I haven't read his rants about Rubicon so I can't say if they were fair or not. But I have to say, I agree with FM about mostly everything in this review. I got sick of the endless walking around not finding shit too ;)
The textures, levels, art is all first class, but Rubicon was frustrating enough for me not to be arsed to finish it, though I'm pretty sure I played more than halfway through, which isn't really bad ;)
Anyways, regarding endless wandering about, I can say the same thing about FM's own Evil.
: They spent how long on this?
: I would like to warn everyone now, this review is not a positive one.
: With that said, I would like to write up a larger review than my rating's
: comments. I won't be writing a massive in depth review, because honestly,
: my time is not worth spending on it for how unimpressed I was with this
: scenario.
: Please also note, this review has nothing to do with my work on
: Marathon:Evil. That was 4 years ago. My views on playing the Rubicon
: scenario are fresh and unclouded.
: First, the Pros: The installer was good and clean (hard to mess up vise). The
: un-stuffed archive setup was nice with the iconic pictorial. The icons for
: the program are done well and show thought to organization. The manual was
: put together with good information and enough to get a person started
: without going on and on and on about useless information.
: I am not sure if I enjoyed the beefy weapons or not. Mixed feelings. I would
: have a better Idea if I could get Aleph One to work networked... but since
: it refuses, and since I refuse to install Rubicon as normal Infinity, I
: won't ever know if the weapons are balanced well for net play or not.
: However, part of me doubts they would be from what I saw in solo play.
: The terminal art was done extremely well. Hats off to the guys who worked on
: those. The terminal text was done in the good tradition of Marathon and
: was clear of horrific spelling errors and poor capitalization/punctuation.
: The chapter screen art falls in this category as well, as being superbly
: done for what they were.
: The new textures for levels were well made. I enjoyed seeing them used and
: are of good quality. The levels using them were decent. Had good layout
: and construction, showed 'real life' likeness, like it was an actual
: place. Not like how some original Marathon maps are where they just sort
: of aimlessly wander corridors around with no discernable shape or
: features.
: Now, the Cons: Level design was good as noted above. Flow however lacks
: everything possible about the concept. Retracing the same pieces of floor
: over and over, finding dead bodies which YOU didn't cause adding to
: confusion of not finding your way around, and having many aliens teleport
: or come out of hidden doors while you are away from an area, all lead to
: bad flow. Having things open, that don't look like things that would open,
: when you are halfway across the map also adds confusion and lack of fun to
: the level. Too many times I found myself wandering the entire level, areas
: I had been in twenty times before, looking for that "door" that
: opened because I stepped on some door trigger polygon off in some hallway
: in another sector of the map. Or, clicking a button... then not hearing a
: damned thing or finding any information in any terminal about what it
: might be doing. Only to find out after retracing the entire level,
: fighting through countless more bad guys that suddenly out of thin air
: appeared in areas I had cleaned out before, some "wall" opened
: up and lets me into a new area. A new area which like all the previous
: levels I just spent loads of time in, it would have some switch or just
: the fact of walking into a room, would open up some OTHER wall/door that I
: have to now go hunt down. Rinse, repeat.
: To simplify that explanation, flow was poor. Very poor. So poor that I found
: myself getting a headache and getting "sick" of this scenario.
: When I came to a terminal, I was so worn out from running around
: aimlessly, I just yelled at the terminal "Screw you! You tell me
: nothing! Stupid thing!". It got so aimless at times, I just wanted to
: 'get through the damn level".
: Side note: When I play any type of first person shooter, even third person
: action, where it has a solo element and "levels" to go through
: and discover, I am one who tries to find everything. I like to get to
: every area, find every place, and pick up or leave behind every piece of
: non-glued-down material I can get my grubby hands on. To say what I said
: above "I just wanted to get through the damn level", means my
: will to explore was shot to hell, and my idea of "fun" was
: seriously compromised.
: To me, a level needs to be fun. If it isn't fun, then why bother making it.
: Poor flow, and throwing a player into endless ambushes and constant
: wondering, is not fun. Unless you like that sort of thing. If you do, then
: turn this entire review inside out and read it that way. Now back to the
: review...
: Terminals were great as I said above, however NO THOUGHT was given about long
: terminal text on vacuum levels, or levels with time limits. Its pathetic
: to try to force a player to sit and read something while time (or life) is
: ticking away. Only way to read them is to go back with a terminal browser
: program. However I wasn't going to bother wasting my time for it. Also
: with the terminals, the secret terminal was in bad taste, period. 'Nuff
: said there.
: Item placement wasn't done well. Many times finding ammo was difficult. Even
: on lower difficulty settings. And one thing that was continuously done
: (far more times than being "cute"), was either putting tons of
: nice ammo and/or weapons in view, but out of reach, or teleporting in a
: bunch of said equipment in a place you can't get too. Once is enough guys.
: But doing it almost once or twice every dang level?! Guh. It just turns
: into "yeah, woohoo! authors trying to fool me again... woooooo I'm
: impressed =P not".
: Difficulty settings. I don't care the reasons... but some people
: "have" to play on low settings because they like to have fun in
: a game, but lack the proper skill or hand/eye coordination to rip through
: thousands of enemies at break neck speeds. For me, I like to play levels
: at the same difficulty setting throughout the game (usually MD). The
: difficulty settings in Rubicon seemed untested or poorly planned. Testing
: should be done on all settings to see if flow ... oh wait, flow was
: horrible, so you can't go by that. I guess to see if its
: "possible" to get through areas. This scenario was not at all
: designed for the vidmaster either. Honestly, I would like to see anyone
: attempt to vid this entire scenario. Good luck.
: The game had some good shapes. However, many of the new weapons were poorly
: colored causing nasty bits and pixels to be off preventing good clean
: sharp weaponry. After all, the weapons are seen the most during game play,
: and having something ugly in your hands leads to dissatisfaction of the
: weapon. Thank goodness for Aleph One's blurring and internal smoothing,
: because software mode on those weapons is disgusting.
: Monsters weaponry is just off. Simply put. Guided grenades under water,
: lightning fast plasma bolts, high speed arsenals, almost endless firing
: rates... this isn't Quake3 damnit, this is Marathon.
: This concludes my review. I would like to wrap up my thoughts, and post a
: little note; I was unimpressed with this Major Conversion. It had lots of
: potential with some good designs/graphics/textures, but tried its best to
: ruin every ounce of fun I had while playing it. When something just ain't
: fun to me... I can't bring myself to say much good things about it.
: Personally, I think this entire thing was a waste of my time, and personal
: health (damn the headaches!).
: You can base your own thoughts, and write your own reviews if you do not
: agree with this one. As with all my writings, I will ignore any emails
: regarding them.
: Summaries: Graphic Design 5
: Game Concept 3
: Fun Factor 2
: Difficulty Fairness 2
: Level Flow 1
