*Takes a sip of imaginary coffee and off he goes, at three in the morning.
After a very prolonged downloading time (6 hours!), and a little time spent installing the demo, and probably an hour ish playing the demo I have been able to come to the following preliminary conclusion:
A nice little number, cute, a breath of fresh air, but not really going to revolutionise the FPS genre, and sadly, will probably be ignored because it isn't Half Life 2.
First off - if you run it on a Laptop, wear headphones. The sound is amazing. You will quickly learn that is a GOOD idea to tell where the bullets are coming from are where they are ricocheting off. But that is not the only plus, the quiet sounds of the island make a refreshing change from the (nicely) overblown score that kicks in whenever it looks like you're about to be discovered.
The binoculars have a charming little feature, whereby if you keep the heads of the two chatting people in the middle, you can often pick up on what they say. Think Siren's sight-jacking but audio? Such classic phrases as "little red cart", discussions on mobile phone technology limitation and how mercs actually prefer just to sit on the beach and play with guns - all from the lips of well animated mercs. You really feel, as you zoom in on them, that they really are having the conversation. These do repeat, but you aren't forced to listen to them. And the mission objective dude voiceover is helpful without being patronising.
No horrendous, overblown, gun waving here when the characters talk to one another (hmm, KotOR??) but I digress, the binoculars also have another wonderful feature, whereby they have a lock on signal, with blue boxes latching onto the characters as they pass through the massively xoomable binocular's field of view.
Now, before you complain how this will make the game easy, you bunch of negative people, let me tell you this is the greatest idea ever.
Want to know why no one has done Jungle based levels well in the past? Because they sucked when it came to spotting enemies and keeping your bearing. Goldeneye's jungle level was marred by murky textures and losing your bearings. Guilty Spark 343 led to many a disorientating final few minutes in the dark jungle. Ghost recon? SOCOM. Nope.
A useful compass completes the navigation tools.
Finally, you can see the enemy. You know where you are going. You have the necessary tools to do the job of killing them.
Once an an enemy has been locked onto (a process which is pretty much instantaneous) with your binoculars, his position appears on your miniature radar screen in the bottom left hand corner unrtil he is killed or disappears off range. This is useful. It encourages a person to do some reconnaisance, but not to be paralysed with fear as to what happened to that person who just walked off in another direction. The radar ensures you won't get a nasty, or rather unfair surprise later on. Think of it as a mental note. One that punishes sloppy recon without subjecting any scripted patrol paths to too much scrutinny.
Normally, hostiles are blue, but when they get suspicious that someone is there, their blip turns yellow and they begin to investigate. Some sort of counter/sliding scale then begins on the area next to the radar. The radar still works, so I'm not sure yet what this counter measures. Some sort of measure of likelihood of being discovered? More investigation is needed.
When a guard begins looking you need to quickly hide. Nothing in the world like edging along a boudler, the merc on the other side. Your own sigh of relief is discernable as you here him call off the search.
The ability to peer round corners is also very welcome and allows you to take pot shots without exposing yourself to risk. Obviously, this only really works in terms of tactics if you were hidden up till that point. The peer left and right actions allow you to pull off a single round or several automatic rounds (certain weapons such as what appears to be M4 carbine, have either semi-automatic or just regular firing modes.
The graphics are pretty. Whilst the textures themselves are not hugely advanced in the slightest, there are a lot of them. Allowing for a person to conceal themselves in a jungle full of leaves is much more important than a single solitary bump mapped leaf.
You will need to stay out of sight. Yes, there is stealth involved. However, this is very welcome. The A.I. is nothing short of superb. They work together. They call out flanks. Inflict more casualties on one flank more than the other and they'll compensate accordingly.They pin you down, shouting out commands. Nothing better crouched behind a rock, hearing them get closer, closer as they search. Quickly you pop round and take out one behind a trunk before he can return the favour. But you've then given the others the final bead on your position and yet in the confusion you've forgotten where they are. Trust me, you don't even think to look at your radar. It really is that immersive.
I could list for ages, the great A.I. and how it is pretty much the most advanced A.I. to date, and probably will beat Half Life 2's A.I.
The game involves crawling through the underbush, true. But it makes an effortless transition from stealth to action. As soon as you want to kill everyone, you can, or at least can try. You have four weapon slots, with a maximum of 4 weapons. The standard issue is a Knife and Gun. Grenades can also be used to get yourself out a problem when you are trapped (incidentally, one A.I. told his teammate to stay in the covering position while he went to take me out. I took out, the investigating member, but the second took me down with a well aimed shot to the head).
Deciding if you should attack now, or wait for more favourable circumstances makes for great fun. Likewise when in danger of being found? Do you try and hide, or take them out while you still have only alerted one member of the team?
Vehicles - nice simplified handling. Swimming is wonderfully easy for a FPS. Again, many a strategic decision involved. Assault the outermost beach area with a motorised dinghy, thereby giving you a beachhead as well as access to weapon (but they'll hear you coming) or do you dive deep down, swim, hoping your breath lasts long enough. Using cover to remain hidden. But end up inadequately equipped for later groups of mercs.
So to some up. Before I hit the Zzzz button.
Try and download it. But not from Fileplanet. 28kBps, 1/2 a Gig file IIRC = not fun.
After a very prolonged downloading time (6 hours!), and a little time spent installing the demo, and probably an hour ish playing the demo I have been able to come to the following preliminary conclusion:
A nice little number, cute, a breath of fresh air, but not really going to revolutionise the FPS genre, and sadly, will probably be ignored because it isn't Half Life 2.
First off - if you run it on a Laptop, wear headphones. The sound is amazing. You will quickly learn that is a GOOD idea to tell where the bullets are coming from are where they are ricocheting off. But that is not the only plus, the quiet sounds of the island make a refreshing change from the (nicely) overblown score that kicks in whenever it looks like you're about to be discovered.
The binoculars have a charming little feature, whereby if you keep the heads of the two chatting people in the middle, you can often pick up on what they say. Think Siren's sight-jacking but audio? Such classic phrases as "little red cart", discussions on mobile phone technology limitation and how mercs actually prefer just to sit on the beach and play with guns - all from the lips of well animated mercs. You really feel, as you zoom in on them, that they really are having the conversation. These do repeat, but you aren't forced to listen to them. And the mission objective dude voiceover is helpful without being patronising.
No horrendous, overblown, gun waving here when the characters talk to one another (hmm, KotOR??) but I digress, the binoculars also have another wonderful feature, whereby they have a lock on signal, with blue boxes latching onto the characters as they pass through the massively xoomable binocular's field of view.
Now, before you complain how this will make the game easy, you bunch of negative people, let me tell you this is the greatest idea ever.
Want to know why no one has done Jungle based levels well in the past? Because they sucked when it came to spotting enemies and keeping your bearing. Goldeneye's jungle level was marred by murky textures and losing your bearings. Guilty Spark 343 led to many a disorientating final few minutes in the dark jungle. Ghost recon? SOCOM. Nope.
A useful compass completes the navigation tools.
Finally, you can see the enemy. You know where you are going. You have the necessary tools to do the job of killing them.
Once an an enemy has been locked onto (a process which is pretty much instantaneous) with your binoculars, his position appears on your miniature radar screen in the bottom left hand corner unrtil he is killed or disappears off range. This is useful. It encourages a person to do some reconnaisance, but not to be paralysed with fear as to what happened to that person who just walked off in another direction. The radar ensures you won't get a nasty, or rather unfair surprise later on. Think of it as a mental note. One that punishes sloppy recon without subjecting any scripted patrol paths to too much scrutinny.
Normally, hostiles are blue, but when they get suspicious that someone is there, their blip turns yellow and they begin to investigate. Some sort of counter/sliding scale then begins on the area next to the radar. The radar still works, so I'm not sure yet what this counter measures. Some sort of measure of likelihood of being discovered? More investigation is needed.
When a guard begins looking you need to quickly hide. Nothing in the world like edging along a boudler, the merc on the other side. Your own sigh of relief is discernable as you here him call off the search.
The ability to peer round corners is also very welcome and allows you to take pot shots without exposing yourself to risk. Obviously, this only really works in terms of tactics if you were hidden up till that point. The peer left and right actions allow you to pull off a single round or several automatic rounds (certain weapons such as what appears to be M4 carbine, have either semi-automatic or just regular firing modes.
The graphics are pretty. Whilst the textures themselves are not hugely advanced in the slightest, there are a lot of them. Allowing for a person to conceal themselves in a jungle full of leaves is much more important than a single solitary bump mapped leaf.
You will need to stay out of sight. Yes, there is stealth involved. However, this is very welcome. The A.I. is nothing short of superb. They work together. They call out flanks. Inflict more casualties on one flank more than the other and they'll compensate accordingly.They pin you down, shouting out commands. Nothing better crouched behind a rock, hearing them get closer, closer as they search. Quickly you pop round and take out one behind a trunk before he can return the favour. But you've then given the others the final bead on your position and yet in the confusion you've forgotten where they are. Trust me, you don't even think to look at your radar. It really is that immersive.
I could list for ages, the great A.I. and how it is pretty much the most advanced A.I. to date, and probably will beat Half Life 2's A.I.
The game involves crawling through the underbush, true. But it makes an effortless transition from stealth to action. As soon as you want to kill everyone, you can, or at least can try. You have four weapon slots, with a maximum of 4 weapons. The standard issue is a Knife and Gun. Grenades can also be used to get yourself out a problem when you are trapped (incidentally, one A.I. told his teammate to stay in the covering position while he went to take me out. I took out, the investigating member, but the second took me down with a well aimed shot to the head).
Deciding if you should attack now, or wait for more favourable circumstances makes for great fun. Likewise when in danger of being found? Do you try and hide, or take them out while you still have only alerted one member of the team?
Vehicles - nice simplified handling. Swimming is wonderfully easy for a FPS. Again, many a strategic decision involved. Assault the outermost beach area with a motorised dinghy, thereby giving you a beachhead as well as access to weapon (but they'll hear you coming) or do you dive deep down, swim, hoping your breath lasts long enough. Using cover to remain hidden. But end up inadequately equipped for later groups of mercs.
So to some up. Before I hit the Zzzz button.
Try and download it. But not from Fileplanet. 28kBps, 1/2 a Gig file IIRC = not fun.
.
Like revisedgenocide said the environment is very organic and the sounds are very good for the jungle type cenario. I also liked the way AI reacted.
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