mothra on 4/6/2010 at 23:16
ok, big spoiler text:
i was under the impression omen deng would tell me scarlett is the assassin and I could turn her but that option never came up, she just betrayed me once and the other time she never showed up because i shot leiland and never encountered yancy. and mina gets captured no matter what. Sie only helps you in the end if you did all you could to piss off marburg which i did the 2nd time. those dialogue sequences are the best of the agressive/sarcastic ones. and does anybody think marburg gets spared for the sequel - if any ? and which benefits does it have to constantly piss off mina since she is the main handler all the time....
Zygoptera on 4/6/2010 at 23:43
Quote Posted by Jason Moyer
I don't think the AI is that bad in context of what they were trying to accomplish with it. Every "boss" and faction in the game has a specific combination of fighting styles they use. I won't say if that was a great design decision given Obsidian's lack of action game experience, but it's certainly more ambitious than the AI in most shooters I've played.
I don't know, I think it's more obvious because of the tendency to fight a faction at a time (at least so far as I have got) in AP, but it's basically the same as in most games- I haven't seen people complain about the Krogan AI in Mass Effect being dumb because they charge you, for example, despite them doing so at the drop of a hat. I suspect even if it did 'intelligent' things like banking grenades to flush you from cover some would still complain about it as them being prescient or similar.
I certainly haven't seen anything I'd classify as genuinely stupid like AI abandoning turrets to try and melee Mike or such. At least yet.
Poetic thief on 5/6/2010 at 01:50
Jason Moyer, have you been following the discussions on the obsidian forums?
Well, the consensus is that the gaming press really dropped the ball on this one.
Sure, the game definitely has its flaws, but many of the gripes are unfair and some are downright nonsensical. It's like they were expecting an action shooter , and played it like a shooter.
The gamespot review essentially said, "well, it's got great rpg elements, but that doesn't make up for how much it fails as a shooter." That's like reviewing an adventure game and saying, "well, it's got great puzzles, and an engrossing story but that doesn't make up for how much it fails as a strategy game"
Jason Moyer on 5/6/2010 at 02:22
Looking at metacritic it seems like it's actually getting decent reviews aside from IGN/Gamespot, which is interesting. I have console gaming friends who I recommended it to well before it came out and they've been enjoying it, so hopefully it does well enough that Obsidian can refine it further.
Poetic thief on 5/6/2010 at 02:31
Quote Posted by Jason Moyer
Looking at metacritic it seems like it's actually getting decent reviews aside from IGN/Gamespot, which is interesting. I have console gaming friends who I recommended it to well before it came out and they've been enjoying it, so hopefully it does well enough that Obsidian can refine it further.
I don't know if it still holds true, but earlier on, there was a fairly consistent split between the European reception and the American reception.
Basically, the european reviews had a favorable tone and hovered around an 8/10, while the Americans had a very harsh almost brutal tone with scores around a 6 (and a 2 from destructoid).
The American reviews focused more on lack of production values, and shooting mechanics, while the European reviews praised its rpg strengths.
Xenith on 5/6/2010 at 08:43
Quote:
mothra's big spoiler text
What I'd like to know is
what happens if I kill Albatros when/if he gets captured by the disco drug lord. Does Sis come and try and kill me, or does she still help me get off the drug table in the Garybox. That is, if I befriend G22. Also, Scarlet told me she was the assassin only at the end, although I don't know if sleeping with her influenced that. Mina seems to have a set story path and it would be awesome if she'd sell you out at some point because you weren't friendly to her. Another thing; for those who played Recruit and have started another run in Veteran, have any of you noticed people react differently to conversation options this time? I mean, choosing Suave at some point in a conversation in Recruit culminated with -1 rep with that character, while choosing the same in Veteran did nothing to character rep or actually raised it. I'm not sure how conversations flow on the other profiles, but it's interesting to see there's a variation here and there.
Eabin on 5/6/2010 at 09:48
so i finished Rome and Taipei, and i have to say that the game improved from a 6/10 to a 7.5/10. i don't know if this is because i got used to the flaws it has or something else, and i still think that it could use some serious de-consolification. just because you can get used to some mechanics doesn't make them worthwhile.
i now even start to think that the clumsy controls in the hacking game are by design to make it harder :p
and anyone who thinks this game can be played as a quake-style shooter should have their reviewing-license revoked.
mothra on 5/6/2010 at 11:05
i played the game 2 times now as
spy: stealth. martial arts, pistol
and as a butcher: toughness, martial arts
and I don't know if I even wanna go the shooting path since the stealth/toughness/martial arts skills are just the best. martial arts is just so seriously overpowered. the bossfights against omen and marburg where over in 30 seconds. just activate ironwill, kill the henchmen, throw in a endrephine spike and activate fury: insta kill.
i like this game. it grew on me and now I still can't stomach the the bad sexist jokes but all in all, it's a really good RPG imo.
i heard under certain circumstances omen deng tells you scarlet is the assassin and then you can confront her before the finale and kill/turn her. I never got that option although she was on good terms. But I did turn down to sleep with her, maybe that changed the outcome ???
and how do I get brako to help me against sukov ? I spared him but he never shows up later....
and how you behave against g-22 only gives you less help/handlers in the last mission.
Xenith on 5/6/2010 at 11:23
About Brayko, I think you need to be in bad terms with Sukov. I can't be sure of this since I was on the plus side with him all the time.
Oh man, G22 had the two most interesting characters. Wish there was more to them. Oh well.
You know... I'm thinking about going Martial Arts, Stealth and something else when I get to choose my 3 main skills, now that I've found out how useful Martial is. I went for Assault Rifles, Tech and Toughness first time around and it was fun and efficient, but I'm eager to to approach the gameplay from a new angle.
Also, this has to be the best game I've got from all the years of game trading, which just makes me feel proud somehow.
Jason Moyer on 5/6/2010 at 15:20
Finished it late last night. What an awesome rollercoaster of a game.
Patch-wise, the only things I found broken enough that I'd like to see them fix them in an update are the touchy mouse controls (mouse-smoothing stutter, totally bizarre sensitivity on the sniper rifles) and the glitchy save states - I was fortunate in that I only had one game-breaking save-point the entire game (on the downside, I had to replay the entire embassy mission like 3 times because of it) but there were a few places where guards disappeared, or the game forgot that I didn't kill anybody or registered a wrong decision. The one embassy checkpoint, though, near the end of the mission reloaded without an active objective - that's bad.
Going to go replay it a few times now.
