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I haven't been following this series since D3 wrapped, but the recent comments in the thread does make me curious about Overload. The only reason I'm not tempted to play D2 again is that I don't think I have a good way to control it, though maybe controller support could work. I'm also not sure I was that much help with LP commentary, since I could barely keep up with discussion of the game mechanics. Good on you for finishing the series regardless.
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Oct 31, 2021 14:27
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In my experience, keyboard control has often been "enough", although sometimes it makes it trickier to do the more involved maneuvers like rolling + moving at the same time, or trichording on reaction instead of just to show off. After all, not everybody owned one of those fancy Sidewinder peripherals!
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Oct 31, 2021 15:28
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In the NG+ video about the list of imitators, you mention Freespace 1 and 2 as being inspired by the series... but did you forget the full title of the first game is Descent: Freespace - The Great War  I don't recall the full story behind it, but it had something to do with the studio splitting in two after Descent 2, and the two halves working on Freespace and Descent 3. -- Anyway, thank you for showcasing the entire dang Descent series, my own exposure to the games was limited to borrowing Descent 2 for a few weeks and getting as far as getting the fusion cannon, and then many years later the GoG release of Descent 3 where I got to the trains, and took a break for some reason. (Also extensive amount of Freespace1 and 2 near their release) It's certainly been a trip to see what all I missed.
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Oct 31, 2021 18:19
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StarFyter posted:I don't recall the full story behind it, but it had something to do with the studio splitting in two after Descent 2, and the two halves working on Freespace and Descent 3. Basically, the two studios would alternate who got to make a Descent game. One made Descent: Freespace to keep the name, while the other made Descent 3. The former became a successful company with games like Red Faction, but the latter made Alter Echo, then died.
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Nov 1, 2021 01:00
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D1 and D2 were incredible for their time, even if the fact that the games gave you multiple lives meant that there were some annoying attitudes there about what constituted appropriate difficulty. Overload in a lot of ways seemed like those old games refined to near-perfection... except for the sameyness that set in and became very apparent toward the end. I'm sure some of that was due to budgetary reasons, since it was Kickstarter funded, but still disappointing. Those last few levels seemed so lacking in direction too. Just a lot of wandering around. Here's an example of what they could have done for the middle alien level. After clearing the arrival area and finding some time to get your bearings, you think you've detected a wormhole back to the Sol system, but there's too many auto-ops in the area. You've located what you think is a production facility nearby, so maybe if you blow up that section of the Dyson sphere you can stem the flow of enemy forces through the area long enough to punch your way through. Oh no! Files you find during the mission tell you they're building an army to attack Earth. At least now you know for sure where that wormhole goes. So you blow up the facility, and it works just like you expect to reduce the number of enemies around the wormhole. But an army of alien constructors descend on the area and rebuild everything you destroyed in a matter of minutes, showcasing just how dangerous these aliens are. You have to escape immediately, and find a way to close the wormhole on either this side or the other one, or Earth is doomed. That sort of thing. The story up to this point is kind of shoestring, but it works just fine for what it needs to do. It's simple, efficient, and to the point. The final act takes it too far though. Still, when I played the game I enjoyed it a lot. I just wish it had made enough money to justify making a game that would have been the D2 to this game's D1.
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Nov 1, 2021 02:47
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So you've probably noticed I like to talk about game design, my mind was wandering today during work and I found myself thinking about the similarity between late-game D1/D2 and modern cover shooters. It definitely does come mostly from prevalence of powerful hitscan weapons, but being one of the first "doom clones" out there with a full-3D environment also feeds into it a lot. Like, we start with the driller and homing hulks, who fire weapons that are essentially undodgeable. So how can the player cope with this, given that health pickups are scarce? The only way to beat the game, other than attrition, is to get the drop on these enemies before they can draw a bead on you. And, of course, what better way to do this than to give the player a full 3D environment to let them flank the enemy from many different angles? Yeah I know, the level design didn't take full advantage of this, but I still think that this was the harbinger - rather than a direct ancestor - of the Call of Duty hitscan/cover style of FPS. Someone on the team was definitely thinking about this, consider those weak basic enemies in Overload that fire the scattershot of glowy orange balls. Lots of slow-moving projectiles that are fun to dodge around, almost like a bullet hell style shooter. No need to flank these guys, just get amongst and have a blast manoeuvering and letting loose with all your cool guns. It's a bit dark soulsy in terms of encounter design sometimes: we quickly learn to assume that everything is an ambush, usually with a second and someties third ambush if you try and run past the first enemy - but the design is usually such that a skilled player can still get into and out of these hairy situations and have fun doing so. Again, compare to how often we had to use smart/homing/guided missiles to deal with ambushes in D1/2 because there was no other viable way. Also, I think the other thing that's interesting about Descent is that in the way it handles, it makes it clear that although it's a FPS, you're piloting a vehicle rather than just being a dude with a jetpack. It feels like you have some bulk and inertia - I think this is why I also reflexively compare it to the armored core games. Aside from often having winding 3d tunnel maps, they also do a good job of making you feel like you're piloting a machine rather than being a person running around the levels. Anyway thanks for the LP, it's been quite the project! We'll be keeping an eye out for whatever you do next. Crazy Achmed fucked around with this message at 13:35 on Nov 1, 2021 |
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Nov 1, 2021 13:30
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berryjon posted:Basically, the two studios would alternate who got to make a Descent game. One made Descent: Freespace to keep the name, while the other made Descent 3. The former became a successful company with games like Red Faction, but the latter made Alter Echo, then died. Eons ago a Volition employee said the "Descent" name being duct taped to the first Freespace game was Interplay's doing because they hoped that would attract more attention and sales by association. Volition didn't like it because Freespace has nothing to do with Descent other than some of the same people worked on developing it. Interplay pulled a similar move with Descent to Undermountain which was a fantasy RPG that had no association with Descent other than using the same game engine. When the brain trust at Interplay who made those naming decisions finally bankrupted the company they kept the rights to Descent while Volition got absorbed by THQ and their work on Descent 4 up to that point was reshaped into Red Faction.  Don't really have anything to add to the general Descent talk that hasn't already been said. There is something that Parallax got just right about the movement and gameplay that's hard to describe, kind of like how id nailed motion just right in Doom and Quake. One area where Overload fell a bit flat compared to it's predecessors that someone up thread or maybe in video commentary touched on is enemy design and the ability to identify enemy types in the blink of an eye due to distinctive colors, shapes, and weapon visuals. In Overload the enemies aren't very distinctive from one another in a firefight which feels like a game design regression.
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Nov 12, 2021 20:06
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