Phase "is it a fighting game yet" Contrast (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
its_game_time) wrote2012-03-21 11:52 am
its_game_time) wrote2012-03-21 11:52 am
Entry tags:
quick RE: ORC thoughts
Rented RE: Operation Raccoon City yesterday.
Honestly, I didn't have high hopes for it; I'm always skeptical when a company hands off rights to a third party, but the fact that this game seemed to be banking on online play and the CoD/L4D formula with a popular name to back it up had me concerned. Nevertheless, I decided to rent it and give it a chance.
In a nutshell, it was about what I expected. It feels more Gears of War-ish than anything, if GoW were sloppier in its battle system than I remember it being. The controls here could be better, although the lack of an in-game tutorial steepened my learning curve, I'm sure; even so, half an hour in I was nearly raging at the first Birkin encounter because it took me about three deaths to realize that I can only move in one direction and another two deaths to realize OH HEY I CAN RUN? There are a lot of accidental actions, too; if I try to pick up an item as I'm running, I end up diving instead. I have to slow to a walk or even a stop to access ammo or health. Many times, I've ended up crouching under/against a wall without meaning to because it's a touch sensitive action to the character's proximity.
As for the actual fighting... it's not much better. The humans are ridiculously resilient at the same time that my guns are pretty wtf -- I shot a Spec Ops operative in the face four times with a sniper bullet before he died. I shot another three times in the chest with a handgun and he died.
Add to this that the AI isn't very intelligent to begin with and it's just all around frustrating, especially when you're in the middle of a gunfight and getting shot from all sides and half the dudes are standing there doing nothing while the ones you ARE shooting aren't even flinching.
The AI stupidity carries over into the CPU players, too -- let me add now that I was playing Campaign on single player, because I had to pause frequently at the time and didn't have time to jump in a lobby. My CPU partners were, at best, mediocre, although most of the time they were just plain idiotic. Several times, they walked on top of a grenade or into a fire or other precarious situations that wiped out a good bit of health, if not killed them outright, and much of the time I was running around finding my dead teammates and reviving them. I'm currently stuck trying to "subdue" Nemesis (AHAHA YEAH, OKAY. SURE. Maybe we should call Jill and ask her to bring that ridiculously hy00j laser for help?), and much of the frustration comes from the fact that my teammates will, at times, literally die or become infected five seconds into the battle.
This kind of problem isn't unheard of, honestly; the L4D CPU characters are all but useless except as distractions when it comes to harder levels, but that's L4D. Simply put, if you're playing ORC and you don't have a LIVE subscription, you're SOL, as the game doesn't have local co-op -- which I will never, ever understand. MINUS A MILLION POINTS JUST FOR THAT.
BAD SLANT6. BAD. NO COOKIE FOR YOU.
As for the story... ehh. Points for creativity in some areas -- each of the USS people has an interesting little summary and set of skills that sets him/her apart from the others, and I don't disapprove of the game introducing new monsters under the explanation that "it was in one of the SEEKRIT seekrit labs, okay!" But while I'm still only on level... four, I think? I'm wtfing at Nicholai.
I MEAN -- honestly, I didn't understand that guy all that well in RE3, but wtf is all this. Mastermindedness? And sorry, but I've gotta call BS on the fight where FOUR USS SOLDIERS are fighting him and he manages to hold them all off. He's good, but he's not that good. 1998!Jill would have been in trouble if he were.
On that note, actually getting to know the USS guys has me a little :\-faced on occasion; considering they're the Elite of the Elite in Umbrella, they're not really... cold enough? I know they're out killing civilians and stuff without thinking, but there's still a kind of BROFIST BOND between some of them, which reaaaally... has no place in Umbrella? And I fail to understand why Lupo spared Nicholai the first time, even if "he's only UBCS," and the way they were all "OMFG WHY DID HE KILL HIS TEAM?? WHY DID YOU KILL YOUR TEAM, MAN?? WTF ARE YOU CRAZY??" was really... oh, come on, guys, this is Umbrella. We've got backstabbings all over the place, did you really expect anything less of a shifty-looking Russian? And why do you all care? You're supposed to be heartless jackasses sent in to do the high-end dirty work.
Sadly, the online multiplayer modes don't save the game -- if anything, they're not better than Campaign, although I've only played Heroes Mode so far and so can't speak much on that area. Judging from Heroes, though, it feels like the same idea that Versus was trying to get across in RE5: you shoot each other as canon characters while avoiding the baddies. Sounds fun, but in practice it's just hectic and bothersome and really not that entertaining and pretty much boils down to running in circles and Shooting All the Things and hoping you hit something vital, which is actually just frustrating at the end of the day.
SO, I'm very glad I didn't buy it because I'd be beside myself with how lazy the whole thing comes off. I do think it's worth a rent, though, if you're curious, but you have to be a RE fan, imo, to get the most enjoyment out of it; all the little references were neat, like Moonlight Sonata playing outside the altar room where Carlos was standing over Jill, as well as all the other familiar locales. Still, it's not enough to justify a hefty price tag, and certainly not a whole $60 -- from what I've seen, I add, but going by the achievement list, I'm about 60% done with the story already.
Like my sister said, if it had split-screen, the game would be a blast; as it is, take away the title of RE and you just have another watered-down, generic zombie shooter.
ALL IN ALL,
Honestly, I didn't have high hopes for it; I'm always skeptical when a company hands off rights to a third party, but the fact that this game seemed to be banking on online play and the CoD/L4D formula with a popular name to back it up had me concerned. Nevertheless, I decided to rent it and give it a chance.
In a nutshell, it was about what I expected. It feels more Gears of War-ish than anything, if GoW were sloppier in its battle system than I remember it being. The controls here could be better, although the lack of an in-game tutorial steepened my learning curve, I'm sure; even so, half an hour in I was nearly raging at the first Birkin encounter because it took me about three deaths to realize that I can only move in one direction and another two deaths to realize OH HEY I CAN RUN? There are a lot of accidental actions, too; if I try to pick up an item as I'm running, I end up diving instead. I have to slow to a walk or even a stop to access ammo or health. Many times, I've ended up crouching under/against a wall without meaning to because it's a touch sensitive action to the character's proximity.
As for the actual fighting... it's not much better. The humans are ridiculously resilient at the same time that my guns are pretty wtf -- I shot a Spec Ops operative in the face four times with a sniper bullet before he died. I shot another three times in the chest with a handgun and he died.
Add to this that the AI isn't very intelligent to begin with and it's just all around frustrating, especially when you're in the middle of a gunfight and getting shot from all sides and half the dudes are standing there doing nothing while the ones you ARE shooting aren't even flinching.
The AI stupidity carries over into the CPU players, too -- let me add now that I was playing Campaign on single player, because I had to pause frequently at the time and didn't have time to jump in a lobby. My CPU partners were, at best, mediocre, although most of the time they were just plain idiotic. Several times, they walked on top of a grenade or into a fire or other precarious situations that wiped out a good bit of health, if not killed them outright, and much of the time I was running around finding my dead teammates and reviving them. I'm currently stuck trying to "subdue" Nemesis (AHAHA YEAH, OKAY. SURE. Maybe we should call Jill and ask her to bring that ridiculously hy00j laser for help?), and much of the frustration comes from the fact that my teammates will, at times, literally die or become infected five seconds into the battle.
This kind of problem isn't unheard of, honestly; the L4D CPU characters are all but useless except as distractions when it comes to harder levels, but that's L4D. Simply put, if you're playing ORC and you don't have a LIVE subscription, you're SOL, as the game doesn't have local co-op -- which I will never, ever understand. MINUS A MILLION POINTS JUST FOR THAT.
BAD SLANT6. BAD. NO COOKIE FOR YOU.
As for the story... ehh. Points for creativity in some areas -- each of the USS people has an interesting little summary and set of skills that sets him/her apart from the others, and I don't disapprove of the game introducing new monsters under the explanation that "it was in one of the SEEKRIT seekrit labs, okay!" But while I'm still only on level... four, I think? I'm wtfing at Nicholai.
I MEAN -- honestly, I didn't understand that guy all that well in RE3, but wtf is all this. Mastermindedness? And sorry, but I've gotta call BS on the fight where FOUR USS SOLDIERS are fighting him and he manages to hold them all off. He's good, but he's not that good. 1998!Jill would have been in trouble if he were.
On that note, actually getting to know the USS guys has me a little :\-faced on occasion; considering they're the Elite of the Elite in Umbrella, they're not really... cold enough? I know they're out killing civilians and stuff without thinking, but there's still a kind of BROFIST BOND between some of them, which reaaaally... has no place in Umbrella? And I fail to understand why Lupo spared Nicholai the first time, even if "he's only UBCS," and the way they were all "OMFG WHY DID HE KILL HIS TEAM?? WHY DID YOU KILL YOUR TEAM, MAN?? WTF ARE YOU CRAZY??" was really... oh, come on, guys, this is Umbrella. We've got backstabbings all over the place, did you really expect anything less of a shifty-looking Russian? And why do you all care? You're supposed to be heartless jackasses sent in to do the high-end dirty work.
Sadly, the online multiplayer modes don't save the game -- if anything, they're not better than Campaign, although I've only played Heroes Mode so far and so can't speak much on that area. Judging from Heroes, though, it feels like the same idea that Versus was trying to get across in RE5: you shoot each other as canon characters while avoiding the baddies. Sounds fun, but in practice it's just hectic and bothersome and really not that entertaining and pretty much boils down to running in circles and Shooting All the Things and hoping you hit something vital, which is actually just frustrating at the end of the day.
SO, I'm very glad I didn't buy it because I'd be beside myself with how lazy the whole thing comes off. I do think it's worth a rent, though, if you're curious, but you have to be a RE fan, imo, to get the most enjoyment out of it; all the little references were neat, like Moonlight Sonata playing outside the altar room where Carlos was standing over Jill, as well as all the other familiar locales. Still, it's not enough to justify a hefty price tag, and certainly not a whole $60 -- from what I've seen, I add, but going by the achievement list, I'm about 60% done with the story already.
Like my sister said, if it had split-screen, the game would be a blast; as it is, take away the title of RE and you just have another watered-down, generic zombie shooter.
ALL IN ALL,