I know it's bumping the 'demo' thread, but I've been playing the full version of this, and I'm on chapter 5 now.
I've come to the conclusion it's a next gen version of Road Avenger.
Anyone played the Mirror's Edge demo?
Always outnumbered, never outgunned - No zuo no die
ChurchOfSolipsism wrote: ALso, this is how SKykid usually posts
Got it. Played it. Finished it. Liked it...mostly.
Story mode took me about 6 hours to get through. The story itself was just window dressing. It had the building blocks of a workable plot, but failed to develop plot points and character motivations to the extent that a major (albeit predictable) betrayal seemed almost inexplicable. It left so many loose ends that this is clearly intended to open out into a broader sequel, but I find myself uninterested in whatever direction it might take. It fulfilled the job of adding some atmosphere and drive to the gameplay though, so I'd call it perfunctory rather than inept.
Actual gameplay was mostly enjoyable. When I was getting up to full speed and anticipating what manoeuvres were needed, it was an exciting experience. Unfortunately, the number of times those occassions cropped up were a little on the thin side. Much time is spent climbing pipes, crawling through ducts, shimmeying along ledges, etc. I could understand these as brief changes of pace, but the make up too much of a game that was billed as being all about maintaining momentum.
Momentum causes another problem. It can be difficult to judge how far you can jump at different speeds. I found myself occassionally succeeding on jumps I thought impossible, but more often failing to make jumps that looked easy. It didn't help that the detection for auto-grabbing ledges was unpredictable. Faith is certainly an aptly named character, as I've rarely played a game with so many blind jumps. Wallrun jumps are the worst of these, accentuated by how difficult it can be to wallrun and wallclimb at consistent angles in certain situations.
A lot of the platforming sections in the later levels had an awkward feel to them. There were times when the main route through a section had the rough feel that some games have in side areas or when sequence breaking. This was especially noticable in a late section that required the scaling of some narrow scaffolding. Some jumps took me 20 attempts, and when I finally made them I couldn't see what I'd done differently on the successful attempt.
I may be overemphasising the negatives. The majority of the game is enjoyable and polished. It's just that the few annoying moments are ones that really made me grate my teeth.
I didn't manage to get the achievement for completing the game without killing an enemy. I was aiming for it, but I couldn't get the timing down for disarming the SWAT guys with SMGs. Most of the other enemies are relatively easy to disarm, but I could only rarely disarm those ones even when using the reaction time ability. Melee combat was rarely useful due to enemies attacking in teams and it only taking two or three shots to die on normal difficulty. The best option was usually to keep running and try to avoid line of sight. There were times when the game forces you to take out enemies in some fashion though.
Time trials and speed runs give the game some longevity. They're pretty addictive and set very challenging times to beat for two or three star ratings on a stage. I've got two stars on a few, but I'm nowhere near three stars on any of them. Another plus for the game's longevity is that the play mechanics don't get tiresome before the end of the story mode. I'm halfway through a second playthrough, on hard difficulty this time. The gameplay flows a lot better this time now that I'm familiar with the level layouts (the time trials are invaluable for finding good racing lines).
Overall, it should be a priority rental for anyone who was looking forward to the game. I don't think it was quite worth £35 though. I would have been happier with the purchase if it had cost me £20-25.
Story mode took me about 6 hours to get through. The story itself was just window dressing. It had the building blocks of a workable plot, but failed to develop plot points and character motivations to the extent that a major (albeit predictable) betrayal seemed almost inexplicable. It left so many loose ends that this is clearly intended to open out into a broader sequel, but I find myself uninterested in whatever direction it might take. It fulfilled the job of adding some atmosphere and drive to the gameplay though, so I'd call it perfunctory rather than inept.
Actual gameplay was mostly enjoyable. When I was getting up to full speed and anticipating what manoeuvres were needed, it was an exciting experience. Unfortunately, the number of times those occassions cropped up were a little on the thin side. Much time is spent climbing pipes, crawling through ducts, shimmeying along ledges, etc. I could understand these as brief changes of pace, but the make up too much of a game that was billed as being all about maintaining momentum.
Momentum causes another problem. It can be difficult to judge how far you can jump at different speeds. I found myself occassionally succeeding on jumps I thought impossible, but more often failing to make jumps that looked easy. It didn't help that the detection for auto-grabbing ledges was unpredictable. Faith is certainly an aptly named character, as I've rarely played a game with so many blind jumps. Wallrun jumps are the worst of these, accentuated by how difficult it can be to wallrun and wallclimb at consistent angles in certain situations.
A lot of the platforming sections in the later levels had an awkward feel to them. There were times when the main route through a section had the rough feel that some games have in side areas or when sequence breaking. This was especially noticable in a late section that required the scaling of some narrow scaffolding. Some jumps took me 20 attempts, and when I finally made them I couldn't see what I'd done differently on the successful attempt.
I may be overemphasising the negatives. The majority of the game is enjoyable and polished. It's just that the few annoying moments are ones that really made me grate my teeth.
I didn't manage to get the achievement for completing the game without killing an enemy. I was aiming for it, but I couldn't get the timing down for disarming the SWAT guys with SMGs. Most of the other enemies are relatively easy to disarm, but I could only rarely disarm those ones even when using the reaction time ability. Melee combat was rarely useful due to enemies attacking in teams and it only taking two or three shots to die on normal difficulty. The best option was usually to keep running and try to avoid line of sight. There were times when the game forces you to take out enemies in some fashion though.
Time trials and speed runs give the game some longevity. They're pretty addictive and set very challenging times to beat for two or three star ratings on a stage. I've got two stars on a few, but I'm nowhere near three stars on any of them. Another plus for the game's longevity is that the play mechanics don't get tiresome before the end of the story mode. I'm halfway through a second playthrough, on hard difficulty this time. The gameplay flows a lot better this time now that I'm familiar with the level layouts (the time trials are invaluable for finding good racing lines).
Overall, it should be a priority rental for anyone who was looking forward to the game. I don't think it was quite worth £35 though. I would have been happier with the purchase if it had cost me £20-25.
It sounds as though we've had similar experiences. I applaud Dice for giving gaming some much needed inspiration, and proving that first person games can be defined differently and should inhabit a broader spectrum.
But the flaws are undeniable. As I mentioned with the Road Avenger crack, and you've covered in your post, the game is buckled by its own nature. There are times when all you want to do is keep the euphoria of the flow going, but that leads you to blind jumps and leaps of faith that see far too many frequent deaths.
The trial and error at points, grossly defeats the purpose of the game. Rooftops all starts to look the same, and the engineering of multiple routes through levels often creates massive confusion, especially when there is an object highlighted in red which you no longer need to worry about.
The sense of urgency doesn't often help either. You're compelled to keep running, especially as if you stop the helicopter raining machine gun fire at you will probably force another restart (and you definitely don't want that) - which in turn leads to a restart anyway because in your haste and lack of direction you end up familiarly crashing to the streets below.
The atmosphere was nice, the story hopeless, and the combat, consisting of a fairly poor disarming system that rarely works the way you'd like it to, may as well have not made the final cut.
This game wants a sequel and I want a sequel for this game. I still consider it one of this generations most important releases, but its a foundation which needs plenty of fleshing out next time around.
But the flaws are undeniable. As I mentioned with the Road Avenger crack, and you've covered in your post, the game is buckled by its own nature. There are times when all you want to do is keep the euphoria of the flow going, but that leads you to blind jumps and leaps of faith that see far too many frequent deaths.
The trial and error at points, grossly defeats the purpose of the game. Rooftops all starts to look the same, and the engineering of multiple routes through levels often creates massive confusion, especially when there is an object highlighted in red which you no longer need to worry about.
The sense of urgency doesn't often help either. You're compelled to keep running, especially as if you stop the helicopter raining machine gun fire at you will probably force another restart (and you definitely don't want that) - which in turn leads to a restart anyway because in your haste and lack of direction you end up familiarly crashing to the streets below.
The atmosphere was nice, the story hopeless, and the combat, consisting of a fairly poor disarming system that rarely works the way you'd like it to, may as well have not made the final cut.
This game wants a sequel and I want a sequel for this game. I still consider it one of this generations most important releases, but its a foundation which needs plenty of fleshing out next time around.
Always outnumbered, never outgunned - No zuo no die
ChurchOfSolipsism wrote: ALso, this is how SKykid usually posts
The time trial mode is the only thing about this game that looks pretty fun, to me. I'll definitely find a way to play it when it hits the PC, and wait for some good mods/levels.
Is time trial available from the start or do you have to beat the story to unlock it?
Is time trial available from the start or do you have to beat the story to unlock it?
"I think Ikaruga is pretty tough. It is like a modern version of Galaga that some Japanese company made."
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BulletMagnet
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As you go along in the "main" game you unlock more time trial stages - from there you can unlock more by completing the existing time trials fast enough. So the courses do need unlocking, but you can get access to at least some of them pretty early on - you'll need to finish the game to get them all though.kengou wrote:Is time trial available from the start or do you have to beat the story to unlock it?
EDIT - In case it isn't obvious enough, I ended up buying the game - it's definitely not going to appeal to many, thanks to its unusual take on the first-person perspective and the trial-and-error nature of progression (which many people here have heard me complain about plenty when it comes to shmups). That said, though, in spite of the icky parts the game's immersiveness and uniqueness were enough to reel me in, and I've been enjoying it (a bit at a time) for the past few days. I'm way too stupid/uncoordinated to figure out a way to beat some of those time trial runs though, heh heh.