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What game are you wasting time on?
- Thread starter Trash
- Start date
Vorark
Erudite
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2017
- Messages
- 1,394
Yeah, I'm afraid you're right. Game is pretty and I like the attention to detail but it's been boring so far. Oh well, at least it was cheap.
Dedup
Augur
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2013
- Messages
- 146
Getting close to finishing Curse of the Azure Bonds. Just have to get rid of the Zhent bond and then it's on to Myth Drannor and T. It's been a long time since I've played this far into the game but I have vague recollections of the Raksashas in Myth Drannor being a pain in the ass. I also don't know if I'm going to bother with the optional dungeons this time around, but I may just try my hand at the Mulmaster Beholder Corps. I've never actually beat them in the past, but I didn't know about the Dust of Disappearance back then.
I've also been playing the first Way of the Samurai game on the PCSX2 emulator. It's been fun so far but it seems that either this game is more difficult than its sequel or my action game skills have seriously declined. I feel that I'm having a lot more problems with the combat here than in the second game which I played on the PS2 years ago when it came out.
I've also been playing the first Way of the Samurai game on the PCSX2 emulator. It's been fun so far but it seems that either this game is more difficult than its sequel or my action game skills have seriously declined. I feel that I'm having a lot more problems with the combat here than in the second game which I played on the PS2 years ago when it came out.
pippin
Guest
ChasinTheTrane
Literate
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2017
- Messages
- 34
It's kind of a shame how many games in my library that I haven't played. Just started the new Zelda so that's taking all of my time at the moment, but my biggest time wasters are probably Civ VI and Rocket League. I just turn my mind off when I play those to be honest.
Mark.L.Joy
Prophet
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2016
- Messages
- 1,286
GTA V seems as boring as I thought it would be, once I got to the open world I physixed into some random people and started a fight, given the, hmmm, demographics, it seemed appropriate.
I'll just skip the cutscenes from now on and slog through some more to see if there's anything redeeming about the game I heard the heist missions were good.
I'll just skip the cutscenes from now on and slog through some more to see if there's anything redeeming about the game I heard the heist missions were good.
ChasinTheTrane
Literate
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2017
- Messages
- 34
GTA V is practically five games in one so you could focus on some aspect you like and get lost in it. I can spend hours just playing golf!
pippin
Guest
i still think vice city was the best one of the 3d games. 2 being the best of the old ones.
Finally got around to finishing Thief 2: The Metal Age and DAMN does it hold up
They just don't design levels like Life of the Party anymore, because that level belongs in a fucking museum. It's a perfect nutshell of Thief in general, blending exploration and storytelling seamlessly as you get a glimpse of all kinds of lives in the City. The other levels also mostly range from good to excellent, such as First City Bank, Shipping and Receiving, Blackmail and Precious Cargo. The only bummers I find are the regular City levels like Ambush and Trace the Courier, which focus less on actual theft and exploration but more on slowly traversing large areas without being seen, something I feel Assassins in T1 did much better.
The game does show quite a lot of signs of being rushed, which is no surprise considering this was Looking Glass Studio's last game before they folded. Ambush and Trace the Courier reuse the same level for different purpose, Kidnap is an altered Lost City from T1, and Casing the Joint is near identical to Masks as Casing the Joint is just Masks with no access to the third floor and a rule to not KO or get seen by anyone. It would have been more acceptable if those two didn't precisely follow after the other.
Sabotage at Soulforge stands out from the rest of the levels as it focuses much more on puzzle-stealth á la Splinter Cell, where you can't exactly knock out all the guards and run around the level taffing everything due to the present enemy types and lack of resources to deal with every single one. It's different and brutal as all hell because of it, but still incredibly fitting as a final level and a closing chapter on the Mechanists, without being as in-your-face as a final level like Into the Maw of Chaos was where you were heavyhandedly tested in your skills with every single arrow type. With the main antagonist constantly taunting you throughout the level, it was also the level the writer working on HL2 admitted ripping off from. "What hast thou built... Garrett?"
Compared to Thief 1, the levels here focus more on stealing in levels guarded by humans as opposed to raiding tombs infested with monsters and other supernatural creatures. While I prefer this change in direction, I'm still able to appreciate Thief 1 for its focus on the supernatural as it in return makes Thief 2 stand out more on its own due to its focus on the mechanical. I think that if you're planning to make a franchise of games, giving each planned game its own identity and saving some things for later is a good thing.
Thief 2 throws some new elements into the mix: there are cameras which can spot you if you're not completely in the dark and trigger an alarm, combat bots are large hulking robots which shoot bombs at you and can only be disabled with water arrows in their boilers or two fire arrows to the face. Guards also tend to travel in pairs more often which makes knocking them difficult, and there are levels you have to ghost through. They are pretty well used. Especially Kidnap has some ANAL enemy placement with its enemies and cameras, but thankfully most loot doesn't require getting past everything.
Another thing I like about T2 is how instead of introducing new weapons to deal with new enemies, existing mechanics instead have their uses changed because of other new additions. Whereas water arrows were previously largely used to douse torches, now they're essential for disabling bots silently. Fire arrows were previously used to blow up burricks and zombies, but they're useful against cameras and bots too. Bots always have patrol routes, so placing a mine on their route definitely helps too. It's a good way of keeping things consistent and iconic without bloating the in-game universe with redundant and outdated crap. The Rope Arrow does get upgraded to the Vine Arrow, though.
Thief 2 is also an excellent example of videogame storytelling, primarily through its level design. While a cutscene plays before each level to give you the gist of why and what's happening around Garrett, the levels themselves provide an additional layer to the story. In the second level of the game you are really just prowling about for money, but already you are introduced to the Mechanists subtly. From letters you can gather what kind of faction the Mechanists are and the influence they have, while some enemies you will encounter for real later on are also subtly foreshadowed here in a disabled state. Some levels have their own little stories and mysteries, like the library in Casing the Joint/Masks.
The letters and notices are also well executed as a means of storytelling because not only are they concise, but also useful. They don't ruin the flow of the game with irrelevant loredumps and other trivia, but useful information on top of worldbuilding details, like some clues to a secret or a missing valuable item. Because the texts are useful to read from a gameplay standpoint and are engaging to read as well, the player is encouraged to read more. On top of which, you are told very little about the world by just the cutscenes, so if you want to know more you have to put some effort into it.
Contrast this to modern games where text documents only serve as a trigger for the next objective waypoint, is just an excuse to give the player a keycode to the nuclear reactors, or all the lore is tucked away in some seperate lore section of your journal most people don't even bother to read because it barely matters to the actual story.
It's kind of sad how very little modern developers understand games to the same degree Looking Glass Studios did. Thief 2 barely has any useless bullshit like RPG unlocks, it knows its own strengths and plays on them.
Verstuurd vanaf mijn GT-I9301I met Tapatalk
They just don't design levels like Life of the Party anymore, because that level belongs in a fucking museum. It's a perfect nutshell of Thief in general, blending exploration and storytelling seamlessly as you get a glimpse of all kinds of lives in the City. The other levels also mostly range from good to excellent, such as First City Bank, Shipping and Receiving, Blackmail and Precious Cargo. The only bummers I find are the regular City levels like Ambush and Trace the Courier, which focus less on actual theft and exploration but more on slowly traversing large areas without being seen, something I feel Assassins in T1 did much better.
The game does show quite a lot of signs of being rushed, which is no surprise considering this was Looking Glass Studio's last game before they folded. Ambush and Trace the Courier reuse the same level for different purpose, Kidnap is an altered Lost City from T1, and Casing the Joint is near identical to Masks as Casing the Joint is just Masks with no access to the third floor and a rule to not KO or get seen by anyone. It would have been more acceptable if those two didn't precisely follow after the other.
Sabotage at Soulforge stands out from the rest of the levels as it focuses much more on puzzle-stealth á la Splinter Cell, where you can't exactly knock out all the guards and run around the level taffing everything due to the present enemy types and lack of resources to deal with every single one. It's different and brutal as all hell because of it, but still incredibly fitting as a final level and a closing chapter on the Mechanists, without being as in-your-face as a final level like Into the Maw of Chaos was where you were heavyhandedly tested in your skills with every single arrow type. With the main antagonist constantly taunting you throughout the level, it was also the level the writer working on HL2 admitted ripping off from. "What hast thou built... Garrett?"
Compared to Thief 1, the levels here focus more on stealing in levels guarded by humans as opposed to raiding tombs infested with monsters and other supernatural creatures. While I prefer this change in direction, I'm still able to appreciate Thief 1 for its focus on the supernatural as it in return makes Thief 2 stand out more on its own due to its focus on the mechanical. I think that if you're planning to make a franchise of games, giving each planned game its own identity and saving some things for later is a good thing.
Thief 2 throws some new elements into the mix: there are cameras which can spot you if you're not completely in the dark and trigger an alarm, combat bots are large hulking robots which shoot bombs at you and can only be disabled with water arrows in their boilers or two fire arrows to the face. Guards also tend to travel in pairs more often which makes knocking them difficult, and there are levels you have to ghost through. They are pretty well used. Especially Kidnap has some ANAL enemy placement with its enemies and cameras, but thankfully most loot doesn't require getting past everything.
Another thing I like about T2 is how instead of introducing new weapons to deal with new enemies, existing mechanics instead have their uses changed because of other new additions. Whereas water arrows were previously largely used to douse torches, now they're essential for disabling bots silently. Fire arrows were previously used to blow up burricks and zombies, but they're useful against cameras and bots too. Bots always have patrol routes, so placing a mine on their route definitely helps too. It's a good way of keeping things consistent and iconic without bloating the in-game universe with redundant and outdated crap. The Rope Arrow does get upgraded to the Vine Arrow, though.
Thief 2 is also an excellent example of videogame storytelling, primarily through its level design. While a cutscene plays before each level to give you the gist of why and what's happening around Garrett, the levels themselves provide an additional layer to the story. In the second level of the game you are really just prowling about for money, but already you are introduced to the Mechanists subtly. From letters you can gather what kind of faction the Mechanists are and the influence they have, while some enemies you will encounter for real later on are also subtly foreshadowed here in a disabled state. Some levels have their own little stories and mysteries, like the library in Casing the Joint/Masks.
The letters and notices are also well executed as a means of storytelling because not only are they concise, but also useful. They don't ruin the flow of the game with irrelevant loredumps and other trivia, but useful information on top of worldbuilding details, like some clues to a secret or a missing valuable item. Because the texts are useful to read from a gameplay standpoint and are engaging to read as well, the player is encouraged to read more. On top of which, you are told very little about the world by just the cutscenes, so if you want to know more you have to put some effort into it.
Contrast this to modern games where text documents only serve as a trigger for the next objective waypoint, is just an excuse to give the player a keycode to the nuclear reactors, or all the lore is tucked away in some seperate lore section of your journal most people don't even bother to read because it barely matters to the actual story.
It's kind of sad how very little modern developers understand games to the same degree Looking Glass Studios did. Thief 2 barely has any useless bullshit like RPG unlocks, it knows its own strengths and plays on them.
Verstuurd vanaf mijn GT-I9301I met Tapatalk
- Joined
- May 13, 2009
- Messages
- 27,245
That was unusually terse for you. Feeling alright there? 
But to reply to a few points:
# Thief 2 has the mechanical/manor/mostly humans/art deco vibe going through it, which is fine and all until it just gets really tiresome, which is why I personally prefer the more varied levels of Thief 1. However, and this is the important part, this fits perfectly with the theme of the game. Thief 1 is supposed to focus on the supernatural, and Thief 2 is supposed to focus on the mechanical. Now go play Thief 3 where the balance between the two is the theme, and see how that works out.
# You seem to have missed one aspect of the cameras: Their blind spot is directly underneath them. Knowing this makes missions like Kidnap much easier. As for Casing the Joint, it's actually possible to get to the third floor, but once you get there you'll see that you were clearly not meant to be there...yet.
# The rushed aspect of Thief 2 is very noticeable, and is another reason why I prefer Thief 1. Looking Glass had already begun work on Thief 2 Gold, where one of the changes was that a mission was to be added between Casing the Joint and Masks where Garrett would travel to a remote (abandoned?) Hammerite monastery to learn more about Karras's origins. This was to be the horror mission of the game - Thief 1 has Return to the Cathedral, and Thief 3 has Robbing the Cradle, but Thief 2 has nothing even close to them. Even Thiaf has a horror-themed level!
But to reply to a few points:
# Thief 2 has the mechanical/manor/mostly humans/art deco vibe going through it, which is fine and all until it just gets really tiresome, which is why I personally prefer the more varied levels of Thief 1. However, and this is the important part, this fits perfectly with the theme of the game. Thief 1 is supposed to focus on the supernatural, and Thief 2 is supposed to focus on the mechanical. Now go play Thief 3 where the balance between the two is the theme, and see how that works out.
# You seem to have missed one aspect of the cameras: Their blind spot is directly underneath them. Knowing this makes missions like Kidnap much easier. As for Casing the Joint, it's actually possible to get to the third floor, but once you get there you'll see that you were clearly not meant to be there...yet.
# The rushed aspect of Thief 2 is very noticeable, and is another reason why I prefer Thief 1. Looking Glass had already begun work on Thief 2 Gold, where one of the changes was that a mission was to be added between Casing the Joint and Masks where Garrett would travel to a remote (abandoned?) Hammerite monastery to learn more about Karras's origins. This was to be the horror mission of the game - Thief 1 has Return to the Cathedral, and Thief 3 has Robbing the Cradle, but Thief 2 has nothing even close to them. Even Thiaf has a horror-themed level!
spekkio
Arcane
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2009
- Messages
- 8,295
Decided to say farewell (at least for now) to X-Wing Collector's CD-ROM after completing first 3 campaigns. Good game and a must-play for any 3d-pseudo-sim subgenre fan, but I just had enough.
Good:
- Great for its time 3D engine, which makes the game still playable (as opposed to early 2D Wing Commanders with their flat enemies and asteroids),
- A groundwork for even better, later games (Tie, Archimedean Dynasty, Freespace).
- Hard as dinosaur's balls.
Bad:
- Some missions are IMO technically broken (invisible mines that shoot at you).
- Missions with infinite enemy respawn, and you never know if current mission is this type. At least without using a walkthrough...
- Fucking escort missions, mang.
Ugly (mostly technicalities):
- 320x240 res is too low for a decent 3D shooting action, IMO. Half the time you fly in the direction of a radar echo, spotting an enemy the size of 2 pixels in last 5 seconds of the dogfight. FOV is too narrow due to this as well, which means you have to turn around much more than in games with higher res.
- No target indicator for enemy which is outside of the HUD. You have to switch your eyes from hud to radar and back all the time. Minor, but such trackers are present in probably all later games of this type.
- No clear mission goals for many missions (happens often in these games, I must say). Most of the time you have to fail mission to learn from the debriefing screen about shit that needs to be done to complete mission. I prefer clear objectives ("object X must survive mission!") to the descriptive, immersive bullshit ("The convoy was leaving the system, when suddenly... Blah blah blah").
- Ally AI is dumb as fuck - for example it will keep hitting you if you're in the lane of fire (tailing same enemy).
- Some missions are clearly too hard and depend on luck (like the one where you have to protect a shuttle against over 9000 Tie-interceptors). Fuck this spergish bullshit, give me interesting mission design, where something actually happens, instead.
Verdict:
and a fucking half.
Finished SMT - Digital Devil Saga 2
Good:
- More of the good old SMT dungeon crawlan'.
- Press turns system FTW. Simple, yet fun.
- Some bosses were really interesting (to murder).
- Some reintroduced oldschool elements: dark and damage zones, proper mazes filled with teleporters and one-way doors, etc.
Bad:
- Longass elevator animations are still in.
- Story is much worse than in part 1, turning into facepalmish shit near the end.
Ugly:
- Grid is nice idea, but makes unlocking crucial skills (dekaja, dekunda) unnecessarily hard (without using FAQs, OFC), since you have to find them first. Linear skill progression menu from first game was much clearer IMO.
- Rings are nice idea as well, too bad that there are like 3-4 useful ones (void some shit). Upgrading them is a joke too.
- Enemies use combos way too rarely.
- Way too often enemies are grouped into "boring" teams (samefags, very easy to kill using combos / multi-targeted spells).
BTW, I was using my cheat, which reduces random encounter rate by half, but doubles the Atma (skills) EXP. No problems whatsoever, except some boss battles being TENSE. :D
Verdict:
and a fucking three quarters 
Good:
- Great for its time 3D engine, which makes the game still playable (as opposed to early 2D Wing Commanders with their flat enemies and asteroids),
- A groundwork for even better, later games (Tie, Archimedean Dynasty, Freespace).
- Hard as dinosaur's balls.
Bad:
- Some missions are IMO technically broken (invisible mines that shoot at you).
- Missions with infinite enemy respawn, and you never know if current mission is this type. At least without using a walkthrough...
- Fucking escort missions, mang.
Ugly (mostly technicalities):
- 320x240 res is too low for a decent 3D shooting action, IMO. Half the time you fly in the direction of a radar echo, spotting an enemy the size of 2 pixels in last 5 seconds of the dogfight. FOV is too narrow due to this as well, which means you have to turn around much more than in games with higher res.
- No target indicator for enemy which is outside of the HUD. You have to switch your eyes from hud to radar and back all the time. Minor, but such trackers are present in probably all later games of this type.
- No clear mission goals for many missions (happens often in these games, I must say). Most of the time you have to fail mission to learn from the debriefing screen about shit that needs to be done to complete mission. I prefer clear objectives ("object X must survive mission!") to the descriptive, immersive bullshit ("The convoy was leaving the system, when suddenly... Blah blah blah").
- Ally AI is dumb as fuck - for example it will keep hitting you if you're in the lane of fire (tailing same enemy).
- Some missions are clearly too hard and depend on luck (like the one where you have to protect a shuttle against over 9000 Tie-interceptors). Fuck this spergish bullshit, give me interesting mission design, where something actually happens, instead.
Verdict:
and a fucking half.Finished SMT - Digital Devil Saga 2
Good:
- More of the good old SMT dungeon crawlan'.
- Press turns system FTW. Simple, yet fun.
- Some bosses were really interesting (to murder).
- Some reintroduced oldschool elements: dark and damage zones, proper mazes filled with teleporters and one-way doors, etc.
Bad:
- Longass elevator animations are still in.
- Story is much worse than in part 1, turning into facepalmish shit near the end.
Ugly:
- Grid is nice idea, but makes unlocking crucial skills (dekaja, dekunda) unnecessarily hard (without using FAQs, OFC), since you have to find them first. Linear skill progression menu from first game was much clearer IMO.
- Rings are nice idea as well, too bad that there are like 3-4 useful ones (void some shit). Upgrading them is a joke too.
- Enemies use combos way too rarely.
- Way too often enemies are grouped into "boring" teams (samefags, very easy to kill using combos / multi-targeted spells).
BTW, I was using my cheat, which reduces random encounter rate by half, but doubles the Atma (skills) EXP. No problems whatsoever, except some boss battles being TENSE. :D
Verdict:
and a fucking three quarters 
Astral Rag
Arcane
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2012
- Messages
- 7,771
Currently playing Geneforge 1 while listening to Thomas Köner. Very enjoyable combination.
Last edited:
Watser
Arcane
- Joined
- May 8, 2014
- Messages
- 1,865,075
The journey through GF 1-5 is a great, but tiring, experience. With Vogel I am always hooked to the point of not playing anything else, but by the halfway point I start to lose motivation and have it on hold only to return several months later and completely forgot where I am and what I am supposed to do. Same thing happened with my playthrough of Nethergate, had it on hold for 8 months only to return and finish it in a week.
Habbonovio
Educated
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2017
- Messages
- 92
Just finished Alien: Isolation and it surprised me in a really positive way. It's a beautifully crafted game, the interiors of the Sebastopol are gorgeous and the exteriors are even better (though the outdoor missions are painfully slow and boring). Also, all you have to do for 20+ hours is crouching from point A to point B to repair a broken generator or something like that and then going back to point A to scape or contact a NPC, but I never felt bored, cause shit keeps happening constantly around you and the alien at some points it's pretty relentless. The only "complain" is that they give you too much firepower by midgame, but the ammo is scarce so it's not really a gunfest and using it has the downside of attracting the alien.
About my next game, I'm starting right now the new Torment from InXile, but I have no clue if jack or nano as a class for my character nor the build.
About my next game, I'm starting right now the new Torment from InXile, but I have no clue if jack or nano as a class for my character nor the build.
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2011
- Messages
- 7,329
Finished Shadowrun Hong Kong EE and Hard West+DLC
Shadowrun Hong Kong EE
A good game,most of it is good,maybe not as good as Dragonfall but it's close and the setting is nice,far east setting are always good for cyberpunk.I had finished the main campaign some time ago but I hadn't done the extra one since it hadn't been released yet,the new one is pretty short(3 main missions and a couple of side missions)but they are mostly good and wrap up the storyline.If you liked the other shadowrun games you will like this one too,if not this one will not change your mind since it follows the same formula
Hard West+DLC
Very nice little game,a tactical rpg with CYOA parts between the battles while you roam the map,it uses an underutilized setting like the wild west very nicely.The technical parts are good,the rpgs mechanics are a bit light but it has some nice touches like the whole poker card system.It is divided into 8 scenarios and an extra for the dlc which is bigger than the regular ones,you alternate between various characters and some of them are just plain evil,the story is pretty dark.Definitely worth the money I gave during the last steam sale to get it along with the dlc,maybe worth full price too
Now time to move to Torment NumaNuma edition and to finish my playthrough of MGSV
Shadowrun Hong Kong EE
A good game,most of it is good,maybe not as good as Dragonfall but it's close and the setting is nice,far east setting are always good for cyberpunk.I had finished the main campaign some time ago but I hadn't done the extra one since it hadn't been released yet,the new one is pretty short(3 main missions and a couple of side missions)but they are mostly good and wrap up the storyline.If you liked the other shadowrun games you will like this one too,if not this one will not change your mind since it follows the same formula
Hard West+DLC
Very nice little game,a tactical rpg with CYOA parts between the battles while you roam the map,it uses an underutilized setting like the wild west very nicely.The technical parts are good,the rpgs mechanics are a bit light but it has some nice touches like the whole poker card system.It is divided into 8 scenarios and an extra for the dlc which is bigger than the regular ones,you alternate between various characters and some of them are just plain evil,the story is pretty dark.Definitely worth the money I gave during the last steam sale to get it along with the dlc,maybe worth full price too
Now time to move to Torment NumaNuma edition and to finish my playthrough of MGSV
I don't have as much free time anymore as I'd like toThat was unusually terse for you. Feeling alright there?
Thief was originally supposed to be a series of four games according to a contract, so I'm pretty curious as to what exactly LGS had planned for the future. Not something like Deadly Shadows, I'd hope.
I know about the blind spot, but irregardless I can see Kidnap being holy hell to players who want to grab all items on top of the loot.
If you were to objectively compare Thief Gold to Thief 2 in terms of the bang you're getting for your buck, then Thief Gold would undoubtedly be the superior game, even though I prefer the direction of the second. It's unfortunate that LGS never got around to finishing Thief 2 Gold, probably because Romero burned so much cash away with Daikatana that Eidos could only afford LGS a shoestring budget.
the_shadow
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2011
- Messages
- 1,179
Played through the F.E.A.R series...
F.E.A.R 1 - An enjoyable shooter with decent enemy A.I, although the tendency of the clones to vocalize everything they are doing makes them relatively easy to beat down. Not as scary as it was hyped up to be, although sort of creepy with one jump scare that had me shit bricks.
F.E.A.R 2 - More of the same, although they made the clones more difficult enemies by having them shut up. The main character sprints as though he has emphysema.
F.E.A.R 3 - It's... not very good. All 3 games run on rails, but F.E.A.R 3 doesn't even bother trying to hide it. Gunplay has become a chore with the popamole nonsense. The only things it really has going for it are the ability to play as Fettel, and the fact that you can actually sprint further than 5 meters without running out of breath.
Eschalon - Book 1: I dunno, I don't think I would have enjoyed this even back when it was released. Combat as a melee or ranged warrior is as unimaginative as it gets, and even mages get shafted, with a real paucity of spells. The higher level attack spells I've received are actually *worse* than fire darts (your beginning spell) when it comes to damage per spell point, so I have no idea why they exist. If frost attacks slowed/froze, and divine attacks stunned/caused vertigo, then you'd have some potential there for enjoyable gameplay, but meh. The storyline and plot are pretty uninspired.
Spellforce 2 - I didn't expect much from this, since it's rarely mentioned on the 'Dex and was sold for a bargain price on GoG, but I'm rather impressed. It actually feels like a spiritual successor of Warcraft 2: Beyond the Dark Portal, with some HoMM mixed in.
F.E.A.R 1 - An enjoyable shooter with decent enemy A.I, although the tendency of the clones to vocalize everything they are doing makes them relatively easy to beat down. Not as scary as it was hyped up to be, although sort of creepy with one jump scare that had me shit bricks.
F.E.A.R 2 - More of the same, although they made the clones more difficult enemies by having them shut up. The main character sprints as though he has emphysema.
F.E.A.R 3 - It's... not very good. All 3 games run on rails, but F.E.A.R 3 doesn't even bother trying to hide it. Gunplay has become a chore with the popamole nonsense. The only things it really has going for it are the ability to play as Fettel, and the fact that you can actually sprint further than 5 meters without running out of breath.
Eschalon - Book 1: I dunno, I don't think I would have enjoyed this even back when it was released. Combat as a melee or ranged warrior is as unimaginative as it gets, and even mages get shafted, with a real paucity of spells. The higher level attack spells I've received are actually *worse* than fire darts (your beginning spell) when it comes to damage per spell point, so I have no idea why they exist. If frost attacks slowed/froze, and divine attacks stunned/caused vertigo, then you'd have some potential there for enjoyable gameplay, but meh. The storyline and plot are pretty uninspired.
Spellforce 2 - I didn't expect much from this, since it's rarely mentioned on the 'Dex and was sold for a bargain price on GoG, but I'm rather impressed. It actually feels like a spiritual successor of Warcraft 2: Beyond the Dark Portal, with some HoMM mixed in.
You have to be shitting me, FEAR2 is inferior to the first one in every possible way.
the_shadow
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2011
- Messages
- 1,179
You have to be shitting me, FEAR2 is inferior to the first one in every possible way.
In what way?
Hoaxmetal
Arcane
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2009
- Messages
- 9,161
You have to be shitting me, FEAR2 is inferior to the first one in every possible way.
In what way?
the_shadow
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2011
- Messages
- 1,179
I think the 'in every possible way' is hyperbole.
You have to be shitting me, FEAR2 is inferior to the first one in every possible way.
In what way?
From the top of my head: some of the basic enemies are stupidly hp-bloated (Armacham commandos IIRC), level (or firefight) design has taken a nosedive, the AI is a joke, the guns are made of cardboard and lack most of the cool guns from Fear 1, the jump scares are less scary. There was probably more stuff I already forgot. The only thing it does better are the looks of the Alma-dimension with the creepy swings and falling ash and shit, but that obviously shouldn't be a particularly big thing to focus on.
flyingjohn
Arcane
- Joined
- May 14, 2012
- Messages
- 2,968
You have to be shitting me, FEAR2 is inferior to the first one in every possible way.
In what way?
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