IskatuMesk wrote:I heard good things about Metro 2033 from HKS who tends to be pretty strict on games, but I haven't tried it yet.
You better be.. Metro 2033 is made by Ukrainians, and the Unkrainians are pretty much born with a talent to mapping and detailing. I'm working for a mod team filled with Russians, and I can confirm that they're QUITE the texture artists... In Metro, the best thing about the game is it's environment...
This, my boy, is You're Empty, it is a 2006 Russian game running on the Russian equivalent of the Gold Source game engine. Despite it's age and technical limitations, it's environments are far more detailed and it's textures are far more high res than even today games.. Do note that the game do not have bump mapping nor support for DX8 shaders... Every details here was forged by geometry and texturing alone...
The atmosphere and immersion was great. To be honest with you, the first time I saw it, I was a tad hesitated, the backstory looks like the setting for a generic American doomsday movie, and I didn't find much interest in it.. But when I tried it out, the atmosphere is surprisingly a very refined blend of styles and energies. It felt nice, it flows nice, it doesn't go out of it's way just to make shit felt dark and gritty like the Americans do, it takes this gently, it requires the players to explore the world in order to fully be immerse in the atmosphere. This was demonstrated in the first portions of the game, it is basically a huge underground station where you could wander around everywhere and find tid bits of details that are seriously lacking inside of Western games, there are people playing guitars, people commenting, there are people telling jokes and laughing, there are angry housewife, lolis,.. Also... There are dope...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86lL4_8So2U
Yes, you could smoke pots in this game.. There are no implications at any kind that the pot could actually works.. When I found this out, it was by total accident...
The story is decent, not anything great, but still memorable simply because it's rather original. It is fantasy sci-fi, and there are alot of spiritualism and philosophy bullshits tided into it at odd times.. I liked it's usage of implied storytelling as well as it's executions. It's just, in general, a very good adaptation of the novel of the same name, which the game was based on...
The voice acting.. It's a same that the English voice actors sucked major donkeys (they're still decent tho).. The original Russian voice acting is the best I've ever hear...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtQGxbu0Rko&t=8m38s
My only gripe is that gameplay is quirky, enemies are basically cover whores shooting you with BB guns, and mutants are banzai charging retards which you'll waste so much bullets in killing (which is bad because lol bullets are considered money...), you're better off using the knife anyway... It is also plaque with gimmicks that could seriously screw you in the belly buttons at odd circumstances, like the requirements to use a gas mask when coming to the surface, having to
charge your own batteries, and the lack of a health bar... Thankfully the gimmicks does not induce too much rage, they're basically just sideline detractions...
Men of War destroys this in gameplay.
Try Theatre of War... It's Men of War multiplies by a thousand folds in terms of retardation.. You'll rage when your precious Tiger tank got stuck in the mud just 5 meters away from where you first acquire it..
