So the premise is not bad, setting is interesting and hook is good. But game starts nice and early with punishing players for exploring dialogue options, potentially due to dubious way it saves progress, but ultimately because not only not offered options are viable but most of them are merely there to punish player for trying to explore the dialogue tree. Early on this is not much of a problem for the restore potions are abundant (tho inexplicably limited in terms of how many can one carry), the further in game i got the more frustrated i was with the system. Partly because i consumed all the jelly but mostly because dialogues are more and more designed to just drain the abilities. And often the whole system seems to be just there to burn as much of the effort as possible (effort being the expanded resource to use certain dialogue options). Yes at some point certain dialogues are for free, but those are rarely pivotal. What angers me the most is the inevitable fault of entirely too many games i give bad scores to - player input ceases to matter at points, tho in this case it is far worse than i have seen in a while, potentially worse i have ever seen it be. Several choices are outright mentioned but than ever offered, Culminating in final confrontation for which even prior regeneration of E.P. wont give enough points - leaving me sitting there watching game just kick me in the nutsack for no particular reason. Sure some people do not mind this stuff but i can not recommend avoiding this enough. tally: + graphics + intrigue + setting - basic gaming concept ends up punishing player for trying to use it - outright removal of player choice in last 2 chapters - highly questionable save system
This game has impressive graphics and decent gun play, however the guns are still plentiful and far more infuriatingly the game seems to forget that it is a game. What i mean by hat is that this thing keeps offering up non-choices such as singular option or only one out of multiple choices being something that permits player to continue, it is a movie in that regard, you are not here to play but to do as you are told by the almighty developer and their leash. For something that seems to be hellbent on telling a compelling story it dose keep trying to force player to do only what writers thought of, as opposed to more game centered idea of actually having diverse choices, even at important points of game, that are both valid even if not necessarily equally helpful to story or progress. This trait is something i am exceedingly against, if you want to make a movie do bloody go and do that, here in computer games it makes things far more interesting if you actually try to allow player a gaming experience as opposed to first person perspective cinematic. On technical level the game is impressive offcourse, the graphics is pretty, and somehow manages to run at good amount of detail even on my olden computer. Some environments are downright gorgeous, especially on high detail at night and rain. Clearly great care has been given to the city itself. Gun play, as mentioned above, dose work fairly well, tho it is not anything original and somehow ends up reminding me of DeusEx 4, in fact alot of the game versatility seems to resemble that particular game. Which is a good thing for me as i did enjoy the mechanics there quite a bit. The method for slicing / hacking into things is somewhat difficult to grasp at first but once i gotten used to it worked amicably. Driving feels little disjointed (potentially due to low frame rate, which is sacrifice i made for detail and quality of visuals), first vehicle is bit unwieldy but this may change later down the line. Worthy try, poor.
I went into this trying to find nearest proxy to team17's brilliant StuntGP, i was very disappointed. Now i known micro prose from their brilliant cooperation with geoff carmmond and chris sawyer, team17 offcourse lemmings and worms making me expect a quality game. Track design relies almost exclusively on blindsiding player, vehicles control little bit off (you have to stop turning whilst you are in the corner or you will over steer into a wall), some tracks are so narrow its difficult if not night on impossible to overtake with more than one car in the road. I suspect the whole affair was meant for coin-op as that is where such bad design would support the model of inserting coins. Art is only semi-redeeming factor here, it looks interesting but even for its time outdated. Yes i know test drive, moto racer and mega race around this time used the same but those games had other redeeming qualities (such as better driving, less blindsiding and even excellent personality). It is also worth noting that first NFS, collin McRae rally, microprose's own GP2 did actually moved away from those practices around the same time this was released. In short, unless you have a particular attachment to this very game i suggest you get something more polished or at least interesting.
A fairly reasonable space RTS, Simillar both visualy and in way it plays to much more recognizable HW series. So if you have played everything HW has to offer and urn for more of the same, but bit less original ORB is for you. If you happen to just be fan of space strategies this should also work fairly well, i can see this being something i'd play back in the day (early 2'000s) untill completition, just because i needed that sort of space gaming. Conssider this strong middle of the road space game for those who like either RTS or space game genre.
My prefered method of playing IV is hour (or two) at time, unlike Saints row the third i do not recommand sinking in for longer bursts it gets slightly monotone. Saints row (when it comes to PC releases of main line titles, ie: 2, the third, IV) has quality incline, alas this particular game lacks the good balance of the third so it is best to play it in between other games or even beter other genres of games. If you do have any of the major science fiction, musical, literary, gaming (seriously this game pays homage to zork, streets of rage, WWF circa mid 90s, features Biz Markie, constantly throws in literary references that flew WAY above my dumb head, Night before christmas and a christmas story!) you may be pleased to have plentyfull artifacts and storylines in here that let you have fun with these. It requires specific mindset - if you just want to run around and kill things, blow stuff up with your mates (co-op, NPCs whatever) for 60 minutes you will have fun with it. If you are looking for game where you can wield lightsabre, Robocop's handgun, old pirate's blunderbuss, ToS Star Trek phaser (did not spot TNG ones alas, but i am guessing tehre are some) or gun based around the idea of boombox (you can choose between few flavours: Metal, Dubstep and hip-hop) - because music can be fun to kill with you may allso have fun. If you want to rolleplay as craqzy version of superhero / supervillain you can do that. But taking it seriously will dampen your fun entirely so play sparsly and enjoy. As person whom kinda likes what Star Trek was (we now call it Orville because that is proper suxcessor to TNG, DS9), Star Wars used to be, and pleothora of other things (matrix, Robocop, Terminator, etc., etc., etc.) i thorrowly enjoy doing side missions, gliding about in the simulation part of the game. But i understand it is not for everyone.
This game looks amazing, the art direction is eyecatching, settings are rather original and puzzles are really trying to be something exciting. So if you are very visual person than you will very much enjoy it, if you are puzzle person than perhaps you may appritiate these attempts at logic. Alas this game is seemingly based upon console core - tightly controled camera and rather janky way of controlling the charakter. Main draw, i assume, is the philosophy which is baseline existencialism and some decent stabs at perception of reality (ref.: Brain in the jar or even shadows on cave wall). Tho these seem slightly underwhelming and over-written. Do not get me wrong, it can sometimes sound profound but none of the concepts are explored in anny depth (granted the playtime is not that long so that might be why). Now on to the clear negatives: The camera, this camera has graduated from mid to late 90s console school of cameras and did catch suvere case of conselatius a disease wherein the creators of the game can not let player controll camera, can not let camera show off the level dessign but HAS to keep moving. This unfortunate sickness dose make controlling the game rather frustrating as your directions do change with the camera angle. I do see few cures for this : static cameras or player choice of camera, you can draw attention to what has happened by other means than shoving it into player face, please try to at very elast mix it up every ocne in a while. The controlls (note this might be more camera related than i assume) they do change directions based upon camera, meaning that most of my jumps tend to go astray in rather unamusing manner, through fault of the ingame systems. This i find rather unapealling given that the game is ment to be platformer (you know precision jumps) and puzzler. In conclusion : weight the price of the game against this: + art (particulary visuals), philosophy, +/- puzzles music - camera controls
