Forsaken 64

I recently played Nightdive's remaster of Forsaken and not even their modernisation of the game could do much to revive what is very much a game of its time that hasn't aged well.

A first-person shooter that allows you to travel in any direction within the confines of cramped and maze-like environments, Forsaken puts you in the vehicle of a mercenary who's returned to a semi-destroyed Earth which is now full of machines who want to kill you. Though a cutscene introduces the story at the beginning of the game, these are essentially absent thereafter, making for a dull experience that lacks life and character.

On the N64, the game feels uncharacteristically tight and fluid thanks to finely-tuned controls and a smooth frame rate. Still, strafing and dodging enemy fire makes keeping your aim on target difficult, which becomes frustrating combined with the game's already high difficulty and small enemies that blend into drab environments.

The lack of a radar or map reduces repetitive and boring gameplay to a crawl as you hunt through labyrinthine levels for your objective. For a shooter that blasts horrendous 90's techno into your ears, Forsaken is exceptionally slow and cumbersome even without this additional downtime. Given that there's little to no atmosphere, storytelling or interesting level design that begs attention here, the game's pace feels at odds with its design and it feels empty and unfinished at times.