zackman
Registered: 10/21/08
Posts: 43
|
| Posted 11/06/08 at 11:54 AM | Reply with quote #26 |
|
I think it took me longer to come to terms with the nature of Oddysee because everybody calls it a platformer. Also, I don't like action-puzzlers and was subconsciously hoping that my initial impressions were wrong and the 'platform' label was right.
So far my impression is that Abe's Oddysee is the first version of something great, though I like the art better than the gameplay. The progression from grimy factory to pristine wilderness is really well done, as sharc said. On the other hand, it reminds me a lot of playing a bit of The Elder Scrolls: Arena last month---there's something there that will be really good at version 2 or 3, but version 1 just has a lot of flaws. Games are still software and the per-version incremental improvement property is still strong with them. Probably one reason that we tolerate endless sequels so readily. |
| Loading... | |
CrashT
Registered: 08/19/08
Posts: 327
|
| Posted 11/06/08 at 02:14 PM | Reply with quote #27 |
|
I think it's worth noting that Oddworld Inhabitants started life as a CGI firm making adverts and short films. Given that background it's no real surprise that the art and animation of the game took a foreground role.
On an abstract level everything takes places on a very strict grid, so once you get accustom to the size of that grid it becomes easier to visualize exactly how far you need to go and when you need to jump, there's no real precision required beyond standing on the correct grid square. The puzzles, at least in the first few levels, seem much more time based that location based. Again reminding me of Braid.
Michael's right, Abe very clearly requires you to step "into the magic circle" and accept the game on it's own terms in order to have fun. If you can do that and once you've got the hang of the underlying discrete foundation of the otherwise fluid animation it's a lot easier to give yourself over to the playing the game.
__________________
Justin Keverne
GamerTag: CrashT
Groping The Elephant |
| Loading... | |
dhalgren2882
Registered: 08/26/08
Posts: 147
|
| Posted 11/06/08 at 02:51 PM | Reply with quote #28 |
|
I am enjoying the game now that I've been prodded to start it, but with all the comparisons to Braid, I can't help but wish for a rewind button after the fifth time in a row I fell into a pit because my fingers won't remember the jump button.
I've decided to let the poor Mudokons die if they aren't easy to rescue, after all, if they aren't willing to help themselves at all, why should I bother with them?
__________________
http://www.theautumnalcity.com |
| Loading... | |
Pots_Talos
Registered: 10/24/08
Posts: 29
|
| Posted 11/07/08 at 05:17 AM | Reply with quote #29 |
|
I'm having a lot of fun with this game so far. Since its my first time playing it, I won't be trying for all the secret areas and rescuing all the slaves.
There has only been one screen that gave me any problem and that was disarming the bomb. I had the TV on so I thought I just had to pay attention and time the green light which was proving difficult for me. After dying a few times I got lucky and the TV went quiet, I heard the tick tick tick *beep* and felt like slapping myself in the face realizing how easy it was to disarm it all this time I just needed the sound to time it correctly.
Movement doesn't seem to be bothering me to much. I'm a big fan of Out of this World and Flashback, which in my opinion are better games but Abe's Oddysee still seems like a solid title and I look forward to continuing it, as well as re-beating it and doing all the secret areas, rescuing everyone.
__________________
"Everyone has two cents, but it's only worth taking from very few people. Most people just swallowed a couple pennies and expect you not to mind when they come out covered in sh*t." -Azaroth |
| Loading... | |
davidcarlton
Moderator
Registered: 07/15/08
Posts: 548
|
| Posted 11/08/08 at 02:10 AM | Reply with quote #30 |
|
I'd been at a conference most of the week, so I only managed to start the game last night. First impressions: I really loved the intro. And then, once I got into the game play: every screen feels really small. Part of that is how large your sprite is, part of that is the "move from square to square" feel that means you're effectively dealing with a very small grid indeed. Compared to this, a game like the original Super Mario Bros. or Lode Runner (even though the latter also had you moving from square to square) seems much much more open.
I played along for a while, then I learned how to save the Mudokons. So I thought "oh, I should go back and save some of the earlier ones." And I couldn't - over and over again I went up the elevator and got killed by the slig. After getting annoyed for a while, I gave up and decided to continue.
Then came the sequence of rooms with the rocks, the mine you have to deactivate, and something annoying past that that I've forgotten; I had to go through that several times, but I didn't think it was too unfair.
At some point later on, I accidentally discovered (or maybe remembered from the distant past?) an offensive technique, which I won't talk about here since I don't think the game has mentioned it yet so it's a bit of a spoiler. With that in mind, I restarted (nice of the game to at least let me skip the cut scenes), and tried harder to save the mudokons. I got most of them (that I could see), but not all.
Another place where I spent a fair amount of time: the bit with the two guillotines and what's to the right of it. I died over and over again; it felt frustrating but not actively unfair. In particular, once I managed to kill the slig without having him shoot a mudokon, I was able to lead all the mudokons to safety; I'd been worried that they'd get killed by the guillotine if I didn't get the timing just right (which would have felt unfair), but the timing was generous there.
It took a while to manage to kill the slig to the right of the screen with the grenade, which was kind of annoying in retrospect since I apparently didn't have to? Still, the practice will probably do me good in the future.
And then I came to the end of the level. Which I had two immediate reactions to:
1) That was short!
2) 17 mudokons died? That's kind of harsh...
In a way, 1 is actually a good thing: I felt like I spent a fair amount of time replaying certain areas to get them right, but even with that, I made it through the level without its requiring all of my (abbreviated) evening. Which is a pleasant change of pace after DX!
For 2, I'm not so sure. Part of the reason why it felt harsh is that you're collecting people, not coins, which is an interesting psychological reaction. And I do support a game like this having replay value via encouraging you to look in every nook and cranny and solving tricky puzzles.
Unless I'm missing my guess, though, I think that replay value is not as well presented as it could be. In many other games in adjacent genres, you can choose to replay levels (frequently defined as something a bit smaller than the levels here) individually, to try to unlock every aspect of that level. As far as I know, that's not possible here: you have to start the whole game from scratch, and it's (as far as I can tell) easy to miss a hidden area and then be unable to return to it when you realize that you haven't saved somebody? So I wish that had been presented a bit differently.
All in all, I'm quite happy to be playing it; I certainly found it less frustrating than the start of Deus Ex (though, admittedly, my DX struggles probably had more to do with my psychological quirks than anything else), and I was very pleased to find that, if I do a decent job of trying to solve obvious puzzles and don't sweat secrets, I'll get a challenge that isn't excessive and that doesn't suck up hours of my time. Though I imagine this game gets rather harder as it progresses...
|
| Loading... | |
davidcarlton
Moderator
Registered: 07/15/08
Posts: 548
|
| Posted 11/08/08 at 02:14 AM | Reply with quote #31 |
|
Quote: Originally Posted by CrashT
Question: How long are the loading times on the PSOne version of Abe's Oddysee? As I'm playing the Steam version and they are all but instantaneous.
They're fine in the grand scheme of things, but I wouldn't call them instantaneous. Slightly annoying, but nothing to put a real damper on things: I certainly spent more time moving and dying than I did waiting to respawn... |
| Loading... | |
aeazel
Registered: 07/21/08
Posts: 26
|
| Posted 11/12/08 at 01:26 AM | Reply with quote #32 |
|
I grew up in a family where cursing was not frowned upon, as long as it wasn't out in public where I could be reprimanded for it.
That said, this game saw me letting loose a few choice words.
It has been ages since I played a game that wasn't an sRPG so contingent on a grid system that it took some readjusting. Especially because of the animations and not being able to just stop whenever I wished to do so.
Agreed with most of the points here--I'm starting to enjoy the game, but I can only imagine I would have enjoyed this much more as a child, when gaming time was much more abundant. As it stands, I'm looking at the other Mudokons as pointless sheep and only care about myself.
This strikes me as a curious choice: save yourself, or save the others of your race. What is Abe? Having only seen two movies thus far, I feel I have no feel on how he would react to his own race, or if he is a selfish being. For expediency's sake, he's selfish.
__________________
Denis Farr
Vorpal Bunny Ranch
GayGamer
The Border House |
| Loading... | |
StolenName
Registered: 08/26/08
Posts: 34
|
| Posted 11/12/08 at 11:19 PM | Reply with quote #33 |
|
I think "naive" would be a better way to describe Abe. He's got a heart and he has tenacity but he's also a mischievous, clumsy and sometimes cowardly. He's out to save his own skin.
However, he does grow throughout the story and that's worth sticking around for.
__________________
Daniel Purvis
http://graffitigamer.com/
http://gamingsa.com/ |
| Loading... | |
Celeste
Registered: 08/29/08
Posts: 1
|
| Posted 11/16/08 at 06:51 PM | Reply with quote #34 |
|
When I first played this game several years ago, I gave up at just the point where I almost gave up this time. I still had the save to prove it. I almost did again this time, but reading everyone's comments here kept me going. I realized that I just wasn't going to save everyone on the first run through and that I was going to die many many times before I made it to the next section.
The most aggravating part of starting this game was not knowing where the saves were, like several other people have said. Several days this week, I would get home from work and play for all the time I could--never for very long--getting further along each time, and just hope that I wouldn't have to start all over again when I had to stop playing. Which I always did, because I hadn't passed through the door with the warning over it.
One good part about having to replay that one section so many times was that I am way more comfortable with timing now. The first time I went through that section where the two grinders are coming down, I just sat there for several minutes watching the first one come down and trying to will myself to make Abe go forward. |
| Loading... | |
