Erk, slightly negative impressions overall
Ok, I've just finished the Xbox version of this. Whilst it's a relatively engaging title, theres a clear case here for it being exceptionally over hyped.
It's not that it's a bad game, it's definately an interesting game, It's just simply not what many reviews are making it out to be.
The first hour of play is very good, and the impression is conveyed that you really are creating an involving narrative. The opening scene in the toilet does generate the impression that whatever you do there, will substantially change what happens later. Sadly, it's just not true.
This is a very linear, single path story, in which you can change minor details in each scene. What was I expecting? well I had been lead to expect that i could substantially change the entire path of the story whilst still keeping it roughly to the written plot. for example, i expected that if i made one choice, i might visit a different location, and do something there, which might open a whole different branch of the game later. Thus several play throughs of the game might be required to fully explore the world.
I don't think i'm expecting too much, the old Fighting fantasy 'choose your own adventure' books Lay out a basic template for this. Important scenes in the story would always been arrived at, but various paths existed to get there there, sometimes totally independent of one another, other times subtley intertwining, so that a different path gave you a fresh perspective of things that happen in another path.
Fahrenhiet, on the other hand is purely linear, being able to choose what order i do scenes, does not really change that in any real way. If the game was upfront about that, then there would be less of a problem, but the game itself goes out of it's way to create the impression it's some sort of organic world in which you can substantially change the experience.
During the first play through, if you play it through without rechecking stuff in the chapters, it does a good job of creating a good illusion. It's just totally shattered when you start replaying it because you realise that the most you can do is affect minor things in a specific scene. The only real reason to even bother is to extract a bit more info about the slightly too vague plot.
I don't want to be totally negative, i did enjoy the game for what it was, and i think as it stands it worked best when it was more grounded in reality. I did really enjoy the start, in the bathroom, and hiding the evidence in lucas apartment. I also enjoyed the detective parts, and i feel it's a shame there wasn't more of those.
The supernatural, sub-matrix stuff in the latter half of the game was poorly rationalised, and detracted substantially from the gritty tone of the game. Whilst i have no problem suspending disbelief, for this setting it just felt tacked on, so there was an excuse for some 'looks good in the promos' action scenes. This is combined with the story really rushing itself to completion at the end. A game where the main selling point is story, shouldn't be cutting corners in this department.
I'm also not at all fond of these sodding QTE's that are becoming so popular. FMV games are back it seems, and hey, it's all ok now because the footage is generated in Realtime 3D. This isn't a gameplay innovation, it's a substantial step backwards. I don't mind the way they are implimented in games like RE4, where it's more of a reflex reaction thing added to a real game mechanic, but to have entire action sections based around a crude, simon says style game just strikes me as lazy.
Again an opportunity has been missed here. why not make the QTE bits decisions, so you can pick different directions to go in and it plays different footage based on that choice. Even that would be a step up from basically, the win/lose state setup they currently have.
I don't think this game will sustain the level of praise it's currently getting, into the future. I do think that it's hinted at some of the possibilities of the future however.
In terms of branching narrative, theres nothing here Deus ex didn't do first, both structurally and thematically.
Ok, I've just finished the Xbox version of this. Whilst it's a relatively engaging title, theres a clear case here for it being exceptionally over hyped.
It's not that it's a bad game, it's definately an interesting game, It's just simply not what many reviews are making it out to be.
The first hour of play is very good, and the impression is conveyed that you really are creating an involving narrative. The opening scene in the toilet does generate the impression that whatever you do there, will substantially change what happens later. Sadly, it's just not true.
This is a very linear, single path story, in which you can change minor details in each scene. What was I expecting? well I had been lead to expect that i could substantially change the entire path of the story whilst still keeping it roughly to the written plot. for example, i expected that if i made one choice, i might visit a different location, and do something there, which might open a whole different branch of the game later. Thus several play throughs of the game might be required to fully explore the world.
I don't think i'm expecting too much, the old Fighting fantasy 'choose your own adventure' books Lay out a basic template for this. Important scenes in the story would always been arrived at, but various paths existed to get there there, sometimes totally independent of one another, other times subtley intertwining, so that a different path gave you a fresh perspective of things that happen in another path.
Fahrenhiet, on the other hand is purely linear, being able to choose what order i do scenes, does not really change that in any real way. If the game was upfront about that, then there would be less of a problem, but the game itself goes out of it's way to create the impression it's some sort of organic world in which you can substantially change the experience.
During the first play through, if you play it through without rechecking stuff in the chapters, it does a good job of creating a good illusion. It's just totally shattered when you start replaying it because you realise that the most you can do is affect minor things in a specific scene. The only real reason to even bother is to extract a bit more info about the slightly too vague plot.
I don't want to be totally negative, i did enjoy the game for what it was, and i think as it stands it worked best when it was more grounded in reality. I did really enjoy the start, in the bathroom, and hiding the evidence in lucas apartment. I also enjoyed the detective parts, and i feel it's a shame there wasn't more of those.
The supernatural, sub-matrix stuff in the latter half of the game was poorly rationalised, and detracted substantially from the gritty tone of the game. Whilst i have no problem suspending disbelief, for this setting it just felt tacked on, so there was an excuse for some 'looks good in the promos' action scenes. This is combined with the story really rushing itself to completion at the end. A game where the main selling point is story, shouldn't be cutting corners in this department.
I'm also not at all fond of these sodding QTE's that are becoming so popular. FMV games are back it seems, and hey, it's all ok now because the footage is generated in Realtime 3D. This isn't a gameplay innovation, it's a substantial step backwards. I don't mind the way they are implimented in games like RE4, where it's more of a reflex reaction thing added to a real game mechanic, but to have entire action sections based around a crude, simon says style game just strikes me as lazy.
Again an opportunity has been missed here. why not make the QTE bits decisions, so you can pick different directions to go in and it plays different footage based on that choice. Even that would be a step up from basically, the win/lose state setup they currently have.
I don't think this game will sustain the level of praise it's currently getting, into the future. I do think that it's hinted at some of the possibilities of the future however.
In terms of branching narrative, theres nothing here Deus ex didn't do first, both structurally and thematically.
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