Fafhrd on 19/3/2010 at 08:27
God damn this game is pretty on PC. And a whole hell of a lot harder, too.
mothra on 19/3/2010 at 09:21
Quote Posted by ZylonBane
Hard mode is actually hard? OH NO!
no, it's not. hardcore mode is normal normal imo. did only die in the "you have to find out what WE want you to do" sequences when you do them the first time. everything else is MarioLand - learn the trigger. I tried to give the game another go and did everything on stealth (even some monsters) and it still doesn't fit - pacing is off, triggers are oddly placed, checkpoints are in the midst of fights and there is an overabundance of ammo even on hardcore.
ZylonBane on 19/3/2010 at 21:19
Quote Posted by mothra
In Metro2033 your margin for error is non-existent. At least on hardcore.
Quote Posted by mothra
no, it's not. hardcore mode is normal normal imo.
Make up your mind you lunatic.
redface on 19/3/2010 at 22:27
I'm some 5 hours in and the game's just great. I had to force myself to quit it for today, to make it last longer.
So no, I can't agree with most of what Mothra said on previous page. I think the level design is really good (and I'm quite picky in this area), I never really got lost, the AI is fine for this kind of game, the occasional quicktime events didn't bother me (only managed to die in one so far). The stations are filled with people but void of life? Tell me which game does this better, then. Both the story and storytelling are surprisingly well done, voice acting and tons of cutscenes help a lot, it has an amazing atmosphere. The one thing that the game doesn't excel in is the actual combat, which luckily isn't all there is to the game.
Calling this game amateurish is, well, amateurish. In my opinion it's easily comparable to the best linear shooters out there. Unless it gets terribly bad in the second half.
mothra on 20/3/2010 at 13:29
Quote Posted by ZylonBane
Make up your mind you lunatic.
the game has amazing visuals and atmosphere. still it fails too much.
there is no margin for error in the "have to do what the dev wants" sequences. it's mario design in an fps. the game itself is easy once you figured out the mechanics. I had 500 military rounds in the last level to shoot and never used them. you don't have to buy anything in shops on hardcore. you get everything gifted or can loot it. yes, the stations are filled with people glued to the ground looking in the same direction, occasionally blinking their eyes but having no other use whatsoever. some say something when you speak to them, if you look closely you can see they have 5 main male models and 2 women models that get spawned all over again. that was amazing back in 2000. besides looting ammo there is nothing to do there. the stealth sequences are only 1 way and no other if you wanna make it full stealthed. if you shoot a guy in the cellar, the first floor is alarmed. and so on and so on. not to speak of some pretty illogical decisions by you and your mates during the game. storytelling is a voiceover during loadingtimes. yeah, wow.
and the monsterdesign is so bad, my nephew paints scarier stuff in preschool.
average at best.
Xenith on 20/3/2010 at 16:13
Just got it today and played till I finished the Dead City level and the encounter with the "bitch". Loving it so far, but wow, does it take a hit on the hardware. It's really really good, from what I've seen so far. I sometimes get a Stalkerish feeling when hearing a sound or seeing a shape I've encountered in the Stalker games, not to mention some of the people being called Stalkers (although I'm not sure of the reason for this in Metro). I so wish this would have been an open world, but I'll take what I'll get and make the most of it.
Briareos H on 21/3/2010 at 09:27
I've just realised that, though it doesn't hold much replayability, I'd be more ready to shell out the 300€ for a card that lets me play this one-of-a-kind experience on DX11 Very High + AA in 1680x1050 than to pay the same for 5 full-priced games(1).
I'm very slowly pacing through the game, playing no longer than two hours every evening. The "on-rails" aspect to the game can be a little overwhelming at times, but doesn't deter from the incredible atmosphere. I once said that for me, the core of PC gaming was moving to the east(2), leaving only independent games, niche games(3) and only a few interesting and untainted interesting studios(4) to the west. I stand by what I said.
________
(1)which I would never do anyway. Unfortunately I have more pressed day-to-day life purchases to do :[
(2)Eastern Europe (The Witcher, ARMA, Painkiller), Russia/Ukraine (S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Metro 2033, Cryostasis, The Void). Those countries have both economic competitiveness and that very particular, slavic sensitivity.
(3)simulations and RTSes
(4)notably, Valve, iD Software (I'm waiting for RAGE to make this a definitive statement), Monolith (on the verge of not being interesting anymore).
EvaUnit02 on 21/3/2010 at 09:54
Quote Posted by Briareos H
(4)notably, Valve, iD Software (I'm waiting for RAGE to make this a definitive statement), Monolith (on the verge of not being interesting anymore).
Did you not play FEAR 2? Aside from the PC version having uncompressed textures and superb technical optimisation, it was clearly aimed at a more mainstream audience (ie the lower difficulty and "handicapped" AI) and made to suit the limitations of console controllers (ie the lack of leaning).
The implementation was definitely not optimised to the PC platform either, it was pretty much a direct port. I.e. no dedicated servers nor an Anti-cheat solution for the MP, no native 5-button mouse support (all of which FEAR 1 had).
FEAR 2 ditched save anywhere in favour for checkpoints. I really don't know why so many console games still ignore the option of save anywhere and still mostly rely upon checkpoint saving (aside from possibly the old quicksave abuse argument). The fact that both major HD console have HDDs largely eliminates the technical excuse.
There's absolutely no good reason for not having dedicated server support for console games either. The fact that every Battlefield game for consoles has exclusively used dedis is proof of this. Listen servers often have poor latency, so developers often have to lower their max player count. Matchmaking solutions are often total shit (left waiting for a lobby to fill for ages on everything but the most popular games, zzzzz).
Briareos H on 21/3/2010 at 12:03
You're right actually... but somehow I liked FEAR2 solo, so I'm giving Monolith benefit of the doubt for the time being. Also, please note that unless stated explicitly, in no way will I ever issue remarks about the multiplayer aspects of recent games. Whatever the game or almost, I just can't do MP. It just bores to hell me after a few minutes and I end up going for some more solo.
I completely stopped playing online after Diablo 2/TFC/UT'99/Q3.
