So I finished the main story today. At 31 hours, I feel I’m done with it, though there’s certainly at least half a dozen more areas to explore.
What I liked:
I thought the audio through the whole game was remarkably well done. From the sounds in/around the car, to the environmental effects, to the soundtrack, to the voice acting, everything was well done and fit the game really well.
I also thought the car itself ‘felt’ very good. At the start it was sluggish and didn’t really inspire any great hope, but as I upgraded it, it really started to feel and play better. I loved how you could customize parts/areas and even pull the whole thing apart if you wanted to. At all points, whether you’re repairing a piece, pulling a piece off, or putting one on, it all felt very good, very tactile. Even the process of just checking everything before going out, then strapping yourself in, just felt ‘right’ and well done.
I though the environmental effects themselves were pretty well done. Much like the car, these things felt ‘weighty’ and right, whether it was a blustery storm, a, uh, meteoric storm, or the zone collapsing.
The “Vibe”. This really felt to me like it was a valve game in some regards. Part TF2 (graphics), part Half-life (story), it really wouldn’t have taken much to integrate this into one of their stories.
What I’m more neutral on:
Scanning zones on the map. I’m not really sure what the intent was here. Maybe i’m supposed to scan a zone to either avoid an anomaly or to seek out a resource? Whatever it was, it didn’t do anything for me. Anomalies weren’t ever dangerous enough for me to consider avoiding, and resources were generally so plentiful that I didn’t really need to search them out. That’s not to say I didnt’ have material shortages - i did - but more that I needed things like plasma, and rubber, and chemicals, and those things are available everywhere anyways. This could have been changed by making resources less plentiful everywhere, and more plentiful in one specific place. For instance, if chemicals could only be found in ‘lab’ areas, and i had to scan around to find these lab areas, then that would be a lot more useful. As it was, whenever I needed ‘x’, i just kept a lookout for the things it was produced in and just stopped and got it then. The only time I was ever really impacted by not having a material was when i was going through a lot of rubber right when i needed even more (for new tires). Of course, a little bit after this, i discovered you can just scrap tires on any vehicle and get all the rubber you likely ever need.
The looting. Press E for this, hold E for that. Whoops, did you right click? You probably just threw away the thing that was in your hands. Oh, and it blew away in the wind! Do you want this computer? Nope, you got to shred it first. These light bulbs need a vacuum cleaner. This thing needs a hammer. ugh. I did like how the items were well associated with the loot container (ie toolboxes tend to have scrap metal, duct tape etc. Lockers and backpacks mostly have clothes and plastics). I think, in general, i would have like more things to loot, and less overall loot.
What I didn’t like:
The Points of Interest (POIs). Oh wow, but these suck. It starts off pretty great, though. At the beginning you’re looting ARDA trailers, garages, and small cabins and it all feels really good. And…it never really goes anywhere from there. You’ll find a tower that almost always has the same things in it. You’ll find another tower, this one you cant get into, and it’ll have some slightly different stuff around it. You’ll find a few other small cabins, some of which you can enter and some which are closed off. And probably the coolest thing is the gas station, which while not always ‘the same’ is too often so similar to each other they might as well be the same. At some point, you’ll realize all of these are pretty much garbage, and (excepting for chemicals from the arda trailer wire cage) you have all of the items you’ll ever need from all of them and instead you’ll spend your time hoping to find the ARDA trucks, the cop cars, and the box trucks, all three of which provide so much more important and interesting loot (and dont forget to grind the armored doors/panels and whatever tires they have).
The one way mission design. I’ll admit, an unexpected zone closure (complete with the chillingly awesome alarm klaxon) is perhaps the funnest part of the game. Throwing everything into the car, hoping in, slamming it into gear and hightailing it to the exit, is perhaps where the game shines. Except…i think it would have been better if that wasn’t the norm. I think it would have been a better experience if you had to plan out a route (including some sort of return trip) - and that includes perhaps having the way you just came cut off from you. The first couple of closures were exciting. After that, it was a planned exercise, and apart from a couple of times where it was unplanned, it was never as exciting after that. So take that away - now you have to plan to survive to drive back to the garage. And take out the ability to make things in your car (which i rarely did anyways). Now, the player needs to plan a round trip, and cant make things on the fly. Now its more about surviving and planning. And now, throw in an ‘AI’ director that looks for the player to be in a bad way - a blown tire, a compromised structure - and force the player to suddenly change up their strategy by either collapsing the zone or by cutting off some of the exit points - and i think you have a better formula for the game.
The enemies that aren’t there: Ya, i’m going to double spoiler tag this. Ok, here’s one of the biggest problems of the game: there’s nothing really hostile out there. Once you key onto that, the game loses a lot of its…kutzpah? I dunno, whatever. It’s all smoke and mirrors, and there’s nothing behind the curtain. But…there should be. I like that the player can’t really defend themselves - absolutely keep that in. But rarely…put something that’s actually hostile to the player out there in the zone. Alien? Monster? C’thulu? I dunno, but there really should be something out there. Have it watch the player sometimes maybe. And as you get further in the zone, have it react more defensively…ya, i like that.
The enemies that are there: ugh, but the aggressors, and the bubble things and everything else are just…annoying. And thats the problem…they’re just annoying and your only recourse is to, well, let them do what they want, they’ll be over it in 30s or so. I mean, you drive by an aggressor at 80mph, and he suddenly turns, catches up with you, and pulls you over to the side of the road. That’s it, then he lets go. It’s like the manifestation of the highway towing guys.
And what i hated:
The ending. What the actual fuck. You take your car through a portal and suddenly, you’re out of your car, and you basically press w to walk through a long corridor lined on both sides by tvs, meanwhile the voice actors get to work and…you press w for about 7 minutes listening to exposition. Then you just back in your car, drive straight for a minute and into a portal, and…that’s it. I don’t even know what i was supposed to get out of it other than apparently the dead people aren’t dead. I dunno. If you finished, please help me understand. And that’s all, for now, lol
So, final assessment: an enjoyable game with outstanding audio. One that probably fulfills its designers objectives, but for me ends up falling short of something that may have been truly great.
