Posted August 05, 2012
Full list:
http://www.gog.com/en/forum/general/games_finished_in_2012_1/post89
13. Gorky 17 (1999) (PC, 5.8.2012, 7/10)
This happens to be my first GOG game ever that I've actually finished (excluding some games I may have finished years ago as retail versions, but later re-bought from GOG). I have the retail version of this game too (called Odium), but I've never even installed it.
Overall it was better than I expected, but still quite a mediocre experience. Not specially good or bad, but ok.
Story was so-so and completely forgettable. Some have complained the game is hard as nails, but I don't feel that way. As long as you keep an eye for all the chests containing health, ammo and new exciting weapons so that you don't run out of them, and play smart, for the most part it is actually quite easy. I don't recall getting completely stumped at any point, not even close.
In-game music seems to get better towards the end of the game. I liked the background music quite much in e.g. the City.
Some more things:
- Very linear game, not much replay value. Not a very long game either, maybe a week for a normal gamer and a couple of days for a powergamer. I felt the length of the game was pretty ok for this kind of game.
- The adventuring part between battles is very simplistic (in most cases the game automatically uses the puzzle item as long as you have it, etc.), but maybe that is just good for people playing the game mostly for its tactical battles. No pixel hunting luckily, the hotspots and interesting items are marked quite clearly.
- The battles are a bit too much of the rock-paper-scissors type. Many monsters have total immunities to certain things (like fire, energy weapons, stunning weapons etc.), so you just have to find out which weapon or device to use for which enemy.
- The battles are always pre-arranged, ie. both the enemies and your men are always in predetermined places at the start of a battle. This means that in many cases it is a good idea to go into battle just to check how the enemies and your men are positioned, and possibly what immunities the enemies have, if any. Then reload the game before the battle, change the weapons and items with your men accordingly so that it fits the battle the best, and go into the battle for real. This feels a bit of cheating, but then I guess in most games you become better when you know more beforehand due to several replays...
- I had no serious (game stopping) technical problems with the game, not in WinXP nor Win7, but some others don't seem to be as lucky. I faced two glitchy places in the game where the game even crashed:
When certain person is poisoned, sometimes part of the related dialogue was missing, after which the game crashed to desktop. Solution: reload the game and try again, usually it goes ok.
Then, in certain battle near the end where two monsters throw some timed ice bombs around, the game seemed to always crash after awhile, probably after certain round. But when I played that battle using software rendering instead of Direct3D, it didn't crash. After the battle I switched back to Direct3D.
Other than those two small parts, the game was silky smooth for me in Win7.
In the software rendering mode in Win7, the sound can get quite distorted, sometimes less, sometimes quite heavily. It sounds irritating, but the game is still playable I guess.
So, buyers beware: you may face some compatibility issues with this game. That's PC gaming for you, I guess.
http://www.gog.com/en/forum/general/games_finished_in_2012_1/post89
13. Gorky 17 (1999) (PC, 5.8.2012, 7/10)
This happens to be my first GOG game ever that I've actually finished (excluding some games I may have finished years ago as retail versions, but later re-bought from GOG). I have the retail version of this game too (called Odium), but I've never even installed it.
Overall it was better than I expected, but still quite a mediocre experience. Not specially good or bad, but ok.
Story was so-so and completely forgettable. Some have complained the game is hard as nails, but I don't feel that way. As long as you keep an eye for all the chests containing health, ammo and new exciting weapons so that you don't run out of them, and play smart, for the most part it is actually quite easy. I don't recall getting completely stumped at any point, not even close.
In-game music seems to get better towards the end of the game. I liked the background music quite much in e.g. the City.
Some more things:
- Very linear game, not much replay value. Not a very long game either, maybe a week for a normal gamer and a couple of days for a powergamer. I felt the length of the game was pretty ok for this kind of game.
- The adventuring part between battles is very simplistic (in most cases the game automatically uses the puzzle item as long as you have it, etc.), but maybe that is just good for people playing the game mostly for its tactical battles. No pixel hunting luckily, the hotspots and interesting items are marked quite clearly.
- The battles are a bit too much of the rock-paper-scissors type. Many monsters have total immunities to certain things (like fire, energy weapons, stunning weapons etc.), so you just have to find out which weapon or device to use for which enemy.
- The battles are always pre-arranged, ie. both the enemies and your men are always in predetermined places at the start of a battle. This means that in many cases it is a good idea to go into battle just to check how the enemies and your men are positioned, and possibly what immunities the enemies have, if any. Then reload the game before the battle, change the weapons and items with your men accordingly so that it fits the battle the best, and go into the battle for real. This feels a bit of cheating, but then I guess in most games you become better when you know more beforehand due to several replays...
- I had no serious (game stopping) technical problems with the game, not in WinXP nor Win7, but some others don't seem to be as lucky. I faced two glitchy places in the game where the game even crashed:
When certain person is poisoned, sometimes part of the related dialogue was missing, after which the game crashed to desktop. Solution: reload the game and try again, usually it goes ok.
Then, in certain battle near the end where two monsters throw some timed ice bombs around, the game seemed to always crash after awhile, probably after certain round. But when I played that battle using software rendering instead of Direct3D, it didn't crash. After the battle I switched back to Direct3D.
Other than those two small parts, the game was silky smooth for me in Win7.
In the software rendering mode in Win7, the sound can get quite distorted, sometimes less, sometimes quite heavily. It sounds irritating, but the game is still playable I guess.
So, buyers beware: you may face some compatibility issues with this game. That's PC gaming for you, I guess.
Post edited August 06, 2012 by timppu