NOLF2 could've been great also

[Jayel]

original NOLF is probably my favourite FPS of all time.

NOLF2 was much a disappointment. It's better than the original in almost every aspect, except that it has enemy respawning!!!!

The idea is to prevent players from killing off all enemies in the level and left wandering around in a large, empty, boring level until they find their objective.

So instead of searching for the mission objective in an emtpy level, you get to search for the mission objective all the while you kill off (or sneak around) infinite supply of enemy soldiers. And supposdly that makes the game more exciting.

WTF

I hate respawning enemies. I find them immensely insulting.

[toblix]

Funny, I was talking to someone about the exact same thing just the other day. NOLF 2 has it all, great graphics, great music, extremely great art design or direction or what it's called, style, flair and enemy respawning. That one feature ruined the entire game for me.

But...

Wasn't there a patch or something that removed that?

[Intrepid Homoludens]

I didn't mind the respawning so much, but that the game relied waaaay too much on it like a nympho slut living a wet dream out loud is unforgivable and deserves at least one entire point taken off. The Siberia levels would have been one of the best series of levels ever it it weren't for that.

Otherwise, I enjoyed the game immensely, though not as much as the first NOLF. NOLF2's cutscenes were very impressive and the entire thing was of the best quality (as always from Monolith ), but I missed the dingbat wackiness of the first NOLF, the world was more populated and felt more alive. NOLF2's slight move away from irreverence leaves its world a bit barren. At times I felt I was playing a straightforward ego shooter. In the end, I had a spankingly drunken great time with the first NOLF, but NOLF2 felt too much like a.......computer action game. You understand, don't you?

[RLacey]

Wasn't there a patch or something that removed that?

I don't think so. Are you, by any chance, thinking of System Shock 2?

[toblix]

No. There was a patch that removed enemy spawning in System Shock 2?

I seem to remember that there was a lot of discussion about the enemy respawning in NOLF2 and that some patch released weeks after I'd finished it removed that really annoying feature.

[Salka]

...like a nympho slut living a wet dream out loud...

Man, that was just beautiful.

I can't remember any particular game offhand, because I try to block them from my head... but there were a few games I used to play with enemy respawning, and the second you were off one section of the screen the enemy would reappear there. Hmmm, wasn't Fade to Black one of those games? Every time you left a room the enemy simply reappeared in the exact same location?

On the other hand, dying was such damn fun in that game. It was the only reason I kept playing.

[Erkki]

I hate respawning too, except in Hack'n'slash games.

But I agree with trep, that the humor wasn't quite the same as the first one and that had more effect on my opinion of the game than respawning. But it was still a pretty good game.

Everybody stay away from Contract Jack though. That's an awful piece of shit.

Contract J.A.C.K. is merely a mediocre shoot-'em-up that can be finished in four hours. - Brett Todd

I only played the first one or two hours, but it was like this -- you move along a linear path, reach an invisible trigger point and enemies appear and start running at you. You kill them, move on to next trigger point, repeat.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

On the other hand, dying was such damn fun in that game. It was the only reason I kept playing.

The first couple of times I watched Patrick Galloway die various deaths in Undying was novel. After that the unskippable death cutscenes became sheer torture.

[manny_c44]

They're both ass. But I guess your into that anyway....

I never saw what the big fuss was about NOLF, played the demo...I seem to remeber the training mission more than the game, because of its wood textures. Yep. Wasn't all that funny either.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

The humour is subjective. You either got it or didn't, it was both highbrow and lowbrow. However, the gameplay was more or less damn solid. There were times when the humour brilliantly harmonized with the challenge of a hardcore first person action game. Don't let the lightheartedness of it fool you, the NOLF series is fine action gaming at its best.

Anyone here remember the fist fight with Armstrong? I kept getting killed because I was too damn busy laughing my ass off from the absurdity of it all.

[MrHoatzin]

I saw the game in the store the other day for something like ten bucks, wondered if I should buy it.... Then I didn't. I think I will actually go out right now and see if I can find it... regardless of the fact that it is midnight here...

Internal monologue: Would I even like this game? Andrej hates it - but he is acting all schizophrenic as of late, denying all that is selfevident in matters of game epicurism - while Beiddie likes it... but is Trep liking it enough?

I still haven't finished Deus Ex because the game was doing nothing to me. It was merely ok story-wise (I sure as fuck didn't want to work for the New World Order, but I had to), while all the choices I was making didn't seem to lead anywhere worthwhile. I was flipping out, not knowing if using a particular bionic upgrade (or whatever they're called) was beneficial to anything in the short run? In the long run? The inventory tetris was completely gratuitous: Do I even need this thing, whatever it may be, that is shaped like the Japanese pictograph for a tree (which you cannot figure out without throwing everything out of your inventory first)?!? I never had enough ammo for efficient slaughter, and the crappy low-tech weapons didn't work at all when I used them....

I just realized that there was only one game ever I liked that displayed the full upgrade tree of whatever sort, and that is Startopia... Deus Ex, Diablo I and II (despised the fact that I knew what spells went where but didn't have enough experience on the onset to learn them all), Sacrifice (I liked the game, but that tree was messing with my ego and I yet have to play through), Heroes of Might and Magic (1 through 542) -- all horror in the upgrade tree department.... It's too fucking complicated to be technically effective and fun... unless you are a tabletop RPG junkie.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Um, lemme put it this way. DX and whatnot is like your catching your grandmother smoking weed and defending it by quoting Milton. NOLF is like catching your grandfather putting on high heels and fishnets with garters and declaring his passionate carnal love for goats.

[MrHoatzin]

A funny thing happened at the software rack... In case you were wondering how I managed to buy a game at half past midnight, it helps if the store in question is Walmart... So yeah, I went there and - CRAP! - I couldn't find the jewel case NOLF anywhere. Just my luck... I pretty much moved all the boxes there - trying not to step on the little Mexican guy who was polishing the floor with a tractor of some sort - to look behind in case it fell... Just as I had given up, I started around the isle the long way and noticed on the short side of the said isle another shelf with older games in ancient big game boxes... and there... NOLF Game of the Year edition with the Prima Guide and the soundtrack CD for 3 dollars... So yeah. Fuck you all, I am off to play that.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Gentlemen, my work is done.

But the man is still an idiot for giving away his Thief game.

And on that note I suppose I'll finish the Thief: Deadly Shadows demo before retiring for the night.

[MrHoatzin]

I like it. It seems to be well balanced. I finished the first mission.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

"You look like you need a monkey."

"Excuse me?"

"I have a very fine monkey for you. Only twenty dollars, American."

"Sorry, but I don't want a monkey."

"What did you say?"

"I said I don't want a monkey."

"Why not?!"

"Because I don't like monkeys!! Now get that filthy beast away from me!"

"Are you insulting my monkey?!"

[Salka]

In your defence, the Marshmallow is hot.

[Thrik]

To jump back on topic for a second, it depends on the game I suppose. Enemy respawning isn't always the worst thing ever - Metal Gear Solid for example would become very boring if the enemies you killed stayed gone forever, due to the very nature of the game.

But in an FPS is pretty sucky, as nobody wants to kill the same guy in the same place in the same way - a plethora of bullets in the face. At least in, say, MGS you get to do it in a fairly different way each time.

And I should have played NOLF.

[RLacey]

And I should have played NOLF.

It's never too late!

As you live in England, you can pick up NOLF1 GOTY for £4.99 from Xplosiv!

And you can get NOLF2 for £9.99 on the Best Sellers collection!

And you can probably find Contract J.A.C.K. knocking around somewhere cheaply!

[Intrepid Homoludens]

And I should have played NOLF.

You embarrassing fool!! Play it already!