TL;DR This game is awesome and you should consider playing it if you haven't and you like retro games from this era or if you like similar collectathon games.
To preface before my opinion: Yes I did emulate this game on PC, Yes I used a modern Xbox controller for most of my playthrough, and No I do not have many references for games from this time but I will be attempting to be balanced on parts I felt did not age well.
I'll start with the good parts. If you've played Mario 64, this game is right up your alley and so is its sequel. This is one of the best 3D platformers from the era and its one that is challenging and has more personality than M64 did for me. Mostly due to the stellar characters and personalities. So much love went into crafting each characters outfit, voice, and animation even though they're so simple.
Next up, the levels. Not every level here is amazing but the same can be said of M64 (which I'll continue to reference as my main comparison game since I'm familiar with it). Each level has 10 jigsaw pieces to collect and some of them are extremely creative uses of the environment. Some are just annoying to get though and will have you overlooking them. Overall the levels are solid if not as memorable as many M64 levels are to me.
The music. Wow the music! Its very good for the era and fits right in with the classics. Even the rest of the sound design is incredible but seriously, go listen to some of the level tracks if you haven't played the game. The theming done in the music alone is very good. The rest of the sounds do a very good job of fitting right in with the art and they characterize a lot of the game. Audio-wise this is amazing for the N64.
Here's where I digress though. My overall view of the game is VERY positive so take these criticisms light. A lot of these things are parts that just didn't age so well. First off, the movement system isn't as good as other 3D platformers. Its passable. But a lot of the platforming requires button presses repeatedly. You can't walk crouched. So a series of leaves that need high jumps to go up them look like this: Stop your character in just the right spot and crouch, hit the jump button, direct the jumps movement, move a tiny bit forward on the next leaf to position, crouch, jump. Wouldn't be so bad if I could trigger it all quickly but its very hard to do that. Not to mention the swimming is really not great and wrestles with the camera constantly. And the air attack is nearly impossible to aim if you aren't flying straight or are too high or low to attack properly.
The rest of the moves are all based on the C stick. Which also controls camera. Its a nightmare with a modern controller. But again, each move takes seconds to activate and need prep time. You have an invincibility move which would be great for avoiding incoming damage. Except it takes too long to trigger so is only used for obstacles. Weird right?
And that's my final gripe that I feel is really valid. Mario 64 has a move set that gets activated mostly organically. Wall jumps and rolls and ledge grabs all work with minimal or no buttons. Meanwhile the run move here requires you stop to crouch and press the stick a specific way. And most other moves have buttons on the floor or pickups. Its confusing why they did it that way and it takes me out a bit fiddling with my controller. It doesn't feel natural and I never got to the point of pressing all of the moves without thinking.
Overall final opinion is that this game is an amazing classic that I feel most people should play if they like 3D platformers. Just be aware that its best played on older controllers and also has a few features that you may miss from modern games. But it'd be hard not to recommend this. This game is great, onto the sequel!
This game has a pretty interesting premise with a story centered around cults and the Cthulhu legend. I don’t know much about either so I was intrigued and since I received this game in a bundle some time ago, I wanted to give it a shot. The game is narratively focused so I’ll talk mostly about theme, art, and story as I go.
I’ll start with the look and feel of the game by saying that I have middling opinions on how this game looks. The textures are good for the most part and convey the atmosphere pretty well. The game falls apart though when it comes to animations. Everybody moves and expresses themselves worse than cardboard. Remember the canned talking animations of Skyrim? It’s that but in a narrative focused game and worse. The characters need to be believable but when someone is talking in a relaxed way while their hands do frantic motions or are frozen in front of them, it breaks a lot of the illusion. However, the rest of the art, atmosphere, and lighting looks pretty good.
When it comes to story, I won’t claim to be a narrative expert. In my playtime, I didn’t get hooked by the story at any point. The characters are trying to do that thing where they provide little detail and are therefore mysterious. That didn’t track well with me and instead they felt dull and shallow. It sucks because some of the dialog is really good but there isn’t enough of it to carry a narrative game. The best bits of story are told to you in cutscene form and this game almost seems like it’s better suited as an FMV game or similar. The biggest benefit to the story though is the multiple choices. I felt my choices were impactful and they don’t let you exhaust dialog for other options. You have one conversation and there is at least an illusion that you could’ve had many more discrete conversations.
The RPG skills are another middling feature as they help a lot of the exploration and conversational aspects of the game out and yet they’re paper thin at the same time. The game has you assigning points and yet I don’t feel that it would’ve played any differently than if I’d just picked skills at the start and nothing afterwards.
Lastly the sound is another 5/10. Sometimes it really sells the horror of a scene. But a lot of the time the same repeated music tracks take me out. And the compression used on the voices is embarrassingly bad. It harms the performances so much that I began tweaking my setup because I thought I had audio issues.
To wrap it up, I wanted to like this game and I still like aspects of it. It’s maybe worth playing if you catch it on sale or get it in a bundle. And since it’s a short experience, some of these gripes aren’t dealbreakers. I just found it to be a disappointing use of the setting and theme and I wish more could’ve been done to immerse me in the game.
If you’ve played it, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it!
@CleoTheWizard
@lemmy.world