I’ve quite recently made run of D2 up to middle of Act V and rhen lost interest at all. It was a bit grindy, but the main problem was convenience factor. I was at the point when my summoning Druid started to lack behind and it is pretty much impossible to respec skills to fight that sort of bad decisions… When I was a teenager I’d just scratch it and start over with better build, but ain’t nobody got time for that now!
For me it would probably be most old DOS era games like Dune 2, Ultima Underworld, Warcraft 1, Civilization 1, etc. All of them were great, but it’s really difficult to get used to those old control schemes nowadays. Pixelated graphics wouldn’t bother me, but those like 15 FPS at max is also hard to get over these days.
Other than that it would be some newer games that lacks a bit of convenience stuff. Like e.g. Diablo 1, where you can’t run yet. Or some of the first 3D accelerated shooters that can’t remap controls to WASD.
It always saddens me that Bethesda totally derailed past Morrowind. That was a masterpiece of a game, but ever since then it’s all just plain worse, dumbed down experience. Don’t get me wrong I still kind of like Oblivion, it’s not a bad game, but compared to Morrowind it’s just piece of shit. Haven’t even tried Skyrim as I fear it’s even more streamlined “experience for average Joe”…
Max Payne was so amazing. I don’t knwo why, but I totally loved the atmosphere. Night, cold, desperation, drug lords, bullet time, comic strips, music, fast gunplay, it all made such a wholesome package. (The only part I really disliked was the dream passage where you had tu run through darkness on thin red lines, that was PITA.)
I fear remake will lose some aspects that made Max Payne what it was. Replace comics with cut scenes and it would not be the same game. Replace dark, grim, shadowy graphics with modern flashy ray traced lightning awesomeness and it surely would look good, but it wouldn’t be the Max. Replace fast paced shooting tempo with more cover based or just differently paced approach and yet again, it wouldn’t be the same game. Etc.
Well, it’s first person shooter where shooting is pretty bad (unless you invest a lot of skill points in it). Melee is okayish, very simple, basically button mashing. Luckily combat is just a minor part of the game. Dialogues, story, atmosphere, all this very much compensates for the lack of good gunplay.
If GOG are such a freedom heroes why do they rely on megacorp Windows OS? That’s what I like about steam - it makes gaming on linux dumb easy. And not just on linux, their “package” is ridiculously good - mods, cummunity, reviews, friends, non stop sales, mobile app (although I hate they removed chat to standalone app), and much, much more.
I’m not shitting on GOG. I love those guys, they brought back so much memories with reviving long forgotten games, I have hundreds of purchases there. But… it just needs a lite more polish (pun intended).
Yeah 80s/90s were the sweet spot for action movies. Most of them were naive and predictable, but also incredibly easy to digest. I’d say it was kind of WYSIWYG in movie space: good guys were good, bud guys were bad, plot was easy so your dog can comprehend it, no complicated backstory, no bullshit, just action and enjoyable fun.
Try Eastshade, should check all the boxes IMO. https://store.steampowered.com/app/715560/Eastshade/
Any game from Amanita Design might fit the bill too (Machinarium, Botanicula, etc.).
If you don’t mind reading a lot, there’s Roadwarden https://store.steampowered.com/app/1155970/Roadwarden/
Oh c’mon! It’s not just Portugal, there’s half of the EU missing…