|
I posted my impressions in the Steam thread (about 3/4ths through the game), and the long and short of it: The interesting narrative ideas are undercut by what is otherwise a completely generic and by-the-books shooter. I don't think there's anything in the gameplay that really sets it apart, and what's there is the same "hide behind cover/headshot" dynamic I got sick of ages ago. I don't think the shooting feels very satisfying, in all honesty, and I think the game could benefit from having a less dudes in general. The endless waves completely take me out of it. (and what did that above poster say about there being no bullet sponges? They appear later on, don't worry) I'm not done with it yet, but it's just a shame that such an interesting concept is squandered on such an uninteresting shooter and I don't think the awesome setting quite elevates the rest of it. There's this driving turret sequence later on where you have a grenade launcher, and it sort of encapsulates the gameplay experience for me. You have no control over anything, all you do is point and press a button and hundreds of dudes explode into gibs that look like they came straight out of Quake 2. Ugh.
|
| # ? Jun 28, 2012 06:27 |
|
|
|
| # ? May 24, 2013 05:28 |
|
|
Housh posted:I'm enjoying the game a lot. The shooting is satisfying and the story has me hooked but goddamn the texture pop up is goddamn awful. I'm playing the PS3 version and the textures pop in slowly in cut scenes. Reminds me of the Battlefield 3 beta jank. I've not noticed horrible texture stuff, but I'm usually too immersed in a game to notice... out of interest what 'moral choice' sections have you encountered and what did you chose? they are not as defined as in other games, so I'm not sure how many choices I've made... I did... save the soldier just before the army guys show up. if I let him die what would have happened?
|
| # ? Jun 28, 2012 06:47 |
|
|
After reading the campaign might be comically short, I spoilered myself. Could've been a nice game, but sure as hell not for full price. Nice setting, and there's some pretty wicked and grisly scenes, but as most have said, the actual gameplay is generic as hell. The big thing they were touting was the executions and moral choice system, and both are underused. It also has a pretty solid case of tooth-grinding cutscene stupidity from the ol' captain.
|
| # ? Jun 28, 2012 06:50 |
|
|
Yeah, I just finished it. It was actually pretty awesome ending. Man, this game did cool things. It's just so boring to actually play. I almost feel like it would've been better as a 2 hour XBLA game, like Portal or something - cut out all the bullshit and focus on making the interesting parts stand out more. There's no reason this game has multiplayer. There's no reason it needed to be this long. It could've been something great - as is, it's a bog standard, at times subpar, shooter in a really interesting wrapping.
|
| # ? Jun 28, 2012 14:08 |
|
|
So what happens if endgame you let Konrad shoot you? I honestly liked the game, if I wanted a top tier shooter, I'd go play Gears 3 or ME2 or something stupid like that, since that doesn't seem to be the games main focus. And while a lot of the "horror" elements were pushed on you a bit heavily ( Daniel, the Gate, the Water stuff. ), watching the Squad slowly break, watching Walker develop severe PTSD/Shellshock, watching the execute animations get looser and looser as the game goes on, that was fantastic, as was many of the ending things. Looking back near the end, I made all the "wrong" choices, and would be interested in going back again to see how things change, I assume since Konrad is dead, and the whole "choice" scene involving the two guys on ropes was fake, if I leave Adams to bleed out, he'll actually be fine?
|
| # ? Jun 28, 2012 14:34 |
|
|
Rookersh posted:So what happens if endgame you let Konrad shoot you? You die  Yeah, it's basically just suicide and you see your corpse and it cuts to credits.
|
| # ? Jun 28, 2012 14:38 |
|
|
For people who beat the game: how easy is it to go back and redo choices to get the different endings? Like would you need to play the game over from the beginning or can you just start from a certain chapter? Now I'm really paranoid about my decisions.
|
| # ? Jun 28, 2012 16:16 |
|
|
Housh posted:I'm enjoying the game a lot. The shooting is satisfying and the story has me hooked but goddamn the texture pop up is goddamn awful. I'm playing the PS3 version and the textures pop in slowly in cut scenes. Reminds me of the Battlefield 3 beta jank. It's a limitation of the Unreal Engine, sadly. Most modern games have learned to buffer enough to largely minimize it, but this is Yager's first PS3 and UE3 game. If you're seeing it a ton, it might be time to rebuild your PS3's database - should help with install file caching and whatnot (if there is one, I can't remember). That said, I'm glad I'm not the only PS3 version owner. Seems like NOBODY wants to do the objective-based modes, and I need to see how they work before I can review the game. I guess that's talk for the multiplayer thread, though?
|
| # ? Jun 28, 2012 16:36 |
|
|
Does anybody have a full list of the choices and what they affect? I feel I've missed a few because it wasn't really obvious that there was a choice. The ones I discovered: -Save Gould of the civilians(chose civies) -Attack the snipers or execute the prisoners(shot the snipers) -Shoot or burn Riggs(shot him) -Shoot of scare the civilians(scared them) -Shoot Conrad or get shot(shot him) -Shoot or surrender to the rescue mission(surrendered) Also, there are several things I have absolutely no idea about how and why: -If Conrad committed suicide in the opening cinematic, who was in charge of the 33rd the whole time? -What does the vision of the field of glowing eyed corpses and the tower with wings of fire have to do with anything? -Why do you see the helicopter section twice and why does Walker remember the first time? -How did the ships get on a hilltop? -Why was the Aquatic Coliseum so important if there are full swimming pools and aquariums everywhere and most importantly, a sea and enough sunlight to set up simple heat based desalination systems everywhere? -Why is there an option to attack the rescue team?
|
| # ? Jun 28, 2012 21:39 |
|
|
Asehujiko posted:Does anybody have a full list of the choices and what they affect? I feel I've missed a few because it wasn't really obvious that there was a choice. Let's see... For the first, Gould dies either way; there's no difference in the scene that plays out afterward. Otherwise, the choices are exactly how I played them, with some reloading to see the differences for the end stuff. If you're interested: If you kill yourself, there's obviously no endgame section. No chance to take down the soldiers. If you do choose to open fire, I don't think there's a way to win, but the ending sequence is a VO from Konrad that mentions The Line. As for your questions: There's a hidden intel item that shows Konrad's standing last orders are to keep the peace by force and take out anyone trying to take the tower. They must hold the line to the last. The Damned 33rd believe the CIA is trying to kill them (which is true, by way of secretly inciting a revolt). The ships were all blown in from the harbor, I believe, by the storms. Many of them were thrown into The Pit in the middle of Dubai. The Aquarium was vital to the city because the tankers there held gajillions of already-processed fresh water. The people fighting back were left over/lost after all the people with money evacuated (or tried to; some died in the relentless sandstorms). The 33rd were supplying the locals with that water, while the CIA wanted to control the Aquarium and destroy those tankers so everyone would run out of water, thus "fixing" the problem of a US ARMY commander having lost it. Walker, even if he survives, counts himself as one too many survivors given the choices he made and the things he did to his squad and the 33rd. It's a chance for the player to end his life not as a hero or any kind of savior, but a person who went just as crazy as the rest of the 33rd. (You don't have to shoot at the rescue team, just shoot period.) I wish I knew about your second and third questions, because I wondered just the same. The third in particular was pretty fourth-wall-breaking unless I just didn't understand the context.
|
| # ? Jun 28, 2012 22:01 |
|
|
SamBishop posted:If you kill yourself, there's obviously no endgame section. No chance to take down the soldiers. If you do choose to open fire, I don't think there's a way to win, but the ending sequence is a VO from Konrad that mentions The Line. I tried to see if you could avoid the civilian massacre in level 8 by waiting long enough and the answer is that you just get a generic game over. I also discovered that during the final boss you can move the camera/reticle to the left and shoot yourself instead of Konrad, which leads to the same ending as letting Konrad shoot you. In addition to that, from the ending we can infer that neither the honour guard squad nor the pristine condition of the tower are actually true and the thing is just a decrepit ruin populated exclusively by Konrad's corpse, which raises the question as to why the 33rd were guarding it so fiercely.
|
| # ? Jun 28, 2012 23:26 |
|
|
Asehujiko posted:
I hope these choices are not generic 'illusion of choice, but nothing really changes' things...I'd like to play through again for a different experience...
|
| # ? Jun 29, 2012 07:21 |
|
|
Jut posted:Can you not just shoot the army guys normally instead of using the white phosphorous mortar?
|
| # ? Jun 29, 2012 11:05 |
|
|
Asehujiko posted:No, you can't use the rappel point until you are done and simply shooting at them causes them to all shoot back at you with perfect accuracy the moment you pop out of cover, making it impossible to hit them back from screen shake are there are more of them then you have bullets even if you used an aimbot. Well that's poo poo...it even makes it seem like you have a choice cause one of your guys says "there must be another way"
|
| # ? Jun 29, 2012 17:29 |
|
|
I have a feeling that Far Cry 3 is going to have the same Fight Club twist at the end. Who is Keyser Söze anyway?
Housh fucked around with this message at Jul 7, 2012 around 19:19 |
| # ? Jun 30, 2012 00:42 |
|
|
Asehujiko posted:
My thoughts: 1. Other than obviously being a hallucination along the lines of the enemies that look like your partners, it's open to interpretation. Not everything necessarily has to be explained all the way, but I'm glad that the game limits the really out there stuff to one sequence. 2. I have a feeling that they wanted to start off with something big and actiony before getting into the slow starting stuff, so that's why they skipped forward, and you play through it again because it helps the game flow better that way. The deja vu line is probably just a meta joke.
|
| # ? Jun 30, 2012 02:21 |
|
|
It was probably mentioned already, but Amazon has Spec Ops: The Line for $25 starting tomorrow. I'll post a link in the OP.The Devil Tesla posted:deja vu line is probably just a meta joke. Jut posted:Well that's poo poo...it even makes it seem like you have a choice cause one of your guys says "there must be another way" rizuhbull fucked around with this message at Jun 30, 2012 around 03:47 |
| # ? Jun 30, 2012 03:42 |
|
|
Can you please mark this poo poo if it's a spoiler? Thanks.
|
| # ? Jun 30, 2012 05:03 |
|
|
Buh. So, I'm not finished yet- I just passed the part where you catch back up with the intro. I keep having to stop from both pacing exhaustion and emotional exhaustion. I've felt horrible so many times, and hate it. Yet, the fact that the game is doing this to me? I love. The gameplay is better than most will tell you. The AI is pretty good, and the difficulty is perfect for keeping you on your toes. Manages to be a thrill ride without being some CoD clone. Graphics are surprisingly good. Sand gameplay also better than many suggest, though nothing revolutionary of course. I'm adoring the art style- it feels like someone decided to make a sand-based Bioshock and fused it with some military 3rd-person shooter from the PS2 era, like Psi-Ops, except without the powers, just the cool, fast gunplay. Taking a break from it for the rest of the night. But loving it.
|
| # ? Jun 30, 2012 05:18 |
|
|
The game itself is very competent and the controls are snappy, but the much-vaunted choices don't actually amount to much. It was exceedingly clear during the WP sequence that there were civilians to the right of the final humvee (their grouping and movement patterns clearly differentiated them from the soldiery) but NOPE! you have to fire the shot that fries them. Now, sure, this is the pivotal event upon which the story is predicated... but forcing the player to make a decision as though the player is unaware of the consequences, all while providing sufficient details such that any astute player can draw the correct conclusion... is pretty loving frustrating. Hmmm. Still, kudos to the developer for even attempting something like this.
|
| # ? Jun 30, 2012 08:38 |
|
|
Leb posted:The game itself is very competent and the controls are snappy, but the much-vaunted choices don't actually amount to much. I'm still kinda lost on what happened in Chapter 14 at the end, The last of the 33rd show up and demand that Walker and Adams surrender, Adams causes negotiations to break down and Walker runs away, bullets fly and explosions happen off camera and by the time Walker crosses the bridge, both Adams and the 33rd are gone. What happened back there that allowed Adams to kill everybody and why was the 33rd even fortifying the road to an abandoned structure that only contained the remains of their former boss? The suicide ending shows the building is actually in an advanced state of disrepair and the other ending reveals that the squad you meet at the ground floor doesn't actually exist.
|
| # ? Jun 30, 2012 09:48 |
|
|
Asehujiko posted:I'm still kinda lost on what happened in Chapter 14 at the end <snip> Yeah, it's difficult to reconcile many of the later events with the reality that Konrad has been dead the entire time. The 33rd were clearly acting under someone's orders to repel Delta -- who exactly was leading the 33rd and to what end?
|
| # ? Jun 30, 2012 10:48 |
|
|
Leb posted:Yeah, it's difficult to reconcile many of the later events with the reality that Konrad has been dead the entire time. The 33rd were clearly acting under someone's orders to repel Delta -- who exactly was leading the 33rd and to what end? Another poster covered this pretty well: SamBishop posted:There's a hidden intel item that shows Konrad's standing last orders are to keep the peace by force and take out anyone trying to take the tower. They must hold the line to the last. The Damned 33rd believe the CIA is trying to kill them (which is true, by way of secretly inciting a revolt). It doesn't really make any sense that they would go so long without realizing that he was dead, but it's plausible enough that I'm willing to suspend disbelief.
|
| # ? Jun 30, 2012 12:41 |
|
|
The Devil Tesla posted:Another poster covered this pretty well <snip> No, I think that fails to address the question. Standing orders are well and good, but at the tactical level, someone is clearly directing the effort (this may be reasonably inferred from the radio chatter). And if we're instead to believe that these soldiers are acting essentially autonomously, but with such coordination and unity of purpose... well, that seems like a bridge too far. I guess my point is, this is the military and if they're still acting as a cohesive military unit, someone has to be in charge, even if it's just some second lieutenant. Why do we never meet this someone?
|
| # ? Jun 30, 2012 13:13 |
|
|
Leb posted:No, I think that fails to address the question. Standing orders are well and good, but at the tactical level, someone is clearly directing the effort (this may be reasonably inferred from the radio chatter). I disagree. Think about it- they managed to allow 3 guys to completely take their city from them. We got the drop on them how many dozens of times? They weren't acting as a cohesive unit, they were simply responding to whatever nonsense came up at any time. There were people in command, but they were no more than giving the orders to go. There was no strategy. Finished it off this morning. I didn't realize it till after, that I could've shot into the air instead of shooting the civilians. Is that what they wanted me to do to avoid vengeance? And I tried to not burn everything, but they wouldn't let me just rapel off that balcony. I could tell they were civilians from how some were kneeling needlessly. I had that feeling. Hell of a thing. Finally a military shooter that puts you in actually hosed up situations.
|
| # ? Jun 30, 2012 15:20 |
|
|
Not quite finished with the campaign, but I'm surprised at the ambivialence people are expressing. Mechanically, the game is completely by the numbers (actually reminds of Freedom Fighters in terms of feel), but the story is pretty darn excellent (I'll confess to being a Heart of Darkness fanboy - Apoc. Now is my favourite film of all time...) and despite being a pretty well known story, still manages to engage the audience. This game goes down a dark path, and it uses its setting to give everything that amazing psychadelic haze that Apoc. Now uses with aplomb. This, combined with Max Payne 3, seems to be the games industry finally responding to the military shooter obsession by subverting the gently caress out of it. Spector et al may have complained about the number of bro-shooters that were at E3, but I think we're seeing the beginning of the Post-CoD era (although CoD4 subverted the military shooter whilst redefining it...) I don't care if this game is short, it's a unique and interesting piece of narrative, and the devs deserve to be rewarded for their daring.
|
| # ? Jun 30, 2012 15:20 |
|
|
Leb posted:
I don't think it's too far-fetched to assume it's the guy who tells you Konrad is waiting upstairs. He looks different from the others and he most likely knows what happened.
|
| # ? Jun 30, 2012 15:43 |
|
|
I want to talk about the multiplayer a bit, is anyone playing on the xbox? To get the ball rolling here are my thoughts on it. This is just lifted from the Xbox games thread, since no one wanted to talk about it there. It's like they couldn't decide between Gears of War and Call of Duty, so they decided "Let's do it all!" The most obvious stuff like perspective, cover system, executions and DBNO are lifted from Gears. Everything else is all CoD though. The guns kill at CoD speed, there's perks that can level, a radar, and everything has that military look. The main thing it brings to the table is classes. For each loadout you can choose 1 of 5 classes and they all give some kind of radius buff. The Soldier gives everyone extra damage, the medic gives faster health regen, the officer gives damage resistence and increases the effectiveness of the other buffs, etc. They clearly want people to stick together, but good luck getting that to happen in a pick up group. The one downside I've seen is they're really bad at setting up the unlocks. Like the soldier class gets to use heavy weapons, but the first one unlocks at lvl 31 (there's 45 lvls total). The third perk slot doesn't unlock until you prestige, one of the later perks gives +25% damage, etc.
|
| # ? Jun 30, 2012 16:00 |
|
|
Hakkesshu posted:I don't think it's too far-fetched to assume it's the guy who tells you Konrad is waiting upstairs. He looks different from the others and he most likely knows what happened.
|
| # ? Jun 30, 2012 16:07 |
|
|
rizuhbull posted:It was probably mentioned already, but Amazon has Spec Ops: The Line for $25 starting tomorrow. I'll post a link in the OP. b...but it doesn't? 
|
| # ? Jun 30, 2012 17:29 |
|
|
Finally finished the game, throughly enjoyed it, well worth a buy. You know, the only thing that bugged me though was that even though it was set in Dubai, I know it wasn't Dubai. I used to visit the place every few weekends and well...it bothered me. Any idea why they never remake a city in a game?
|
| # ? Jun 30, 2012 17:52 |
|
|
Jut posted:Finally finished the game, throughly enjoyed it, well worth a buy. SixtySix posted:b...but it doesn't?
|
| # ? Jun 30, 2012 18:24 |
|
|
rizuhbull posted:It used to be all the rage last generation. True Crume and The Getaway I remember both flaunted street accurate recreations. I'm sure it's easier and cheaper in every way to just make up a city and slap a real-world name on it versus traveling to Dubai, taking thousands of pictures, then having a narrative that fits the scenery all the while imagining what it'd look like if drowned in sand. And besides, how many people are going to be familiar with Dubai's layout and pick up Spec Ops? well even landmarks such as the Kalifa tower didn't look right...
|
| # ? Jun 30, 2012 18:31 |
|
|
quaunaut posted:I disagree. Think about it- they managed to allow 3 guys to completely take their city from them. We got the drop on them how many dozens of times? They weren't acting as a cohesive unit, they were simply responding to whatever nonsense came up at any time. There were people in command, but they were no more than giving the orders to go. There was no strategy. Exactly what I was getting at. Konrad's last orders were being obeyed simply because there was so much disruptive infighting. As a lot of the intel shows, the survivors still have hope and are banding together to try to survive. Aided by the CIA, they've been trying to push back against the 33rd all over the city, so the regiment is completely on guard all the time. I don't think many have reason to doubt or question Konrad's last orders because they CIA is pretty clearly trying to wipe them all out, so for them it's as much about survival as it is following orders. I think they also genuinely feel they're trying to keep the peace, as the survivors are being taken care of with water rations. The not-Dennis-Hopper-DJ is also providing "morale" and stoking the fires constantly with propaganda that sort of maintains the illusion that Konrad is trying to keep them all strong and in the fight, I suppose, so there's that. As for that choice with the crowd, you can just melee one of them and they'll run away too. I didn't think to fire into the air there, but that makes total sense too. Were you guys playing with auto-aim on? I kept it off because it's off by default in online and felt I'd get completely destroyed (which I still do pretty constantly), so I had a rough time of it toward the end where there are quite a few spots where you're dug in.
|
| # ? Jun 30, 2012 21:01 |
|
|
Just finished this. I think the story concept/dark stuff was nice and fairly well done, but the game itself is a mediocre cover shooter.
|
| # ? Jul 1, 2012 00:09 |
|
|
rizuhbull posted:I saw :/. CheapAssGamer is usually very reliable with their info, and Amazon always competes with Steam sales. I'm gonna give it a couple more days. Wasn't that supposed to start on the first?
|
| # ? Jul 1, 2012 01:59 |
|
|
On second playthrough now (PC). Making all the choices I didn't make the first time, essentially achievement farming/finding different endings. Got the Konrad ending the first time; let him shoot me. My favorite parts so far are towards the end when the load screen messages start breaking the fourth wall. I love meta-poo poo in games (which is part of the reason I liked Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem so much despite its horrible play mechanics). Ones I've found so far: - You are still a good person. - Do you even remember why you came here? - This is all your fault. Incidentally, it's funny; trying to post about this game without spoiling it in any way for others leads to posts looking like declassified, redacted CIA docs.
|
| # ? Jul 1, 2012 03:43 |
|
|
rizuhbull posted:I saw :/. CheapAssGamer is usually very reliable with their info, and Amazon always competes with Steam sales. I'm gonna give it a couple more days. Wait, is that price only for PC?
|
| # ? Jul 1, 2012 04:24 |
|
|
Yodzilla posted:Wasn't that supposed to start on the first? SixtySix posted:Wait, is that price only for PC? KweezNArt posted:Ones I've found so far: rizuhbull fucked around with this message at Jul 1, 2012 around 04:51 |
| # ? Jul 1, 2012 04:49 |
|
|
|
| # ? May 24, 2013 05:28 |
|
|
Asehujiko posted:Does anybody have a full list of the choices and what they affect? I feel I've missed a few because it wasn't really obvious that there was a choice. i originally attacked the snipers, but for whatever reason i was instantly killed after clearing them all out. when i reloaded i chose the soldier, and the squad made a comment about it and that was the end of that. shortly afterwards you are attacked by more of the 33rd, and Walker asks Konrad to tell his troops to stand down on that busted walkie talkie. your character must look bat poo poo insane. secondly, i didn't shoot riggs.you kind of limp away as he yells, begs, and eventually screams behind you. the helicopter sequence that occurs twice. there must be some reasoning behind it? i don't believe that they just wanted to pull some bullshit directorial technique. i noticed that the second time you go through it, there are missiles being shot at you on top of the pre-existing helicopters. small difference i suppose. i keep getting the feeling that this game has some kind of weird sci fi element to it.
|
| # ? Jul 1, 2012 05:40 |
|
