Games Beaten 2025

Post by **Markies** » Sat Aug 23, 2025 6:17 pm

Markies' Games Beat List Of 2025!
***Denotes Replay For Completion***

1. Muramasa: The Demon Blade (Wii)
2. Mario Party 4 (GCN)
***3. The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (PS2)***
***4. Pokemon Snap (N64)***
***5. Dead Or Alive (PS1)***
6. Rogue Galaxy (PS2)
7. Pokemon Blue (GBC)
8. Mario Kart 8 (Wii U)
***9. Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising (NSW)***
***10. Sonic The Hedgehog (GEN)***
***11. The New Tetris (N64)***
12. Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls (GBA)
13. Yoshi (NES)
***14. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (SNES)***
15. L.A. Noire - The Complete Edition (PS3)
16. Batman: The Video Game (GBC)
17. Splatoon 2 (NSW)
18. The Punisher (GEN)
***19. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time / Master Quest (GCN)***
***20. ChuChu Rocket! (SDC)***
21. Advance Wars (GBA)
22. Shadow of the Ninja (NES)
23. Tecmo Super Bowl (SNES)
24. Child of Eden (PS3)
***25. Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth Of Destiny (PS2)***
***26. DuckTales: Remastered (WiiU)***
***27. The Bard's Tale (XBOX)***
28. Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii)

I beat Xenoblade Chronicles on the Nintendo Wii this afternoon!

Xenoblade Chronicles was one of the main reasons that I wanted to purchase a Nintendo Wii. Ironically, I found both of the Project Rainfall games, The Last Story & Pandora's Tower, before I could find Xenoblade Chronicles. Thankfully, my friend listened to my desire along with enjoying the game himself, directed that I purchase it last summer. This year, it came down to play a long Wii game and my desire got the best of me as I started playing it. Over two months and almost 100 hours later, I was finally able to finish Xenoblade Chronicles.

For me, Xenoblade Chronicles is best compared to Final Fantasy XII, which I praise because I absolutely love Final Fantasy XII. It does the whole single player MMO game better than any other game I have ever played. You are dropped in a massive world filled with endless side quests and possibilities. You go from story beat to story beat as you traverse this land that just gets bigger and bigger. The NPC's in town are the ones giving you quests and you have to find them at a specific time and before too long in the story. The side quests then push you to level up and explore the world around you. Each battle is very intense while you use skills that you can level up to do increasingly more damage. The visuals are some of the best of the system and of that generation. Along with some epic music and an interesting story, the game grips you from the beginning and it is very hard to put down. During my days of playing it, it would be hard for me to stop as I just wanted to do one more quest.

However, over two months and 96 hours is a bit much. I've beaten Disgaea games shorter Xenoblade Chronicles. A game can only hold your attention so long before it gets too repetitive. Unfortunately, the fights do become very much the same after a while as neither of them really have any strategy. It's a very grind heavy game and the only stat that matters is your level. Also, the quests are fun, but the quest system is very clunky and difficult to come across.

Overall, I still really enjoyed Xenoblade Chronicles. I mean, I wouldn't play a game for 96 hours if I didn't at least enjoy it for some small bit. The game had better endings earlier in the game, so I wished it would have stopped there. However, the full experience is still worth it. If you are ready and willing to put in the time, Xenoblade Chronicles is a long and enjoyable game!

Post by **pierrot** » Sat Aug 23, 2025 7:54 pm

Markies wrote: ↑Sat Aug 23, 2025 6:17 pm Final Fantasy XII, which I praise because I absolutely love Final Fantasy XII.

Markies wrote: ↑Sat Aug 23, 2025 6:17 pm The game had better endings earlier in the game, so I wished it would have stopped there.

This was how I felt about Grandia after finishing it, and I would not say I came away from that game having enjoyed it.

Post by **MrPopo** » Sun Aug 24, 2025 2:49 pm

Previous Years: 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024

1. Tomb Raider II Remastered - PC
2. Tomb Raider III Remastered - PC
3. Blade Chimera - Switch
4. Cyber Shadow - Switch
5. Signalis - Switch
6. Ender Magnolia - Switch
7. SimCity 2000 Special Edition - PC
8. Ghost Song - Switch
9. Citizen Sleeper 2 - Switch
10. Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider - Switch
11. The Last Faith - Switch
12. Anger Foot - PC
13. Avowed - PC
14. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night: Classic Mode - Switch
15. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night: Classic II: Dominque's Curse - Switch
16. The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak II - PS5
17. Pacific Drive - PC
18. Mekkablood: Quarry Assault - PC
19. Tempest Rising - PC
20. Astalon: Tears of the Earth - Switch
21. Voidwrought - Switch
22. Death's Gambit: Afterlife - Switch
23. Mechwarrior 5: Ghost Bear: Flash Storm - PC
24. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - PS5
25. Doom: The Dark Ages - PC
26. Haiku the Robot - Switch
27. Alwa's Awakening - Switch
28. Warhammer 40000: Boltgun: Words of Vengeance - PC
29. Alwa's Legacy - Switch
30. Wizordum - PC
31. Project Warlock II - PC
32. Exophobia - PC
33. Haunted Castle Revisited - Switch
34. Mario Kart World - Switch 2
35. Rebel Transmute - Switch
36. Guns of Fury - Switch
37. Street Fighter Alpha 3 - Dreamcast
38. Street Fighter III 3rd Strike - Dreamcast
39. Vampire Chronicle for Matching Service - Dreamcast
40. Record of Lodoss War - Dreamcast
41. Skald: Against the Black Priory - PC
42. Between the Stars - PC
43. Evoland - Switch
44. Donkey Kong Bananza - Switch 2
45. Evoland 2 - Switch
46. Shadow Labyrinth - Switch
47. Warhammer 40000: Boltgun: Forges of Corruption - PC
48. Hexen: Vestiges of Grandeur - PC
49. Heretic: Faith Renewed - PC
50. Viscerafest - PC

Viscerafest is a retro-styled FPS that takes a lot of cues from Doom Eternal on the gameplay side and Quake on the story side. It's surprisingly short; I finished the game in 8 hours across the three episodes, but that feels like the right amount of time. Unlike some other games of its ilk, it doesn't stretch out the level lengths.

You are a bounty hunter named Caroline. You're looking to propose to your boyfriend, so you go on a high paying job to bring back a rogue scientist. However, as you start to penetrate into the base you'll discover that there is more going on than just a simple bounty grab.

The game is a fast-paced shooter that often tosses you into arenas where you need to clear all the enemies to proceed, often with multiple waves. The game has very low ammo caps and doesn't have an overabundance of it, so it becomes important to both use the right weapons for the enemies at hand and to make use of your melee attack. Your melee can be charged, and it not only is a good source of damage, it causes enemies to spit out armor pickups. There is also a bunny hop mechanic, where if you hold down jump and start moving you will pick up speed. While in this state you only take half damage, so it becomes critical to be bunny hopping in combat whenever possible. This combination of high speed fights and tactical weapon use draws a lot from Doom Eternal's formula.

The game is split into three episodes, with an old school inventory reset in between each one. Occasionally the game will also take your weapons away after a particular plot development. Saving is restricted; you will pick up save beacons which then can be spent on a quicksave. The game does helpfully autosave right before bosses (one mid episode, one end of episode), and I found the save beacons were plentiful enough that I never needed to worry about using them. It mostly just keeps you from trying to save scum through the game.

Overall, it's a pretty solid shooter, though you do need to be up for very fast fights and careful ammo management. The third episode also introduces several enemies that are a real pain; some revive unless gibbed, some are invincible and can only be put to sleep for a period of time with explosives, and some just do a ton of damage with homing shots while they have a lot of health. The weapons are all satisfying to use, though, so that makes up for a lot of the points that annoyed me.

Post by **Ack** » Sun Aug 24, 2025 3:08 pm

1. Growing My Grandpa! (Point-and-Click Adventure)(PC)
2. The Black Masses (Action RPG)(PC)
3. Dead Estate (Action)(PC)
4. Call of Cthulhu (Horror RPG)(PC)
5. 100 Asian Cats (Puzzle)(PC)
6. Blade Chimera (Action)(PC)
7. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (Action)(PC)
8. 7 Days to Die (Action)(PC)
9. An Arcade Full of Cats (Puzzle)(PC)
10. Excive A-1000 (FPS)(PC)
11. Only Lead Can Stop Them (FPS)(PC)
12. Home Safety Hotline (Horror)(PC)
13. Viewfinder (Puzzle)(PC)
14. Star Wars: Dark Forces Remastered (FPS)(PC)
15. Wanted: Dead (Action)(PC)
16. Crime Scene Cleaner (Action)(PC)
17. Beyond Citadel (FPS)(PC)
18. Turbo Overkill (FPS)(PC)
19. Project Warlock 2 (FPS)(PC)
20. Saints Row: The Third (Action)(PC)
21. Saints Row: The Third - GenkiBowl VII (Action)(PC)
22. Saints Row: The Third - Gangstas in Space (Action)(PC)
23. Saints Row: The Third - The Trouble with Clones (Action)(PC)
24. Ultra Cop (Action)(PC)
25. The Land of Pain (Horror)(PC)
26. HROT (FPS)(PC)
27. RFA Station (FPS)(PC)
28. Ultimate Zombie Defense (Top-Down Shooter)(PC)
29. Nightmare Reaper (FPS)(PC)
30. Abiotic Factor (Survival)(PC)
31. Doom (FPS)(PC)
32. Doom II (FPS)(PC)
33. Master Levels of Doom II (FPS)(PC)
34. Doom: TNT - Evilution (FPS)(PC)
35. Doom: The Plutonia Experiment (FPS)(PC)
36. Doom: No Rest for the Living (FPS)(PC)
37. Doom: Sigil (FPS)(PC)
38. Doom: Sigil II (FPS)(PC)
39. Doom: Legacy of Rust (FPS)(PC)
40. Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders (FPS)(PC)
41. Heretic: Faith Renewed (FPS)(PC)
42. Hexen: Beyond Heretic (FPS)(PC)

Hexen is Heretic's big brother, a spin-off series that leaned more heavily into the RPG elements that Heretic was trying to provide, with a rudimentary class system that defined the player's weapons loadout and how certain inventory items operate. It also moves as a parallel storyline, focusing on a different world where a trio of heroes take on Korax, the second and middle-powered Serpent Rider. The game offers up hubs, where the player must venture through various worlds to resolve the overall big puzzle of the hub and eventually kill a boss. Once done, a final portal opens to take the player (or players, as this can be done in co-op) to the next hub. In all, there are five hubs, each with multiple areas to explore and each feeling unique from the other areas, yet all continuing the dark fantasy themes.

With so many areas to explore, Hexen was notorious for being...well, not user friendly. The recent Heretic + Hexen remaster has added elements to the map to make things a bit friendlier, so now you have a general idea of where you're supposed to go to find a particular item or located a necessary portal. It isn't perfect, and it won't tell you exactly what you need to do, but it does provide a nice guideline when it isn't bugging out, which it did do once for me with an objective marker that never went away, even when I was leaving the area to advance. This is just one quality of life improvement that was implemented, with others involving the ability to swap characters in the hub world areas as much as you like meaning you can now experience everyone and try out each new weapon as you receive it. This also helps with comparisons, and all three classes feel fun, unique, and generally balanced. That said, the Cleric did get an upgrade that changes things significantly for him.

The old cleric in Hexen started with a mace. It was a weak melee weapon that served at best as a fall back. The fighter's melee options completely outpaced the cleric's, so it wasn't worth using the mace much unless you had to. The remaster now adds a shield though, and it's a game changer. Now the mace gives a means to reflect enemy projectiles, but more importantly, it has a parry function. This briefly stuns enemies and gives the opportunity for a one-shot kill, which trivializes melee foes once you get the timing down. Between this, the point-blank healing ability of his ranged serpent staff, and the hope-the-wraiths-don't-get-reflected-and-come-after-you power of his super weapon, the Cleric is now a class of risk/reward that is highly entertaining.

I started the game swapping between all three classes but eventually stopped when I realized I was simply having more fun as the cleric. This is not to say that he is the best class, just the one I found the most entertaining for me. In fact, each of the three classes offers up differences, and I would urge any player not to focus on who is best but on who offers you the best experience. As much as I love tanky meatheads, truth be told, it was the cleric for me, but driving a gauntleted fist the size of a Mack truck through some poor centaur's face might be more your speed, or freezing your foes and then watching them shatter into shards at your feet. Try them all.

The end result of this remaster is that I revisited a game I never though I would revisit because I had so often found it confusing and confounding before. I greatly appreciate that the remaster did that, and while it isn't exactly the same experience it was, I felt the experience was improved. Purists will disagree, and that's their right, but having beaten it before, I'd rather recommend it this way to new folks taking an interest.

Post by **MrPopo** » Sun Aug 24, 2025 8:23 pm

Previous Years: 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024

First 50:

51. Galactic Civilizations II - PC

Galactic Civilizations II is a space 4X from back in the day that served to fill the void that was left after Master of Orion 2 got long in the tooth (it's too bad it never got a non-numbered sequel until 2016, no I don't know what you're talking about, there was never a MoO 3). It does some stuff that sets it apart from other 4X games, though I ended up finding those elements more cumbersome than interesting.

The basic setup is that humanity has recently developed warp engines from the stellar gate technology that the other galactic races have been using to travel interstellar distances. This technology proliferates, and now these races are butting heads due to the newfound ability to dramatically expand. The game has both your standard 4X sandbox mode of you vs. a bunch of AI and a campaign mode. The campaign consists of ten missions, plus some alternates for when you fail a main mission (but not every main mission has these). These effectively act as custom scenarios; there will be pre-placed worlds and factions with set starting assets, and you will have one of two goals: colonize a particular planet (which is often controlled by a hostile) or destroy all hostile races. On most of the missions you will have allies, and this is a source of some weird balance options. See, you can set the difficulty for each map individually, and it affects the AI of everything equally. Your allies and your enemies both get smarter, using the standard gameplay of the sandbox. This means on many missions it actually gets easier if you turn up the difficulty, because you often have more allies than enemies, and you can feed your allies technologies so they do all the work for you. It's a decent attempt at a more meaningful single player for a 4X, but it doesn't really come together.

Mechanically, the game does a few things I haven't seen before. You start with a colonized planet, and the space view is a giant grid where ships can freely move. Ship range is limited to a radius around each of your control regions; this models logistics and can be improved with better ship components. This means you can't do deep strikes into the back of an enemy's empire, as you won't have the range to get there. This is to compensate for the general lack of ability to control access like you can in a terrestrial 4X like Civilization. Master of Orion instead accomplishes this by only letting your ships be at planets, with the planets they can jump to having a similar range based on upgrades, without worrying about all the empty space in between. In addition to the radius around planets, you can build free-floating starbases that can provide benefits (e.g. a military outpost that boosts friendly ships in its radius) along with extending the range your ships can traverse.

The planets you colonize can have a variety of improvements built upon them. Unlike Civilization, here you can build each improvement multiple times, but as a consequence each one has a smaller effect. Instead of building a college, then a lab, then a research center (all increasing your tech production), you would just build several labs, and later on can upgrade those to better labs. This means you tend to be better off specializing your planets, based on their quality (number of improvements they can have) and location in your empire. Production also has some tweaks; each planet generates manufacturing points and tech points, the latter going to research. Manufacturing is split into military and civilian; the former for making ships and the latter for improvements. The allocation of your resources is split across these three empire-wide, but on an individual planet you can set a focus which shifts some resources from one to the other (and unused military/civilian goes towards the other). However, you don't just get these points for free. You have to spend money to convert the generation into concrete points that are used on making stuff. This makes your income essential to manage, as if you get into deficit spending for too long you can reach a death spiral where you can't make anything (the game turns off production when you're too far in the red to get money back) and the costs of your upkeep keep you in the red. It'll probably take a few games to really get a feel for how to manage your economy, especially since you will have to spend the intial turns spending more than you make (as you need enough population to generate meaningful taxes). This was the part that I really bounced off of; I can't claim it's bad, but it definitely plays against my instincts for how to play a 4X.

The game also has a custom ship builder. It's a bit simpler than MoO 2's; there aren't any weird technologies that work in the turn based battles because the game just uses Civilization-style "roll some dice and see what happens" one shot battles. There are three types of weapons and three types of armor to counter those weapons; if you have the wrong armor then your defense ends up being the square root of the actual number. While the game has a solid selection of built in ships, you're free to make your own if you want to emphasize certain aspects, like giving it extra range, or using a worse engine for more guns.

Overall, it's a decent space 4X, but I found it hard to really get into. The systems just didn't click too well for me, and the free-roam makes it hard to properly defend your territories while also launching assaults. One important note; if you want to play the campaign and you have the Ultimate Edition compilation release, you will want to make sure to Browse Local Files and launch the original GalCiv2.exe. The standard Steam launch will put you in the second expansion, and there have been some mechanical changes that break the difficulty of the campaign (in a bad way; a couple missions become neigh impossible). And I've heard one of the missions gets actually broken due to a scripting bug that gets introduced (the new races in the DLCs shift the list of races, and a "kill this race" target ends up now pointing to the wrong race, one that isn't even in the map).

Post by **TheSSNintendo** » Tue Aug 26, 2025 5:26 pm

Doom (1993 - GOG)

Post by **Markies** » Tue Aug 26, 2025 10:07 pm

Markies' Games Beat List Of 2025!
***Denotes Replay For Completion***

1. Muramasa: The Demon Blade (Wii)
2. Mario Party 4 (GCN)
***3. The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (PS2)***
***4. Pokemon Snap (N64)***
***5. Dead Or Alive (PS1)***
6. Rogue Galaxy (PS2)
7. Pokemon Blue (GBC)
8. Mario Kart 8 (Wii U)
***9. Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising (NSW)***
***10. Sonic The Hedgehog (GEN)***
***11. The New Tetris (N64)***
12. Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls (GBA)
13. Yoshi (NES)
***14. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (SNES)***
15. L.A. Noire - The Complete Edition (PS3)
16. Batman: The Video Game (GBC)
17. Splatoon 2 (NSW)
18. The Punisher (GEN)
***19. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time / Master Quest (GCN)***
***20. ChuChu Rocket! (SDC)***
21. Advance Wars (GBA)
22. Shadow of the Ninja (NES)
23. Tecmo Super Bowl (SNES)
24. Child of Eden (PS3)
***25. Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth Of Destiny (PS2)***
***26. DuckTales: Remastered (WiiU)***
***27. The Bard's Tale (XBOX)***
28. Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii)
29. Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (GB)

I completed Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins on the Nintendo Game Boy this evening!

I had the Game Boy as a child, but I had only had a handful of games. I actually owned both Mario Games, but I never beat either one of them. I grew out of playing handheld games and decided to sell my Game Boy and meager amount of games. Once I got a Super Game Boy, I have been slowly buying them back. After beating the original Super Mario Land, it was time to purchase the second one. Thankfully, I was able to find a copy at my local Retro Gaming Convention last year. I wanted a breather and something shorter after playing through Xenoblade Chronicles, so I was excited to play it for an evening!

As a kid, I remember enjoying Super Mario Land 2 and I was glad to see that it was not mostly nostalgia. The game is much more fleshed out compared to the previous Game Boy game. For one, there are actual worlds in the game with levels that have their own unique personality. I loved the Spooky world along with the shrunken version of Mario as well. Besides that, the game has several nice power ups as well. Besides a return to form Fireball, there is also a carrot that turn Mario into a bunny and lets him float. This is very nice and helps make some levels a breeze. They did add some new things to the game. For example, instead of collecting coins to get a 1-Up, you spend them on this Gambling Machine. It was nice to spend 200 coins to get a 20-Up. I didn't think I needed it as the game had been quite easy.

I then got to the final level and used up almost 40 guys. The final level, which is just Wario's Castle is a gauntlet Marathon filled with almost 20 rooms of hard platforming, several boss fights and no check points. The entire game was easy and then the jump in difficulty spiked enormously at the end. It turned a rather pleasant experience into one I was happy to be over with. Besides that, the music is rather strange. Besides the opening them, most of the music are these weird sounds of beeps and boops. It is very odd once you notice it.

Overall, I enjoyed most of my time with Super Mario Land 2. I can very much see why I never beat the game as a kid because that final level was an exercise in pain. As somebody who had little patience and is not great at Platformers, that took a lot out of me. Thankfully, the rest of the game is much better and makes up for it. For what it is, a very enjoyable experience!

Post by **MrPopo** » Wed Aug 27, 2025 11:14 pm

Previous Years: 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024

First 50:

51. Galactic Civilizations II - PC
52. Alan Wake 2: The Lake House - PC

The Lake House is the second piece of DLC for Alan Wake 2. While Night Springs was a series of fun vignettes, The Lake House is a more straightforward story that is used to tie to the upcoming Control 2, just as the AWE DLC for Control tied to the (at the time) upcoming Alan Wake 2.

You star as Kiran Estevez, the FBC agent who shows up in the base game. The DLC is set shortly before she shows up in the base game; her team has picked up on some strangeness at the local FBC base known as the Lake House, and they go to investigate. Naturally, everything goes to hell.

Gameplay-wise, things are fairly straightforward. You progress through the lab, picking up story beats and collecting key items so you can make your way deeper. There is one new enemy that really messes with you on the horror angle, and there's a new weapon that is extremely effective against said enemy. It's the reward for dealing with said enemy a few times. The game makes use of non-Euclidean spaces thanks to being a video game for some of the puzzle solving, and some of it will be very familiar to people who have played Control.

The Lake House is mostly there for people who have fully bought in to the Remedy Shared Universe; it doesn't really add anything to the base story of Alan Wake 2, being mostly peripheral and being more of a piece of Control content. There is some nice commentary about generative AI, though.

Post by **Ack** » Fri Aug 29, 2025 10:35 am

1. Growing My Grandpa! (Point-and-Click Adventure)(PC)
2. The Black Masses (Action RPG)(PC)
3. Dead Estate (Action)(PC)
4. Call of Cthulhu (Horror RPG)(PC)
5. 100 Asian Cats (Puzzle)(PC)
6. Blade Chimera (Action)(PC)
7. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (Action)(PC)
8. 7 Days to Die (Action)(PC)
9. An Arcade Full of Cats (Puzzle)(PC)
10. Excive A-1000 (FPS)(PC)
11. Only Lead Can Stop Them (FPS)(PC)
12. Home Safety Hotline (Horror)(PC)
13. Viewfinder (Puzzle)(PC)
14. Star Wars: Dark Forces Remastered (FPS)(PC)
15. Wanted: Dead (Action)(PC)
16. Crime Scene Cleaner (Action)(PC)
17. Beyond Citadel (FPS)(PC)
18. Turbo Overkill (FPS)(PC)
19. Project Warlock 2 (FPS)(PC)
20. Saints Row: The Third (Action)(PC)
21. Saints Row: The Third - GenkiBowl VII (Action)(PC)
22. Saints Row: The Third - Gangstas in Space (Action)(PC)
23. Saints Row: The Third - The Trouble with Clones (Action)(PC)
24. Ultra Cop (Action)(PC)
25. The Land of Pain (Horror)(PC)
26. HROT (FPS)(PC)
27. RFA Station (FPS)(PC)
28. Ultimate Zombie Defense (Top-Down Shooter)(PC)
29. Nightmare Reaper (FPS)(PC)
30. Abiotic Factor (Survival)(PC)
31. Doom (FPS)(PC)
32. Doom II (FPS)(PC)
33. Master Levels of Doom II (FPS)(PC)
34. Doom: TNT - Evilution (FPS)(PC)
35. Doom: The Plutonia Experiment (FPS)(PC)
36. Doom: No Rest for the Living (FPS)(PC)
37. Doom: Sigil (FPS)(PC)
38. Doom: Sigil II (FPS)(PC)
39. Doom: Legacy of Rust (FPS)(PC)
40. Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders (FPS)(PC)
41. Heretic: Faith Renewed (FPS)(PC)
42. Hexen: Beyond Heretic (FPS)(PC)
43. Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel (FPS)(PC)
44. Hexen: Vestiges of Grandeur (FPS)(PC)

Here we are, the final two pieces of Heretic + Hexen, the Hexen expansions. With this, I finish the new remastered collection. It has been well worth my time. There are ups and downs, but overall, it's a fantastic way to enjoy both games and their related content.

Ups and downs also describes the two Hexen expansions perfectly. They take different approaches to the Hexen formula, and while both expect you to have experience with the base game, one of them is considerably more user-friendly than the other. I'm going to talk about both together since I played them back to back. Suffice to say though that I liked Vestiges of Grandeur far more than Deathkings of the Dark Citadel.

Why? Well, first is the basic approach to level design. Deathkings features three hub worlds, with small worlds spinning off from it. While each new hub offers some variation in how to approach it, it boils down to "find keys, find items, go to next hub." Even with the backtracking, the hubs are short, almost bite-sized in comparison to what follows. Vestiges doesn't go that route. Instead, it has one hub. Instead of small worlds spinning off, it has four massive ones that you will have to return to repeatedly. You can solve puzzles out of order. You can go and wrap up whole worlds while having barely touched others. Frankly, it's more open, both literally in terms of size but also in terms of level flow.

Then there is combat. Deathkings starts you off by giving you pretty much all weapons for your class and then throws you out there. Your resupplies are based on what's found in the level. There are set limits. Good luck, because there are infinite enemies constantly spawning in, and you're fighting in some cramped spaces. Deathkings expects you to have played through Hexen and then wants to make sure you're actually good at Hexen, because it wants to kick your ass, chew through your magic and items, and leave you limping towards the finish line. Vestiges...doesn't do this. Sure, it gives you the two main weapons of your chosen starting class, but it was also designed knowing you have the ability to swap, so you can find the weapons for all classes spread throughout its hubs. Your super weapons are also found in parts hidden throughout, so you may have to go back and seek them out. As the Cleric, I didn't actually finish building Wraithverge, my super weapon, until I was ready to take on the final boss. In fact, I had to go back and explore further to find the final piece I was missing because I intentionally wanted to get it. There are also no infinite enemies in Vestiges. There are set spawn triggers, so it may feel like it's infinite, but it isn't, with the notable exception of the final boss, but hey, that's a final boss.

And yes, the final boss battles in both expansions are rehashes. In Deathkings, it's a gauntlet match against the three heroes, with a long battle that involves them shattering stained glass windows as they jump into combat as you take out their minions (which was really cool). In Vestiges, you face the original final boss, but now he has some additional level effects, a tougher arena area, and he can and will teleport. Frankly, I liked both. Deathkings felt a little gimmicky with the waves of foes, but it was kind enough to spawn in more items. Vestiges, I had to go searching for the boss in the rooms of his arena while getting swarmed, which made me burn through items to keep mobs at bay and also keep myself up and running. Neither offered a truly new challenge, but both built off their old designs in ways I appreciated.

With the world design and large levels to explore, I felt more comfortable with Vestiges. It's not exactly relaxing (it's still Hexen), but it never felt frantic the way Deathkings did from the jump. I loved exploring the larger worlds, and without infinite enemies, every dropped foe felt like progress was being made. Frankly, Vestiges felt like it was better put together, while at times Deathkings just feels mean. Of course, neither should be played until after you beat Hexen.

So what are you doing? Go play Hexen!

Post by **MrPopo** » Sat Aug 30, 2025 6:57 pm

Previous Years: 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024

First 50:

51. Galactic Civilizations II - PC
52. Alan Wake 2: The Lake House - PC
53. Rogue Flight - Switch

Rogue Flight is a rail shooter that takes some inspiration from Star Fox. It is set in the future, where Earth's autonomous defense systems gained self awareness and blasted the planet, as all sci-fi AI does. The survivors eventually find a hidden facility with a super fighter, their only remaining hope to defeat the machines.

The game has seven stages, but you won't necessarily play all of them. You always play the first two, but after that you have a choice. Two branches give you two missions each, while the third branch gives you five (all the missions from the other two plus one mission of its own). You'll need to finish all three branches across three playthroughs, as each one is a bad ending (or at least a bittersweet one). You'll pick up a unique weapon in each one, and once you've done all three, you'll unlock new game plus mode, where the fighter starts off fully kitted out, and now it's able to do all seven missions AND return home safely.

Your ship has a primary blaster with rapid fire, as well as lock on missiles that act similarly to Star Fox 64's homing shot. However, you have limited ammo, although enemies are pretty good about dropping refills. You can do a barrel roll to deflect enemy fire, and as you go through you will gain additional primary weapons. You can swap between your basic gun and the other weapons at any time, but you'll probably just want to stick with the new weapons, as they are strictly better. And when you have all of them, you'll realize that one of them is better than the rest. It's a bit of a downer, since there is theoretically supposed to be tradeoffs, but the balance is off.

Having to play through the game multiple times does kind of wear on you. You do the first two missions three times and all the others twice (except the one on the long path), with no differences each time. When you do the new game plus run you do get to play harder versions of the stages, which at least helps remove some monotony, but the bosses are unchanged. I think a better setup would have been to have three unique paths of three stages each, you do all three to experience them, then the new game plus is to do all nine in the harder versions.

Even with all that, it's still a very short game, and not too challenging. There isn't as much enemy or environmental variety as Star Fox, so it ends up being a pretty pale imitator. It'd be worth a play if you're a fan of the genre if it's on a significant discount.

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