General PC Game Recommendation Thread

[dropsmegamega]

The Temple of Elemental Evil is a Banger old-skool Turn based RPG.
Set in the D&D world,and tbh i don't know what Rule set it goes by, rather which Revision.

I Know it was a fun game tho, and Very Diablo looking, maybe Diablo 2.
You can even Kill the NPC's as i recall, if you wanna go True Chaotic evil in it.

Also, Hard as Nails. you aren't gonna just spam-click and win this. the Enemy A.I. <for the time> was rather Cheap and would kill you 1 hit if they got a lucky Dice roll

Still hella fun if you like Old D&D

View attachment 24463

The only Troika game I haven't played yet. Definitely gonna try it once I finish NWN2 and its expansions.

 

[Zerpina]

The only Troika game I haven't played yet. Definitely gonna try it once I finish NWN2 and its expansions.

Vampire TMB and Arcanum, where probably my favorite of their games
Broke as VTM was XD

 

[GardeniaSky's icon GardeniaSky GardeniaSky]

Idk if this is redundant or even necessary but Daggerfall is my rec.

It's free. Bethesda released it completely and there's even a Daggerfall Unity fan project that makes modding possible. There are a ton of quality of life mods to make the game more accessible to a modern player base.

It's a high fantasy RPG with D&D dice roll elements for skill checks and combat.

 

[Deleted member 7989]

Definitely Oni. A game from 2001 made by Bungie West, it was their only game. It's a cross between melee combat and third-person shooting. The PC version is much better than the PS2 by a mile thanks to the Anniversary Edition 7 project by the community. It still has a decent following, there is a discord and forum, and the mod scene is alive albeit slow these days. Really gotta try it out. And if you're looking for more info about the development then watch this video. I really love this game, it's one of my all time favorites. It has a distinct style that nothing else has come close to replicating imo.

 

[trickybus]

American McGee's Alice (2000), a dark fantasy action-platformer - If you're a fan of dark takes on classic children's literature, this game has the goods. You control the protagonist of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland as she returns to her childhood happy-place in the aftermath of a house fire that takes her family's lives. Now a young adult, Alice is faced with a Wonderland that is twisted by her trauma: the inhabitants are cruel and the environment is hostile. To see what has become of her old friends, Alice must jump and fight her way through a nightmare of her making, aided by the Chesire Cat, the White Rabbit, and a variety of children's toys that take on sinister and deadly forms.

 

[RebelofDaNeonGod]

Cultic, Cultic, Cultic. Where do I begin with Cultic? While there are certainly some things that are inspired by Blood (as many people have already pointed out), Cultic is a different beast all together. Let's talk about moment to moment game play. We got dodges, slides, slide hopping, the latter being something I seldom used as dodging felt much better for me to move with and maneuvering around enemy bullets. Coupled with guns and weapons that pack a fucking punch and a half, the game play is satisfying as hell. The sound design for the most part (I think the soundtrack is a tad too bombastic and orchestral for the mood and tone the game has going for it) really fucking hits, the sound of the pistol firing off hot lead and the squirting of blood from a red-eyed cult member soon after is like crack. The racking of shells, the grunts of enemies, the sound of footsteps as they shuffle here and there in dank, dark caves and blood soaked hallways, MMM! The visual design is wholly unique as well, it is the visual equivalent of dirt in your teeth. The whole game looks like it was been ran through swamp muck, oil, twigs and gunpowder in the best way possible. The gripping of the hatchet and the eruption of viscera as you swing down the blade on head after head soothes the soul of men. The difficulty (I beat the game on Extreme) is punishing, yet fuel upon the fire. Pistol bullets shred the player's health, you'd be lucky to keep your armor. As the bullet slowly makes its way into my brain and explodes into a metal flower lodged firmly in the frontal lobe, I'm already gearing up for another go at whichever unfortunate hooded bastard made the mistake of pulling the trigger, not knowing that I thrive within the hellish cycle of Samsara. Wish the music and bosses were a bit better though.

 

[ThirteeTooBeets]

Begging everyone reading this to please give Evolva a shot

Strategy game set in a distant future, where humanity has become the protectors of the Universe thanks to their scientific progress. One day, a giant parasitic lifeform crashes on a distant planet and starts to spread and consume all life in it, as well as deplying its "antibodies" to secure more territory and destroy possible dangers.
Our ship then sends four "Geohunters" in a series of missions to collect info, destroy the invasive alien life, secure the native fauna, locate the parasite and destroy it.
You can control each Geohunter individualy while also giving orders to others, it's a strategy game with combat and the hability to evolve your Geohunters by absorving DNA of anything you kill

​

 

[VampireLord1024VampireLord1024's icon]

Maybe Kerbal Space Program and Spore?

 

[Cheeks]

Diablo - 1996 - Action/Computer RPG

A truly dark fantasy game, the town of Tristram has fallen under the influence of Diablo, Lord of Terror. Pick a character class and enter the underground, facing the many minions under Diablo's control.

First off, the tone is perfect. Tristram is a dilapidated town with a church leading into the nightmarish depths of Hell. The locals are scared and are relying on you to destroy the Lord of Terror, only one of the world's three Prime Evils. In this quest you are on your own, armed only with your wits and strength, whether you play as a warrior, rogue, or sorcerer. The game's soundtrack also encapsulates the bleakness with plenty of ambient tracks, the town theme providing the only source of solace. Most important to the game is the loot system. Enemies will drop random loot on death, be it scrolls, potions, or equipment. This system keeps the hack-and-slash gameplay going, encouraging you to look out for better gear as you advance. It's a solid system before Diablo II came along and perfected the looting system.

Diablo and its unofficial expansion, Hellfire, are available on GOG and are a part of their Preservation Program: https://www.gog.com/en/game/diablo

 

[Blamhammer]

Gonna throw Project I.G.I. into this list. Not brilliant, but can still be worth checking out if you are interested in playing large open area missions with pseudo-realistic gunplay and action.
In some ways it kinda resembles GoldenEye 64, i'd say it's the PC's closest equivalent at the time.

Last level is a nightmare though. I never completed it.

 

[XM88]

I really love the visuals of this thing, its engine looks exactly like how I imagined a black isle's fallout 3 and iirc there's even actual working vehicles in the game. But tactical games are a bit intimidating for me. You not only have to build a character, but a whole squad and get used to the game stats right away in order to not mess up their build and maybe there's more mechanics like resource management? I have no idea. That being said, I did play and finish Wasteland 2...

If you can beat Wasteland 2 then you have the patience to beat Tactics. Every time I try playing wasteland 2 I get sucked into a dungeon for what feels like hours only to come out a worse person for it. The third game was pretty good though.

 

[Blamhammer]

Moar "free" games.
Halo 2 on the PC came out spearheading the new Microsoft OS Vista. Yeah that was a great idea lol.

Halo 2 PC (Project Cartographer) brings the original PC release to modern operating systems, and can be played online.
You can download the full installer on their website, but remember to have an original copy of the game to justify the download! *wags finger*
Halo 2 PC

 

[CyberRabbit]

No roller coaster tycoon?

This is criminal

 

[Clippy]

OutRun 2006 Coast 2 Coast - 2006 - Racing - A fantastic purely arcade racer that SEGA used to be known for way back when with updated graphics and controls. Not a drop of that filthy simulation blood here, folks. Pedal to the metal and weaving 'round the bends with unrealistically long drifts all day every day. Pick your favorite car from the marque of the Prancing Horse (TM) stable (officially licensed, unlike in the past) and go wild. There is very little to be found here if you're into realism but the sheer fun that the races provide more than makes up for it. The courses are very colorful and diverse, with vibrant graphics giving life and that extra oomph to the vistas that you probably won't have much time to admire anyway. From sun-soaked rivieras

to beautiful waterfalls

to majestic mountains shrouded in fog

and everything in between. Can't complain about boredom on that front. The music is pure SEGA goodness. The old tunes from the classic 80s arcade titles got updated and rearranged for the then-modern times but don't fret if you're a fan of those songs in their original form as they're available for your perusal as well the way they were meant to be all the way back in '86 or '89.

The real star of the show, at least in my humble opinion, are the girlfriend challenges. The standard races are great of course but it's the ladies and the twist they put on your driving experience that are the highlight here. The gist of the gf mode is that you will be presented with a set of challenges to complete. They range from what you would expect such as passing cars or not crashing on a given section of the track to slightly more outlandish exploits such as avoiding meteors, busting ghosts or even

that's right, doing math. After all, variety is the spice of life, isn't it? Any fan of fun arcade racing whose relationship with physics is very loose to say the least will definitely find themselves at home here.

The best way to play the game on PC these days is with the phenomenal OutRun2006Tweaks patch which uncensors the game, gives it widescreen and borderless window support and more. You can find the game with said tweaks in the Repo. Have fun!

 

[CyberRabbit]

OutRun 2006 Coast 2 Coast - 2006 - Racing - A fantastic purely arcade racer that SEGA used to be known for way back when with updated graphics and controls. Not a drop of that filthy simulation blood here, folks. Pedal to the metal and weaving 'round the bends with unrealistically long drifts all day every day. Pick your favorite car from the marque of the Prancing Horse (TM) stable (officially licensed, unlike in the past) and go wild. There is very little to be found here if you're into realism but the sheer fun that the races provide more than makes up for it. The courses are very colorful and diverse, with vibrant graphics giving life and that extra oomph to the vistas that you probably won't have much time to admire anyway. From sun-soaked rivieras
View attachment 113117
to beautiful waterfalls
View attachment 113118
to majestic mountains shrouded in fog
View attachment 113119
and everything in between. Can't complain about boredom on that front. The music is pure SEGA goodness. The old tunes from the classic 80s arcade titles got updated and rearranged for the then-modern times but don't fret if you're a fan of those songs in their original form as they're available for your perusal as well the way they were meant to be all the way back in '86 or '89.

The real star of the show, at least in my humble opinion, are the girlfriend challenges. The standard races are great of course but it's the ladies and the twist they put on your driving experience that are the highlight here. The gist of the gf mode is that you will be presented with a set of challenges to complete. They range from what you would expect such as passing cars or not crashing on a given section of the track to slightly more outlandish exploits such as avoiding meteors, busting ghosts or even
View attachment 113122
that's right, doing math. After all, variety is the spice of life, isn't it? Any fan of fun arcade racing whose relationship with physics is very loose to say the least will definitely find themselves at home here.

The best way to play the game on PC these days is with the phenomenal OutRun2006Tweaks patch which uncensors the game, gives it widescreen and borderless window support and more. You can find the game with said tweaks in the Repo. Have fun!

Dang Out Run 2006 looks beautiful (Gonna have to add that to my to play list for pc whenever I get one)

 

[Clippy]

Little Fighter 2 - 1999 - Beat'em Up - Talk about a certified hood classic. A freeware game made by two guys from Hong Kong. No story to speak of, just 10 characters to choose from and 25 increasingly difficult levels to beat. Well, not quite. There's loads of content here considering the genre's standards. 10 characters might seem redundant if you've played the stalwart classics like Streets of Rage or Final fight but the twist here is that every character has several special moves. One can set enemies ablaze and have their flying bodies ignite other mooks like falling dominoes. Another can heal himself or his teammates or throw devastating kienzans that will slice through everything in their path. Yet another wears armor that gives him a bit of invincibility but does make him slow as molasses. However, when his health drops below a certain threshold he can transform said armor into a trident and become an absolute beast capable of charging enemies to death and deflecting projectiles with ease. There's a character for just about anyone's playstyle including ranged attackers. The way it's balanced is that every character has a mana bar that will prevent you from spamming specials so you'll have to rely on basic punches and kicks quite a bit.

Another staple of the genre that is present and accounted for here is the pickups. These range from simple throwables like a knife or a baseball to regular weapons like a baseball bat or a sickle to, finally, big beefy crates and rocks that will do a lot of damage but you will be completely defenseless while carrying them. Special mention goes to health and mana potions which I always thought were milk and beer respectively. I'm not sure if they have a canonical name, they just look like milk and beer to me . I give them a special mention because of two things: One is that they aren't instant pickups like in so many other games in the genre. You have to stop and have a drink which will make you very vulnerable. The other reason is that, especially in later stages, the game's tactic is to spawn mooks behind you who will specifically target the supplies you left behind for later and drink them themselves, leaving you high and dry.

There is an abundance of game modes as well. The aforementioned story mode is the main draw, at least for me currently. You can have up to four people playing at the same time (imagine four kids huddling around a single keyboard, those were the days ) but if you're on your own you can always add AI-controlled characters to help you out. This ups the possible player pool to eight. The AI is somewhat decent, especially when you take into account that it's an indie game from the turn of the century made by two guys but realistically speaking it won't be able to make up for the increase in difficulty that having more players entails unless you play on easy mode. Another AI addition is that you will meet a bunch of goons who are tied up and ready to join you in your fight. They can get in the way sometimes, especially if your character is projectile-heavy but you will want them on your team, trust me. Most of the other modes are a variant of versus mode, kinda like old Double Dragon on NES except done better. You can either have a straight up versus match or hold a tournament that comes in two flavors - 1 on 1 and 2 on 2. Should be self-explanatory. The one other mode that is lots of fun is the battle mode. The gist of it is that you pit two sides of characters against each other. They don't have to be balanced. It can be a 4v4 or a 1v7 if you want to. The best part, however, is that you can give them armies of mooks that you fight in the story mode. You can go up to battalions consisting of almost 100 characters on screen at any given time trying to beat the snot out of each other. Per side. Absolute insanity.

Playing the game on today's hardware is fairly easy but can be a bit confusing since there are 4 different versions of the game that are widely used. You can find all of them here. The game is and always has been freeware so linking it here shouldn't be a problem. Before I break down all available versions I should note that there is no way to play the game in full screen as of this writing, at least to my knowledge. The good old Alt+Enter simply crashes the game on my Win10 machine no matter what version but your experience may differ. Let us know if you find a way. Now for the breakdown:

1.9 - The version I play and the one I used to take the screenshots you see in this post. I genuinely can't remember if it used to have fullscreen support on period-accurate hardware/Windows. It's been over 20 years so you'll have to cut me some slack. The trick I use to get it as close to fullscreen as it gets is that I make a shortcut for the .exe and I force maximized window in its properties.

1.9c - Either the changelog was never properly documented or it was lost to time. Either way I can't find it, not even on Wayback Machine (though to be fair they have a lot of snapshots of the devs' page and I couldn't be bothered to trudge through all of them). The one major difference from 1.9 that I've noticed is that the shortcut trick freezes the game so I'm stuck playing windowed mode with this one. Before you ask, we're talking about a non-resizable 800x600 window.

2.0 - The bulk of the game's development happened between 1999 and 2002 so this was a bit of a surprise update released in 2008. It brings two major changes. One is that it adds music. Yep, the old versions didn't have any and in all honesty I'm so used to that being the case that having tunes isn't really a selling point for me. They're a fairly catchy rocking affair that fits the game but I don't care all that much for them to be perfectly honest. The other major change is that now the menus are plastered with ads. Yep. Ads for merch that is no longer being sold. Ads for a toolbar of all things. Ads for a game the devs were working on at the time that they ended up never finishing (you can still find a beta floating around online if you're interested).

2.0a - This one is interesting because it fixes a major bug that was introduced by NVidia at the time. The thing is that all preceding versions used GPU hardware to mirror sprites but around 2008-2009 NVidia deprecated the relevant instruction set and everything went out of whack so to speak. The fix has a downside though - it broke compatibility with a lot of mods that were made with prior versions in mind so if you want to explore them this version is probably not for you. Fortunately, the community managed to find a way to fix the issue in earlier versions. All you have to do is download the DLL files that you'll find in the link above and put them in your LF2 folder.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the LF2 Remaster that came out a few months ago on Steam. It's NOT freeware and I haven't tried it myself but there are quite a few reviews complaining about numerous bugs, issues with controls and upscaled AI art. It seems to be in active development so it might become the definitive way to play the game in the future or it might even be the best option for you now. All I can say is that you should proceed with caution.

 

[Clippy]

I'm going to dedicate this one to our favorite resident menace of the high seas @Zerpina

Claw (aka Captain Claw) - 1997 - 2D platformer - Monolith's second game and by Monolith I don't mean the guys who are responsible for Dark Souls but a slightly lesser known American Monolith who cut their teeth making shooters at the time with their first one (and the only one preceding Claw) being Blood whose lineage is very much present in this game despite the lady protesting a little too much. Monolith's marketing was trying to sell Claw as a family-friendly romp that's on the opposite end of the ultra violence spectrum that Blood was - a game that didn't need to be violent to be fun. I'd argue that stabbing, shooting, blowing up and downright erasing enemies with magic still constitutes a whole lot of violence but that's neither here nor there really.

You are captain Nathaniel J. Claw, an anthropomorphic feline, a veritable pirate captain and an absolute scourge of the high seas, so much so that there is a massive bounty on your head and there are many who would be willing to collect. The introductory cinematic finds you and your crew ambushed and embroiled in naval combat against Le Rauxe, an admiral of the Cocker Spaniard fleet. Yeah, the game has a bit of a cats vs dogs theme to it. Even I winced a bit when I got the pun and I love them dearly. The battle goes... Poorly.​

The face our mods make when they have to put someone in reader mode​

Fortunately for you, you're so infamous that instead of getting killed right then and there you're going to be brought to the Spaniard king as a prize. Before that happens, however, you're to be kept in the La Roca prison. In your cell you accidentally find a secret stash left by one of countless unfortunate souls who found themselves there before you. In it there's a piece of a map and a note confirming and describing the existence of an artifact called the Amulet of Nine Lives - a trinket that promises immortality to its owner. Can there be a grander prize than that? Time to break out of this gaol and take what's rightfully yours!​

The La Roca dungeon won't be able to hold you for long​

Now it's just a matter of traversing the 14 levels that separate you from eternal glory. 14 levels may not seem like much but not only are they all very diverse set pieces such as the aforementioned La Roca dungeon and the castle's ramparts later on but the journey will also take you through a lush forest, a town, a dock at night and the ship you steal there as well as undersea caverns and, finally, the Tiger Island where your exploits will culminate in a mad dash through a hell-themed labyrinth with the guardian of the amulet's final gem awaiting to give you your final trial at the end.

Your swashbuckling arsenal consists of your trusty punches, kicks and a cutlass but you also have a few secondary weapons such as your flintlock that will be your workhorse for long-range combat, bundles of dynamite sticks that do a lot of damage and work the same way they did in Blood - the longer you hold the button the farther you throw. Finally, you have the magic claw which will kill any mook in one hit but ammo for it is exceedingly rare.

Another thing about these 14 levels is that they are absolutely massive and sprawling. Extra lives, temporary jump enhancements, fire/cold/lightning sword upgrades that will allow your cutlass to fire projectiles for a time or invisibility just to name a few. The first few levels will have those lying around just to give you a taste but later down the line you'll have to explore to earn them.​

At least you get a warning this time. A warning that there's at least one secret there if you dare risk it​

In an uncharacteristic gesture of kindness the levels are peppered with arrows telling you where to go if you just want to get to the end of a given level but they also indirectly tell you where the juiciest secrets lie.​

Do you want to beat the level fairly effortlessly or do you want to risk it for a chance of a funky power-up and extra treasure? Your call

This is what happens when you don't explore​

And explore you should. Power-ups are one thing. The more important motivator perhaps is that your score is not just for bragging rights in Claw but will also net you a bunch of extra lives and they're absolutely worth it. This game is HARD. Tiny platforms? Check. Moving platforms? Check. Disappearing platforms? Check. Timed spikes protruding from any of these, making your life difficult? Why, yes. Pools of acid or spikes that will kill you instantly? Absolutely. Sudden arrows from the walls? You bet. Conveyor belts that will make it difficult to move forward or stay on the platform you're on? You're damn right. You will be intimately familiar with most of these by the end of stage 2 and the game will only crank up the difficulty from there by combining these features and throwing devious enemies in for good measure.

With that said, as hard as the game can be, especially from stage 9 onward, it's also fair most of the time. Checkpoints are fairly generous and even if you get a game over you'll be able to start from the last stage you were on. One interesting thing the game does is that it keeps track of your progress independently of the checkpoint you're at. What I mean by this is that imagine you get to a checkpoint. Now imagine you kill a few enemies but you die before reaching the next checkpoint. You will be reset to the last checkpoint but the enemies you dispatched will stay dead. Same goes for the treasures you pick up so you don't need to retrace your steps after exploring a little too hard and dying.​

One of those few examples of unfair difficulty. Not only does it take a lot of frames before you can get off the ladder and start doing damage (or running) but also every single one of these canine hombres has a ranged attack and will be more than happy to nail you with it. Someone over at Monolith must've had a bad day.​

To recapitulate, Claw is a must-play for any fan of the genre. The gameplay is sublime, the graphics are absolutely beautiful. The game will challenge you but will be fair about doing so. I haven't touched on the music really and that's for good reason. Most of it is subdued ambient themes that fit any given level but, more importantly, don't get in your way. Chances are you won't even notice that it's there because you'll be busy keeping your ears alert for sound cues such as enemy grunts or environmental hazard noises.

Playing Claw on modern hardware is easy. The game's requirements are so low that even my old rig is capable of simply emulating a period-accurate PC. However, The best option for most of you, I imagine, will be one of the community-made repacks that are floating around out there. One such repack I've tested before and can vouch for is called Claw CrazyHook. The search phrase of the day should be 'The Claw Recluse', just to make sure you get it from a reputable source. You will not only get the already excellent game itself but also hundreds of fan-made levels to peruse at your leisure.​

 

[Octopus]

I'm going to dedicate this one to our favorite resident menace of the high seas @Zerpina
View attachment 119914

Claw (aka Captain Claw) - 1997 - 2D platformer - Monolith's second game and by Monolith I don't mean the guys who are responsible for Dark Souls but a slightly lesser known American Monolith who cut their teeth making shooters at the time with their first one (and the only one preceding Claw) being Blood whose lineage is very much present in this game despite the lady protesting a little too much. Monolith's marketing was trying to sell Claw as a family-friendly romp that's on the opposite end of the ultra violence spectrum that Blood was - a game that didn't need to be violent to be fun. I'd argue that stabbing, shooting, blowing up and downright erasing enemies with magic still constitutes a whole lot of violence but that's neither here nor there really.

You are captain Nathaniel J. Claw, an anthropomorphic feline, a veritable pirate captain and an absolute scourge of the high seas, so much so that there is a massive bounty on your head and there are many who would be willing to collect. The introductory cinematic finds you and your crew ambushed and embroiled in naval combat against Le Rauxe, an admiral of the Cocker Spaniard fleet. Yeah, the game has a bit of a cats vs dogs theme to it. Even I winced a bit when I got the pun and I love them dearly. The battle goes... Poorly.​

View attachment 119916
The face our mods make when they have to put someone in reader mode​

Fortunately for you, you're so infamous that instead of getting killed right then and there you're going to be brought to the Spaniard king as a prize. Before that happens, however, you're to be kept in the La Roca prison. In your cell you accidentally find a secret stash left by one of countless unfortunate souls who found themselves there before you. In it there's a piece of a map and a note confirming and describing the existence of an artifact called the Amulet of Nine Lives - a trinket that promises immortality to its owner. Can there be a grander prize than that? Time to break out of this gaol and take what's rightfully yours!​

View attachment 119919
The La Roca dungeon won't be able to hold you for long​

Now it's just a matter of traversing the 14 levels that separate you from eternal glory. 14 levels may not seem like much but not only are they all very diverse set pieces such as the aforementioned La Roca dungeon and the castle's ramparts later on but the journey will also take you through a lush forest, a town, a dock at night and the ship you steal there as well as undersea caverns and, finally, the Tiger Island where your exploits will culminate in a mad dash through a hell-themed labyrinth with the guardian of the amulet's final gem awaiting to give you your final trial.

Your swashbuckling arsenal consists or your trusty punches, kicks and a cutlass but you also have a few secondary weapons such as your flintlock that will be your workhorse for long-range combat, bundles of dynamite sticks that do a lot of damage and work the same way they did in Blood - the longer you hold the button the farther you throw. Finally, you have the magic claw which will kill any mook in one hit but ammo for it is exceedingly rare.

Another thing about these 14 levels is that they are absolutely massive and sprawling. Extra lives, temporary jump enhancements, fire/cold/lightning sword upgrades that will allow your cutlass to fire projectiles for a time or invisibility just to name a few. The first few levels will have those lying around just to give you a taste but later down the line you'll have to explore to earn them.​

View attachment 119920
At least you get a warning this time. A warning that there's at least one secret there if you dare risk it​

In an uncharacteristic gesture of kindness the levels are peppered with arrows telling you where to go if you just want to get to the end of a given level but they also indirectly tell you where the juiciest secrets lie.​

View attachment 119921
Do you want to beat the level fairly effortlessly or do you want to risk it for a chance of a funky power-up and extra treasure? Your call

View attachment 119922
This is what happens when you don't explore​

And explore you should. Power-ups are one thing. The more important motivator perhaps is that your score is not just for bragging rights in Claw but will also net you a bunch of extra lives and they're absolutely worth it. This game is HARD. Tiny platforms? Check. Moving platforms? Check. Disappearing platforms? Check. Timed spikes protruding from any of these, making your life difficult? Why, yes. Pools of acid or spikes that will kill you instantly? Absolutely. Sudden arrows from the walls? You bet. Conveyor belts that will make it difficult to move forward or stay on the platform you're on? You're damn right. You will be intimately familiar with most of these by the end of stage 2 and the game will only crank up the difficulty from there by combining these features and throwing devious enemies in for good measure.

With that said, as hard as the game can be, especially from stage 9 onward, it's also fair most of the time. Checkpoints are fairly generous and even if you get a game over you'll be able to start from the last stage you were on. One interesting thing the game does is that it keeps track of your progress independently of the checkpoint you're at. What I mean by this is that imagine you get to a checkpoint. Now imagine you kill a few enemies but you die before reaching the next checkpoint. You will be reset to the last checkpoint but the enemies you dispatched will stay dead. Same goes for the treasures you pick up so you don't need to retrace your steps after exploring a little too hard and dying.​

View attachment 119924
One of those few examples of unfair difficulty. Not only does it take a lot of frames before you can get off the ladder and start doing damage (or running) but also every single one of these canine hombres has a ranged attack and will be more than happy to nail you with it. Someone over at Monolith must've had a bad day.​

To recapitulate, Claw is a must-play for any fan of the genre. The gameplay is sublime, the graphics are absolutely beautiful. The game will challenge you but will be fair about doing so. I haven't touched on the music really and that's for good reason. Most of it is subdued ambient themes that fit any given level but, more importantly, don't get in your way. Chances are you won't even notice that it's there because you'll be busy keeping your ears alert for sound cues such as enemy grunts or environmental hazard noises.

Playing Claw on modern hardware is easy. The game's requirements are so low that even my old rig is capable of simply emulating a period-accurate PC. However, The best option for most of you, I imagine, will be one of the community-made repacks that are floating around out there. One such repack I've tested before and can vouch for is called Claw CrazyHook. The search phrase of the day should be 'The Claw Recluse', just to make sure you get it from a reputable source. You will not only get the already excellent game itself but also hundreds of fan-made levels to peruse at your leisure.​

Monolith made an adorable cat pirate platformer the same year as Blood? What the hell why have I never heard of this until now.

 

[Clippy]

Monolith made an adorable cat pirate platformer the same year as Blood? What the hell why have I never heard of this until now.

They went on to reference it in Shogo MAD as well later on, complete with a joke about eating pussy.

Claw was meant to become a bit of a franchise but attempts at making a sequel, in 3D no less, fizzled out for the most part. Some Polish studio was working on one promising venture but ultimately they didn't get the rights to the name and they had to pivot to making a standalone game called Nikita: The Mystery of the Hidden Treasure.

All I can say about that particular game is that it exists. I've never played it. Maybe I will one day just to see if it's worth recommending here.

 

[Zerpina]

I'm going to dedicate this one to our favorite resident menace of the high seas @Zerpina
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Claw (aka Captain Claw) - 1997 - 2D platformer - Monolith's second game and by Monolith I don't mean the guys who are responsible for Dark Souls but a slightly lesser known American Monolith who cut their teeth making shooters at the time with their first one (and the only one preceding Claw) being Blood whose lineage is very much present in this game despite the lady protesting a little too much. Monolith's marketing was trying to sell Claw as a family-friendly romp that's on the opposite end of the ultra violence spectrum that Blood was - a game that didn't need to be violent to be fun. I'd argue that stabbing, shooting, blowing up and downright erasing enemies with magic still constitutes a whole lot of violence but that's neither here nor there really.

You are captain Nathaniel J. Claw, an anthropomorphic feline, a veritable pirate captain and an absolute scourge of the high seas, so much so that there is a massive bounty on your head and there are many who would be willing to collect. The introductory cinematic finds you and your crew ambushed and embroiled in naval combat against Le Rauxe, an admiral of the Cocker Spaniard fleet. Yeah, the game has a bit of a cats vs dogs theme to it. Even I winced a bit when I got the pun and I love them dearly. The battle goes... Poorly.​

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The face our mods make when they have to put someone in reader mode​

Fortunately for you, you're so infamous that instead of getting killed right then and there you're going to be brought to the Spaniard king as a prize. Before that happens, however, you're to be kept in the La Roca prison. In your cell you accidentally find a secret stash left by one of countless unfortunate souls who found themselves there before you. In it there's a piece of a map and a note confirming and describing the existence of an artifact called the Amulet of Nine Lives - a trinket that promises immortality to its owner. Can there be a grander prize than that? Time to break out of this gaol and take what's rightfully yours!​

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The La Roca dungeon won't be able to hold you for long​

Now it's just a matter of traversing the 14 levels that separate you from eternal glory. 14 levels may not seem like much but not only are they all very diverse set pieces such as the aforementioned La Roca dungeon and the castle's ramparts later on but the journey will also take you through a lush forest, a town, a dock at night and the ship you steal there as well as undersea caverns and, finally, the Tiger Island where your exploits will culminate in a mad dash through a hell-themed labyrinth with the guardian of the amulet's final gem awaiting to give you your final trial at the end.

Your swashbuckling arsenal consists or your trusty punches, kicks and a cutlass but you also have a few secondary weapons such as your flintlock that will be your workhorse for long-range combat, bundles of dynamite sticks that do a lot of damage and work the same way they did in Blood - the longer you hold the button the farther you throw. Finally, you have the magic claw which will kill any mook in one hit but ammo for it is exceedingly rare.

Another thing about these 14 levels is that they are absolutely massive and sprawling. Extra lives, temporary jump enhancements, fire/cold/lightning sword upgrades that will allow your cutlass to fire projectiles for a time or invisibility just to name a few. The first few levels will have those lying around just to give you a taste but later down the line you'll have to explore to earn them.​

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At least you get a warning this time. A warning that there's at least one secret there if you dare risk it​

In an uncharacteristic gesture of kindness the levels are peppered with arrows telling you where to go if you just want to get to the end of a given level but they also indirectly tell you where the juiciest secrets lie.​

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Do you want to beat the level fairly effortlessly or do you want to risk it for a chance of a funky power-up and extra treasure? Your call

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This is what happens when you don't explore​

And explore you should. Power-ups are one thing. The more important motivator perhaps is that your score is not just for bragging rights in Claw but will also net you a bunch of extra lives and they're absolutely worth it. This game is HARD. Tiny platforms? Check. Moving platforms? Check. Disappearing platforms? Check. Timed spikes protruding from any of these, making your life difficult? Why, yes. Pools of acid or spikes that will kill you instantly? Absolutely. Sudden arrows from the walls? You bet. Conveyor belts that will make it difficult to move forward or stay on the platform you're on? You're damn right. You will be intimately familiar with most of these by the end of stage 2 and the game will only crank up the difficulty from there by combining these features and throwing devious enemies in for good measure.

With that said, as hard as the game can be, especially from stage 9 onward, it's also fair most of the time. Checkpoints are fairly generous and even if you get a game over you'll be able to start from the last stage you were on. One interesting thing the game does is that it keeps track of your progress independently of the checkpoint you're at. What I mean by this is that imagine you get to a checkpoint. Now imagine you kill a few enemies but you die before reaching the next checkpoint. You will be reset to the last checkpoint but the enemies you dispatched will stay dead. Same goes for the treasures you pick up so you don't need to retrace your steps after exploring a little too hard and dying.​

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One of those few examples of unfair difficulty. Not only does it take a lot of frames before you can get off the ladder and start doing damage (or running) but also every single one of these canine hombres has a ranged attack and will be more than happy to nail you with it. Someone over at Monolith must've had a bad day.​

To recapitulate, Claw is a must-play for any fan of the genre. The gameplay is sublime, the graphics are absolutely beautiful. The game will challenge you but will be fair about doing so. I haven't touched on the music really and that's for good reason. Most of it is subdued ambient themes that fit any given level but, more importantly, don't get in your way. Chances are you won't even notice that it's there because you'll be busy keeping your ears alert for sound cues such as enemy grunts or environmental hazard noises.

Playing Claw on modern hardware is easy. The game's requirements are so low that even my old rig is capable of simply emulating a period-accurate PC. However, The best option for most of you, I imagine, will be one of the community-made repacks that are floating around out there. One such repack I've tested before and can vouch for is called Claw CrazyHook. The search phrase of the day should be 'The Claw Recluse', just to make sure you get it from a reputable source. You will not only get the already excellent game itself but also hundreds of fan-made levels to peruse at your leisure.​

Why the fuck aren't you in the Writers' Guild?

And gods... I remember this game, To quote Voltron "From days of long ago, from uncharted regions of the universe, comes a legend"

It was as you said, fun and pretty fair about the difficulty. I think I still have a copy of it somewhere, physically put away in a box stored away long ago.

 

[Octopus]

Why the fuck aren't you in the Writers' Guild?

I agree with this statement, that was a great little review @Clippy and you have a knack for it.

 

[CyberRabbit]

I agree with this statement, that was a great little review @Clippy and you have a knack for it.

probably because they are too busy tending to their memes

 

[diet_orange]

Here's one: Game Dev Tycoon

Really simple but engaging sim that tasks you with creating software for the emerging video game industry

 

[Clippy]

probably because they are too busy tending to their memes

Why the fuck aren't you in the Writers' Guild?

Well, the real reason is as simple as it gets - I never considered applying. I always intended my writings here to be short and sweet, maybe utilitarian even. Just like the OutRun rec. I DID entertain the thought that when I have enough of those bite-sized recs then maybe I could compile a few of them into an article and apply with that but in order for me to go through with anything of the sort I'd have to write the damn things first.

Claw just kinda spiraled out of control. I expect that I will have much less to say on most games that I consider writing about here. If it turns out that I really get into it and manage to produce a few more longer write-ups then I'll probably consider applying for the Guild since I can't really think of any good reason to confine them to a thread that 6 people visit.

 

[Stingy Perry Stingy Perry]

Call me an Akward Steward but during the time when everyone around me is engrossed with WarCraft 3 and StarCraft I was so deeply immersed with this;