The Secret of Monkey Island (1990)

 

So I didn't have a PC in 1990 when The Secret of Monkey Island came out.  I only know it by reputation, and what a reputation it has.  Much beloved to this day, with another sequel just announced.

I... well I didn't like it all that much.  I didn't hate it either though.

I'm inclined to think it's me.  I'm old now, and the humor didn't really land with me much.  Some wry amusement when I could tell they were trying to be funny.  But no audible chuckling.  Although it's always possible I wasn't creative, or persistent enough to bang my head up against the really obscure interactions that drag out the best jokes.  That happens sometimes.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein (2001)

Return to Castle Wolfenstein came out in 2001, as a farmed out sequel to an id Software property largely overshadowed by Doom and Quake.  Computer Gaming World gave it a fairly lukewarm 3.5 stars at the time, comparing the game unfavorably to Half-Life and No One Lives Forever.  It's hard to disagree with the sentiment.

I know I played this once upon a time, but I have next to no memory of it.  I remember the opening castle you begin in, but only the very start of it.  I actually remember a bit of the burnt out industrial area too, and the "lopers" that would chase you.  Yet that is all.

I've played a lot of older shooters lately, but I actually found this one had some rather extreme difficulty spikes, which surprised me.  You take a lot of damage very quickly from relatively low level enemies on the medium setting.  A lot of the combat encounters seemed designed around rather simple, and frustrating, ambushes.  I quicksaved a lot to diffuse them, as there seemed little other way to avoid those traps short of springing them, and then trying again better informed.