Since I have some free time now I wanted to write another review but I couldn't decide which game to review.
The last game I've beaten was phantasy star II and I currently playing through deus ex.
Why did it took me so long to play these games? Well, I haven't been into RPG's until recent years so I've missed out on a lot of them.
Anyway I'm going to let these games battle to death in an epic western vs eastern RPG battle or in other words write a review of both games and then figure out which one is the best.
These are older games so I'm not going to explain what they are, I'm just going to tell you my personal opinions on them.
Despite having an awful cover, phantasy star II is a really great old school turn-based RPG, it's just simple RPG fun. What makes this one better than most RPG's of the era is that isn't as frustrating to play. There's never really a question of where to go when you're on the overworld, your objectives are always pretty clear and the dungeons you aren't allowed to go in yet are unreachable. There are some complex dungeons though but that's okay because they don't throw impossible battles at you.
You also do most of your leveling up during the dungeons and not by walking around on the overworld finding random battles. You only have to do that at the beginning of the game but I don't mind that I used that time to listen to some gaming podcasts.
Another thing that is great about phantasy star II is it's story, the plot twists are pretty unpredictable and it has a mature feel what is not common for games at that time.
Now the bad things about this game. I didn't like the ending, I went through all that trouble just to hear a message that we are destroying the earth whit all our technology, it's the same as metal gear solid's anti-nuclear weapon message at the end, I don't need a game to tell me that stuff.
For me the most important thing besides gameplay is audio and phantasy star II isn't to good at that. The sound design is average at best and the music isn't all that great which is disappointing since the first phantasy star had a great soundtrack.
Now onto deus ex.
Like I said before I haven't finished deus ex yet but I'm already reviewing since I have the time now. I'm currently half-way through. Deus ex is a first person adventure stealth action role-playing game. You would think that a game whit so many genres would be a complete mess but in deus ex it all seems so natural and that's probably the best thing about it, for a game that might seem complex but it really doesn't have a big learning curve.
I mostly play action games instead of adventure games so one thing that really surprised me about this game is that I find the exploration part more fun than the action parts that's mainly because there is no such thing as going the wrong way, you either go the right way or you find a hidden area whit cool items/weapons or some bonus XP.
Deus ex has a pretty sarcastic title, a deus ex machina means resolving a plot in a simplistic way. Before writing this review I read some reviews on the internet and IGN said that the plot is like the X-files and I agree because in deus ex you really wanna know the truth but it's hard since you can trust no one.
Deus ex has two pretty big flaws: the AI and the voice-acting.
The AI is extremely broken which completely ruins the stealth element of the game since enemies sometimes just don't respond to gun fire and the only two tactics the enemies seem to have are run straight at you or just run around aimlessly. The voice-acting is also pretty bad, worst of all is the voice-acting of the main protagonist JC Denton. It sounds like Keanu Reeves did the voice-acting, there is just no emotion in him at all.
Overall it's a really great game and I'm really looking forward to the second half of the game.
So which game is better? Well, what makes a better game? Is it the story, the gameplay, the sound design, the graphics, the art design, the music, the length, the difficulty or is it having the ability to microwave a hamster?
It is of course having the ability to microwave a hamster so maniac mansion wins!
EDIT: I actually wrote this a few weeks ago, I have beaten deus ex now.
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