Corey Waits
09-02-2008, 12:54 AM
This is a review in the sense that I'm talking about improvements that should be made in TH2. Really, I couldn't think of anywhere better for this to go, hence it is here.
Overall I think I'd give TH about 80-85%, but if the couple of things I'm going to talk about below were done/fixed then I'd easily give it 90-95%.
1. Less Invisible Walls Please
I understand the need for invisible walls in some places. It stops us from falling to our deaths, keeps us out of areas of Cyberspace that aren't meant to be seen and the like, but somewhere SK went a bit overboard.
A couple of examples:
In the Hall of Heroes, when you're leaving the 4th Secret Area (the last one in the demo) there is a stone railing on the balcony in front of you. There are only a couple of places where you can actually jump over this tiny little wall. It's ridiculous, I'm a cybernetic god and I can't hop over a little wall.
In Cyberspace there is a rib bone laying on the ground (I think it was through one of the last doors you can open in the World Tree Well). You can not walk or even jump over this rib bone, even though it's less than a foot tall. Wha?
Those are just two examples that stick out in my mind, but it's there all throughout the game.
2. Dialogue Implementation
A lot of people complain about the Voice Acting in general, but not me. I don't mind it. To me, the stories of the old gods always seemed a bit like an over-the-top soap opera, so the dialogue is fitting in that regard (but where are the soliloquies? Come on SK ;) ). [That said, the Bear Wolf Trooper's delivery is terrible. Please fire that actor or get him some lessons.]
My main complaint about the dialogue is the way that it has been implemented outside of the cutscenes.
In interviews Denis would often talk about the 'Band of Brothers' storyline, but it was implemented so poorly that as a player I couldn't care less about them. They talk when they're not even there in the room with you, and often you can't even hear what they're saying because you're too busy killing things and/or trying not to die (this was especially the case in Helheim). Make them tougher so they actually survive long enough to deliver their lines, or make it so the dialogue only triggers when they're in the room with you.
Another example of bad implementation is Thor's dialogue in the World Serpent level. Repetitive voice acting from sideline characters is a fairly common, if disappointing, phenomenon in video games. The part that makes this different (and worse) than the rest is the fact that the little exchange between Thor & Loki gets repeated as well. I've only played the World Serpent level twice and I've already heard that bit of dialogue at least 15 times. Every time I hear Thor spouting the same crap over and over again it just smacks of laziness. It's a shame really because the 'unique' dialogue of Baldur, Thor and Mymir in that level is great, it's just Thor's battle dialogue that lets the team down.
One thing that Bungie really did well with Halo was recording a huge amount of dialogue for the game. Sometimes, even if the actual dialogue was the same, the actor would still deliver it a few different ways so you rarely (if ever) heard exactly the same dialogue twice.
Sure, maybe Halo had a bigger budget than TH because it was a flagship title for the original Xbox, but there has to be other options.
Hell, if you want general battle chatter, run a competition on TH.net. The winners get their names in the TH2 credit book and get some exclusive armour, or effect (like the flaming heads in Halo 3).
But yeah, thanks for a great game SK. I'm really looking forward to the sequels, but I just hope this time around you've got the time and money to give them the kind of polish they really deserve.
Here's hoping I can play some TH after work tonight. Stupid brother-in-law hiring out Tiger Woods... Doesn't he see I'm addicted? I need my TH fix...
Overall I think I'd give TH about 80-85%, but if the couple of things I'm going to talk about below were done/fixed then I'd easily give it 90-95%.
1. Less Invisible Walls Please
I understand the need for invisible walls in some places. It stops us from falling to our deaths, keeps us out of areas of Cyberspace that aren't meant to be seen and the like, but somewhere SK went a bit overboard.
A couple of examples:
In the Hall of Heroes, when you're leaving the 4th Secret Area (the last one in the demo) there is a stone railing on the balcony in front of you. There are only a couple of places where you can actually jump over this tiny little wall. It's ridiculous, I'm a cybernetic god and I can't hop over a little wall.
In Cyberspace there is a rib bone laying on the ground (I think it was through one of the last doors you can open in the World Tree Well). You can not walk or even jump over this rib bone, even though it's less than a foot tall. Wha?
Those are just two examples that stick out in my mind, but it's there all throughout the game.
2. Dialogue Implementation
A lot of people complain about the Voice Acting in general, but not me. I don't mind it. To me, the stories of the old gods always seemed a bit like an over-the-top soap opera, so the dialogue is fitting in that regard (but where are the soliloquies? Come on SK ;) ). [That said, the Bear Wolf Trooper's delivery is terrible. Please fire that actor or get him some lessons.]
My main complaint about the dialogue is the way that it has been implemented outside of the cutscenes.
In interviews Denis would often talk about the 'Band of Brothers' storyline, but it was implemented so poorly that as a player I couldn't care less about them. They talk when they're not even there in the room with you, and often you can't even hear what they're saying because you're too busy killing things and/or trying not to die (this was especially the case in Helheim). Make them tougher so they actually survive long enough to deliver their lines, or make it so the dialogue only triggers when they're in the room with you.
Another example of bad implementation is Thor's dialogue in the World Serpent level. Repetitive voice acting from sideline characters is a fairly common, if disappointing, phenomenon in video games. The part that makes this different (and worse) than the rest is the fact that the little exchange between Thor & Loki gets repeated as well. I've only played the World Serpent level twice and I've already heard that bit of dialogue at least 15 times. Every time I hear Thor spouting the same crap over and over again it just smacks of laziness. It's a shame really because the 'unique' dialogue of Baldur, Thor and Mymir in that level is great, it's just Thor's battle dialogue that lets the team down.
One thing that Bungie really did well with Halo was recording a huge amount of dialogue for the game. Sometimes, even if the actual dialogue was the same, the actor would still deliver it a few different ways so you rarely (if ever) heard exactly the same dialogue twice.
Sure, maybe Halo had a bigger budget than TH because it was a flagship title for the original Xbox, but there has to be other options.
Hell, if you want general battle chatter, run a competition on TH.net. The winners get their names in the TH2 credit book and get some exclusive armour, or effect (like the flaming heads in Halo 3).
But yeah, thanks for a great game SK. I'm really looking forward to the sequels, but I just hope this time around you've got the time and money to give them the kind of polish they really deserve.
Here's hoping I can play some TH after work tonight. Stupid brother-in-law hiring out Tiger Woods... Doesn't he see I'm addicted? I need my TH fix...