Sulphur on 2/8/2010 at 21:57
Well I just finished my first run through the game. Intriguing but choppy experience. Also, after wondering how the hell to use the military grade ammo, the tip finally flashed across the loading screen -- at the end of Chapter 6. Turns out, I had 400+ military rounds satchelled away (600+ at Chapter 7) while scrounging around in the dark for the odd bullet/shell to dispatch the next lurking horror with.
It hit me then: I'd been playing the damn thing as a survival horror crouch and slink low into the dark and shoot and oh fuck run run RUN game from almost beginning to end, and it still felt like a twitchy, clumsy action shooter. The gunplay and overall mechanics definitely need some sort of tuning-up. Gonna replay it once that patch hits Steam.
Koki on 28/10/2010 at 12:55
Absolutely nothing wrong with gunplay in Metro 2033.
Except the FOV... good god the FOV. What the fuck.
And the enemies who try to tactically hide behind cover and end up exposing themselves to you as immobile targets most of the time. Or at least their heads. silly-o
But you know what? Fuck it. I played some more and though I already deleted the game I'll up the score to 7/10. Deserves it for the stealth alone.
That's what impressed me most about this game - the attention to detail. I mean there isn't much stealth in the game and you can choose to skip it completely. And yet they made Thief-grade stealth to use, oh, three times in the entire game. Then there are the weapons, I mean the magazine in Bastard, goddamn. And how enemies actually carry ammo on their bodies and you can even shoot it off. And sound effects, especially the distortion depending on location and distance, is best I've ever seen, er, heard, in a videogame.
It's funny because in a way, it's the opposite of SoC, which was big, open and sandboxy, but crude and with every corner possible cut. Metro 2033 is linear and script heavy, but it's just so, so polished.
Finally, I'm pretty happy about Metro 2034 being in the works. Just a hunch, but I think it will be more open game(I MEAN IT FUCKING BEGS FOR IT JESUS CHRIST. IT'S THE GODDAMN METRO. JUST MAKE THE STATIONS INTO TRADE/QUEST CAMPS AND THEN MODEL THE TUNNELS AND MAKE IT INTO UNDERGROUND STALKER. FOR FUCK'S SAKE, DON'T WASTE ANOTHER GREAT POST-APO SETTING WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU).
P.S. If you know where to get the soundtrack PM me kthx
Vernon on 28/10/2010 at 19:13
Open-world Metro would be un-fucking believable. I hope your hunch is right. Though no doubt the devs have taken into account that the linearity was one of the most common complaints
Ostriig on 28/10/2010 at 22:26
Oh my, Koki is positive about a game
and optimistic about the sequel, too?! Hell, I won't even argue about the stealth and combat, then.
Anyway, hate to burst your bubble there guys, but I seriously doubt Metro 2034 will turn out that way. An "open" underground environment, with sprawling metro corridors and actual player choice in navigating them, maybe even just a little bit of Stalker-like A-life? It
would be awesome.
Too awesome. And more importantly, a very significant shift in design and development scope, far more so than we usually see from sequels these days.
And (
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/935068-metro-2033/53962903) re: FOV.
Quote:
Well, first thing after installing and launching the game once to put in your settings. Once you have the video and controls where you want, do this.
1) Go to your My Documents folder, and turn on Show Hidden Files in folder options.
2) Go to AppData / Local / 4A Games / Metro 2033 and open user.cfg
3a) Search for r_gi 0 and set it to 1. (Trust me.)
b) Next search for r_vsync off and change it to on.
c) And lastly go down to sick_fov 45 and change it to 60.
4) Save file. Ctrl+C to copy it, and go to Steam / Userdata and do a file search for user.cfg
5) When and if it finds it (should), paste the file over to ensure settings propigate.
What this does:
Setting A turns on Global Illumination. Now, if you're running a weaker CPU, this might actually be a performance hit, but in most cases it actually acts as a gain. It changes the lighting to a different system that works better with DX10 and 11. So if you're running DX9, I'd recommend against this change. For a full discussion on how dramatic this changes lighting ingame, check Wikipedia.
Setting B is Vsync. Fairly obvious, but the FPS gains are dramatic and prevents screen tearing. Discussion currently seems to believe the reason for the massive FPS gain is the with vsync on, all 3D display tech turns off, and since no drivers to use it anyway, no reason not to use this.
Setting C is Field of View change. This is most noticeable on widescreen displays. This one is up to you, but with so many complaints about naseua from having such a tight FoV, here you go. If you are fine with the cramped screen, ignore this or change it back. I still recommend it though, as things like your pnuematic weapon pressure displays frequently go offscreen with 45 degree FoV.
Koki on 29/10/2010 at 10:27
45? The default FoV is forty-five? Jesus. And people were calling me crazy when I played MP Quake 2 with FoV of just 90.
About the semi-open(I mean it's still a bunch of corridors in the end) world, the way I see it - they have the engine, they have the graphics, and they have THQ's blessing. So why not aim higher this time? Baby steps, amirite?
Ostriig on 4/11/2010 at 23:59
Thing is I don't see it as a baby step, as it would imply developing a notable script infrastructure as well as a different approach to thinking out and building these environments so as to keep them persistently valid at, hypothetically, any point in the game, not to mention that there'd simply be a lot more actual spaces to create. And then factor in that the design mentality for 2033 had a lot of love to show for dramatic setpieces that usually doesn't mesh too well with open/multi-path environments for very practical reasons.
I'd love them to prove me wrong and bite the bullet on it, but I just don't have any hopes for it.
Koki on 5/11/2010 at 06:54
It doesn't really need to be persistent. Shadow of Chernobyl wasn't really persistent either and everyone was fooled. Random spawn script(mutants and type, bandits, nazis, commies, caravaners, two random groups fighting each other) and basic faction system and you're good to go.
And my "baby steps" comment referred to first making a game that will surely sell following with experimentation. Hell, if I were a game developer first thing I'd do is a MMO, then maybe another MMO, and only then I'd start making actual games.
