Your thoughts on some old-school RPGs

[Gilliatt]

I am – once again – calling on the impressive knowledge and experience of some of you. I am considering some RPGs that I might add to my collection, but I am not sure about them. If you have played them, your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Here is the list:

Abandoned Places series

Captive series (Captive, Liberation and the spin-off Knightmare)

Dragonflight

Faery Tale Adventure series

Spirit of Adventure (this one looks interesting because it uses the Dark Eye rules)


Thanks in advance.

[galraen]

Abandoned Places - Never got very far with that game, just didn't ring my bell, don't recall any particular gameplay problems though.

Captive - Loved that game, kept me amuse for god knows how many hours on my Amiga. Not really an RPG, but fun nevertheless, I even played it again recently.

[fable]

Both Faery Tale Adventure and its sucessor, Halls of the Dead, are available from Abandonia.com. I only know the latter. It looks a lot like Ultima 7 in its detail, but lacks depth. Good game for occasional, casual play, since the objectives are pretty simple, and never change. I liked the leveling system, based on repeated item/spell use.

[Gilliatt]

I knew I could count on both of you! Thanks!

@ galraen, have you played the Captive sequel and its spin-off?

@ Fable, would you consider The Faery Tale games one of the best choices for a casual game or are there many other games you would recommend before that one?
Also, since its casual would you compare it to an action RPG? (The reason I ask is because I have a few action RPGs [Dungeon Siege, Sacred, Darkstone, Nox, Fate, Titan Quest, Silverfall, Prince of Qin, and Revenant] I have not played yet and these are the games that form my "casual playing" list. So I was wondering if Faery Tale would only add more of the same or if it would provide a better experience than those I just mentioned.)
Edit: I am not a huge fan of action RPGs by the way, but I found all these titles at a bargain price, so I thought I could give them a try one day.

[fable]

@ Fable, would you consider The Faery Tale games one of the best choices for a casual game or are there many other games you would recommend before that one?

Depends on what kind of casual games you like, I guess. For example, this guy makes a "career-and-personal-life development game" called Kudos 2 that's pretty easy to take up and put down, as well as a country-running sim, Democracy 2, that works well, too. Then there's The Butler Did It! which has some really annoying features, but also faithfully reproduces one of the great casual games of the 1980s, Murder on the Zinderneuf. (It was also one of the first games published by EA.) Spicetrade is neat--a sort of 14th century merchant traveling strategy sim, only the merchant is Islamic, and the creator really knows historical cultures.

But if you want an RPG, you might consider the three Magic Candle games--have you tried these? They play a lot like Ultima 5, but have their own elements: different kinds of herbs that affect you in battle, great AI, parties made up of different people, etc. Worth looking at. You can find them up at abandonia.com.

Also, since its casual would you compare it to an action RPG? (The reason I ask is because I have a few action RPGs [Dungeon Siege, Sacred, Darkstone, Nox, Fate, Titan Quest, Silverfall, Prince of Qin, and Revenant] I have not played yet and these are the games that form my "casual playing" list. So I was wondering if Faery Tale would only add more of the same or if it would provide a better experience than those I just mentioned.)

It's more like the Ultima series: no non-stop action, since you can pause things--unless you really want that. Have you checked out the Four Crystals of Trazere? I never could beat the final boss, but it's a really fun game with plenty of spells you construct, and a party of four whose separate abilities you control in non-stop action. It also includes puzzles that make you actually think.

[galraen]

@ galraen, have you played the Captive sequel and its spin-off?

Yes. hated it, it was terrible, worst sequel of my life. I actually bought and installed a new Gary chip so that I could boost by Amiga to the 2MB of RAM needed to run it and found I'd wasted my money and risked destroying my Amiga for nothing.

[Gilliatt]

@ Fable, thanks for the suggestions. The Butler did it looks interesting, I downloaded the demo. I am not a big fan of Sim games though, so I'll pass on the other ones.

I guess my favourite casual game is the stand-alone version of Arcomage, but I got tired of it because the version I have is full of bugs (cards disappear, quarry/magic/dungeon numbers never show, etc.)

I have played the first Magic Candle game in January and had lots of fun! You even gave me some advices on this forum! I am looking very forward to play the 4 other ones (Keys, MC II, MC III and Bloodstone).

As for The Four Crystals of Trazere, I have this game and its sequel, Son of the Empire, sitting on a shelf and waiting for me to play them.

Thanks for mentioning them anyway.

@ galraen, considering how you like Neverwinter Nights 2, I didn't expect you to qualify another game the worst sequel you ever played. Thanks for the info.