The Big FPS Playthrough MISSION COMPLETE

[Ben X]

Okay, with a lot of jiggerpokery, i got it working. I've just played the first level. So far, it's very Duke Nukem 3D in tone, with a quippy meat-head lead in a modern city setting, with lots of stuff to play about with and loads of pictures of topless women around (in a bank!). It's the Quake 2 engine, I think, so the enemies do lots of fun theatrical stuff, but the weapons feel a little more immediate although the enemies take a lot of hits. It's pretty damn hard already, I'm tempted to start again and knock it down to easy.

 

The developers obviously have cinematic aspirations and you can tell it's 1998 because the main tonal influences so far are Se7en and Heat. There's a nice intro where the camera follows a couple of pigeons following Blade's chopper all the way from the army base to the bank, only to get fragged by one of the robbers. Then it gives you a very short on rails bit as the first thing you do, before dropping you into FPS mode. So it has a cool, fast-paced feel already.

 

Another cool thing is that after SHOGO this is the second game in a row to have a non-Caucasian lead.

 

EDIT: Loading times are fine, only a second or two. Also, I'm trying to remember if this is the first FPS so far to have an assistant giving you audio updates and commentary. SHOGO has people talking to you but this feels more like the start of a trope (I'm especially thinking of Far Cry 1).

[eot]

Glad you gave the game a shot

SiN is also a cool game. It feels quite ambitious for a 1998 FPS, with side objectives, destructible props, interactive computer terminals, location based damage etc. They tried to do a lot, but the execution fell a little short. It also had massive technical problems at launch (still does, I can't get it to run anymore). Personally I think the expansion, Wages of Sin, a bit better. It's shorter and more focused.

It also has an awesome crate joke

[Ben X]

Uh oh, I'm doing that thing where as I get further and further it becomes more of a chore to start again and replay on easy but the game keeps getting tougher!

 

It's still fun and there's loads of cool set-pieces, secrets and alternative routes to take, but it does feel a little fiddly at times - stealth and platform bits add variety but are pretty clunky and frustrating.

[thepaulhoey]

I played the Bank level in Sin and really didn't enjoy it much at all. The guns feel weak, even on easy the enemies take a pile of shots to go down. They have more oomphf to them than Quake 2 but that's not saying much. The level design was confusing as well I thought, mixed in with enemy respawns and it just got kinda annoying after a while. I got to some tunnel under the Bank then I got blown up as I was trying yo awkwardly platform my way out. I might give it another go and see if it improves.

 

As far as feeling fiddly, even walking around the level as normal I noticed the physics being completely bizarre with my character getting knocked about a bit when I was standing in a spot the game didn't like.

[eot]

Nah you're right, it is clunky and it's up to each person how much they can look past that stuff. I think it's worth playing a bit of just to get a better sense of the context in which Half-Life was released (a month or two after SiN). It gives you a stronger appreciation for how good that game was for its time.

[Ben X]

Oh god, Duke Nukem Forever was on sale for £2 and I bought it out of morbid curiosity. What have I done?!

[Ben X]

I've given up on SiN. It just wasn't very much fun - endless bullet-sponges/wimpy weapons, fiddly level layouts and objectives, and not particularly interesting presentation/story. I might have pushed on a bit further but I got to a boss encounter which is just impossible - locked in a tiny room with two over-powered soldiers and no pick-ups. I checked a play-through to see if I was missing something and the guy took like an hour quick-loading over and over until he finally fluked his way through.

 

I've played Half Life many times and relatively recently, so I won't replay that (this is a backlog buster first and foremost) but it is excellent. Satisfying gunplay, lots of variety, great storytelling.

 

So, onto Thief. I'm not sure I'll like it as I've never really played stealth games. Now to work out in what form I actually own this..! (EDIT: Ah ha! It's a Steam key from Amazon! I may have it on disc as well, but I'll try this version first.)

[TychoCelchuuu]

Make sure you go with TFix. My suggestion with Thief is also not to use quickload unless you die - it's a lot more exciting that way.

[Ben X]

TFix looks like it updates textures and stuff, I don't really want to be doing that...

 

I've played a tiny bit of the first level. The controls feel a little fiddly, but I might just need to re-bind until I'm comfortable. And the map only highlighting which section I'm in doesn't bode well for someone who gets lost as often as I do.  We'll see how I do with my first heist...

[thepaulhoey]

I remember when I played Thief the controls were really awkward compared to other FPSes. Lots of buttons and strange mappings, I had to make lots of changes. It's a fun game, but I think Thief 2 is far better because it removes a lot of the fantasy stuff which I never enjoyed.

[Ben X]

Yeah, I think I'm happy with my bindings now. I'm quite enjoying putting out torches and blackjacking guards so far, even though I feel a bit like I'm kind of fluking my way through and missing lots of stuff. I like the steampunky vibe - medieval setting with lots of dials and lifts and stuff. I just got to a mines level with giant spiders and zombies, though: a combination of three of the most annoying things in FPSes!

[Salacious Snake]

I hope you can handle spooky stuff. Thief is spook central.

Ooh, Down in the Bonehoard? That's a good level. It's a good thing you've been preparing yourself by playing all these old shooters, it'll make it easier to handle the more sprawling maze-like levels.

[Ben X]

It's a good thing you've been preparing yourself by playing all these old shooters, it'll make it easier to handle the more sprawling maze-like levels.

 

Grooooan...

[Architecture]

Yeah, I think I'm happy with my bindings now. I'm quite enjoying putting out torches and blackjacking guards so far, even though I feel a bit like I'm kind of fluking my way through and missing lots of stuff. I like the steampunky vibe - medieval setting with lots of dials and lifts and stuff. I just got to a mines level with giant spiders and zombies, though: a combination of three of the most annoying things in FPSes!

That level was enough to make me uninstall the game

[thepaulhoey]

I always forget how quickly all that stuff comes into Thief, for me it just doesn't gel well when there's so much of it. Thief 2 had a far better balance of it to the point it was something I could accept.

 

Are you playing Thief or Thief Gold?

[Ben X]

Thief Gold, as that's the copy I got for free somehow about a couple of years ago! I haven't looked into the differences.

 

The zombies and spiders suddenly show up unannounced in the second level. Thief 2 is more steampunk robots, right?

 

EDIT: okay, I looked up the differences and it seems there are a few extra levels plus some other tweaks. I also noticed that I've managed to skip the Escape From Clasomething Prison level somehow, even though the game was leading me up to it. Seems I went straight to the Bonehoard level. Not sure if I clicked the wrong button or it's a branching structure or a bug...

[thepaulhoey]

Yeah it's more that kind of stuff which works better. I think it has some zombie-type stuff going on but it's way way less. As far as I remember Thief Gold was polish to existing levels and a few new ones too.

[Ben X]

You posted as I edited! Hmm, I'm going to double-check whether I have Thief 2 on disc. If I do, I might be more free with the uninstall on this one...

[TychoCelchuuu]

FWIW I think opinions are split more or less evenly over whether Thief or Thief 2 is the better game. If anything I think the numbers lean slightly in the direction of liking Thief more. I'm certainly in that camp - Thief 2 has a lot of impressive stuff but overall I'm a Thief man, for various reasons.

[Salacious Snake]

Me too, although I think T2 may be a good starting point. If you play 2 and learn to love it, you can go back to Gold and really appreciate the shit out of it.

[Ben X]

Turns out I don't have  Metal Age after all. And I was confused, I was on the prison breakout level. I'm now on bonehoard and am on the verge of uninstalling. Zombies, death-traps and poison-cloud enemies - my shitty FPS tropes bingo-card is nearly full.

[Ben X]

Ech, now it's turned into a shitty maze with shitty platforming full of shitty zombies. Fuck this.

 

(edit: I guess I should say a little more. I liked the medieval setting, although after the first level it was a bit dreary - mines and prisons, ugh. I also quite enjoyed stealthing around, though I felt it was pretty unforgiving - lots of guards surrounded by light and noisy floors. Having said that, I checked the manual and was doing a couple of things wrong, so if this particular level hadn't pushed me to uninstall I might have gotten a bit more adept. A minor thing to mention - this is another game with opening titles inspired by those of Se7en, despite the setting!)

 

Aliens Vs Predator!

 

EDIT: damn, can't get AvP to work without graphical issues. If I had the Gold edition, there's a fan patch that would have sorted it. Annoyingly, I could have got this for free when GOG launched their Galaxy thing but I didn't because I felt guilty that I wouldn't be using it to test Galaxy. How stupid!

[eot]

AVP is a weird game. Your run speed as the marine is on the level of Doom and it has some terrible brief FMV. I think it's still the best Aliens game though, because the insane pace of it and the lethality of the aliens captures the feel of that movie quite well.

Also, I think you should've played Half-Life now that you're immersed in the context of the era. I think doing that gives one a better appreciation for how much it moved the genre forward, but that's just my opinion of course

[Ben X]

EDIT: damn, can't get AvP to work without graphical issues. If I had the Gold edition, there's a fan patch that would have sorted it. Annoyingly, I could have got this for free when GOG launched their Galaxy thing but I didn't because I felt guilty that I wouldn't be using it to test Galaxy. How stupid!

 

Onto System Shock 2 now, I'm afraid. Damn shame, I was looking forward to AvP.

 

I mentioned the reasons why I skipped HL, and they trump any extra contextual experience, I'm afraid! I played it in my imagination for a bit and it was indeed a big step forward compared to the other stuff I've been playing. Like a culmination of all the stuff the other games had been doing but just better on every level.

 

Now, as for SS2, I recall from the SS3 thread that there's a recommended player type - soldier perhaps. Once I've definitely got the game working, I'll check that thread for tips on the best way to enjoy SS2.

 

EDIT: yeah, apparently soldier without relying on psi powers is the way to go. I have this on Steam so hopefully will work!

[eot]

You might want to look into a mod for the weapon degradation, depending on how much it bothers you. Weapons are quite.. brittle in that SS2.