Quake3World

Memphis wrote:So, I snagged this in a Steam sale. I almost feel a little guilty. So, here's a little babble on it as my small offering of half-arsed repentance.
PC shooters are pretty dead eh? Puristic run and gun replaced by tedious cover-toggling button pressing, in time to enemy fire to compensate for the limitations of joypad controls. Thus the player can casually clear a room whilst squatting in place as if in a European shitting-shed. Consolitis and Consolification. 2 of many dirty words that allude to the laundry list of horrible, crippling ailments that our beloved genre has succommed to over the big-budget corperate yellow-stained gaming years. Yawn. And for some, ARRRGH.

So I picked this up regardless, with gritted teeth and a faint, doubt-tinted, cod-eyed expression; hoping in the least for a bitter-sweet hint of by-gone nostalgia. Loading up confirms a few fears. A slightly tight (but honestly, not nauseatingly so) FoV (i'd guess about 80), shitty mouse controls, few graphics options. The only real 'fix' needed however is that V-sync: Off completely eliminates the mouse-lag, with some quite prominant screen-tearing as a compromise for the pin-point mouse control we all know and cherish.
That out of the way, my low expectations were then continuously kicked in the goolies and face-planted into the ground. The game looks great. Not rocking every snazzy, GPU devouring effect under the blinding sun (mein eyes!), but more than functionably competent in every way that counts. Textures aren't obscenely low quality. Depth of field actually used right, in that far distance in large areas is atmospherically unfocussed, but I can still see across a street, or down an alley without feeling like I've had a skin-full of wife-beater and an Egyptian whiskey. Animations are brilliant. Cut-scenes especially. BJ's smile-raising, camp action-fare, served with multiple lashings of cheese, as he bewilderedly checks his body for holes after accidentally obliterating a boat-load of Nazis, was actually endearing to watch after suffering Jenson's flat-as-roadkill, fidgeting and flailing delivery, as if Gerry Anderson himself was pulling the strings whilst having a seizure. In-game holds up. Enemies don't get shot. They get claret-gushing holes punched into their fleshy, contorting bodies as they go down gargling with streaming jets of gore spewing from their clutched throats. Marvellous fun.

It almost genuinely 'feels' like Wolf. It's not spot-on. But the sounds and explosion effects are damn close, with that short-sharp FWOOM sound and violent particle flinging, plus modern weighty physics add pleasantly to the enjoyably volatile mix. Chuck a grenade into a room and boxes, barrels and other breakable breakables all satisfyingly splinter into smithereens, as enemies get flung face-first into the bricks and floorboards. Did I mention this was fun? AI isn't gonna win any chess tourneys, but it also doesn't sit around and wait for your lazy arse to flaff about coming up with a plan. If they know you're there, they'll often come. And the open(ish) world layout plays to this adequetly. There's often more than two ways into a building and these buggers will blessedly attempt to flush you out and flank you down. Numerous times I've been defending a building and been caught pants-down, carelessly sniping, by some crafty soldier, who came round the back and up the stairs to clock me over the head. So I shrieked, spun round, clubbed him in the gut with the butt of my rifle, shot him whilst he reeled back and hunched over spitting blood and then ran like the most aromatic of curry-induced wind, smashing through a door in my flee for safety and feeling this almost ancient sensation of adrenaline-induced FUN as more baddies piled-in after me. No control-snatching cutscenes, I-win buttons and animationalities, just me being badass. All me.

Gimmicks then. On top of the shooty you've got your 'Veil' powers. Think Soul Reaver, by way of FEAR. I'd say 'like Singularity', but that came after. However if you've played that, you know exactly what the deal entails. You can switch to 'the Veil', which shrouds the screen in your funky spirit-predator vision stuff, which looks kinda cool as it spreads across the game world at the press of a button. Whilst in Veilo vision, you can access certain doors, see secrets, highlight enemies and their weak-points plus see a few more baddies that only exist in the alternate plane. Clues are scattered here and there, from markings on walls and floors, to STALKERish anomalies, pulsing away in corners that hint when Veil vision will serve to reveal all. Not so super-naturally, this energy of course runs out after time and has to charge back up, or you can dash to a prominent glowy-spot inside the Veil to charge it back to full instantly. Not complex, not highly original, but it beats godawful hacking 'minigames' nonetheless.

This particular energy/mana/EVE/power/chi/er, depleting bar by any other name dependant trick of course also doubles as your super-uber-duper powers, enabling an energy shield, slo-mo, or something else I haven't unlocked yet that burns down your bar all the quicker. Overpowered somewhat, but aside from route finding it seems to be mostly up to the player how they choose to abuse it. Worth noting, although I don't know presently if this gets played on more, are the explodey barrels. There's the typical red ones what go boom, which is always nice, but there's also bloomy-blue ones, that apparently contain this Veil energy stuff, thus shooting one, or lobbing it at someone causing it to blow, instantly hurls everything in the vicinity that isn't nailed down skywards and gently floats it there, sans gravity. It's a sight to behold at times, as flailing Nazis hopelessly swim for their guns or randomly panic-fire as they flip arse-over-areolas, wailing in astonishment and leaving you to joyously hose them down into gibs before all the shattered debris and people pieces are uncerimoniously dumped back onto the ground. Ooh it's fun that is.
Granted I'm not far in, about 4 hours. So this is little more than first impressions. I don't know if the open map back-tracking will get tedious, although so far, it's a fairly pleasant pace-change as you re-enter familiar territory and either maliciously murder or sneak down and head-crack the few patrols that pop back up here and there, before you take on another action-stacked mission. Also there's upgradable guns and powers. In no way a thick RPG stew with stodgy stat dumplings, but an unobtrusive side-dish that offers a few options to taste, adding some flavour to whatever particular powers or weapons you prefer to silence shouty Nazi folk with. Not the shiniest cherry on-top, but it does give a reason to hunt around the maps a little to find cash and secrets. Also if the loading tips are to be believed, you can't ever have it all, making your choices slightly more choosey.

Short-list of downers: Very visible screen tearing, or an insanely chuggy mouse. Sprinting head-bob, so over-the-top it almost had me concerned if my monitor was going to fall off my desk. Checkpoint saves. Regenerating health. Open-areas, possibly seen as being needless to some folks. Abusable gimmick powers.
Uppers: Looks good. Feels good. Lots of guns, all at once. Actual run and gun twitch combat (if you so choose), complete with strafe-dodging and jumping over projectiles, on maps that aren't cutscene corridors. Greeting an unsuspecting Nazi guard with the business end of a pick-axe. Abusable gimmick powers.

Really, Raven make such good stuff and make it well. The critical pounding this game received from some tightly-strung, knee-jerking muppets was wholly undeserved. From Elite Force, Jedi Outcast, SoF 1 & 2 and Quake 4, there's simply not been a Raven game that hasn't delivered some of the funnest of fun shooters can bring, in great big bouncy globs at that and I kinda get the feeling that given enough time and money these guys could put something really special together one day. Note I haven't tried the multiplayer. I've no doubt it licks bum like a lollipop, because I was so into RTCW, but I may try and fit it inbetween Battlefielding one evening.

Babble over.
TL:DR: fuck u slags



editeditedit: i cannot type for toffee