#geneforge

[cavalrycat]

I wanted to post a lot more but didn't get the time to draw more. whoops.

[thesylverlining]

Finally playing Geneforge 2, and. Ah yes. The three genders.

[stop-spreading-this-poll]

Round 1 Poll 66: Game Myths

Team Fortress 2 submission:

That this image of a coconut, if removed from the files the game will not start. This is false, there is a coconut in the game files, but if removed it will just cause a missing texture on the Fresh Brewed Victory taunt. It was started as a joke from a YouTube comment and was taken as fact from there

Geneforge submission:

There is an un-openable door in the original version of Geneforge 1

Which one should be spread less/annoys you more?

If the image of a coconut is removed from the files the game will not start

There is an un-openable door in the original version of Geneforge 1

I am not familiar with either of these

Voting ended onAug 25, 2023

[numinous-vagary]

“May whatever pathetic god you worship have mercy on your soul, because you will find none here..”

In geneforge, my girl Lumin is going through a corruption arc and looking hot doing it

[darthsuki]

Oh yeah, I'm totally normal about old niche isometric RPG games with a unique system of magic and themes of defying authority and arguing for the rights and dignity of the creatures created by said magic system, which is also undeniably corrupted but allows the player autonomy in making choices that either upholds the twisted status quo or works to tear it down piece by piece

Totally not related at all in any way but like.................. if that blurb above was interesting, then you should check out the Geneforge games!

You can get the entire original series (all five games) on GOG.com right now for like 15 bucks, or you can get the remastered version of the first game for 20!

[modifiedyincision]

I CAN GET ALL GENEFORGE MUTAGEN ACHIEVEMENTS. I AM GOOD AT GAMES. I CAN DO A PACIFIST RUN. I WILL NOT CRY

[appealingtonobody]

[thirteen-jades]

I just finished streaming a playthrough of Fallout 2 last night, and wanted to compare/contrast with the first game in the series now that I’ve played both. It’s hard to say overall which I liked better; they both had plenty of really good points and were a great time overall. I played both with community mods to generally make the experience smoother, with fewer crashes and some QOL improvements.

Fallout 1 in my opinion was pretty much the perfect length. It wasn’t lacking in substance or anything, and I never found it starting to drag at any point. There was plenty to do and see, a story with enough plot points and settings to be really interesting with lots of variety, and it reached a satisfying conclusion before it started to wear out its welcome.

Fallout 2, in comparison, was a significantly longer game, with all the ups and downs that this brings. There was lots of content to play through; enough that even without doing every single side quest at every location I was able to still explore, find things to do, and generally have an experience that felt complete. On the other hand, if I had tried to complete everything in one playthrough, I suspect I would have gotten distracted and found it difficult to actually complete the game. That said, there’s no reason you have to do everything, so if you’re not a completionist, it shouldn’t be a problem either way.

Mechanically the two were pretty similar, with perhaps some slight improvements in the second game. I liked that while high-end energy weapons existed, there are also endgame level small guns (and presumably big guns too), so I didn’t have to specialize in one specific type of weapons to get access to the really powerful endgame stuff. The number of options for weapons and armor both increased in FO2, which was a small but nice improvement.

The companions in both games didn’t feel as fleshed out as they could have been, and both lacked in sufficient engagement with their characters for my taste. Neither game has much in the way of e.g. companion quests, which would have been a definite improvement in my opinion. As it stands, they wound up essentially being extra inventory space that did a little damage, soaked a little damage, and sometimes wandered off to get killed and force me to load a save. Or shot me in the back of the head and killed me at the end of a tough fight. Sulik is no longer allowed to own firearms, and Ian is on thin ice.

That said, between the two games I would say FO2 had considerably more interesting companions, so if there are mods that add such quests, that game has more material to work with. I especially liked Goris, the deathclaw companion you can recruit at Vault 13, but even many of the other companions were interesting in their own way as well. Ironically this actually makes the lack of companion detail more visible in FO2, whereas in FO1 they were all relatively generic enough that I didn’t find myself particularly wanting to learn more about them or engage with them in more detail. It wasn’t until I played Fallout 2 that I really noticed how lacking in engagement they were, for exactly that reason.

It’s difficult to say which I liked more; both had lots of freedom to do what you want and were solid games overall. I definitely recommend anyone interested in turn-based isometric RPGs (or RPGs in general tbh) give them a try at least. As I said, the first one is really kind of short and sweet, so it’s not that much of an investment to get into, and is a really satisfying game if you wind up enjoying it.

The next game on my list is Geneforge: Mutagen, which I am very excited for. You play a Shaper in that game, which are powerful mages capable of creating life from raw materials and shaping it to your will. You are stranded on an abandoned island that it is forbidden to visit, and find it inhabited by old creations of the Shapers that once lived there, now forming their own societies. There are three factions, each with different ideas how their relationship with their creators should look, and they all seem to be fleshed out, detailed, and thoughtfully designed. I’m eager to engage with those, and the Shaping system allows you to shape creations of your own to assist you. Overall it looks like a very unique game, and I expect it to be a great experience.