I'm surprised no one has really put up anything SC related so I'll do it first. I held off getting it for a few days because since my wife hasn't worked in a month and won't be working for another month, since the birth of my child, the cash flow has slowed. It pays to have a sugar momma.
Anyways, I started looking at my pretty large collection of 360 games and pretty much all the games in it I love for one reason or another. From Blacksite Area 51s arcadey, fun, campy alien sci fi shooter to Dragon Age and Fable 2. So I says to myself, "I have a lot to hock here that would allow me to get SC." I called GameStop and asked about several games to trade in and the total was 96 bucks. The manager then tells me if I can add in a 6th next gen game I'll get an extra 40% in trade. I hung up the phone and had a revelation! I had a crap ton of games that I LOVE, but will more than likely never ever play again or games that I would love to play, but won't be able to because they are such a ginormous time suck...Dragon Age and Tales of Vesperia come to mind.
Amateria helped me compile a list and from memory it went something like this. Quake 4, FEAR 1 and 2, Blacksite, Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero 3, Fable 2, Darksiders, Mario Kart DS, Super Mario 64 DS, Tales of Vesperia, Eternal Sonata, Dragon Age (a handful of others I can't think of) and 4 controllers. With the 40% extra and then getting a EBgames rewards card for another 10% I got 50% back more on the trade in of games. Altogether I got $215 bucks. I got SC and am holding on to the other $156 for my eventual purchase of a PS3 (which is my ultimate end goal)!
I know I sing the praise of Goozex and while it's ultimately the far superior game trade service I wanted actual dollar value credit to go towards a PS3.
Anyways....on to SC. Not to brag, but I think of myself as kind of a bitchingly good SC player. I've completely dominated all the previous games on all difficulties and played them to death (except for the garbage Double Agent one). The new SC is really good and I think a natural evolution the series should have taken to go more mainstream like all game companies do and to modernize the series. Sam controls more fluidly than ever, but it does come at a price. This modernization leaves some of the old SC fans out in the cold. "Mark and execute" completely takes the fear out of bashing a door down that has more than one person behind it. Regenerating health makes death a little more laughable and overall I think the game MAKES you fight more than the old games. There are many more enemies and far fewer ways to sneak around them. I was a big fan of not killing a person in the original unless it was part of my actual mission. I would knock out a person with secondary ammo or hit them in the head with cans or trash and elbow them in the head. I would also only allow myself to finish missions only using the pistol. It was a good way to up the difficulty for myself and a much more rewarding way to play.
Bottom line for the new SC is that it's awesome, but there are some control issues that go against the very well established formulas set by other large 3rd person shooters (b/c SC is now much more of a shooter/stealth hybrid than ever before). I think that putting the "crouch" button on the shoulder buttons is pants on head retarded while making the "Left Thumbstick" reload is really dumb because these two buttons could EASILY be interchanged and only help the game. I DO like having to hold in the "Left Trigger" to stay in cover because it keeps you much more assure of whether or not your stuck in cover...RS: Vegas was the first to do this that I know of.
Having played to death and made mad fanboy love to the Assassins Creed series it's very interesting to see how majorly AC has impacted the new SC. I bit of a downer at times when the lines between Ubisofts games start to blur....the newest Prince of Persia feels thrown in as well...especially during platforming.
The game is awesome and I still can't wait to get my PS3!
P.S. The moving from one cover to another is cool, but I WOULD LOVE to mention that as far as I know "Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard" did it first and that game was pretty bad and the feature was almost never used. It's funny to see such a powerhouse game lift ideas from no name games that are downright bad at times.
P.P.S. One more critique then I'm done I promise! I can't believe they don't have a button or option to switch your perspective from right to left so that you can see around corners better.Chaos Theory had it and so did Army of Two: The 40th Day and so did Matt Hazard. It seems especially helpful in this game and it isn't even an option.
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Apparently, Lead Salad and I should have done a few single player missions before jumping into the coop. We had no idea you could move from cover piece to cover piece with a simple button.
ReplyDeleteI was waiting to hold of on writing anything about it, just because I hadn't tackled Sam's main story yet. I agree with many of the critiques in this post. Older SC fans feel very lost in a world where it's so easy to get the stealth kill. Maybe switching up the difficulty will change this, but there were numerous times in the game where I had attempted to execute a stealth kill, done so with minimal grace, all in the light, and it rewarded me as if I was a silent assassin.
I also really miss the light meter. The idea of not having a HUD is a noble one, fitting for a stealth game, but I really have no idea as I'm moving around the map how close (or far) I am to not being under the cloak of darkness anymore. There really isn't a good way to "fade" between a black and white and colored set-up, I'm sure the designers realized this. It seems like they just said, "well, it looks awkward if it's a slow transition". Just make it go fast".
I'm really rambling now. I don't think that the game is "making" me fight though, only providing a more aggressive option if the player chooses it. All the cool animations happen with stealthy kills anyways, so there really isn't a draw to rushing in and shooting everything... unless you think you're playing Gears of War.
I loved the demo. It was tough but fun and maybe by blending the shooter/stealth elements, they've drawn in people like me. If I didn't have so many games to play already, I would heavily consider getting this game.
ReplyDeleteBtw, if anyone gets a PS3 or has one, Fat Princess is awesome. I played the demo while I was in San Diego visiting my brother and was very surprised. I love funny little arcade games like that. If only I had a PS3...
totally agree, it's quite a fair departure from the standard SC games, but i totally love it. played it thru twice already on normal and realistic now just need to battle thru the co op on realistic.
ReplyDeletethe game makes you feel like a badass, not quite as big a bad ass as batman AA makes you feel but pretty bad all the same.
i love the animations and presentation of the game, i mean look at the menus, awesome rite?
one gripe on the controls side besides agreeing with your crouch and reload complaint...the left trigger works superbly in sticking to cover but i find my self sometimes rolling away or parallel to cover if not facing it directly, it's a minor gripe and hardly spoiled the experience.
i do wish there was an option for not killing anyone like the good old days, and throw in 1 or 2 proper stealth sections with lock picking, i miss the lock picking tense scenes where a dude is closing in on you and your spinning that stick about trying your hardest to unlock..
all in all, love it, need to do some more of the MP game modes sometime cos i've really enjoyed wat i've played thus far.