It seems like the gaming industry has come up with a new idea.
Apparently, developers are sick of waiting for movies to be released in order to turn them into games and have instead turned towards books. The first example of this is Dante's Inferno, which seems destined to fade into the annals of re-imagining history as a bad memory in quite the same way as the CGI crap-fest that was the Beowulf Movie, which didn't even give us the common courtesy of a truly naked Angelina Jolie.
4a, however, has decided to go against all that by creating a halfway decent game from the Russian Post-Apocalyptic novel, Metro 2033.
One of the brilliant (yet also, most difficult) things about basing a game around a novel as opposed to a movie is that when it comes to character design, you aren't trying to replicate the actors or the effects that were produced on-screen. You're attempting to recreate characters and beasties using only the descriptions given to you on paper by the author. Metro 2033 almost pulls it off too, in an ES IV: Oblivion kind of way.
I can honestly say that if Aliens Vs Predator had been based on one of it's numerous novels instead of the movies, they would have gotten away with the graphics faux pas in much the same way that Metro 2033 does. And you know what? Metro 2033 almost get's a pass on the graphics for one important reason. It's a Russian Post-Apocalyptic Stealth FPS. These people aren't supposed to look pretty, even before the Apocalypse. Admit it, the only time you've found a Russian attractive is on those late-night 1-900 ads on the telly.
While it's not much to look at in terms of character rendering, with it's graphics being something you would expect to see in earliest days of the 360, it does make up for this with it's storyline and atmosphere. The storyline, of course, come straight from the pages of Dmitry Glukhovsky, and the name of the game is survival. You have hordes of mutant rats and human bandits to contend with and a few rickety homemade guns to do it with.
Then, they through you a curveball.
Any bullets made before the End of the World (capitalised, for your pleasure) are worth their weight in gold. So now you're left with a problem: Load your guns with crappy, musket ball-reminiscent, homemade ammo for less damage OR load your guns with the shiny, military-grade, pre-war bullets in a fashion oddly similar to throwing your money into a fire. But have no fear, there is an alternative.
Throwing knives and arrows.
I honestly haven't had this much fun toying with lights and sneaking around in a *LONG* time. You find yourself carefully memorising patrol routes and times, sneaking around to turn off the gas lamps and checking your light gauge for stealth. You need to make every knife count and make sure you kill them first throw, or you're in a world of hurt. And whatever you do, DO NOT forget to pick up your knives off those dead Ruski's! Eventually, you'll always have to actually fight them head-on, but by that time, with any luck and skill, you should have taken out down 5 or 6 of their comrades and stolen everything right down to the bullet-fillings in their teeth.
Even the objective screen leaves you tense. You carry an open journal with a magical compass that always points to where you need to go, journal in you right hand, lighter in the other. And lighting can play a key part in this game: Until you find your night-vision, you're stuck skulking in the darkness with only your knives, lighter and torch for company. You'll rarely find yourself using either, however, since both your lighter and torch give away your position and your torch has the downside of needing a kinetic-charger to stay at full power, so the only times you'll use them is when following an ally or lighting a grenade and, in that sense, if Alone in Dark had used the same inventory/journal/lighter/torch mechanic, it may have actually been a bearable game.
Where Metro 2033 does fall short, however, is as a First Person Shooter. You'll constantly find yourself plodding behind some newly met ally through the subway systems of Moscow in a manner that makes you feel like you're playing a rail-shooter with a better degree of movement. The idea does seem to be to tell a story, but it does force you into a backseat role for the better part, while you listen to a forced Russian accent tell you to be wary of an incoming will-o-the-wisp.
The Surface levels do little to redeem this as well, with the buildings and pathways funnelling you towards a goal that you could easily find with your magic compass anyway, although you do have to keep a careful eye on your gasmask filter and swap it out regularly, lest you suffocate on the poisonous air of the surface, but this doesn't even add to much tension. Even if your gasmask is damaged in combat (which it inevitably will be, especially in one of the blessedly few quicktime-events with the mutie rats) there are plenty of spare masks and filters lying around so that you don't really need to panic when you hear yourself starting to wheeze.
It seems like so many people before you over the last 20 years have all gotten themselves offed at key points that you'll never be found wanting of clean air.
Unfortunately, the Stealth aspect of Metro 2033 isn't enough to save this game, but it is enough to make the it both fun and tense at certain points.
And if developers keep this up, who knows? Maybe they actually WILL have a notable novel-based game by 2033...
Apparently, developers are sick of waiting for movies to be released in order to turn them into games and have instead turned towards books. The first example of this is Dante's Inferno, which seems destined to fade into the annals of re-imagining history as a bad memory in quite the same way as the CGI crap-fest that was the Beowulf Movie, which didn't even give us the common courtesy of a truly naked Angelina Jolie.
4a, however, has decided to go against all that by creating a halfway decent game from the Russian Post-Apocalyptic novel, Metro 2033.
One of the brilliant (yet also, most difficult) things about basing a game around a novel as opposed to a movie is that when it comes to character design, you aren't trying to replicate the actors or the effects that were produced on-screen. You're attempting to recreate characters and beasties using only the descriptions given to you on paper by the author. Metro 2033 almost pulls it off too, in an ES IV: Oblivion kind of way.
I can honestly say that if Aliens Vs Predator had been based on one of it's numerous novels instead of the movies, they would have gotten away with the graphics faux pas in much the same way that Metro 2033 does. And you know what? Metro 2033 almost get's a pass on the graphics for one important reason. It's a Russian Post-Apocalyptic Stealth FPS. These people aren't supposed to look pretty, even before the Apocalypse. Admit it, the only time you've found a Russian attractive is on those late-night 1-900 ads on the telly.
While it's not much to look at in terms of character rendering, with it's graphics being something you would expect to see in earliest days of the 360, it does make up for this with it's storyline and atmosphere. The storyline, of course, come straight from the pages of Dmitry Glukhovsky, and the name of the game is survival. You have hordes of mutant rats and human bandits to contend with and a few rickety homemade guns to do it with.
Then, they through you a curveball.
Any bullets made before the End of the World (capitalised, for your pleasure) are worth their weight in gold. So now you're left with a problem: Load your guns with crappy, musket ball-reminiscent, homemade ammo for less damage OR load your guns with the shiny, military-grade, pre-war bullets in a fashion oddly similar to throwing your money into a fire. But have no fear, there is an alternative.
Throwing knives and arrows.
I honestly haven't had this much fun toying with lights and sneaking around in a *LONG* time. You find yourself carefully memorising patrol routes and times, sneaking around to turn off the gas lamps and checking your light gauge for stealth. You need to make every knife count and make sure you kill them first throw, or you're in a world of hurt. And whatever you do, DO NOT forget to pick up your knives off those dead Ruski's! Eventually, you'll always have to actually fight them head-on, but by that time, with any luck and skill, you should have taken out down 5 or 6 of their comrades and stolen everything right down to the bullet-fillings in their teeth.
Even the objective screen leaves you tense. You carry an open journal with a magical compass that always points to where you need to go, journal in you right hand, lighter in the other. And lighting can play a key part in this game: Until you find your night-vision, you're stuck skulking in the darkness with only your knives, lighter and torch for company. You'll rarely find yourself using either, however, since both your lighter and torch give away your position and your torch has the downside of needing a kinetic-charger to stay at full power, so the only times you'll use them is when following an ally or lighting a grenade and, in that sense, if Alone in Dark had used the same inventory/journal/lighter/torch mechanic, it may have actually been a bearable game.
Where Metro 2033 does fall short, however, is as a First Person Shooter. You'll constantly find yourself plodding behind some newly met ally through the subway systems of Moscow in a manner that makes you feel like you're playing a rail-shooter with a better degree of movement. The idea does seem to be to tell a story, but it does force you into a backseat role for the better part, while you listen to a forced Russian accent tell you to be wary of an incoming will-o-the-wisp.
The Surface levels do little to redeem this as well, with the buildings and pathways funnelling you towards a goal that you could easily find with your magic compass anyway, although you do have to keep a careful eye on your gasmask filter and swap it out regularly, lest you suffocate on the poisonous air of the surface, but this doesn't even add to much tension. Even if your gasmask is damaged in combat (which it inevitably will be, especially in one of the blessedly few quicktime-events with the mutie rats) there are plenty of spare masks and filters lying around so that you don't really need to panic when you hear yourself starting to wheeze.
It seems like so many people before you over the last 20 years have all gotten themselves offed at key points that you'll never be found wanting of clean air.
Unfortunately, the Stealth aspect of Metro 2033 isn't enough to save this game, but it is enough to make the it both fun and tense at certain points.
And if developers keep this up, who knows? Maybe they actually WILL have a notable novel-based game by 2033...
