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Wednesday 5 March, 2008
Take 2:
Gameplay
My second play through confirmed some of my previous notions, and dispelled some others. The challenge did increase, and some enemies turned out to be a bit more challenging than the suited security guards. Every once in a while, the game will drop a few enemies who also hold electric katanas. These guys actually have a chance to kill the PC, especially if you encounter them in groups. The trick to beating them seems to be luring them off one by one, as the AI for these NPCs has them only moving to attack Travis when he gets within a certain threshhold distance from them. So they can be separated and easily dispatched via a divide-and-conquer strategy. AI is not the hallmark of this game.
As for the other, lemming-like waves of non-katana wielding enemies, they got a little tougher as well. It takes longer to kill each indivisual enemy, and that means Travis has to focus on each one longer, leaving him more vulnerable to attacks from other lemmings. The purpose of these waves is still not to kill the player, but to attrit his health before more dangerous encounters.
The second boss battle was interesting, and confirms my guess that Boss battles were the focus of the game. Each boss has a unique pattern of attack, but lemmings are pretty identical regardless of the level they're associated with.
The mini-missions continued after the second boss battle. Every boss I defeat 'unlocks' a new mini-mission, most recently, Travis has proven himself worthy of mowing grass. I'm slightly less annoyed by these mini-missions than before, because after I defeated the second boss, I unlocked a handful of new areas in the city, including stores where I can upgrade my katana, skills, and buy new clothes. Before, the only thing to spend money on was the right to take the next boss fight, but now you have a choice on how to spend your money. If you want to, you can zoom straight along to the next boss fight, or you can spend your money tricking out your character's skills if you don't mind doing silly repetitive mini-games.
Design:
No More Heroes stands out in one respect in that it innovates very little. Its game mechanics are a hodgepodge from a bunch of games that previously didn't overlap much. Collection, customizable outfits, customizable character, mini-games, and free travel in a city are not mechanics that are considered essential in the beat'em'up genre, but No More Heroes smooshes them all together.
The game doesn't aspire to be very challenging. When the character dies, he's respawned from a nearby point in the same section of the level. So punishment for failure is a maximum of 5 minutes of time. Short-term rewards for success are seeing your enemies explode in various interesting animations, with the occasional reward of sustenance in the form of health power ups. Long term rewards for sticking with the game are access to the storyline, and the chance to play special encounters versus bosses.
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