Why is everything so...boring?

[flippy232]

It's a beautiful little game map. I hate to keep comparing it to the original but...well...it is called Outcast. The original was diverse, the Talan each had unique character, the story offered some kind of buy-in and urgency and stakes. It all made sense and was gorgeous and mysterious and challenging and fun. You really felt like a hero on a mission to save the world.

The new one is nice looking but so, so boring. The Talan are boring. The quests are boring. The robot enemies are boring. The flying around with your wingsuit/jetpack is boring. Instead of a hero on a dangerous mission you feel like a tourist on a parkour holiday. I fell fifty feet off the lighthouse balcony and survived without a scratch. My training wheels jetpack saved me at the last second. How lame is that?

So sad to see so much talent, effort and potential go to waste. I'll uninstall this and go back to the original. I'll check out the reviews once the full release is posted and see if all the good stuff is hidden. Very disappointing.

[idum]

I agree. The game is unfortunately a turd. Keep playing the original one or Second Contact. They are the real deal.

[PlanetAdelpha]

Keep in mind this is only a demo that drops you in the middle without any context.

The full game has a nice and natural progression, story, many cutscenes, fun and quirky chatacters....

It's all there. This is just a demo snippet.

[Ale]

How "kill the gamors" is more boring than "kill the gamors" ?
Especially considering that the new combat system is more enjoyable.

I also disagree about flying with the jetpack: I'm loving it. Especially because it still requires a certain amount of cleverness and effort despite the great mobility.
The four main Talans I've spoken to perfectly embody the spirit of the predecessor, one of the most faithful elements to the original in my opinion: both for their simple but strong personalities, and for the awkwardness with which dialogues proceed due to cultural differences. Perfect in my opinion.
Cutter in the original was a kind of grumbling anti-hero with a hidden soft side. The fun part was hearing him complain about everything or lose patience at the first misunderstanding of his interlocutor during a dialogue. In A New Beginning, they softened him quite a bit, perhaps due to age or events that occurred between the two games, but I still heard a couple of complaints even in the demo.

But everyone has their own opinion.
Keep in mind, though, that I also played the original in 1999, so perhaps the point is more about how you approached the game than the game itself.

[Fibulator]

Originally posted by PlanetAdelpha:

Keep in mind this is only a demo that drops you in the middle without any context.

Which is very unfortunate, as it completely ruins the experience. Someone made a *terrible* choice for the demo to "start in the middle with no context whatsoever"

[flippy232]

Originally posted by PlanetAdelpha:

Keep in mind this is only a demo that drops you in the middle without any context.

The full game has a nice and natural progression, story, many cutscenes, fun and quirky chatacters....

It's all there. This is just a demo snippet.

Great...we'll have to wait and see. Why not include a little of the meaningful/interesting/fun stuff in the demo? Seems counter-productive to have a boring demo.

[flippy232]

Originally posted by Ale:

How "kill the gamors" is more boring than "kill the gamors" ?
Especially considering that the new combat system is more enjoyable.

The original game was never about "kill the gamors". It was never mind-numbing trigger blasting, which is what set it apart. There was story, humor, tragedy, danger around each quest and it all tied together and made perfect sense.

In Shamazaar you talked to the Talan who kept the Twon-Ha. He said he cared so much about his animals that he would do anything for them. The gamors were attacking and killing his precious Twon-Ha so he asks Cutter to kill them. Cutter says "So let me get this straight, you love animals so much you want me to kill other animals to protect these animals??" The Talan's response: "Yes! Please hurry!". Makes perfect sense and is relevant, ironic and witty. Terrific and purposeful writing.

In Motazaar you have to track down a missing part to a bridge, which is being retrieved by someone's friend from another region. The friend is attacked by gamors and you follow the trail of torn clothes to his corpse and the missing part, killing the gamor that led to his demise. Tragic, realistic, harrowing and sad. The thought of the trail of clothes on the ground still makes me shudder.

In Okaar you have to venture inside a concrete arena where gamor gladiator games were held to retrieve an item. You have to search for the hidden item which means you're locked in a confined space with many walls, staircases and areas where the starving gamors that have been locked inside can hide and suddenly attack you from. No mini map with red dots pointing out exactly where the danger is. No super power escape jetpack. You have to quickly, carefully and strategically search while defending yourself from attack from all sides. Very suspenseful, challenging and unique. You feel like you accomplished something if you make it out alive.

If you think the original was about killing gamors then it sounds like you overlooked what made it special, and makes sense why you don't see anything missing in the demo.

And no, the "new combat" system is not improved. It sucks. It's boring. It shows you exactly where the enemies are, how to get there and does everything but click the trigger for you. It even gives you points for shooting them. Points! Imagine the intense build-up to fighting a 30 foot tall Gorgor and when you shoot it little points float up and a progress bar highlights. How ridiculous is that. It's worse by far than the original.

[Ale]

Originally posted by Fibulator:

Which is very unfortunate, as it completely ruins the experience. Someone made a *terrible* choice for the demo to "start in the middle with no context whatsoever"

Guys... let's think about this...
If the demo had been at the beginning of the game, you would have had:

1) More significant spoilers about the game's plot.
2) No chance to try weapon customization because you wouldn't have had modules.
3) No chance to experience flying with the jetpack because you wouldn't have had it.
4) Due to the previous point, no opportunity to try parkour.
5) No way to understand how combat works without weapon modules and skills.

I could probably go on, but it already seems obvious why the demo proposed by the developers is the right one.

[idum]

The new game is trash compared to the original one. I'm laughing my ass off how people defend the gameplay when it's obviously so boring. It is made for casual players who need handholding all the time. The handholding feature kills the quality and immersion of every game. People who defend this mechanic know nothing about good video games. As I said, they are casual players who don't want to use their brain.

[flippy232]

Originally posted by Ale:

Originally posted by Fibulator:

Which is very unfortunate, as it completely ruins the experience. Someone made a *terrible* choice for the demo to "start in the middle with no context whatsoever"

Guys... let's think about this...
If the demo had been at the beginning of the game, you would have had:

1) More significant spoilers about the game's plot.
-Wrong. Spoilers are at the end, not the beginning of the story. If the writers spoil the plot at the beginning of a story, well they shouldn't be writers.
2) No chance to try weapon customization because you wouldn't have had modules.
-Wrong. You could do one upgrade, plenty to see the mechanics of how upgrades work. Show the other weapons in the trailers to build interest to create them.
3) No chance to experience flying with the jetpack because you wouldn't have had it.
-Flying is boring and ruins the quest to fix daokas, makes Twon-Ha irrelevant. I can fly from one side of the map to another in five minutes. Congrats, you just shrunk the entire world to the size of my backyard.
4) Due to the previous point, no opportunity to try parkour.
-Parkour sucks. Parkour in a video game sucks worse.
5) No way to understand how combat works without weapon modules and skills.
-Combat is an overrated and overdone game mechanic. Imagine releasing a game demo tying to stand out by focusing on combat.

I could probably go on, but it already seems obvious why the demo proposed by the developers is the right one.

It depends on your idea of a fun game. If your idea of fun is weapons and parkour, sure. Great demo. If you idea of a fun game is exploration, adventure, mystery and a meaningful story. Crappy demo.

To me third-person shooters are a dime-a-dozen. I don't care about parkour. It's cringe in real-life, I certainly don't want to pay money to pretend to do it in a game.

[Ale]

Originally posted by flippy232:

Originally posted by Ale:

How "kill the gamors" is more boring than "kill the gamors" ?
Especially considering that the new combat system is more enjoyable.

The original game was never about "kill the gamors". It was never mind-numbing trigger blasting, which is what set it apart. There was story, humor, tragedy, danger around each quest and it all tied together and made perfect sense.

In Shamazaar you talked to the Talan who kept the Twon-Ha. He said he cared so much about his animals that he would do anything for them. The gamors were attacking and killing his precious Twon-Ha so he asks Cutter to kill them. Cutter says "So let me get this straight, you love animals so much you want me to kill other animals to protect these animals??" The Talan's response: "Yes! Please hurry!". Makes perfect sense and is relevant, ironic and witty. Terrific and purposeful writing.

In Motazaar you have to track down a missing part to a bridge, which is being retrieved by someone's friend from another region. The friend is attacked by gamors and you follow the trail of torn clothes to his corpse and the missing part, killing the gamor that led to his demise. Tragic, realistic, harrowing and sad. The thought of the trail of clothes on the ground still makes me shudder.

In Okaar you have to venture inside a concrete arena where gamor gladiator games were held to retrieve an item. You have to search for the hidden item which means you're locked in a confined space with many walls, staircases and areas where the starving gamors that have been locked inside can hide and suddenly attack you from. No mini map with red dots pointing out exactly where the danger is. No super power escape jetpack. You have to quickly, carefully and strategically search while defending yourself from attack from all sides. Very suspenseful, challenging and unique. You feel like you accomplished something if you make it out alive.

If you think the original was about killing gamors then it sounds like you overlooked what made it special, and makes sense why you don't see anything missing in the demo.

And no, the "new combat" system is not improved. It sucks. It's boring. It shows you exactly where the enemies are, how to get there and does everything but click the trigger for you. It even gives you points for shooting them. Points! Imagine the intense build-up to fighting a 30 foot tall Gorgor and when you shoot it little points float up and a progress bar highlights. How ridiculous is that. It's worse by far than the original.

In A New Beginning, you're asked to kill the Gamors because they've become dangerous for the village. Specifically, the village Chief Tanak asks you to do so because Zeleb (the Sappa Shamaz) explains that the problem isn't the Gamors, but the destabilized ecosystem of the village area, particularly the scarcity of Ventilopes, which keep the Gamors away and are also crucial for sannegta fishing. Zeleb claims that Gamors aren't dangerous for Talans, but we probably can't fully trust his opinion since he admits himself that he prefers animals to Talans; besides, Barram even saw him healing a wounded Gamor.

But why are there no more Ventilopes? Because the invaders injure them, and especially because the village's tamer has disappeared. After saving him, Yunair (the tamer) explains that Gamors are dangerous for Talans and that without Ventilopes, it's normal for them to start hunting the village inhabitants.

I could go on to explain how the problems in Sappa's ecosystem have negatively impacted the village's economy, but I don't think it's necessary. I'm loving how everything is interconnected and especially the focus on ecological and economic issues.

Now that we've established that you're not the only one capable of reading, we can continue to discuss civilly without insinuating that the other person is superficial in his/her approach to videogames. Thank you.

About the combat, you didn't say nothing about it. It looks like you don't like the UI.
Anyway it'is fine if you don't like the new game, I was just saying that the reason isn't only about the game itself.

Originally posted by flippy232:

It depends on your idea of a fun game. If your idea of fun is weapons and parkour, sure. Great demo. If you idea of a fun game is exploration, adventure, mystery and a meaningful story. Crappy demo.

To me third-person shooters are a dime-a-dozen. I don't care about parkour. It's cringe in real-life, I certainly don't want to pay money to pretend to do it in a game.

We were discussing whether the demo was well-designed or not, not whether you might like the new game. Those are two very different topics. The demo shows how to fight, how to move, some narrative themes that I personally love like ecology and economics, the intertwining of missions/characters/narrative themes/game lore, exploration which is a bit more difficult to test because it takes time (I found various hidden items, particularly weapon module parts and lore diaries which are big incentives for me to search every nook and cranny of the map), etc. In short, it shows a lot of what the game offers without giving spoilers. So, it's a great demo. If you don't like the game, well, that's a different matter.

[Oberscht]

Originally posted by Ale:

If the demo had been at the beginning of the game, you would have had:

1) More significant spoilers about the game's plot.

Things that get mentioned at the beginning of a game are almost by definition not spoilers. Wtf

[Killy, the Explorer]

Originally posted by PlanetAdelpha:

Keep in mind this is only a demo that drops you in the middle without any context.

The full game has a nice and natural progression, story, many cutscenes, fun and quirky chatacters....

It's all there. This is just a demo snippet.

I really, really hope by "fun and quirky" you don't mean characters behave like Harley Quinn in the latest SS game: constant, stupid and annoying chatter.

[Cenotaph]

yea.. it's rather uneventful. Graphically it's all great, but the demo felt lackluster and really didnt capture what the original did so well

[Cenotaph]

Originally posted by PlanetAdelpha:

Keep in mind this is only a demo that drops you in the middle without any context.

The full game has a nice and natural progression, story, many cutscenes, fun and quirky chatacters....

It's all there. This is just a demo snippet.

"many cutscenes", you say like it's a good thing. This is what bothers me about console games and general "modern gaming". This is not a movie! We don't need endless cutscenes, it's show don't tell. Not tell me a story and I sit and watch. No.
The best games use the gameworld to tell the story, Half Life is a good example of how to do that.

[PlanetAdelpha]

Originally posted by Killy, the Explorer:

Originally posted by PlanetAdelpha:

Keep in mind this is only a demo that drops you in the middle without any context.

The full game has a nice and natural progression, story, many cutscenes, fun and quirky chatacters....

It's all there. This is just a demo snippet.

I really, really hope by "fun and quirky" you don't mean characters behave like Harley Quinn in the latest SS game: constant, stupid and annoying chatter.

No I mean in the spirit of Talans in O1. Which were quite funny in a good way.