A lot of this game bridged together Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now and his daughter, Sofia's Somewhere in my mind.
So much of this game on the surface is Apocalypse Now, the third act blatantly so (trophies are direct references to the movie and Heart of Darkness). It's a violent war game, after all. And yet Apocalypse Now is still more meditative than the average war movie. It's more Thin Red Line than Rambo 2, which is a shame when this game's big third act level is more Rambo and Predator than Apocalypse Now. You gun down a lot of combatants, sure. But none quite so systematically and forcefully as you do at the end. And I think it's a shame because so much of the game between missions is Somewhere - a more quiet, introspection piece on boredom and ennui.
In between taking missions for either side of an armed conflict in a foreign land that resents you and that you too, couldn't care less about personally, you're mostly just roaming a sparse, open environment, trying to starve off malaria and other mercenaries who shoot and practically hunt you on sight. There's nothing to do at any one time other other one of two basic functions: kill or try to stay alive and live. And it's that aimless meandering and sparseness that remind me so much of Somewhere. A movie celebrity and game. Far Cry 2 - a game about mercenaries and death. But both about depression too.
This game reminds me of my day to day life, where I am bored out of my mind, working for the weekend, just getting by, placed in circumstances that I feel I had less control over than I would have liked, doing my best but also doing nothing ultimately constructive or rewarding.
I love how much in general this game hates you as a character but not necessarily as a player. The world resents your presence. Your character has to pop malaria pills that they can run out of, and the guns jam. But it all works wonderfully into the nihilism and theme of decay that permeates through the game. And none of it is too much. It's still mostly a gun-toting romp. It just doesn't feed your power fantasy. It's a very intentionally deigned game, but I think it ultimately is also has an unintended effect of weeding out particular types of gamers. I'm struggling to articulate what I mean by this so I'll be blunt: either you're cool and you like this game or you're not cool and you don't. :p Eleven years later Death Stranding would sort of be the same game all over again.
This slapped, fucked and ripped.
So much of this game on the surface is Apocalypse Now, the third act blatantly so (trophies are direct references to the movie and Heart of Darkness). It's a violent war game, after all. And yet Apocalypse Now is still more meditative than the average war movie. It's more Thin Red Line than Rambo 2, which is a shame when this game's big third act level is more Rambo and Predator than Apocalypse Now. You gun down a lot of combatants, sure. But none quite so systematically and forcefully as you do at the end. And I think it's a shame because so much of the game between missions is Somewhere - a more quiet, introspection piece on boredom and ennui.
In between taking missions for either side of an armed conflict in a foreign land that resents you and that you too, couldn't care less about personally, you're mostly just roaming a sparse, open environment, trying to starve off malaria and other mercenaries who shoot and practically hunt you on sight. There's nothing to do at any one time other other one of two basic functions: kill or try to stay alive and live. And it's that aimless meandering and sparseness that remind me so much of Somewhere. A movie celebrity and game. Far Cry 2 - a game about mercenaries and death. But both about depression too.
This game reminds me of my day to day life, where I am bored out of my mind, working for the weekend, just getting by, placed in circumstances that I feel I had less control over than I would have liked, doing my best but also doing nothing ultimately constructive or rewarding.
I love how much in general this game hates you as a character but not necessarily as a player. The world resents your presence. Your character has to pop malaria pills that they can run out of, and the guns jam. But it all works wonderfully into the nihilism and theme of decay that permeates through the game. And none of it is too much. It's still mostly a gun-toting romp. It just doesn't feed your power fantasy. It's a very intentionally deigned game, but I think it ultimately is also has an unintended effect of weeding out particular types of gamers. I'm struggling to articulate what I mean by this so I'll be blunt: either you're cool and you like this game or you're not cool and you don't. :p Eleven years later Death Stranding would sort of be the same game all over again.
This slapped, fucked and ripped.