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         A long time ago, a group of French guys decided that they wanted to make a game. Drawing inspiration from a number of cosmic horror stories, along with parts of voodoo and a plethora of other sources they made what would become considered by most to be the start of mainstream success for a horror game. And that game was called 'Alone in the Dark'....but while the gif above says that, we aren't going to be playing the original installment in the franchise. After three sequels of slowly decreasing quality and a relatively well received reboot, the franchise had lost most of it's sheen as a number of other horror titles had come to outshine 'Alone in the Dark' over the years. Which brings up to the real subject of our let's play this time around, Alone in the Dark (2008). Developed by Eden Games (a company mostly known for making massively lackluster driving games) and published by Atari (who had recently been bought out by Alone in the Dark's previous publisher Infogrames and who would go bankrupt completely in 2013), AiTD 2008 is considered by most people to be a fairly poo poo game. The devs tried to make a cinematic and expansive open world horror experience and sadly they just weren't able to deliver. Features feel poorly implemented, unnecessarily complicated, or just downright not user friendly. And to top it all off, it was also meant originally to be a tie-in for the abysmal Uwe Boll feature film for the series. This was inevitably partially scrapped leaving the game's lore and backstory a jumbled mess that touches on some parts of the movie while also trying to tie into the previous game. Needless to say, the story is a mess and the writing/dialogue doesn't help things much. And that's just all the tip of the iceberg, but the question remains. Is it really that bad? Well, there's only one way to find out and that's what we're going to get to with these videos. discworld is all I read fucked around with this message at 10:16 on Nov 8, 2017 |
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Sep 30, 2017 07:30
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 100% positive throughout this entire affair. That's my plan.
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Sep 30, 2017 07:31
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This game has one of the biggest gaps between ambition and execution I've ever seen
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Sep 30, 2017 07:57
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Oh nice. I was wondering when you'd get to the Alone in the Dark games but didn't expect you to jump into this one. I'm also a little surprised you aren't doing the PS3 version subtitled Inferno, which changes the controls and rebalances the game and fixes the most egregious bugs, which help make the game more playable than the PC and 360 releases.
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Sep 30, 2017 08:24
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I remember this... way back when it came out, I was getting another game at gamestop (Yeah I know) and I basically had a large t-shirt thrown at me. I was like 'eh free clothes', so I still have an Alone in the Dark t-shirt somewhere.
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Sep 30, 2017 08:56
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Mr. Fortitude posted:Oh nice. I was wondering when you'd get to the Alone in the Dark games but didn't expect you to jump into this one. I'm also a little surprised you aren't doing the PS3 version subtitled Inferno, which changes the controls and rebalances the game and fixes the most egregious bugs, which help make the game more playable than the PC and 360 releases. Drakenel posted:I remember this... way back when it came out, I was getting another game at gamestop (Yeah I know) and I basically had a large t-shirt thrown at me. I was like 'eh free clothes', so I still have an Alone in the Dark t-shirt somewhere. Crane Fist posted:This game has one of the biggest gaps between ambition and execution I've ever seen
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Sep 30, 2017 18:25
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Alone in the Park is a fun game to watch, but I don't think I'd ever want to play it. Good soundtrack though.
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Sep 30, 2017 22:14
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Oh man I didn't realize this and Get Even had the same composer. I really enjoyed the Get Even OST although it did have some of the same music mismatching problems AITD did. Like this piece of catchy pop crack playing while sneaking through a cemetery https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o7DL3fYEr4
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Oct 1, 2017 00:00
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Aye, he also did the soundtrack to Obscure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU21vutCTUc where he brought in the same Bulgarian choir. It all comes together really with former French LP man Coulis; who did Obscure and Alone in the Dark: A New Nightmare....who had co-commentary done by Psycho Serum who later did co-commentary work done on Hbomberguy's LP of this very same game! It all fits together perfectly...we all have poo poo taste! But I still have been meaning to get around to Get Even; I mean it's a narrative horror game with Condemned-esque forensic stuff by the studio that made loving Necrovision. It sounds like my dream game.
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Oct 1, 2017 03:32
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discworld is all I read posted:Aye, he also did the soundtrack to Obscure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU21vutCTUc where he brought in the same Bulgarian choir. It all comes together really with former French LP man Coulis; who did Obscure and Alone in the Dark: A New Nightmare....who had co-commentary done by Psycho Serum who later did co-commentary work done on Hbomberguy's LP of this very same game! It all fits together perfectly...we all have poo poo taste! Okay, THAT sounds interesting there.
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Oct 1, 2017 05:01
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Ah, Alone in the Dark 2008, I love this game, it's so heavily flawed but it has some really cool stuff that I keep being surprised no one has tried to steal for other games.
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Oct 1, 2017 12:01
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discworld is all I read posted:Aye, he also did the soundtrack to Obscure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU21vutCTUc where he brought in the same Bulgarian choir. It all comes together really with former French LP man Coulis; who did Obscure and Alone in the Dark: A New Nightmare....who had co-commentary done by Psycho Serum who later did co-commentary work done on Hbomberguy's LP of this very same game! It all fits together perfectly...we all have poo poo taste! I actually completely forgot about doing this one with Hbomb, holy poo poo
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Oct 3, 2017 18:50
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 So we continue on through some more tutorials, we meet some supporting characters, I light some demons on fire, and perhaps there might be an earthquake in there too. Ya just never know what this game will decide to chuck at you. Also I was thinking of some ideas for bonus videos and I thought it might be fun to try out a few of the 360 achievements (since the PC version doesn't have any). In this case, it's going to be doing the driving section from the driver section and believe it or not I got it on the first try: Bonus 1: Cockpit Addict Crane Fist posted:I actually completely forgot about doing this one with Hbomb, holy poo poo discworld is all I read fucked around with this message at 06:57 on Oct 10, 2017 |
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Oct 4, 2017 05:55
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All my videos are gone from the internet and the backup copies are on a hard drive literally halfway around the world from me which is honestly kind of a relief but at the same time I've got the bad nostalgia, they were 2009 as gently caress and completely terrible but also good fun That driving achievement incidentally took me like 20 tries because of the horrible ramp physics
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Oct 4, 2017 08:02
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Say, Niggurath, would it be possible for you to turn up the brightness just a tad? I was literally seeing nothing but a black screen at certain parts in your video.
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Oct 4, 2017 09:28
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CommissarMega posted:Say, Niggurath, would it be possible for you to turn up the brightness just a tad? I was literally seeing nothing but a black screen at certain parts in your video. I am going to second the request, actually. I know, for example, the fight in the lobby against that first human enemy (not far from the big fire), I had ZERO idea what was going on as it was all one big black blob. Cheers, and thanks for the LP!
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Oct 4, 2017 09:43
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This is about as far as I managed to get when I attempted to play this game. I got to the far side of the parking garage and couldn't get the wood blocking the door to ignite, and I ran out of flammable things to try with (or just couldn't find the ones that may have been there). I eventually concluded that I was doing something wrong, but couldn't find another method to progress and just quit playing. I wasn't invested enough in the story or any of the characters to care enough to try again, and didn't feel like abusing the "chapter" system to skip parts of it. So this may become one of those rare LPs that I watch instead of playing the game myself.
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Oct 4, 2017 14:44
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CommissarMega posted:Say, Niggurath, would it be possible for you to turn up the brightness just a tad? I was literally seeing nothing but a black screen at certain parts in your video. edit: I don't know if it helps at all, but I tried to futz around with the brightness in avisynth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pcjbGoYUe8. If that looks any better then I can probably try to up the brightness overall in this video to maybe help it out. discworld is all I read fucked around with this message at 17:47 on Oct 4, 2017 |
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Oct 4, 2017 16:36
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Came for what I thought was a ban me, stayed for an LP of a terrible game.
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Oct 4, 2017 22:41
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I heard the hubbub around this version of Alone in the Dark but never played it, so this is nice to see from a curiousity standpoint. The game honestly kind of irritates me in a lot of ways, like in the first vid (they know the building is dangerous and crawling with poo poo, why not just shoot him there and then?). I can see why people praised the fire though, cause christ even now in 2017 I think that looks good still. However, knowing the background I sort of suspect that the fire took up like all of their budget. But yeah, even with all the awful design that's visible even right at the first episode, I find myself pretty forgiving overall. Failure by ambition is still better than the other kinds of failure, and it's at least a good case study. Definitely watching more.
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Oct 4, 2017 22:50
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Yeah, it's a situation where rose-tinted hyperbole has probably made the game out to be something a lot worse than it was. Like there's so much venom spit regarding the driving and I expected the worst ever, and really...it's not that bad. It's not amazingly precise or amazing, but it's serviceable. Overall I'd just say the game is overly complicated; there's no reason for the inventory to be the way it is, there's no reason to have to blink, there shouldn't be this odd system when trying to wield a gun and a flashlight. I poo poo you not, you can choose to hold a flashlight and the gun, or you can hook the flashlight into your jacket to wield a two handed weapon. But when it's on your jacket, you can't easily turn it off and on; so you have to keep that in mind. And I'm sure it's 'realistic' but it's also cumbersome as gently caress. And you have to keep the button combinations to do these things in your mind while in combat and it can be overly cumbersome. Not awful, mind you; just unnecessary. And then you have to deal with an equal amount of nonsense when operating the car, but I'll leave that for later when we have to drive more. But yeah, my basic point is that this is a fairly ambitious game by every definition and it's not really that bad. get that OUT of my face posted:Came for what I thought was a ban me, stayed for an LP of a terrible game. But yeah, were there any feelings on this? Does it seem worth doing? discworld is all I read posted:edit: I don't know if it helps at all, but I tried to futz around with the brightness in avisynth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pcjbGoYUe8. If that looks any better then I can probably try to up the brightness overall in this video to maybe help it out.
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Oct 4, 2017 23:48
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discworld is all I read posted:I gotta spice up the experience. An LP superstar has to upsell to get those sweet karma views on the ol' SA. The avisynth fix seems to make things better than the original state. I just hope all that sweet karma results in some username change. Call me picky, but seeing your new username, but the realizing "Hell yeah, another "Niggurath" lovely/mediocre/interesting/japanese horror game lp" is confusing. The other way, recommending some old "Niggurath" classics andd then getting a "Wait, Who?" is not much better.
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Oct 5, 2017 00:18
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The potty mouths on these people, my word. I'd heard stories about New York but I never thought it'd be like this. Thanks for all the new music you've introduced me too over the years thru your various bonus videos Mr. Rath.
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Oct 5, 2017 00:24
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Cracks that move of their own accord across building facades and human faces alike isn't a bad hook for your horror game. Shame about the rest of it. That is some nice looking fire, though.
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Oct 5, 2017 00:36
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For all the things it flops on, the game does some noteworthy things. For one, the whole 'building is collapsing' is done well and seems legit tense. The idea of using fire to finish off enemies for good, even if you have to make your own fire to make it happen, is a good one. And really, the inventory system wouldn't be so bad if it was more easily controlled. Hotkeys to pull out certain things would be of immense use since the game expects you to gently caress with it during combat too.
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Oct 5, 2017 02:07
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discworld is all I read posted:Yeah, I can try to bump it up more. I noticed it was a bit of an issue in the first video and tried to turn it up more in this one, but it seems it didn't help. That seems a good bit better to me, so, cheers!
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Oct 5, 2017 02:36
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Drakenel posted:For all the things it flops on, the game does some noteworthy things. For one, the whole 'building is collapsing' is done well and seems legit tense. The idea of using fire to finish off enemies for good, even if you have to make your own fire to make it happen, is a good one. And really, the inventory system wouldn't be so bad if it was more easily controlled. Hotkeys to pull out certain things would be of immense use since the game expects you to gently caress with it during combat too. Samizdata posted:That seems a good bit better to me, so, cheers! OutofSight posted:The avisynth fix seems to make things better than the original state. coleman francis posted:The potty mouths on these people, my word. I'd heard stories about New York but I never thought it'd be like this. And anytime I can foist my out of date hipster music tastes on people, then I'm more than happy to.
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Oct 5, 2017 02:59
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Aight, hopefully clearer and brighter version of part 2 is up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL4rLRfh4dU. Also the OP link should be pointing to it as well.
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Oct 5, 2017 05:34
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The only part of that video that doesn't bother my eyes or sensibilities is 1:17-1:30. Everything else is just uncomfortable to look at. It's the game, though. You're doing a fine job as usual, Niggurath.
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Oct 5, 2017 06:21
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discworld is all I read posted:Aight, hopefully clearer and brighter version of part 2 is up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL4rLRfh4dU. Also the OP link should be pointing to it as well. Nicely done, sirrah, nicely done.
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Oct 5, 2017 06:27
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discworld is all I read posted:Yeah, it's a situation where rose-tinted hyperbole has probably made the game out to be something a lot worse than it was. Like there's so much venom spit regarding the driving and I expected the worst ever, and really...it's not that bad. It's not amazingly precise or amazing, but it's serviceable. Overall I'd just say the game is overly complicated; there's no reason for the inventory to be the way it is, there's no reason to have to blink, there shouldn't be this odd system when trying to wield a gun and a flashlight. Ok, I'm going to defend this a just a tiny bit, not because it's actually great but it has some reason. Blink is actually useful but only once you get a bit into the game , only if you are playing on a TV and only if you are playing in the most boring way possible(firebullets only) otherwise it's just a button to remove a status effect from I think a single enemy type, I really think the idea behind it is pretty cool though. The inventory works pretty much like a more cluttered weapon wheel if you use a controller, but it's pretty responsive for how often you need stuff from it, you haven't even shown off my biggest issue with it the crafting animations. But yeah you are right the flashlight should have a dedicated button and should probably always be stuck to your jacket instead of requiring a hand, also I think a few specific items should probably have a dedicated slot like the gun instead of taking up regular slots. But yeah you are right it's like the rest of the game: Not awful, but overambitious and a bit too fiddly., still wish someone would have stolen these things and fixed them in a better game. Or if Eden actually got a chance to make a sequel. I really love the end of the second video : "Meet me at the museum Edward" and then he blows his own head off. It's the perfect blend off goofy and meaningful you only really get in survival horror games Hel fucked around with this message at 12:06 on Oct 5, 2017 |
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Oct 5, 2017 12:02
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Oh god, I loved this game to bits. Played through it on both Wii and PS3 and I've got only one answer to the convoluted inventory and flashlight/gun/2hand mechanics: These guys wanted to make a VR game 10 years early. It'd be drat near perfect on current VR gear. No survival horror game since has really matched AitD 2008 for me for the immersive yet cinematic qualities it brings to the table, especially the brilliant soundtrack. The entire opening section is a major high point, the collapse and fire create a great amount of non-combat tension while teaching you all the basic tools for combat before you encounter your first enemy. That's good design there. The ambition in its design does cause some parts of the game to falter considerably and the unconventional systems within it can be tough to acclimatise to, honestly it's a game best either on Wii or PS3 and the Xbox/PC versions are afterthoughts.
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Oct 5, 2017 13:57
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The thing I find most unfortunate about Alone in the Dark is the fact that Atari went bankrupt after. As far as I can tell, no other game stole the mechanics, and since they already put in a considerable amount of work into stuff like the fire, I think it would honestly have been interesting if they put the fire mechanics into another game. I could see it work with a game primarily around arson or firefighting if they just tweaked it. But it just looks like all that work kind of goes down the shitter since I haven't heard of anyone reusing it.
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Oct 6, 2017 21:03
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The quality in this games shoots off in different directions. The action set pieces and the music so far have been good. The game really captures that "cinematic" feel games were trying to emulate at the time. But, man, that dialogue and story are whole gradations of terrible. Actually, this game is reminding me so much of a movie, I wouldn't be surprised if the writers made judicious use of a how-to-write-a-blockbuster-movie book. So far, the plot is contrite enough and the dialogue is enough of a mixture of poor exposition and awkward wittiness ("The only son of a bitch I see is..." our female protagonist says, with little provocation) to be another summer movie.
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Oct 6, 2017 21:41
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Blame Uwe Boll.
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Oct 6, 2017 21:46
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Mr. Highway posted:The quality in this games shoots off in different directions. The action set pieces and the music so far have been good. The game really captures that "cinematic" feel games were trying to emulate at the time. But, man, that dialogue and story are whole gradations of terrible. Actually, this game is reminding me so much of a movie, I wouldn't be surprised if the writers made judicious use of a how-to-write-a-blockbuster-movie book. So far, the plot is contrite enough and the dialogue is enough of a mixture of poor exposition and awkward wittiness ("The only son of a bitch I see is..." our female protagonist says, with little provocation) to be another summer movie. HerpicleOmnicron5 posted:Blame Uwe Boll. Also...how did they make a sequel to the Alone in the Dark movie? I guess I shouldn't be surprised since I saw Bloodrayne 2 the movie where she has to fight vampire Billy the Kid played by the guy who played the Postal dude in the Postal movie.
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Oct 6, 2017 22:08
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Hel posted:I really love the end of the second video : "Meet me at the museum Edward" and then he blows his own head off. It's the perfect blend off goofy and meaningful you only really get in survival horror games Yeah this game has some touches that are actually really loving good
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Oct 8, 2017 08:05
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It's funny, I remember downloading the videos of a previous AitD LP from these forums and never got around to watching them. I guess I'll watch this LP first.
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Oct 9, 2017 17:43
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discworld is all I read posted:Overall playing this really makes me think of an odd mixture of Uncharted and Disaster: Day of Crisis. It's this combination of action set pieces and combat, sprinkled with scaling and parkour that I'd see in Uncharted. But then it's got these over the top disaster set pieces, fighting the environment, and just abysmal writing while still trying to be cinematic that I remember so fondly from Disaster (along with plenty of singular use mechanics that are promptly forgotten at times). It's just so unpolished but oddly endearing. Tying this game into the movie would make the universally accepted garbage more acceptable, b/c if it's based on a garbage movie you'll at least go in with really low expectations I bought this and never finished it, it was just unplayable awful after a point to me. Im not even sure how far i made it beyond a couple of the big setpiece encounters
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Oct 9, 2017 18:17
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 The heat is on as Edward has to take a slightly slimy detour into darkness. But what's the real terror that is lying in what for him down in the sewer...the answer is sassy cult leader phone calls. And for our bonus this time around, we get a very slightly upgraded gun and we do a lil gardening: Bonus 2- Getting to the root of the issue Mraagvpeine posted:It's funny, I remember downloading the videos of a previous AitD LP from these forums and never got around to watching them. I guess I'll watch this LP first.
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Oct 10, 2017 07:31
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