Austin on 11/12/2002 at 00:45
I just finished playing NOLF 2 not too long ago, and couldn't shake the feel that the original was better than the second installment. All the reviews are saying how NOLF 2 surpasses NOLF in every aspect, but it doesn't. Sure, it looks that way upfront, but after finishing the game, and some deep thought, I've figured out what it is that makes NOLF 2 inferior to NOLF.
First of all, from the time I first booted it up, I thought, "This feels too stylish. Where's the grit? This seems too sleek." NOLF had a certain grit to it, a certain feel...like Deus Ex had a certain gritiness to it as well. For those of you that have played NOLF and Deus Ex, you know exactly what I'm talking about. NOLF 2 does away with this and adopts a new, sleeker and more stylistic approach...to its detriment of course. Don't get me wrong, NOLF 2 is a good game, and worthy sequel, but still inferior to NOLF. For Deus Ex 2 to surpass DX, it's going to have to keep that gritty feel that we all know and love. This is one of the hardest things to do, because it falls under atmosphere, which so many game developers overlook. For it to be immersive, it's got to have that atmoshpere. Refine the gritiness, make it better, but don't over do it...don't make the interface fell to sleek, or too stylish, then it'll fell like a console.
Secondly, while still on the subject of atmosphere...NOLF 2 was also inferior due to the music. Sure the music was alright, but it was nothing close to the music of NOLF. Again, it felt too sleek, TOO REFINED. Part of what kept us all playing Deus Ex, was the atmophere generated by Alex Brandon's music and ambiant sounds. People underestimate the effect music and ambiance has on atmosphere...and it's all about creating the right atmophere so that the player becomes immersed and can't stop playing. So, to be upfront...Alex...refine the music, make it match the mood like you did so well in DX, but don't over do it.
I gotta go for now, but I'll expound on this further soon.
Austin on 11/12/2002 at 01:59
Carrying on from where I left off...
Some of you are probably saying, "How can the music sound too good?" Well, I'm not an audio expert, but I can assure you that the music in NOLF 2 didn't do as good a job of capturing the mood and feel of the original. Again, it was too sleek, too stylish, not gritty enough. Some might say, "That's because they didn't want it to feel too much like the original." If that's the case, I can buy into it...at least a little. The only music I can say that sounded good, while supporting it's theme was in the Siberia missions. The rest of the music, just didin't quite feel like it suited the theme 100%. Again, I'm no audio expert, I'm just saying it didn't feel right to me. For DX 2 to overcome this Alex is going to have to stick to what worked in DX, but refine it just right so that it doesn't change the feel too much.
Thirdly, what happened to the plot? Some lame FPS, twitchy finger, quakified freak complained about the cutscenes in NOLF and so they cut them way back in NOLF 2. Cutting them back was a good thing to an extent, but don't cut them so much for us plot lovers. I guess what I'm about to say ties into two things...the first of which is the cutscenes giving the game a plot driven, cinematic feel, and the second being making the player feel like they're important because they're part of an organization (giving the player a home). In NOLF, the cutscenes drove the plot along, just as the cutscenes in DX drove the plot along. In NOLF 2, I felt I was cheated because the cutscenes weren't nearly as good, and they didn't use them to drive the plot along like they did so well in the original. They were much longer, much more thought provoking, enticing the player to guess the next thing out of Cates mouth, and try and figure out what's really going on, before Cate let you know in a cuscene. NOLF 2 simply didn't have this. Secondly, the cutscenes usually took place at UNITY HQ, which gave the player a home...making them feel like they were part of a greater good, but without making them feel like they were just a small piece of the pie. NOLF 2 didn't make the player feel this way. Sure, you had UNITY on your side, but it simply didn't feel personal, like NOLF made it feel. DX did this extremely well by having you report back to HQ, meet up with other UNATCO agents in the field, your infolink, etc. You were part of an organization (team for greater good), but the organization wasn't so big that your role felt minute.
Fourthly, what happened to my choices? The game designers decided it was there call on what weapons I'd be bringing into battle with me. Sure, they gave us some RPG elements with the whole build your character thing, but then they up and took away the players choices. One of the things that made DX so good was that you had lots and lots of choices. Let the player decide what they want to bring into battle, this is what made the original NOLF so good as well...you could choose your weapons. Let me give you another example of a game that I just finished and absolutely loved because it gave the player the choice to do whatever he/she wanted...Mafia. Now, lets get something out of the way upfront...the plot is linear, but so is DX, SS, Thief, etc. So don't mention anything about the plot. To keep the player progressing and engrossed he/she in a plot as to make them feel they are actually in the game (immersion), you have to keep it somewhat linear so that the story remains focused. The great thing about Mafia, is that you could choose what weapon you wanted to use, what car you wanted to use, what route to take, when to tackle the next mission. Mafia was a totally different game because it made the player feel like they were the star in a Mafia flick, but it gave the player choices. DX is going to have to keep that. Let the player choose what to carry, how to approach it, etc. I'm not too worried about this, because Harvey and Warren have said this over and over about how the player should have choices, but I was wanting to illustrate how a recent game failed this.
O.k., so right about now, you're saying, "What is this guy talking about? He's being way too picky." Maybe, but I'm just trying to give the developers something to marinate on so they make DX 2 better than DX...everyone knows making a sequel stand up to the original isn't easy.
Austin on 14/12/2002 at 05:17
I wanted to expound a bit further on something I posted earlier...I was talking about how cuscenes can give you a sense of belonging to a home. I didn't explain myself enough.
Cutscenes can do this, but it doesn't have to be cutscenes that make you feel like you have a home. It's one of those, "It does, but it doesn't have to" type things. I'll use DX as an example. DX gave you a home...UNATCO HQ, this is immersive, it makes you feel like this is your house, your organization, something to fight for on a personal level. Now the cutscenes that took place in DX made it even more immersive...it put you into further into the gameworld, let you view conversations from a 3rd person perspective and see the gameworld around you, this just adds to the immersion. At the same time this is going on, you're learning more and more about the plot that's unfolding around you. I love this kind of stuff, games that have a cinematic type feel to them. Anachronox rocked...it was superb in this field.
On that note, DX went even further by placing newspapers, email accounts, public message boards, and books around the gaming environment to help aid in alot of the backstory. This is also very immersive and draws the player further in. If DX didn't have the cutscenes and conversations, it would've still been immersive, but nowhere close to the extent that it came out to be.
All of the things here play an important part in immersion, but none can make it on their own merit...like going into battle, it's got to be a combined effort with all things combined that make up total immersion.
I know you guys at Ion Storm know this, but I guess I wanted to lay out some of my thoughts and feelings...hoping they get heard (read), because I don't want DX 2 to be like NOLF 2...so much potential, but bad decisions on the design front made the game only mediocre instead of great. I want DX 2 to rock and show people what gaming is really supposed to be about...immersion.
