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Phoenix Falling Early-Volunteers? (spoilers) | ||
Posted By: Steve Levinson | Date: 5/30/04 8:01 a.m. | |
I'm curious - how many people here are playing through or have completed Phoenix Falling? Although it's way to early to have a full-fledged volunteers series, I thought it might be interesting to go through the scenario, level by level, to provide invaluable feedback to the author, Matt Schenk. There have been a handful of glitches reported on these pages, but one thing I've learned from volunteering RED is that there is no substitute for an in-depth critique. Matt says he may port the scenario to AO if there is interest. I think it's clear there's interest - let's help him to do it right. Now here are some of my general thoughts. First of all, this is a very nice scenario - not as good as Trojan, but close. It's interesting to have a new M1 scenario after so many years - it reminds me of some of the advantages of M1 over M2/I/AO. For one thing, the reduced screen size and blocky graphics mean smooth gameplay compared to what I'm used to, and the ability to play it on my old hardware if I want to. The old Pfhor sounds are welcome and nostalgic, and the sound of Pfhor death is much more satisfying. Inertia is much more significant - this makes it very difficult to execute quick changes in direction, which is why this was probably changed, but it's much more realistic. Two minor gripes regarding PF's use of the M1 engine - Matt apparently didn't update the built-in movies, which look ridiculous with his maps, and it would be nice to have a new music soundtrack to go with PF - perhaps someone with musical talent could help out with this for the AO release. Now there are some significant changes that Matt did make to the game overall. The colors of many of the Pfhor have been changed. I have mixed feelings about this. I know that Matt wanted to make a clean break from the feel of M1 since his scenario is not in the Marathon universe, but changing color for the sake of color is a somewhat lame way of doing this. Better by far would be completely new monster sprites, but this would mean a lot more work! In any case, this is a minor gripe. One thing I will harp on, however, is the S'pht energy bolt, which is a dark red in color. Not only is it harder to see, but it doesn't look at all like an energy bolt. It looks artificial, and should really be brightened up significantly. Again, this is a minor complaint. More significant is the hulk-like beast -it just doesn't seem real and it has no animation for it's attack sequence. This one is pathetic and should either be redesigned or replaced by the good old hulk. The new weapons that I've encountered so far (I'm on level 11) are nice. The fish hook doesn't seem real, however. The problem is that it never really gets behind the subject, making it's motion seem artificial. A fist or knife would be better. The proximity mines are cool and clever. I would like to have more of them available to use - they have gotten me out of more than a few tight spots, but I would really rather have my grenades back. Not having grenades really takes away a lot of the fun of gameplay. It also dramatically changes the dynamics and it makes the battle with troopers much more one-sided against the player. And of course it takes away the possibility of hangtime. My recommendation would be to restore the grenade function to the AR and limit the supply of grenades if you must. Since the schrapnel gun has no secondary trigger, it would be simple to add the mine laying function to this weapon instead. Finally, a word about the plot and the terminal text. The plot is intriguing, but the AI dialog is contrived and the terminal text in general is somewhat immature. No offense, Matt, but you could probably use some help with this. Don't take it personally, as a number of otherwise excellent scenarios have similar flaws, most notably among them being Evil. One bit of advice - it's often as important what not to say. Your AI's are way too direct - I'm not saying you need to go off on endless solliloqies the way that Durandal does, but your AI's would be much more intriguing if they were more circumspect. Well, that's my $.02 for now. Matt, this is an excellent scenario overall and I would strongly encourage you to continue to work on it, and to port it to AO |
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