The Early 2000s were a wild, wacky, and weird landscape for gaming. Some of the most iconic pieces of software came to be during this time. Other games? Well, they’re better off forgotten during this era. But there are more than a few games that we’d love to see come back to life from this time. Granted, we’re reaching a little beyond the Y2K marker here, with a hard cap of 2010 as the final year available for these remasters. But I promise this episode of Waypoint Wishlist is bound to be full of some classics you may have forgotten about. Let’s dive in and find out what games we’re craving to play once again.
You Don’t Need To Turn Your PC off Before Midnight To Enjoy The Newest Episode of Waypoint Wishlist
SHaun Cichacki – COntributor
Oh, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. You were my first experience with “next-gen PC gaming”. While I didn’t have a PC powerful enough to run this game at its full potential back in the day, my buddy Bradley did. And this game was something to behold. A physics playground, cleverly disguised as a fantasy RPG. Nearly everything was breakable. It had a camera that made you feel like you were being thrown around on a rollercoaster. I miss it and wish that the PC version was able to be played without putting what feels like 25 gigs of mods on it.
Made by Arkane and published by Ubisoft, this was just one of those games, man. It was unlike anything else I had played at the time. Sure, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was a thing, and that stole more than enough of my time on my Xbox 360. But I had never seen, experienced, or played anything quite like Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. Hell, there’s still nothing quite like it today. I would do anything for a properly running version of this, playable on modern hardware.
Matt Vatankhah – Contributor
Imagine, if you will, playing a baby angel named Bob sent to rid Earth of corruption and sin. You’ll sneak through cyberpunk-ish science facilities and warehouses while evading security forces that aim to kill you on sight. To progress, you’ll possess the bodies of anything biological at will. Scientists to gain security clearance, military personnel to shoot at other military personnel, and rats to.. crawl around ventilation shafts.
I don’t think it gets much more “early 2000s PC game” than Messiah. I don’t remember why I initially bought this game back in March 2000 – maybe I saw it advertised in GamePro or something. All I know is I was intrigued, so I played it, and I loved it. Messiah isn’t afraid to be weird, and its “possession” mechanic is an idea entirely too overlooked in gaming. It also introduced me to the industrial metal band Fear Factory through its soundtrack, which would then become my musical obsession throughout my teens. I’ll never forget you, Bob.
Anthony Franklin II – contributor
There are very few games that sum up my early childhood years the way MDK2 did. Another game I was introduced to by my father, MDK2 had me locked in from the jump. Mainly because Kurt Hectic’s suit was so cool and Max was awesome. I could take or leave Doc Hawkins. But the game was just fun and weird and everything a 10-year-old would love. No surprise that it’s yet another classic from BioWare.
Dwayne Jenkins – Managing Editor
I’d like to start by listing the games I had in mind for this edition of Waypoint Wishlist. Couldn’t have been my frontrunner: Planescape: Torment. Technically, that has an Enhanced Edition. Then, I thought about the Backyard Sports series, but they technically have been “updated” for modern consoles — which counts as the loosest of remasters. Then, I considered one of my all-time favorite weird-ass FMV games of that era, Harvester. But, honestly, the game’s “crust” adds to its charm. Finally, it hit me. Sanitarium. (No, that weird iOS port is gross and doesn’t count.)
Sanitarium was a super weird, wildly interesting point-and-click psychological horror game. There were logic puzzles that hit that difficulty sweet spot, a great cast of characters to interact with, and a part of the game’s swag was that each chapter had a different aesthetic and atmosphere. Listen, I like my psychological horror games, and you can’t get much better than Sanitarium. This one can just receive a tasteful remaster — I don’t know if I trust anyone to retain the spirit of the original with a full remake. Maybe throw in a new voice cast with the option of switching back to the OG.
Thus Concludes Another Exciting Episode of Waypoint WIshlist
Wild to think that there are two Messiah games on this list, and they couldn’t be any more different from one another. While Matt may want to play as a chubby cherub, I just want to kick people off of cliffs. Honestly, Blade and Sorcery is basically VR Might and Magic, so I may need to strap my headset on and get to work.
As always, thank you for joining in, and keep on being amazing.
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