MaxPaint
Literate
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2024
- Messages
- 43
This game is very shallow and yet I somehow put 40 hours into it and enjoyed (almost) every moment.
This game is very shallow and yet I somehow put 40 hours into it and enjoyed (almost) every moment.
I still like System Shock 2 and will play it after I finish my original System Shock run.Digital Extremes had been what made the first game what it was but they were not interested in singleplayer games back then, kept milking the Tournament spin-off series instead. So the sequel was bound to be different being made by Legend, but right away it hits you how something went very wrong, the walking speed is that of a snail. But they didn't intentionally fuck it up, there's a lot of callbacks to the first game, the sequence of lights being turned off, monsters from the first game being used for target practice, with a comment by the tutorial guy how they weren't realistic.Unreal 2 could've been so much more...
Legend was truly great back when they were making adventure games and the concept of jumping between worlds in Unreal 2 echoes of Gateway, which is not very well remembered these days but it should be. It's a solid game concept, and it's the reason I returned to it, there is still no definitive version of the space cowboy bounty hunter idea out there. Personally I'd have preferred something like a mix of Hitman and Thief, a mission based game with 90's edge, not corridors but also not open world slop, in this sort of setting. Prey 2 promised to be this but for the console generation of shooters if Human Head hadn't been victims of the Altman milestone rejected scam. The Dark Forces games were some approximation of it, but being tied to the Star Wars setting and license they were limited in what they could do.
It's not a bad direction for Unreal to go in, a next logical step in some regards, after having been wowed with the one planet, now we got several and very varied ones. It's just the execution that falters, and a lot of cut content and a rushed release didn't help what was there. The intermissions on the ship with changing details is pretty cool, and the basic conversation trees between missions is a precursor to something like Mass Effect, giving you a taste of what is a staple in science fiction TV shows, the crew interactions.
GT Interactive had been acquired by Infogrames, and since they owned Legend they got shafted as well, and this really shows in the production. Conceptually it's great, going to a living planet for example to do recon, but when the mission starts you're hit with the undeniable fact that fundamentals like moving around and the act of shooting sucks. And although it's good on paper, the multitude of worlds removes the sense of the great journey you got in the first game, it's more disjointed. It's a shame, at least it gives me something to play while waiting for the next Fortune's Run update to drop, that's the only post-Prey 2 cancellation game trying to make the concept come alive that I'm aware of. Maybe this niche is just cursed.
It's high time it was recognized for what it was, the cyberpunk version of Ultime Underworld, a game with a strong RPG lineage that Ken Levine destroyed with his cinematic Hollywood slop that was SS2. People new to the series just don't conceive of it this way and think it was supposed to be Bioshock in space.I'm also starting a System Shock run.
I like it better than System Shock 2.
This one's a Cyberpunk FPS dungeon crawler.
Me too, but I'm fascinated by prehistory so any game with that setting is gonna provide me with fun, even the bad ones.This game is very shallow and yet I somehow put 40 hours into it and enjoyed (almost) every moment.
There is a certain challenge here in optimizing your settlement but it really isn't very historical. I just jumped from the Neolithic straight into the Bronze Age.This game is very shallow and yet I somehow put 40 hours into it and enjoyed (almost) every moment.
All things considered it could be worse, the audio design is great, and the soundtrack is very good, and since it was made in the 90's it was made by competent people that knew what they were doing and you weren't getting The Message shoved down your throat every five minutes. On its own it's not that bad, yeah, sure, but in the context of being a System Shock sequel it fails entirely, and it wasn't meant to be one in the first place, it's not even in the same genre or ballpark. The step from SS1 to SS2 is more jarring than between SS2 and Bioshock. If you ask me playing them one after another makes you enjoy the second game less since you'll be more aware of what a downgrade it is. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on them after playing them back to back, it might be that the consequences of SS2 retroactively colored my perception of it somewhat.I still like System Shock 2 and will play it after I finish my original System Shock run.
There is a certain challenge here in optimizing your settlement but it really isn't very historical. I just jumped from the Neolithic straight into the Bronze Age.This game is very shallow and yet I somehow put 40 hours into it and enjoyed (almost) every moment.
Doom's genius was that it played extremely smooth and fast even on lower end hardware.Still blows my mind that Doom came out in '93, and everyone is wowed by all of it despite being a fairly simple shooter advancing on the Wolfenstein formula, and then you have SS less than a year later with mini-maps, ability to lean around corners, a tight narrative, cool level design, a wicked villain, and a host of elements way ahead of their time and Looking Glass can barely stay above water cause nobody gave a shit.
Even then 3/4 of the screenplay was UI.but they were anything but smooth especially if you didn't have a beefy PC for the time.
protag said:Damn these alien bastards... how the hell do I get off this ride?!
Do you recommend it? How does it stack up against Duke, Blood, Shadow Warrior?
Big dump of final Powerslave levels.
Was it aliens?
IT WAS
FOOKIN ALIENS
Also clunky first-person 2D platforming, always in vogue
I like how this game decides to reward you with scantily clad dancing babes in secret areas. Games used to be much better back in the day. True heterosexual warfare.
Unreal vibes
Last two levels look... alien
surely pressing this button is not going to do anything bad
AAAAAAAAAAA
(the flamer actually can't even harm the fucking spiders i used it here only for the flamesaw gif)
I'M COMING FOR YOU ASSHOLE
one big mutha
massed rocket spam takes care of him just as well tho
unfortunately i shot one rocket too many and since they are homing, if they don't find a target they start chasing you
Much better
O FUK HE'S GOT A BOMBERMAN-STYLE PHASE 2
which can't possibly harm me when my weapon buff is still active
turbo-m60 goes brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
this is it, men
the moment of glory
fagets trying to blow up Erf!
got our eyes on the prize
FEAR ME
alien bug men are putting up fierce resistance
only the control centre left to wreck, x-com style
ROOM SERVICE HAS ARRIVED
FIERCE RESISTANCE!
DIE UGLY ALIEN SONS OF BITCHES!
THE MONOLITH! WE DESTROY THAT AND THIS IS OVER!
CHARGE!!!
protag said:Damn these alien bastards... how the hell do I get off this ride?!