Daikatana, need I say more?

I don't have them and I'm sure I want to try them. What I'm unsure of is if buying them would be worthwhile or if I'd get frustrated by the interface/ways that they play, and that *unknown* factor makes them intimidating. The issue really is whether if how they play would be prohibitive to my enjoyment of them. Example: I tried playing the original Wasteland and as much as I want to delve into it and experience all it has to offer, I kept "tripping" over the game and couldn't enjoy it (maybe I just needed more time to learn the controls, is quite the possibility, and I should do that), but now, I find it intimidating to try again. The original System Shock is also a good example. I always wanted to play it, but everything I read about how it operated made me intimidated enough to know that I didn't even want to try and work with it (oooh, but now, that is no longer an issue and I can't wait to try it with its "enhancements"!!)

So, ultimately they are an "unsure whether to buy" because I'm unsure if the try after the buy will prove success or failure and if it is a failure, well, that's a bummer. There are almost no other games I feel that way about.. Though, now thinking about it, Apotheon is like that for me because of the reviews saying "precise timing or you're screwed" essentially. While I'd love to play it and give it a try because I love the art and the lore and the gameplay looks fun, it is also a bit intimidating because it might just be too hard for me to enjoy.

While The Cat Lady is certainly not for everyone, it's IMO one of the best games about depression. All the death and violence are metaphoric for the inner turmoil of the main character. As I see it, there is a lot of depth to the game, but it's of course pretty grim and even extreme.

Actually it just makes me want to conquer it even more.

Ninja Gaiden 2, Final Fantasy 11, SMT Nocturne, Dead Rising, bring it!

You havn't seen intimidation like Final Fantasy 11. One impossible to gauge creature will kill you and level you down in three hits. You needed teams of people to take them out. Sneaking through impossible labirynths, jungles, secret pirate bases, your life is mere seconds away from ending. Rogue like, pfft.

Be a thief mob puller one time, you'll know the meaning of intense.

Assuming you're mostly talking about the Goldbox games contained in Collection 2, I can relate to that. I'm very accustomed to playing community modules for Unlimited Adventures, but I never managed to get into the older official campaigns like Pool of Radiance, because they are kind of awkward to play in my book, which for me is mostly related to always having to press MOVE in combat, before a character can move (in UA they move automatically when you press the arrow keys or click on the battlefield with the mouse pointer) and always having to refer to the manual whenever story-telling events occur, because the text didn't fit into the game (UA allows for more text, so that authors can put it in-game). I can't say whether you'd find UA clunky as well (I don't, but I'm a fan), but in any case it's a bit more user-friendly from a modern perspective and offers free adventures of many different styles and lengths, so that you could easily switch to something different if something is not to your liking and also play shorter modules to familiarize yourself with the game mechanics.

I'm not trying to sell you on the collection - I can't judge whether you'd like it, it might go either way -, just letting you know that UA could prove to be a comfort, if you decide to buy one day and find that you can't get into the older games. And if you end up liking UA at least, the asking price was worth it just for that one game. :)

Maybe that's what's intimidating me as well, the thought that I won't be able to "get it", as I've never experienced that kind of depression. I might understand the parts about suicide, hopelessness, a bleak outlook on life and the world, but not the violence, gory horror and serial killer stuff (metaphors or not), or the heroine being bitter on top of depressed and putting the blame on others. I guess I've played too little of it to judge that though, I should give it anther try.

Yeah, I know, but I don't know, I feel kind of guilty disabling that option, it's like playing in easy difficulty for me.

As I said, it's not for everybody. I have experienced that kind of depression and the game really hit a nerve. Much like Nine Inch Nail - The Downward Spiral.

Btw, is it normal that the scrolling in The Cat Lady feels a bit off, the animations not quite in sync with the background movement and a bit blurry and awkward? I think that's another thing that put me off, because I wasn't sure whether the game runs as it should run; it's not exactly laggy but not really fluent either. So I wonder whether it would run better on my desktop than my laptop, but that seems a bit unlikely for a game like this, when my laptop is able to run 3D games that I would expect to be much more demanding. Is that just the way the game is?

Thanks! For some reason the response notifications have been broken for me the past few days and I didn't see this.

Yep, I am most certainly talking about Collection 2 and other games like it that (the Dark Sun games, which I'm aching to try for their lore and stories and atmosphere even more than the games of collection 2, which are a pretty high desire already!, I'm very intimidated by the gameplay hindrance I may experience.) Don't worry, I'm already "sold" on getting them at some point, even if it ultimately proves frustrating and an erroneous purchase because I can't get into playing them. I have many many games I still wish to get and play, and those are somewhere in the 20-30 numbers down the "to get" list, so it will be quite a while regardless. I appreciate the tips and feedback, absolutely! Thanks very much! I'm not sure I'd want to play any fan-made mods before experiencing the original games, but when I get them, if I spend a few hours on one (whichever was made first chronologically is how I will try them) and can't seem to get into the enjoyment, I might try some UA mods to try and curb the learning curve. Can you recommend me a few that you hold in high regard? I'm more apt to stick with them if they are well-written (which is why I have confidence in the games from collection 2, because I think they should be written and presented quite well that it will compell me to stick with them.)

I'm not sure Cat Lady is meant to be a "fun game" but more an engaging piece of interactive art. I've not played it or Downfall, but that is my impression of them.

DCS: Black Shark - Helicopter Sim...I think I'd probably be able to actually fly the real thing if I could learn this thing.

Dwarf Fortress - I think I could probably learn this, but it still intimidates me for some reason. Especially the controls/interface.

Dark Souls - Because it's brutally hard and using a trainer/cheat seems like it'd be defeating the purpose of playing it.


Incidentally I'm playing the Cat Lady right now. And yeah, pretty sure "fun" is not supposed to be part of the experience. Just a better understanding of a certain kind of depression. A different kind of brutal...and definitely not for everyone.

The Cat Lady gets depression right at times...and then at others it feels like a game written by an edgy teenager. Silent Hill 2 is my pick for a video game that nails that subject with much bigger grace.

I haven't played "The Cat Lady" yet. But I wrote a review for their previous game "Downfall" (http://www.adventuregamers.com/articles/view/18301), and sometimes it felt like these dark themes were handled flippantly, and sometimes like it was trying to be overly dramatic. So I agree in theory.

I don't know what is normal with that game, tech-wise. I had to stop playing it because it became unbearable slow on my machine. There has been an update since, but I've not yet checked if things got better. It's known that the game has problems - the devs were really stretching the limits of the engine they used and this often leads to trouble for people. I found a statement of one of the devs somewhere where he apologized to the people that the game runs like shit sometimes. I'm not angry about it - while I was sad that I couldn't play the game it was quite clear to me that the devs put a lot of heart's blood into the thing. They probably didn't foresee that they could break the engine with hi-res graphics and sprites and then it was too late. The Cat Lady is definitely no money-grab, the game is so off-mainstream that it's IMO pretty clear it's more message than product. That's why I really tried to play it for a while, but after a certain point it became so tiring just to move from place to place in slow motion...
I guess the game was written by someone who experienced depression in their teenage years to maybe early twenties. It's probably that's why I can relate to it ;-). Though for me that was more than 20 years ago...

I was very skeptical after playing the demo, but now that I've finished the campaign twice I can say it's pretty much as good as the original. You can choose between four different difficulty settings, so don't worry about it being too hard.
Gameplay has been definitely streamlined and simplified, but not dumbed down. All of the core elements are still there (budget and base management, ufo interception, alien infiltration, ground combat) and they haven't changed much... with the exception of ground combat, which was pretty much reworked from the ground up. The result is that gameplay is smoother and better paced, but it does have a few inconveniences the old X-com didn't.

Pro:

-Less useless micromanagement.
-Ground combat is more tactical.
-Faster missions.
-New mission types and soldier skills.
-A cinematic campaign with some interesting scripted events.
-Feels true to the first X-com.


Cons:

-Equipment loadout depends on the soldier's class, with very little room for customization.
-Enemy reinforcements often spawn out of nowhere.
-Shooting weapons require an enemy target, so you can't purposefully target the environment anymore (except with explosives, but most of the times it's not convenient to do so). So if you want, say, blow up a wall to expose an alien hidden inside a building, like in the old X-com, you can't do that anymore.
-Soldiers can't pick up *anything* in combat. Your medic's bleeding out but he's still got a full medkit? No matter, just watch him die as nobody else can use it.
-You kind of need the expansion to fully enjoy it. If only because EW has much better maps.


All in all I think it's a good remake. I'd say try the demo; even if it dosn't make justice to the full game, you'll probably want to know if you can cope with the changes to the combat system.