The Big FPS Playthrough MISSION COMPLETE

[Ben X]

I've finally got a few more hours in on this - I'm now on the mole-people level.

 

I'm kind of enjoying it, but it feels a bit clunky. I guess I feel like there's lots of cool stuff I'm supposed to be understanding or achieving but I'm missing lots of it. I managed to kill a load of hostages and then skip the canister mission simply because I didn't realise what I was doing, then I just kind of muscled my way through to the generator. I always feel like I'm getting half a clue, and I'm not sure if it'll actually help me or not. I feel like a map would really help out, so when someone tells me that to get to place A I need to go through place B, I can actually act on that rather than just bouncing around the level until I find a promising route. It pisses me off when tech nerd keeps talking about his blueprints and shit - how about you upload those into my cyber-brain so I know where everything is, genius?

[Salacious Snake]

Clunky is a good word for it. It all feels like they just barely managed to kludge it together. That early Unreal engine ain't made for that.

[Beasteh]

There are crude maps of many locations (and satellite photos) but the game generally likes to keep you exploring on your own. It's a game that does reward you for doing it. DXHR went too far the other way - it was often easy to avoid the most obvious (dangerous) route 'cause the map gave you too many hints.

 

I'm a fan of the folding baton, with the right augs you can KO guards by walking up behind them and bopping them on the head. Although the NPCs berate you at the start for taking a "shoot first, ask questions later" approach, going lethal was left to personal preference later on which made sense based on the narrative. Perhaps take Dewar's advice and go in shooting? There are plenty of tasty weapons, it'd be a shame to not use them!

[Ben X]

Oh, I've been shooting my way through, don't worry..!

 

In fact, I've been thinking more about it and I think that if the stealth was a little more transparent/forgiving, I might partake in that style of play more and that might in turn encourage me to sneak and investigate more in general.

[Ben X]

Now I've finally got my monitor situation sorted, I got back into Deus Ex. That is, I started playing it again for a very short while until I got to another bit (the heli-pad) where no matter how careful and patient I tried to be, the clunky stealth/combat combined with a nerfed player-character led me to brute-force my way through, which isn't entertaining. Then it started crashing, so I'm giving up on this. I just don't think I get on well with the Ion Storm ethos!

 

So, it's onto No One Lives Forever, if I can get it to work...

 

EDIT: Using this site's 64-bit installer fix, first of all: http://www.play-old-pc-games.com/2012/05/23/no-one-lives-forever/ 

 

EDIT2: bah, that got it to install, but it won't launch. The multiplayer will launch but not singleplayer! I'm going to try reinstalling but not bothering with the patches, if no luck there then I'll post a comment on that site and move onto the next game in the meantime.

 

EDIT3: a closer look at the comments reveals that it's likely due to fucking copy protection bullshit and a no-cd patch will help. Unfortunately, the site seems rather vague about where to get one/how to use it. I assume it's technically naughty.

 

EDIT4: ha, found one at dk.toastednet.org, copied it over the usual exe file and it works!

[Ben X]

The colours! The bright bright colours!

[TychoCelchuuu]

And whatabout that music, too, huh?

[Erkki]

Man, I would like to play NOLF again... I wonder if it works properly with a 16:9 resolution? And how did Deus Ex handle that?

 

PS. Might be hard coming to this after Deus Ex, where you can basically retreat to some dark corner and wait and think of a plan. As much as I remember from NOLF, I think it had a somewhat annoying respawn rate so you could never create a really safe spot and always had to keep moving.

[Ben X]

There is a widescreen patch for NOLF but a) it borks the weapon images, and sunglasses) I'm generally playing in original aspect. I think Deus Ex was 4:3 but I can't remember...

I know NOLF has the occasional annoying stealth section (or is that just the sequel) but it's generally pretty standard FPS mechanics, isn't it? Shouldn't throw me too much.

[Kolzig]

I actually rebought NOLF and NOLF2 recently. Through gog.com's wishlist I found some guy talking about a Hungarian games magazine that had both games on a disc. The magazines were possible to be bought still today in digital format and came with the discs in .iso format.

What's cool is that the game exes were modified future proof way to work with modern OS like a normal gog release would.

Both were around 5€ per magazine/game and I tested both to work in early September. So awesome games. Many cool moments for me especially with the first game as the second I actually never had.

[Ben X]

The GOTY edition apparently runs fine with 64bit OSes anyway, so it may just be that on the iso, dunno. Unfortunately, I never seem to have the correct Gold/GOTY/etc edition..!

[Salacious Snake]

Oh God I love NOLF. 2's cool too.

[thepaulhoey]

I've never actually played NOLF but I adore NOLF 2, replayed it a few years ago and thought it held up very well.

[Roderick]

Yeah, same here. I loved the hell out of NOLF2, being especially impressed with the storytelling levels (the creepy abandoned house, the way the ice station was set up). I wonder if NOLF The Original is quite as good.

 

Oh and yes, the second game also had a few moments with mad respawnage (the Russian infiltration level was especially heinous), but nothing that really detracted from the experience.

[Nappi]

I loved both games. They felt so fresh at the time.

 

I might not have time to replay them, but I'm really interested to hear how they feel now.

[Ben X]

I'm enjoying NOLF. The missions have a fair amount of variety and really make you feel like you're in a 60s spy movie, and there are some great gags - the obnoxious yet deaf-blind US ambassador you have to protect from assassins, who is continually dodging bullets by dropping quarters then bending over to pick them up, and the ongoing 'cheesy pick-up line as pass-phrase' bit. Downside is that the briefing/training sections are pretty tedious - they really could be trimmed by 70% in most instances.

 

I've just got to a stealth bit, unfortunately, and I can't figure out what I'm supposed to do. Seems I need to set off the alarm to get to a certain section, but that alerts all the guards and makes death inevitable. Annoying. I'm going to check a walkthrough.

[Ben X]

I'm not enjoying NOLF. This game is actually pretty awful outside of the presentation. It turns out every level is a stealth section, and what's more, it's impossible not to set off the alarms. Mixed with the "no health regen per set of levels" rule, it makes the whole thing too difficult/boring. I've never had to check walkthroughs so much for any FPS, thanks to badly signposted/overly-guarded objectives, and I'm skipping every cutscene. And every cool idea is clumsily executed to the point of frustration.

 

I've been micro-saving through levels for a while now and I've finally saved myself into a corner, so I'm going to give up. It's a shame because I really wanted to enjoy this game (and I put a fair bit of effort into getting it running!) but it's just not fun. I'm not only bored, I'm rather irritated by it. Hopefully NOLF 2 will prove more polished.

 

EDIT: this bears similarities to my experience with Monolith's previous game, Shogo: great setting, fun cheesy presentation, unpolished gameplay. I don't have FEAR or AvP2, but I do have NOLF2, Tron 2.0 and Condemned. Hopefully the three remaining games from this dev on my list prove a little more satisfying. Here's a retrospective by John Walker that catches a few other positive things about the game that I forgot to mention because I was so BLOODY ANGRY.

[Ben X]

I gave Project IGI a few minutes, but it seems to be a cheapo Tom Clancy thing and I don't really have any interest in it, especially with no autosave function. NEEEXT!

 

(A more apologetic retrospective for that game, by Will Porter)

[Ben X]

Had to re-enable Securom (ugh) to get Clive Barker's Undying started, using this gog forum thread: https://www.gog.com/forum/clive_barkers_undying/undying_wont_launch_at_all_after_windows_update. Remind me to turn it back off when I'm done.

 

So far: amazingly scary config menus! Your cursor sets the options on fire! With ominous chanting in the background! Setting screen resolutions has never been so unnerving!

[Salacious Snake]

Speaking of which, I notice a lack of the Clance on your list. The earlier bunch of games (Rainbow Six, Rogue Spear and Ghost Recon) are great, tense games.

Also, SWAT 3 and SWAT 4 are cool if you dig that kind of tactical junk.

edit: you infiltrated another post in there!

[Ben X]

Heh heh, sorry. 

 

As stated previously, this is purely a backlog clearance, I won't be buying any further games to add to the list (with the exception of Duke Nukem Forever, God help me). If anyone wants to read about me getting bored and frustrated with any FPSes not on my list, they can certainly buy them for me and I will try them out! But yeah, that Clance stuff doesn't really excite me. I've got Splinter Cell on disc and I'd quite like to try that out at some point, but that's probably because it seems to lean more towards sci-fi/Jack Bauer territory than the usual Clance stuff.

 

Clive Barker's Undying so far: manages some cheap scares, but they're undone by shoving well-lit low-poly models in the player's face. There's also loads of leaden exposition, which feels very un-Barker. From my limited exposure to him, he tends to throw you into a freaky world with little to no explanation or backlore. This is full of monologues and then diary entries transcribing the monologues. Still, the mechanics of strafing round an old mansion shooting at helldogs with a rusty old revolver are pretty tense.

[Gormongous]

I'm not enjoying NOLF. This game is actually pretty awful outside of the presentation. It turns out every level is a stealth section, and what's more, it's impossible not to set off the alarms. Mixed with the "no health regen per set of levels" rule, it makes the whole thing too difficult/boring. I've never had to check walkthroughs so much for any FPS, thanks to badly signposted/overly-guarded objectives, and I'm skipping every cutscene. And every cool idea is clumsily executed to the point of frustration.

 

I've been micro-saving through levels for a while now and I've finally saved myself into a corner, so I'm going to give up. It's a shame because I really wanted to enjoy this game (and I put a fair bit of effort into getting it running!) but it's just not fun. I'm not only bored, I'm rather irritated by it. Hopefully NOLF 2 will prove more polished.

 

EDIT: this bears similarities to my experience with Monolith's previous game, Shogo: great setting, fun cheesy presentation, unpolished gameplay. I don't have FEAR or AvP2, but I do have NOLF2, Tron 2.0 and Condemned. Hopefully the three remaining games from this dev on my list prove a little more satisfying. Here's a retrospective by John Walker that catches a few other positive things about the game that I forgot to mention because I was so BLOODY ANGRY.

 

It makes me sad that NOLF didn't work out for you. I have fond memories of being fifteen and this game destroying my world. I played the sniping level with the half-deaf diplomat over and over, because that rifle had the best feel of any FPS gun until Far Cry 2's bolt-action. I do remember feeling like the game was drifting by the space station level, and I skipped a couple of the late-game cutscenes out of disinterest for the twists and turns, so I guess I had the same problems with a game, I was just fifteen and put up with them. NOLF2 was generally a better game, even I recognized, although I didn't like the pruning of loadout options and the less-connected nature of the missions.

 

Another comment: Do you plan to play either of the Star Trek: Elite Force games when you get to their time period? I have unreasonably fond memories of the first.

 

 

EDIT: Oops, second question answered!

[TychoCelchuuu]

Why were you skipping the cutscenes in NOLF? I guess that question goes for both of you. I think I recall the cutscenes being some of my favorite parts of the game.

[Ben X]

They were so slow and boring. Pointless, flat exposition over long static shots of barely-animated character models.

[Gormongous]

Why were you skipping the cutscenes in NOLF? I guess that question goes for both of you. I think I recall the cutscenes being some of my favorite parts of the game.

The later ones, especially with that Scottish dude, drag badly. After one or two of the "big" twists, I'd realized that I only really cared about Kate Archer and H.A.R.M. insofar as what the next level was.