flamming_python 最近的評論

Fascinating title, this one is. A blend if you will, of Icewind Dale and Fallout 1. With a dash of something even more old-school - the Ultima series.

Icewind Dale because it's fantasy, but much more desolate than you're used to, and with a heavy emphasis on combat and dungeon raiding. Most of all quests and situations in this game are solved through combat. A couple through theft, and some through collecting items or following a linear dialogue tree. But none through negotiations - except for the fact that you can either choose to complete the quest and the combat associated with it, or leave the baddie be. You don't actually need to complete more than a handful of quests to beat the game technically speaking.

Fallout 1 because it's the exact same premise. You're thrust from your comfort zone into a completely unknown world, where every expectation is subverted with something inherently lower quality or more dangerous. And you're left to do what you want right from the opening minute. The focus is on exploration, and it's an equally fascinating realm to Fallout's one, with secrets and encounters hidden in every nook and cranny, items to pilfer, quests to solve at every corner and horrific monsters to be ambushed by.

I remember playing the shareware version of the original Exile: Escape from the Pit on my mum's Mac, this must have been in 1997 or so. I was never good enough to get far in it as a kid, but there was something about it that stimulated my interest and imagination. The mechanics in that version were pretty hardcore - severe encumbrance penalties, getting dumbfounded, diseases, and so on. And you best not get any of your characters killed as their revival will cost a small fortune. I'm glad Spiderweb Software toned it down for this remake. It's a better game for it. But if you're an experienced RPG player - do play it on hard. The combat system is fairly simple and you will quickly master it to the point where fighting won't be a challenge for you on the easier difficulties. You can always dial the difficulty down for the odd battle if you really do become stuck somewhere.

Anyway, I got the first Fallout a year or two later and it quickly became my favourite RPG. Now that I played through this remake, I know why. Because this game and Fallout - well they're basically apples from one and the same tree.

And finally there's the Ultima influence. This is related to the game's art style, its combat system, and its heavy reliance on text descriptions. The writing I should note in this game - is superb. The Ultima games of course were also I believe the earliest open-world RPGs and in this sense are the progenitor of both Avernum and Fallout.

Altogether Avernum is a unique package backed by expertly crafted world-building and a wondrous setting. That said I don't feel like it's an all-time classic. There are a number of things which aren't to my preference. Too much going back and forth and leaving dungeons half-completed only to have to return later as difficulties and challenge ratings even within the same dungeons or across different floors can vary quite widely. The less than ideally balanced combat system and spell tree. The story not hooking you emotionally.. or really being there 95% of the time. Wooden NPCs whose character development is non-existent. And a lot of instances which break immersion - such as being able to pilfer a dragon's treasure only for it to carry on interacting with you as if nothing has changed. I guess you're always aware that it's ultimately a remake of a remake of a game from 1995. But it's still a great time. And a great game.

This game essentially simulates actual warfare

Only no no no, not the key engagements and pivotal manuevers, but more like the chance skirmishes between the recon forces of both sides involving several dozen men apiece at the approach to some village or another, taking potshots against each other and trying to move the 1 or 2 tanks you have into position without them getting picked off in the process (flip a coin as to whether you succeed), and that more often then not all ends in a stalemate brought about by the casualty aversion of both sides. Then after an hour of mostly nothing everyone withdraws for the night to have a cup of tea, because who needs that village anyhow. Rinse & repeat.

Or at least that's how I rationalise it. Either way, the experience just does not make for a particularly fun game.

And don't try to tell me that it's just this style of wargame, or how Close Combat requires all this patience or whatever. I played Close Combat before; the 2nd, 3rd and 4th ones. And they were all a lot more enjoyable and intense then this one, while not sacrificing anything of their war simulation aspects.

I haven't played the 2nd game, and I'm sure it's superior and yadayadayada. I'm reviewing the first game. And.. well yeah, it's good clean fun. If No More Room in Hell is the more cerebral, slower paced zombie survival objective FPS, then this is the pure fast-paced action counterpart. It's showing its age of course but the shooting is still satisfying, the dynamic music system sets the tone, the survivor bot AI still manages to impress all these years later, the zombies still very much do threaten, and there are still enough people playing it to get a game going within a minute or so, often within 30 seconds. Can't comment on how many of them are cheaters, but there are definitely a reasonable amount of people still playing.
There are many newer games that simply don't get the fundamentals right like this game did.
Of course you don't want to pay full price for this game. Get it on sale. Whether you want to get the sequel instead on sale, as I presume it will be on sale at the same time - is up to you. Like I said, have yet to play the sequel, can't comment. But on its own merits, Left 4 Dead deserves a recommendation when at a discount price.

I'll give this game a *tentative* recommendation
Coz it's really a hell lotta of fun. But the downsides are:

- the long wait times to find a match
- the buggy rewards/quests system which doesn't even register your win or achievements half the time
- the somewhat shallow gameplay after a while although that may be because what's left of the community only plays one and the same game-mode. It does get old one way or the other though.
- the price it's selling at; which is not justified by the modest player base left, the lack of new updates or honestly the age of the game by this point

Now if you can deal with all that, and ideally get the game at a low price on sale, or can talk a friend into buying it with you - then go for it. Because it's unique, and like I said is quite a fun game indeed.

Pretty fun in small doses. Kinda like Day of Defeat meshed with Counter Strike, and with some dinosaurs added in.

It does get repetitive, but coming back to it for a quick blast now and again is pretty viable.

Biggest problem is the small player-base. For the moment anyway, there are still enough people on to have a proper game with.

Is full of modernisms and a SJW agenda that completely breaks immersion and annoys me. The lore is meh and the setting tries to parrot 17th century America a little too much. The music hits and misses; with a few tracks sounding perhaps a little too familiar to fans of Baldur's Gate.

But it's a great game despite it all. The exploration, the mysteries, the amount of content, the loot, the combat, the game mechanics, the character leveling, the beautiful isometric graphics & scenery, the ambient sound effects. Don't miss out.

Okay where to start with this one..

So, after you installed it, and don't ask me how as I don't remember the procedures, but you can do a google search for them

1). Fix that bug that relaunches the game as soon as you exit it (!!!!!)
2). Fix that bug that resets your resolution to default every time you launch the game
(sigh)
3). Install that AGC Templar mod or whatever it's called. If there are settings for alien AI - then set it to the most difficult possible. This mod improves the AI, textures, adds more Smartgun sections, rebalances the combat and has a bunch of little fixes and other additions. It's pretty much essential.
4). Fix the typo in the pecanengine.ini file, the one that was accidently discovered only 4 years after the game's release by a modder, and that had been gimping the enemy AI all this time.
5). Add a hotkey to one of the ini files to disable the HUD, the tutorials you'll find assign it to F6 and that's a perfectly good key for it
6). When you go into the game and start a new game, select at least the Hardcore difficulty, and preferably the hardest one
7). Every time you load/reload a game, press F6 to disable the HUD. It adds a lot to the immersion. You can switch it back on when you have the Smartgun or the Battle Rifle with the IR sight equipped. Avoid the laser dot addons for your weapons, as they require the HUD to be on to show the laser dot. You can also briefly switch the HUD on if you want to know the directions to the objectives/health status/teammate location/what you just picked up. Other than that though avoid it; learn to rely on the motion tracker.
8). In-game you can also press F7 to switch on some extra post-processing configured by the mod you earlier installed. It doesn't make much difference, just improves the lighting a little bit, but if your rig can handle it you might as well have it on.

Sooo, after all that, what do you get, and why go to all that trouble for the sake of repairing a broken game?

Well you get a pretty decent, linear story-driven FPS set in the Aliens universe, with tons of action and a servicable plot that keeps the game moving. The game won't win any awards even then, but if what you were looking for was a Battlefield 3 campaign
esque experience as a Colonial Marine (I certainly was), well now you've got exactly that.
The enemy AI now is good enough. The graphics are a little dated but pretty atmospheric and thematic. Your AI companions are all
indestructable and next to useless at actually taking enemies out - but then you can level the same critisism at all these types
of games. You do feel like you're immersed in the universe of this franchise. And yeah, Aliens the game, pretty much. Happy hunting.

It's a decent enough game that draws you in. It just kinda overstays its welcome though, you know? Doesn't know when to wrap things up.

An old game with antiqued mechanics and visuals - yet strangely compelling.

Reminds me a lot of one of its contemporaries - Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption. Similar to that game in terms of gameplay, the party system, progression and graphics.
Although the combat system has a lot more depth in this game.. or at least, its various mechanics gel better together and the AI has a slightly better idea of what to do.
As a result, there the narrative drives the game, whereas here the actual RPG mechanics do and the gameplay seldom feels like too much of a grind.

Nice lore. Very nice lore actually.. Pillars of Eternity devs - play this game and take some notes. This is how you build a unique and captivating game world.. not the real-world rip off you guys came up with complete with modernisms and a helping of neo-liberalism.

When you play this game, make sure not to skip through all the dialog and descriptions. Allow
yourself time to read through everything, and get immersed into the experience. That way you'll get the most from this game.

A whole load of cheesy lines, blatant references and trying-too-hard with the humour and everything; but behind these cringe-worthy attempts lies a decent narrative, and a genuinely fun game that's a blast to play.