against the Storm (2023) – “roguelike” city builder. It’s surprisingly good. Like all games with no clear goal or ending, I just got bored with it, but I’ll play it again sometime. Very good for what it is.

 

[Dr Skeleton]

You should play this shit: best Polish game ever. It lets you discover for yourself how fucked up polish language truly is.

Truly, the Dark Souls of educational games, even we can't make sense of this mess. Didn't it have copy protection where you'd have to look up random words and lines from the manual? Or was that a math game from the same era?

 

[Losus4]

Two Worlds is incredibly shitty

It's great once you get into it. Most players are put off by the jank, but that jank is 90% the buggy grass rendering. Disable the grass with a console command "engine.grassq 0" to remove it, and the game becomes buttery smooth. Don't use the grass slider in the options as the lowest setting still gives you some grass. (why do games do this) and also disable shadows as they add to the jank too. Sans grass and shadows, you have a solid RPG with a great skill system, great exploration + world design, weapon upgrades, great progression from weakling to god, decent quests, the funny dialogue and Chad main character only add to the charm.

 

[Ahnx]

The only real good Polish game is the first Painkiller.

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

Chrome, first polish attempt on making quality games

It's nothing more than glorified tech demo, def. one of the best looking 2003 games but not very fun to play.

Fire Fight (1996) – shmup/action game. Good, gets repetitive, but it's a fun game

It's exceptionally good title. Isometric view but fps-like mouse+strafe controls, it's like Take No Prisoners / Mageslayer but released year earlier.

 

[Hellraiser]

I actually forgot about the other (besides the OG Kao on the Dreamcast) and much better Polish game I played this year, Timberborn.

While in early access it is actually quite decent builder with a fun dam/water physics gimmick and connecting mechanisms/axels to power industry with waterwheels etc., especially now when it seems they added full 3D water physics (you can build aqueducts and I guess tunnels now, previously it seems they used fake 3D for their voxel with a 2D heightmap array for everything). I just hope they flesh out the game a bit more before 1.0.

As a bonus it is a Polish game abouts Bobers, Kurwa.

EDIT:

Against the Storm (2023) – “roguelike” city builder. It’s surprisingly good. Like all games with no clear goal or ending, I just got bored with it, but I’ll play it again sometime. Very good for what it is.

Sheeeeeit, that's a potatoland game? Make it 3 Polish games I played this year, and this ones better than Timberborn IMO (at least for now, maybe when it leaves EA/with more content it will overtake AtS).



Didn't know, very fun game although the grind is stupidly excesive for a singleplayer game. Still played it a ton, the "lots of different recipes/buildings to get resource X at different efficiency" builder/economy gimmick mixed with roguelike randomness and ripping off the Frostpunk meter-of-doom mechanic into something more interesting makes for a very good game.

 

[Lagole Gon]

Książę i Tchórz is an amazing game.

You faggots just didn't know the correct way to play it - with help of the entire neighbourhood and distant relatives, exchanging tips for weeks.

 

[spectre]

Skaut Kwartermaster, dzifko. The Polish answer to Day of the Tentacle, as befitting our capabilities.

Also, does Manor Lords count? It's hyped af, but it's still early access and uncertain where it's going to go.

DoomRL is probably the one I genuinely enjoyed.

 

[Lagole Gon]

Core gameplay is really good, sadly it's dragged down by too long levels and unfair boss fights.

 

[Gahbreeil]

 

[Roguey]

I'm no Pole but

Witcher
Witcher 2
Witcher 3
Terminator Resistance
Hard West
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
Ruiner
Ghostrunner

Robocop and Cyberpunk are on my list of things to get around to. I'm sure they'd round it out.

 

[Skinwalker]

1. Bulletstorm
2. Franko: The Crazy Revenge
3. Doman: Grzechy Ardana
4. Fire Fight
5. Ciemna Strona
6. Noc
7. Necrovision / The Lost Company
8. Target
9. Sfinx
10. Otchłań

I've never heard of any of this crap. What the fuck is this?

 

[I eat frozen vegetables]

I'm no Pole but

Witcher
Witcher 2
Witcher 3
Terminator Resistance
Hard West
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
Ruiner
Ghostrunner

Robocop and Cyberpunk are on my list of things to get around to. I'm sure they'd round it out.

I second Ruiner. I only played a little bit of it before my computer bit it, but it was damn fun shooting enemies and the story was engaging to me.

 

[Zariusz]

Have you played the Reksio game series?
Basically a polish cartoon character.
I remember playing some back in the day (with translations of course) and it was pretty fun.
Reksio and the Time Machine or whatever it was called, that one was the best.

Hah this was one of my favourites as a kid, i still remember bugged prehistoric level and that annoying puzzle in medieval times.

 

[Strig]

They're all trash, but I played a lot of them.

 

[Nelka]

Wow, nobody mentioned Call of Juarez yet, shame. The first game was alright, I wish later entries were less FPSy.
Also Darkwood. Too bad the studio got disbanded.

EDIT: Oke, PieRoguey mentioned it, but he's not a POLE so it doesn't count. CLAIMING!

 

[Jvegi]

Wow, nobody mentioned Call of Juarez yet, shame

At least two people did, you dumb sruskie cunt.

 

[I eat frozen vegetables]

Książę i Tchórz is an amazing game.

You faggots just didn't know the correct way to play it - with help of the entire neighbourhood and distant relatives, exchanging tips for weeks.

Available on GOG in English, so there's zero excuse to not buy it.