242 on 19/8/2008 at 11:26
Well I don't know guys why you consider the conversations text "impenetrable walls of text". Some Thief FMs have more texts than the whole Stalker.
Quote:
So is Clear Sky going to feature more voice acting and less impenetrable walls o' text for the main body of exposition? Because it's probably my main irk in the original's execution.
I would't count on it. Not that it bothers me too, convos took like 3% of the game time in SoC anyway, or even less.
Koki on 19/8/2008 at 12:35
That's a very interesting question actually.
I think it's because of lack of player interaction in dialogues. Look at Torment for example, while it has shitload of writing, you almost never see more text than the quite small window allows at once.
In STALKER by comparision, you say "Hello" and the NPC tells you his life story and all you can do is sit and listen. If the dialogue was fragmented more, it wouldn't be as visible that there's so much of it.
Thirith on 19/8/2008 at 12:49
I think that's exactly it, Koki (combined with the middling writing of much of the text). The text isn't paced and it isn't interactive. You just sit there reading for a while. That sort of thing worked in the days of Wasteland, where you were told to "Read section 231", but it doesn't really bring the characters to life, nor does it give you the feeling that you're actually involved in a conversation.
Rogue Keeper on 19/8/2008 at 12:50
Yes, good point. The interactivity of the dialogues is very poor and they don't branch rarely if at all. When you have to think about which answer to choose, you pay more attention, but in this case, long written monologues of the stalkers put you to sleep. The writers were amateurs.
242 on 19/8/2008 at 13:01
Quote Posted by BR796164
The writers were amateurs.
Agreed, they most probably were written by programmers or other not competent staff. However they're not worse than some other modern games with supposedly pro writers involved have.
Volitions Advocate on 19/8/2008 at 13:07
I always figured it was just that the writers were Russian. I'll bet if you spoke russian and had the russian version and played it it would sound very well done.
Rogue Keeper on 19/8/2008 at 13:09
It's a big pity you know, because otherwise the game is quite original and has potential for good dialogues as well. I'm not sorry for other modern games being written badly, because their idea, premise, environment, heroes are mostly a clone of something that has been done X times before. But Stalker had potential for much more and it stopped halfway to perfection.
I stop the repeated SoC critics here as I start to sound to myself like if I was Kokified...
Thirith on 19/8/2008 at 13:33
It's certain games that are very rough around the edges but do some things almost to perfection that tend to get to me most: either they annoy me most or they pull me in most. Sometimes it takes a couple of tries for them to go from the former category to the latter. Operation Flashpoint was one of those games, as was Stalker. Once I accepted the shortcomings, I was able to enjoy what was there a lot. However, I understand that some people never made it past the annoyance stage.
242 on 19/8/2008 at 13:47
Quote Posted by Volitions Advocate
I'll bet if you spoke russian and had the russian version and played it it would sound very well done.
No. The convos and writings are the same amateurish.
Thirith on 19/8/2008 at 13:53
While I can't say anything about the quality of the Russian writing, I can say that long uninterrupted monologues do not make for credible conversations.
