Friday 25 January, 2008

GAMEPLAY

OK, so I have played quite a bit more of this game, including the multiplayer, and I have to say, not much has changed. I'll agree that the multiplayer is alright, but it's nothing that would hook me for any long stretch of time. And oh boy did the single player piss me off.

So, I've already talked about the difficulty of the game. Now I realize it's not the controls at all, it's the unforgiving nature of the game. I cannot beat the second level on easy. First of all, it took me a while to even get to where I was supposed to be going because of the lack of direction. No map, no compass, no hints. So, I finally make it to this final room (which is supposed to require some decoder, even though the guy who gives it to me is only there half the time, and I can open the door without it), and I meet up with my partner. We are supposed to destroy some tanks or something. I walk into a door, and boom, the level is over. Apparently this unmarked door is the exit to the level and I just failed for leaving without completing my mission. No signs or anything warn you this is the exit. That pissed me off. So after starting the whole level over and getting to the final room again, I am barraged with an infinite amount of bad guys. I mean infinite. I had no idea where to go or what to do, I just killed wave after wave of bad guy until I randomly shot some container and found out it (and others like it) was what I had to destroy. Of course before I could destroy them, I died. So, I start over and I walk into that final room prepared this time. I start setting the bombs on these containers before the bad guys even get there. Figure I would make a quick get away. I hit my watch detonator and... FAIL. Apparently my partner thought that the best course of action was to stand by the containers we had to destroy. He was caught in the explosion. I tried the level one more time, and thought I actually had it, when I died right as I was exiting the level. At that point I put it down and vowed to never touch the game again.

DESIGN

So, why did I hate this game so much? I'm pretty sure I've narrowed it down. The game is way to unforgiving and offers you no direction or story at all. The majority of the time, You are thrown into the level just barely knowing what to do. I know I had to destroy a dam. Why? I have no idea. Did I? No I ended up just having to destroy the alarms. Huh?

What the game needed was some sort of compass or minimap or something that helped you keep track of where to go and what to do. The game is downright unfinished. Objectives are unmarked and goals are ambiguous. And then when you finally figure out what to do, You usually die and have to start the entire level over again. Is it too much to ask for a checkpoint?

The multiplayer was fun, but not fun enough to excuse the horrible single player campaign. But even it was unfinished. Does it show you how many kills are needed? Does it show you how much time is left? No. Again, you are left walking around, not knowing what is going on.

Overall, the game felt unpolished, mediocre and downright frustrating. It's game engine may have been innovative, but that doesn't make it fun.

Your arguments are valid, however you should really consider the game as a stand alone. Absolutely the graphics, gameplay, and controls are sub-par, now. When this game first came out it was one of the first successful FPS games on the console. The game is hard, but was it hard because it was a hard game or was it hard because we have become so accustomed to designers pretty much handing over the level with map, pointing arrow, and constant directions? Try to look at why the game was bad not just that it was, and try to take into account when it came out, it's avery hard concept to accomplish when being a designer and looking at a game from its own era and to subvert our own experiences.