Final Day 4 Impression
Off Grid
Off Grid is an satirical 3rd person stealth game based all around data. It appears to be very early in development as there were a few issues with the build, it wasn't the nicest to control and at times there was just a lot on the screen but I came away really interested by it. You're main tool is hacking into things. So you could ssh into a laptop, search for password, information. That would lead you to an office where you can hack into a printer, find deleted files, get the code for the safe. I know that sounds basic but it's the way that it's done that makes it interesting. It just feels like another game would have you go up to a computer, press A/X and you're done while here there is a bit more thought put into it. You need to be more observant. Another example, you find out the vents in the toilets will open if the room overheats from some data. So when you go into the toilets, you're able to access the hand dryer to overheat the room. It's extremely silly but it feels satisfying to go through it like that. Very curious to see how it will shape up.
Falling Sky
This one is actually a student project and very much more of a tech demo but it was impressive due to that. It's a cinematic game so it looks really impressive (again considering it's a student project). You're only able to move the camera left and right and I wish I'd asked if this was a technical or artistic choice. Anyway, what made this a little more interesting was you do go out and drive. The camera takes this overhead view like the old GTA games and you basically have freedom to go around this map which is displayed like google maps when you open your phone in game. I just found it to be really surprising to have these very different mixes of gameplay in the game. Again it'd be very cool to hear if anything comes of this as the student did sound pretty ambitious in terms of what he wanted to do.
One funny thing, I was making my way to the objective and the car just started to slow down until it eventually started to go in reverse. I assumed this meant I had to fix it but I got out and there was no real prompt to do anything so I started running towards where I needed to go. After about 20-30 seconds the guy tapped me on the shoulder and said "Like you can run there but it'll probably take you an hour". I just started laughing and explained the issue, seemed like there was a small bug and you just had to reverse the car for a bit and start going again. Would have been bad form to just run around for an hour :D
Assassin’s Creed: Origins
I was lucky enough in that I waited till late on to check out Origins and it only took about 15 minutes of queueing to get in. So it does state that it's an alpha (maybe even pre alpha build) and it does feel like that at times. It looked beautiful but the npcs in the game just didn't really feel like they were actually there. I'm sure that'll at the very least be improved before the game comes out.
Anyway, you're let loose to do what you want. I made my way into a small town where I came across a priest that started the main mission of the demo. From here you're given two objective points to try and find some sunken treasure. So I have to say I didn't love how this mission went as you basically head out into the lake and find the first treasure pretty quickly and then you go towards the next marker but it disappears so it suggests it must be around here somewhere. It mentioned you can use your eagle to find the spot. So there I am looking around the water for this treasure and it gives indicators that I'm close but nothing else. After a while I realise it's actually on another ship. Now maybe that was just my stupidity or the demo environment but the mission kinda misleads the player with how it's told. In my head it would have been much better if they had basically influenced you to search with the eagle first, and find points of interest, then go searching for the items. That said, maybe you're trained into that mentality from playing the whole game.
The good news is that the combat is at least better than previous entries. I've always found it to be too automatic and rigid while this at least felt like you were doing these things. Overall, it was fine. I won't lie, the series has to do a lot of things to get me back into it as like I mentioned with the combat, I feel like a lot of an Assassin’s Creed game is very automatic so it never really feels like I'm doing the interesting things. But it is a step in the right direction and AC fans should be happy
Shadow of War
And here's another game that needed to do a lot to impress me. I will never understand how Mordor got so much praise. I'm not saying it's a bad game but the level of praise for it just seemed a bit crazy to me. With War, you are thrown right outside a base and can mess around with a few missions and I went straight with the siege mission.
I have to say I'm not feeling this one. It just seemed like more of the same with a bigger scale. It is intersting though as I was frustrated with how weak I was while my criticism with the first game was that I hated how overpowered I was. In this case, I hadn't put any skills into any abilities and I went to capture a zone that had 3 captains in there and of course all my hits were just bouncing off them without any skills so it was just a waste of time attacking them. I thought that was a really weird way to setup the demo but I guess when the press got hands on, they didn't have any time limit so they could mess around a bit more. For me, it was just frustrating so I just got myself killed, and attacked around the outside of the castle to get used to things and new skills before unfortunately the time went out.
So yes, it is more of the same really and like with AC, whatever your feelings are on the series for that and this, should still be the same with the sequels. Just one other note, I did play this on the One X and it was fine. I don't know, I honestly think it's pretty hard to actually tell a major difference without having it side by side or at least understanding what it'll be like on the One S.
