I had the Soldier of Fortune original game disk, but lost the box with the CD key. Mailed the devs/publishers asking for help, sending a picture of the disks, and they basically told me that I should have been more careful. Googled “soldier of fortune CD key” and ended up on one of those now-defunct websites which collected cracks and CD keys, discovering that not only you didn’t need the key, but you could also just download free stuff.
Now I pay for Prime Video, Netflix and Spotify and buy lots of games on steam/gog, but I also created an app used by thousands of people every month to help them sail the four seas
I liked the first one more than the second, I think the rogue lite mechanics were not a good fit for it. I also noticed the progression in the second one was kinda limited towards the end and would have liked some more sauce.
It may depend on which kind of game you like (Zelda like or rogue lite). But thumbs up for the first one for sure!