This should be extra material, like in the classic editions, not sold for 10 euros. They look desperate for money, and in the end thit just worsen their reputation.
This should be extra material, like in the classic editions, not sold for 10 euros. They look desperate for money, and in the end thit just worsen their reputation.
I played the game till the end and I say: it's not worth it. Setting and atmosphere are really amazing, then it's so sad that the game suffers of bad controls and confusing plot. Inventory management is awkward. You cannot assing hotkeys to all important functions and you will die a lot while the mouse slowly cralws toward a item in your inventory. And be prepared, even in easiest difficulty you will die so much to the point of being unfun. If you master this game, you are truly a great FPS player. One huge problem is that gameplay is limited by the engine. There is a lot of features dedicated to stealth, but it simple doesn't work. If you are in line of sight of an enemy, he will shoot you, and everobody else will be aware. If you make a mistake and have to reload, all enemies nearby will be aware. So yes, don't try being smart and sneaky, this is just a shooter. There are many bugs and random crashes happen all the time. I used the ZDP patch, that corrects several things and allows you to tweak gameplay. I think the game should be unplayable without it. It was a designer choice to seldom give information about gameplay, even in the manual ("discover by yoursel!"). Bad choice, that is. You will have to jump all the time to Google to know how basic gameplay systems work. The story itseld is good, but the way it's told is the problem. Several times important information about the plot are not uploaded in your diary. Dialogues sometimes happen during shooting action and good look trying to put all pieces together later. Usually you just do stuff without knowing why. English localization is incomplete and ofter you have somebody talking to you in russian without even subtitles. Endings are VERY confusing and things happen without logic between cutscenes and portal jumps. Yes, this game could be truly amazing. Unfortulately, it's not. If you could surpass the awkward interface and bugfest, you could have fun (I have a lot in some parts, like the X18 and X16 labs).
At the time, Strife was a huge step from the first classic shooters, by putting the player in a living world, interacting with other characters and offering more ways of solving problems than just by killing and destroying. Sure, System shock already introduced the idea of a plot that develops during actual gameplay, but has no NPCs to interact, a city with stores where you can choose and buy your stuff, etc. Both games fell of the radar, because mainstraim FPS sucess was determined more by graphic and engine improvements (e. g. Quake). Sure, the implement of RPG/adventure/stealth elements is very rudimentar. The dialog barely gives you actual options besides "right" (that advances the plot) and "wrong" (that stops or breaks it). The alternative approaches to missions usualy ends up with you having to shoot someone anyway, and setting up all the level alarms. Sometimes there is strange situations, when after taking a hidden shortcut you arrive in a new area with enemies not shooting you... besides that flying robot. And you have to destroy the robot and then everybody attack you. The time dedicated to make the plot works in-game took off some development from the shooting itself. It doesn't flow so well even compared to earlier shooters. The sprites animations are quite poor. But nevertheless there are interesting elements, e.g. all your weapons remaining useful during most of the game. The handknife is a silent kill. The slow crossbow has different ammunitions, each one good against specific enemies. The assault rifle is probably the most versatile, but eats ammunition very fast and you should think strategically about its use. You probably have better options if you want an early FPS/RPG hybrid, but you can try this one for nostalgia (my case) or to see how FPS evolved through time. The addition of voices, better resolutions and improved controls in the Veteran Edition makes up for a smooth play and doesn't hurt "modern" eyes. Give it a try!
I tried this game because, by the descriptions and reviews, it was supposed to be "Lovecraftian". And I'm into anything by/related/inspired by Lovecraft. Well, I played until half of the third chapter, that is, more than half game. And I haven't seen nothing really Lovecraftian, scary, or, to be true, even interesting. In the few moments that the plot gains momentum and starts to involve you, there is the tipical adventure "puzzle" of clicking on everything in the screen and your inventory to see what happens. To be sincere, I always had this problem with classic adventures, but when you are playing a fun Lucas Arts-style game, the illogical solutions could be understood as part of the mood. But when yoy are playing a suspense/horror game, no mood or atmosphere could resist to this. "Ok, I have this broken object, and ok, I understand that I must use the stricky thing on the screen to glue it. Oh, but it seems that I have to have a glass to collect it. Look, a bottle! Ops, I can't use the bottle that is in front of me to collect the damned sticky stuff in front of me to fix the broken thing just in my hands. That is so cool!". About the most striking feature of the game, the 8-bit graphics, they really aren't a problem. But they don't help, either. If they give room to imagination, they also hinder immersion. But don't get me wrong, the game is not a complete disaster. If you are really into the puzzle-solving style of classic adventures, and be able to avoid getting stuck so often, you will finish the game in few hours, and probably enjoy better the plot. Ah, and the sound is really good, best feature. Play with headphones!
Writing another review for a game with nine pages of them is not going to change the world. But I need to share a bit of what I've felt playing this game. The premise is old as hell. Or, at least, as System Shock 2. You wake up without memory and must look around for clues. Contrary to the "grandfather", you have no idea of where, when, or even in which world you are. You discover this slowly, through another storytelling devices as old as time: journals, notes and flashbacks. The most striking feature of this game is the atmosphere. Everything is made to enhance it. The setting. The shadows. Strange events. And the sound. Man, the sound of this game is awesome. The atmosphere is so heavy that, even without ANYTHING really happening at the first moments, I was opening every door as if it was hiding my worst nightmare. In some parts, the feeling is so overwhelming that maybe you could truly consider stop playing. Yes, I will not forget that old jail too soon. The gameplay doesn't stay on the way of the atmosphere. The game will take care of saving and giving you second chances without breaking your immersion. In the end, it's quite easy, and there is virtually no replay value, it's a one-shot experience Enjoy while you can. Why four starts, then? Well, for one side, when you understand certain games mechanisms, some tension is dissipated. And a real warning: much plot information is given just in the flashbacks. If you play the game in a few sessions, you could not be able to put all pieces together when the moment comes (the ideal would be to turn off the phone and shut down the curtains for a weekend, but life is not so easy for all). That doesn't stop your progress, but diminishes the impact of the story. For that reason, the end of the game was a bit disappointing to me. So, when you hear something interesting, write it down. But you will write in darkness. Because you must play this game alone, with lights off, and headphones. Yes, have "fun".
I'm a huge fan of D&D games and I tried this one game after loving all Infinity games and disliking both Neverwinter Nights. Isometric tactical goodness rules over 3D shiny stuff. But TOEE is a very different monster. Everything is so slow and boring that just the stronger ones could achieve the supposed fun at the end of the tunnel. And, unlikely a previous reviewer, I tried the game for several hours and days. Half of it just trying to fix the bugfest with the unnoficial patches. The combat is a perfect implementation of D&D rules, but fidelity should not overcome dynamics like here. The radial menu is cumbersome and applying keyboards shortcuts is not a definitive solution. In the dungeons, it's hard to know also where your characters could walk, or how many could attack an enemy at once, thus part of the tactical planning is gone. Besides combat you have the non-combat, that, as noted by many, is the weakest part of the game. Characters are boring, voices are boring, and walking around in Hommlet is incredible boring. It takes a lot of time to go from one house to another, and there is many of them. If you want iron stuff, go to one. Leather stuff, another. Very realistic, sure, but you will waste your life looking the little sprites slowly crossing the village. Graphics are good, but if you play in the high resolutions supported by the patches, everything will be very tiny. That is a problem because TAB key highlights doors and fallen equipment, but not containers (even if this is stated in the manual). Know that classic villain journal that sets the plot in motion? Yes, it is in that pair pixels hidden among many unusable furniture with the same looking. That was 2003, five years after BG1 showed that pixel hunt for little secrets is not so cool as it seems. The music, on the other side, could be desscribed with only one word. That one I used several times in this review, and, in fact, could substitute all the rambling before: boring!
