Reviews
Submitted by Abalieno on August 30, 2006 - 02:41.
2.6Mb, free, singleplayer (or we would have reached the nirvana on earth), in full development and frequently updated, all done in ASCII text.
Name is: Slaves to Armok II: Dwarf Fortress
The concept of the game is simply fascinating: a huge, persistent world, completely auto-generated and dynamic, with climates, seasons, rivers, civilizations, towns, wildlife and so on. You begin organizing and setting up a colony of seven dwarves, buying them some necessary skills and supplies. Then you start the game, giving orders and managing your seven dwarves to excavate your fortress and refuge right inside a mountain. If all your dwarves die, your fortress is saved, with the game sometime creating a "legend" out of it. You'll begin again setting up a new colony of dwarves in another location. With even the possibility to visit again the ruins of your old fortress.
Dungeon Keeper meets The Sims. Others have defined it "SimCity: Moria Edition". This tiny game has an incredible depth and complexity, and it is dangerously addicting.
(This was my second settlement. The bigger room is a dining room/meeting hall, with a few tables and chairs in the middle. The four "I" represent four support pillars and to the north there's a small room leading to a well for the water. There is also one dwarf eating a plant on a table and a (c)at. The western wall looks odd because it is engraved. The room next to the dining room is the bedroom with the beds (8) near the walls. Then there's the main tunnel that leads to the farm to the east, out of the screen, and below the smaller rooms with a workshop in each. Outside the mountain there's an (H)orse, a (M)ule and two stockpiles for the stuff I excavate. The smiling faces are my cute dwarves and the different colors on them help to recognize the different professions. Yellow carpenter, grey miner, green farmer.)
Do not let the ASCII interface scare you. Believe me. I also approached the game *very* sceptically. I found it through a long thread on Q23, I'm not a great fan of roguelikes so I just initally glanced at that thread with little interest. Then I had a moment of spare time and decided to give it a look. On that thread you can read all sort of incredible stories and I was just wondering how you could really get into that with just a messy-looking ASCII graphic.
I thought that I would never "get" this game. But... Oh, I was so wrong.
This thing is a masterpiece. I'm TOTALLY addicted and refreshing the development page regularly to see if there are any updates (you know I'm a patch whore). I usually get very attached to little creatures in games. But this one surpasses everything.
What surprised be more is that the game has some of the best *game design* I've ever seen. Mechanics, AI, interface. It's truly amazing. See, usually these kinds of games may be interesting and have nice ideas, but they are usually made by "progammers" who don't have a so great grasp of game design and usability. So they finish to be just unplayable. Instead in this case we don't have just a great programmer, but a programmer who is even better as a game designer. A rare case of talent in both areas. The game hasn't just an interesting concept, but also a great execution.
There's a Wiki that is very useful to consult while you play, but I was just amazed by how this game is usable and intuitive, even if it's just ASCII. And now I'm even hoping it will never be converted into graphic tiles, because I grew fond of the style and now I don't feel the need of anything else. Really, this game is to my eyes as pretty as it can be. And I love my dwarves.
The most impressive thing is how immersive it is despite the lack of graphic. I started sceptically poking things around last night, and was hooked for eight hours straight. I don't know. Maybe it's because those dwarves have cute, round faces always smiling.
Considering that you may be skeptical about trying this thing I'll try to give you some ideas about how the game plays and feels, so that you understand more what kind of game it is. To begin with there are four different gameplay modes:
- "Dwarf Fortress" is the city-building simulation, the one more feature complete and the one that gives the name to the game.
- "Reclaim Fortress" only appears after you have abandoned your first fortress and lets you guide a band of dwarves to reclaim it now that it is overrun by evil creatures.
- "Adventure" is a roguelike classic mode where you control just one dwarf and explore the world seeking power and glory (and discovering world legends that will be enabled in the fourth mode). Though this is currently the more immature mode.
- "Legends" allows you (I think) to read in detail the legends you discovered through the Adventure mode and take again a snapshot (.bmp) of the whole world.
The first one is the one you want, as it is the main game that I'm talking about. Before you can choose between those modes you still have to generate your own unique persistent world where all your adventures will take place. The worlds created will be truly massive and the generation process can take a while. The game will give them silly random generated names and if you want you can create many different worlds. You can then have different games on different worlds, but you cannot create different saves on the same world as everything you do is "persistent", so without the possibility to be undone.
When the world is ready you can start to play. You have the possibility to start right away (Play now!) with a standard "setup" but I recommend to go with a custom build, as it would already help you to parse the different professions in the game and have an idea of the different kinds of duties that your dwarves will have to perform. The initial setup is very important because it will determine your possibilities to survive the first winter. This phase is divided into three screens: one showing your seven dwarves and their skills, one showing the supplies and equipment you are bringing along and one that lets you choose the location around the world where you want to settle. You have pool of 200 points you can spend between the various options, so you'll have to plan wisely (the wiki will help).
One important thing to notice is that for the whole game all the commands you have access to will be shown on screen, so you never need to memorize commands and keys. That's something that this game got right and that instead has always crippled similar games. Despite it's just ASCII, it's still easily accessible because everything you need is displayed on screen. The interface is really well designed.
Once your group of seven dwarves is set up, you enter the location chosen and you can start the real game, with your dwarves deployed right next the mountain wall that will soon become your home. At a first approach you need a few minutes to understand what is shown in the small client window. People usually expect to be able to select one dwarf and move it manually, or assing each to a task, or a "go here" kind of command, but what you do is more indirect, and yet still very usable. You basically create a list of "jobs" and tasks and then the dwarves themselves will start executing them depending on the skills they have, their stats, priorities, preferences and so on. You can enable/disable the active skills for each dwarf (select the unit, (p)ref, (l)abor) and even start training your skills from zero. Each dwarf has his owns needs, drink beer or water, eat, rest, sleep and so on. Luckily you don't need to micromanage much as the dwarves will take care of themselves without any babysitting. Basically for the majority of the game your duty is to provide them the resources and design the environment to avoid disasters, then the dwarves will use what you give them.
The most basic activity is "digging". This is why you just cannot play without one or more "miner" as your fortress will be carved right out of the mountain. What you need to do to start digging is enter the "Designations" menu (d) and then select "mining" (d). As you do that you'll be able to move a cursor on the graphical window, by pressing (Enter) you define the starting point where you want to dig, then you move the cursor till the point where you want the tunnel/room to end, and press (Enter) again (you can dig a rectangular room by defining a starting point on the upper left and the ending point at the lower right). The area flagged for digging will then be shown in a muddy green tint and one of the miner dwarves will automatically start digging the tunnel. You'll see him moving near the wall of the mountain and the block near him starting to blink till a hole is produced. It's like watching ants working through a glass!
With (Space) you pause/unpause the game (and also exit menus), so that you have time to observe what is going on without getting overwhelmed. With (j) you'll access a menu where all the jobs you have issued are listed, with the name of a dwarf next to it in the case the job is currently being performed. This menu is quite useful as it allows you to quickly track what your dwarves are or aren't doing. By scrolling you can select one of the dwarves and by pressing (c) you center him on screen. Another similar menu can be accessed with (u), showing a list of the units in the area, including your dwarves with relative current job, pets and more or less friendly creatures. Even here you can select and press (c) to zoom to the selection and find out exactly where the unit is.
Your first duty in the game should be about finding the river that runs inside the mountain as you'll have to use it to flood an area to cultivate. As the cultivation is really slow, you need to start as soon as possible or the winter will arrive and your dwarves will starve to death (or better, to madness), so a good idea is to just start digging straight in the mountain till you hit the river. As you hit it, you risk the tunnel and other rooms to flood, but the dwarves should be fast enough to run out without drowning. You then wait for the water to reflow and then you can continue (I suggest to put a door and lock it where the river is, or you risk another flood as the level of the water can raise during the spring).
The rest of the game is about digging rooms. Beware to dig them too big or the ceiling will crumble. In the case the room starts to be risky you should start to place support pillars around. This can be done through the (b) Building menu. In that menu you can scroll pages through (/) and (*) on the number pad of your keyboard. The support pillars (support) are on page two, but they don't have a letter shortcut, so you'll actually have to scroll and select them. Then press (Enter) select the material you want to use for the pillar, Press (Enter) again, place the pillar with the cursor and then press (Enter) a last time to confirm the job. As one dwarf with the active job is available the pillar will be built.
You'll need a dining room with chairs and tables, a well to get the water from (or your dwarves will have to travel to the river every time they are thirsty) and a bedroom with beds. The well requires a stone block and a bucket, so you'll also need workshops where you can craft items to use. A workshop is quite simple to build as you just need a room of 2x3 (beware getting stuck, though). As the workshop is made you need a dwarf with the skill to use it. For example to craft the bucket you'll need a Carpenter dwarf and his workshop. Then the correct resources to craft the item, wood in this case (that you can chop outside, designating trees as with the digging). To create a work order you use the "Set Building Tasks" menu (q) and then move the cursor on the workshop you want to use. Instead to examine a building to see if the orders are completed and the items ready to be used you use the "View Items in Buildings" menu (t). When a bed, chair, door or table is ready you can then place it using the "Building" menu. One dwarf will then came to grab the item and then place it.
That's pretty much all you are going to do at the beginning. Dig tunnels and rooms, designate trees to cut down, create stockpiles where to store and categorize the goods you produce, start building workshops and then craft the items you need. Initially you need Carpenter, Mason and Mechanic workshops. The priority should go to build a "farm", so that you can start planting seeds that will then provide you something to eat later on. Your first "game over" will likely be about your dwarves starving and going mad through the winter, so the food is the main priority. Setting up a farm is already a quite complex task but you can read the wiki for precise instructions. To finish one you'll need two "floodgates", a lever and five mechanisms, so you also need the mason and mechanic workshops ready before you can finish the farm. Then you open the floodgates by pulling the lever (P, after selecting the lever through the task menu, q), flood the area to get the ground muddy and then build there a farm plot (b, building menu), set up a task for it, type of plant/seed and then let the farmers do their work. The first plants will came later in the game and if you have a kitchen and the right ingredients you can even try to cook meals.
A lot more opens up in the later game, as you can craft a lot more stuff and will need to defend your fortress from sieges. Your dwarves won't be always seven as you'll get many immigrants (so more workers, but also more mouths to feed). The colony will grow bigger and bigger and you'll finish to manage a huge group all at once. The risks also go up as you'll find monsters that attack you or even sieges from hostile populations. Even if there's so much to discover you can have an idea of the game. Your dwarves will improve their skills as they practice and your fortress will soon become rather big and complex. But at that point you won't need anymore to read what I write here because you'll be totally absorbed.
I also point out that the guy behind the project is really well organized. He divided the development into three groups: "core components", "requests" and "bloats". And he also defined a long term plan for the game that spawns multiple years, with some incredibly good ideas. This game not only is awesome already, but it has a VERY LONG way to go as there seem no end to all the plans that the guy had. There isn't anything else I know that is more worthy of being called as "Vision" as this.
The most interesting thing is that once you get the game you'll feel completely immersed in a way that not even the graphical games seem to achieve. The ASCII symbols will become easily understandable as if you had read them since forever. The point is that the more you play, the less you feel the need of a graphic interface. And it's beautiful. I mean, nothing can be compared to what your mind will see in those symbols.
And that's one of the greatest achievements of this game: it just doesn't let you miss the graphic.
Plus you can generate at any time a huge bitmap of your very own fortress and show it to your friends :) So that you can even study how others have organized their fortresses. At the end the greatest fun is that you are really free to build your own as you like, with your very own style and feel. And the result will be unique, as if you created a small piece of art with its own story. Along with your dwarves.
Here are some examples taken from the forum threads:
- Fortress 1
- Fortress 2
- Fortress 3
- Fortress 4
- Fortress 5
- Fortress 6
Submitted by Abalieno on August 20, 2006 - 15:59.
I use to enjoy playing FPS between one game and the other, and I enjoy the mindless shooters in particular.
I bought "Sin" on Steam early this month because the price was lowered from $20 to $15, so I thought it was more acceptable for a few hours of play. And it wasn't that bas as I thought. Only playing it right now because the download was quite huge (3Gb or so) and I even forgot I had bought it for a while. With the game (that is built with the exact same engine of HL2) you also have bundled the original and quite old "Sin".
"Sin" is like a cheaper version of HL2, that doesn't take itself too seriously. HL2 tends to be more sophisticated and ambitious, precise and polished to the extreme. Sin is instead more like the summer movie without pretence. With a liberal use of digital boobs (that do not bounce really well, to be honest) and the usual type of shooter "on rails" with minor scripted events that lead you around.
Some parts can be fun. For example I reached a room that was shaped like a "T" corridor. I step in and I hear gun shoots toward me. I see the decals and sparkles on a box to the right so I guess a few enemies are part the left corridor and I step back to avoid getting shot. I notice an exploding barrer right near the left corner so I grab it and then toss it forward, then I lean to shoot at it and go back to cover. The shooting barrels have the usual behaviour, they get set on fire (and people near get on fire too, screaming and running) and then explode. BOOM! Enemies dead. But I still hear some radio chatter. I notice a fire extinguisher on the right. These explode after a while like the barrels, but while the barrels sit in the place, the fire extinguishers start to run all around the room like a pierced balloon as they are hit, before they explode. So I shoot on it and see it zip on the pavement to the other corridor, pushing away a box that was blocking it and moving out of my visual. I wait, it seems that it doesn't explode, then... BOOM! And I see one dead enemy body being projected by the explosion and falling right in front of me in an awkward position. And I go.. "Strike!" Quite satisfying :)
The second initial sequence where you are chased was quite enjoyable and at least moderately dangerous, If you don't act too oddly it flows rather well and has a good feel. I'm still moving around the initial level but it feels a lot like HL2 beginning. There's even an Alyx-like character that leads you around and at times if feels like if you are playing a spin-off more than a whole different game. The fact that the character doesn't say a word like Gordon Freeman strengthens that impression.
Till now there are a lot of dialogues but they are quite decent. And the opening song is remarkable.
Every time I play a game that isn't exactly at the top line I start to try to figure out what it misses. The textures are of a similar style of HL2, not really of the same quality, but we are there. There's overall a slight less polish, less attention to the detail and some textures that cover too large blocks, or lower resolutions used here and there. Some lights not so well lit. The environments are ok, not too inspired, a bit repetitive and generic but still better than the absolute monotony of FEAR, imho. At least they aren't completely monocromatic. The exteriors have a good atmosphere, with a warm light. You still run around docks, sewers and the usual kind of industrial/city complexes. Not too imaginative but not too disappointing either. Urban combat tends to be fun. The character textures are of an average quality, the same for the animations, which are serviceable. The characters look like automatons as they turn, but I'm nitpicking. The models instead are a bit lackluster and way too blocky when they try to model clothes. The "heads" are well modeled, even if not on the same level of HL2, everything below much less (the hands are the worst part). The physics engine is the exact same of HL2 with random pickup objects always around, and it even has a better, stronger feel compared to HL2.
I cannot comment yet about the length of the game and its overall value compared to the price as I didn't finished it. But I already know that it will feel too short because every FPS I play usually feels like that and I like long games where I can lose myself. The game has also an "Arena mode" with various settings and different maps to choose. It shouldn't be multiplayer but only something like a survival mode with monsters spawning continuously and you going in a killing spree. I think I could like these kinds of things but I haven't checked this out as I'm still downloading the game and it looks like that part is still missing.
There are also some other nice touches, like the possibility to shoot at the health pack "bottles" instead of picking them up, breaking the glass and making them release a cloud in the room. And the game has also a "difficulty slider" with a wide range that goes from "casual" to "hardcore". Not sure what it does exactly but the game is moderately challenging with the slider exactly in the middle, and I read it becomes quite challenging at the highest difficulty mode. There's also another slide below that one that is supposed to calibrate the "extra help" if you struggle in one part of the game, and it goes from "quickly" to "never" (I have it on "never"). Then the game tracks a bunch of stats while you play and it even makes some fancy graphs that you can observe. I wish they had an help mode to understand better their meaning though (like the comparison between "skill" and "challenge").
Overall it's not a masterpiece or that game that you cannot miss, but now it's cheap and moderately fun if you like the kind of game. The AI of the bad guys isn't particular smart and more scripted than dynamic and adaptable. I read the game only have very few enemies types to it may feel not so much varied. On average those guys feel a lot like the basic Combine soldiers on HL2 but at least they represent a decent threat if you compare them with the sit-in-the-place-and-stare grunts in Prey. The weapons you use are a bit lackluster because there's nothing new. I still only got the pistol and the rifle but I don't expect much more coming. The pistol hits right in the center and you can shot with an absolute precision even on long distance if you aim well. While the pistol alternate model has a quite pretty Matrix-like effect. The bad guys always die with two pistol bullets, one if you get an headshot. Death animations are good, ragdolls less.
Next time... More digital boobs please! I like games were sex is liberally used as I like games that take themselves more seriously. Variety is good! (and thanks for the captions, they are always appreciated. Even if I would also like a log)
I'll try to add later some screenshots.
Submitted by Abalieno on June 23, 2006 - 11:20.
Once again, I can sound irritating and say: "I told you so" ;) Prey is fucking awesome.
Except, not so much. In short I believe this is a GREAT game. But at the same time the execution of some parts (and some important ones like "combat") is lackluster. I took lots of notes while playing the demo, now it won't be easy to pull all that together. It looks long. On the positive side I think I'm going to exhaust the topic here, in the sense that I've already framed everything pretty well and I suspect I won't have much to add when the final game will be out.
Short version here.
--
I have to admit that I have mixed feelings about the Prey demo released yesterday, I played it for quite a while, then went to sleep arguing with myself and without a definite opinion. After some rest I think I'm able to isolate better those parts that didn't convince me.
If I have to be honest I'll say that I expected more from the execution. Maybe because I read the enthusiastic comments from 3DRealms official forums, claiming better performance and art quality compared to both Doom3 and Quake4, better environments and baddies and so on.
Let me dispell some of these wrong rumors. The graphic performance is aligned with the other Doom3-based games but I wouldn't say it is improved in Prey. Due to the overall greater complexity of the environments Prey is slightly less fluid than Doom3 And Quake4. It is true that the portal technology doesn't influence sensibly the framerate but the engine still obviously suffers when you put two complex environments one by the other. Plus I also noticed some limits. For example the open portals only show you what's beyond when you are close, while they "fade to black" the further away you move (and your personal light also doesn't affect geometry beyond a portal).
About the graphic quality and style I'll say that Prey sits somewhere between Doom3 and Quake4. D3 took place in monotonous, dark corridors with a greenish, metallic tint and some red lights. Which resulted in a general dullness. Q4 was able to break that monotony through much more vibrant, colorful and high-quality textures. More crisp and defined. Prey has some very minor graphic glitches here and there, some approximations. So, overall, slightly less polished compared to Q4. It breaks the monotony of D3 through more complex and varied environments, bit it still doesn't manage to free itself from the dull tint. The textures taken one by one aren't bad at all, even if not overly inspired, either. But all the rooms and corridors look like a recombination of the same pattern, which makes sense on a space ship but doesn't help that overall sense of repetition. As I said the textures used in Q4 were much more vibrant and the level design more detailed and polished. On the other side Prey offers more complex and fun to explore environments.
Summarizing: Doom3 was dark, monotone and colorless. Quake4 had much better textures, more colorful and vibrant overall and with a level design polished and detailed to the extreme, even if not too inspired. Prey loses the vibrance, colors and polish of Q4, but compensates through much more interesting and complex environments. Darkness is not a problem, but the overall tint is back to the dullness of Doom3 without offering satisfactory variations.
On the positive side the levels in Prey become quite involving and immersive thanks to all the new tricks and features that the engine now supports. That's something definitely pushing you forward to discover what the devs have planned for the next room, motivating you to continue till the very end (which is a RARE quality). The story also does its work, but I'll return on this later.
So it works and it is "fun". It's less of a rollercoaster and movie-like experience as HL2, and more old style like a classic FPS relying on creative "level design". The graphic style in HL2 aims for the photorealism and familiar look, with the injection here and there of sci-fi elements. This is obviously not the case of Prey who takes place inside a huge, technorganic space ship. So aiming for the sense of wonder and alien, foreign feel. "Away from home" with a constant sense of danger.
I'll say again that it works. The "flow" is good and there are interesting things going on as you move through the ship.
When it comes to the gameplay the "run and gunning" is probably the biggest problem in the whole game. Here Q4 is far superior. Better baddies, much, much better models, better animations, better weapons, better combat patterns, more streamlined action. The weapons in Prey are well designed graphically, but their "feel" is a bit awkward (and not due to the alien look). Sometimes due to inappropriate sounds (the hit sound of pipe wrench is bad, bad, bad), sometimes due to expectations (when you can freeze the baddies you also expect to shatter them to piece with a kick as in Duke Nukem, instead of watching them "fade"). I think their purposes overlap too much so there isn't much variation to be felt. But I'll probably write another post to explain what I think is off with the weapons.
The bad guys are lackluster. The "dogs" are rather inoffensive and could have used better attack patterns. The "grunts" I've seen for the majority of the demo don't offer a satisfying, involving challenge either. They just lack initiative, they stand there. They don't duck, dodge or take cover. They don't come to spot you, don't chase you. You can easily outplay them by moving in/out of a corner quickly and shooting them before they have the time to shoot back (and the dynamic difficulty setting just seem to affect projectile damage).
Basically the biggest issue about the combat that I recognize is about the "movement". The fight patterns are just extremely static. You stand still and shoot, they stand still and shoot you back till they don't get killed. "Movement" is probably the most important factor to deliver an involving and fun combat. In Prey this just seems to miss.
It lacks severely of dynamism. You don't get chased down the corridors, you don't run for your life. It's not frenetic at all. I felt more like playing System Shock than a shooter.
EDIT: Playing more I noticed that the "grunts" actually try to dodge, take cover and even lean out of the cover to shoot at you. But they do that rather poorly. They shoot at you with bursts, then stare *doing nothing* for five seconds, then shoot again. Plus they usually keep their bodies exposed anyway. They are extremely easy targets even when they take cover and if you are careful you can shoot them without them having a line of sight on you. Plus they throw "grenades" stupidly and 50% of the times they blow up themselves.
I'm also not so convinced that they can use portals and wall walking pads on their own without a script forcing them doing so...
The environmental hazards I've seen in the demo were all in the style of an annoyance. For example there are organic "spikes" that explode if you pass near them. Here the "gameplay" is just about keeping your eyes open to spot them and trigger the explosion before you go near, or just "reload" a saved game if they hurt you too much. Basically this shares the same basic problem of the combat: not enough dynamism and interaction between all these different elements. Even if I suspect that things will improve later in the game when the "tutorial" phase will be over.
The great majority of the players liked a lot the introductory scene, while I think it was the worst part of the demo without a doubt. I don't know, flushing a toliet doesn't impress me anymore. Earth-like environments don't look well in the Doom3 engine and the whole bar isn't really well rendered graphically. The human models are godawful (throughout the whole game), if you have stuck the model of Alyx in your mind you'll just shudder when you'll see Tommy's fiancee. Textures, model, animations. All subpar. The fight with the two thugs was utterly pathetic and would deserve to be erased to the game without esitation.
Then you are abducted and things get serious. The second introductory, non-interactive scene on the alien ship is amazing. Really well done, well acted. Tommy's fiancee screams fit perfectly. Tommy's voice and reactions much less. If I was the director I would have put more focus on that scene, making it a bit more longer and descriptive. But it's already great the way it is. Plus I would have inverted the order of the tutorial, delaying the fights to the end and instead introducing puzzle elements earlier, so prologing by a fair amount the part where you walk around poking stuff without any weapon. Which is starting to become the best part of all these games.
Context-sensitive voice comments from Tommy are cool, but when he talks to himself (most of the times) he just doesn't sound like talking to himself. The voice acting in general is fairly good. All the screams from Tommy's fiancee are great and at the beginning of the game they really help to motivate you and feel "in-character". You feel like being in a hurry, even if then this urge slows down considerably. They hinted at an interesting pattern there, though. It's something to reconsider. I'll also thanks the devs because all the game is subbed.
As I wrote above the "flow" is good, the story is good and the progression through the game is kept interesting. While the sound portion could have been done better. The setting had a lot of potential to be spooky and atmospheric but fails to deliver. Now that I think about it I don't recall music at all, but I'm fairly sure that there are small sound bits here and there with some Jeremy Soule moody stuff.
I left for the end the comments about the new features supported just because I don't have much to say since they are so cool that must be experienced directly. The portal technology feels oddly familar. In the sense that it didn't "estrange" me as I expected. It definitely gave me some "whoa!" moments due to the way it is creatively used at times (as when you are projected on the planetoid), but it still didn't disorient. Completely the opposite instead with the wall walking pads. Those make you flip out completely. Describing them properly is impossible. The best I can do is comparing them to roller coasters. The closer you can go to that feel in a computer game.
There are points where you really have to sit there for a minute or more doing not but start at the screen trying to figure out where the hell you arrived and from where you came. The fun of the wall walking is that if you jump you fall and flip accordingly to the gravity of that plane. It's really something that needs to be experienced when you are walking on the ceiling upside down, jump, flip 180 degrees and land on the pavement. Acrobatic!
So nothing to criticize with the implementation, execution and concrete value of those new features introduced in the engine. They are GREAT. Amazing. Definitely not deluding. Fun and with a great potential as I expected. Enough, from my point of view, to make Prey feel absolutely unique compared to any other shooter. I only have some minor compolaints about the physics system and the ragdolls (both terrible) and the controls. I hate when the "crouch" is not a toggle buy a key that I have to keep pressed (edit: managed to fix this through the cfg file), and I wish I could disable the auto-adjustement of the view angle while you walk on the wall walking pads. Maybe I'm wrong and maybe it was an obligatory function on the XBOX360, but I suspect that disabling it on the PC could have lead to much better and reliable controls as you walk on those things.
Concluding. In this sort of review I've analyzed all the elements I could recall and went in detail to explain things that didn't convince me. It may appear that the game isn't so great, but instead it is. When you give each element its correct weight then you would see that Prey tries to do something absolutely unique and DELIVERS from that perspective. The combat, at least for the initial levels in the demo, wasn't so great but, overall, setting, story and all the innovative twists definitely make a great game ...that could have been better, as always (and I dream about Human Head joining the Q4 team to do a masterpiece on all aspects since the quality of one seem to miss from the other).
For the final game I hope there will be enough conted for a 15-hours single player run. I'm definitely in for something long since I still think those new features can deliver a lot of fun potential and many possible variations. Still, I fear it will settle for something around 8-9 hours. At least it may keep a good pace and flow. Keeping things varied and the story twists alive and kicking. And lets also hope that the combat becomes a bit more involving and dynamic later on, mixing together all the elements that the game has to offer. More challenge, more frenzy.
Tips:
1- You can add "+disconnect" to the demo shortcut to avoid the ads at the launch.
2- The trick described here works even in Prey. If you have tiny stutters every second no matter of the framerate you can try adding -- seta com_precisetic "0" -- to the preyconfig.cfg file. Just set it to "read only" so that the game cannot overwrite it. Edit: lip synching goes to hell with this, though.
Btw, here's a major spoiler: the organic space ship is nothing else that a jam factory and at the end of the game Tommy will become Willy Wonka.
Submitted by Abalieno on October 15, 2005 - 11:09.
This toy is, simply put, a masterpiece.
I say "toy" because it isn't really a "game" and I think it was coldly received on the internet because of this different focus and appeal. People now expect games with an high production values, movie-like narratives and screenplays, big and cohesive worlds. This one is completely different. It's a toy for aged kids. It's a little, pretty sandbox.
It's surely not one of those games that will monopolize your interest for a long time, but it is the most fun digression I've had in a *long* while and it got me completely hooked up and... delighted.
It is really prefect in its own potential, with a lot of polish in all the smaller details. There is nifty stuff everywhere. The fully animated and "naif" scenery, the "film" graphic filter, the sleek camera movement, the chirping voices of the characters, the moody music... Despite the narrow scope, the game shows so much love and care from the one developer who built it. Maybe it seems not worth the price at a superficial glance but this game is pure ART and it really show all the meticulous work that was put onto it if you have the sensibility to notice this.
It's a divertissement. But within this category you'll hardly find something better. I won't explain roughly how the game works because you can find those kind of informations pretty much everywhere. This isn't some sort of review, either. Just some comments bundled together as I often do when something draws my interest. It's also sort of impossible to give it a numeric vote and compare it with other games because it's something entirely on its own. This is also why I find hard to dismiss it based on its (definitely accessible) price as others have done.
If anything it reminds me the fighter games on the C64 and Amiga like International Karate+. This time played with stylized, pretty dolls and some sort of "freeform" controls that allow you to move the body of your character and plan out strategies and attacks the way you want instead of sticking to already codified moves. This is why it feels like a sandbox. It's freeform and you can explore what's within in the way you like, creating your own patters. This is why IT IS FUN. This is also why IT IS ART. And, sadly, this is why it will get boring once you have explored thoroughly all it has to offer, despite, I'm sure, you'll always enjoy to spend some time toying with it.
The single player starts as a fun and really well done "training/story mode" and consequent chapters that you have to progressively unlock. By playing these chapters and finding secrets you can also enable a "single player" mode that has another eight subgames. I only unlocked the first called "Ninja Onslaught" that basically consists in a sequence of turns where you have to fight an increasing number of opponents. It goes on till you succumb. Form what I heard from others the single player part, excluding the sandbox game, will keep you busy from one to four hours, so don't expect a long lasting campaign.
Then there's the "sandbox" in the form of multiplayers games or custom games with AI driven opponents (but also the single player games are a sandbox on their own since you can play them over and over and still have tons of fun). Even in the case of the multiplayer you can select different games. For the online part you can choose between the deathmatch, soccer (with a huge ball) and an athletic mode that is flagged as "coming soon". While for the local machine you have another four modes to unlock (but I only have the deatmatch ulocked for now). Between the "coming soon" stuff there's also a "world editor".
The options for deathmatch are:
- Select location (8 arenas in total)
- Mushrooms options (Four options with a slider. -never grow, grow rarely, grow very often- -small pickings, plenty for everyone- -low potency, medium potency, very potent- -small in size, medium sized, huge-)
- Pot options (break pots to find fruit to eat for energy and *weapons*. One option -never fall, fall rarely, fall very often- Then you can select which types: fruit, bendy pole, nunchukas, ball and chain, shuriken, HEAD CANNON, dog on a leash, bomb, short sword)
- Rounds to win (from 1 to 16)
- AI players (from 0 to 7)
- AI skill level (6 levels: weak, average, good, advanced, very hard, insane)
At the bottom of this menu you can also see your character and move it on eight colored bars (white, blue, red, green, purple, yellow, orange, aqua). If you click on the head of the character you can switch between the eight "presets" models (that you can edit and combine from the proper menu -name, import skin, head, neck, torso, arms, hands, legs, feet, mouse cursor -a bit bugged for me-, voice) and by moving on the colored bars you select the color of your "chi glow" around your character.
While in the game:
- Camera mode (auto zoom, manual zoom)
- Music (on/off)
- Film Grain Filter (It's a graphic filter, very pretty. on/off)
- Mouse sensitivity
- Game speed (from 0.25 to 1, "1" is normal real time, and you can slow down for some sort of "matrix" feel even if the controls are slowed down as well)
On the preferences you can set the connection speed that makes the game move super fluid or more stuttering but making it playable on slow connections.
The weapons are a BLAST and maybe even too fun and easy to use (the game has also stones that you can shatter and then pick the pieces to throw at people). In the game you have three bars. The first is your energy that you can replenish by breaking pots and finding fruit to eat (you move the hand on fruit to take it and them bring it to the mouth to make it eat), the second builds up by taking mushrooms and eating them (but if you eat too many you puke). This second bar has some psychedelic effect that practically allows you to keep pressing the left mouse button (consuming the mushrooms energy you built up) and fling precisely the character in the air, slowing down its movements matrix-like for a precise control (and even the music and character voices slow down with a funny effect). While the third builds up by grabbing butterflies, till the bar starts to glow. At that point you can set your character in the "butterfly stance" and make it shoot fireballs at people :)
So between so many game modes, large and multi-platform arenas, butterflies, mushrooms, fruit and weapons you really have many toys to fiddle with and have fun. And then it's pretty. So absolutely charming and fascinating and so easily capturing an unique mood. I don't know what else you could expect.
Btw, between pirates, ninjas, monkeys and zombies I choose ninjas. This is definitely my game.
I love it.
NOTE: The slides linked are from Raph as always, not mine.
Submitted by Abalieno on April 16, 2005 - 13:03.
Dark Age of Camelot's Catacombs - An early review
LAST EDIT: If you do not have time to read my babblings I suggest to still check the screenshots. I believe they are good.
There are 48 of them and, since I'm wicked, the best are the last. The Kobold city (Midgard main hub) is freaking awesome. The best piece of art I've ever seen in a game. And I'm not exaggerating. Who built that zone is simply not human.
I've moved the screenshots to a "light" page in order to not stress the site: dedicated screenshot page
--
This is an attempt at an early review. "Early" because I use to write my reviews after the first impact. I did this with World of Warcraft, I repeated it with Guild Wars and once again recently with the expansion to Doom 3. In all these cases I'm always ready to check them again after months and years to confirm that even after extended play sessions my impressions and considerations don't change, I still believe in what I write even if it comes just after a few hours of play. This because I always try to to understand in depth the general patterns to figure out how they build the rest of the game that I still haven't experienced. The other reason is because I give a strong value to the "first impression". The newbie experience and the first steps allow already to understand the approach and philosophy of the game. What will happen next will be a rehash or a combination of the previous patterns. In the case of this game I also have a deep knowlodge of the overall structure since I played it for more than two years, so I can understand what this expansion adds and how it interacts with the rest. This means that it won't be a DAoC review. I don't want to write 20Mb of text and, since I know I can drift too easily, I'll try to mantain the focus on the content of this expansion and glance to the latest patches when they are related.
Follow the "read more" link if you have so much time available -->
Submitted by Abalieno on April 9, 2005 - 01:39.
This is a review of the Doom 3 expansion released early this week and that I posted a few days ago on Q23. I organized it slightly better and also added a summary at the end with aven a "vote". Just to mimic the official news sites. So no mmorpgs and lots of artsy sceenies.
Press the "read more" link to check it out -->
Submitted by Abalieno on November 1, 2004 - 08:41.
I've played this game some more during the weekend, I did a few missions and managed to gain three levels. Here I'll recap my considerations. Click "read more" link if you feel masochist enough ->
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