Retro Spectives

Released in 2002, Syberia saw critical acclaim on release for its wistful and surrealist atmosphere.  You play as Kate Walker, an American lawyer sent to finalise the purchase of a clockwork toy fact…

The Burnout series is famous for one thing: combining racing with carnage.  Less focused on customisation than Need for Speed, but with more traditional racing structure than Carmageddon, Burnout 3 s…

The Civilization series is one of the most consistently successful 4x titles throughout video game history.  It saw its first entry way back in 1991, and would continue to refine its history spanning…

2020 saw Pat and James play through another 23 retro games, ranging from the delightful insanity of Katamari Damacy to the far more lukewarm Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.  We played a lot of ste…

It's time for part 1 of the Season 2 wrapup: The Mailbag!  Year 2 of Retro Spectives saw many new users join our discord server, and even more in depth discussions.  We argued about whether Super Met…

Patrick and James have a problem.  Almost every single episode, they’ve brought up Dark Souls.  Level design?  Not as good as Dark Souls.  Combat System?  Not as good as Dark Souls.  Even when they’r…

In 2004, Relic brought the tabletop game Warhammer 40,000 to life with its real time strategy game Dawn of War.  Fans of the franchise adored it, and it brought in entire legions of new zealots ready…

The Metroidvania genre has a long and complicated history, but the game that invented the modern model is without a doubt Super Metroid.  Released in 1994 for the Super Nintendo, it blew critics away…

The first Thief game was widely beloved, and critically acclaimed, but not entirely free of criticism.  The gawking masses loved sneaking around the mansions of the wealthy, but were not too hot on t…

The Super Mario franchise is what many would label as the dawn of videogames. While it wasn't the first, its impact on the infant medium of gaming was certainly the biggest and to this day the franch…

The Lord Of The Rings is unquestionably the most impactful fantasy work ever written.  And in 2001, Peter Jackson did what many thought was impossible, bringing Tolkien’s vision to the big screen in …

Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders is a difficult game to explain. It was first released for the original Xbox in 2004 by the Korean Studio Phantagram, and tries to fuse real-time strategy with action…

First released in the year 2000 for windows, The Operative: No One Lives Forever (NOLF) was widely praised as the best FPS released since Half Life.  The game openly celebrates the Spy genre, feeling…

First released in 2006 by the now famous Arkane Studios, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic was considered a niche hit on release.  Making use of the revolutionary physics of the source engine, it turne…

In Splinter Cell  you play as Sam Fisher, an ex Navy Seal brought out of retirement by the NSA to combat the growing threat of cyber terrorism.  Unlike your typical gung-ho hero,  Sam operates stealt…

Earthworm Jim hit the Sega Genesis with an almighty impact when it smashed into release in 1994.  Inspired by the success of Sonic The Hedgehog, Shiny Entertainment wanted to bring their own anthropo…

Stealth games have a long and varied history.  Amongst others exist the purist Thief, the story driven Metal Gear, and the slick secret agent stylings of Splinter Cell.  But in the year 2000, Hitman:…

Lunar: The Silver Star is a tale of love and adventure which has been remade more than most games in history.  First released in 1992 for the SEGA CD, it has existed in one form or another on differe…

Pat and James go back in time further than they’ve ever been before and play the original Castlevania!  First released in 1986, it was the beginning of a legacy that has seen metroidvanias, 3d brawle…

Freelancer was meant to be the chosen one.  Announced in 1999 by Chris Roberts (of star citizen fame), it seemed to promise complex factional interactions, a cinematic storyline and engaging dogfight…