Skankster
Novice
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2008
- Messages
- 97
Just finished Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed and all I can say is, bring back the old days.
The game itself is simplistic in a number of ways, namely dialogue or any kind of interaction with other beings. However, the sheer brilliance of the combat makes up for it.
The battles can be quite long, but never tedious (apart from those times, especially in certain other goldbox games, where enemies pop up every 5 steps), and often present an excellent tactical depth.
Enemy bands are often a challenge to the player, and thought is needed to combat the different enemies that the game throws at you. There is no failsafe way to beat everything; you have think your way through by using different tactics, weapons, grenades, etc to defeat opponents.
The actual battles themselves are easy to get the hang of, yet difficult to master each situation. The invisible hex like battlefield makes movement, placement and tactics much easier to implement in a top down view rather than the isometric view used by other games like the Avernums. This is accentuated by the party moving as one entity during adventuring, only switching to the combat map when meeting foes.
Ultima started this kind of combat I believe, yet SSI mastered it and I do not think anyone else has come quite so close to such an easy to use system mixed with enemy tactics and placement. Anyone that enjoys Tactical turn based combat owes it to themselves to try out some of the Goldbox games, though I think younger users will find it easier to get into the newer versions like the Buck Rogers games or perhaps the Savage frontier series. All of them, even the oldest (though best of the Dungeons and Dragons variants in my opinion) Pool of Radiance, is quite easy to get into.
You won't find engrossing dialogue, though you will find excellent adventures mixed with brilliant Turn based combat.
Sorry about the rant, I just am on a high from finishing this brilliant game and am wondering how I am going to go back to some of the crap combat of the newer games waiting for me on my desk. I think I will need a rest from gaming for a week or two.
Or go for some other oldies. Maybe the other goldboxers, or maybe go through the whole Magic Candle trio again, though its combat is not quite as good.
Time to shut up now, if anyone has questions, thoughts, etc fire away.
The game itself is simplistic in a number of ways, namely dialogue or any kind of interaction with other beings. However, the sheer brilliance of the combat makes up for it.
The battles can be quite long, but never tedious (apart from those times, especially in certain other goldbox games, where enemies pop up every 5 steps), and often present an excellent tactical depth.
Enemy bands are often a challenge to the player, and thought is needed to combat the different enemies that the game throws at you. There is no failsafe way to beat everything; you have think your way through by using different tactics, weapons, grenades, etc to defeat opponents.
The actual battles themselves are easy to get the hang of, yet difficult to master each situation. The invisible hex like battlefield makes movement, placement and tactics much easier to implement in a top down view rather than the isometric view used by other games like the Avernums. This is accentuated by the party moving as one entity during adventuring, only switching to the combat map when meeting foes.
Ultima started this kind of combat I believe, yet SSI mastered it and I do not think anyone else has come quite so close to such an easy to use system mixed with enemy tactics and placement. Anyone that enjoys Tactical turn based combat owes it to themselves to try out some of the Goldbox games, though I think younger users will find it easier to get into the newer versions like the Buck Rogers games or perhaps the Savage frontier series. All of them, even the oldest (though best of the Dungeons and Dragons variants in my opinion) Pool of Radiance, is quite easy to get into.
You won't find engrossing dialogue, though you will find excellent adventures mixed with brilliant Turn based combat.
Sorry about the rant, I just am on a high from finishing this brilliant game and am wondering how I am going to go back to some of the crap combat of the newer games waiting for me on my desk. I think I will need a rest from gaming for a week or two.
Or go for some other oldies. Maybe the other goldboxers, or maybe go through the whole Magic Candle trio again, though its combat is not quite as good.
Time to shut up now, if anyone has questions, thoughts, etc fire away.
