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Friday 9 February, 2007
I recently acquired this game after years of vaguely wanting to. I had never played it, but it was always in the atmosphere, beckoning to me...
I knew of the basic theme and was intrigued; i always prefer bright environments to sewers/swamps/underground research facilities/etc. I also knew that the game would run well even on lower-end computers like my laptop is fast becoming, and I didn't have a good FPS for mindless shooting during downtime.
The initial area is a fairly generic learn-to-move area, done reasonably well. The first enemy I encountered was also the first who spoke in-game to his superior or whoever, a pattern which would be repeated throughout the game in varied and impressively optional manners. It's a good way to advance the story without forced cutscenes or finding "notes" a la Resident Evil, and rewards careful characters who don't simply shoot everyone they see on first sight.
At any rate, this first enemy was also my first chance to use stealth, a chance which I heartily failed to take advantage of, and I was down to half health by the time I got to safety. I cursed myself, as I am normally a more stealthy character.
As the game progressed, I became more and more impressed with the design. The lush forest setting manages not to completely destroy the frame rate, and also gives you a good feeling of creeping through the grass; of course, the enemies couldn't care less about the 2-d grass sprites, and so if they see you first, it can be a lot harder to figure out where they are without being killed first. The level design is certainly progressive and mostly linear, but does a tremendous job at pretending it's not; instead of simply not allowing the player to leave a path or general direction, there simply isn't anything interesting over there. I never found myself wanting to stray off to the side for any length of time, because i could see the huts in the direction i was supposed to go with lots of targets and so forth. There are of course still physical impediments to travel in certain directions, but there's definitely no feeling of being ushered along by the game. It's quite possible to get lost in some areas.
The shooting mechanics are a little weak; the sensation of recoil is plasticky, and the enemy reactions to being shot are at the level of Medal of Honor, in terms of being nearly inconsequential. It can be hard to aim accurately for any period of time, but then I think this is more realistic than anything else. One advantage handed to you by the game is that when driving a vehicle with a weapon, there is a limited auto-aim (invaluable for shooting while moving swiftly).
more to come!
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