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GOG Spring 2017 Sale - Curated Recommendations


Zombeaver

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GOG's currently doing their Spring Sale which is on until 3/12/2017. I took a look at the included titles and wanted to give some specific recommendations in case anyone's looking for some new (old) games to check out (for cheap!). These are all games that I've spent many many hours with and can heartily recommend.
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Thief - $2.99
Thief 2 - $2.99
Thief 3 - $2.99

The Thief games (prior to 4) are fantastic. They're extremely atmospheric stealth games with interesting stories and a well-realized and engrossing world. They're also frequently creepy as hell; thanks in no small part to some of the best ambient "music" around. Highly recommended.

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Syberia - $1.99
Syberia 2 - $1.99

The Syberia games are touching, heartfelt, and absorbing adventure games that are definitely worth your time - especially if you're a fan of point-and-click adventure games.

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Lands of Lore 1+2 - $1.49

These are some excellent first-person RPGs, though fairly different between each other. I like them both quite a bit, though some consider the second to be a disappointment. The first is a more traditional open-ended first person dungeon crawler affair whereas the second is more linear in approach because you play a specific, predefined character within the story. I can understand how that might have turned off some fan but I like them both.

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Unreal - $2.49

Unreal is a fun, highly atmospheric FPS with excellent level design and great music. It might not look special now, but Unreal was jaw-dropping in 1998. The strong points of the game hold up well though, even today.

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Unreal Tournament 2004 Editor's Choice Edition - $2.49

UT2k4 is, in my opinion, the single best arena-style twitch shooter in existence. It's super fast paced and a blast at any skill level (despite having a skill cap reaching into low orbit) thanks to a wide range of bot proficiency levels. And yes, it's a ton of fun even with bots in single-player. The Editor's Choice Edition comes with an insane amount of content with tons of maps and modes, from small claustrophobic arenas to giant objective-based vehicle-focused maps. This is the first game I was ever "seriously" competitive in online and was the member of a competitive clan.

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Wing Commander 3 - $1.49
Wing Commander 4 - $1.49

These are great "arcady" space sims with a great (albeit kinda cheesy) story and wonderful production value along with some "choose your own adventure" elements. Plus, Mark Hamill!

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Nox - $1.49

Nox had the misfortune of coming out around the same time as Diablo 2 (it was actually released a few months before D2, but after the original Diablo obviously). It was subsequently characterized as a "Diablo clone" even though it's honestly not a very accurate description. It's an isometric RPG, yes, but that's about it. It's got interesting, hand-crafted (i.e. not random) dungeons full of traps and even some semi-platformer elements. The combat is fun and fast paced and you can choose from a couple of different classes to start out.

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Startopia - $1.79

Startopia is a massively underrated tycoon-style game set on a space station that you design. It's very unique and highly entertaining - with some pretty funny writing as well. This is definitely one of my favorites in the genre and I honestly think it could appeal to people even if they don't typically play this type of game. I spent many many hours in "sandbox" mode just building my own station and trying to keep the various alien guests entertained/healthy/safe. Great music too!

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Divine Divinity - $0.89

Divine Divinity is another "not Diablo" isometric RPG. It's got a huge world, a great story, a lot of charm, and a lot of humor. A real classic; and for less than a bottle of [insert soft drink of choice] from a vending machine.

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Divinity 2: Developer's Cut - $2.99

Divinity 2 unfortunately launched with a lot of bugs, some of which were basically game-breaking. Thankfully those are all patched at this point, but it kindof tarnished what is an otherwise fantastic game. It's also completely hilarious. The Divinity games have always had humor front and center and Divinity 2 is no exception. It plays nothing like the other games in the series, mind you - this is not an isometric RPG - it's third person not unlike, say, Gothic. Divinity 2 is really underrated. Highly entertaining and highly recommended.

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Deus Ex: GOTY Edition - $2.99

There's really nothing I can say about this game that hasn't already been said a thousand times over. It was way ahead of its time. An engrossing cyberpunk story and a whole lot of player agency makes for a great time.

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Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines - $4.99

Not unlike Divinity 2, VTMB launched in a pretty broken state and unfortunately ended much the same since Troika Games, the developer, went belly up shortly after it was released. The good news is the community has fixed basically everything in the game (and are still making improvements) and put it in a good state; that's a damn good thing because underneath the rough edges is one of the best RPGs ever made. It's a masterpiece. A great story, great characters, a whole lot of player choice, extremely atmospheric, and great music... I love this game.

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The Witcher 3: GOTY Edition - $29.99

TW3 isn't a "classic" game in the sense that it's not as old as the rest of the games listed here, but it's just as good. I've spoken here, at length, about all the great things that TW3 does that other devs should take note of in their future endeavors, but suffice it to say that it has a great story, great characters, wonderful writing, meaningful consequences for your actions, and it does optional side content better than probably any other game I've played - all of it comes together to form this extremely well-realized cohesive world full of characters that you actually care about.

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Anyway, those are my recommendations! Maybe someone looking for something new will find something here :)

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