Operation: Overkill II Retrospective Review
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The CRPG Addict has finalized his retrospective critique of Operation: Overkill II, giving the classic and yet still popular BBS role-playing door a "GIMLET" score of 33. First, I'll send you over to the GameBanshee BBS to play the game yourself, and then I'll leave you with a couple of paragraphs to give you an idea of where this one went:
I wasn't able to get off Level 2. Every time I started to make progress, something would set me back, usually death. You can resurrect after dying, but it costs a hard-won experience level, associated attributes, and some equipment. Oh, and you have to wait a while. I couldn't figure out how to tweak this setting. Every time I died, I had to take a couple days off from playing the game. On the one hand, I wouldn't mind if modern games implemented such a dynamic. Not days, but maybe 15 minutes or so. It would give weight to deaths and force you to take a break from playing to do a couple chores or something. On the other hand, it feels so damned undignified to have to sit out a few rounds for a game that exists only on my computer.
There were other setbacks. I'd start to save up money to permanently build a base (which costs 100,000 crystals) only to have my vaccinations expire, requiring me to spend another 10,000. Ultimately, the game puts you between a rock and a hard place. There's no way to win without grinding on each level for a while, but there's too much randomness in combat to ensure that grinding will actually pay off. I guess I could have been more judicious and fled from more creatures.
