|
|
Various game demo views: DS9: The Fallen - Venom - Deep Fighter - Delta Force - Land Warrior - Descent 3 - Heavy Gear 2 - Tribes - MechWarrior 3 - Infestation
Introduction:
After playing Battlezone II, I have been inspired to broaden my horizons and try other action games that aren't typical FPS games, including action/strategy and simulations. I'm on a mission to find a game that looks awesome, has tactical complexity, but is reasonable to control, like BZII. Thus I've been trying plenty of game demos, old and new, and posting views at this site. I've decided to collect all the views together on one page in case anyone's interested, and will add more if/when I try more demos.
Note: These are not proper reviews / analysis like some of the other FPS article, but only my unedited, subjective opinion.
11/12/00: DS9: The Fallen demo:
3rd person UT engined Star Trek game. Old demo gets released, no-one says much about it. Game gets released, sites review it, don't hear of anyone playing it. New demo gets released, no-one says much about it. Time to say something, then. Firstly this is a proper demo, i.e. you can fully rebind the keys, and load and save games. Two important features some "demos" lack, thus you can try the game properly. Secondly as you see from the size it's pure bloatware: 110 meg, 3 missions, 3 characters, 3 sets of enemy/weapons, 1 training mission, 2-3 intros/flybys. No. Wrong. Bad demo. *Smack*. It should be: 1 mission, 1 character, 1 set of enemy/weapons, 1 training mission, no intros/flybys. Typical of the "fuck you modem users" attitude. Nevertheless I'm glad I committed myself to a 10 hour d/l, as this demo is rather cool. It's very roughly a blend between Elite Force, hints of Deus Ex, aspects of FAKK2, with one mission set somewhere reminiscent of Daikatana's E3M1 and another mission stylistically similar to the Serious Sam Test. Phew. That's a lot of interesting stuff in one game which is why I'm surprised at the lack of shouting. In the demo, it all hangs together well: The UT engine means the controls are nice and clean and easy to set up, and the graphics are equally slick with everything looking right and some pretty sweem effects - explosions, fog, snow - too.
 
The gameplay is more focused on stealth and caution, and when you do get into a fight it can be fairly tricky - the enemy dodge rifle shots so the short range Phaser is best, and the Jem Haddar in the 3rd mission teleport around and attack from behind you too quickly for comfort. 3rd person is not suitable for this sort of sneaky stop/start gameplay, and the combats do suffer from the cumbersome nature of 3rd person. The mission goals are also fairly tedious "get key, use key", though voice-overs do add interest. Of particular note is the Tricorder, which functions as a 3D radar and info centre - very useful for detecting traps, enemy, and anything else. Out of the 3 missions, the first, set in snowy canyons and cliffs, is by far the coolest, with a great atmosphere (there's nice, dynamic, music throughout), but is a steep learning curve gameplay-wise. The second, set in a sandy, simple but exotic temple, is also stylish with some cool scenes. The final mission is a plainer space station, refined but lacking visual interest (it's a pity the 3 characters didn't have their own distinct traits/stats). Overall this demo shows a lot of coolness and fairly few flaws - after playing it I ordered the full game.
Download the DS9 demo (110 meg), visit the DS9 site.
05/11/00: Venom demo:
It is a little known fact that anything interesting that comes from Russia begins with a "V". Vodka, Vondur and now Venom, a little known tactical outdoor/indoor near future FPS game that's got me rather interested. Let's check some things off:
Fully rebindable controls - *check*
Thus it is actually a demo and not a "pile of useless toss". Aside from having no "next weapon" key, it is controllable, hurrah.
Pointlessly oversized demo - *check*
Bloody typical - 76 meg - do I really need 2 single player missions and one CTF mission to get a sense of what the game is like?? I think not.
Radar - *check*
Sniper's scope - *check*
Large outdoor maps - *check*
Three things I'm after in FPS games these days and this game has them, though the radar is a actually just a map, a pity as God knows I needed to scan for enemy positions at some points.
Slowness beyond the comprehension of mankind - *check*
Ahhhhh... Bollocks. Well there has to be some problem doesn't there - no game of this sort seems to be able to get it all right. Graphics at max gave me a cheery sub-1 FPS on the empty CTF map, while leaving them at default had the first SP mission running slowly, though just about playable, and the second was amazingly choppy - not even framerate, I think it was HDD accessing or something but it was pretty bloody unplayable.
 
Unfortunately that's not the only aspect that's unplayable: I found the outdoor mission ludicrously hard - I still haven't got through it on Easy skill after several days effort, gyack =(. The indoor mission is much more reasonable... In the outdoor areas, the enemy often shoot you from behind (or through) cover across ridiculous distances, and it's impossible to find them without sending your sidekick to kill them - and if you survive that there's bloody bunkers that launch rockets from an equivalent distance = instant death. There's no save game feature which is bloody ridiculous given how long and/or challenging the missions are. Also, object models/skins could be improved, and water is so-so, sometimes with no fogging underwater. There are also some bugs as you'd expect, the worst being (rarely) falling out of the level. And for my tastes, head bob sucks as much dick as usual, and I'm not so keen on human enemy - this is too military and not enough sci-fi for me so far.
A pity about those few serious problems, as there is plenty of coolness in this demo: Good, detailed outdoor and indoor maps, with generally good graphics. Amazing detail textures, you know, the funky up-close detailing the Unreal engine is not-famous-enough for - very impressive in this. Tactical gameplay with a choice of how you play - sneaky or more aggressive - and a lot of options to be sneaky (crawling, sniping, shooting lights), which is very cool when it works. Intelligent enemy that hide, run for cover, and sometimes call for support. Very effective, functional, sidekick, who in many cases took down a lot more enemy than I did. Cool weapon and health/armour display on your armoured sleeve. The sounds are notably good, something I don't pay much attention to usually, and there's useful sound cues too. Basically there is a lot of good about this game, some of it just *works*, but at the moment the slowness and lack of saving + difficulty cripple it....I'll be waiting for reviews of the final with interest.
Download the Venom demo (76 meg), visit the Venom site.
-------------------------------------------------------
01/10/00: Deep Fighter "demo":
A game I spotted in the otherwise revolting PC Zone magazine a couple of months back - as a decent looking underwater action game, I was looking forward to trying the demo. More fool me, unfortunately this is an appallingly flawed release to the point of having no merit as a demo. The makers of this game have obviously taken a page from Heavy Gear 2's book: By far the worst way to demonstrate your game is to have a fixed config that almost certainly renders the game unplayable for most players. And that's exactly what they've done - control options are disabled, and it's not just me and my weird-ass config, it also includes the mouse set as inverted - which is better for me as that's how I play, but would be atrociously uncontrollable for players who use non-inverted. So how exactly are players supposed to judge what the game is like - feels and plays like - and thus whether to buy it, on the basis of a demo they can't play?? Is it laziness, arrogance, stupidity or just plain selfishness on the developers behalf?? Now, that would be bad enough but naturally it gets worse: There's 4 missions included, the first one at least is time consuming, and there is no saving at all. Thus, die during the second mission as I did, and to add injury to insult you have to play through the (now extremely tedious) first mission again. Bonus.
 
To round off the despair nicely, there are particularly vomituously awful FMV cutscenes to further the punishment - I haven't played any other games with FMV cutscenes and seeing these makes me grateful, this is the first time I've actually been *embarrassed* playing a game. So is there *any* respite from the pain?? Well yes because the actual substance of the game seems fine: Graphics are quite nice, the shafts of sunlight and dappling on the seabed especially. The buildings look very cool in the hazy blue setting, but the terrain and effects can be rather crude and there is too much pop-up for a game with fogging. Sometimes the sounds work really well too, especially in the intro map and the muffled thumping of the machinery, though I'd like more ambient noises. It's fairly atmosperic but the giant fish make it seem a bit....cartoony. Gameplay, well I can't say much: I scraped through the first mission in which you have to collect minerals and find fish, as that hardly taxes the control system. Kinda nice change of pace. I like fish. It also has a radar and map and stuff which I like too. Then I died immediately on the second mission "what button is fire again? how the fuck do I move up??" etc etc. Funnily enough, uncontrols aside, the feel is fairly good, given the setting: Moving is sluggish but passable, and the mouse is very responsive (though of course the mouse speed is fixed). Bottom line is: If I find out the controls can be set up in any config, I will buy it. If they can't, I won't. Simple as that.
Download the Deep Fighter demo (66 meg, US download: DFD), visit the Deep Fighter site
-------------------------------------------------------
02/09/00: Delta Force - Land Warrior demo:
Yes back on that tip looking for action games with a bit more interest than your average FPS shooter. This one was recommended by the good old SCRAD...
SCRAD: "'Ere Shambles, you remember that Delta Force game I was playin' a while back wot 'ad those voxels that made good outdoor gubbins but looked well pixelly?? Well them same geezers 'ave managed to 3D accelerate them voxels and they're smooth and all in this new Delta Force game they got a demo of..."
Shambler: "Righty ho SCRADDY I shall check it out my son, eh, sounds rather neat what."
SCRAD: "...It's that real life shooting terrorists type malarkey, not really your cup of tea though?"
And indeed it is real life shooting terrorists malarkey and indeed it has accelerated and smoothed out voxels. Which, while it allows for enormous, expansive, outdoor areas with undulating hills and no need for fogging (I climbed one of the pyramids and could look at the entire map without any slowdown), it doesn't look as good as I'd hoped. The hills and ground wobble worryingly and pop-up is quite noticable, okay there's not a polygon to be seen on the ground and you can see for *miles*, but I find BZII style polygonal terrain much more refined. Equally, the polygonal buildings, enemy, and weapons in this are only adequate. It's set in an Egyptian ruins/pyramid complex, and, for example, I found the textures, atmosphere and skins in the Serious Sam Test (reviewed) more refined. It's pretty decent looking but there's much better around sans voxels. The unrefined nature of the terrain does have some issues for gameplay, clipping with buildings is very vague, weapons go into walls and sometimes most of the player does. It's worse for the enemy, at long distance some of them disappear into the sand entirely...
 
The gameplay itself surprised me - firstly how much fun the real-life style malarkey was, secondly how easy it was. The focus is on shooting lots of terrorists, relying on a radar to find them and a scope to snipe them - which is great!! Radar and scope are turning into two of my favourite things in action games and it's fun using them in this, really makes a difference to normal FPS gameplay. Being realistic (ish), it's one-shot-one-kill for the enemy....and for you - this encourages using cover and sneaking around, which I enjoyed. It's also quite exploratory, there's lots of ways to get to your objective, the most cunning being crawling for 5 real-time minutes down a trench with no danger of getting shot =). The downside is, unless you stand still for ages, the enemy are pretty bloody hopeless: Playing on "Normal" skill, the lower of two settings, they try to kill you by firing everywhere around you and scaring you to death by near misses, rather than actually shooting you. They move around and take cover okay, but, for example, I ran wildly through a "killing zone" at one side of the map, through about a dozen enemy, and survived - even Quake grunts would have killed me by then!! I shall have to try it on "Hard" skill and see if that's better. Soooo... I do kinda like this despite it's real life nature, but the whole thing feels a bit too flimsy in graphics and gameplay.
Download the Delta Force Land Warrior demo (24 meg), visit the DFLW site.
-------------------------------------------------------
11/08/00: Descent 3 demo:
Fuck tactics and complexity, back to action =). The only slight catch being that Descent3 action happens in all 3 dimensions....or is it 4?? Or 5 even?? Whatever, this has unlimited freedom of movement - a bit more freedom than old Shambler can handle, but it's not too bad. It's quite fun being able to roll the, err, ship upside down or indeed at any strange or jaunty angle and play that way - fun forcing your mind to accept the ground above you as normality in the outside sections =). It's rather tricky to control having to have both movement and rotation controls for all dimensions but thankfully the actual feel is pretty good. There's only really one problem with the demo, the mouse options - either "sim style", with mouse inverted but very slow sensitivity - OR "fps style" with fast sensitivity but no mouse inversion options. But I need to play with mouse inverted, and reasonable sensitivity, which the demo doesn't allow. Again, I just wonder why the FUCK the developers don't include all options - why deliberately alienate some players??
 
Anyway, it's certainly playable, there are no other problems (aside from getting used to all the degrees of movement), I just have to move my hand pretty bloody hard. If anyone knows any fixes to increase mouse speed, give me a shout - I tried the speed in Windows but that didn't work. The rest of the demo - well I've actually played it through 3½ times, a good sign for sure!! Aside the mouse issue it's by far the most polished demo I've tried - it feels like a finished product demonstration. Looks very nice too (aside from a bit of obligatory weirdness on the outdoor terrain). Good, solid, indestructible look to the scenery, lots of angles and curves, and some nice refined textures that remind me of UT. The effects are great and flashy, especially the explosions that flash and shake the screen with sweem fireballs. The enemy fighters look a bit crap, somewhat vague and small, though they fight fairly well. Combat is pretty fun - more fun outdoors - though the main challenge comes from the control as you get a LOT of supplies. I like the cool sentry thing that fires this "disorientator cannon" that makes the screen strobe and wobble frantically, that's pretty funny =). A radar would have been nice as it's sometimes hard to keep track of the enemy. I enjoyed this and thus it's highly likely I will get the game.
Download the Descent3 demo2 (36.3 meg), visit PlanetDescent.
-------------------------------------------------------
10/08/00: Heavy Gear 2 "demo":
The title is in quotes for a reason: This is the playable demo you can't play, the demonstration of a game that doesn't demonstrate anything. Why?? Because the fuckwits who made it set up the fucking demo so you can't change any fucking key bindings and have to fucking choose from the fucking shite selection of inconvinient pre-programmed set-ups already in the fucking thing. Why the fuck some moron decided that you can't choose to play the fucking demo how it suits you, fuck knows. But if you want to move with the mouse you're fucked, if you want to shoot with the keyboard you're fucked, if you want to invert the mouse you're fucked, if you just want to rebind one single little fucking key to make it a bit more convinient, you're fucked. All this means, it gives no fucking indication whatsoever what it feels like to play the fucking game. And of course you can't change any other fucking settings - not even the fucking resolution and can't even look at the fucking DM maps so you can try to get used to the fucking unplayable controls before not playing the fucking thing. Pile of fucking arse.
 
Annnnywaaaay... Paradoxically, aside from that fatal error, the control and feel in this are quite good - a lot closer to a normal FPS than Mech3, for example. Turning (with the keyboard, sweet Jesus noooo!!), and moving are quite responsive, and it might be playable without using damned torso twist. The overall control seems okay: No overheating bollocks, simple HUD, less weapons to deal with, more focus on tactics than struggling to keep your machine running. Which is actually making it quite appealing, despite not being able to play the damn thing. Oh I tried BTW, I hammered their hideous key setup like an orang-utang on the bongos, the only time I didn't die within 30 seconds was when I climbed onto the "you're not supposed to be here" mountains at the edge of the map, and sniped from there. Other than that....I seem to die *very* quickly from the slightest hit (see screenshot), but I guess it's also due to not being able to move or fire without staring at the keyboard for 15 minutes trying to remember their ghastly setup. Naturally there is no saving and you have to sit through the intro every damn time.
What else?? It looks cool, though the sky and ground are remarkably similar to Tribes. In particular, the enviroments are a lot richer than in Mech3 or Tribes, more enemy bases, better water features, neat forests. Lusher. Of course I have to put with 640x480 or whatever crap resolution it's set at.... Effects and stuff are up to standard too, nice dust kicked up on the ground. I don't like the Gears though, I mean they're okay as humanoid robots but really a proper robot a la Mech3 (or indeed the enemy "Striders") looks so much cooler. The Gears slide oddly across the terrain and I hate the way they are holding a gun in a hand - I mean FFS this is a 15 foot high robotic battle suit, what does it need a hands for - knitting?? Flower arranging?? Making cups of tea?? Gads. Well....you may have detected some "slight hostility" to the demo in this update, and indeed I refuse to acknowledge it as a demo. Yet, with the responsive movement, the comparative simplicity, and good graphics, I'm almost considering trying the full game. Almost. This demo setup can still suck my cock right up to the ballsac though.
Download the Heavy Gear 2 demo (44.8 meg), visit the Heavy Gear 2 site.
-------------------------------------------------------
09/08/00: Tribes demo:
As regular p1mps on #terrafusion know, I try to view at least one set of new Tribes2 screenshots every day (wh00t, just spotted one as I write this =)). Keeps me "regular" you know... Well I just think the game looks very damn cool with those outdoor landscapes, and UT has shown how fun botmatch/mp teamplay action can be. So I thought it would be worth giving the Tribes1 demo a blast to see what it felt like since I have fairly high hopes for T2. And yes, the demo is multiplayer only, I haven't been playing it, just looking around. I mean I could play it on a demo server but I would get lagged to death and caned soundly from regulars no doubt... So I'm just checking the feel, which for me is the actual important part of getting a demo.
 
The result?? It's cool. It feels good, it's easy to control. Kinda like a cross between Q2 and UT feel, set in huge outdoor enviroments. It's even got slope jumping!! Control is all properly clean and smooth - and quite fast with the basic guy, much slower with heavy armour. Jetpack isn't too hard to control and the weapons are fine - some nice effects too. Seems all the complexity comes from the teamplay, missions, and choice of equipement, and not the control, which is much more like it. Even T1 looks good (I had to take the screenies in software tho, yick), all clean and polished, though the maps are very similar, and there is some weird wobbling as terrain comes into focus. There some dodgy clipping around buildings too but that seems to be an essential feature of outdoor games :P. Suffice to say if T2 has proper botmatch as promised, I will buy on sight - and indeed if T1 had botmatch I'd have it already.
Download the Tribes demo (24.4 meg), visit Tribesplayers.com.
-------------------------------------------------------
08/08/00: Mechwarrior 3 demo:
Hmmmm not an awful lot I can say about this because it's 3456234635000000 times more complex than I can handle =). Okay. It's a big robot sim so the feel is arse as it's very, very slow and reaction times of a Mech are measured in days not seconds. Moving is very complex with throttle and both torso rotating and mouse aiming within the field of view - and of course there are certain key binds, the ones I want of course, that don't work. Firing is very complex with lots of different weapons bound is various configurations - and again the usual fire button I have doesn't work. That's as far as I've got, now speculation: Targetting seems very complex with all sorts of various enemy and body part specific targetting. Heat build up, cooling and all that malarkey seems very complex. Configuring your Mech, choosing and grouping weapons seems very complex. No doubt there are other very complex things I haven't even heard of :P
 
Now, some of this I could get used to and probably enjoy - customising and setting weapons, and figuring out combat tactics - but firstly there's just so much to learn, and secondly it's hard to get used to this when the control is such sluggish arse and it's hard to even move the damn thing. Simple controls, solid feel, and THEN all the complex weapons and heat stuff would be fine. Anyway, it looks pretty nice - I found the level very bland and flat, but the Mechs look really good. Sky, lighting, lightning, rain, weapons effects etc etc are pretty cool - and there are some great touches like different footstep decals for each Mech and missiles that actually blow craters in the ground (impressive!!). I've had some sound problems (the sound only seems to work when I have a CD in??) and I can't even look at the multiplayer map, boo hiss. Basically I've spent a bit of time fannying around in this, and actually did "okay" in the instant action mission, more by aim and luck than actually having a fucking clue what I was doing. I kinda like the protracted nature of the combats, but the control is just....AAARRGGHH!! I dunno it's so far removed from FPS games despite being both in the first person and yes shooting things too....for me it would be an endurance test just getting used it...
Download the MechWarrior3 demo (30ish meg), visit the MechWarrior3 site.
-------------------------------------------------------
07/08/00: Infestation demo:
This week I'm going to be rambling on about some action game demos I've played (or tried to!) recently. Not proper reviews / articles, just some views I want to shout about. These are old demos of games that are out already - part of my hunt for a sweem looking outdoor action game with a bit more tactical interest than an average FPS.
Gwog, boss man at PlanetDaikatana, drew my attention to Infestation, a sci-fi driving/action game with a first person perspective. Looked pretty damn cool in the shots, lots of nicely lit, futuristic outdoor enviroments with some cool effects, and the demo's only 9.5 meg (now that's a proper demo size!!). Download it, fire it up, no mouse control. "Gwog, this demo you recommended me doesn't have any damned mouse control!!"...."Shambler, mouse control is for proper games, just live with it". Okay well I know from the start there's no chance of me getting the game then :P. Anyway I give it a play out of interest - controls aren't bad for the keyboard, it would probably be quite comfortable with the mouse.
 
It does look cool....until you actually start moving and looking at things closely, and then you see it: everything wobbles, the sky wobbles, the scenery wobbles, all the buildings and artifacts on the ground wobble alarmingly. All quite disturbing and although the style of the enviroments, the terrain, and some effects look cool, this huge bug spoils it. I almost completed the demo, but with no way to leave it and load from a save, and, errrr, well I can't figure out how to complete the fucking mission, so bleeeh to that. Strikes me as a confused game: On one hand it's a driving game with a focus on motion, on the other hand the controls are arse. On one hand it has some nice effects and an inspiring outdoor style, on the other hand the wobbliness and some other effects are just crap. On one hand it makes some pretence at serious missions, on the other hand it's full of typical arcade nonsense like tokens. Nice style - very nice style looking at some of the screenies - shame about the game.
Download the Infestation demo (9.5 meg), visit the Infestation site.
Top
|
