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Crowetron posted:I always feel like I'm crazy when people start praising Alien: Isolation. I like pursuer enemies like Mr. X and Nemesis, I like chase sequences, but when they're instant kill the whole illusion just falls apart for me. It no longer matters how much work they put into the animations or sound design or pathing, as soon as it gets me once I don't see any of that any more. I just see a big Load Game screen following me around as I retread the same poo poo I just did. It's not scary or tense or challenging anymore, it's annoying.  I frankly just wanted an Alien walking sim. 
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Nov 7, 2022 19:33
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| # ? May 17, 2024 00:53 |
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The Alien is often considered better because it's smart. It continually hunts you, it lays traps and ambushes you through the ceiling, and it's something that you have to really skitter around unless you exploit its incredible weakness to noisemakers. Imo the issue with Mr. X is that he's the opposite, he's dumb as bricks. Yeah sometimes he gets lucky and stomps around a corner to punch you in the face, but I spent a lot of time in the RE2 remake just leading him around in lazy circles to gain some distance before running off. After he falls for the "oh poo poo he's on the other side of this desk, what am I going to do" act a few times he gets to be less intimidating and more annoying.
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Nov 7, 2022 19:49
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Maybe I just think the smarter enemies are scarier...I'm a wuss and prefer the dumber ones. 
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Nov 7, 2022 19:52
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X is just there to provide some extra pressure at the end of Act 1, the alien’s a full-game threat with the sophistication to match
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Nov 7, 2022 19:53
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Again, the ai doesn't mean anything to me because I can't see it as anything other than a group of MegaMan spikes than can walk around. The tension is permanently shattered for me after the first instant kill and it becomes a tedious irritation at best.
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Nov 7, 2022 19:55
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The best part of A:I is the rare moments you get to weaponize the Xenomorph against other humans. Throw a flashbang at their feet, hide, and wait until the screaming stops.
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Nov 7, 2022 19:57
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Crowetron posted:Again, the ai doesn't mean anything to me because I can't see it as anything other than a group of MegaMan spikes than can walk around. The tension is permanently shattered for me after the first instant kill and it becomes a tedious irritation at best. This is the big issue with the game. When F.E.A.R. came out, the developers wanted people to know about this sophisticated AI system they had in place, so they had the soldiers constantly call out what they were doing. This gave the image of an AI system that was constantly working against the player in complex ways. A:I doesn't have that, so it may be doing incredibly complex calculations about searching for the player, closing in, crossing out locations where the player isn't, when it feels like it should leave, but all I experienced was a thing that sorta wandered around before exiting the scene and arbitrarily appearing once I had walked ten feet away from my hiding location, forcing me to hide yet again, maybe randomly finding me if I got unlucky.
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Nov 7, 2022 20:20
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Groovelord Neato posted:Cultic is a good horror game but it always feels weird recommending one with good gameplay. Feels like an alternative universe version of Blood. It's amazingly fun. Running around at insane speeds sliding around and throwing dynamite at dudes in robes has never been so smooth.
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Nov 7, 2022 20:57
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Yeah I finished Cultic the other night and really enjoyed it. Very much felt like I got my moneys worth, it felt like a full game as it was but apparently the dev is going to add another chunk of levels of comparable size.
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Nov 7, 2022 21:04
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Morpheus posted:This is the big issue with the game. The Alien should've had a Michigan J. Frog voice and constantly barked out loud.
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Nov 7, 2022 21:18
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Morpheus posted:This is the big issue with the game. Good points on comparison to FEAR. I do also think that the leashing mechanic was a bit too much, and yet necessary to keep the game moving along. When people learned about that it went from evading an intelligent, systematic beast to riding the magical line between too slow and too fast. If you do a little scoot to where the Alien just searched then it should largely just wander off to look elsewhere. It's also weird that there's still a lot of people on the station but the alien is obsessed with just finding you and will peek under every door and desk to find this one random human. If they made a sequel they should probably lean into the risk/reward system of doing actual loud things. Not "walk instead of crouch so it doesn't tether closer", things like manipulating your environment with obviously attention seeking things and risk attracting the xenomorph, but also allowing you to fight back. Basically set traps or distract rather than just hiding.
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Nov 7, 2022 21:27
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I never got the reverence for the A:I xenomorph AI. It's very very obvious it is an omniscient player-centered algorithm - the monster goes through the motions of hunting in a defined area (again, zeroed directly on the player) while coincidentally making a beeline to exactly where you are, no matter what I noticed it the first time I played and then that explainer video came out and confirmed that it is in fact exactly how it works
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Nov 7, 2022 21:38
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Willing suspension of disbelief, mostly
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Nov 7, 2022 21:50
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It's just a bunch of ones and zeroes.
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Nov 7, 2022 21:58
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The Allen is well animated so I think it's cool
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Nov 7, 2022 22:05
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Kinda my personal dream horror game is one where the big monster or whatever is always out hunting but theres no leashing or inherent awareness of the players location so you could potentially never run into it
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Nov 7, 2022 22:11
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Well, just like most sophisticated AI in games it's not that there's actually a really complex thought process going on, just the convincing illusion that there is one. People talk about the AI in FEAR a lot and that game has a much simpler system going on than it presents itself as, but it's still really good enemy design because the enemies do have interesting behaviors and chatter at each other to give this convincing idea of these squads of bad guys teaming up to flank and attack you. The xenomorph is kind of the same way. Sure it's always just kind of hovering around you to present itself as a constant obstacle and it starts checking your hiding spots if you don't move, but the interesting details are in the way it patrols and reacts to your sounds and moves. The way it reacts to the flamethrower is nuanced and really cool. The fact it builds up a tolerance to getting burned and can hit you through it, and the way it hesitates and can end up in a standoff if you point the flamethrower at it is genuinely a cool way for it to behave. The fact is that players don't really want a super complex and intelligent AI in a video game because that kind of thing is probably going to go entirely unnoticed, or it'll make the AI inscrutable and unpredictable and actually just frustrate players. It's the reason why in stealth games every enemy typically has a "What was that noise?!" reaction, like the alien hissing at you, or just enemies talking out loud in general. The game designers want you to know if you've triggered some kind of reaction so that you know what the enemy is thinking so you can play accordingly. It's a well designed monster it's just people tend to lack the language to accurately convey what they like about it. TL;DR yeah the xenomorph isn't an incredibly sophisticated AI system. When people talk about how smart it is they're really just trying to find a way to say "this monster is cool and the way it acts is fun in this game"
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Nov 7, 2022 22:14
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Oh wow, I was looking it up on steam and that game is from 2014, I figured it was around half that old. Maybe that was when I gave it a try, it's been a while. I think it'll be up next on my list though, we'll see if it sticks this time.
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Nov 7, 2022 22:20
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Someone should do an open world It Follows-esque game where you're constantly being chased by a monster that can look like any NPC in the game and it's always (very slowly) making a beeline for you? To keep players from turtling in some hard to reach place maybe they'd need to do some tasks around the map and/or keep the player character fed and watered and sleep occasionally. The monster would need to be nearly unkillable unless you found it's weakness and/or performed some convoluted occult ritual that you'd need to research and gather ingredients for both of which could be randomized each playthrough. alternatively you could use the same premise except it's a hentai dating sim and you need to gently caress someone to pass on the curse but can you risk falling in love with them before you do so?!?!?!
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Nov 7, 2022 22:32
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FreudianSlippers posted:Someone should do an open world It Follows-esque game where you're constantly being chased by a monster that can look like any NPC in the game and it's always (very slowly) making a beeline for you? The Assassin's Creed Brotherhood multiplayer was kinda the beginnings of that.
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Nov 7, 2022 22:34
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Mr X annoys me because he halts progress. The alien in A:AI never does that. Mr X is way less bad on the first run but in the b scenarios where he shows up 10 minutes into the game are annoying.
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Nov 7, 2022 22:52
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If there was a secondary weapon that could temporarily suppress X and force him to leave the room while you solve the puzzle, that'd be nice. As is, there's just no point to even fighting the guy. Like the survival knife and stun gun in REmake. He definitely adds to the tension but when you're trying to drag around the library bookshelves, it's less tense than it is frustrating.
Bogart fucked around with this message at 23:26 on Nov 7, 2022 |
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Nov 7, 2022 23:18
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The xenomorph does at least have the decency in the couple of parts of the game where you have to like, flip a bunch of switches and turn puzzle solving knobs to just gently caress off for a while unless you're being a loud dipshit.
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Nov 7, 2022 23:22
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veni veni veni posted:Mr X annoys me because he halts progress. The alien in A:AI never does that. Wow you must have played a very different Alien Isolation than I did, because the alien kept camping the exits , halting my progress.
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Nov 7, 2022 23:28
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Hel posted:Wow you must have played a very different Alien Isolation than I did, because the alien kept camping the exits , halting my progress. I was thinking the same thing. The shelves in the library in RE2 are the only puzzle room X can enter and yeah, he can be annoying there, but everywhere else running around and trying to avoid the distant stomping noise was a lot more fun for me than anything in Alien: Isolation.
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Nov 7, 2022 23:37
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Bogart posted:If there was a secondary weapon that could temporarily suppress X and force him to leave the room while you solve the puzzle, that'd be nice. As is, there's just no point to even fighting the guy. Like the survival knife and stun gun in REmake. He definitely adds to the tension but when you're trying to drag around the library bookshelves, it's less tense than it is frustrating. ??? Flash bang him or shoot him enough that he takes a knee. He won't leave the room but it gives you enough time to push the shelves. Once I was going for those S Ranks the only X encounter that mattered was pushing the shelf so I'll always remember his trompin' rear end deciding to be there half the time. Doomykins fucked around with this message at 00:30 on Nov 8, 2022 |
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Nov 8, 2022 00:20
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I really liked both Alien Isolation and REmake2, though I just looked at my achievements for AI and it says something I think that I started playing the game in 2015 and was too freaked out to finish it until 2018. RE2 I never even died to Mr. X Both great games though.
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Nov 8, 2022 01:32
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funnily enough, what turned me off of RE2R moreso than mr. x was the dynamic difficulty scaling i dunno if it was in the original, but lickers randomly needing an extra flame round to kill for my crime of efficiently using my resources and aiming well irked me to no end. dynamically spawning in additional enemies or not spawning specific resources is one thing, but throwing off my calculations so dramatically robs a lot of what i otherwise like about survival horror's strategic side
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Nov 8, 2022 01:37
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Finished The Chant, it was fun enough but also kind of nothing? All the weapons being new age crystals and essential oils was pretty lol and I liked the weird planty-ness of the enemies but there wasn't really much to it. Tying the ending to your highest stat when you can't see what your stats are once you've unlocked everything on the skill tree seems like a bad idea too.
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Nov 8, 2022 01:41
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Vermain posted:funnily enough, what turned me off of RE2R moreso than mr. x was the dynamic difficulty scaling Yeah, games should only ever get easier if you're having trouble with them, never harder. That's just a punishment. House of the Dead was lovely for this - your difficulty would raise every few minutes, so even if you started the game on the easiest setting, if you play well, then after a level or two you're basically at the hardest difficulty.
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Nov 8, 2022 01:43
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Yeah I still dunno if I actually liked RE2R. My favorite parts where when I got to just run around and shoot zombies, I hated anything that hampered that (lickers, Mr x) probably explains why I'm having a lot of fun with RE3 so far.
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Nov 8, 2022 01:50
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Morpheus posted:Yeah, games should only ever get easier if you're having trouble with them, never harder. That's just a punishment. That's the game getting harder if you're good at it though. 'Rank' increasing as you play without dying is common in lots of arcade games since their primary function is relieve people of their money.
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Nov 8, 2022 01:59
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Morpheus posted:Yeah, games should only ever get easier if you're having trouble with them, never harder. That's just a punishment. i actually don't mind the game finding ways to make things tougher if i'm doing well to try and maintain the tension, but "enemies invisibly take 20% more damage to kill" ain't it, especially in a genre where the fun part for me is figuring out how to squeeze the maximum value out of every bullet and grenade in my inventory
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Nov 8, 2022 02:15
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Vermain posted:i actually don't mind the game finding ways to make things tougher if i'm doing well to try and maintain the tension, but "enemies invisibly take 20% more damage to kill" ain't it, especially in a genre where the fun part for me is figuring out how to squeeze the maximum value out of every bullet and grenade in my inventory There does always seem to be one jerk zombie that just randomly soaks up four or five times as many shots to the dome as everyone else.
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Nov 8, 2022 02:24
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Crowetron posted:There does always seem to be one jerk zombie that just randomly soaks up four or five times as many shots to the dome as everyone else. Funnily, damage done by headshots never changes due to difficulty in House of the Dead.
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Nov 8, 2022 03:48
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Morpheus posted:Funnily, damage done by headshots never changes due to difficulty in House of the Dead. I was still talking about RE2 Remake. I sadly haven't played any House of the Deads since the local arcades dried up like twenty years ago.
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Nov 8, 2022 03:58
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headshot damage in RE2R is a doubly weird case: normal headshot damage is obviously altered by the invisible difficulty modifier, but there's also a secondary "critical hit" modifier where sometimes your headshots will instantly gib a zombie and prevent them from reviving. it's extremely likely to happen if your modifier is low and almost never happens if it's maxed, although there's apparently like a 2-3 frame window when the crosshair finishes narrowing on the pistol where it drastically increases the chance of a crit regardless of the modifier
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Nov 8, 2022 04:15
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https://twitter.com/CallistoGameJP/status/1585390850711904257 apparently callisto protocol's so violent that CERO refused to certify it without major changes and the devs refused, so you'll have to pirate it if you're playing from japan i've been feeling some fatigue with space sci fi featuring melty monster men, but i'm willing to give callisto the benefit of the doubt if they're this willing to stick to their guns
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Nov 8, 2022 05:41
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Vermain posted:https://twitter.com/CallistoGameJP/status/1585390850711904257 to be specific as well they're making sure that JP subs will be available in other regions so people in Japan can import the game and still get to play it that way
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Nov 8, 2022 06:04
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Okay I like Signalis and I'm not the kind of person who like, throws a baby rage fit every time a game has any sort of inventory management but drat I wish I had like... 8 slots instead of 6 this is fuckin absurd.
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Nov 8, 2022 06:43
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