Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=446https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3152Gameplay 2: Well it's been hours now, and I've finished Indigo Prophecy. It was an amazing story, featuring demons, flashbacks, and modern adventure. While the story ended up being highly outlandish, as a fan of science fiction and fantasy I was not disappointed. I realize now that the game world is not quite as open ended as I had first thought, but that I do have some control over how the narrative progresses (for example, choosing whether or not Tyler is to end his relationship with his girlfriend in order to help Carla with her hunch that Lucas Kane is innocent, I chose the relationship, figuring Carla could do it by herself, and as a result, Tyler was not present during the rest of the game.) This last half featured some of the most exciting action sequences of the game, and rushes of plot and character development, which seemed almost dizzingly fast after the slow pacing of the first half of the game. Ultimately I was satisfied with the game, a highly unique, interesting, and rewarding experience. Design: Indigo Prophecy is like no other game in existence. It is essentially an interactive movie/novel, where the player's decisions have slight effects on the outcome of the game, and the scenes of the "movie" are interactive. The action scenes use a simon says type system (but in real time), they are very well done. You can also walk around an interact with objects, accomplished on the PC through mouse movements. The game essentially is a series of minigames, each one set over a scene in the movie that corresponds best to the nature of the minigame. The game's main attraction however, is not the gameplay itself, but rather the story. It features lots of character development, an exciting, mystery plot, and amazing scenes. There is also a constant "mental state" meter for each character, that changes based on what actions you take. if it gets too low, your character starts to have problems, grow stressed out faster, and you eventually lose the game. The game presents many unique design elements, but it hasn't quite fully fleshed out all of them. The game is essentially a testbed for these new design elements, and is very intruiging as such.Thu, 06 Mar 2008 01:52:09 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3152&iddiary=5855https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3152Indigo Prophecy: Summary: Indigo Prophecy is a sort of interactive film, played out through various scenes in which you either control characters directly, or engage in a "simon-says" esque minigame to influence the results of an action sequence or gain information. The story progresses as the game unfolds, and more story is revealed depending on how much investigating you did or whether or not you said the right things in certain situations. Eventually the game's plot thickens, featuring other world demons, and a plot to destroy man kind. Gameplay 1: The game begins with a cinematic sequence of the main character: Lucas Kane, murdering a man in a diner bathroom while possessed by an other worldy force, and a strange man. The player is then given control of Lucas and must act quickly before the police officer at the counter (shown with an occasional split screen) gets up and investigates. Depending on what you do, you will either be caught right away, or get away. I was caught a few times before successfully escaping. You then get to take on the role of Carla and Tyler, investigators who are checking out the crime scene and working on the murder case. I noticed that things that I did earlier in the game, such as mopping up the blood from the murder, were there for the investigators to see. As Lucas, I went back to my apartment, plagued by hallucinations and nightmares. The game has taken on a sort of ethereal quality, very, very creepy. I won't go into too many details as to the plot of the game (it is long, winding, and complicated) but so far I've been throughly enjoying the building suspense, and found myself wondering as to the mystery that I am seeing unfolding from two perspectives. So far one of my favorite things are the amazingly animated action sequences, which are controlled by a sort of real time "simon says" light game, played with two sets of lights. I've also enjoyed getting to know the characters (which is rare in most games) and am looking forward to seeing how all this plays out.Thu, 06 Mar 2008 01:51:56 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3152&iddiary=5851https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2880Gameplay 2: The game has taken on some interesting twists and turns in the last few hours, and introduced some new and very interesting characters. I've really been enjoying completing the missions, because after the first act of the game the pacing has really picked up. The storyline is progressing along quite quickly, with each mission I complete having a noticeable effect on what happen to my character. And boy are there some memorable missions. I've noticed that even though most of the gameplay fundamentals remain the same throughout them (drive, shoot, drive, shoot some more, drive really really fast, etc) I am not getting bored, because of the variety of style the game is giving me, even if the fundamental substance is the same. Although this is not always the case, the game does feature some unique mini-game style of missions, although these are very outlandish, and feature things like destroying vans with a remote controlled airplane and even engaging in a brief miniature game of strategy with remote controlled combatants. (Part of a strange sub-plot involving a remote controlled model store.) Furthermore, I've found the game's satire in this portion to be much more spot-on and amusing. This is partially because the conflict and story of the game have grown so outlandish at this point that it no longer has the real-world sickening feel that the gang violence in Los Santos had. Still, I do find the lack of player choice unnerving, as I am forced to complete mission after questionable mission. One in particular bothered me, where I had to kill a construction site foreman by rolling him around while he was in a portapotty, and burying him alive in a stinky, concrete grave. Now, while I had killed many other characters in the game up till then, the fact that this man hadn't really done anything wrong but that his construction workers had been making comments about my character's sister's appearance is what bothered me. I had no choice but to complete this mission, or else I wouldn't be able to finish the game, and that bothered me somewhat. However, that aside, this stint of gaming was very enjoyable, and even though it continued to follow the same old, complete missions, complete more missions, do this, do that, mechanic, I never once got bored (although I did sometimes get stuck for awhile.) I also found myself enjoying the sandbox game environment much more, perhaps because I more directly related to the parts of San Andreas (the fictional state the game takes place in, essentially California and Nevada,) primarily because they took place in what is essentially the California countryside, and also San Fierro, a San Francisco clone which features several representations of even lesser known SF landmarks such as City Hall, all of which, being a resident of Northern California, I really related to and enjoyed. Design: GTA: SA uses a "sandbox" style open-world form of design, whereby the entire game-world is all interconnected, featuring no separate levels or areas, but rather one large area, where the environments shift as you move around. In this case it models a state, San Andreas, based on California and Nevada, with three major cities, and several small towns, and lots of connecting roads. The game's storyline is divided into four main acts, one in each major city, and the final act returning to Los Santos, the setting of the first act. There are several side story strings. The game uses a mission system, whereby certain missions are assigned to the player via cutscenes when they talk to the appropriate character, and are then carried out, in a manner insulated from the open gameworld. Some missions are game critical, and must be carried out to advance the story, others are side missions that unlock minor story strings, and others still are totally optional missions, like competing in races, etc. A unique feature of the game is the ability of the player to move either on foot, or, as the game's name implies, in vehicles which can be either stolen or acquired by some other means...but they're mostly stolen. The player than progresses through the game, stuck on an almost completely linear rail insofar as the story and missions are concerned, but given leeway to explore the (mostly) open gameworld. The game is fundamentally a third-person shooter and a driving game, but it tries to have other aspects as well, and ultimately tries to do too much, making none of the aspects really shine. Driving, especially with the PC keyboard, is very awkward experience, and its not surprising to end up eating your way through multiple vehicles even on a short trip. Combat is better executed, but ultimately ends up coming up short. Furthermore, the game adds RPG style elements, where you can up your character's stats by going to the gym, practicing shooting, or simply playing the game. This ends up being somewhat awkward and ineffective. Perhaps the most enjoyable thing about the RPG style element is the ability to customize your character's clothing, hairstyle, etc, although this isn't exactly a fundamental part of this game element. Lastly, and perhaps most awkwardly, the game attempts to enhance replayability and encourage exploration of the open game world by scattering items all around the world which serve no purpose other than as meaningless rewards, much like coins in a platformer. However, for all it's flaws, the game is highly entertaining. It features some unique elements that are well executed, such as the lack of a central soundtrack, relying instead on about a dozen radio stations that can be heard while in a vehicle, which allows the player to choose what soundtrack they like best. Furthermore, the variety of weapons, vehicles, and locations, and situations, is unparalleled. This is truly a game that never plays the same twice, even if its core missions do. The storyline is long, and filled with satire and humor. The game doesn't take itself seriously, nor does it take anything else seriously, and it doesn't ask the player to suspend disbelief and believe that a world like this could exist, but rather asks them to be ready for the outlandish, but not to believe it. Ultimately, this approach lends itself very well to the fundamental core of the game, and makes it a more enjoyable experience.Thu, 21 Feb 2008 02:26:16 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2880&iddiary=5405https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2880Please note, I have another gamelog for this game, it is wrong, and has nothing in it, this is the right one. Please note also that this game was on the classics list for PS2 but I played it on PC, which is supposed to be ok. Gameplay 1: I've been playing GTA:SA for several hours now, and have completed the first act of the game. I've played this game to its completion once before, and I've found playing it in the context of doing a gamelog has somewhat altered my perspective on it. The first act of the game takes place in the city of Los Santos (Los Angeles) where your character, CJ, has just returned from Liberty City (New York) in order to take charge of the family gang. This part of the game consists mostly of driving around the city, killing rival gang members, and acquiring new territory for your gang. Like most aspects of GTA, I would find this highly offensive if it wasn't presented in such a satirical manner, however I found the satire in this act to be relatively weak and as a result the whole idea sort of left a bad taste in my mouth. The game is subdivided into various missions, which, when completed, advance the storyline. While some missions almost all (with several exceptions) play out in fundamentally the same way from a gameplay point of view, although with great, and memorable, variations on style. In the first act I experienced everything from a drive-by shooting, to robbing a military base of its weapons, to the now seemingly traditional car-chase through the aquaducts/concrete rivers of Los Angeles. However, all the missions play out in basically the fundamentally same way: drive somewhere, shoot the place up, and drive away. However the game manages to avoid overt repetition by changing up the style of each mission as I previously mentioned, and also allowing them to take place (in some cases) in certain areas that are normally either not accessible or at least not set up in the same way as they usually are in the Sand Box style open world. While I found the game's introductory pacing to be somewhat slow for an experienced player, I recall that it served me well the first time I played several years ago. Furthermore, the designers have scattered weapons, vehicles, and other goodies throughout the vast map, which I noticed allowed me to jump into the game faster since I already knew where they were: for example, I picked up an AK-47 and a Winchester repeating rifle before my character was even supposed to have gotten a 9mm pistol, because I knew where to go to find them. Ultimately the first act of GTA: SA serves as a good introduction to the things you will have to do later in the game, and does feature some dramatic betrayals, as well as plot and character development. I do have some criticisms however. My first is with the way the open world is limited at this stage in the game. While it makes sense to only open up certain areas as the game progresses, the execution of this made no sense to me: when you went too far outside the city limits, the FBI and even the army show up and start shooting at you. This is supposedly because the corrupt Officer Tenpenny (voiced by none other than Samuel L. Jackson) told you not to leave town. However I found it hard to believe that he carries enough influence to call in all holy federal hell on you when you take a step too far down a street, even in the outlandishly bizzaar world that is GTA. Furthermore I found it annoying that the amount of territories that you take over for your gang has no effect on the outcome of the story, but other than these flaws, as well as a few teeth-gnashingly difficult missions, I found the first act to be quite enjoyable.Thu, 21 Feb 2008 02:08:12 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2880&iddiary=5381https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2583Gameplay 2: I have yet to try multiplayer, but from what I've seen I bet it will be amazing. I'm looking forward to playing against my friends, although the learning curve might prove to lead to several un-fun games (at least for them!) While the tutorials quickly and efficiently cover the RTS basics of camera movement, unit movement, resources, and base construction, as well as game specifics like putting your units behind cover and effectively fighting tank battles. I found, even as an experienced RTS player, that Skirmish mode was difficult until I had completed the campaign. This may be because Company of Heroes is such a unique game (see design section.) It features many things that are rare in other RTSs. Firstly, a pet peeve of mine in other RTS games, which are usually played from an isometric perspective, which Company of Heroes is by default, but features a fully interactive and 3D camera with zoom, pan, and pivot capabilities, is that even though they supposedly take place during the day, the fact that you can not see the sky gives everything sort of a creepy, night timey feel, that the fog of war (the absence of sight on a map, usually denoted by a greyed out area where you have been and a blacked out area where you haven't) doesn't really help. In Company of Heroes you can actually see the sky when you move the camera, which I found very refreshing. Furthermore, the game has a very developed micro-mangement system, as you can put your units behind cover, hit units in different areas, and of course the RTS staple: combine units in different was to be most effective against your enemies, IE: rock-paper-scissors. However unlike other RTSs, which essentially are sophisticated games of having your rock in the right place at the right time to beat your opponents scissors, etc, Company of Heroes plays more like a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors-Stapler-Pencil-Eraser-Computer Mouse-Mug-Pen-Tape Despenser-Leaf-Stick-Paper Shredder. It features many many matchups, some of which are not immediately obvious. And in Company of Heroes even Paper can beat Scissors if the commander of Paper micro-manages it properly. Design: The first thing I noticed when playing Company of Heroes is that it is not your typical strategy game. In my opinion, real time strategy games can be divided into two categories: macroscopic and microscopic. Macroscopic RTSs tend to focus on resource gathering, base construction, and territory expansion. The best examples I can think of here are Rise of Nations, Age of Empires, etc, and Starcraft, Warcraft, etc. Microscopic games tend to be based around unit micro-management, with little to no emphasis on building, or resource management. Games like this include the Myth series, by Halo creator Bungie, where the player uses points to purchase units at the beginning of the game, and then does combat entirely based around micromanagement, formations, flanking maneuvers, holding, high-ground, and other combat strategies, rather than focusing on the larger picture. Another example of this is Full Spectrum Warrior, where the player takes command of two fireteams, and uses them to execute various maneuvers, in order to move through the game's levels. Company of Heroes breaks free of both these molds, combining elements of both, to create a unique and amazing game experience. It does have base construction, and is focused around capturing territories, sort of like the way the player extends their territory line in Rise of Nations, although closer to the Conquest style of gameplay that has been made popular in first-person-shooter games by the Battlefield franchise, and also features resources, although they are not gathered, but rather obtained based on how many territories you control. However, macroscopic points aside, where the game really shines is on the microscopic level, featuring all kinds of unit micromanagement. For example: infantry units are able to utilize heavy and light cover, hole up in buildings, and engage in various other maneuvers, although formations (a staple of micromanagement in other real time strategy games) are conspicuously absent, probably because they were not used much in combat in WWII. Another example of micromanagement comes in Tank combat, where you try to move your ungainly vehicles to get firing solutions on the rear armor of enemy tanks, where their armor is weakest. All in all, the game combines micromanagement and macroscopic game elements to create a unique and exciting experience, which is enhanced by the excellent unit-balance, amazing graphics and effects, and the plethora of possible strategies. I've noticed from playing that in order to be truly successful in Company of Heroes, players must master both the micro and macro management aspects: winning both individual engagements through superior micromanagement, while still keeping track of and managing the larger battle as a whole, through the more RTS player familiar macro-management. It also features a unique Commander Ability tree, with three different options each with their own tree for each side. This allows you to call in support options like air strikes, paratroopers, and more powerful tanks, depending on which option you picked. It also gives your troops additional abilities. Unlike similar games where these abilities might cost resources to unlock, the Commander abilities are earned through points you win from engaging in combat, and then the abilities cost resources to use. Since resources are earned from capturing points, this keeps the gameplay based around combat, and not sitting back and building defenses.Sat, 09 Feb 2008 12:05:46 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2583&iddiary=4909https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2583Summary: Company of Heroes is a real-time-strategy game, set in Europe, during and after D-Day in World War II. The player takes command of a variety of different units, with the ability to construct new ones, and try to take back Europe from the Nazis. The game also features multiplayer and vs AI skirmish mode, where Axis and Allies go head-to-head. Gameplay 1: World War II games have been done to death, but Company of Heroes is the first one to bring something unique to both World War II games and Real Time Strategy games in a long time, and is incredibly enjoyable. The graphics are excellent, and it even features in-engine cinematics, with talking characters, a testament to the power of the game engine (as most RTSs don't have nearly enough detail on the units to accomplish something like that.) It has an excellent depth of gameplay, lots of units, and is incredibly entertaining. It only features two sides, Axis and Allies, and you have to play as one of them in multiplayer (no free-for-all battles either,) and there is only an Allies Campaign. The campaign was enjoyable, and long enough I'd say, but it would have been nice if there had also been an Axis Campaign as well. The missions were all relatively unique, featuring different kinds of gameplay, sometimes built around only unit deployment and combat, sometimes built around base management, and some with elements of both (IE, Paratroopers drop in, clear out enemies, establish a base, and then move in and clear out the rest of the levels with reinforcements.) The campaign managed to introduce new gameplay elements at a reasonable rate, and basically acted as a proving ground for a new player; it allowed me to work my way up and eventually be able to beat the AI on difficulties higher than easy in the skirmish mode (the AI is very difficult because a large part of Company of Heroes is micro-management of units, while at the same time tracking a larger battle, see Design section, and the AI is just better at tracking its assets than is a human, but the human edge comes from how you use them and how you learn.) Skirmish mode is enjoyable enough to likely be a staple at LAN parties and be a nice thing to just sit down and game with for a few hours, but the Campaign didn't seem very re-playable to me, probably because of the lack of any really epic or memorable moments. Also, the Campaign's final level was anticlimactic, focusing simply on securing several key bridges to stop convoys and then a panzer counter attack, not exactly more exciting or epic than anything else in the game up till then. Furthermore, one of the later levels, a battle against a Panzer Division and its lead Ace Tiger Tank (read: boss battle) felt contrived, and wasn't exactly in the spirit of the rest of the game.Sat, 09 Feb 2008 12:05:31 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2583&iddiary=4908https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2260Gameplay 2: I tried multiplayer, and found it throughly enjoyable, and also easily accessible for new players, as I played against someone with no video game experience and she even beat me, who had been playing the game for awhile now, a few times (although it was both of our first times playing multiplayer.) The multiplayer takes place in a small, enclosed arena, filled with various objects that move around. It is much faster paced than the core game, and is very entertaining, although I think co-op play (which I know is in the sequels) where you get to use the normal, large and interesting game levels, would be a massive improvement, even adversarial play in that setting would be fun. As I play, the game seems to have become much easier, as I have a better understanding of different objects and how they interact with each other and my Katamari. While the control scheme was simple to learn, and easy to use, I have finally mastered it and am able to play quite effectively. I used to take several attempts for even earlier levels and am now able to pass most levels on my first attempt, even as they grow more difficult. I love the feeling of power I get as my Katamari grows from something that gets kicked around by the humans, and is regarded as a tiny nuisance, into a giant, unstoppable force of nature that swallows their entire towns whole as they flee in panic...all within the span of 10-20 minutes. It is so satisfying to go back and find the kid that beat you with a stick when you were 20 cm across, and devour him, or to absorb the bus that severely damaged your Katamari earlier in the level. The game is so fun to play, its quirky, exciting, and addictive. Design: The game gets throughly more entertaining as you grow to larger and larger sizes, sucking up entire cities and towns very quickly. I found that I liked this much better than being tiny, but the fact that on each level you start out small and get larger, thus being rewarded with being large and able to suck up larger things, keeps you playing through the levels. There is a clear distinction from when you are small to when you are large, and the style of gameplay changes. At smaller sizes the player finds himself avoiding hostile creatures, sucking up increasingly larger things, and trying to access new areas. By the time you get larger you are more worried about just destroying everything that is in your path to get your Katamari to the appropriate size to beat the level. There is also a clear visual distinction between the different sizes. At smaller sizes, the game uses a narrow depth of field, where everything further away (and also much larger than you) is blurry, and things that are up close and smaller are in focus. At larger sizes this goes away, and at large sizes on a smaller level, such as the town instead of the world, the camera will eventually zoom far enough out and you view things through a sort of curtain of fog, showing how large your Katamari is. The game does have some flaws, at least in my mind, but I recognize how subjective these flaws are. Firstly, I don't like the lack of realism in object placement. I don't find it believable that there would be 100 bananas lying randomly on the streets of a city. This gets better as you get larger, as the game designers have to place fewer random objects because you are able to suck up things that would normally be around the world: guardrails, fences, people, cars, poles, gas pumps, etc. Also, I don't like how periodically you will be able to see your Katamari poking through all the objects it has absorbed, the idea being that they eventually get integrated with it and make it grow larger. I understand the reasoning for this being the technological limitations of the PS2, but I'd think it could be better executed so that once your starting Katamari sphereoid is completely covered, you never see it again, and it appears as though you're just rolling up things by the snowball effect. The levels are limited to a few static environments that don't really change, however the positioning and kinds of objects in them, and where you are able to go, does change from level to level, enough to keep the game incredibly interesting. The game is incredibly addictive and it is ultimately its cutesey style, its amazing gameplay, and its clever humor that keep the player coming back for more and more. Sat, 26 Jan 2008 17:48:39 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2260&iddiary=4386https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2260Game Log Entry 1: Katamari Damacy Katamari Damacy is a very unique game. The player controls a tiny prince character, who in turn pushes, and thus controls, a Katamari, an incredibly adhesive, spheroid object, which rolls around the game world, sticking to anything it touches, and growing larger and larger. The Katamari can start the very small, picking up pushpins and the like, and eventually grow large enough to quickly devour cities and towns. Gameplay: I began playing Katamari Damacy and was immediately turned off by the horrible, repetitive, and annoying music, nearly non-english text, trippy cinematics, and awful, awful, "dialog" sounds. The low poly models, cheesy graphics, and odd control scheme didn't help either. However, I played on, and by the end of my first session, had come to love all of these things which so horrified me when first I powered on the Playstation 2. The sheer outlandishness of the game's look and sounds, are matched only by its feel, and the totally ridiculousness of the gameplay. The annoying music was perfectly suited for the visuals of a miniscule, yet eventually massive, alien-guided, sticky ball, moving through the game world, sticking to everything smaller than it. The control scheme, which I at first thought of as awkward, suddenly made perfect sense, as I realized that the two joysticks the game was played with were actually used to control the little alien guy pushing the Katamari, rather than the Katamari itself. This made the scheme much more intuitive. I throughly enjoyed running things over and watching my Katamari grow to an ever increasing size. I noticed how profound the gameplay shift was from when you have a small Katamari to when you have a larger Katamari: when you're tiny you have to avoid enemies and make sure you gather up every little item. You also have to be careful how far you go because it takes a long time for your Katamari to cover even short distances. As you grow larger, the game transitions into a mad dash to suck everything up, which is very, very fun, especially given that at larger sizes, you grow exponentially faster than at smaller sizes because you can absorb such large objects, so even though you grow at about the same rate relative to the size of your Katamari, the real world numbers (expressed in metric, which should be useful for teaching kids the metric system, which I've always loved) get higher much faster and the game is much more satisfying.Sat, 26 Jan 2008 02:00:27 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2260&iddiary=4290https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1840Doom 3 Gamelog Summary: Doom 3 is a science fiction, first-person shooter game, which takes place in a scientific research base on Mars in the 22nd century. The player takes on the role of a soldier, an employee of the big-brotheresque UAC Corporation, who has just been assigned to the Mars Base, where strange things have been going on for the past few months. Soon after the player’s arrival, a strange portal is opened in the bowels of the base, and all hell literally breaks loose. Demonic creatures pour from the portal, and appear all over the huge installation. The player must fight his/her way through the dark and winding corridors of the base, completing various objectives, all which begin to reveal the game’s back story (the events leading up to the demon invasion), and allow the main story, one of both corporate and satanic evil, to progress. Gameplay: Doom 3 forgoes normal tutorial modes, and begins with a cinematic sequence, followed by immediate gameplay. While the first level serves as an introduction it is still not a tutorial in the traditional sense, as it assumes the player is already well versed in the mechanics and controls of a first person shooter, and instead focuses on introducing the player to the environment in which he will be playing, by taking the player through various hallways, having him/her interact with NPCs (non player characters, this term is not typically used to describe adversaries however,) including a spider-like sentry robot (a useful ally at certain points in the game) and various people. The introduction also shows the player how to open doors and interact with control panels, as well as having him walk across a small stretch of Martian surface and use airlocks and elevators, all things that the player will need to do throughout the game, but only in this instance without the threat of imminent death. The introductory level also introduces a key game element: the PDA (in real life Personal Digital Assistant, but in the game introduced as Personal Data Assistant.) The player will use the PDA throughout the game, collecting the PDAs of dead NPCs, and using the information stored within them to unlock doors, cabinets, and find snippets of back-story through the NPC’s email and audio logs, as well as UAC propaganda and informational videos. The PDA even has NPC spam email, which points to a website, martianbuddy.com, a site which, when visited in real life, has a code which unlocks a valuable cabinet that contains the chaingun, quite awhile before you’d normally find it. The environments were creepy when all things were working perfectly, but after the opening of the portal, as shown to the player on video screen during a level that transitions from introduction to real gameplay, they are nothing short of terrifying. The first few levels are particularly terrifying, as the player is unaccustomed to the way in which the game attempts to scare him, has only rudimentary weapons (and not much ammunition), and must endure constant tortured screams and other mayhem coming through over is radio, as demonic creatures terrorize the base. Gradually, the mayhem over the radio dies down (presumably because most of the installation’s inhabitants have either been killed by the monsters or themselves converted into them), the player finds better weaponry (with plenty of ammo), and becomes used to the idea of enemies popping out of the walls, teleporting in behind him through rifts in space covered with satanic runes. The player’s emotional state, much as the characters might, turns from one of pure terror, to one of on-edge adrenaline filled excitement. However, there are still moments of terror throughout the game, such as when the character sees himself in the mirror and experiences flashes of terrifying images, when bloody footprints appear walking down a hallway and a voice beckons the player, when a woman’s head rips off her body and attacks the player, and when objects appear to move on their own for no good reason (including one particularly jolting instance involving a human skeleton in the confines of an airshaft.) Gameplay: The game is played in a first person perspective, which serves to add to the suspense by creating a kind of claustrophobia and a sense of being watched, or of having something sneaking up behind you. The game has interesting enemies, all grotesque demons of one form or another, but with characteristics and abilities that make them clearly distinguishable from one another. However, the game becomes somewhat repetitive despite its interesting enemy and weapon design, a fact not helped by the linear nature of the corridor based combat that fills most of the game’s levels. However, the claustrophobic corridor setting, indicative of the movie Alien, does serve to keep the player on edge, especially when things are dark, as they are quite often throughout the game. The game deals with this in a unique but often times laughable (and very scary) way: the flashlight. While most first person shooters that feature a flashlight or night vision portray it as a player or weapon mounted device, Doom 3’s flashlight is a separate item all together, a maglite like piece of equipment, which, to be used, requires that the player stow their weapon in favor of it. This means that the player must traverse the scariest parts of the game without his weapon drawn. Which makes it all the more scarier when the he encounters an adversary, and even scarier when he must switch to a weapon to dispatch the threat, only to be plunged into total darkness. This is somewhat ironic, although possible intentionally so, as the game takes place in the twenty-second century, and the player is exposed to all manner of advanced technology, yet seems unable to find some duct tape to affix the light to a weapon, or even find a helmet or head mounted light (which are available and widely used today.) Ultimately, this element does serve to raise the fear factor of the gameplay, and is thus effective, if somewhat unrealistic. However, the game, although featuring realistic graphics (except the human character models look almost as frightening as their demonic counterparts,) doesn’t seem to have a problem defying realism in the name of gameplay, such as when the player finds a chainsaw to use as a weapon (an NPC’s email on the PDA pokes fun at this: Why did they ship us chainsaws? We’re on Mars, what are we going to use these for?) The horror of the gameplay usually relies on cheap tricks: things jumping out at you, the lights flickering, a disembodied voice shouting, rather than any real psychological horror. It also uses the gruesome to try and get a scare: your enemies are horribly disfigured monsters, demons, zombies, and creatures from the depths of hell. They have a tendency to appear behind you in places you’ve already cleared, although they typically make some horrifying noise to advertise their presence. After playing through much of the game, I can say that, the story seems sort of throwaway and tacked on, something which is not helped by the fact that the game has only one volume control, rather than independent controls for dialog, sound effects, music, etc, as most modern games have, and lacks a subtitle option. I found the dialog very difficult to hear at some parts, as it was much quieter than the game’s other sound, but if I turned up the sound to hear the dialog, the sound throughout the game was much too loud. Ultimately though, the desire of to know how this dire situation will be resolved and what my role will be in it, kept me playing through the terror, violence, and darkness of the game. Design: I already mentioned the chainsaw, and would go on to say that the weapon design of the game is excellent, featuring weapons that are clearly distinct from one another, and have their own specific uses. The game forgoes the trend in more recent video games of allowing you to carry a small number of weapons and swap them out as you need (such as in Halo, Far Cry, and many other modern shooters) for a more retro model (after all it is a Doom game) of allowing you to carry all the weapons in the game that you find. There is also one very interesting weapon the player acquires late in the game: The Soulcube, which adds some unique elements to gameplay. The monster design of the game is quite good, they are all very grotesque and scary, but there isn’t enough variety in a given area, while there are many monsters in the game, some only appear at certain points, making the player know what to expect, rather than mixing it up and keeping him off guard. There are a few interesting boss characters, which all in all gives the game a retro feel, which is what it was striving for, being Doom 3, sequel to the retro shooters Doom and Doom 2. The limited contact with friendly NPCs is started to grate on me a little bit, which is probably what the game designers intended. I feel isolated and alone as I am playing. I am curious to try out the co-op mode of the game at some point, as I’d imagine that the players would find solace in the presence of one another, and that the game would be much less scary with someone watching your back. I’m staring to realize as I play that the game lacks any sort of truly epic or memorable moments. I’ve played a great many first person shooters and in many of them I can identify at least one specific moment that I realized I was playing an excellent, epic, game. Not so much with Doom 3, everything is pretty much muddled together in my mind, the repetitive gameplay, combined with the lack of changing environments, contribute to this. I’d say another problem is the fact that there is no unity or real coherent theme to the music of the game, its simply occasional snippets of music, sometimes pretty well muddled in with the background noise almost to the point when you’re not entirely sure whether its non-diagetic or diagetic. A powerful musical score would have helped to tie the game together better, instead, all the very limited music does is serve to enhance the fear factor of a situation, but does not lead to more pleasurable gameplay. One issue with the game is its lack of variety in its environments. While later in the game there starts to be more variety, the player leaves the Martian installation and visits hell, and various other environments such as archeological digs which are somewhat more interesting, but they happen so late in the game, after hour upon hour of the same dark hallways, that the change in environment is actually a respite for the player, rather than enhancing the fear: thus, hell is actually more like a pleasant change of scenery. Ultimately, Doom 3 is a good, scary, action-packed game. Although it has many flaws, its repetitiveness chief among them, it is ultimately fun to play for someone looking for a modern twist on a brainless, classic, shooter.Mon, 14 Jan 2008 19:51:47 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1840&iddiary=3626