This is a follow-up to our previous articles on this topic and now will cover some more popular and interesting games that are almost impossible to buy these days.
Alien versus Predator 2
Let’s start with a classic – one of the FPS GOATs! Aliens vs Predator 2 was released in 2001 and developed by American developer Monolith Productions of FEAR and No One Lives Forever acclaim. It is another example of a video game based off a movie series that is actually really good.
The game’s highlight are the 3 distinct in gameplay campaigns that all take place in the same location and show 3 different but linked points of view on its main story.
They can be played in any order, but I need to start somewhere so I will first comment on the human campaign. It has the player taking control of a Colonial Marine and is the most standard so to say. Blasting big aliens and stealthy predators with lots of varied weapons and gadgets. The player is quite powerful in a straight up shootout but is vulnerable to surprises from the alien opponents and has to combat the darkness to survive the onslaught of these powerful opponents. Of course, human allies and human machinery make this more interesting. Trying to save as many allies as possible is quite the rewarding experience!
The second campaign has the player take control of the mighty Predator – an elite bounty hunter with highly advanced technology. He is more durable than the other two characters and less vulnerable to fall damage than the human. He has a cloaking device and infrared vision to aid him on the hunt and while he does pack a lot of power, entering a simple slug fest is definitely not the correct way to play him most of the time. Instead – play as the brutal hunter he is presented to be!
The “last” and overall shortest campaign has players experiencing the world through the eyes of the Alien. You start off as a simple facehugger before advancing to the iconic Alien. It obviously has no weapons but does possess unique abilities such as echolocation and extreme speed and agility – it can enter places the other two main characters cannot. In a sense it’s a more stealth and ambush gameplay style and it is loads of fun!
It also has an iconic multiplayer mode feature 4 different teams to play as. Obviously, the Aliens and the Predators, but also two whole human factions – giving some awesome asymmetrical fun!
So why is it not up for sale? Well, it is the old problem – IP rights dispute. Thankfully those sometimes get resolved so there is a chance we may see this game back up for sale officially again. Aliens vs Predator 1 managed to escape this trap, and another game I had initially prepared for this article titled Wanted Guns was put on Steam in late 2023. So, there is a chance… but navigating IP disputes where movies and studios and publishers and developers are involved is a quagmire. Solvable, but difficult.
Still, this is a great game and if you can play it or can buy it in the future – do so. Trust me, it is worth it! The expansion pack though is in my honest opinion quite mediocre. But hey if it’s a part of the package – its extra content!
Darkest of Days
This has one of the most insane setups for a game I have ever witnessed. You play as a soldier fighting during the Battle of Little Big Horn for General Custer… for those who know their military history, that one does not end well for Custer and his men.
In the nick of time, you get saved by a futuristic organization that has developed time travel technology and they recruit you to help them monitor and fix issues within the timeline – making sure it does not become too insane and collapse in on itself.
And that starts a player journey through several time periods, including the American Civil War, the fall of Pompeii and the World Wars, fixing timeline issues 1 bullet at a time.
It does become dark at some points…
Over the course of the game the player gets to use some 22nd century firepower to absolutely decimate the poor people of the ancient past. In some cases, modified period-accurate guns are in use as well. A few missions even have inventive stealth sequences or wacky objectives to accomplish such as making sure the people of the past do not get their hands on future technology. I don’t think that is enough considering we also fill roman soldiers with top-of-the-line tungsten 22nd century rounds fired by a minigun but let’s be real – that is cool so it gets a pass!
What I do find most impressive about this title though is its sense of scale. Relatively few FPS games can make a battle truly seem large or epic. In Darkest of Days there are situations where it feels as if you have been dropped inside a first-person Total War game and it is awesome! The other aspect that I will praise is how historically accurate some of the game’s locations are. The American developers from 8monkey Labs did their best here and it was worth it.
*Side note – except for the actual Battle of Little Big Horn. No idea what they were thinking there…
**Actually, some of the “mistakes” in the game may be intentional – the timeline is breaking by all of the insane interference we and other organizations are unleashing unto it!
Is it a good game though? Well, I will be honest – no. It is super buggy, apparently the game’s default gamma and colour settings were set up by the developers using a broken monitor! This makes some areas DOOM 3 levels of dark with none of the artistry! The AI is also quite stupid and… it really looks like a game that should have seen at least 6 more months of development time.
Unfortunately, the game is not officially up for sale nowadays though physical copies can still be found from time to time and are a common occurrence in some American states. If you are from such a state, I think you should pick it up. It is a broken and mediocre game, but it does have enough heart and soul into it to be worth a few dollars or euro.
Korea: Forgotten Conflict
Released in 2003 and developed by Czech studio Plastic Reality Technologies this game is a real-time tactical stealth game in the exact same vein as the classic Commandos series, except taking place during the Korean war.
Taking control of multiple characters, stealth assassination, stealing, grenading people – it’s a puzzle and an action stealth game at the same time. And vehicles can be used too!
Just like Darkest of Days though I am unsure if I can recommend this one. This is another example of a game lacking even a hint of polish. The pathing is generally bad, the AI is quite poor, there are many bugs and issues plaguing the campaign, the user interface feels like it was made by some sort of alien or something…..
The modder in me believes this is one of those games that with the help of some time and polish and a few of the developer’s tools, could be improved dramatically. Alas, it is hard to get one’s hands on it in the modern era. Which is a shame because even though it’s a relatively bad game due to how poorly it functions – it did spark my own personal interest in the Korean war. And for that I can never bring myself to hate it.
If it becomes available again one day – I hope the modders have a go at it!
With that we finish our quick look into several good or even great old games that cannot be officially bought these days. Thankfully, there is a trend with gaming that old IPs and games do eventually get re-released again. I may be a hopeless optimist, but I do believe that many of these “lost” games and many others will one day be purchasable or easily downloadable once again!
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