i fucking hate 7th gen xenophobia so much
it's a huge shame that this got immediately factored out en masse as a "gears of war clone" when the similarities are fundamental and superficial at best. initially it feels like a tongue-in-cheek parody of gears - right down to having some fodder, wannabe COG-like nobodies following you around - the whole identity shifts as soon as filena, syd's main partner, comes into the picture
as a tag team, the two of them do more damage with their arms and legs than their actual weapons. couple that with the ability to toss filena at enemies to stun 'em and you have a game that is very much an action hybrid of a shooter. similar to titles like vanquish and resident evil 6, if you're actively taking cover, you're playing the game wrong (especially considering syd can sprint, roll and melee while reloading.) if you're roadie-running, then you goddamn better be following it up with a haymaker
that's not to say the weapons themselves aren't kickass - in fact, some of them rank up with my favorites among all shooters. the rapid-fire grenade launcher, stun-locking plasma caster and wall-bouncing energy rifle immediately come to mind, but there's nothing that really feels like a peashooter. even the base rifle is a pretty reliable mainstay
also, i'd be remiss not to mention that this game often decides it wants to be a platformer. despite some jank in getting the hang of those mechanics (it can be unclear what you can/can't do at first) that generally works very well. certainly makes the set pieces feel a hell of a lot more organic than any dime a dozen tps with a helicopter turret sequence or whatever other nondistinctive gimmick the 7th gen found itself obsessed with
level design is pretty solid all around. more so than anything in the actual stages, my critiques aim at a few checkpoint placements. in particular, i have a personal message directed at the person who designed a certain lategame enemy gauntlet: what the fuck is wrong with you?
anyway, another thing that surprised me - more so than that gauntlet - was how gripping the narrative actually ended up being. cool backstory aside, syd and filena's chemistry is spot-on and the dub is fuckin' great. shoutout to steve blum especially for voicing syd's (keith ferguson, btw) main rival. i'll spare additional details and just say that the finale gets hype as fuck
if you've got a 7th gen system or a computer that can emulate it reliably enough, play this fucking game - preferably on hard mode - that way you'll be forced to utilize the combo mechanics instead of hiding behind cover constantly
it's a huge shame that this got immediately factored out en masse as a "gears of war clone" when the similarities are fundamental and superficial at best. initially it feels like a tongue-in-cheek parody of gears - right down to having some fodder, wannabe COG-like nobodies following you around - the whole identity shifts as soon as filena, syd's main partner, comes into the picture
as a tag team, the two of them do more damage with their arms and legs than their actual weapons. couple that with the ability to toss filena at enemies to stun 'em and you have a game that is very much an action hybrid of a shooter. similar to titles like vanquish and resident evil 6, if you're actively taking cover, you're playing the game wrong (especially considering syd can sprint, roll and melee while reloading.) if you're roadie-running, then you goddamn better be following it up with a haymaker
that's not to say the weapons themselves aren't kickass - in fact, some of them rank up with my favorites among all shooters. the rapid-fire grenade launcher, stun-locking plasma caster and wall-bouncing energy rifle immediately come to mind, but there's nothing that really feels like a peashooter. even the base rifle is a pretty reliable mainstay
also, i'd be remiss not to mention that this game often decides it wants to be a platformer. despite some jank in getting the hang of those mechanics (it can be unclear what you can/can't do at first) that generally works very well. certainly makes the set pieces feel a hell of a lot more organic than any dime a dozen tps with a helicopter turret sequence or whatever other nondistinctive gimmick the 7th gen found itself obsessed with
level design is pretty solid all around. more so than anything in the actual stages, my critiques aim at a few checkpoint placements. in particular, i have a personal message directed at the person who designed a certain lategame enemy gauntlet: what the fuck is wrong with you?
anyway, another thing that surprised me - more so than that gauntlet - was how gripping the narrative actually ended up being. cool backstory aside, syd and filena's chemistry is spot-on and the dub is fuckin' great. shoutout to steve blum especially for voicing syd's (keith ferguson, btw) main rival. i'll spare additional details and just say that the finale gets hype as fuck
if you've got a 7th gen system or a computer that can emulate it reliably enough, play this fucking game - preferably on hard mode - that way you'll be forced to utilize the combo mechanics instead of hiding behind cover constantly
19 Comments
Great review, I remember thinking this game was really underrated when I played it. I always wished it had more exploration or traversal mechanics though. A lot of the areas once you get inside the tower are surprisingly beautiful and I feel like they could have done a lot more with them than what’s there. That and I thought it was funny how Syd looks almost identical to Guts from Berserk.
@fauxscerf curious to hear why you'd call it a puzzler. i guess since there's a certain strategy to unravel in properly utilizing filena and all the melee combat potential? i could see that. not really unlike how i view resident evil 6
@crossoffate yeah i'd have loved for them to go even a bit more ambitious with the platforming. what's there is super cool and i love the constantly shifting battlefields in the lategame, but it is a tad limited especially in the first half
now i'm kinda wondering what it'd be like if we got a shooter with a similar design philosophy to something like shadow of the colossus or dragon's dogma - just, climbing all over the place in a way that's actually fairly freeform as opposed to the strictly linear setpieces of uncharted, tomb raider, etc. and the closest thing i've got in my mind is lost planet
@crossoffate yeah i'd have loved for them to go even a bit more ambitious with the platforming. what's there is super cool and i love the constantly shifting battlefields in the lategame, but it is a tad limited especially in the first half
now i'm kinda wondering what it'd be like if we got a shooter with a similar design philosophy to something like shadow of the colossus or dragon's dogma - just, climbing all over the place in a way that's actually fairly freeform as opposed to the strictly linear setpieces of uncharted, tomb raider, etc. and the closest thing i've got in my mind is lost planet
also yeah. the environmental variety is pretty cool. i was kinda surprised to see publications like gamespot shitting on the visuals despite praising the hell outta gears. i wouldn't be surprised if epic bought mfs out to just shit on this game as much as possible lmao. the critique is not fuckin' proportionate to the game's actual quality
"7th gen xenophobia"
"Take on a living alien tower that shifts and mutates around you, and the hordes of hostile creatures that dwell within, in this infamous Japanese clone of Gears of War"
Damn you weren't kidding 💀, I'll have to check this out
"Take on a living alien tower that shifts and mutates around you, and the hordes of hostile creatures that dwell within, in this infamous Japanese clone of Gears of War"
Damn you weren't kidding 💀, I'll have to check this out
ALSO ALSO: i forgot to mention, but yes, syd's a super lovable meathead. some endgame lines made me laugh my fucking ass off. truly a proto jack garland
@nowitsreyntime17 yeah that description is fucking disgraceful and it'd be better even if it was just a copy-pasted excerpt from the game's wikipedia page
@nowitsreyntime17 yeah that description is fucking disgraceful and it'd be better even if it was just a copy-pasted excerpt from the game's wikipedia page
you should put at the end of every review your preferred difficulty for the game
@huss i always do when i feel it's significant. but generally i believe as long as a game's designed around its difficulty, you should err towards the tougher ones. breakdown for xbox is a good example as to why that is - if you watch longplay footage of that game, it looks super unimpressive because the people playing are fucking terrible and tend to get hit repeatedly while swatting at the air. if you do that on hard, you don't get past the first hour of the game. you're stuck until you learn what to do
that's the problem with lower difficulty in gameplay-driven games - you just kinda bang your head into the wall and luck your way through without having learned anything. then you tend to think the game was "clunky and unintuitive" because you were never forced to respect the mechanics
this is also why you should look up footage of higher difficulties when seeing what a game plays like. you're way more likely to watch someone who knows what they're doing
that's the problem with lower difficulty in gameplay-driven games - you just kinda bang your head into the wall and luck your way through without having learned anything. then you tend to think the game was "clunky and unintuitive" because you were never forced to respect the mechanics
this is also why you should look up footage of higher difficulties when seeing what a game plays like. you're way more likely to watch someone who knows what they're doing
'left alive' is a great example of that, btw. great game that gets called a terrible tps because morons try to play it like one. that shit doesn't fly on the highest difficulty - the one where you actually need to run and distract enemies instead of trying to play the world's shittiest splinter cell knockoff
When you playing Binary Domain?
@exsoldier i've fired it up a few times. it's cool. i haven't really tried getting thoroughly into it but i think it'll click when i do
bullet witch better
The thing about "7th gen xenophobia" is in spite of how heavily commercialized and centralized games were becoming, we still got tons of oddball middle market releases on the PS3,360, the wii ,ds and psp (the latter 3 especially) from all regions. Compare it to the 8th gen where we basically getting nothing but JRPGs and VNs by the hour on that front.
@toasterninja yeah, we got them... and nobody bought them. that's why we don't get as many anymore
Playing through this game now after seeing part of this review which peaked my interest. I am trying and genuinely do not see what you saw in this game. Currently on chapter 8 or 9 and yeah parts of this game feel like the blue print to strangers of paradise but it also does feel like a shitty gears clone whenever it takes away my throwable sword wife
@cvit filena's a game changer, but it sounds like you're playing too safely on the parts where you don't have her
i mentioned it in the review, but the fact that syd can reload while rolling, sprinting and meleeing essentially means there is 0 reason to ever hide behind walls. this alone completely changes the dynamic of shootouts and ramps up the pace significantly compared to the average cover shooter
it also helps that the guns are very meaty. the arc screamer and hail launcher are two of my favorite weapons in any shooter (you may not have used the former yet - it's introduced in scene 8 - i recommend when you get it that you NEVER let go of it)
i mentioned it in the review, but the fact that syd can reload while rolling, sprinting and meleeing essentially means there is 0 reason to ever hide behind walls. this alone completely changes the dynamic of shootouts and ramps up the pace significantly compared to the average cover shooter
it also helps that the guns are very meaty. the arc screamer and hail launcher are two of my favorite weapons in any shooter (you may not have used the former yet - it's introduced in scene 8 - i recommend when you get it that you NEVER let go of it)
@chandler I have been trying to play like this but every combat encounter feels like “I try to do melee stuff and 2 shots from anything makes my screen indiscernibly covered in jelly. If the arc streamer is the shotgun that shoots lightning at close range that is the gun I found the least fun to use but maybe I am doing something wrong. A lot of my frustration is from playing this on the 360 and wishing I could just aim with a mouse because I haven’t use analog to sim in years and it feels impossible sometimes to actually get moving enemies in the crossfair without overshooting my aim movement. Got to the anor londo looking area where you have to shimmy across ledges. If you have a video of gameplay you think properly demonstrates this game please post some so I can see what I am doing wrong
@cvit it's hard to find footage of someone playing a game this niche competently. most i've got immediately onhand is a few bad 2007-esque recordings i made while playing to show some friends. these links will be dead soon, but they'll get the job done:
this one's too aggressive and it gets me killed, but if i ran away for a second to refill my health i'd have been fine. that's the thing with this kinda game really - cover exists for you to recuperate at - not to hide behind constantly
this is probably nothing you're not already doing but idk. main thing i'd stress is how you aim does matter. you're slow and lumbering when zoomed in. syd's pretty damn accurate with his hip fire i only really zoom in when i'm either being especially careful or when someone's actually a good ways away
what i can tell you is that i liken this game's combat somewhat to resident evil 6's. and before that potentially makes you terrified, watch this for an actually solid demonstration of how that game is meant to be played
and this is just to show how badass the arc screamer is. it destroys enemies - kills the big dudes in like a half second since they're not pushed back by it
this one's too aggressive and it gets me killed, but if i ran away for a second to refill my health i'd have been fine. that's the thing with this kinda game really - cover exists for you to recuperate at - not to hide behind constantly
this is probably nothing you're not already doing but idk. main thing i'd stress is how you aim does matter. you're slow and lumbering when zoomed in. syd's pretty damn accurate with his hip fire i only really zoom in when i'm either being especially careful or when someone's actually a good ways away
what i can tell you is that i liken this game's combat somewhat to resident evil 6's. and before that potentially makes you terrified, watch this for an actually solid demonstration of how that game is meant to be played
and this is just to show how badass the arc screamer is. it destroys enemies - kills the big dudes in like a half second since they're not pushed back by it
i should also note: i'm a console shooter player more so than a pc one. so it's only natural there'd be some disconnect there as far as comfort goes. i'll reiterate though: i think hipfire is way easier than zoom aiming. games with iron sights ruined peoples' perception of that
Fauxscerf
5 months ago
Think once you understand that Quantum Theory is more of a puzzler than a traditional shooter you get to the juicy bits.