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Terra Nova by Looking Glass Studios, game gods, and nobody bought it :/

Jack Dandy

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Divinity: Original Sin 2
I am absolutely gay for anything Power Armor related, especially ones that make you feel like you're in a bulky, powerful suit, preferebly with jets or other means of going fast in a cool manner. Unlike most titles where it simply means "you can carry big guns and tank hits".

So I should really get my ass to playing this.
 

Nano

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Strap Yourselves In
Terra Nova is a fantastic game. It aged really well too. It's criminal that it flopped so badly.

For people that haven't played the game yet (like Jack Dandy): I'd recommend playing the 3-mission demo for the game first, found here: https://www.ttlg.com/tnova/archive/index.htm

These missions aren't in the main game, they actually act as a sort of prequel to the main game's story. They can be looked at as tutorial levels too.
 
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anvi

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It must have been hard to market games back then. I used to read 1 or 2 PC gaming mags a month and I still usually had no idea what to buy when I went shopping to get a game. I used to just look at the boxes on the shelves and read the back. I remember one day I spent 40 minutes looking at every game in the place and none of them looked interesting to me... As I was walking out I saw one I had missed and it looked promising so I took a chance and bought it. It was System Shock :D
 
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So I should really get my ass to playing this.
You should. Terra Nova's the gold standard as far as power armor games go, I actually dug it more than the Mechwarrior series for stompy robot shit even though the degrees of stomp are different. It's also one of the EXTREMELY few games I kept the box of for whatever reason. Not even entirely sure why. Had mild regrets once I saw what shit like original System Shock 1 and 2 and Bloodlines boxes go for but such is life.
 

lightbane

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Would be a great candidate for a remake.

Not really, unless they don't mess with the content much. Wit htoday's politics, you cannot be sure of that. The game featured a psychic black guy being killed, which is probably "problematic" nowadays.

Terra Nova's the gold standard as far as power armor games go,

Not that there are many of these, sadly.
 

Dayyālu

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Terra Nova was a great game in the typical mid90ies way: it had even the typical fuckhuge background (I still remember all the blurbs about the Hegemony and the technology and the like). Why it failed, then?

From what I remember, the complaints were twofold. One, was that the game was quite simplified after playtesting: the original concept for Terra Nova was a fairly hardcore simulation of power armour fighting, and what we got was a somewhat simplified version (for example, drones would have a far bigger role and weapon/team mate management would have been deeper). Of course, this was an attempt to reach a wider audience, as the fans of a such a niche game would be few, I guess.

The second thing that torpedoed the game was FMVs. I distinctly remember reading intervies were the devs were saddened by the amount of money that was wasted in video sections, money that could not be used to improve the game or to add a MP mode (for a game that would have greatly supported it even at that early age). I mean, Terra Nova could have been proto-Tribes, and Tribes 1 (before skiing was a thing) was pretty much a multiplayer focused Terra Nova.

And that for FMVs that were of arguably low quality and for a muddy and predictable plot that aped Wing Commander (teh TRAITOR). As usual, it's all the fault of Chris Roberts. And the FMV budget, if I remember right, damaged even the marketing budget.

Not really, unless they don't mess with the content much. Wit htoday's politics, you cannot be sure of that. The game featured a psychic black guy being killed, which is probably "problematic" nowadays.

Terra Nova's """"politics"""" are not as straightforward as the ones in Crusader (Crusader's theme was inspired by the EU and the rampant neoliberalism of the 90ies, as Zurovec himself recalled). Terra Nova has a aggressive almost "Plato-like" Terran super-state fighting a hyper-nationalistic bunch of colonists (that are the good guys), that makes for great sci-fi but poor CURRENT YEAR. Not that anything is clearly explained in the game, of course.
 
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unfairlight

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Read about it on Wikipedia late last year when talking with a friend about what was the first game with an ADS or iron sight feature. He argued that it was Outlaws, but I found this and argued that any sort of zoom feature is practically ADS since 2D iron sights were just decreased FOV and slowed movement with an overlay, and this basically ticked that box. If it indeed is the first FPS game with zooming/ADS/iron sights then you can add that to the list of LGS innovations. I think this could also be considered the earliest tactical FPS game, too.
 

Nano

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Strap Yourselves In
The second thing that torpedoed the game was FMVs. I distinctly remember reading intervies were the devs were saddened by the amount of money that was wasted in video sections, money that could not be used to improve the game or to add a MP mode (for a game that would have greatly supported it even at that early age). I mean, Terra Nova could have been proto-Tribes, and Tribes 1 (before skiing was a thing) was pretty much a multiplayer focused Terra Nova.

And that for FMVs that were of arguably low quality and for a muddy and predictable plot that aped Wing Commander (teh TRAITOR). As usual, it's all the fault of Chris Roberts. And the FMV budget, if I remember right, damaged even the marketing budget.
Terra Nova wouldn't be the same without the FMVs. They add to the game's charm IMO.
 

Dayyālu

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Terra Nova wouldn't be the same without the FMVs. They add to the game's charm IMO.

On that, I may agree (I sorta liked the FMVs in Crusader and WC) but the ones in Terra Nova weren't that necessary and from what I read actively damaged the resources for gameplay development and marketing. It was an attempt to get on the FMV/ "cinematic" craze of the era, that's all.

It's merely an attempt to explain why it failed: marketing was mismanaged, it lacked resources, it didn't push MP (even the third Crusader game with MP was shot down) in a era where it was starting to gain steam.

I always assumed that Heavy Gear I and II were sequels, dunno why, maybe because of the shared name of Terra Nova of the setting.

Heavy Gear II in particular is incredibly detailed and tactical. Maybe it failed for the same reasons, there isn't a real audience for such a niche title. I mean, Tribes 1 managed to survive for the GOTTAGOFAST bugs, after all.
 

warpig

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On that, I may agree (I sorta liked the FMVs in Crusader and WC) but the ones in Terra Nova weren't that necessary and from what I read actively damaged the resources for gameplay development and marketing. It was an attempt to get on the FMV/ "cinematic" craze of the era, that's all.
Unlike in Wing Commander the FMV cutscenes in Terra Nova were crap. They should have just presented the story through mission briefings+an occasional cutscene when something big happens (like Tie Fighter or Freespace games).
 
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Terra Nova's the gold standard as far as power armor games go,

Not that there are many of these, sadly.
True, the only other one that springs to mind is Outwars, and that one probably doesn't hold up as well as Terra Nova. Terra Nova's still super janky by modern standards but they were doing more cool shit with it, Outwars is much closer to a regular action game even though it was still fun to jet and glide around. Haven't fucked with or even thought about that one in ages though, had to go to Mobygames and dig through the years since all I remembered was "That Microsoft jetpack game".
 

Beastro

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I'm fascinated by periods of time now and how they are expressed.

Even just hearing the dialogue in this and how the wording is structured I instantly recognized i as a late 90s/early 2000s game. It's the same style as the Thief games, same goes for the rough presentation and vibe of the footage even if both games have very different styles to them.

I find that interesting too with movie, how you're able to tell roughly what period of time a movie was made in purely from the film quality alone (and other things, I guessed correctly watching A Perfect World that it was made around 1993 because of how much it was like Jurassic Park in feel).... until digital removed that and has made it samey ever since... :(
 
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Jack Dandy

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Divinity: Original Sin 2
As we're speaking of Power Armor, I'd also like to recommend the newer Earth Defense Force games.
They feature a class called the Fencer, which is basically a Starship Troopers novel-styled mobile infantry.

You get shitload of city-razing weaponry, can bring down skyscrapers on a whim. Your armor is super slow, so you have a multitude of jumpjets which you use to hop and dash around. You need to carefully analyze just where & when to use these, though.
 
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unfairlight

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Unfooooortunately EDF 4.1 Fencer is kinda shit in many situations and a Ranger is way more versatile for dealing with swarms. Why use a mortar if you can just use one of the better rocket launchers for Ranger that deal equal or better damage, without drop off, with faster reloads and allow you to move at the same time as firing? The primary place where Fencer excels is forcing themselves inside places where other classes can't get to with their shields and high armour.
Your armor is super slow, so you have a multitude of jumpjets which you use to hop and dash around.
lol, learn 2 dashcancel, you can sustain speed with that for longer than anyone else.
doesn't work in EDF 5 :negative:
 

Jack Dandy

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Pffft, I have mastered the sacred art of Javelin Cancelling long ago. You can't hit what you can't catch.

From what I heard, although EDF5 took that out, they instead gave the Fencer a shitload more maneuvarability options. IE triple air jumps/dashes and the sort. I'm fine with these too! Can't wait to try it out.
 

LarryTyphoid

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Sep 16, 2021
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When I first played this game, I thought it was pretty good. After playing it on max difficulty, I think it might be one of the greatest shooters ever made.
 

octavius

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Terra Nova's the gold standard as far as power armor games go,

Not that there are many of these, sadly.
True, the only other one that springs to mind is Outwars, and that one probably doesn't hold up as well as Terra Nova. Terra Nova's still super janky by modern standards but they were doing more cool shit with it, Outwars is much closer to a regular action game even though it was still fun to jet and glide around. Haven't fucked with or even thought about that one in ages though, had to go to Mobygames and dig through the years since all I remembered was "That Microsoft jetpack game".

Outlaws was more like a stealth game if you played on hardest difficulty.
Both Outlaws and Terra Nova were great games that I missed back in the day, but enjoyed a few years ago.
 

Ash

Arcane
Joined
Oct 16, 2015
Messages
6,228
Terra Nova didn't sell well enough nor did it accrue a cult following in the same way say Thief and System Shock did. there's nothing to be milked here. That said, I don't blame them. It's just too risky. And do you really want modern sellout devs touching it?
 

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