Earlier today I was telling a friend about my most Boomer gamer take (which I do not have a lot of). Especially after playing some older 3D games like Deus Ex and 5th/6th gen stuff I get annoyed at how many modern AAA games are so overly detailed and therefore unreadable.
I was thinking that for the first and only hour I gave to The Surge 2 before shelving it that so many environments are so cluttered and overly detailed that not only are they slighlty uncomfortable to look at at times trying to parse them, but they necessitate almost fourth wall breaking guidance elements like big arrows and sharp colour contrasting paint splodges to guide players through. These get made fun of a lot and chalked up to "gaming being dumbed down" and all that but honestly I think most of it is just how modern level design is too complicated to be easily readable.
This semi-related tangent aside, I love how primitive the level design of Automaton Lung is. In the literal sense of the word as they approach the base geometric shapes to make up the level. Despite having very little in the way of tutorialisation or guidance (hell, you can miss 60% of the fucking game by not taking a certain door on the first level) the levels are (for the most part) so clearly readable from the wide open cities to the cramped hallways of the tower levels.
The atmosphere is top notch, added to the music which, whilst repetitive at times just had me hooked for the 3 hours or so I have clocked defeating the final boss with 180/210 stars...er, I mean chips! The movement is jank, indeed the game itself is jank but its so charming and there is enough of a learning curve to the controls (though the game itself is really not very challenging, at least not to get to the end). Its a loveable, clunky piece of shit that I will cherish for years to come.
Its not a flawless game by any means. I mentioned some of the music not having enough variety and honestly the combat is so basic as to be kind of a waste of space and I died like 3 times total, only one of those being from enemy fire and that was against a boss. Maybe it would have been better excised from the game but I'm not sure now that I think about it.
As for the plot, well its very much a no exposition affair. "piece it together" sort of thing like Dark Souls except without the item descriptions. I'm really not clever enough to put together any sort of coherent conclusion to it all, you spawn from a room with 3 futurama -esque glass tubes and one is broken and with particle effects, so Im guessing youre a clone or robot or something. I do think that the environments are interesting enough even if I don't quite understand the story they are trying to tell.
This game is also hilarious at times, from the jank to the ending cutscenes to everything else I streamed this game to friends and we had many laughs with it. I wholeheartedly recommend this game if you are interested in a "middlingly received N64 platformer/run and gun that was hailed as a misunderstood masterpiece 2 decades later". (this last description being coined by BL user Mattt)
EDIT: Having 100%'d the game (well, all achievements, all chips and weapons, if there are any secrets beyond that I will never know) I can say with some sadness that it is one of the rare games I have played where I am left wanting for more. What a gem
I was thinking that for the first and only hour I gave to The Surge 2 before shelving it that so many environments are so cluttered and overly detailed that not only are they slighlty uncomfortable to look at at times trying to parse them, but they necessitate almost fourth wall breaking guidance elements like big arrows and sharp colour contrasting paint splodges to guide players through. These get made fun of a lot and chalked up to "gaming being dumbed down" and all that but honestly I think most of it is just how modern level design is too complicated to be easily readable.
This semi-related tangent aside, I love how primitive the level design of Automaton Lung is. In the literal sense of the word as they approach the base geometric shapes to make up the level. Despite having very little in the way of tutorialisation or guidance (hell, you can miss 60% of the fucking game by not taking a certain door on the first level) the levels are (for the most part) so clearly readable from the wide open cities to the cramped hallways of the tower levels.
The atmosphere is top notch, added to the music which, whilst repetitive at times just had me hooked for the 3 hours or so I have clocked defeating the final boss with 180/210 stars...er, I mean chips! The movement is jank, indeed the game itself is jank but its so charming and there is enough of a learning curve to the controls (though the game itself is really not very challenging, at least not to get to the end). Its a loveable, clunky piece of shit that I will cherish for years to come.
Its not a flawless game by any means. I mentioned some of the music not having enough variety and honestly the combat is so basic as to be kind of a waste of space and I died like 3 times total, only one of those being from enemy fire and that was against a boss. Maybe it would have been better excised from the game but I'm not sure now that I think about it.
As for the plot, well its very much a no exposition affair. "piece it together" sort of thing like Dark Souls except without the item descriptions. I'm really not clever enough to put together any sort of coherent conclusion to it all, you spawn from a room with 3 futurama -esque glass tubes and one is broken and with particle effects, so Im guessing youre a clone or robot or something. I do think that the environments are interesting enough even if I don't quite understand the story they are trying to tell.
This game is also hilarious at times, from the jank to the ending cutscenes to everything else I streamed this game to friends and we had many laughs with it. I wholeheartedly recommend this game if you are interested in a "middlingly received N64 platformer/run and gun that was hailed as a misunderstood masterpiece 2 decades later". (this last description being coined by BL user Mattt)
EDIT: Having 100%'d the game (well, all achievements, all chips and weapons, if there are any secrets beyond that I will never know) I can say with some sadness that it is one of the rare games I have played where I am left wanting for more. What a gem