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 Let's Play Alekhine's Gun Alekhine's Gun is a stealth-TPS with an emphasis on open gameplay. Not open-world, mind you, just open. The idea is that there are countless ways to complete the objectives within the levels using a variety of play-styles. Sound familiar? Well, I am told it's all very similar to the Hitman series, but I've never played any of those titles. It's also supposed to be the third entry in the “Death to Spies” series, but I've never played any of those games either. I just know Alekhine's Gun is ambitious, fun... and a hard sell. What Alekhine's Gun does well: 1. It successfully encourages multiple play-styles. Indeed, if you watch this game on youtube, you'll find no two people playing it exactly the same way. The large, open maps, variety of tools at your disposal, and personal level of patience all ensure a different “solution” to each level depending on who's playing. This is the game's biggest strength. 2. The maps are creatively designed. No matter what level you're playing, all of the rooms connect in a sensible fashion that equally encourages exploration and elaborate planning. 3. You get points after a mission's completion, which allows you to buy such handy -and godly- upgrades as a pistol with a silencer. This only increases the options available to you, and can open up entire new strategies that you may have never considered. 4. The atmosphere is serviceable. I am not a history buff, and I know the absolute bare minimum possible about the Cold War and WWII, but I know when I like something, and I like the game's settings. They all feel unique, and the aforementioned creative map design only helps. 5. Save scumming is a potential strategy. What Alekhine's Gun doesn't do so well: 1. Most importantly, the Artificial Intelligence is terrible. In encouraging multiple play-styles, they may have gone a bit too easy on the player in this department. The NPCs are quick to forgive you for most misdeeds, and running a couple of rooms before slamming the door in their face is enough to throw them off your trail. The bouncers are the worst, as many times they don't even successfully prevent you from entering a room they're standing directly in front of. 2. The terrible AI is essential to the game design. Without it, many of the alternate play-styles the game encourages would not be valid. At first I thought I was just triggering exploit after terrible exploit, but I came to the sobering realization that the AI is comically incompetent on purpose. 3. The terrible AI's limits are hard to comprehend. They do draw the line at some point, but where exactly that point is... that's up for speculation. If you start picking locks, cracking safes, or pointing guns at people in plain sight, the AI will forgive you as long as you stop. Put the gun away, step back from the door, and they'll forget they ever saw you about to commit murder. On the other hand, if you punch the empty air three times in a big room, they'll open fire and you'll be dead in seconds. It's absolute anarchy. 4. Some objectives are not made clear. I'm unsure how to elaborate on this one without spoiling some of the game, but you'll have to trust me: In spite of the open nature, there are some things that should be explained. It sounds like an interesting mess. I really think that would be the ideal way to describe it. It's ambitious and creative, but confusing beyond any reason. So let's play it. In the spirit of the game, I'm going to be using my own solutions and my own style of play, regardless of whether they're optimal. It should be fun. Videos             I don't know for how long this peace will last. GamesAreSupernice fucked around with this message at 17:00 on Jan 16, 2017 |
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Jan 1, 2017 22:29
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I'm confused by the origins of this game. The company listed is an American one, but the series was originally Russian... and the game does seem to have a very Euro-made feel to it, especially the writing and voice acting. The gameplay does actually seem kind of fun, though.
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Jan 2, 2017 09:33
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bewilderment posted:I'm confused by the origins of this game. The company listed is an American one, but the series was originally Russian... and the game does seem to have a very Euro-made feel to it, especially the writing and voice acting. It's definitely made by the same team as the first Death to Spies games, for some reason Maximum Games just wants to hide that. Oh, and yeah it's pretty fun GamesAreSupernice fucked around with this message at 10:07 on Jan 2, 2017 |
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Jan 2, 2017 10:02
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When you get to the ship mission, please get as many people as you can into the soup.
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Jan 2, 2017 11:14
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SelenicMartian posted:When you get to the ship mission, please get as many people as you can into the soup. You've actually played it?
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Jan 2, 2017 17:41
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I've only played the first mission of the first two games a few times (they are slow moving) but I still love the series. The AI has always been weird and janky as hell. I had to get into an admin building, but the guards knew I wasn't supposed to be there. So, to get into this building that was in a wide open supply depot area I: Tossed a grenade at a window to blow it open. While the entire base looked at me, they saw me hop up onto a crate. I slowly backpeddled into the building. Went into a room, closed the door, stole a proper uniform. Walked around like I owned the place.
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Jan 2, 2017 19:25
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JossiRossi posted:I've only played the first mission of the first two games a few times (they are slow moving) but I still love the series. The AI has always been weird and janky as hell. I had to get into an admin building, but the guards knew I wasn't supposed to be there. So, to get into this building that was in a wide open supply depot area I: I wonder if the only reason this one got bad reviews is because it's been so long since the first two, and expectations have severely changed
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Jan 2, 2017 21:50
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SelenicMartian posted:When you get to the ship mission, please get as many people as you can into the soup. See, that's the kind of feature you need to push in the marketing. Hell just call it "Death to Spies 3: Making People Soup". Hmm... Maybe not now that I think about it. Also I am terrible at these games - I have the first two death to spies and while I like them, I seem to lack the patience for good stealth and get gunned down repeatedly. Looking forward to see a more competent playthrough.
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Jan 2, 2017 22:54
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Quicksilver6 posted:I seem to lack the patience for good stealth and get gunned down repeatedly. There are usually ways to avoid waiting in this game, they're just incredibly risky
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Jan 2, 2017 23:55
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This is my favorite beat 'em up
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Jan 3, 2017 00:10
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It's been brought to my attention that the story could be a little confusing, so I wanted to clarify: The only reason that hotel mission exists is so we can see the scene after it, where Vinny (Rambaldi) and Agent Alekhine (Semyon, the player character) spare each other's lives.
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Jan 3, 2017 23:51
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Top 1 Way to Secure Yourself Against Russian Spies 1. Close the hatches
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Jan 4, 2017 21:45
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poo poo, they actually do pronounce "Alekhine" as "Ah-le-khain" Now it's going to piss me off
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Jan 5, 2017 00:28
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Alexeythegreat posted:poo poo, they actually do pronounce "Alekhine" as "Ah-le-khain" How is it pronounced?
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Jan 5, 2017 02:12
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GamesAreSupernice posted:How is it pronounced? According to Wikipedia, it's /ɐˈlʲexʲɪn/. That's roughly "uh-lech-in", if I recall my IPA, with the x/ch being the same sound as in the Scots Gaelic "loch" or the German surname "Bach". The idea (as briefly referenced in-game) is that "Alekhine's gun" refers to a chess maneuver devised by Alexander Alekhine, a noted Russian chess master who was active in the early 20th century. (Seriously, the man is still considered to be one of the best players who ever lived.) So if you can line up your rooks and queen in a line, you can present a massive amount of threat against most positions. (I don't play chess myself, mind.) NGDBSS fucked around with this message at 04:52 on Jan 5, 2017 |
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Jan 5, 2017 04:10
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The bizarrely lenient AI on full display
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Jan 5, 2017 10:44
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NGDBSS posted:According to Wikipedia, it's /ɐˈlʲexʲɪn/. That's roughly "uh-lech-in", if I recall my IPA, with the x/ch being the same sound as in the Scots Gaelic "loch" or the German surname "Bach". Only Russian gun I know is Chekov's.
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Jan 5, 2017 18:54
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A biker bar with only two dedicated mechanics?
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Jan 8, 2017 11:56
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A beautiful dance of espionage
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Jan 10, 2017 02:02
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The plot gets a lot more predictable very suddenly
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Jan 12, 2017 09:17
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If only we could have seen this coming
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Jan 13, 2017 02:04
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Despite my great enjoyment of Death to Spies, I ended up skipping this because the early reports were incredibly hosed. So thank you, GamesAreSupernice, for capturing ths Rube Goldbergian monstrosity for our amusement.
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Jan 13, 2017 03:05
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Orv posted:Despite my great enjoyment of Death to Spies, I ended up skipping this because the early reports were incredibly hosed. So thank you, GamesAreSupernice, for capturing ths Rube Goldbergian monstrosity for our amusement. Early reports?
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Jan 13, 2017 05:06
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"This game is loving terrible" from basically everyone.
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Jan 13, 2017 06:05
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Orv posted:"This game is loving terrible" from basically everyone. Oh, yeah, that's a shame. It has its obvious problems, but I think after you understand how dumb the AI is it's a lot easier to appreciate.
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Jan 13, 2017 07:11
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Just drink the drat poison
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Jan 14, 2017 06:29
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If only they had thought to check in pairs.
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Jan 15, 2017 19:22
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It is time for the ending! We have and my final thoughts on the game as a whole, Thank you everyone for watching! I think this is a fun game that deserved a bit more attention.
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Jan 16, 2017 16:59
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Heh that was quite a bit of fun.
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Jan 17, 2017 00:09
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Sucks to be all those FBI agents who were just doing their job in the penultimate level. Interesting game. Seems like it could have been really good with some polish. Not sure how to feel about the game being playable by sheer virtue of the AI being dumber than a post, but it made for an enjoyable LP if nothing else. Much obliged, good sir.
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Jan 17, 2017 02:38
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Alavaria posted:Heh that was quite a bit of fun. Glad you enjoyed yourself, I certainly had a good time playing it KieranWalker posted:Sucks to be all those FBI agents who were just doing their job in the penultimate level. They were marked as enemies on the map, my conscience is totally clean!
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Jan 17, 2017 15:48
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While I was watching this Let's Play I had assumed this was like an old rear end PC game or something, not a 2016 Xbone and PS4 release. Boy was I wrong.
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Jan 17, 2017 17:13
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Strogov has mastered the "Barry Allen" school of espionage. If you keep moving, no one can question you or catch you.
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Jan 17, 2017 22:49
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Hitlers Gay Secret posted:While I was watching this Let's Play I had assumed this was like an old rear end PC game or something, not a 2016 Xbone and PS4 release. It was first conceived six years ago, so that may have something to do with it. Quiet Python posted:Strogov has mastered the "Barry Allen" school of espionage. If you keep moving, no one can question you or catch you. Well what're the guards gonna do? Open the doors we closed in their face? Ridiculous.
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Jan 18, 2017 09:45
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I still have a couple videos to go That said, I finally got around to recording the correct pronunciation of "Alekhine" http://vocaroo.com/i/s1DAZgbPdlJ8
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Jan 18, 2017 12:19
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Alexeythegreat posted:I still have a couple videos to go It's a good thing I didn't try to say that properly.
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Jan 18, 2017 13:51
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GamesAreSupernice posted:It's a good thing I didn't try to say that properly. Yeah, most Russian words are pretty much impossible for an English speaker to pronounce correctly without targeted accent training, the phonetic systems are too different
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Jan 18, 2017 15:50
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It doesn't seem terribly difficult to pronounce if you've studied something like German, but then again I'm not certain what the average American has had for foreign-language education. (Though I seem to have gotten a vowel confused on my earlier comment.) But so far as phonetics go I'd wager that Russian <-> English is relatively easy. I've still seen people get confused on simple stuff (as in my French class), but if you can relate to the individual phonemes based on tongue position then with practice you can consistently pronounce relevant words. There are still the fine distinctions of articulation as indicated by diacritic marks, but at that point you're at least speaking with an obvious accent rather than completely botching the language. The really wacky stuff occurs when you get into topics like tones (as in the Chinese languages) and non-pulmonic consonants (not dependent on airflow from the lungs). Without training the average person wouldn't even know where to begin with those. (I should stress that I have only an amateur understanding of linguistics, aided by ready access to Wikipedia and the like.)
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Jan 18, 2017 19:55
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I am yet to meet a person with English L1 who would be able to pronounce "ы" (or [ɨ] in the IPA) or the soft consonants And that includes people who've lived in Russia for decades and speak in otherwise perfect grammar
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Jan 18, 2017 20:25
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From the look of it, delineating some of those soft consonants from other similarly placed ones would be splitting hairs to the untrained ear. Which isn't to say that a meaningful difference doesn't exist, just that if you don't know to look for it then it's much harder to discern. [ɨ] seems easier to me, but as you've noted that's not the case for most. I can get an idea of how to pronounce a phoneme if I can relate it to an existing one in my lexicon with just a change in backness/place of articulation, but I doubt that language instruction generally does or should concern itself with atomistic mechanisms like that as opposed to a more holistic approach.
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Jan 18, 2017 21:17
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