4. The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard
You all know Skyrim, right? Pretty good game, came out last year. Won some awards. If you love the world of Tamriel, it’s not too difficult to delve into the games of Elder Scrolls past. Bethesda made Arena and Daggerfall free to download, while Morrowind and Oblivion are purchasable on Steam. But how many of you have played the linear action-adventure Redguard?
Above: And you thought the faces in Morrowind were ugly
Redguard throws a lot of typical Elder Scrolls elements out the window. There isn’t much exploration, there aren’t many RPG mechanics, you can’t create your own character and, oh yeah, it’s exclusively in third-person. It was actually a pretty good game with some good combat and puzzles, but Redguard is primarily remembered for its story. Your adventure as Cyrus the mercenary, though linear, helped set the standard for the kind of engaging world elements and questlines that we’d later see in Morrowind and beyond.
Due to the way Redguard was programmed, it’s currently difficult to play and impossible to finish unless you have an old Windows 95/98 machine lying around somewhere. The game installed to Windows, but used elements of DOS code. You can get it running through DOSBox with some work, but as of this writing, the game will always crash at a certain point in the story. Finding a way to fix this would probably take some time and resources, but it would be great to see Bethesda bring it back as a piece of history.
5. Mega Man Legends
We know, the wound that is Mega Man Legend 3’s cancellation is still pretty fresh. But wouldn’t the pill of disappointment be easier to swallow if we could at least play the older games in the series? Maybe? But even though you can grab GameCube discs with nearly every 2D Mega Man game on them (and then some!), it’s tough to get hold of either Mega Man Legends game.
Above: This is the last known image of 3D Mega Man. If found, please contact [email protected]
The 3D Mega Man Legends games were a pretty radical departure from the core 2D series, focusing more on exploration and role-playing elements than fast-paced action. Nevertheless, the games were mostly well-received, and still have a large cult following. The spinoff even had its own spinoff, The Misadventures of Tron Bonne, which is potentially harder to track down a copy of than either Legends game.
Sadly, it doesn’t look like it’s about to get any easier. According to Capcom, the Legends games won’t see re-release because of licensing issues, although that didn’t stop Mega Man Legends 1 & 2 from being ported to the PSP in the Land of the Rising Sun (it’s known as RockMan Dash if you want to try importing).
6. System Shock 2
System Shock and its sequel are regarded by many to be revolutionary entries in the FPS genre. The way System Shock 2 implemented RPG and horror elements was masterful, and its story and design helped push lead designer Ken Levine to the top of the game development dog pile. Much of the reason Bioshock was hyped so much prior to its release was the fact that it was a spiritual successor to System Shock 2.
Used copies of the game aren’t cheap. Even the original System Shock will cost you more than a few bucks, but at least fans received permission from the game’s creators at Looking Glass Studios to create their own rerelease. The result is a free downloadable, System Shock Portable, that’s small enough to fit onto (and be played off of) a USB flash drive. It easily runs on modern Windows machines via DOSbox. Sadly, there’s no similar treatment for System Shock 2.
EA renewed its rights to the System Shock name not long ago, sparking rumors that System Shock 3 was in development. If that turns out to be true, it’s possible they’re holding the original two games in the series hostage in order to drum up excitement to the new game closer to its release (like they just did with Syndicate). That doesn’t make us any less impatient to fight SHODAN again, though.
