This is spot on and you don't really have to read further as I haven't gotten as far as him.Quote:
Originally Posted by WarpToken
I'm pretty slow with these games. I walk through a lot of the rooms the first time, and I get angry when something interesting isn't scannable.
I haven't gotten too far, and as of yet my path has been strictly linear, but Warp is right. A lot more mysterious and creepy. It's neat to have other live things about in this one that aren't trying immediately to kill you.
Whoa, okay, let's order my thoughts. The opening menu screen, for starters, is incredibly slick, but if you visited the website you know that already. It was just one of my favourite things about MP, and the new one is just as slick. (I can't stand those new disclaimers at the beginning of each game though)
The opening text mentions a "Contract agreement," which I liked because it reinforced the idea of being a bounty-hunter for hire. I'm going to be purposefully vague.
The in-game menus have changed to a three-dimensional trees that you rotate. It is not quite as convenient as a normal menu system, but the c-stick quickly moves between options if you don't want to spin each thing around. Each option opens up a new little branchy thing that you spin around. They invert the y-axis by default so turning invert "on" actually inverts invert. Oops.
There's no action-packed opening sequence to this one, but it's a lot darker and more ominous. when you first walk into the room with the dead galactic troopers hanging from the ceiling and the legs are wobbling about in your face, it's startling. I had my gun up in a second. Very unexpected. There were some neat touches besides that already. I came upon a communications dish and tried to send a distress beacon. The dish wobbled back and forth and I got an in-hud message that the beacon failed due to a storm system. Later you find that the marines tried that too, and got the same problem.
Some more new things are female-voiced computer audio snippets that accompany your suit's auto-environement scans and research entries. (like "scan complete" or something like that, I didn't really pay attention.) Also certain bodies can be moved a bit when shot, and bodies on crates fly off when you blow up the crates (but then disappear.) I like the new object-color scan mode, but I don't like how the scan visor changes all the colors instead of zooming in a bit. It's a beautiful game, and I like to walk around with the scanner on, but with the color change I switch back and forth a lot more than the last game. This may have been intended.
Your weapon loss is a lot more plausible this time around, and you don't lose quite as much, and you get back the missile launcher before you even know it, but pretty plausibly.
The GC has obviously hit it's graphical limit, and it's better-looking than MP, but like it was said before, you might have to load up MP to notice. I didn't, but you might. I have no complaints here, but coming down off of HL2 you might be wishing it was running on more powerful stuff. I know I am a little. The sky in some open areas looks fantastic though, with the dark storminess coming in spurts to cover the bright sky, which puts the whole area into shadow.
What the game could really have used so far was to take the trooper audio logs and make them, well, audio. Right now they are text-based, but read like audio transcriptions. If they were recorded a-la Doom 3, with good acting and sound effects, it would be even more creepy than it is currently. When the first luminoth speaks his audio samples are also very [short. I wonder if they just ran out of space/ability.
The Hud looks a bit better, the missile launcher looks different, with smaller flanges, the save and map animations have changed (specifically the map animation looks better, and has happened three times already compared to the few map points in Metroid Prime.)
That's all I've got so far, I've only played for about 2 hours, and took it slow. The first boss, not even what Warp was referring to, actually kicked my ass on the first try, and almost again on the second, but other than that it wasn't very difficult. The puzzles have been very simple so far, with one or two neat ones that weren't instant, and the play very linear. You don't start off in a large cavern with multiple accessible exits this time, and I haven't really had the chance to go poking around in places I shouldn't be yet.
I'm a little wary of some things - I saw a door that requires a power bomb to open, which is a little less subtle than having a material that requires a power bomb to clear, but I have run into several different types of materials already so I'm not sure how that's going to turn out.
I'm a little worried about the linearity so far. Certain doors require "translator packs" given to you by the luminoth, and I think he might give you each new pack after you complete each new mission, so I don't know how much freedom I'll get. Then again, I'm confident that in another hour of play or so I'll have a lot more ability to wander around off the linear path. So I can't comment on level design yet. The map I have of the first level looks cool and branching enough to satisfy me when I can open a few more paths.
On the plus side, I haven't gotten any scan hints to direct me yet, but rather have been allowed to soak in the dark creepiness. Not to be repetitive, but it's a lot darker and creepier compared to the flash-bang opening of MP, and it's working on me.
Sorry I couldn't play farther into it, I feel like I haven't even broken the skin on this one yet.
Oh, one last thought, each elevator I've been on so far has been different, so when it does load, it's more interesting than watching the same animation over and over again.
