Geneforge 1

I got these games in a bundle, and oh man I was not prepared for how good this was. The descriptions and writing are done really well and the story is really interesting. It's old and it's not very pretty, but if you like RPGs this game is amazing!

An RPG where you play one of the Shapers, a magic order that creates beings, after being stranded on an island in a shipwreck. I appreciate the Spiderweb games but the interface is very dated and the game itself is a slog that requires more patience than I have

I went on a classic crpg buying spree years ago but am only now playing the geneforge series. I played a whole lot of the dev's other series of games. They are fun and highly nostalgic games that, if you really dig the old school style, will provide literally hundreds of hours of play time in a single run of the game. That being said, I use linux to play this and it's just hurting with bugs. If I max the resolution with the game resolution tool its unplayable, I can't move my cursor anywhere and there's no option to use keyboard-only to navigate menus (that I can discern). Furthermore, I just loaded a save and the gfx totally glitched to the point of non-playability. If I could, I would return the game, but its far too late. If I play the game at native res (so, like, 40% of my laptop's screen size), it is seemingly playable. Some saves seem to lo load ok. If they fixed these bugs I'd give it a rec.

I love all of Spiderweb Software's games. There's tons of content in all of them, endless customization and story. But the best I've played is their OG series Exile 3 if you can find a way to run it.

The start of the saga. This is a cult classic sci-fantasy rpg. The player is a shaper that ends up on a forbidden island and has to find their way off it. Whether they deal with the inhabitants or not is up to the player. It is entirely possible to beat the game in 15 minutes and get the worst ending because the player left without doing anything. There are multiple ways to play through this game, one of which is entirely pacifist. It's a solid 35-40 hour experience. Has a lot of problems with difficulty balancing that are common with CRPGs of the time. Having played through this version and the remake, the remake is significantly more forgiving.

Nothing wrong with the game concept, and I remember enjoying this when it came out, but this version *feels* like playing on the computer we had when I was a kid. I'd recommend trying one of their other titles (Avernum is my favorite, and I really like Spiderweb!) unless this gets re-released sometime.

The age of this game really shows. It is slow and boring. The interface and controls are awful. The story was interesting and unique, but it was not enough to make up for the problems. I suspect the ratings for this game benefit a lot from nostalgia.

Death to the Shapers

"[i]munch munch munc--[/i] MOOOO." This game heavily influenced the flavor of my autism as a child. I have to give it a thumbs up on principle, but in reality trying to play this on modern hardware is pretty bad. Forced resolutions, interacting poorly with any sort of screen element software, things like that. [h1] Definitely play the remake if you can. [/h1]

Really awesome little RPG :) If the screenshots are appealing you'll probably have a great time (I know I did!)