| ~Beyond the Border~ > Akyu's Arcade |
| Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E |
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| nav':
Played through several classic/retro first person shooters in relatively short order. They were, respectively: DUSK, a recent game that looks and feels like something straight out of the 90s. Generally reminiscent of Quake, it features an adequate variety of interesting enemies (although their 3D models could be better), excellent weaponry where every gun is useful and fun to fight with, good level design, overall nice audiovisuals, and Nyarlathotep. I liked the powerups too. Highly recommended. Quake. Inspired by DUSK, I decided to give the old classic another spin. Long story short, the gameplay is as fun as always and there's few things quite as satisfying as collecting the Quad and frantically rushing onwards to eliminate as many foes as possible before the powerup runs out. Yet there are also flaws that must be acknowledged. Namely, some places feel rather empty and barebones, with very little in terms of decoration and whatnot. While most enemies are fun, some bring their own set of issues: dogs and human grunts are hardly ever used, for example, and the Death Knight is just an annoying bullet sponge. And the soundtrack never really grew on me; it sounds like an inferior version of Fallout music. Next up were both official Quake expansion packs. Scourge of Armagon was the better of the two, pushing the difficulty level up a notch and finally giving more screen time to some enemies like the aforementioned humans or Vores. Map design was overall quite good, they were a lot of fun to explore, although I didn't like how they occasionally pull cheap tricks (looking at you, Flying-Mine-In-The-Face). While Dissolution of Eternity introduces some fun toys and features more eye candy, it's ultimately a worse game since combat is at best on par with vanilla Quake, usually easier, and multi-rockets make it almost trivial at times. Bosses were laughable, except the last one who's a sudden difficulty spike capable of one-shotting you at full health and armor. Meh. Heretic is a 1994 game on the then-fresh Doom engine, replacing Doom's military bases and hellscapes with a fantasy theme. The graphics and music are spectacular and there are few games where everything seems to fit together so well. Levels themselves are likewise excellent, very atmospheric, the architecture going far beyond what Doom could offer, especially in outdoor maps. However, I do have some gripes about the gameplay itself. The crossbow's damage range seems to vary wildly, gargoyles taking anywhere from 1 to 3 shots at close range to kill, Sabreclaws anywhere from 2 to 5 etc. Items are neat, but too many Quartz Flasks make things rather easy, especially with the Enchanted Shield soaking up so much damage. And since weapon effects and muzzle flash (so to speak) are so prominent, you get very little visual feedback and can't tell whether the enemy is stunlocked or currently firing back at you. Lastly, most boss encounters are merely banal exercises in circlestrafing. These issues bog the experience down a little, but not enough to stop me from playing through all five episodes. And finally, Project Warlock is another modern game hoping to achieve a retro look and feel. Sadly, this one appears to be a failure. While audiovisuals are once again excellent, the game owes much more to Catacomb 3D than it does to Quake, Hexen, Doom, or even Wolfenstein. Very little gameplay depth, poor map design take all the fun out of what initially promises to be an interesting experience. The game has an RPG-like system of stats, perks, spells and upgrades, but it's rather trivial and does not help things at all. I'd give this one a pass. No idea what to do next. Perhaps an RPG for a change, so I don't oversaturate myself with shooters. |
| CyberAngel:
--- Quote from: nav' on January 22, 2019, 07:25:31 PM ---And the soundtrack never really grew on me; it sounds like an inferior version of Fallout music. --- End quote --- My Quake version came from a bootleg multi-game CD that had music ripped out and I don't believe I've lost anything of value for my experience. Comparing it to Fallout music is stretching it, really. It's just repetitive noise that barely works even as ambience. You want good ambience - check out PS1 or N64 Doom. Also, your Heretic summary pretty much sums up my problems with it (in addition to not being suited for pistol starts). The weapons just don't feel satisfying enough, with crossbow being the worst offender indeed. But I still keep the WAD around in case I want to play it with a good character mod like Samsara or High Noon Drifter. (And I did look at Project Warlock but it failed to catch my eye since no saves is an instant deal-breaker to me.) |
| nav':
--- Quote from: CyberAngel on January 22, 2019, 07:59:59 PM ---My Quake version came from a bootleg multi-game CD that had music ripped out and I don't believe I've lost anything of value for my experience. Comparing it to Fallout music is stretching it, really. It's just repetitive noise that barely works even as ambience. You want good ambience - check out PS1 or N64 Doom. --- End quote --- Heh, same here actually. Always played Quake without any music until now. It just seemed... appropriate, like the game's atmosphere is heavy enough that it doesn't need any music. Maybe next time I'll try with some death metal playing in the background. --- Quote from: CyberAngel on January 22, 2019, 07:59:59 PM ---(And I did look at Project Warlock but it failed to catch my eye since no saves is an instant deal-breaker to me.) --- End quote --- Honestly, the levels are small and simple enough that saving isn't necessary in the first place. |
| CyberAngel:
--- Quote from: nav' on January 23, 2019, 07:57:45 AM ---Heh, same here actually. Always played Quake without any music until now. It just seemed... appropriate, like the game's atmosphere is heavy enough that it doesn't need any music. Maybe next time I'll try with some death metal playing in the background. --- End quote --- Interestingly, some old FPS games are pretty rich with ambient sounds and feel nice even without music. I'd still say that background tunes help with setting the atmosphere... but it's not the case for Quake that tries to layer ambience on top of ambience. Something more rocking like Quake II OST works pretty well though so yeah. |
| theshirn:
meanwhile I went back and 100%ed DOOM 2016 on Nightmare again game's still good! :V |
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