Yakoob on 11/2/2019 at 05:59
I've been pining for a simple but engrossing RPG to sink my depressive nights to, so (
https://store.steampowered.com/app/438420/Zenith/)
Zenith immediately sold me on the premise. I really wanted to like this game but, with a broken heart, must give it a pass. There is a lot of squandered potential here, and the word of the day is "clunky."
Inline Image:
https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/438420/ss_b67bd46a99dd241eea8e5cd648f905a291daf795.1920x1080.jpg?t=1526042171Combat feels awkward and bland. The main character feels "heavy" to control, the animations don't feel like they land right, and the range of attacks isn't clear. Getting swarmed by more than 3 enemies is frustrating.
Interface, likewise, is extremely unpolished in many subtle ways that quickly add up. The default button mapping feels weird. The lack of feedback is haunting ("wait, did my button press actually do anything?"). You can't rotate the camera. There is no setting screen; only a main menu button which instantly takes you back to main menu (with no prompt) making you lose all progress.
But the worst issue is the
humor. It simply isn't very funny. The comedy is over-delivered, as if the writers were not confident in their jokes, so instead of a neat punch-line they over-explain the whole joke with walls of text. The F-bombs are too frequent - instead of accentuating a punchline, they come off juvenile. The "pop references" are less of a satire than just that, a reference to a trope. For example, I just met a few Final Fantasy characters and their lines basically boil down to "You know how I'm famous for doing X? Well, look at me doing X! Haha, isn't that trope funny!" It's the writing equivalent of pointing and laughing at RPGs, rather than coming up with clever ways to make fun at them.
Similarly, the
visual gags are spoiled by equally clunky cutscenes. Awkward animations, pauses between movements, generic camera angles, text that's sometimes too small to read, etc. All those things make the gags come off flat.
Yes, there were a few points that made me chuckle, but overall, the experience is frustrating and underwhelming. Bummer :/
Starker on 11/2/2019 at 15:45
Quote Posted by Ornis
Contra III: The Alien Wars is not my usual kind of game, but I've found it oddly therapeutic and enjoy the body horror. Run and gun, don't worry about anything except what's on screen, it's good after a mentally taxing day when I still need something to do to hold my momentum between important stuff.
It was my first game on the SNES, only it had robots as the main characters and a different title (Probotector). I can probably run it backwards, if I had to.
henke on 11/2/2019 at 20:24
Spotted this on Steam tonight and knew I MUST HAVE IT
[video=youtube;NP7vjidDu3E]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP7vjidDu3E[/video]
It's just... the most punk rock game I've ever laid eyes on. For years I've wanted to make something like this. Something unredeemably ugly and violent, preferably with a blaring Death Grips-esque soundtrack. I was imagining crude MS Paint graphics for my game, but this game's choice of low resolution photo-cutouts is a much better artistic choice.
The game itself is simple, ugly, hard(I recommend playing on Easy), poorly translated from Russian, only 59 cents at the moment, constantly throwing unexpected twists at you, and fucking gorgeous.
EvaUnit02 on 12/2/2019 at 20:10
Quote Posted by Ornis
Contra III: The Alien Wars is not my usual kind of game, but I've found it oddly therapeutic and enjoy the body horror. Run and gun, don't worry about anything except what's on screen, it's good after a mentally taxing day when I still need something to do to hold my momentum between important stuff.
How appropriate that this was posted the other day.
[video=youtube;XrawxcmwAW4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrawxcmwAW4[/video]
EvaUnit02 on 12/2/2019 at 20:18
Quote Posted by Starker
It was my first game on the SNES, only it had robots as the main characters and a different title (Probotector). I can probably run it backwards, if I had to.
Ah yes, Europe where violence was heavily censored back in the day. It's the complete opposite in US, gratuitous violence is a-okay but sexual imagery has them acting like Victorian puritans. Mortal Kombat 11 has been hyped as having the most brutal fatalities to date.
[video=youtube;WyJwwhKd4kY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyJwwhKd4kY[/video]
Meanwhile the depiction of characters...
(
http://www.iforce.co.nz/View.aspx?i=rirllviq.mfy.jpg)
Inline Image:
http://iforce.co.nz/i/rirllviq.mfy.jpgThe cultural dichotomy is very interesting to observe.
Starker on 12/2/2019 at 21:18
Most of the changes in localization in Europe were due to Germany, where you couldn't have a video game where people shot people, for example. Hence the robots, which, IMO, were much cooler anyway.
Also, it's not like US companies have been less "prudish" with things like violence when porting their games over to consoles. I remember Wing Commander had all the swearwords taken out on SNES, for example, and the same happened to Duke Nukem on N64. A lot of it has to do with Nintendo's marketing in the West and their desire to appear especially child-friendly and avoid any and all controversy with alcohol, drugs, religion, etc.
Starker on 13/2/2019 at 04:34
Remember, this was the time when all information came from gaming magazines. I had no idea that the US version even existed and when I eventually found out, I didn't rush out to buy the "uncensored" version. And it doesn't really matter to me to this day, because the gameplay is identical and the Contra guys look kind of stupid anyway. I've also played quite a few of the original "uncensored" games since then and found that most of the changes are really pretty much inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.
Ornis on 13/2/2019 at 06:57
Quote Posted by Starker
It was my first game on the SNES, only it had robots as the main characters and a different title (Probotector). I can probably run it backwards, if I had to.
Mine was probably Super Mario World. I had the DKC trilogy (which I loved and still do), and other games which weren't quite up my alley as the console was a hand-me-down from a family friend.