carlcarlson
07-16-2008, 08:33 AM
Did anyone else try this out? The gameplay trailers looked so-so, but it definitely has a Diablo thing going on, and one of the little background vids was REALLY good, so I figured I'd check it out. It was a strange experience. The whole time I was like "well that's wrong" or "hmm, don't like that at all", yet when I finished I immediately knew that I would get this game. Very strange indeed.
The whole demo felt awkward too me. All of the cutscenes were using the in-game engine, and most of it looked like Halo 2 quality graphics. Actually, I got the Halo vibe a number of times throughout the demo. Many of the environments had a Halo feel to them, and the whole "swarm of weaklings backed by one strong guy" definitely felt familiar. The voice acting was so-so and the lip synching was horrible, completely ruining any sort of cinematic feel they were trying to achieve. The dialogue was overly-dramatic, with crap like "what in Odin's name is THAT?!" I thought my character looked pretty dumb, which is too bad because it's hard to play a game when you don't like the character you're controlling. And the idea that these mechanical things are goblins never really sat well with me.
The pacing was really bad as well. You would run forward, get swarmed, kill everything, and then have a cutscene which usually lasted 2-3 minutes, but was sometimes longer. Then you would do the same thing again. The combat was fun at times, but then it also felt like it missed the mark sometimes too. It's a lot of fun to knock an enemy into the air and then juggle them with your guns. But sometimes you'd walk up to a guy, swing your sword, and then have to pause before hitting him again. There wasn't any chain going on. That was only sometimes though, and I don't know why that happened. Also, you can't hit enemies when they're down. And you'll knock enemies down a lot, so this gets annoyning very quickly. Hit an enemy, wait for him to get up, hit him again, wait for him to get up... yeah. And if you happen to die you have to watch cut-scene of a valkyrie coming down to get your body and take you away. This takes about a minute, and will get old REALLY fast.
One surprise I had was that I was backed by a bunch of marine-types. I don't remember ever seeing a squad in any of the footage, so I really wasn't expecting (nor wanting) this. They added annoying chatter ("it's a GOOD day to die!") and occasionally helped you kill something. The AI seemed to be very hit or miss. One time while I was in the middle of a swarm there was a guy blasting me with a rocket launcher from far away. I was taking a lot of damage, and had to fight my way out of the swarm to get to him. Once I got there I discovered one of my guys crouched about ten feet from the enemy, pointing his gun, doing nothing. Thanks buddy.
Another minor annoyance is the fact that you can't jump in some parts. Like I'd go through a battle and have full jumping capabilities, and then be whisked away to some other area and not be able to jump. Then I'd come back, and I could jump again! This just seems really sloppy, like they took away my jump just so they could relax on the level design. Also, I couldn't always jump off of ledges, a la Goldeneye. I'd walk to an edge, jump, and hit an invisible barrier. Then I'd take two steps to the left, try again, and jump successfully. Again, very sloppy.
My major gripe is probably the camera system. I really don't understand how a game designer can spend years developing a game, pouring so much time into it, only to release it with a bad camera. It takes less than a minute in a game to know that the camera is bad, and it can easily ruin the whole experience. This camera won't ruin the game for you, but it definitely doesn't help. Instead of using the right stick to look around (you know, like every other game) these guys decided it would be a good idea to use that stick to swing your sword. Therefore, you have no control over the camera at all except for a "center camera" shoulder button which is jarring at best. So, here I am in these huge cavernous tunnels, surrounded by enemies, and I don't have any control over the camera. Sound fun?
And yet with all of those problems I still want to get this game? I'm confused. Does anyone else have any thoughts on this demo?
The whole demo felt awkward too me. All of the cutscenes were using the in-game engine, and most of it looked like Halo 2 quality graphics. Actually, I got the Halo vibe a number of times throughout the demo. Many of the environments had a Halo feel to them, and the whole "swarm of weaklings backed by one strong guy" definitely felt familiar. The voice acting was so-so and the lip synching was horrible, completely ruining any sort of cinematic feel they were trying to achieve. The dialogue was overly-dramatic, with crap like "what in Odin's name is THAT?!" I thought my character looked pretty dumb, which is too bad because it's hard to play a game when you don't like the character you're controlling. And the idea that these mechanical things are goblins never really sat well with me.
The pacing was really bad as well. You would run forward, get swarmed, kill everything, and then have a cutscene which usually lasted 2-3 minutes, but was sometimes longer. Then you would do the same thing again. The combat was fun at times, but then it also felt like it missed the mark sometimes too. It's a lot of fun to knock an enemy into the air and then juggle them with your guns. But sometimes you'd walk up to a guy, swing your sword, and then have to pause before hitting him again. There wasn't any chain going on. That was only sometimes though, and I don't know why that happened. Also, you can't hit enemies when they're down. And you'll knock enemies down a lot, so this gets annoyning very quickly. Hit an enemy, wait for him to get up, hit him again, wait for him to get up... yeah. And if you happen to die you have to watch cut-scene of a valkyrie coming down to get your body and take you away. This takes about a minute, and will get old REALLY fast.
One surprise I had was that I was backed by a bunch of marine-types. I don't remember ever seeing a squad in any of the footage, so I really wasn't expecting (nor wanting) this. They added annoying chatter ("it's a GOOD day to die!") and occasionally helped you kill something. The AI seemed to be very hit or miss. One time while I was in the middle of a swarm there was a guy blasting me with a rocket launcher from far away. I was taking a lot of damage, and had to fight my way out of the swarm to get to him. Once I got there I discovered one of my guys crouched about ten feet from the enemy, pointing his gun, doing nothing. Thanks buddy.
Another minor annoyance is the fact that you can't jump in some parts. Like I'd go through a battle and have full jumping capabilities, and then be whisked away to some other area and not be able to jump. Then I'd come back, and I could jump again! This just seems really sloppy, like they took away my jump just so they could relax on the level design. Also, I couldn't always jump off of ledges, a la Goldeneye. I'd walk to an edge, jump, and hit an invisible barrier. Then I'd take two steps to the left, try again, and jump successfully. Again, very sloppy.
My major gripe is probably the camera system. I really don't understand how a game designer can spend years developing a game, pouring so much time into it, only to release it with a bad camera. It takes less than a minute in a game to know that the camera is bad, and it can easily ruin the whole experience. This camera won't ruin the game for you, but it definitely doesn't help. Instead of using the right stick to look around (you know, like every other game) these guys decided it would be a good idea to use that stick to swing your sword. Therefore, you have no control over the camera at all except for a "center camera" shoulder button which is jarring at best. So, here I am in these huge cavernous tunnels, surrounded by enemies, and I don't have any control over the camera. Sound fun?
And yet with all of those problems I still want to get this game? I'm confused. Does anyone else have any thoughts on this demo?