What are the "dated" elements of this game?

[Diebuster]

Some of the pretty highly-upvoted positive reviews have a tone of "you just had to be there", or "it's bad by modern standards - for the nostalgic only!" and I can't help but wonder if those parts are the ones I consider to be qualities. And note, I've never played this game back in the N64 or Windows 95 days; I'm completely new to it.

The lives system? This game feels in many ways like an old-school shooter mixed with the concepts and mechanics of an even older-school 80s to mid 90s console game. The fact that you collect 100 shiny things to gain an extra life not only incetivizes exploration & subtly guides you through the levels, it just makes the game distinctively Mario and Sonic-like in an extremely charming way.

The lack of quick-saves? That's a plus - it allows for a carefully designed difficulty curve. Quick-saving can make the 'intended' difficulty of a game feel very vague, while playing a lot of games I often ask myself, "am I supposed to be quicksaving or not?" This is not a problem here.

The jumping? This is the closest to a flaw, because the most important parts of the jumping mechanics are never explained - namely, the huge window of opportunity you get to jump in mid-air AFTER you've run off a ledge, and the fact that diagonal strafe-jumps offer the greatest distance. But once you figure it out, it stops being a problem - in fact, the jumping in later games such as Half Life or Mirror's Edge is significantly worsened by the lack of this feature. Perfectly timing your platform jumps, attacks and dodges while a bunch of Hadoken-chucking aliens are assaulting you in one of The Lost Land's bonus portal sections is not a type of action you'll often find in an FPS, and it kicks♥♥♥♥♥

Now, I have my own complaints about the game, but I won't list them yet. I'm curious if any of them will pop up in the responses.

[puddingtopf]

interesting thread. i appreciate your little analysis, especially since you're new to this game. i think i pretty much agree with you, none of the listed things bother me except for the lack of information with regard to the diagonal jump (though wasn't it mentioned in the tutorial?). the only remaining flaw i can think of right now would be the dated level design since it can be pretty bland and weird, but that's also one of the reasons why i like this game to begin with (although i prefer Turok 2).

[Diebuster]

I'm not sure what you mean by "bland and weird" lol especially since you like it.

[puddingtopf]

well, everything is rather empty due to the technical limitations of the original hardware. and sometimes the levels just consist of pointless corridors that lead back and forth. i just like it because i like older FPS games, and because it enhances the run-and-gun aspect i guess.

[Diebuster]

I can't think of any level that consists mainly of "pointless corridors"; I think some of the occasional corridors are there to mask load times, though.

My least-favorite level is probably 5 (the one ending with the mantis boss) because it's a tad too maze-like for me, but even then it turned out easier than I expected. The other open-ended "where the ♥♥♥♥ do I go" level was 4 but was pretty devoid of corridors and hard to get lost in. Meanwhile 1, 2, 3, 6 and 7 were mostly pretty straightforward.

I wouldn't really call it "empty"; there aren't a lot of small details but I don't feel they're really needed. I like how the levels are generally quite open-feeling & contain many secrets while still having a general path you're supposed to be following. It gives you just enough breathing room while not being as full of pure emptiness as something like Serious Sam often got.

It might not be Doom, but then Doom is genius in its design, practically the Super Mario Bros of FPS games, so it would be unfair to compare them.

[KingfossilFER]

I dont mind the lack of quick saves. The stages, while abit open ended, also are relatively short, and two save stations per stage is good enough.
Also the live system works in favor of it, but one you get the hang of it its easy to max out at 9 lives for most of the game, even at hardcore.

The jumping is just fine, but I do agree the game should had explained it somewhere, and its kind of a shame the tutorial on this remaster didnt add that, yet it explains (the original tutorial) strafe jump which you dont really ever need for important jumps, just some optional spots with pickups.

If we are talking about outdated, then I guess the only thing I can think of is how many stages looks similar, mostly because they use the same textures.