MetalCraze
Arcane
I've never managed to play New Vegas again. In no small thanks to the repairs going on at the time, but mostly due to it being a shooter that was ruined by attrocious console gameplay and the need to dumb it down for retards and other 2009+ members on various RPG forums. Still maybe I will continue that "LP" some day if I will feel like suffering.
So I decided to play something else instead! As I was pretty sure it can't be worse than the terrible overrated excrement that New Vegas is.
Mind you Shadow of Chernobyl and Clear Sky were good for nothing pieces of shit where a great atmosphere was ruined by tiny corridors filled with rapidly respawning enemies and stupid FedEx quests. Exploration that should've been a main point of the game in something like a mysterious area with anomalies? There was none of it. And the "mystery" was badly written itself.
I hated them.
So obviously I was very sceptical about Call of Pripyat. And my scepticism was once again correct. To a degree...
Let's get on with the bashing then:
- Shooting is still not good. In a shooter. It was improved compared to previous two as weapons don't feel like all of them are weak shotguns that shoot at all random places but a shortened version of AK having a crazy recoil that will make you watch the sky after a mere 3 shots? And that goes for other weapons as well. Unless you heavily upgrade them. They also have no punch to them, they don't feel like firearms. They feel like airsoft guns which shows in the next flaw
- While the damage system was improved too - headshots do kill people right away this time - shooting enemies in anything but head is just as useless as it was in Stalker's alpha and beta versions.
- It's easy to be friends with everyone as factions barely react to whatever you do. Sucking Freedom's dick won't make you an enemy with Duty. Killing bandits during quests won't make them hostile. Etc. The only way to be an enemy is to go full retard.
- Quest compass. It hurts sometimes. Especially when seeking cover from emissions as it shows you where you can find it (which is not needed because really any closed space without windows will do). It ruins some quests like that too. But other than that it isn't too intrusive, like in the best game evar 2010
- There is no feeling of incoming doom or the need for survival. Too many med supplies, too much food. And later in the game - too much ammo.
- Map design. Despite levels being corridors in alpha and beta versions - they looked genuine, like something that people have built. Zaton and Yanov look like a theme park. Quarry in a big hole in the middle of nowhere (I mean they need to put all that dirt they dig somewhere? Like in containers or something?), a cement factory that is just two small buildings with nothingness around them, a children's summer camp which is just 5 small houses and again nothing around it - and there are more examples. Everything feels disjointed, lacks logic and thus hurts atmosphere - also because there is nothing to do in between "places of interest".
- Pripyat is small.
- Finally in addition to the two flaws above graphics suffered as well. This is obviously connected - the level/graphics design team left to make a failure that is Metro 2033 coupled with CoP being completed in under a year - and it shows.
But maybe people, who did Metro 2033 which sucked horribly, leaving would mean that they took that suckage away with them in something else?
Oh yes!
- FedEx quests are now less stupid. Some are even good despite being more linear than an average Obsidian's shooter pretending to be not shit. What's the reason? ->
- Exploring is fun. When you are proceeding along some FedEx quest or just entering some of the areas they often stuffed with nicely designed sci fi stuff. A good example will be the Oasis. People are talking about it, it's a legend according to which there are waters somewhere in the zone that will heal all diseases and wounds. After that it's up to you how to find it. After travelling through a nice maze of ventilation pipes players jumps straight into another little maze in the middle of teleportation anomaly where he needs to find a correct way through it. And then he comes into some nature growing among concrete structures with water - and there is a precious artifact in there. After grabbing it the player is attacked by pseudodogs which you can't kill as long as they are in water (same goes for you as wounds heal almost instantly). Upon returning from there everything makes fun of you if you are telling them that you have found Oasis. Sweet touch and adds to an atmosphere.
And it's close to that for many FedExs. They often involve anomalies and mazes with an occasional puzzle thrown in. Reminds me of why I stayed with Divinity 2 through all of it.
- The above is also in no small thanks to Zone now being quite empty. The combat is rare (which is only a plus considering how mediocre it is) and thus you have more time looking into all the weird stuff devs put there and enjoying the atmosphere of Soviet surrealism. And it's interesting as the feeling of mystery is present there unlike in previous two pieces of shit.
- You can now explore Pripyat for once. And unlike Yanov and Zaton it's well crafted, despite being smaller than any of them. When I reached it I was just running around, looking at the ghost town.
- And apart from combat being rare factions that were one dimensional previously have slightly more to them. Even Monolith. Quest with the lost monolith squad is a nice addition to the setting and you can only find it by exploring.
- There are never enough money (although you stop having problems upon reaching Pripyat), weapons you gather cost more to repair than to sell them afterwards (as you can't sell them unless they are next to fully repaired). The only real way is to gather artifacts which is quite a bit grindy and problematic in the first half.
- Weapon and armour modifications. There is not much to them as they are mostly about less recoil and more damage (when it comes to weapons) and more protection from X (when it comes to armour), but still it's a nice addition to the gameplay. Considering that to get the better ones you need to find tools - and there are no quest compasses for that.
- Setting feels much more mysterious now as this time devs prefer to keep stuff unexplained rather that throwing a lame excuse in your face. Even the plot is much more down to earth and is quite interesting for once.
- Helping some people will mean they will go to you with Pripyat - and there will be quests in there connected to them. Me likes.
- Achievements. They are not retarded. Basically they just unlock stuff you still have to pay a lot for. And it isn't some fancy weapon that you get once you popped 100 moles. Do quests for scientists, helping them with the research (which also means giving away rare artifacts) and you f.e. will get a chance to buy experimental meds they invented thanks to you that will let you survive through emission without the cover. Same goes for everything else related to them. Nice.
There is more that I probably forgot about in both pro and cons. But I had fun with it. I usually hate games with empty maps and randomly generated enemies thrown in but this time it was fun. Thanks to exploration being interesting and a lot of stuff to see.
Unfortunately (and I do feel like it's unfortunate) there is no point in playing the game ever again once you've completed it. There is no replayability and doing the same stuff again is not the same.
Ending slides Fallout-style were nice though.
I still hate you all <3
So I decided to play something else instead! As I was pretty sure it can't be worse than the terrible overrated excrement that New Vegas is.
Mind you Shadow of Chernobyl and Clear Sky were good for nothing pieces of shit where a great atmosphere was ruined by tiny corridors filled with rapidly respawning enemies and stupid FedEx quests. Exploration that should've been a main point of the game in something like a mysterious area with anomalies? There was none of it. And the "mystery" was badly written itself.
I hated them.
So obviously I was very sceptical about Call of Pripyat. And my scepticism was once again correct. To a degree...
Let's get on with the bashing then:
- Shooting is still not good. In a shooter. It was improved compared to previous two as weapons don't feel like all of them are weak shotguns that shoot at all random places but a shortened version of AK having a crazy recoil that will make you watch the sky after a mere 3 shots? And that goes for other weapons as well. Unless you heavily upgrade them. They also have no punch to them, they don't feel like firearms. They feel like airsoft guns which shows in the next flaw
- While the damage system was improved too - headshots do kill people right away this time - shooting enemies in anything but head is just as useless as it was in Stalker's alpha and beta versions.
- It's easy to be friends with everyone as factions barely react to whatever you do. Sucking Freedom's dick won't make you an enemy with Duty. Killing bandits during quests won't make them hostile. Etc. The only way to be an enemy is to go full retard.
- Quest compass. It hurts sometimes. Especially when seeking cover from emissions as it shows you where you can find it (which is not needed because really any closed space without windows will do). It ruins some quests like that too. But other than that it isn't too intrusive, like in the best game evar 2010
- There is no feeling of incoming doom or the need for survival. Too many med supplies, too much food. And later in the game - too much ammo.
- Map design. Despite levels being corridors in alpha and beta versions - they looked genuine, like something that people have built. Zaton and Yanov look like a theme park. Quarry in a big hole in the middle of nowhere (I mean they need to put all that dirt they dig somewhere? Like in containers or something?), a cement factory that is just two small buildings with nothingness around them, a children's summer camp which is just 5 small houses and again nothing around it - and there are more examples. Everything feels disjointed, lacks logic and thus hurts atmosphere - also because there is nothing to do in between "places of interest".
- Pripyat is small.
- Finally in addition to the two flaws above graphics suffered as well. This is obviously connected - the level/graphics design team left to make a failure that is Metro 2033 coupled with CoP being completed in under a year - and it shows.
But maybe people, who did Metro 2033 which sucked horribly, leaving would mean that they took that suckage away with them in something else?
Oh yes!
- FedEx quests are now less stupid. Some are even good despite being more linear than an average Obsidian's shooter pretending to be not shit. What's the reason? ->
- Exploring is fun. When you are proceeding along some FedEx quest or just entering some of the areas they often stuffed with nicely designed sci fi stuff. A good example will be the Oasis. People are talking about it, it's a legend according to which there are waters somewhere in the zone that will heal all diseases and wounds. After that it's up to you how to find it. After travelling through a nice maze of ventilation pipes players jumps straight into another little maze in the middle of teleportation anomaly where he needs to find a correct way through it. And then he comes into some nature growing among concrete structures with water - and there is a precious artifact in there. After grabbing it the player is attacked by pseudodogs which you can't kill as long as they are in water (same goes for you as wounds heal almost instantly). Upon returning from there everything makes fun of you if you are telling them that you have found Oasis. Sweet touch and adds to an atmosphere.
And it's close to that for many FedExs. They often involve anomalies and mazes with an occasional puzzle thrown in. Reminds me of why I stayed with Divinity 2 through all of it.
- The above is also in no small thanks to Zone now being quite empty. The combat is rare (which is only a plus considering how mediocre it is) and thus you have more time looking into all the weird stuff devs put there and enjoying the atmosphere of Soviet surrealism. And it's interesting as the feeling of mystery is present there unlike in previous two pieces of shit.
- You can now explore Pripyat for once. And unlike Yanov and Zaton it's well crafted, despite being smaller than any of them. When I reached it I was just running around, looking at the ghost town.
- And apart from combat being rare factions that were one dimensional previously have slightly more to them. Even Monolith. Quest with the lost monolith squad is a nice addition to the setting and you can only find it by exploring.
- There are never enough money (although you stop having problems upon reaching Pripyat), weapons you gather cost more to repair than to sell them afterwards (as you can't sell them unless they are next to fully repaired). The only real way is to gather artifacts which is quite a bit grindy and problematic in the first half.
- Weapon and armour modifications. There is not much to them as they are mostly about less recoil and more damage (when it comes to weapons) and more protection from X (when it comes to armour), but still it's a nice addition to the gameplay. Considering that to get the better ones you need to find tools - and there are no quest compasses for that.
- Setting feels much more mysterious now as this time devs prefer to keep stuff unexplained rather that throwing a lame excuse in your face. Even the plot is much more down to earth and is quite interesting for once.
- Helping some people will mean they will go to you with Pripyat - and there will be quests in there connected to them. Me likes.
- Achievements. They are not retarded. Basically they just unlock stuff you still have to pay a lot for. And it isn't some fancy weapon that you get once you popped 100 moles. Do quests for scientists, helping them with the research (which also means giving away rare artifacts) and you f.e. will get a chance to buy experimental meds they invented thanks to you that will let you survive through emission without the cover. Same goes for everything else related to them. Nice.
There is more that I probably forgot about in both pro and cons. But I had fun with it. I usually hate games with empty maps and randomly generated enemies thrown in but this time it was fun. Thanks to exploration being interesting and a lot of stuff to see.
Unfortunately (and I do feel like it's unfortunate) there is no point in playing the game ever again once you've completed it. There is no replayability and doing the same stuff again is not the same.
Ending slides Fallout-style were nice though.
I still hate you all <3
you, skyway. You are finally coming out of closet.
for taking a popular buzzword and twisting it into something different and not derp.
