atomico said:
I read the PS3 port kinda sucks, but the game itself is pretty solid...
It does have technical issues, the framerate isn't solid (fluctuates between 30fps and 20fps quite wildly with occasional dips even below that), and it looks kind of blurry, might be upscaled from a sub-HD res. If the game were any good, the tech issues couldn't hurt it significantly, but it just isn't. The mandatory auto-aim is shit. The encounters are shit. The puzzles are shit (unless you think pressing the switch to rotate the rotatable bridge in such a way as to allow passage across a grain silo is an adequate puzzle to put into an fps). The weapons are shit. The entire interface to the game is shit. Let me elaborate.
So if I want to climb up a ladder, I have to actually catch
a piece of its railing exactly in my crosshairs and press a "use" key. Oh really? And speaking of the use key, why the fuck does the game even
display "Press square to pick up fps standard issue submachine gun" when I'm standing near? I have that weapon. If I'm close enough for you fuckers to display that prompt, you might have already automatically added it to my stock of ammunition.
Ditto for med-kits, armor and grenades. What purpose lies behind this "mechanic"? I'd say none.
The problem is that the game lacks any redeeming qualities. The environments are all the same harbor storage/office compound buildings, with precisely rectangular architectures made out of the fucking same white walls. Every three minutes you come across the exact same small office where a light combat vest and two (TWO) grenades lie on the exact same desk, and a med-kit is on the exact same shelf on the exact same back wall. The "scares" are completely dysfunctional because you know that you are 100% invincible to them. "Oh, there's Alma again" you say, and move on. "Oh, there's that guy turning into ash flakes again" you say, and gladly save your ammo.
The audio is a complete fuckup as well. The enemy radio chatter is the most ridiculous, embarassing shit to ever appear in an fps. But besides that, the real calamity is that every sound clip in the game is normalized to the same volume. I.e. no matter how you setup your mixer, which is recommended anyway with those super-messed up defaults, your footsteps, your constant companion on your travels through rectangular-white-wall-storage-land, are the same volume as your assault rifle. Makes sense? Didn't think so either.
So I've played four or five hours of the game, put it on hard too, because I know challenge is very important to having fun. All I'm seeing is repetition, repetition, repetition, of every aspect of the game, enviroments, scares, encounters, and everything that's there is C-rate junk.
What this game should have been, or rather its first two or three levels, is a tech demo to ensure funding for a fully developed, polished game. Because this shit just never got done.
