AAAARRRGGHHH!!!! THIS GAME IS FUCKING FRUSTRATING!
Not because it's hard or difficult or you don't know what to do but because the controls are so sluggish and the whole thing is wired so you have no breathing space. That'd be fine, if I didn't keep getting stuck in doors or opening a door instead of sliding across the bolt like was my intention...
Here's my problem. I'm up to the "Villagers attack you" bit. It's okay, I've been expecting it for the most of the game now (I'm only 20% in). Thing is, you have no weapon. Not even fists and you're getting gangbanged by a bunch of guys that pop-up right in your face with shotguns.
The whole scene starts off with me in bed. Thanks to my psychic powers, I know the townsfolk are coming for me. So I wake-up with them blasting at my door with their shotguns. I run through from my hotel room into the one next door. Now I have to close the adjoining door and bolt it. Problem is, the minute you run through the ajoining door, the villagers break down your door (no matter how fast you do it). So you have 0.013 seconds to close the door in their face and then slip the bolt across the top which holds them off for at least another 0.028 seconds.
Thing is, one of two things happen. I either close the door too quickly when I'm inadvertently still in the doorway or I open the door when I'm atually trying to slide the bolt across to lock it. Thing is when you get stuck in the doorway, the door, as a moving object, just pushes me along. Right back into the room I'm supposed to have escaped from. Great.
Now I can't reload my previous save game because the last chance you get to save is a whole bit before this. So rather than do a whole bunch of crap again, I have to wait until the townsfolk kill me so that I get the chance to "continue". That lets me begin at just that section from the moment I wake up with them at the door. Yay.
I try again. This time I manage to get through and out of the doors way and close the door. Now I have to bolt it in 0.005 seconds before the townsfolk (who have just miraculously mamnaged to break down my rooms door the minute I slipped into the adjoining room) come at me. Problem is, there's no way to know if you're looking at the bolt on the door or at the door. So guess what happens? You press the action key while looking at the bolt only to have the door... OPEN! Wait to die. Continue.
I get through the door. YES! I get the bolt in. Now I have to push a bookcase out of the way to get into the next adjoining room (Great hotel huh, every room is adjoining). Of course, pushing the bookcase along is a painfully long experience but that's okay, it adds to the drama. Only the minute I open this door, I not only have to go through, close it and bolt it like the other door but I also then have to VERY QUCKLY run to the door that leads onto the passageway and bolt that too.
So far I have:
- Gotten through the door only to close it with me in the way. Again. I get pushed back into the room I was meant to be escaping and, like before, the minute that door is opened, the townsfolk miraculously break down the other doors they're hammering at. Die. Continue.
- Get stuck in the door in some kind of clipping / graphical error. Die. Continue.
- Get through and close the door only to open it again when I try to slide the bolt across. Die. Continue.
- Get through that door and bolt it, only to be 0.001 seconds too slow bolting the other door in the room. Die. Continue.
... but, I got through that stage with a bit of luck and ran through yet another adjoining door into a third room across. This door too has to be closed and bolted and this door too, is just as much a problem to do so as with the previous 3 doors. Opening it instead of bolting it seems to be a favourite, followed closely by getting in the doors way and being pushed into my attackers.
However, in this third room are two bookcases. One has to be pushed in front of the passageway door, as the bolt on that door is broken. The other reveals a window which you can open where upon you jump onto the roof and into the other side of the building.
From there, you're now running blind around a building (as you have no idea which way you should head) only to encounter townsfolk with shotguns RIGHT IN YOUR FACE. I thought they were back trying to get into my hotel room? Anyway, you have to run passed them AS THEY SHOOT YOU, WITH THEIR SHOTGUNS. Only to turn a corner and find MORE OF THEM.
Thankfully your character seems to be capabale of surviving at least a few dozen blasts so running past them and even back past them, as you realise you went too far, is some-what possible. After that, you get our onto the roof where again, you encounter a villager who just happened to ever so quickly get IN YOUR FACE again. Go the wrong way. Die. Continue.
The problem is not that this isn't fun. The whole concept of the chase is great. However, it's piss-poor game design on several levels:
- Firstly, there's no option to save before the entire sequence starts. Even now, I'm sick of doing it 37 times (no really, I've counted) and I want to quit. But I can't. Because if I do, I have to reload from my last save and do a whole previous section again. Not fun.
- Secondly, there's no breathing time. Even if I run like the wind and deftly bolt the doors, the villagers always break through the minute you get into the next room. There's no reward for being quick and it's unfair, as it means I have to be a 12 year old KEYBOARD NINJA just to get through.
- Thirdly, the fact that you do it so many times menas you're just begging for a weapon. ANY WEAPON. Just the chance of knocking a guy over and buying some time so you can bolt a door or fend him off as he stands in your face with his shotgun. Hell, using my fists would be fine.
- Fourthly, I'm losing not because I don't know what to do or that I'm incapable of doing it. The problem lies within the game's controls and the precision with which you have to do it. Getting stuck in doors because of a glich is not fun. Having a door open on you when CLEARLY, you were going after the bolt is just damned annoying.
I've gotten to the point now where I'm wondering if I even want to continue. The story is quite compelling but if this is the kind of shitty gameplay I'm up against for the rest of the game, forget it.
