Ferretbrain - Why Is This Mediocre First-Person Shooter In the PS2 Platinum Collection?

Arthur doesn't get Black.

Comments

I'm so not into the FPS thing. There are no dragons. And you haven't got party members to talk to. It might actually be the physics engine you know. I played Dark Messiah of Dark and Magic, a rather lacklustre action-RPG (on the PC) simply because you could throw goblins onto spikes and engage in other acts of real-world-physics sadism like, for example, killing a monster, dragging the corpse round with you and then using it to knock a bunch of its friends off a narrow ledge...

at 11:18 on 2007-08-11 by Kyra Smith

There were actually dragons and stuff in early FPS games (Heretic and Hexen spring to mind) but you're right in that aside from the Thief series (which is more of a first-person sneaking game) there hasn't been as much exploitation of the fantasy genre in FPS than there has been modern-day/SF stuff.

I have seen FPSs where you have party members - Black is one - and I've seen ones where you can talk to them and give them instructions - Black isn't one - but you can't have the same depth of conversation with them than you can in, say, Baldur's Gate, and if the AI is wonky they can tend to get in the way. (One good thing about Black is that they tend to keep the hell out of your line of fire.) On the other hand, I have seen FPSs with decent conversation systems - Deus Ex is the one that especially springs to mind.

A FPS with a party member system and a conversation system like that of Deus Ex, now that would really be something.

at 12:30 on 2007-08-11 by Arthur B

I've played bits of Thief but that's not a FPS it's, um, I dunno, a sneak-em-up? Also it had a really coherent sense of world (like the whispering guards and everything) and a really funky story arc. I don't really count Deus Ex as a FPS either, although it's first person and you occasionally have a gone. II haven't played it for years actually ... mmm I might have to replay it. But it had so many RPG elements it really didn't feel like an FPS. I guess I just drag anything remotely decent out of the category and re-categorise it to my heart's content ;)

at 21:55 on 2007-08-11 by Kyra Smith

Dude, that's what the literary Establishment does with SF and fantasy and horror and romance and all the other genre fiction which is considered to be "good enough to not be genre fiction". :P

at 01:19 on 2007-08-12 by Arthur B

Wargh! I hadn't thought of it like that. I'm a computer game elitist!!! Woe is me! Oh the shame.

at 14:15 on 2007-08-12 by Kyra Smith

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