MetalCraze said:
back to sportforredneck said:
I think the game concept is interesting
The game concept that is in every single other console shooter is so interesting
Most console shooters don't have open maps, economic layer, goals different than "kill everything", choosing missions, followers who die instead of losing conciousness, researching on enemies' weak points and their technology. What they do have instead are artificial cover system, health regeneration and maps in a form of one long corridor. Alien forms are promised to be really diverse, with various abilities, special powers and weakness.
I believe this is enough to say that the concept is indeed interesting. But so was the concept of Bioshock and it doesn't really mattered because the execution sucked.
Some of the ideas that look good on paper were already in Bioshock and if they weren't implemented properly then, there's no reason to believe it will be better with XCOM. Especially when it comes to features that had already been done in more interesting way in SS2 - the "we were experimenting with something new and now we will improve" excuse can't be used in that case.
Research was horrible in BS. The idea of running around with a camera and making close up photos of enemies was quite stupid on its own but it wasn't the reason the mechanic was uninspired nor will it be handled similarly in XCOM. It will work more like in the X-COMs: you gather bodies and artefacts and you can choose what areas do you want to work on in the base. The two issues were:
- the game was easy enough without bonuses - can't see any reason why would they decide to make XCOM harder - some people might have found the game too easy but I don't think there was much complains from media and players,
- bonuses for gathering information were uninspired - there were some more interesting but 3 out of 5 levels were "damage+", "damage++" and "damage+++". Oh, joy.
The reason for the latter was mostly the fact that enemies weren't diverse at all and the only a bit more interesting ones were these with the ability to teleport. Even the hyped big daddy was just a boring semi-boss with loads hit points and decent damage*. At the beginning I said it is promised it will be different with the new 2k Boston game. But why should anyone believe this? Weren't the mutations caused by plasmids a concept not less interesting than aliens being? Potential should be similar, so I expect the execution to be similar too. The aliens shown in video look interesting but according to preview it looks like the consequence will be only using one gun to kill creature A and other for creatures B. Meh.
What's next? Open levels. The problem with this is that I believe designing a good exterior map for a shooter is much more difficult than doing the same with interiors. You fuck up and the player spends more time running around looking for enemies than interacting with environment (i.e. mostly blowing shit
). Bioshock already had this problem while being interior-based and it should be even more difficult to avoid it now. This can actually be a good thing if shooting mechanic is fairly realistic and opponent spotting you first mean you're dead r almost dead - exploring the level becomes extremely tense experience. Unfortunately, it would be surprising if after choosing cartoonish, unrealistic style the devs would decide a realistic system with fragile character.
The economic part of the game and losing followers will only matter if there are really harsh penalties for mismanaging. And by harsh I mean "you wasn't doing well? You have no money, no agents, it's the end, start from the beginning". Not going to happen in a game that has to sold millions copies to turn profit. Remember that stereotypical modern gamer don't want to be penalised, he wants rewards on every step.
Lastly, the lack of artificial cover system and health regeneration. Well, not implementing retarded features shouldn't be enough to feel hyped and there surely will be a way to counterbalance that with another stupid decisions. Like resurrection, giving the player way too big pool of ammo, healing kits and an opportunity to buy even more of them around every corner.
Metalcraze said:
So fighting an alien that is goo instead of aliens that are midgets, animals with 4 legs, etc makes the idea of marines vs. aliens original and interesting?
Sure. If it's a goo creature then it shouldn't be hurt with conventional attacks but only with fire and explosions. Make the environment destructible so using fire indoors is huge risk because you can trap yourself in burning house. Make it also risky because you can hurt civilians. You have a winner. Of course, instead of this one of the best weapons to kill this kind of alien is a shotgun...
*nothing particularly wrong with that, shambler is essentially the same and still manages to be the most awesome enemy in FPSes. But you would deal with him differently depending on what weapons do you have, Quake had much better level design so sometimes you had an occasion to hide behind covers, sometimes you had to run away and shoot grenades what was difficult because of weak damage explosives do to shambler and you had to memorise the map so you know where to go even though you are not looking where you are running. Sometimes it was also possible to use some power up to make fight easier. In Bioshock you almost always have enough place to run around daddy and shoot everything you have while avoiding attacks is rather easy.
