Posted July 27, 2011
A bit late now - went out last night, but my final thoughts:
I absolutely love both UaKM and PD to death and I've played them both a ton. In fact, last week I started replaying them both again, at the same time. I'm busy so haven't re-finished PD yet, but just got through yet another playthrough of UaKM about 2 days ago. I've finished PD ~10 times and UaKM ~5 times. I first played them ~'96-7 (my parents got me PD for Christmas!)
As I've already said, both are truly excellent games, but I'd still say that PD is the better one. Both have excellent humour, but I occasionally find it a bit too campy in UaKM. I prefer the more serious, yet still tongue in cheek setting that PD offers. UaKM has a decent plot, but PD contains truly the best story ever told in video gaming (I'd rank it over PS:T, but that's a bit like comparing apples to pears).
Why I rank UaKM lower is mainly due to the gameplay. It was the first in the series to use FMV and obviously they've wanted to use it to the fullest, so there are quite a few "hidden" objects for which you have to change camera angles, etc. Not so much in PD and they are found in far more obvious places.
PD definitely has better (and more challenging, if you like that) puzzles, whereas the puzzles in UaKM can be a bit simplistic and repetetive. Still fun though. Also, I'd say that occasionally, some of the solutions in UaKM can be a bit too cryptic as to what to do next.
UaKM has a number of fairly frustrating sequences and it can be quite easy to die at times. Some sequences have long load times etc to do them again. Pain in the ass. There are a couple of such sequences in PD, but not as bad imo.
PD has two modes, Entertainment and Game Player, with the latter offering a little bit of extra content. It adds very little but is a nice bonus.
As for Phantasmagoria... Well I played it for a couple of days but it didn't really captivate me. I don't like large areas with very few clues as to what to do next. Wasted content really. Sure, both UaKM and PD also offer access to a large world from the beginning, but you always get very strong, yet non-obvious clues as to how to progress, etc.
Anyway, personally I think I'll try GK2 next, thanks for the suggestion :)
I absolutely love both UaKM and PD to death and I've played them both a ton. In fact, last week I started replaying them both again, at the same time. I'm busy so haven't re-finished PD yet, but just got through yet another playthrough of UaKM about 2 days ago. I've finished PD ~10 times and UaKM ~5 times. I first played them ~'96-7 (my parents got me PD for Christmas!)
As I've already said, both are truly excellent games, but I'd still say that PD is the better one. Both have excellent humour, but I occasionally find it a bit too campy in UaKM. I prefer the more serious, yet still tongue in cheek setting that PD offers. UaKM has a decent plot, but PD contains truly the best story ever told in video gaming (I'd rank it over PS:T, but that's a bit like comparing apples to pears).
Why I rank UaKM lower is mainly due to the gameplay. It was the first in the series to use FMV and obviously they've wanted to use it to the fullest, so there are quite a few "hidden" objects for which you have to change camera angles, etc. Not so much in PD and they are found in far more obvious places.
PD definitely has better (and more challenging, if you like that) puzzles, whereas the puzzles in UaKM can be a bit simplistic and repetetive. Still fun though. Also, I'd say that occasionally, some of the solutions in UaKM can be a bit too cryptic as to what to do next.
UaKM has a number of fairly frustrating sequences and it can be quite easy to die at times. Some sequences have long load times etc to do them again. Pain in the ass. There are a couple of such sequences in PD, but not as bad imo.
PD has two modes, Entertainment and Game Player, with the latter offering a little bit of extra content. It adds very little but is a nice bonus.
As for Phantasmagoria... Well I played it for a couple of days but it didn't really captivate me. I don't like large areas with very few clues as to what to do next. Wasted content really. Sure, both UaKM and PD also offer access to a large world from the beginning, but you always get very strong, yet non-obvious clues as to how to progress, etc.
Anyway, personally I think I'll try GK2 next, thanks for the suggestion :)
