Tuesday 10 February 2009

Demo reactions

Precisely what it says on the tin; my reaction to some of the latest demos to hit Xbox Live and the Playstation Network.

Resident Evil 5:

I'm not a big Resy gamer. Not since 2 have I cared, and to be honest I didn't care that much even then. I wasn't that blown away by anything I saw with this demo. I'm not feeling the controls (who is?) and wasn't impressed at all by the death animations of the zombies. The levels in the demo felt linear and horribly tight. There doesn't seem to be much exploration factor and although I never really got my teeth into Left for Dead, I doubt this game will be able to compete in the zombie stakes. Co-op might prove fun but I see no great game to behold here.

Halo Wars:

Oh my. Is it just me? Wars is a sickeningly generic RTS affair. There is nothing going on here. I, for one, can never go back to the old school RTS template after playing games like Dawn of War and Company of Heroes. This demo just felt dated and stamped with a big sticker marked 'Halo merchandise'. Fun? Maybe for a short while but this really is just a hideously average looking RTS game and nothing else.

Killzone 2:

Firstly for the record, I now have a PS3! Go me. I am going to post something separate soon detailing my experience of the console switch and my take on Sony's side of the gaming pie. Now, KZ2. I went into this demo open minded but with the knowledge that I had been spoiled by years of PC and 360 FPS games. Everyone keeps affirming that the PS3 doesn't do FPS titles. It just doesn't. Well, it now does. I was very impressed by this one. This is an adult FPS game and aims to please the veterans out there. The A.I is smart, the graphics obscenely good, and the general production values are clearly way, way up there.

There seems to be a big fuss right now about this demo's suposede 'trigger lag' and sluggish movement. This is what happens when an entire generation of FPS gamers start their epic journey with titles like CoD4. They grow up thinking it's the norm to be able to pull off a twitch 360' jump head shot from 50 metres, bless them. KZ2 is a different kind of FPS. This is a nice hybrid mix of Vegas and Halo. From my experience with the demo I am certain I am going to love the full game. The multiplayer may very well be the next big thing too.

F.E.A.R 2:

Oh dear. Remember the first time you watched Robocop 2? No? I do. It was a weird experience. You knew that the movie's wasn't all that bad. It was just that it wasn't Robocop. Why? Different Director. F.E.A.R 2 isn't made by the same people as the original and you can tell within about thirty seconds. This is a good example of a bunch of immature games makers being allowed to run with an idea and just keep running. By the end of the demo, you've probably seen more ghosts than you saw in the entire campaign of the original. I basically don't think this will be anything like as good as the first one.

Lord of the Rings: Conquest:

Late to the party with this one I know seeing as it's already out now. All I will say is that I respect Pandemic for trying something new here with the old team deathmatch template. It plays like World of Warcraft pvp split into rounds. Ultimately though, it's just hardcore button mashing. It's also a sad example of poor balancing. You either play as the scout or... well you just play as the scout. Probably not one to buy then.