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lol
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Dec 5, 2022 19:50
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| # ? Jun 7, 2024 07:26 |
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hahaha yep! That damned animation is way louder, longer and more brutal than just killing the poor guy, somehow (yet is also silent...)
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Dec 5, 2022 22:01
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lol
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Dec 5, 2022 22:20
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Sniper Elite 5         Ok now this, this is how you do a stealth sandbox experience. Great googly-moogly! It's kind of amazing to play this after the Plague Tale games, where the narrative is prized above all, and the game is like, "ok after you watch this 5-minute cutscene, you can have a brief stealth section with maybe 10 - 11 guards. But then you have to listen to 7 minutes of whispered dialog and do a puzzle!" Sniper Elite 5 is all like, "Uh...story? Ok! So...the Third Reich is building another superweapon called...*checks crayon scribbles*...O P E R A T I O N K R A K E N! Now here's a gigantic map crawling with nazis, go ruin their day!" The game absolutely does not care about the story and that is just fine with me. Every map is terrifyingly gigantic and will give you hours upon hours of sneaking around nazi installations, sabotaging nazi equiment, popping nazi skulls with your all-American bullets (or knife, or grenade, etc). And it's not just that the maps are large, they are incredibly detailed - every problem has multiple solutions, every destination has multiple paths and there are multiple objectives to choose from. You can see Rebellion play around with different ideas too, like one map that takes place on an island and it looks like a normal-sized SE4 map but as you snoop around, you find that there is this sprawling underground facility with more tunnels than an ant farm. It was really cool, like being in some sort of 70s espionage film. Oh and that colossal nazi castle in the second and third screenshots? IMO this is by far the best level in any of the Sniper Elite games. There's so much you can do - from the starting area, you can snipe dozens of enemies, then you can wind through the streets, sneaking and knifing guards as you please, taking out elite soldiers in the sprawling beach in the back. You eventually make your way to the very top and spy on the three krauts planning the operation, assassinating them individually as they make their way to the ground floor. There was also a school for spies that sums up the many ways you can approach a challenging problem. There were about six agents and I didn't really have the twitch skills to go in guns blazing. I could have thrown a grenade, but they were spread out and I would have been spotted by the survivors. I decided to toss some TNT at three of them that were close together; of the remaining three, one of them barged through the front door, which I had prepared with a proximity mine. The others were not going to share his fate, so one made for the side door, which I had also laced with proximity mines. Finally, the remaining spy beat a hasty retreat for a secret downstairs tunnel, which I had also prepped with a proximity mine. All I had to do was hide in a corner and let out a chuckle as their tortured screams filled the afternoon air. There isn't as much sound-masked sniping as in 3, or even 4, but there are definitely 'shooting gallery' moments where you get your chance to snipe many many guards. The rest plays like a conventional stealth game and I didn't mind that. It's almost like a WW2-era Splinter Cell game - the last level is even similar to the Korea map from Chaos Theory, with you making your way through war-torn streets and enemy propaganda blasting through loudspeakers. There are some improvements over the previous installments. You now no longer have to press a button to tag an enemy, you can just hover over them for a few seconds and they're tagged. It's now possible to alt-tab without crashing the game, which is a bonus! The "radar" is better now (for the difficulties that use it) - it used to portray the enemies as dots on the HUD, which was a bit too easy since you knew exactly where they were at all times. Now, there will be a large translucent white circle that only shows their general area. You can only track them once they've been tagged. The difficulty level is also very atomistic, which I appreciated. You can decide how difficult you want separate components, like the aiming, the enemy AI, the HUD, etc. You can also have "invasions" - a multiplayer aspect where other players can enter your level and hunt you; you can use special phones to get an idea of the invader's location, but this also gives them a hint as to where you are. I didn't try it but you may like it if you're a Dark Souls fan. There's also a skill system that feels a bit tacked-on. You gain XP to gain more skills and they're fairly unremarkable - more health points, more items in your loadout, etc. I guess it's a more tangible xp reward system than previous games, but I could have probably lived without it. Sound design is excellent, with very vivid foley work - also, I very much appreciated hearing the germanic cursing of your name to the sky, all the while yelling out loud that they're not afraid of the mighty GHOST SNIPER. The music is quite well done but I was very amused that, because the game takes place in France, the composer makes several attempts at shoehorning an accordion into even the sinister and tense string sections. The attempt at making the accordion into a menacing instrument is adorable. A for effort. The AI is ok, nothing great. If you snipe without sound masking, guards will attempt to get a bead on your location and will frantically search for where the shots are coming from - of course if you make several shots from the same location, then I hope you surrounded your nest with proximity mines! Guards can sometimes get "stuck" which is an example of the buggy behavior that you can sometimes see in the game. However, Rebellion has done a lot of patching and also provided a free DLC - all the bugs that I encountered were mere nuisances and never prevented me from completing any objectives. Although, if multiplayer is your thing, I've heard that the included Easy Anti-Cheat can be a huge headache and you may want to proceed with caution. I didn't test it out myself. Aside from that, I note that bottles are much more useful now...they will almost always distract the AI away, even if they're actively hunting. This can help if you need a strategic way around multiple mobs. One of the maps had almost two hundred enemies in it. I almost felt like a pest exterminator. So what's the verdict? Well if you prefer a more tight, corralled stealth experience then the incredibly vast maps of SE5 may not be your thing. It is extremely my jam though, and would recommend it sale or no sale. Seventh Arrow fucked around with this message at 23:16 on Dec 8, 2022 |
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Dec 8, 2022 23:10
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drat that sounds great, thanks for the writeup
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Dec 8, 2022 23:22
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 Lol the shade
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Dec 8, 2022 23:23
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drat, sounds good! And you reminded me about the SCCT Korea mission (I assume you mean the solo "battle on the streets" one and not the coop "sneak into a missile silo" one), which I remember being very cool and fun. drat, now I feel like I have to replay Chaos Theory and play SE5!
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Dec 9, 2022 00:08
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Joan posted:
Lol
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Dec 9, 2022 00:18
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Major Isoor posted:drat, sounds good! And you reminded me about the SCCT Korea mission (I assume you mean the solo "battle on the streets" one and not the coop "sneak into a missile silo" one), which I remember being very cool and fun. drat, now I feel like I have to replay Chaos Theory and play SE5! Chaos Theory would be a solid game club pick
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Dec 9, 2022 00:25
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Sub-Actuality posted:Chaos Theory would be a solid game club pick Is that the one by a bunch of the lads who went on to DXHR? I've been meaning to try that one ever since I heard that wasn't their first stealth game
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Dec 9, 2022 00:26
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Sub-Actuality posted:Chaos Theory would be a solid game club pick Yeah, it's true - going back to it would be great. It'd be interesting to see what all the imps thinks of it, after all this time!
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Dec 9, 2022 00:27
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Sub-Actuality posted:Chaos Theory would be a solid game club pick i did put in on my ps2 recently, i shall not be selecting it though
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Dec 9, 2022 00:30
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Man I may be due a Chaos Theory replay as well. I remember the controls being really stiff which hampered the fun sometimes but overall a good time with some fantastic level design
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Dec 9, 2022 00:55
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Oh one thing I forgot about my SE5 review is that in 4, your sneaking speed was way too slow; it was necessary to come up with alternative strategies for getting behind enemies. This seems to be addressed in 5 and now you can sneak up on goose-stepping ninnies to your heart's content! Also, any opinions on the screenshots? I tried using photo mode for screenshots for the past two reviews but I don't know if the filters/settings are too weird or not.
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Dec 9, 2022 03:47
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Seventh Arrow posted:Also, any opinions on the screenshots? I tried using photo mode for screenshots for the past two reviews but I don't know if the filters/settings are too weird or not. Looks good to me! The first four, plus the bottom-left one are particularly good views, IMO. Major Isoor fucked around with this message at 04:19 on Dec 9, 2022 |
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Dec 9, 2022 04:09
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Hm. Never played any of the SE games and now I feel like I want to?
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Dec 9, 2022 07:24
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I have reviews for 3 & 4 also, check the OP. I feel like 5 is the culmination of the better concepts of the series, but if you want something less expansive, 4 is the next best bet. If you get 5, please avoid all the DLC (except maybe Conqueror).
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Dec 9, 2022 08:01
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Seventh Arrow posted:I have reviews for 3 & 4 also, check the OP. I feel like 5 is the culmination of the better concepts of the series, but if you want something less expansive, 4 is the next best bet. If you get 5, please avoid all the DLC (except maybe Conqueror). Why that? They bad?
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Dec 9, 2022 09:22
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From what I can tell, yes...the gun packs are mostly overpriced, and contain stuff that should have been in the game to begin with. The content DLCs are mostly short, unpopulated missions (except Conqueror).Major Isoor posted:Looks good to me! The first four, plus the bottom-left one are particularly good views, IMO. Cool, thanks!
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Dec 9, 2022 14:33
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https://store.steampowered.com/app/1531020/SPECTRE/ Announced a new indie Splinter Cell multiplayer-like
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Dec 12, 2022 21:34
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Dec 12, 2022 22:56
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Love Stole the Day posted:https://store.steampowered.com/app/1531020/SPECTRE/ unless its free to play that poo poo is DOA
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Dec 13, 2022 00:15
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Has anyone played This Land Is My Land anytime recently, btw? It's a stealth-survival game. Looks like it came out of Early Access on Steam at some point, and is currently 50% off. Last I heard (during EA) was that it was really buggy, but also fun - hopefully now it's just the 'also fun' bit 
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Dec 13, 2022 00:56
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trying to jack off posted:unless its free to play that poo poo is DOA Wow, talking poo poo about a game they just announced? Alright, I'll get peer pressured
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Dec 14, 2022 03:15
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im going to preorder it so i can refund that rear end on launch
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Dec 14, 2022 03:45
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trying to jack off posted:im going to preorder it so i can refund that rear end on launch That’s what I like to hear lads.
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Dec 14, 2022 10:13
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I'm gonna buy it, put a thousand hours into it, become a pillar of the game's community, all the while ranting about how the game is trash and dying.
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Dec 14, 2022 12:18
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Love Stole the Day posted:I'm gonna buy it, put a thousand hours into it, become a pillar of the game's community, all the while ranting about how the game is trash and dying. Now this is the level of subterfuge any disgruntled stealth gamer worth their salt should be aiming for! 
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Dec 14, 2022 13:18
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I'm going to sneak into the developer's house disguised as a plumber and drown him in the toilet
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Dec 14, 2022 13:21
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Hey, just wondering - has anyone played Siege Survival: Gloria Victis? Someone mentioned it in the survival thread, and it seems like it's more of a 3D stealthy take on the general themes of This War of Mine. I don't think I've ever seen anyone else mention it though, despite the fact that it apparently came out last year
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Dec 15, 2022 01:19
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Hitman 3         And thus with Hitman 3 ends the "World of Assassination" trilogy, whatever that means. I take it to mean that this particular vision of stealth sandbox gameplay for sociopaths is ending, and the future of the Hitman series is up in the air. I think this was as good a run as one could ask for - a lot of the ideas from previous iterations (even stinkers like Absolution) have congealed into the platonic ideal of consequence-free murder simulation. Since the gameplay is so identical to the previous iterations much of what I say here could just as well apply to Hitman 2 and Hitman No Subtitle - the only difference being in the quality (or lack thereof) of the individual maps. In 3, Agent 47 and his merry cohorts are seeking to take down Providence, an Illuminati-style elite shadow conglomerate filled with people begging to be pushed off ledges, poisoned, or electrocuted in vaguely suspicious ways. Although the story does give a suitable climax to the events built up in previous games, it's mostly just kind of 'there' and is obviously just a staging ground for 47 to roll in to Murdertown, population: him. The character himself is more fleshed out, but that's not saying much. He's still very emotionally stunted, just not to the robotic levels in previous games. In Silent Assassin (the other Hitman 2), 47 was capable of showing empathy and remorse but that seems to have been tossed out the window in subsequent entries. Mostly in previous games, he was a ruthless automaton who responded to high amounts of cash, despite having little use for it. With the WoA trilogy, his investment is a bit more personal, but now he has two emotions instead of one. This is offset somewhat by the infusion of a murder-man power fantasy that creeps in gradually throughout. There's even a level called "Apex Predator" where you're tasked with taking out several skilled ICA agents (often in ironic ways) that show that 47 is the assassin to beat, even when outmatched and outgunned. The maps are all diverse and interesting. You have a Victorian-era British mansion, the rainy streets of Chongqing, a derelict night club in Berlin, and the sky-high Burj Al-Ghazali skyscraper in Dubai. As with the previous titles, you're largely free to roam around and experiment with different ways to murder your unsuspecting targets. It may be daunting at first, but with a bit of exploration, you'll get an idea of what disguises can get you where and what kind of routines your future victims go through - a little light bulb should be going off in your head if they lean on a ledge, drink from a water bottle, walk near red barrels, or interact in any way with dangerous, person-mauling equipment. There are also plenty of wacky options too - for example, in the Dubai level, you can swipe an emergency evacuation card that gets the targets to their parachutes so they can take a dive off the top of the skyscraper...if only someone hadn't slashed them to ribbons first! If you're stuck for intriguing ideas, the game helpfully provides a "Challenges" menu that lets you in on what some of these Rube Goldberg-esque murder machinations are. The more cool stuff you pull off during a mission, the more xp you get. This grants you a widening range of starting areas, disguises, and massacre gadgets for your next run - this strongly increases the replay value, which is good because doing the bare minimum isn't that rewarding. One thing that's interesting is that you have shortcuts throughout each level that you can unlock and make subsequent runs much easier. For example, the Dartmoor mansion has a ladder that you can let down from the second floor, allowing for easy access to an agent whose disguise you can pilfer. The disguises themselves continue in the manner of previous WoA entries - each disguise will give you mostly-free access to the areas that they're associated with; for example, a gardener disguise will grant you full access to the garden but you will probably be considered trespassing if you go inside the mansion. Even while you have a disguise, there can be "enforcers" who can still see through your outfit. However, these NPCs are marked with a white dot above their head (on the minimap too) so not being discovered is no longer a game of guesswork like it was in previous titles. You also have hitman-vision, or instinct, which lets you see objects you can interact with, see through walls, and also highlights the targets in red. The world of Hitman is bathed in absurdities, something I've always appreciated. The villains are ridiculously evil, civilians are ridiculously callous and/or inept, and the immediate area is always one explosive golfball away from pure chaos. You will encounter the phrase "lawsuit waiting to happen" a lot. In summation, if you played the previous WoA entries, you will know exactly what to expect. I found the maps to be overall good with few stinkers - although the ones with only one target seem to be less interesting than the ones with multiple objectives. If you haven't played this series, then I think this is the best that Hitman gets - this is the best place to get your "bald superhuman homicide clone" fix.
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Dec 20, 2022 23:45
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What maps didn't you like, out of curiosity? I thought 3 overall had the fewest stinkers other than maybe the last one, which I kind of thonk of more like Hawke's Bay from 2 (except at the opposite end of the game) than a full level in itself
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Dec 21, 2022 00:06
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I don’t care for Dartmoor, but everything else is a definite banger. Berlin and Mendoza flirting with Sapienza for goated status.
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Dec 21, 2022 00:10
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Dartmoor is fun but stinks of missed potential. I can't really point to any proof but I feel like there are a bunch of things hinting that the killer was originally randomised or at least one of a few possible options
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Dec 21, 2022 00:14
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I guess the hidden passages in the walls were cool and the whole thing has an obvious Knives Out vibe going on, I just tend to look at the levels more from a replay value standpoint than the actual way it's presented in the main story.
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Dec 21, 2022 00:15
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Seventh Arrow posted:Hitman 3 
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Dec 21, 2022 00:26
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Seventh Arrow posted:Hitman 3 Thank you for this cool review.
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Dec 21, 2022 00:29
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Lunchmeat Larry posted:What maps didn't you like, out of curiosity? I thought 3 overall had the fewest stinkers other than maybe the last one, which I kind of thonk of more like Hawke's Bay from 2 (except at the opposite end of the game) than a full level in itself As mentioned, I think Dartmoor was kind of boring if you weren't interested in their little murder mystery. However, I know that IOI had been spoiling to do a level like that for a while now, so I don't really hold it against them. Also, the last level (the Carpathian Mountains) got tiresome after a while. There's not much to do on a train, and it doesn't take long to get repetitive. Sure, it's meant to cap off the series but they could've picked a gimmick with less repetition. Finally Ambrose Island is not bad, but a little too much of a closed system. It was amusing seeing Agent Smith again though!
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Dec 21, 2022 00:35
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Dec 21, 2022 00:41
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| # ? Jun 7, 2024 07:26 |
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Dec 21, 2022 03:47
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