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[Deadbolt_Don]

I've wanted to play this game forever. Now I can.


THANK YOU ABADONIA!!

[Japo]

I don't agree that this game's near perfect. It's excellent in many aspects, but in the end it's an FPS, and as such it sucks quite a lot. The controls/interface are as ambitious as disastrous; they belong to a desktop office application rather than an action game. If this were a pure FPS without the RPG elements or the story, it would be considered a calamity to be avoided by everybody.

I had already tried to play it a long time ago but I got frustrated in the second level. This time the same thing happened, so I've started a new game at low difficulty to see if I can enjoy the story.

I'm curious about the sequel, I can't find it for sale in GOG or Steam, only in Amazon Marketplace and overpriced. Anyone has any other link?

I think I'll add the info about the separate executables to the review, because I've been playing the floppy version for a long time before I realized. LOL

The intro is the coolest, my favorite of all time. Also the corporate policemen in it are very similar to the ones in Crusader No Regret (which came up a year later).

[hunvagy]

Originally Posted by Japo

I don't agree that this game's near perfect. It's excellent in many aspects, but in the end it's an FPS, and as such it sucks quite a lot. The controls/interface are as ambitious as disastrous; they belong to a desktop office application rather than an action game. If this were a pure FPS without the RPG elements or the story, it would be considered a calamity to be avoided by everybody.

I had already tried to play it a long time ago but I got frustrated in the second level. This time the same thing happened, so I've started a new game at low difficulty to see if I can enjoy the story.

I'm curious about the sequel, I can't find it for sale in GOG or Steam, only in Amazon Marketplace and overpriced. Anyone has any other link?

I think I'll add the info about the separate executables to the review, because I've been playing the floppy version for a long time before I realized. LOL

The intro is the coolest, my favorite of all time. Also the corporate policemen in it are very similar to the ones in Crusader No Regret (which came up a year later).

You won't find System Shock 2 unless you're really lucky. It has been in re-release limbo for a very long time. The IP is hanging somewhere in the afterlife, not fully owned by EA so GoG couldn't get it yet. There was some article describing it, but can't remember the URL right now.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Something about an insurance company holding the rights to the series, I believe.

[Japo]

Insurance company investments are all about the long term :S

At least in 2015 it will be considered abandoned by us, barring it getting sold or further news, right?

[Smiling Spectre]

Originally Posted by Japo

I don't agree that this game's near perfect. It's excellent in many aspects, but in the end it's an FPS, and as such it sucks quite a lot. The controls/interface are as ambitious as disastrous; they belong to a desktop office application rather than an action game. If this were a pure FPS without the RPG elements or the story, it would be considered a calamity to be avoided by everybody.

Agree on "bad FPS" part...

...but game is not FPS for me. In any aspect.

Well, maybe, if set "shooter difficulty" level somewhere at the top, and "puzzle" aspect somewhere at bottom - maybe then, I say, it will be shooter.

But on default, "normal" shooting difficulty it's just perfect for me. Monsters are really dangerous - but they are rare and far between. Except zombies. But noone fears zombies, right?

I had already tried to play it a long time ago but I got frustrated in the second level. This time the same thing happened, so I've started a new game at low difficulty to see if I can enjoy the story.

Strange. I am not a shooter. Almost at all. I have bad reaction, and with game "no-free-sight" control it's even harder for me - but I never had any issues in this game. Shooter-related, I mean. In extreme cases you always can kill anyone with pistol - dying and resurrecting several times in row. But mostly it's paid to search everything, got this extra-cool energy weapons and kill them all in more expensive but easier way.

[Japo]

The story and the ambiance are great, but 99% of the time you're walking, going through doors, and yes also shooting. 99% of the game is FPS in the end. I don't think it can even be called an action RPG, the RPG elements are so few, and common to the story-oriented "smart shooter" genre--that this game pioneered.

It has a lot of issues, in part because it's so ambitious. The 3D engine was groundbreaking, but there are glitches when you move over steps between areas of different height. About free sight it's not only you, any game that provides a truly 3D environment but doesn't allow free sight with the mouse (but you need to look up and down at times, even to aim melee weapons!) can't work. The controls aren't bad, just terrible. Again they're very ambitious, they're designed to let you do anything in the fully tridimensional world, but it takes forever to do anything. The mouse should have been used to look around, not as a cursor to select interface elements while moving and shooting, that's insane (there isn't even a hotkey to reload your gun!).

It has a lot of potential and it has enough good things to hook you up, but in the end it plays like quicksand. I don't mean that it's hard as a shooter: in most you're surprised by enemies all the time; in System Shock you can surprise them every time and snipe at them, because you can look around corners without being seen.

[Smiling Spectre]

Originally Posted by Japo

The story and the ambiance are great, but 99% of the time you're walking, going through doors, and yes also shooting. 99% of the game is FPS in the end. I don't think it can even be called an action RPG, the RPG elements are so few, and common to the story-oriented "smart shooter" genre--that this game pioneered.

Hmm. We have different view on "shooter" then. For me, "shooter" is the game about shooting, not game with shooting. Doom is shooter, as your main gameplay is "kill them all". MDK is shooter. Call of Duty. Even my beloved Crusader: No Regret and Diablo. But if your main goals are exploration, puzzle-solving and following the story - it's not shooter. Lara Croft games are not shooters. Legacy of Kain series are not. Elder Scrolls series have shooting and slashing all the way - but they are not shooters too. Even if gameplay in all this games can be described as "walking through doors and killing things" - it's not a goal, but only one type of obstacle. From many more. Call them "action-adventures", and I have nothing against it. But not shooters, no way.

[Japo]

Lara Croft is not a shooter but a platformer (with very very little shooting), Elder Scrolls games are of course hard core RPGs. But are Half-Life or BioShock shooters to you? (To cite the usual paradigms of the "smart shooter" genre, although I haven't played them myself; but I think they may be closer to SS than any of the games you mentioned, specially BioShock.)

[Smiling Spectre]

Originally Posted by Japo

But are Half-Life or BioShock shooters to you? (To cite the usual paradigms of the "smart shooter" genre, although I haven't played them myself; but I think they may be closer to SS than any of the games you mentioned, specially BioShock.)

Well, actually, I know nothing about "smart shooter paradigm". What games are falling into this cathegory? Obvious Deus Exes, System Shocks/Bioshocks and... well, what else?

Yes, I think, HL is shooter in general. Sometimes (like GTA, for example) it's more "action" suited to it than "shooter", bit in general, yes, it's shooter.

BioShock is different beast. I still didn't played it, but AFAIK, it's "streamlined" System Shock - without free world, but with quite free levels, some puzzles and thick plot inside. It still can be "action-adventure", but can be shooter too, I am not sure. Depends (for me) of amount of streamlining.