Finished it in one sitting! On Hard, the original game is woven into my DNA, although I confess I missed quite a few Muds this time round. Numbered thoughts:
1. Loved it overall, a really worthy remake. Visuals are so good they bring a tear to the eye of this old OW fan.
2. The new voice samples and random asides from both slaves and enemies were fantastic. "#If...I only had a bomb!" from the sligs has me in stitches, every time.
3. Even as a vet, found myself fighting the controls for much of the game. New jump mechanics fail me on an almost constant basis, and Gamespeak shouldn't have replaced directional movement entirely. 2D games should never have forced analogue control. L2 button is just sitting there unused, as is Triangle if you're on Hard. Its inexplicable why a classic control setup isn't there from the off.
4. A lot of the little nips and tucks to the gameplay were great. The bottlecaps, the chant suppressors and how they can be avoided, small changes to Elum and Mud behaviour etc.
5. I know it's been explained, but I still don't completely understand why shadows had to be replaced with steam. Weird addition. Feels like if a PS1 game from 1997 can do it, then a modern game should be able to. Steam makes way less sense to me, especially in Stockyards.
6. The story scenes have lost a little of the magic, although it's certainly close. I'm having a hard time favouring them over the PS1 originals, which is more a testament to the perfect direction of the old ones, more than anything.
7. Only had one crash, and no huge glitches. I did accidentally stop the ending sequence from occurring by Shrykulling the two sligs that appear to club Abe in the final boardroom scene. I just stood around on the platform for a while before reloading my last QS. I like to think of this as a super-skilled method and not a fuck-up.
8. For some reason, the scrolling levels make the entire game feel much shorter, which in turn makes me feel it could've been padded out a lot more with new areas to compliment the scrolling, but then it wouldn't have been as faithful. Less a gripe, more an observation.
9. References to other games; A Splinterz sign from Munch, Soulstorm Brew bottles from Exoddus, a few Bolamites from Stranger.
10. Feels amazing to be in this world again. Did I mention the graphics are stunning?
Overall an awesome job from JAW, and their finest game to date. Sorry to whine about little things, but I gripe because I <3
Can't wait for Exoddus as it's one of my favourite games of all time. A bigger, better sequel in every single way.
