1. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Switch)(Adventure)2. Final Fight [Japanese Version] (Switch)(Beat 'Em Up)3. Ziggurat (PC)(FPS)
4. Magrunner: Dark Pulse (PC)(FPS)
5. The King of Dragons [Japanese](Arcade)(Beat 'Em Up)6. Captain Commando [Japanese](Arcade)(Beat 'Em Up)7. Knights of the Round [Japanese](Arcade)(Beat 'Em Up)
8. The Witcher (PC)(RPG)9. Tenchi wo Kurau II (Arcade)(Beat 'Em Up)
10. Dark Sun: Shattered Lands (PC)(RPG)11. Lichdom: Battlemage (PC)(FPS/RPG Hybrid)
12. Star Wars: Republic Commando (PC)(FPS)13. DOOM 64 (PC)(FPS)
14. Half Dead 2 (PC)(Adventure)15. Powered Gear - Strategic Variant Armor Equipment (Arcade)(Beat 'Em Up)
16. Torchlight II (PC)(RPG)17. Battle Circuit [Japanese](Arcade)(Beat 'Em Up)
18. Hard Reset Redux (PC)(FPS)19. The Stanley Parable (PC)(Walking Sim)20. Waking Mars (PC)(Adventure)
21. Requiem: Avenging Angel (PC)(FPS)22. Night Slashers (Arcade)(Beat 'Em Up)
23. Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD (PC)(Action Adventure)24. Strikers 1945 (Arcade)(SHMUP)
25. SiN Episodes: Emergence (PC)(FPS)
26. Crysis Warhead (PC)(FPS)27. Metro 2033 (PC)(FPS)
28. Good Job! (Switch)(Puzzle)
29. Blasphemous (Switch)(Action Adventure)30. Two Worlds: Epic Edition (PC)(RPG)
31. Chex Quest HD (PC)(FPS)32. NecroVision: Lost Company (PC)(FPS)
33. Icewind Dale (PC)(RPG)34. Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter (PC)(RPG)
35. Icewind Dale: Trials of the Luremaster (PC)(RPG)36. Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession (PC)(RPG)Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession is yet another SSI role playing game for PC that is based on 2nd Edition Dungeons & Dragons. While it traces its design heritage back through the Eye of the Beholder line, Strahd marked the beginning of a new engine that was used for only three games: Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession, Menzoberranzen, and Ravenloft: Stone Prophet. As Strahd is the first game in this line, it's also the most rudimentary in design, so the UI is simpler than Menzo and Stone Prophet and the game world is of a much shorter scale, literally; later games incorporate an amount of vertical movement not present in Strahd. Yet at the same time, Strahd also dropped a lot of the more linear nature of Eye of the Beholder and Menzo, embracing a more go-as-you-like approach that could sometimes get you into trouble if you weren't careful. And that's half the fun.
In Strahd's Possession, you start with a party of two characters, both level 5, who are in pursuit of a possible assassin who has stolen your king's holy symbol of Helm. Upon catching and killing the thief, you discover a hideous relic and are suddenly transported to the realm of Ravenloft, specifically Barovia, a land overseen by Count Strahd von Zarovich. As you progress, you can pick up additional NPC characters, find and complete sub-quests, and generally help the people of Barovia, all while trying to complete your end goal of getting the hell outta Ravenloft, because Ravenloft is a gothic nightmare.
If you're unfamiliar, Ravenloft is actually one of the most prominent horror settings for the Dungeons & Dragons series, and this portion pulls particularly from the Hammer Horror production
Horror of Dracula. In truth, this is but one small domain of Ravenloft, and there are numerous monstrous entities and dark lords that pull inspiration from Universal Monsters/Hammer Horror as well as myth and folklore. Strahd happens to be the most famous and in some ways straightforward, so it's off to gothic dark fantasy land we go.
In practice, this game is effectively an anti-undead campaign. While you'll find a few brigands, werewolves, and wargs along the way, the vast bulk of what you'll fight are undead: vampires, ghouls, zombies, skeletons, wights, so on and so forth. While these are no strangers to D&D video games, many of them have skipped over one of the nastiest elements in these creatures repertoires, so you may not be accustomed to level drain, but these critters can do it. What is level drain? It's literally the enemy touching you and dropping your character by a level. This is how D&D symbolizes the life being drained from your body, but in truth it is also a frustrating mechanic to deal with and not a particularly fun one, which is why it's often dropped. However, it is something that can be restored if you have the money or magic power...
...except you're in Ravenloft, son, so you ain't getting that kind of help. Instead, you have to take preventative measures and savescum. The spell Negative Plane Protection is your best friend, so you better have brought a Cleric with you. In fact, don't even bother playing the game if you lack a Cleric; you need the healing, you need the protection, and you NEED the Turn Undead ability. Whatever else you want to bring is fine; I brought a Fighter/Thief that was only useful as a Fighter and completely unnecessary as a Thief, so I wasted a dual class on something useless, but I brought a Cleric and therefore survived. Also, combat is real time, so if you're gonna use range and magic to face your foes, get used to backpedaling and trying to click through your spellbook as fast as possible, because the game only pauses when you're selecting spell targets or looking at your inventory. Screw up, and that wight has just dropped your front line by several levels as you choked on your own Magic Missile page.
Yeah, that's right, Ravenloft ain't easy. Nor should it be. It's a horror campaign setting, so to get through, you're gonna need guts, gumption, and grit. However, it's not all pain and sorrow; there are some interesting sidequests, like helping restore a fallen paladin's faith and rescuing a repentant werewolf. Even the main quest has fun moments like the time you get possessed by a pissed off ghost so he can get revenge on a ghoul king that murdered him back when they were both still alive. You also get some fun undead encounters that aren't commonly seen outside of Ravenloft, like the dreaded Zombie Golem, which will mess you up unless you use Turn Undead. Because you brought a Cleric, right?
Also, the game has some elements that can easily be abused, such as fooling enemy AI into being unable to come through a doorway. Instead of attacking you, monsters will often get stuck running back and forth because they can't quite figure out how to progress, making them juicy targets. Also, Turn Undead generally causes them to flee, but do it point blank, and the AI will often freak out and simply spin in a circle while you hack away without a care in the world. It's a great way to improve your survivability and knock the crap out of enemies that would otherwise turn your face into meatloaf.
As nasty as the enemies can be, I had a lot of fun with Strahd's Possession, and I'm looking forward to porting my two main party members into the next game, Ravenloft: Stone Prophet. While that's unfortunately where the Ravenloft games end for SSI (there is a PS1 fighting game too, but it's not good...and I've already beaten it), I still want to experience the adventure. Plus that one has mummies.
If you haven't noticed a theme as I make my way through Dungeons & Dragons video games, it's that YOU ALWAYS BRING A CLERIC.