A QQ Review of Why we cant have nice things.

[Divinity_One]

It was expected, but its most glaring issues stem from its overly simplistic recycled to ad nauseam console gameplay mechanic that should be nothing short of obsolete in this day and age, but are yet still the front runners in most console games design (because their cheap and easy to use, and come pre packaged already in dev libraries that are plug and play.). You have your glowing highlighted collectables on one hand (log books, items, keys), your crate breaking (break box/crate/barrel, find item), your overly simple upgrades (more hp bar, more stamina bar, hold more items/ammo, etc.), but perhaps worst of all is the stealth/auto kill system that EVERY SINGEL action RPG console game now employs unless it's a straight FPS. (Note i love stealth games, but these games are all feeling the EXACT SAME, like they used the same dev library and just slapped on their own art assets.)

Frankly this is every other console game you have EVERY played in the last ten years, but distilled down to be even simpler. You literally find only 3 things searching the world, green goo which is basically EXP as an item, ammo/consumables, and files/notes. There is LITERLY no other interactivity in the world except for opening doors, doing quick time events, throwing bottles to make nose (like in the The Last of Us), and hitting switches. There is no inspecting objects, no flavor text, it's a very bland matt painting to look at, where the only things you can do with it are either highlighted, or running at you in murderous rage.

Exploration is not fun at all, so much as an exercise in clearing each area to make sure found all the Green Goo/EXP sitting on shelf's on stuffed in crates. There is no looking at a painting and having an internal thought, no coming across a dead person body and saying something aloud to how creepy it is. In fact there is a complete lack of response from the main character to the events going on around him. It's like he's as emotional detached as the player because outside of the short 'dramatic' cut scenes he just has no response to anything going on around him. Perhaps i was spoiled with tomb raider where Lara would often have to peptalk herself, or commented on what she saw, but in this game all you can hope for is some grunting and rather disinterested/not asking the right questions dialogue between the main character and the boring as hell supporting cast.

This is supposed to be a survival horror game hailing back to the glory days of the original Resident Evils and Silent hills, to really bring horror back to its roots...and yet all it delivers is another 'Hollywood' adaptation to meet the 'fad' market of today's console generation (or at least what publishes believe the generation wants.) Maybe I'm just old (I'm 30), but all I see with these newer games is instant gratification violence-porn (yea violence is porn baby!) and stripped of all meaningful substance or storytelling.


"Wait... you want story? We have story, what do you think our cut scene are?" I'm sorry, but there is one major rule in any form of fictional story writing and that is. 'Show, don't tell. "But wait... isn't a cut scene 'showing' us the story? Like we are watching it right? Your just an idiot 30 year old reviewer!" Okay you got me there, they are showing us the story... or are they? I just snuck through a morgue of butchered corpses... with some hulking fetishist chopping at them with glee. (Maybe he's making a sandwich?)... and i scale the stairs to escape (i don't want to be on his BLT) and... ♥♥♥♥! an alarm? Wait... WHAO fetishist dude has a chainsaw and now I'm running. STORY TELLING BABY! Yep they're certainly showing me ♥♥♥♥ is going down and man is my character boned! But no, in fact they are TELLING you everything.

I mean there was no warning that alarm was there, no foreshadowing something sinister was going to happen if it went off, hell you don't even see the chainsaw till its revved up and your being chased. They TOLD you your in deep ♥♥♥♥, instead of letting the environment or your own mind understand it. They said "Don't think, we got this!" and just expect you to mechanically respond to the same stimuli every other console game to date has trained you to react to. Okay sure you're in a slaughter house full of corpses and one guy has just been cut in half... of course you know some sinister ♥♥♥♥ is about to go down and you're going to have to either go all Bruce Willis on this guys ♥♥♥, or sneak out of there while trying not to wet your pants... failed that one.

Basically every meaningful interaction, or story development point in the game is forced down your throat on rails and without your consent. You're as good as a S&M masochist strapped to the wall of the devs perverse dungeon squealing with glee every time he smacks you in the face with his 'intense cut scene action'. The rest of the time your mildly bored as you hang about until the next dose of 'cut scene abuse' catches you from behind! (Ouch! That's playing dirty!). You have no mind or will of your own, and well that's perfectly all right for Mistress/Master game dev, because they are going to tell you exactly what you need know and what to do... every step of the way. Want to be uppity and think for yourself, or ask a question they don't want to answer? Too bad, your gagged and that thing is no slip and double belted. The most you can do is whimper and whine, fruitlessly beating your head against the screen as you ask yourself one simple question.

"My character just got chased by a freaking chainsaw maniac, nearly sliced and diced by gigantic deathtrap, and flushed down the world largest and bloodiest garbage disposal... and his reaction to this all is just... "Where's the exit?" In a slightly gruff, yet un-urgent voice. The FU*K!? *table flips* Dude you have either have gonads of steel, or you're the world's most emotionally detached individual EVER. Hell I bet El chainsaw fetishist would ♥♥♥♥ some bricks if he saw how easily you brushed all that ♥♥♥♥ off. You be like "Ain't no thang!" and he's would be dropping them bricks and back peddling the hell out of there... he thought he knew crazy, nope, not till he met you.

Okay so i went off on a tandem there, ignore it, but the bottom line is simple. You are told the store every step of the way from the moment you wake up, to your daring escape. All you do is play a little mini game called 'Keep you HP bar up' as you wait for more elusive story to be shown... *chough* tolds to you. What do you do in-between the story? Well you sneak about, you break some box's, maybe even stab a guy or two in the back of the head with a knife... and then when your about bored to tears of that you reach your next objective and... ahhh the clouds party and shiny storytelling comes out like a radiant sun and reminds you why you're doing all this once again. But wait, it's gone again and your feeling bitter, used, and already craving your next fix. Well don't worry... another deceptively open area (which is actually just a linear path) awaits you ahead to lead you right back into the arms of your story addition... because in 100% honestly. Its absolutely nowhere else in the game. Not unless you have some mad meta imagination and narrate your own adventure like your some secret rambo on a mission from god to squash the hellspawn of your disturbed mind so peace and unicorns and rule the day... yea don't ask.

Anyway in conclusion... if you want a generic (nothing new here) game of the year, six months till it's a barging bin title(pending its DLC's), then buy it right up and forget every single moment of it the week after you clear it. Because... it's going to prove to be an absolutely forgettable experience at the end of the day.

TLDR:
I am a proud member of the elitist PC master race and QQ I hate consoles. Nuff said.

[DrinkingWhiskey]

So how would you do it so much better ?

[DogMeat]

Did you even get to the second chapter? Because this looks like a long essay on the first chapter which is, more or less, a scripted cinematic intro. BTW I actually have the same irritation with overly scripted story segments. The reason I give this one a pass is because it significantly opens up after that first chapter. Kind of like Half-Life 2 where that first 30 minutes is just walking around listening to people talk but the rest of the game is a well paced shooter. Though in this case its a well paced survival horror game.

In a way, I completely agree with your title: This is why we can't have nice things. Though my reasoning is completely different. The game is a return to old school mechanics and difficulty that doesn't hold your hand the whole way through. The exception I'll note is the puzzles, which were disappointingly easy to solve. The game is anything but generic in this age of casual games that practically play themselves.

[strangerism]

even though I liked the game for some of the challenges, I agree with you on everything you said. but really, master race pc vs consoles? this idiotic argument is getting old.

[iLLmEcHaNiCo]

You take a linear story driven game and bash it for being a linear story driven game. You even bash specific game mechanics that not only have many of us have been waiting for years to return, but have also adored them since their debut. To top it all off, amidst your 21 chapter "review", it's clear you have only played the demo at best. That alone is enough to disregard your subjective and objective observations entirely IMHO.

I disagree with your entire post, but respect your opinion, so I'm just hear to counter it a little and keep the scale from tipping too much in one direction.

Unlike movies or music, video games are interactive. Developers are always searching for that "perfect" gameplay mechanic or interactivity formula. Every once in a while, an interaction with a game pops up that is, for lack of a better term, "flawless". It appeals to the masses (or maybe a small cult following) and for good reason. It is so effective, that other developers will mimic or incorporate it into their own methods and the devs responsible for it's creation will use it and tweak it over the years. Now, if you think that certain "dumbed" down gameplay mechanics appeal to the masses because they are a bunch of brain dead ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that don't have your insight, then you need to take a step back a reassess your thinking. The world may be filled with stupid people, but certainly not THAT many.

If you want Mass Effect and Dragon Age convo trees/dialog or open world Skyrim or Fallout, then stick to playing those games since they have the formula that works best for you. As for emotionally unresponsive antagonists, I think it's an incredibly effective way of making the game more disturbing. It's simple logic, really. People don't react to horrific events = unsettling feeling, creepy. Silent Hill excelled in this.

No one can knock you for not liking what TEW is doing, but on the flip side it's doing it well for many of us. There is simply no such thing as a perfect game. Even I can find things in this game that could have been done differently or "better", but as whole the game is remarkable.

You can basically sum up all of your words into a simple: "The Evil Within is not my cup of tea". I gotcha. Loud and clear. Now I will sum up my reply with "The Evil Within is totally a good cup of tea".

[Player One]

Originally posted by Divinity_One:

TLDR:
I am a proud member of the elitist PC master race and QQ I hate consoles. Nuff said.

Master Race...gets me every time :)

If Pc was the master race, the games that play on Pc would be of master development.