Old Games

This post is dedicated mostly to games I played many years ago and still enjoy today. Be warned that extreme subjectivity lies ahead.

Doom

From the Doom comic, courtesy Wikipedia.

Someone more talented has probably described at length the influence this game has had on the games industry, so I won't comment further on Doom's historical significance. What I will say is that despite being released almost nineteen years ago, people are still playing Doom. A subsection of the community is still making engine ports, modifications and level packs for it. I think the reason is that Doom managed to pack superb level design, aesthetics, great pacing and a surprisingly high skill ceiling into what appears by today's standards to be a fairly primitive game. During my course I spent many lectures blasting demons on a tiny netbook, and even today I loaded Doom up for a quick session. The fact that it is still great fun so many years after release is testament either to the game's quality, or the devotion of its fans.

System Shock 2

I first played this game only a few years ago, having not heard of it until then. With a hybrid of FPS, survival horror and RPG elements, System Shock 2 leaves you stranded in deep space on a ship whose crew have largely been turned into monsters. I would say it has not aged well from its 1999 release, looking a bit uglier than Half-Life with a clunky interface and player physics. What made SS2 really compelling to me was the audio - voice logs detailing crew members' struggles, monsters' cries for you to kill them and the truly disturbing voice of SHODAN (a rogue AI and one of the key characters) make for a particularly impressive soundscape, despite the rather old looking environments.

 Deus Ex

Deus Ex's protagonist, JC Denton.

On the subject of FPS-RPG hybrids, I've probably beaten Deus Ex 8 or 9 times now. Like System Shock, Deus Ex feels clunky and hasn't really aged well - I don't think it was a particularly fun game even on release. What makes me keep coming back is the incredible job of world development and writing, open level design and thought-provoking themes. Deus Ex is a cyberpunk game about global conspiracies rich with discussions about power and politics that expects the player to make their own judgments about the right course of action, be it about how to resolve a hostage situation, whether to kill enemy combatants or who, if anyone, should sit at the head of a global government. It also put me onto a great book. I may write about why I like Deus Ex's writing so much later.

Descent

I should make a knockoff of this game.

In Descent, the player flies around in mineshafts destroying rogue robots, rescuing hostages and getting motion sickness. It's an FPS game that operates in full 3d space without gravity, allowing the player to move with 6 degrees of freedom - This mechanic makes for some spectacular skilled play. When I was younger I couldn't handle the complex movement demanded of Descent's later levels, but replaying it (during lectures on that same netbook) I discovered an incredible depth of aerial movement. You really have to play this game for yourself to understand it - the movement system is fantastic.

I still enjoy all of these games, though for different reasons. I'm no longer surprised at System Shock 2's plot twists and I've memorized the secret areas in the first few levels of Doom, but I'd like to think it's more than simple nostalgia that compels me to keep playing. Each of these games has done an excellent job at one or more core elements, so despite their failings in others, they are still enjoyable to anyone able to look past the flaws.